"OH FUCK YOU TOO GAME OFFICIALS!"
As this sentence rang across the VIP booth Ajuka sat in, he didn't know if he should laugh or cry at Alex's behavior. Around him fellow organizers were obviously getting agitated because of Alex's words, but none could refute them. The Azazel cup was a tournament where the matches and fields were all left to "chance", yet those who organized it knew otherwise, as the gods of fortune secretly manipulated things behind the scenes. It was also an unmentioned fact that this particular game was being used to test the power of the descendant of Leviathan and the new Longinus, Nereid Kyrie, however this was obviously seen through by those participating.
"That brat needs to be taught how to behave." One of the higher ups said with dissatisfaction. Ajuka smiled at his words, and asked,
"Do you plan to be the one who teaches him how to behave?" His words caused as stir through the room, as even though they didn't like Alex's attitude, no one wanted to actually test his temper. Having gotten them to settle down, Ajuka turned his attention back to game with an eager light in his eyes.
***
Shortly after the game started Kiba was moving through the dense jungle around the island with his specialty Godlike speed. He was scouting and looking for any traces of Alex and team's movements before he would head to higher ground. All of a sudden he felt danger and reflexively made a sword and held it up to block an overhead attack. As the sound of metal clashing rang out, both people jumped back and Kiba saw his attackers face.
"Hey hey mister knight, I'm supposed to come and fight you." Lint Sellzan said, as she held a sword coated with purple flames in one hand, and a gun that shot light bullets in the other. Seeing his opponent, Kiba took a stance and said,
"The knight of Rias Gremory, Kiba Yuuto, greets you." After his introductions, the two rushed forward at godlike speed to clash once more.
***
Elsewhere Xenovia was similarly scouting, except she wasn't making any attempt to hide herself. Her goal was to draw one or two of Alex's teammates to attack her, and provide more moving room for her own team while also buying time. As she hoped, two of Alex's teammates showed themselves, and Xenovia had a bit of cold sweat forming from who she saw.
"Current user of Durandal, let this old man see how well you've learned to use the sword." Vasco Strada, one of the former leaders of the church, and former wielder of Durandal appeared. He was also said to have been the wielder that had the best compatibility with it as well, making her feel self conscious about facing him. Behind him was also one of her best friends Irina, who said,
"Ooh I can't believe I'm just here for backup! Xenovia, we'll have our fight some other time!" Irina didn't consider this their real fight, as she would be fighting Xenovia after she was exhausted from fighting Strada, if she beat him. Xenovia looked at the two of them, and focused on Strada after realizing Irina wouldn't interfere with their fight. She then said proudly,
"Xenovia Quarta, formerly of the church. It is an honor to face your eminence in battle!" Before she rushed him.
***
Rossweisse was a little ways away from their base, setting up a trap they hoped would be of use against Alex. It was painfully obvious they wouldn't be able to beat him in direct combat, even if all of them teamed up against him at once their chances of success were at most one percent, and that was being generous to themselves while also removing the involvement of his own team. So Rias decided to use alternate means, even if they weren't the most honorable.
Rossweisse was preparing one such plan, a large seal that utilized both light, and anti dragon capabilities. Their plan was to use the seal to trap Devils that relied on the dragon's power, in other words Alex, and weaken them somewhat until a larger attack could eliminate them. And what attack was bigger than a massive wall of water?
As she was working however, a crack suddenly formed in the formation, effectively destroying it. Rossweisse practically cried at her hard work going to waste.
"No! Just a little more and it would've been finished!" It took a second for to realize why her formation was suddenly damaged, before she looked up and noticed a pink haired devil with horns. Roygun smiled at her before saying,
"So it was a good thing I took a shortcut to get here, it looked like you were working on something impressive." Rossweisse's face twitched, as she tried to think of how Roygun arrived here so quickly undetected. The only routes available were around the mountain or over it, Rias and Akeno went to the top of the mountain so it wasn't that way, and Kiba and Xenovia went to scout both sides of it and neither reported seeing her. Seeing the confusion on Rossweisse's face, Roygun laughed and answered as if she knew what she was thinking,
"Obviously I didn't go around or over the mountain, I went through it." She laughed at the surprised look on Rossweisse's face again, recalling how she only cracked a part of the mountain big enough for her to fit through, since she wasn't as powerful as she was before. Before encountering Rossweisse though, Roygun also snuck close enough to their base to promote, now being a queen. Aura started radiating off of her body, and seeing her get into a battle ready state, Rossweisse got ready to fight as well.
***
Rias stood atop the mountain in the center of the island with Akeno beside her, focusing her new ability, 'Reaper's Ruin' on Alex as she intended to either retire, or weaken him. In her hands was a mass of demonic power in what appeared to be the shape of a sniper rifle, and several spheres of pure destruction floating around her, as she focused the "scope" on Alex. He was moving around the island with Elmenhilde and Ravel behind him, seemingly headed for their base. It almost seemed as if he was escorting them to the area needed to promote, as they were both pawns.
That only increased her worries, as at her base was only Asia and Gasper, who would be defenseless against him. Rossweisse was nearby, but when Rias tried to warn her, she didn't get a response. She trained her "scope" on Alex's legs, in order to halt his movements, and fired. The already loaded sphere of destruction was shot at near impossible speeds towards her lover, as if it was a bullet. As if he could sense her attack coming, Alex blurred for a second and her attack passed right through his after image. After dodging her attack, he then turned towards her exact spot on the mountaintop, and smiled.
As she saw this through her "scope", Rias suddenly felt chills. She watched him with her full attention, expecting his counter attack, which is why she needed Akeno to warn her a second later.
"RIAS LOOK OUT!"
At her warning they both took to the skies, only for the entire peak of the mountain they were just on to completely disappear a second later. After the massive demonic power attack, a figure appeared that neither girl wanted to go up against, Bina Lessthan, or more accurately Grayfia Lucifuge. Rias paled as her older sister floated in front of her, knowing she would have had to face her sooner or later, but also hoping it would've been later. Akeno moved in front of Rias, and declared,
"I'll hold her here, take this chance to get away!" Rias was dumbfounded when she heard Akeno's words, and replied,
"I'm not deserting you!" To which Akeno glared at her, not caring about their rankings at the moment, and said,
"You're our "king" in this match, if you get retired here then it's an automatic loss! Get away while I hold her back!" Rias knew Akeno was saying the truth, that she should listen to her, but she also couldn't seem to do as she requested. Some part of her felt that if she ran from this fight, then she was a bigger failure than if she lost it. After a few seconds she turned to Akeno and said,
"If I flee now, then I feel I'll always regret it. Return to the base and protect Gasper and Asia, I'll stay and fight her. Continue our plan while I'm not there and try to hurry as much as possible." Akeno looked at Rias with incredulous eyes, but still bowed her head when she saw her conviction, and replied,
"As you command, master." She then flew off, leaving Rias to face the "Strongest Queen" alone. After she left, Rias turned to look towards her older sister, who was waiting there the entire and Akeno talked. Grayfia then said,
"So I'll fight you alone?" Rias nodded, and replied with fire in her eyes,
"Yes, I know I may not win against you big sis, but if I run here then I'll never grow!" Under her mask Grayfia smiled, before she covered her body with demonic energy and threw the first attack.
***
A ways away from the shoreline, Ingvild was preparing to send the largest attack she could manage at the island. She didn't like using an attack that would also target her own team, or purposely attacking Alex himself, but she knew she had to help her team win against him. As she readied her attack, Ingvild sensed another person approaching her with such monstrous power that even she could feel it. The water around Ingvild for several hundred feet suddenly froze, as a figure appeared in front of her wearing a cartoonish outfit, and holding a wand.
"Magical girl Levia-tan is here to save the day!💕" Ingvild paled as she looked at her opponent, even though it was suspected she would have to go against her to begin with. Her specialty was water, while Serafall's was ice, she was almost a natural counter for her. She was also quite intimidated by her as well since, even though they shared no blood relation, Serafall carried the name Leviathan. However she didn't intend to fight the Maou directly, and pulled out a specially prepared magic circle on a piece of paper, while she watched Koneko sneak up on Serafall from behind, one of the jewels Alex gave her to hold onto in her hand.
***
Alex was arriving at the base of Rias's group, with the only opposition he met being the fight between Rossweise and Roygun, and the single shot from Rias before Grayfia found them. As he approached the place where Gasper and Asia were, Ravel and Elmenhilde both promoted to queens, and took their positions on either side of him in case of any attacks. As they watched him approach, Asia started summoning Fafnir, and Gasper's eyes started glowing. Alex smiled as he waited for Fafnir to appear, not really concerned since game rules imposed a time restriction on how long the dragon king could make an appearance, plus Alex thought this was an ideal opportunity to teach it a lesson. A second later the dragons gate opened, and the golden dragon king appeared while saying,
"Asia-tan summon me, payment must be made for fighting." Asia started tearing up at the humiliation, and pulled out a patterned cloth that she held out to the dragon.
"Here Fafnir, your desired p-panties!" Fafnir reached his head out as if to take the used panties in his mouth, when suddenly the giant dragon was sent flying, the cloth still hanging from Asia's hand, as she had a confused look on her face.
"Eh?" Was all anyone said, before they focused on the figure who sent Fafnir flying, Alex. He had a look of anger on his face as he looked at the dragon, and declared,
"DID YOU REALLY THINK ILL JUST STAND BACK AND LET YOU SHAME MY WOMAN EVEN MORE?!"
At his words Asia fell to her knees, trying to hide the panties she took out even though the entire world had already seen them. After Fafnir recovered from Alex's hit, he turned towards him and said with passion,
"Panties part of the pact with Asia-tan, panties required for summoning and fighting." Alex's face was twitching as he heard the passionate voice Fafnir used when talking about Asia's panties, before he moved forward and used his secret weapon against the perverted dragon. He whispered in its ear for a few seconds, making everyone curious as to what he was telling Fafnir, before an expression of detestation appeared on Fafnir's face. The dragon seemed to be struggling for several moments with something, as the time it was allowed to stay in the game dwindled down, before it finally shouted with tears forming in his eyes,
"FINE, NO MORE PANTIES! LET FAFNIR STAY WITH ASIA-TAN!"
Alex smiled demonically as he watched the dragon writhe from what he told him. As Fafnir would occasionally follow Asia into Asora, it was already well aware of what was going on. Alex had simply told Fafnir that if he didn't stop his panty obsession with Asia, or any of his women for that matter, he would leave him behind when he took Asia with him in the future. Fafnir adored Asia, he was completely devoted to her since she was the first girl to even smile at him. The fate of being left behind and possibly not being able to see her again in less than a year, was worse for the dragon king than death.
Seeing the one that humiliated Asia with its panty obsession cry with sadness, Alex couldn't help but smile. Everyone else who saw him only saw a sadist however, and his image as the super sadist grew even worse. As the end of his time in the game arrived, everyone watched Fafnir disappear while still crying, emotions mixed about the fight. Alex then turned his attention towards Gasper, who stepped forward after Fafnir disappeared. His expression then turned to disappointment as he looked at the still female Gasper, and he said,
"I see, so you won't face me as a man, huh Gasper?" The shut in vampire had a look of shock at hearing Alex's words, and he started trying to defend himself.
"I-I-I'm trying to accept my manly side, but I can't yet." Hearing his words, Alex just hung his head, and asked,
"What about Valerie, don't you think she should rely on you as a man more than a girl?" His words struck the little vampire hard, as he thought about his current relationship with her. He wanted to get closer to her, but only seemed to be doing so as a girl, not as a man. As he thought about it Gasper realized that if he didn't man up for her, there was a good chance Valerie would get taken away from him. Sensing this was the right time to strike, Alex then continued,
"You don't need to worry about that though, I already talked to her about becoming my woman last night." At his words there was only dead silence, as everyone contemplated his words. The girls listening to Alex's words all thought he was fooling Gasper, but then recalled Valerie visiting him the night before, and talking to Alex alone for a while in his room. Alex's words suddenly seemed a lot realer, and those not in the game turned towards the girl in question, wanting an explanation.
Valerie herself, who was watching the game from the stands, wasn't fazed at all at Alex's words, practically confirming their authenticity. What they didn't know, was that Alex didn't really intend to make her his woman, and told her so the night before. Though it would be disadvantageous for him to do so during the game, Alex intended to use this chance to attempt to activate Gasper's balance breaker. He couldn't think of a better time to do so, as at the moment they were essentially enemies, and Gasper's power was too beneficial to not activate. In the novel it was losing Valerie that triggered it, so Alex was playing the villain and trying a similar tactic, except Gasper was losing Valerie in a different sense instead.
As for Gasper himself, it was like he lost all sense of self, and nearly collapsed. Alex felt worried for a second that his words had the opposite effect, and wondered how he should explain this to Rias, before a sickening aura started spreading. Gasper then stood with a weird look in his eyes, and those that were about to help him suddenly started backing up. Gasper then asked,
"If I defeat you senior, will it change?" Alex was surprised at his question, and asked him to repeat himself.
"I said that if I beat you, would Valerie leaving change?" Alex smiled, and said,
"Well, it would probably seem pretty manly to her." Gasper then looked up at his, eyes blazing as he declared,
"I-I LOVE VALERIE! I won't hand her over to anyone, and I'll defeat those who try to take her away, no matter who they are!" In the stands Valerie had a large smile on her face as she heard Gasper's confession. Suddenly the sickening aura around him exploded, and Gasper became surrounded by darkness, and grew to a much larger size. Many monsters also started emerging from the darkness, as they all surrounded Alex, who simply smiled at what he was seeing. Alex then shouted,
"BALANCE BREAK"
For the first time in felt like forever, and the battle between two Longinus users started.