Location: Kuoh Academy - Main Courtyard
Event: Kuoh Academy School Festival
Status: Absolute Chaos
The School Festival was in full swing. Usually, this was a time for students to run haunted houses and maid cafes.
However, with Raiden involved, it had become a supernatural summit disguised as a high school event.
Serafall Leviathan was on the main stage, dressed as "Magical Girl Miracle Levia-chan," performing a live concert broadcast to the entire Underworld.
Sona Sitri was backstage, dying of embarrassment.
Rossweisse had set up a booth: "Touching the Abs of the Man Who Slapped a God - 500 Yen."
The line wrapped around the block. Mostly housewives and female devils.
Raiden sat on a bench, eating a crepe made by the Home Economics Club.
Ravel Phenex stood beside him, holding a schedule.
"Raiden-sama, you have a photo session with the Kendo Club at 2:00 PM, a tasting session with the Cooking Club at 2:30 PM, and... oh, the Rating Game Exhibition Match at 4:00 PM."
"Can we skip to the fighting?" Raiden asked, licking whipped cream off his finger. "I promised Vali I'd kick his ass."
"No," Ravel adjusted her glasses. "Rossweisse-san needs the revenue from the photo session to pay for the Astaroth Temple damages. Smile for the cameras."
Location: The Dimensional Arena (Created by Ajuka Beelzebub)
Event: Exhibition Match 1
The entire Underworld was watching. The arena was packed.
Sirzechs, Michael, Azazel, and Odin sat in the VIP box.
The first match was Issei Hyoudou vs. Sairaorg Bael.
The "Trash" vs. The "Strongest Young Devil."
It was a fistfight. Pure and simple.
Issei, free from the Juggernaut curse thanks to Raiden, unlocked his new form early.
"CARDINAL CRIMSON PROMOTION!"
Issei and Sairaorg clashed, shaking the arena. It was a battle of guts. In the end, it was a draw - both men knocked each other out with a final cross-counter.
The crowd roared. It was a beautiful display of Devil spirit.
Raiden applauded slowly from the waiting room.
"Not bad, Issei. You learned to punch without hesitation."
Vali Lucifer leaned against the wall nearby.
"It was a primitive brawl," Vali scoffed. "Entertaining, but lacking finesse."
"Says the guy who just spams 'Divide'," Raiden retorted.
Vali pushed off the wall, his grin feral.
"Are you ready, Glutton? I've been itching for this since the Kokabiel incident."
"Let's go," Raiden cracked his neck. "I hope you brought snacks."
Announcer (Grayfia): "And now! The Main Event! The White Dragon Emperor, Vali Lucifer! VS! The Unaligned Anomaly, Raiden!"
The crowd went silent. The pressure in the arena changed.
If Issei vs. Sairaorg was a hot fire, this was a cold vacuum.
Vali flew into the air. [VANISHING DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER]
Raiden walked to the center, hands in his pockets.
"Don't hold back," Vali shouted. "If you do, I'll kill you!"
"DIVIDE! DIVIDE! DIVIDE! DIVIDE!"
Vali didn't wait. He stacked the division commands instantly, trying to halve Raiden's power down to zero before the fight even started.
Raiden felt the drain. His knees buckled slightly.
"Greedy," Raiden muttered.
[Demon Lord Mode: 12 Wings of Pride]
Black-purple wings exploded from Raiden's back.
But he didn't just power up. He activated his Counter.
[Gluttony: Inversion]
"You want my power?" Raiden opened his arms. "Take it."
He flooded the link. He didn't resist the Divide; he pushed more power into it. He fed Vali's armor with the density of the Lucifer Fragment combined with the Ophis Snake energy.
"WARNING!" Albion screamed. "OVERFLOW! ENERGY DENSITY TOO HIGH! CANNOT DIGEST!"
"What?!" Vali gasped as his wings started to crack. Raiden's energy was too heavy. It was like trying to swallow a neutron star.
"Too rich for your blood?" Raiden teleported.
WHAM.
Raiden kicked Vali in the stomach. The White Dragon armor shattered at the impact point. Vali crashed into the barrier, coughing blood.
Vali pulled himself out of the rubble. He was laughing.
"Yes! YES! This is it! This pressure!"
He floated up, chanting.
[I, who am about to awaken...]
[Am the White Dragon who will take the law down to the darkness...]
[I walk the road of domination with infinite destruction and by piercing through the imaginary dream...]
[I shall become a pure Emperor of White Dragon...]
[And I shall have you obey the silvery-white illusions and the perfect evil ways!]
"EMPIREO JUGGERNAUT OVERDRIVE!"
Vali's armor changed. It became sleeker, sharper. The aura turned from blue to a dazzling silver. This was a form that condensed the Juggernaut Drive into a controllable state - a feat of pure genius.
"This compresses space itself," Vali boasted. "Even your Gluttony cannot eat something that doesn't exist in this dimension!"
Vali vanished.
He was faster than time.
Slash.
Raiden's chest sprayed blood.
Slash.
Raiden's back opened up.
Vali was moving so fast he was invisible. Raiden was being dissected.
"Can't eat what you can't catch!" Vali roared, appearing above Raiden with a massive sphere of compression magic. "Compression Divider!"
The sphere hit Raiden. It crushed him. The ground vanished, creating a bottomless pit.
The crowd screamed. Runeas stood up, gripping the railing.
Down in the pit, crushed under the weight of compressed space.
Raiden smiled.
"Compressed space... means condensed flavor."
Raiden's body began to dissolve into black mist.
He wasn't taking damage anymore. He was becoming the Void.
[Awakening: The Living Black Hole]
The compression sphere stopped shrinking. Then, it started to spin the other way.
Raiden's mouth - now a spectral maw the size of the arena - appeared in the darkness.
"Devour."
GULP.
Raiden ate the compression sphere.
He ate the space around him.
He ate the light from Vali's armor.
Vali froze. His "Juggernaut Overdrive" began to flicker.
"My magic... it's disappearing?"
Raiden reformed his human body in the air, wiping his mouth.
"You compress space. I eat the emptiness between the atoms. Without space, you have nowhere to move."
Raiden appeared in front of Vali. He placed a hand on Vali's chest.
"Checkmate."
He didn't blast him. He simply ate the kinetic energy keeping Vali afloat.
Vali dropped like a stone.
His armor deactivated instantly due to energy starvation.
Vali hit the ground, detransformed, exhausted, and completely drained.
Raiden landed softly.
"You're chewy, Vali. But you lack stamina."
Location: VIP Box (Post-Match)
Raiden stood before the leaders. He was eating a celebratory pizza.
Vali was being carried off on a stretcher, giving a thumbs up.
Ajuka Beelzebub, the creator of the Evil Pieces, walked up to Raiden. He held a scanning device.
"Raiden," Ajuka said, his eyes glowing with scientific interest. "I scanned you during the fight. Your power... it doesn't fit the system."
"I'm not a Devil," Raiden reminded him.
"No. It's more than that." Ajuka projected a hologram of a Chess Board.
"Rias is a King. Issei is a Pawn. Vali is a Rook/Bishop hybrid."
He pointed to Raiden. The hologram showed a piece that was glitching. It looked like a King, but it had a gaping maw.
"You break the rules of the game. You consume the board itself."
Ajuka pulled out a card. It wasn't a Chess Piece. It was a playing card.
The Joker.
"I am assigning you a new classification for the Rating Games," Ajuka announced. "You are the Joker. A piece that has no fixed value. It can be a Pawn, or it can destroy the King. It is the chaos factor."
"The Joker?" Raiden chewed his pizza crust. "Do I get a cool hat?"
"You get a terrifying reputation," Sirzechs laughed. "No rating game team will want to face you. You are officially a 'Walking Hazard'."
Location: Behind the Academy
Time: Twilight
The festival was ending. Fireworks lit up the sky.
Raiden was watching them with his "entourage" (Runeas, Ravel, Serafall, Rossweisse, and a sneaking Kuroka).
Suddenly, a space rift opened.
A silver-haired man in a tuxedo stepped out. He looked like an older Vali, but with eyes that held zero empathy.
Rizevim Livan Lucifer. The son of the original Lucifer. Vali's grandfather.
"Bravo!" Rizevim clapped slowly. "Simply bravo! You beat my grandson and ate the curse of the Red Dragon. You really are a fascinating specimen."
Raiden turned. The air grew heavy.
Runeas stepped forward, her eyes blazing. "Rizevim. What do you want?"
"Just looking," Rizevim smiled. "We are preparing the main event. The revival of the Beast of Apocalypse. 666."
He looked at Raiden.
"You like to eat, Gluttony King? I wonder... can you eat a beast that eats reality?"
Raiden finished his pizza.
"If it's grilled properly."
Rizevim laughed, a chilling sound.
"We shall see. Enjoy your peace, children. The real party starts soon."
He vanished.
Raiden narrowed his eyes.
[System Alert]
[New Threat Detected: Rizevim Livan Lucifer]
[Threat Level: World Eater]
[Objective: Prepare for the Apocalypse]
Raiden turned to his harem.
"Ravel."
"Yes, Raiden-sama?"
"Increase the food budget. I need to bulk up."