Chapter 52 He is yours

Kalawarner's rage slowly bled out of her, leaving her looking exhausted and lost as she stared at the floor. "I don't know if I can leave it behind. It's all I've ever known – all I've ever been." she said, her words soft as a whisper.

I held my hand out to her, a pawn appeared atop it in a flash of flame. She wasn't strong enough for me to justify using anything else. "This is your chance to find out. No one can make the decision for you."

Kalawarner's eyes slowly drifted up to the offering in my hand. She swallowed nervously, a storm of conflict in her eyes. "Why?" she said so quietly I barely heard her. "I tried to kill you. You don't know me. I'm too weak to be useful. Why?"

"I could say I want someone in my peerage with the ability to use light magic. I could say reincarnating a Fallen is better than reincarnating a human. I could say I find you super attractive and am thinking with my dick, but all of those are very minor reasons. Truthfully? Because you're alone. Being alone sucks. You have literally nowhere to go, and that sucks. I'm typically a lot more methodical about the whole reincarnation process. I literally have a journal where I debate the pros and cons of reincarnating various people, but you…I just want to help you. I know that sounds stupid and unbelievable, but if you want honesty, there it is."

Kalawarner finally met my eyes, her expression full of disbelief. "That naivety will get you killed. I could stab you in the back the moment you get comfortable."

"You won't." I said, unblinking.

Her hands began to tremble. "How do you know?"

I shrugged. "I just do." I hefted the pawn in my hand. "What's your decision?"

Kalawarner swallowed nervously, her entire demeanor having shifted from hostile to vulnerable. Hesitantly, she met my eyes and said, "Reincarnate me. Please."

Wordlessly, I stepped forward and held my pawn up to Kalawarner's chest, she offered no resistance. Looking into her eyes, I said, "Are you sure?"

The Fallen nodded jerkily. "Yes."

Needing no more prompting, I pressed my pawn into her chest.

Her eyes flew wide as she gasped for air, a low hum permeating the air. Wings shot out of Kalawarner's back. One, I had seen before. It was covered in blackened feathers. The second was new, a bat-like devil wing.

Kalawarner fell to her knees, heaving air into her lungs.

I knelt down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

I don't know what it was, but something caused Kalawarner to snap at that moment.

Tears flowed from her eyes as she began to sob, throwing her arms around me, crushing herself against my chest.

Once more not knowing what else to do about a sobbing woman, I wrapped my arms around her and gently rocked her back and forth while she worked out whatever emotions she was feeling.

After she'd cried herself out, Kalawarner said, "Thank you." still holding tight to me.

"You don't need to thank me. You're family now. I take care of my family."

I heard a tinkling chuckle in my head as my sword spoke.

Once more, a devil shows mercy to those who should be his enemies.

Again. I thought back. Not. The. Time.

"Yay!" a new voice exclaimed from the hallway.

Kalawarner and I turned to look into the hall. Serafall was watching us with a wide, glowing smile on her face, her arms thrown over her head.

"I knew this was a good idea! Never doubt the magical girl Levi-tan!"

Sighing, I stood, offering Kalawarner a hand to help her to her feet. "Welcome to your new life. It gets really ridiculous at times, but it's alright."

For the first time since I'd met her, Kalawarner broke out into a genuine smile, her eyes still moist from her tears. "Thank you."

~~~~~~~~~~~

I parried the desperate stab from the terrified knight, batting away her blade and allowing for a perfect opening to impale her with my own sword. The knight was quickly swallowed by a blue light.

"Falon Oriax's knight retired." the announcer said, his voice booming through the arena prompting another cheer to rise up from the crowd.

Unlike our previous four matches, there was a sizable crowd in the arena to watch this, our fifth match – my fight against Rias excluded.

After our previous matches where Yubelluna and I tore through entire peerages arrayed against us without Clarissa, Valerie or Kalawarner so much as leaving our base, we'd gathered enough of a following that the organizers thought they could rake in more earnings by pitting us against pillar devils again. We were still scraping the bottom of the barrel, but with each win our popularity grew. A few members of the press had taken the opportunity to question if the 'Fallen Phenex would rise from the ashes of disgrace'. I thought the journalist was an idiot, but their coverage led to more reward money from winning each Rating Game – something I was in desperate need of since losing out on the seemingly limitless funds of the Phenex family.

An explosion rocked a granite formation to my left, sending three devils spinning away.

Yubelluna touched down on the ground next to me as the announcer relayed the defeat of three pawns.

"It is just the king left, Riser."

Nodding, I said, "Yes, it is. Would you like the honors or shall I?"

"He is yours, my king. Please do not take too long."

Grinning, I shifted into my fire state and used a gust of Wind to propel myself to a marker I'd placed when we were first transported to the arena.

Appearing in a burst of flame, I stabbed towards the shocked Oriax with my sword. Moments before my blade would have connected with his chest, a blue light swallowed the wide-eyed devil.

"Falon Oriax has retired. Riser is the victor."

The crowd surged at the announcement, shouting out congratulations and applauding. My popularity must have been growing faster than I thought.

I felt myself being pulled away as I was enveloped in a blue light and arrived back in the waiting room. A quick glance around the area showed my peerage in the room with me.

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