Due to the events in Kyoto and Issei's spectacles spreading throughout the whole Underworld, the show which was based on him, 'Oppai Dragon' became even more popular. To the point that he was requested to do live shows for the children throughout the entire Gremory territory.
But each one of these shows put a mental strain on the proud Ddraig, to the point that he started crying and requested psychological treatment from Azazel through Fafnir. They would never have thought that one of the Heavenly Dragons would call for psychological support due to it being known as the Dragon who loved boobs so much that he created miracles through them.
Aside from that, their next Rating Game would be against Sairaorg Bael and the news had now gathered a lot of attention for many different reasons. One of them was because a lot of people thought that Rias' peerage represented the Devil King Lucifer Faction, while Sairaorg's peerage represented the Great King's Faction. Both of them were treating each other as a political opponent.
The upcoming Rating Game became so popular that there was even a Press Conference held, with both teams answering questions from the media of the Underworld. However, one question for Issei almost broke Ddraig, and that was if he would get stronger if he were to suck on Rias' boobs.
On the day of the Rating Game, Azazel finally revealed to them that it wasn't just the whole Underworld who would be watching the game, but also all sorts of Mythological Factions. Furthermore, Azazel mentioned that some VIPs would be coming to watch the match, like Hades, Indra and Poseidon, though they wouldn't be revealing themselves to the public.
Lastly, Azazel and the King of the Rating Games, Diehauser Belial, would be acting as the special guests of the match and would answer some questions for the confused audience.
When Akeno and Irina heard about Diehauser Belial, they both wondered if Sakura would be coming to watch the match too, although they couldn't really approach him and ask about her. Besides, even if they were in front of each other, they would have to pretend that they didn't know each other for the sake of their secrets.
After introducing each team to the audience, the commentator of the match Naud Gamigin, introduced the rules of the Rating Game.
As a special Rating Game, a special ruleset was also introduced: Dice Figure Game.
A variant of the Rating Game with different mechanics. Instead of a long, full-team battle, it would be a blitz (short battle) with limited members. Both Kings would roll six-sided dice (one each) and the number added up from both Kings would determine the value of Pieces (servants) that could be sent to the battlefield. However, the Kings were not forced to completely use all the points (with the total value of eight, Kings can send two Knights and have two leftovers). Those leftover points would be forfeited and not added to the next roll. Servants that consumed two or more Pieces of its kind would have the added-up value of the Piece (a servant that has consumed two Pawn Pieces had the value of two or a servant that consumed two Knight Pieces had the value of six).
As for the values of each piece, the Pawn was 1 point, the Knight was 3 points, the Bishop was 3 points, the Rook was 5 points, the Queen was 9 points and the King's points depended on the strength of the King. While Sairaorg was valued at 12 points, Rias was only 8 points.
Every member that was defeated would be out of the game and for a team to win, they had to defeat the enemy's King.
The game started and with each battle, the excitement of the crowd became higher. Although it became difficult for Rias' group because of Koneko's absence, they were able to pull through due to their members being stronger than most of Sairaorg's members and Issei fighting more matches.
The one who lost, however, was Akeno, due to her bad compatibility with her opponent who could send back her own attack to her with ease.
Finally, the last battle happened between Sairaorg and his Pawn and Rias and Issei.
As one would expect and anticipate, Issei would be facing Sairaorg while Rias would fight the mysterious Pawn.
Using his new move, Illegal Move Triaina, Issei was able to overpower Sairaorg and his Touki (Fighting Spirit). However, the pawn was actually one of the thirteen Longinus and the one that didn't need a host to operate on its own, Regulus Nemea.
Regulus Nemea was a golden great battle-ax, but right now, it took the form of the being sealed within it, the Nemean Lion, the same lion that Hercules defeated in one of his labors.
Due to its great durability and speed, Rias's power of destruction wasn't able to deal much damage to it, and she ended up becoming prey within its fast claws.
At that point, it should have been Sairaorg's win, but the Nemean Lion knew that this wouldn't satisfy his King. So it left Rias and gave Issei a chance to let her recover using their only bottle of Phoenix Tears which was allocated to them before the start of the match.
The Nemean Lion also proposed to Sairaorg to use his full strength to defeat Issei, to which he complied after hesitating for a bit. Sairaorg knew that if he were to use his real power, it won't make those from his House happy.
However, the idea of fighting Issei at full strength excited him, and it would be rude to still hold back after all of this.
Sairaorg then revealed to everyone that he was now the new host of the Regulus Nemea, and released his Balance Breaker, 'Regulus Rey Leather Rex'.
Also known as the Iron Skin of the Lion King, Sairaorg's subspecies Balance Breaker creates a golden, lion-themed armor that covers the user's body and adds the earth-breaking powers of Regulus to the user's own strength, resulting in a tremendous increase to the user's offensive power.
Thanks to this, Sairaorg was able to overpower Issei even with his strengthened Welsh Dragonic Rook form, by targeting his vitals.
As a result, Issei fell down and lost consciousness. The next thing he knew, he came to the inner world of his Boosted Gear and saw the former unmoving predecessors, muttering something. After listening to them, Issei finally understood that they were compelling him to activate the Juggernaut Drive to defeat Sairaorg.
Using all their accumulated hate, they started pouring all of their negative thoughts towards Issei to force him to activate the forbidden technique. At this point, someone else appeared. Someone who introduced himself as a former Vanishing Dragon host that came to the Boosted Gear after Issei absorbed the power of the gem that he snatched from Vali.
The Former Vanishing Dragon host intended to help Issei shake off the effects of the negative thoughts, but as he was about to do so, he finally noticed that Issei was not affected by it, even a little. Issei just didn't know what he should do in this situation.
The Former Vanishing Dragon host ended up laughing out loud at the ridiculous sight that shouldn't have been possible. So instead, for the hope to lead both of the Heavenly Dragons to a different path, he helped Issei realize what was important to him and what he should do at this point.
By promising the past wielders of the Boosted Gear of showing them the 'future', Issei was able to regain his consciousness and activated Crimson Cardinal Queen. Instead of plain red, the color of his armor became the color of the hair of his beloved Rias, and instead of green, the color of his gems became pinkish-red, similar to the orb that unlocked Ddraig's real power. The power that came from liking boobs too much.
Crimson Cardinal Queen is the opposite of Juggernaut Drive. Instead of thriving in hate and life force like the latter, the former uses hope and stamina. Unlike Juggernaut Drive that can be kept activated until the very end of the user's life, the Crimson Cardinal Queen can only be used if the user's stamina was enough and deactivates once depleted.
The moment Issei activated it, he could feel worsening tiredness in addition to feeling the additional power. It was a very strange feeling, but Issei didn't dwell on it and started the third round of his fight with Sairaorg.
As the golden and crimson figures clashed, their fight immediately devolved into a childish brawl. Devoid of any technique, the two of them just punched and kicked each other with all their might. However, despite that, the heat from their battle and the resolution emitted by the two fighters spread to everyone, bringing the excitement to a whole new level when the cheers became insistent for all the fans of the two.
At last, the first one to fall is Sairaorg, with Issei having the stamina and durability to outlast him.
Hence, the victor of the Rating Game was Rias Gremory and her peerage.
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Editors:
28th00: He no-selled the curse. Wow. Soul tempering(also read masochistic torture training) really strengthens your mentality, huh? Sacred Gears are absolute Plot Armour BS! I want to just say that, inside and outside the universe, they're literally the "I Win" button for reality. I mean, seriously? Powered by strong desire? All you gotta do is survive long enough to desire to "Live" hard enough, 'Break the Balance' and win. Obviously Kisuke just HAD to copy that~! Phis-chama… Imagine her with a Sacred Gear she made outta her snakes, her magical girl transformation stick (courtesy of Serafall)! Imagine the chaos!
Goyya: At the later volumes of DxD, Longinus users' threats are so big, they have capabilities to surpass the Gods. So yeah, it's a BS plot armour.