Chapter 81: The Rating Game Field
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The limousine carrying the Aztec Chief God, Mem-Cho, and I traveled California's streets for ten minutes. It went through a gate leading to a large marble mansion, and soon, we stood inside a hidden chamber within the mansion.
"Please stand here,"
Our guide, Grayfia, walked at the center of a large magic circle in the room. We walked behind her and stood.
"This is a teleportation circle. I could have teleported you guys myself if only Aquamarine were with us. However," she eyed Quetzalcoatl. "Since there is someone with quite a heavy presence among us, this is safer. Please hold on tight, this might be nauseous."
Somehow, I didn't buy her explanation. If Quetzalcoatl didn't resist the teleportation, there wouldn't have been any problem for Grayfia to teleport her. Since she had tagged along by herself, she had no reason to resist.
I could guess the real reason, though. And from the little smirk that Quetzalcoatl wore, she knew too. Neither of us mentioned it. From what I could see, this teleportation magic circle blocked the observer from understanding its coordination.
If Grayfia teleported us by her own spell, then the coordination would have been easy to see through by someone experienced. And if Quetzalcoatl memorized the coordination to teleport to the Devil's Underworld directly, it wouldn't be well. So she brought us here.
'Cautious woman,' I noted. Anyone else might have fumbled in this situation and used the fastest method to bring us to the Underworld, but Grayfia was careful.
The teleportation circle spun, letting out a purple light. The room was illuminated by it, and soon it enveloped us. Five figures vanished from within the room.
* * *
We appeared in a room that looked exactly like the one we stood in before the teleportation – it was a copy. The only difference was the quality and type of mana present.
"We are here," Grayfia said, but that was far from the truth.
We were in the Underworld, sure, but we were far from our destination. From the few presences that I sensed, this was just a spare mansion where nobody other than servants stayed.
"We are going to take another car," as expected, we had to travel from here to our main location. Grayfia couldn't have directly teleported us there, because of the off chance that Quetzalcoatl somehow saw through the teleportation's coordinates. So, at least, this would make sure that even if Quetzalcoatl were to somehow teleport to the Underworld, she'd appear in this unimportant place to fight, allowing the Satans time to prepare.
We took another limo and traveled for half an hour. This time, our car moved from one city center to another via portals connecting different devil cities. Though I called them devil cities, they weren't very different from modern human cities. Except there were actual shops and more luxurious ones, and the number of nightclubs and other similar shops were off the hook.
"Nice place…" Mem-Cho was staring out of the window like a little kid. Even if it didn't look very different from big human cities, the subtle differences were enough to draw her.
"Nice place?" Quetzalcoatl scoffed as she looked out, too. "It looks basically the same as cities like Los Angeles. Both are cities operated by devils, so of course. Drugs, parties, clubs, the same thing all over again. You humans are so easily addicted to things."
"Rich coming from a Chief God addicted to watching teen dating shows," I fired back since the last line was directed toward me, the only human in the car.
"You wanna have a go, boy?" the tall lady tilted her head and smiled, leaning into me since she sat just beside me. Seeing me unfazed, she giggled and rested her face on my neck, taking a sniff. "You are courageous, I like that~ But make sure you don't get killed talking like that to some other important figure."
"He should be fine since Aztec is backing him up," Grayfia suddenly said, and though it didn't seem odd to comment that, that was a calculated line. She was testing the waters; if Quetzalcoatl corrected her now and said no, Aztec wasn't protecting me, Grayfia would know how far she could push me in a necessary situation.
To my surprise, Quetzalcoatl played along with a shrug. "We'll see when the time comes."
Grayfia didn't say anything after that.
The limo kept going for half an hour more, and as time passed, Rias grew quieter.
She hadn't made any important conversation during the ride, but at least she talked every now and then. But by now, she was entirely quiet. I noticed beads of sweat trailing behind her ears, even though the air conditioner was on.
Though this was like a field trip for us, this was a serious situation for Rias. I felt bad.
During my 1st life, when I watched the DxD Anime, I found it slightly annoying that she complained about this marriage so much—while falling for someone like Issei. But now that I knew her in person, now that we were friends, and now that she was quite different from her anime self, I felt bad for her.
The worst thing was that she didn't have the shared plot armor from the Main Character. Rias Gremory was alone—and no magical force could pull her out of the rabbit hole she had fallen into.
Our eyes met and she looked down, her fists curled above her thighs.
'At least she should have asked for my help.'
I shrugged. Her fight, her choice.
* * *
A bit later, we reached our destination. It was another portal. But our car didn't go inside it, we had to walk inside. As we stepped inside, Grayfia gave us a brief explanation.
"This leads us to the Game Field. The Game Field is where all Rating Game matches take place and is located inside a section of the Dimensional Gap, protected by a barrier. This field was created by Satan Ajuka Beelzebub. The field itself provides a simulation of any environment or scenery for a game to take place in. Quite a fancy place."
"I am surprised you're taking us there right away without talking to a Satan about this. What if Quku rampages there and messes things up?" I asked, mostly to get on the blonde Goddess' nerves, as we stepped through the purple portal.
The world brightened for a moment, and then we stood at the gate of what seemed like a large stadium. After that, Grayfia snapped a finger as a chunk of ground raised from under our feet and carried us up. As we rose, she answered my question.
"She said she's not here to cause trouble, so she won't do that. I trust her."
'Bullshit.'
Even Quetzalcoatl found that lie funny as she raised her hands in defense. She looked at me and answered. "I am sure you can sense it; there are Three Satans here. It's the Gremory princess' important Rating Gate, so they're here to watch. Also, I heard the administrator of the Rating Games is one of the Five Great Dragon Kings, who is hiding somewhere around here. So this isn't a place for me to rampage. They'll stop me before I can have fun. Obviously, I'd win in an all-out battle, but…"
She pointed at the sky, at the purple-red eyes that revealed the stars of the cosmos. We followed her finger and looked up, and Mem-Cho looked mesmerized by it.
"There is another, bigger and more annoying Dragon out there. If I go all out in a fight and destroy the dimension… the Great Red might just mistake us for a snack." Quetzalcoatl said with a soft smile; even she knew to be humble before the Greatest of All Dragons.
"The Great Red…" Mem-Cho muttered the name as she stared up at the sky, while Grayfia held back a sneer when she heard Quetzalcoatl say, 'I'd win' against three Satans and the strongest of the Five Great Dragon Kings.
This woman was quite arrogant. However, I didn't doubt her claim—unless those four had Icons that matched the intensity of the incredible [Dragon Icon], they were duds against her. Even as the White Tiger, I had to admit that Icon was something else. After all, I had experienced the back end of that Icon the most out of anyone else—having fought that annoying Azure Dragon of the East for thousands of years.
"We are here," Grayfia said once we reached a door after getting off the flying ground and walking through a hallway for a bit.
She looked at me and Rias, and barely acknowledged Mem-Cho. "Three Satans are on the other side of this door. I shall take Lady Quetzalcoatl to meet them. Rias, you guide them to a staff and give an order to grant them VIP seats. Then return to your Peerage; they have been waiting for you for a while. We are almost late, so be quick."
Rias nodded absentmindedly, and Grayfia pushed the door open. She nodded at Quku who walked inside, and Grayfia followed. The door closed, but at the last moment, I noticed a blonde head from inside the room, that was not Quetzalcoatl, turn to lock her red eyes with me. The door closed just in time for me to see her face, but I already knew who it was.
Ranefer Phenex, the scheming woman who had invited me here to begin with.
* * *
[Third Person Point of View]
Quetzalcoatl stepped inside the room, and eyes turned to look at her. There were not just the three Satans there. There were two other people.
Other than Sirzechs, Ajuka, and Serafall, there were two women in the room too. One of them was Sapphire Gremory, while the other was Ranefer Phenex.
Though Quetzalcoatl had told Aqua that there were only three Satans here, these two could be considered Satans too. Despite not holding the official title, these two were as strong as the regular Satans. Especially the Phenex Ancestor; she was equal to a Super Devil during her prime.
Though right now, she was the weakest in the room.
"What a pathetic state you're in, Ranefer. It's been a while." with an arrogant smirk, Quetzalcoatl walked inside and called out Ranefer.
"Good evening, Quetzalcoatl," Although Ranefer greeted back with a smile, her gaze was cold.
None of the five Devils looked surprised at Quetzalcoatl's appearance. It was thanks to Grayfia, who used telepathy to warn the limo's driver to notify the Satans via text messages. So although sudden, the Satans were expecting to see Quetzalcoatl here.
None of them were happy about it, but they could do nothing since she didn't attempt to fight anybody. But more than the other four, Ranefer was the least happy.
As Phoenix, she had bad blood with many Dragons. As a Devil, she had bad blood with many Gods. Quetzalcoatl was one of the few who owned both titles, so they had been old enemies.
Though Ranefer was never as strong as the Dragon God of Venus, her regeneration powers allowed her to remain undefeated. It was a draw every time they fought in the past. But now…
"Its pleasing to see you in this state,"
"You should at least be a bit respectful to an old rival." Ranefer shrugged. "But yes, I am not exactly doing well these days."
In fact, there was a chance she'd return to her slumber soon – if she didn't find a cure. If things worsened, she could only be awake if she burned much of her life force.
"Heh," Quetzalcoatl didn't say anything.
The Satans were standing by now, to greet this Chief God, and Serafall stood too. As the one in charge of Foreign Affairs, she looked at Quetzalcoatl with a tired face.
"May I ask why you're here?"
"Come on, I'm not heartless. We can talk about that after this game ends."
Quetzalcoatl patted Serafall on her back and looked at the glass wall in front that showed the entire arena below.
"This looks fun. Let us enjoy the game for now, we can talk about work later," she said, and though the Devils found her nice person act annoying, they were grateful that she decided to wait.
"That is perfectly fine," Sirzechs spoke. "Grayfia, bring us a chair?"
"It's alright," Ranefer said and stood up. "I was about to return to the Phenex House waiting room. I'm sure she won't mind using my chair."
Everyone in the room realized that Ranefer just didn't want to be bothered by Quetzalcoatl's needless teasing throughout the Game, so she was leaving. But nobody stopped her, not even Quetzalcoatl.
Sapphire Gremory nodded, "I'll leave too, then. I'll join the Gremory House's waiting room."
Saying so, the two Devils left the room as Quetzalcoatl loudly sat down on the large and soft chair that could easily be mistaken for a throne.
The three Satans exchanged glances but didn't say anything as they took their seats. Sirzechs was frowning, as his mind was busy with new worries other than his sister's marriage.
Half an hour later, the Rating Game of Rias Gremory and Riser Phenex began.
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