15. To Those Who Oppose
It rarely needs to be said that Anos was not the type of man to lend an ear to any fool without reason.
Then again, in the eyes of Anos, this Riser Phenex was little more than a pebble from the roadside, one who could be discarded with a sweeping of the foot.
Grayfia spoke nothing, impartial as she had been even before the fool showed himself in a literal ball of fire.
Gremory stood in place, trying to look stable, but the stiffness in her posture betrayed her. The rest of the peerage doesn't fair much better; Issei in particular was an open book as always, though Asia held down the brunt of his impulse.
"Now then, my dear Rias. Come, so we may marvel at the ceremony hall together," Riser looked much too pleased with himself, "The date of the wedding has already been decided, so we need to make certain it is to our standards before anything else."
Frivolous and prideful Riser was. An overall easy meld to deal with. Rias should be fine; if she could at least not make it anymore obvious that Phenex elicited her full disgust— merely by being in the same room as her. Well, Anos supposes he couldn't completely fault her for it.
"I see it is still the same old song and dance with you, Riser. I already know why you came here, and I want to let you know in earnest that I haven't budged my stance on this in the least. My House can say what they wish, but I still won't ever marry you. Never, you."
"My dear Rias, I must say you sound quite sure of yourself. But, I get it. Your still lacking peerage has found new additions. Do they bring you such delusions?" The Phenex turned with a grin, landing on Asia and Issei.
Then Anos.
"Which one is it? The cute girl who looks to not hurt a fly or the lowly halfbreed trash that hasn't stopped glaring at me?" He chuckled soon after, waving an arm over at Anos, "surely it isn't the human filth?"
It is terribly silent.
So much to the entire room's surprise, Anos' lips rose before a hearty laugh followed, "How careless of me." he finished in spite of himself.
Riser was no longer pleased, as if his own merriment was spat upon, "Do I look to play the part of a jester?"
"I must say you do a fine job at it. Then again, you are unsurprisingly dense, hatchling." Anos remarks, and the temperature picks up a degree.
"You—! You folly-filled cretin!" The Phenex glares something fierce at Anos — who waves him off with an idle hand, as if done with the conversation, and subsequently, Riser himself.
Saving face, the dirty blonde glances over to his soon-to-be, "Do you allow this mongrel to speak for you, my dear?"
Rias felt the corner of her lips lifting. "Get over yourself, Riser. This is my territory and Anos is my friend," she felt like she could call him that now.
Briefly, in that same breath, she made her way over to her desk, opening the drawer and pulling out a familiar feather, as if to present it, "He is even the reason I know you've been spying on me."
The blonde's face curled, shoulders slightly slacking, opting to play the fool. "I have no clue of what you're implying."
"Then you wouldn't mind summoning your familiar so I may match this feather? Surely if you speak the truth then you wouldn't mind it to be challenged?" Rias pressed the issue and Riser found himself relenting.
"It matters not. Let us not deflect from the main matter at present." He shortly eyes Anos with a wrinkle in his face before refocusing on Rias, his grin appeared to be held up by twigs and pebbles.
"You have no choice, Rias. Low-class devils and halfbreed reincarnations are gaining a foothold in the Underworld. They expand while we do naught. You, as heiress of one of the remaining Pillars, must be responsible for carrying purebred devils to maintain our hold. Besides, many of the Underworld would gladly wed a man and sire his children from the house of Phenex. This is a privilege!"
Rias' smile falls like a meteor.
"Perish the thought, Riser. The contents of my heart are nothing but my own, I will never share them with a man like you." Rias calmly uttered, trying everything in herself to not steal a glance towards Anos.
Phenex's face flashed with a frenzy, stepping a foot forward with a hand grabbing at her wrist, "Listen to me, your selfish self will only continue to make things difficult moving forward, Rias."
"Let go." Rias' aura glowed an angry, jolting vermillion before it grew stronger. The feather in her hand, melting into less than ash.
"I will not." Riser met her on equal terms with a golden blaze, bright and every bit as potent, "I will drag you to the depths of the Underworld if need be."
The aura of those two were at even odds with one another, were. Rias' aura nearly detonates at the declaration. It is the humming of destruction soon promised.
Off in the background, Issei, as always, was unnecessarily lively in his response, "Woah. I-Is, is that Buchou?" The boy exclaimed.
The rest of her peerage concurs, they'd never seen their King so... violent. Her magic was truly a frightful thing.
Even as Issei watched along with his fellow club members, he alone couldn't help but feel like he was walking around a pitfall. If he got too close, he would fall into the unexplored depths.
"Enough." One word; one cold voice, to quell the fire.
What felt like oceans of overwhelming devil magic shook the room twice over, shutting everyone, and everything down, save for Anos — whose earlier display dwarfed this one by many, many magnitudes. Still, it held unspoken weight, to the point that everyone came to a complete halt. Being the only one who could freely move, Anos' eyes interlock with Grayfia for a time, the maid let her power simmer down. Then, she began.
"Lord Riser," Elegance, by its definition, is how Grayfia chooses to speak now, "may I remind you that this is a diplomatic meeting concerning the upcoming wedding between two Houses, and the negotiations of the established prerequisites between both parties present."
Riser looks... startled, for a change. He didn't flinch when Rias' aura briefly felled his own. He flinches now. He lets go.
"I carry no shame in submitting before The Strongest Queen, many apologies." This admission of Riser seemed to be the most sincere he'd be until now.
The maid continues the moment he lets go of Rias, "There was a sub-clause to the contract. One that Lady Rias' father and Lord Sirzechs himself put into practice. If one would come to disagree with the prerequisites, this could be settled via a Rating Game, unofficial of course. The final outcome will be decided by the victor."
"We don't have to waste any time on details. You knew this was coming Riser, so agree to it and find yourself out of my clubroom posthaste." Rias' says, spoken like someone who's aware of the risks while at the same time knowing the rewards outweigh them a thousandfold.
"Bwhahahaha!" Riser boisterously laughs, hand in hair. "How desperate can one be? Rias dear, this act of rebellion will end with my decisive victory. For you to challenge me in such a way, I, who am already a mature devil, who's participated in several official games. Most of which I have won. But I'll humor this. If you win, do whatever you like, really. But when I defeat you, you will cease all delays and marry me at once."
An insult. Rias' finger twitches just enough to show she took it worse off than she'd like. Her throat tight with a dozen things she couldn't say.
Grayfia herself looks to hold back a sigh, one of light and heaviness, "As I'm sure you're aware, my lady, only mature devils may participate in an official Rating Game. However, in a unique case such as this—"
Rias cocks her head to the side in a spray of red locks, "When accounting for family and household matters, exceptions will be made."
Privately, the heiress wondered something: just how much does her family intended to interfere with her life until they felt satisfied? Why were they rushing this? Was it something they weren't telling her?
"I accept the terms, but if this is to be my first Rating Game, I request a period of no less than ten full days in which my peerage and I may train ourselves in preparation."
"I've waited all this time already, a meager ten days are nothing. In my generosity shall I grant you such a condition." Looking around the room again, Riser's smirk can best be described as gladden, "you'll need it."
Grayfia spoke up just then. "Very well. I, Grayfia Lucifuge, have confirmed both sides' agreement for this Rating Game. I will also be overseeing this Rating Game during the match itself on behalf of both Houses. Are my words understood?"
"Yes."
"Yeah."
"And with that, all parties have agreed. I will inform both Houses."
Briefly the tenseness dissolves along with the heat, and soon after, Riser welcomes himself to a seat on the sofa, he lowers himself onto it. Two cobalt irises sweep over Rias' servants in full, his smile is a touch wry.
The one's he was aware of don't respond. Asia's bamboo-green eyes don't hold against his and Issei's face is redder than Rias' hair.
"This upcoming Rating Game won't end well for you, my dear Rias. Only your Queen, the Priestess of Thunder, could hold her own in this grudge match. And everyone else? Mere cannon fodder."
"So whats say you?" Anos' voice drifts over, now standing beside the window, he joins the conversation, "how about you show Rias the walls she'll be facing?"
"Gladly, filthy spawn of Adam." Riser's fingers snap like a heel click, and the magic circle on the floor responds in a ray of lights.
Various shapes emerged from the marble floor, the presence of multiple persons revealing themselves to the ORC -- fifteen in total. Anos knew it would be easy getting Riser to reveal all his cards, and they were all equally unimpressive. Fitting of the phrase quantity over quality.
Riser's peerage was laughable, nothing short of a—
"HAREM! He has a harem!" Of course Issei bellows aloud in envy, tears stream like vertical rivers down his red-soaked cheeks. Eyes never leaving Riser as the Pawn took to his hands and knees.
Rueing the unjust of the world. Why did all the douches get the finer things life had to offer? It was like claiming to steal something that had already been offered for free! It didn't make any sense.
"What is wrong with this one?" And just like that, Riser owed his second wind of sincerity of the day, to Issei. The Phenex's disgust was real, a feeling shared by his all-female servants.
Truly no greater comedy sketch could have been enacted this moment.
"I wouldn't pay him much attention, his brand of jesting isn't for everyone," Anos remarks seeing Asia calm the Pawn down, and moving him out of trouble— out of the way. Good.
Scarlet eyes addresses Riser's group. "This peerage of yours lacks a lot and is of poor quality. Then again, a joker needs his circus."
"What would you know, scum?" Riser's face was as clear as fire. "Hmph, I get it. Like that halfbreed over there, you are jealous of my beauties. My collection reminds you of your own shortcomings."
"Is it not exhausting to utter such idiocy?"
As soon as that last syllable leaves Anos' mouth does sunflower fire eject from Riser's palm like a tiny star.
Such an attack is inferior to even Anos' weakest Grega, and for something fired with such ferocity, it is quite slow. Slow enough that Anos' hand easily plucks the magical fire out of the air just before it pitifully peters out in his closed hand.
"I usually have an anti-magic barrier in place. For you I let it down. And I must say, I'm quite disappointed."
Riser's visage is casted in ire and elevated by fire, he approaches, closing in on Anos with living heat coalescing around his arms like lively snakes, "I was being tolerant with you on behalf of Lady Grayfia and the Gremory House. But you are by far and away the most—"
Anos does not blink, he simply reaches out past everyone's perception, his hand wraps around Riser's wrist, so tight, that the boy's bones creak. Phenex's outstretched limb freezes, almost pinned in space and time.
"W-What? You didn't even move!" Riser's speaks as if caution was finally beaten into his bones.
That should be the case when encountering one who moves so fast that you only know movement happens by how it ends.
Even Grayfia herself could not follow raw movement that seemed to transcend time and distance.
Incidentally, Anos has lost interest in this conversation. "I will not abide disrespect. Not from you or anyone else. Speak if you must, but I advise you to know your place and beg when you do."
To punctuate this, Anos gently twists the limb in his grasp until Riser is on his knees. And as if serrated like notched bone, blood and fire sprays everywhere, eating into the floor where it lands, and the hellfire magic fizzles out. The Phenex boy curses so fervently, flame sparks from his lips.
Anos' hold is fierce enough that the boy's skin starts to peel through his expensive fabric. That is when Riser registers it; mortal strength and speed exceeding his own. A realization which does nothing more than fester the sort of coiling, despairing anger that strangles the gut until it is sick to death with helpless fury.
It speaks one truth: Laughably, pitifully weak; this Phenex was.
"T-This is absurd, you are but a mere man!" Riser declares, muffled, his head has long since set itself firmly to the floor. Ocean eyes glaring skyward. To him, Anos looks less like a man and more akin to a Demon.
"Impressive attitude, hatchling. Let me repeat myself. Beg."
Anos flicks his wrist, scattering Riser' blood— like the red of wilting stars— from the Phenex boy's now severed arm.
There are gasps of shock, and a purr that Anos is certain belongs to Akeno's lips. Regardless, they fall second to the musing sight in front of the former Demon King.
Riser trembles like grass beneath a storm and his shrill of a scream was so bloodcurdlingly, piercingly sick that even the room itself reverberates and shakes to the terrible noise.
Anos isn't moved, he simply looks on. Apropos of nothing; too unbothered to care, because the inexistent part of him that would is too preoccupied with curiously watching when flames cover the Phenex boy's wound, regrowing a new arm out of its severed origins while the arm in his grip drips raindrop blood.
'He believes himself superior due to some lousy degree of regeneration?' Anos clicks it in his mind, at least the Phenex name isn't without cause.
On Riser's part, the visage he now carries suggests some form of haphazard disdain. The human world producing such strength?
This was wrong. Wrong in the way that he doesn't weigh down the very air like it must beg his permission to move.
"One of you, teach this filth some manners!"
No more than a second later does a young girl with dark blue hair and light hazel eyes rush straight ahead for Anos with her staff, raised and ready.
"You're in the way."
It is almost too easy for Anos to send the girl on her way with the back of his hand, and he does, using Riser's own severed arm, he holds back, obviously — no sense in killing her — but she still curls her face in pain, and shatters her body on the back of her own staff.
"?!"
The other members of the Riser's circus aid the unconscious girl who'd just landed with a heavy crunch.
Anos has already stopped caring that she -- and by extension, the rest of them, exist.
"You tactless bastard!" Riser bellows and Anos ignores him.
He walks over back to the window, the severed arm of Riser already long gone from his grasp as he folds his arms over one another and settles his back to the wall.
"Rias," Anos catches the redhead's attention before imparting her with his words, "for anyone to be able to drag you down to their level, they must first be beneath you. Remember that."
The heiress feels herself give a slow nod, his voice diluting the show of dominance into an insignificant afterthought.
This is all as Riser's anger boils over like mad. His jaw feels stiff with vibrating hands of fire clenched into fists.
"D-Don't you ignore me!" He utters his response, pushing down insults and words that would fit no one else except a devil, "Separately of how the Rating Game turns out. I will personally teach you a lesson for your transgressions against the House of Phenex! You— who is the flaw of this world!"
There is that ever present grin on Anos' face and Riser wants to slap it from his features but he doesn't dare.
Instead, the Phenex heir directs a palm to the floor, the marble reacts as the group shimmers into light with a lasting declaration, "Count your days for they are numbered. You arrogant misfit."
It is Akeno's giggle that breathes liveliness back into the room.
Mid-pause, Akeno walks over to Anos, there's a blush in her voice with gyrating hips as she makes her way.
"You've got a bit of red on you." She says, taking Anos' hand in hers as she produces a peach handkerchief. She takes small brushstrokes over his red-stained palm. Her soft eyes reflecting in shimmering amethyst.
The Queen's soft spot for the ideal acts of cruelty was not lost to him.
"W-Wait!" Issei speaks up, seems he'd been thinking up what to say once the tension lost its place, "Isn't ten days too soon?"
"I say it's not soon enough," Anos remarks, "I will have you all be a sufficient force in less than even half that time."
Grayfia looked skeptical of his words before Rias took the time to explain to the maid that Anos would oversee those preparations. She seemed to take it with a nod and less strictness in her eyes.
"Duly noted. I will be sure to mention this to both Houses in addition to your condition of ten days of preparation, Lady Rias." Grayfia concludes.
"Oh, and Sir Anos?" He looks the maid's way, "I do hope you meant those words. Of what you said about Lady Rias being your friend and your willingness to help her. You are a kind man, and she is very precious to us."
"The devils from down below sure know how to flatter. And yes, I take back nothing I've said. Even if it were Fate itself, as long as Rias walks with me then I'll destroy all that stands in her way."
Rias thinks, as she finally looks Anos in the eyes, she might have produced a tear or two. She really couldn't read this man. Calm skies one second, wild sparks the next.
Grayfia herself studies the young man before her. He was stalwart and absolute, and well meaning in all the ways that mattered. He was perfect. Perhaps, had Anos been born a devil in her time, she would consider him intimately over Sirzechs himself.
No, she mustn't think in such a way.
"I'll be off myself. I wish you all the best of the near future."
She disappears like lightning but dazzlingly less-so, the room settles itself afterwards.
"Well, it appears Grayfia-san likes you." Akeno claims with lightness in her voice.
"It didn't appear that way."
"She's right." He heard the blunt tone of Koneko and found he could likely take her dry-spell words as objective truths from now on.
"If you think so." Anos replies with a nod. He could see what she meant, a little.
He addresses the crimson King who'd seem to be lost in a trance. "I was wondering something, Rias. For all your frustrations with that Phenex, even accounting for his regeneration, the gap between you both was rather negligible. What exactly makes him a such a bother?"
He looks at her with wine-red eyes and Rias' shoulders relax, finally. "Riser's regeneration is only a small part of it. He is physically immortal paired with an invulnerable body."
She doesn't sit herself, apparently preferring to rest one hip against the corner of her desk, "No matter how much I destroy, it will never be enough to outpace his ability to regenerate. Combined with flames that match my destruction magic, invaluable experience, and a full set in his peerage. Thinking about it now, I lose out on even the illusion of a victory. But—"
"So, you've begun to doubt that illusion. I approve, Rias."
Rias turns to him, shaken out of a mental and vocal rambling.
"Doubt is a foundation for demolishing blind belief," Anos says, and for a moment, in Rias' place stood a silver-haired girl with silver eyes in a pure-white gown, that moment passes, "besides, no beings are immortal before me."
"Immortality. Even something like this isn't beyond you, Anos?"
He smirked and she understands, but was the smile she gave him in return the gesture of a girl who was in awe? Or was it longing?
—————
"Riser has taken the bait I presume?"
"Of course. It went about as well as one would think, even knowing the end result." Grayfia announced with her trademark stoicism.
"So then," Off from one delicate manner to the next, "what do you make of Anos Voldigoad, Grayfia?" Sirzechs asked, slightly more animated.
"Stalwart and absolute. Confident without being full of himself. And very, very shrewd. Leviathan did not lie. But she did get one thing wrong." The maid halted and began to think about her words.
Sirzechs leaned forward in his chair— throne, clearly interested, the back of his hand still meeting his chin.
"Permission to speak freely, Lord Lucifer?" Grayfia requested.
The Super Devil nearly rolls his verdant eyes at his love of many centuries. She never needed his permission, not for anything. Sirzechs himself would likely have thought it wasn't anything too major with how many times he's come to hear such words, just something that should be of note.
"Grayfia, please, this is hardly something you should ever ask of me."
"Yes, my Lord," A pause, "not only is Anos mentoring Lady Rias... his strength is alarming. He exceeds not just a High-Class devil, but my own, and even that of you yourself, my Lord."
"..."
Her husband's silence has all the weight of flowers placed gently across a grave, and Grayfia dare not interrupt it.
Sirzechs hoped... he hoped, that this Anos could help his little sister. It was better that Riser got humbled instead of being left at the altar, after all. But this news Grayfia brought with her was troubling.
She had not lied, and he knew that, so the claim was all the more potent.
Maybe he should take a look at this young man.