Chapter 46

*Sirzechs office*

Grayfia teleported herself back to Sirzechs office to report what had happened between Riser, Rias, and Sephiroth.

"Grayfia, how did it go?" Sirzechs asked while putting down the paperwork that he was working on giving his wife his complete attention.

"Best that it could, Rias tried to get Sephiroth to be her boyfriend. Thinking that doing this will stop the marriage somehow."

"Why would she think something like that would stop it from happening?" Sirzechs asked with a clear confused expression on his face wondering what his sister was thinking.

"I believe that she is just that desperate to get out of this marriage that she thought that if she was with someone powerful she wouldn't have to marry Riser, at least this is what I assume anyway" Grayfia was also confused on why Rias thought that plan would work.

Grayfia then went to explain what else had happened and about the duel that she had set up with Riser and what each winner would get. Sirzechs didn't mind with the favors if it helped his sister but was worried about the duel.

"Grayfia do you think that Sephiroth would kill Riser in this duel?" Sirzechs was honestly worried about this issue if Sephiroth was going to kill Riser in this duel or not. If he did, the consequences would be immense especially because he and Grayfia sanctioned this duel. They would be just as responsible as Sephiroth would be if he was to kill Riser in this duel.

"Honestly, I don't know if he would or not" Grayfia doesn't really know Sephiroth that well so she couldn't say what he would do.

Sighing to himself, "Well we will both be there and we will be able to save Riser if Sephiroth is going to get him a deathblow in the duel. We can't afford to have Riser die given his family and status in it." Grayfai nodded to this, unaware that no matter what they did Sephiroth was bound to kill Riser. Even if he had to kill everyone that got in his way to do it.

*2 days later*

Sephiroth was currently waiting at the underworld arena that the duel was going to be held at in the Gremory territory in his waiting room but he wasn't alone. Rias and all of her peerage were there as well with him keeping him company. They were trying to show him their support even though they knew that Sephiroth didn't need it given how powerful he is. The real question that they wanted to know is how he was going to defeat Riser and keep him down.

Riser is known to have the immortal ability of the Phoenix making it hard to really hurt him and he never has really lost in a fight before if his rating game record is anything to go by. The only known losses that Riser has ever had is when he chooses to lose as a favor to the other party.

While holding Sephiroth's hand "Sephiroth how are you going to handle Riser's immortal ability, magic doesn't really work on him and physical attacks don't do damage like they should. Making it hard to really win a fight against him given that he can take damage without worry." Akeno asked curiously and she wasn't the only one everyone else also wanted to know what he was going to do.

"You will just have to watch the fight, I can assure you Rias won't have to worry about Riser Phenex ever again after this fight" Sephiroth said signaling that he wasn't going to say anything else, making Akeno give him a cute pout since he didn't answer her question at all.

Rias couldn't wait for the duel because she knew that she was going to be free from her arranged marriage with Sephiroth being the one that fought for her. Rias knew that if she was to fight Riser in a rating game like she initially planned to, she would have lost anyway she looked at it.

Shortly afterward Grayfia came in and told Sephiroth that it was time for the duel and led him to the arena. While they were walking down the hallway with just the two of them Grayfia spoke.

"Sephiroth, remember that this is a duel not a deathmatch. I would hope that you understand what I mean" To which Sephiroth never said anything in response, Grayfia took this as he understood what she meant but if one was to look at his face they would see a smile that would send a chill down your spine.

As Sephiroth walked into the arena, he saw that Riser was already there waiting for him with his arms crossed with a smirk on his face radiating confidence like he already won this fight.

"I'm surprised you showed up, I thought that you were too scared to fight me." Riser said in an arrogant tone, waiting for Sephiroth to say something in response.

Sephiroth just stared at him with an indifferent expression on his face, something that really annoyed Riser because he wanted to get a rise out of his opponent, he enjoyed doing this during a fight. Before Riser could make another attempt on Sephiroth.

"Begin" Grayfia said while she was sitting in the box overseeing the fighting area with Sirzechs sitting next to her. While out in the stands there are two different groups watching the fight. Riser's side consists of his mother, father, peerage, and little sister. While Rias was the other group who had her whole peerage there and her mother and father there as well. Since it involved both of their families they were both there to watch a fight that will determine the future of their households.

"Right so let's get this over with then, I have a wedding to plan for" Riser then created a red magical circle and shot out a torrent of flames at Sephiroth with a confident smile on his face.

Sephiroth, seeing this, stood there and watched the hellfire flames come at him not taking any kind of defensive stance that can be seen and then they overtook him and engulfed his whole body.

When Riser saw the flames overtake Sephiroth's whole body, he made sure to channel his magic spell with even more magical power, wanting to turn his body into ash.

Riser knew that nothing bad would happen to him for killing this guy, he was Riser Phenex the heir to the Phenex family and soon to be husband of Rias Gremory. Nobody could do anything to him given his political power behind him and his family connections.

The rest of the spectators all had different reactions to seeing this scene, everyone on Riser's side was happy and having big smiles on their faces thinking that they had already won it all. While Rias' side was wondering what Sephiroth was thinking and doing because they knew that someone of his power and skill level wouldn't be hit with something such as that. Grayfia and Sirzechs were along the same lines as Rias' group wondering what Sephiroth was doing right now.

Confident that he was able to make this guy nothing but a pile of ashes in the wind he stopped his magic, after the last of the flames cleared, Riser had a shocked expression on his face and he wasn't alone. His family and peerage were the same way because of what they saw, Sephiroth was just standing there like nothing even happened to him. But if one was to look closer they would see a small shimmering in front of his body.

They weren't the only ones shocked to some degree, many haven't seen Sephiroth fight before but only know that he is powerful and that is about it. So seeing him block Risers magic while just standing there was something that had never been seen before. Even the most powerful of devils can't take magic straight to the body and be perfectly fine like Sephiroth was.

"How are you still standing like that?" Riser yelled, showing some slight panic in his voice seeing someone take his attack and have nothing to show for it.

Sephiroth, not feeling the need to answer his question, took out his masamune sword Zetsubo and sent a sword slash toward Riser aimed at his left arm, he applied enough physical force to send out a sword beam at him without any other kind of enhancement attached to it. It was done with such speed that many of the people watching didn't even see him perform the attack except for the elders of the crowd such as Grayfia and Sirzechs.

Then the next moment Riser felt that something was wrong and looked down to the ground and saw that his left arm on the ground, granted for a normal person this would have been a huge issue but because of his special ability it is a slight inconvenience until his arm is reattached to him.

After registering that he had lost his arm if only temporarily, he bent over to pick it up and reattach it to his body, Riser wasn't bleeding at all, only flames were where the blood should have been. All Riser had to do was simply connect his missing arm to his body and it would be fine the next second, which is exactly what he did. Sephiroth didn't stop him mostly because he was curious how this immortal ability worked.

'I see how his ability works now, let's try something different this time' thought Sephiroth while he started channeling his magic into his sword making it have a soft glow on the blade part of the sword.

"No matter what you do you won't be able to hurt me, all of your attacks will basically pass right through me. Give up or I won't show you any mercy" Riser said fully confident that he will win because the other party won't be able to beat him. Granted he knew that this person was strong if he was able to cut him without him noticing but if they can't put any lasting damage on him it won't matter in the end.

Giving Riser an indifferent expression on his face and ignoring him again, he sent another attack but this time he sent two at Riser and he aimed for both of his arms but made sure to have his magical power mixed in to see how he would handle it this time and to see how his body would react.

This time was different because Riser was paying more attention and focusing on his opponent, he saw the sword beams coming at him and sent a fire wall up in front of him thinking that this would be enough to block the two attacks. He was mistaken though, even though it wasn't a big attack like most people use, it was a highly compressed magical power attack making it stronger than it looks.

The fire wall didn't do anything to stop the attack and it went right through it like a hot knife through butter. Riser then let out a howl of pain because this time he actually felt it this time which was surprising for him. Looking down at the ground again he saw that his arms were there and this just frustrated him to no end after he got over the initial pain.

'Damn that actually hurt me, which shouldn't have been possible given my family's ability. I'll have to end this fight soon, reattaching my arms like this takes up quite a bit of stamina so if he keeps doing this I'll end up losing in the end.' thought Riser while he again attached his arms by channeling his magical power to reconnect them.

'If magical power can hurt him then what would happen if I was to use toukai then which is known to attack the life force of a person when they are hit' thought Sephiroth deciding that this final attack should end it all once and for all.

Riser decided that he needed to give himself more space so that he could dodge Sephiroth's attacks so he unleashed his devil wings and flew into the air but his family's wings were different from a normal devil's wings which looked bat-like in nature. Theirs were made out of pure fire and looked like the wings of a bird, another thing that made the family unique among the devils.

Sephiroth seeing this did the same thing and unleashed his own single black wing on his back, something that surprised many in the crowd because he only has one but is still able to fly with it. He followed what Riser did and flew into the air hovering at the same height as him.

"Humph you only have one wing that just goes to show you just how weak you really are. Before I kill you, I'm curious how you only have one wing so why don't you sate my curiosity and tell me how you came to have only one wing?" Riser said in an arrogant tone and expression on his face, even more confident that he will win this fight after seeing that Sephiroth had only one wing on his back.

It is known in the world that the amount of wings on your back signal how powerful you are and Riser believes that because Sephiroth only showed one wing he is extremely weak compared to him who can summon 3 pairs of wings total meaning he has 6 wings. He doesn't know that there is a special reason for why he doesn't have more than a single wing on his back.

"While normally I wouldn't answer to someone so beneath me I'll indulge the last request of a dead man" Riser had a fierce expression on his face when he heard what Sephiroth said, while Grayfia and Sirzechs were alarmed when they heard the part about a dead man.

"It stands for the blatant symbol of my fall from grace and my destiny to fail--just as a one-winged bird will fail to fly with one wing." Sephiroth said in a melancholic tone, making all the girls who heard this feel a tight feeling in their hearts not to mention when they saw the expression that he made when he said it.

After saying his piece Sephiroth brought his sword up horizontally to his body and he started gathering touki on his blade but this time the glow is white and it also alerted everyone because they could feel the power that was being channeled into the sword. Especially Konkeo because she recognized this type of energy and what it could do to someone if they were hit with an attack like that.

Riser started feeling his instincts kicking in telling him that he shouldn't let this attack hit him or he might very well die. Something that he had never felt before given that his ability makes it so he can never really die from attacks be they physical or magically.

Before Sephiroth could charge forward to attack Riser, he quickly charged up almost all of his magical power to send a very powerful fireball toward him that was so massive making it hard to dodge well at least for a normal person but Sephiroth was anything but normal. While he could have easily dodged the attack given many of his abilities and speed, he decided to just cover the rest of his body with his touki and pierce right through the massive fireball sent at him.

Everyone was shocked when they saw what Sephiroth was doing and wondered if something like that could work against a devil like Riser when he used almost all of his full power for a single attack. Riser was confident in his attack given that he used almost all of his magical power to cast it, which left him breathing hard from exerting so much at once like this.

Then he heard Sephiroth's voice from inside the massive fireball, which made him pale in fright on his face because that meant that his attack didn't work, "I've thought of a wonderful present for you"

As Sephiroth spoke this his masamune sword came through the fireball and stabbed Riser right in the heart with his blade fully covered in touki. Instead of fire coming out of his body where the wound would be instead there was blood which is something that not only surprised Riser but everyone else as well.

Riser has never before bleed before for any reason unless he wills his body to let it happen and this time he didn't will it meaning that he took actual damage and in such an important area of his body the heart.

With a portion of Sephiroth's masamune sword sticking out of the back of Riser's body and blood trailing down the sword, Riser looked up and straight into the face of the one that stabbed him. Riser burned the image of Sephiroth's whole body into his eyes which will be the last thing that he ever sees, an indifferent expression on his face surrounded by flames of hellfire and his body giving off a soft white glow on his body.

Sephiroth then spoke again "I shall give you despair" It was the last thing that Riser ever heard, then Sephiroth channeled more touki into his blade that traveled down the blade and when it made contact with Riser's heart it caused it to explode completely giving him no chance of making a recovery not to mention the damage that the touki did to his life force itself. Riser was permanently dead unless some kind of death god came and helped him out, not even the famous phenex tears could help him out in this situation.

This action of Sephiroth made Riser cough up blood from his mouth and the expression that was on Riser's face when he died was one of a sad smile almost like he realized that he had messed with the wrong person and it's now paying the price for it.

Sephiroth then removed his sword from Riser's body and he watched as his lifeless body fell to the ground, but before it could hit the ground Riser's father rushed down and caught his body and tried to pour phenex tears on his wound hoping to heal the damage and wake his son. When he saw that it wasn't working he didn't give up and pulled out several more of them and continued to pour more on the wound but it wasn't doing anything.

Riser's father knew what this meant if the phenex tears were not working, it means that his son is truly dead and no lifeforce is in his body otherwise the tears would have been able to save him. He then unleashed a massive amount of hellfire around his body, igniting the whole arena floor and gave one of the most murderous gazes that he could at Sephiroth for what he had done to his son.

While all of this was happening the rest of the crowd was in complete disbelief on what just happened, Riser Phenex was just killed in front of them. Someone who is known to be almost immortal was actually killed, the first to react was Grayfia and Sirzechs the worst thing that could happen with this duel just did and now he has to do damage control or risk this situation causing eareaputable damage.

"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU DAMN BASTARD. YOU AND EVERYONE THAT YOU LOVE WILL DIE TOGETHER TO ACCOMPANY MY SON INTO THE AFTERLIFE" Yelled Riser's father as he started to charge up a massive amount of magical power to cast a spell at his son's killer.

It is right at this moment that Sirzechs teleported himself in between the two of them and raised his own magical power to stop Riser's father from attacking Sephiroth "Enough we will deal with this issue, but for now why don't you take your son and your family and head back home while we handle Sephiroth over here"

When Riser's father was going to try and say something, Sirzechs sent him a glare saying that he didn't have a choice in the matter and he better do what he says otherwise he wouldn't like the consequences of disobeying him on this matter right now. Seeing this he could only sallow what he was going to say and he turned to leave with his family and Riser's peerage who all had tears coming out of their eyes because their brother/son/master just died but not before he sent another glare at Sephiroth that showed how badly he wanted to kill him right now. They then all teleported away back to the Phenex household to wait on the news that Sirzechs will bring them later on this matter.

"Now as for you I need you to follow me quietly back to my office at the Gremory household and we can figure out what your punishment will be for killing Riser Phenex in this duel." Sirzechs said in a serious tone of voice meaning that Sephiroth didn't have a choice in this matter otherwise he would use force to take him there.

While looking at Sirzechs, Sephiroth just swung his sword down to get the blood off then sealed it away and then looked directly into Sirzechs eyes and then spoke "No" then he turned to Rias who was still seated with the others.

"Rias Gremory, I have paid back my last favor I owed you. Like I promised Riser Phenex will no longer be a problem for you anymore now or in the future" Rias was still in shock with the events that just transpired and just unconsciously nodded her head to his statement. Sephiroth just nodded his head slightly at this then proceeded to make a teleportation circle to leave, completely ignoring that Sirzechs wanted him to follow him. He paid no importance to him, because he doesn't owe him anything, if anything he now owes him because he saved his sister from a loveless marriage she didn't want.

Seeing Sephiroth attempting to teleport away, Sirzechs spoke up again "Wait Sephiroth you have to follow me back otherwise I'm going to have to use force to make you do it"

Looking at Sirzechs in the eyes with an indifferent face "Do you think you are qualified to tell me what to do?" Sephiroth said in an almost mocking tone, Sirzechs gritted his teeth a bit hearing this but quickly calmed himself down knowing that getting angry will not help the matter right now.

"You may be as strong as me or maybe even a little bit stronger but I'm not alone here" As he said this Grayfia, Venelana, and Zeoticus joined him in the air and surrounded Sephiroth in the air. They all knew that they couldn't let Sephiroth escape otherwise they won't only have to deal with the Phenex family but all of the important elders of the underworld as well.

Seeing this Sephiroth raised an eyebrow to the situation "I'd like to see you try and stop me from doing what I want even with all of you together you wouldn't be able to stop me. Think carefully about your next actions, attack me and your going to lose someone important to you forever"

"What will you do, Sirzechs Lucifer, one of the Satan's of the underworld?" Sephiroth said aloud challenging not just him but the other three as well showing just how confident he was in fighting them. All four of them are extremely powerful in their own rights so to willingly fight them all at the same time, Sephiroth is either extremely confident or crazy is what they all thought.

Thinking for a moment on what Sephiroth said, Sirzechs spoke up finally "I ….."