Chapter 193: Allied Rating Games

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The day after the attack by the Hero faction on the Rating Game match, Sirzechs Lucifer made an Underworld-wide announcement about it in his position of chief for the domestic affairs of the Devils. In it, he named the faction by the name that they had chosen and labeled them as terrorists due to the reason that the group was created. Sirzechs Lucifer even added that any other attack on the Devil or their allies by this faction would be answered with extreme prejudice on his part. The red-haired Satan was pissed at the very public attempt on his little sister's life and everyone could see it. For an instant, those veteran Devils that had fought during their Civil War and were watching the live announcement saw the image of the man that obliterated entire battlefields appear, and not the peace-loving Satan. The only thing that they could do now was to pity the bastards that had angered Sirzechs Lucifer because they would not have an easy life.

Serafall Leviathan was pissed with that too, but she was to a lesser degree due to knowing that Erik was watching over her little sister and decided to channel her anger toward the people that thought that they could hold her back during the attack. That and the later knowledge that Erik had heavily 'pranked' the people who survived were enough to settle down her anger.

Behind the curtains, Erik was working together with Ajuka Beelzebub on upgrading the set of wards that were used in the current Rating Games to a set that could better protect their participants. The Hero faction had managed to hijack the protective wards around the match field to stop the 'stuck' teenagers from receiving external help and they didn't want that to happen ever again. Added with that work, was the one of developing new wards for the Allied Rating Games, something that was going to be soon announced to the general public. If accidents sometimes happened during the Devil Rating Games' matches and a competitor ended up losing its life, they didn't want that to happen during the Alliance's games. And for that reason, they needed a set of more responsive wards to take the participants away before 'accidents' happened. It didn't take long for Erik and Ajuka Beelzebub to come up with a more responsive system that would work based on the pre-registry of the participants to it. With that last piece solved, the Alliance's Rating Games were ready to be officially announced.

An official announcement was soon held by a party of ambassadors from the four factions and the first Allied Rating Games were announced as ways of promoting the mingling between the allies. This competition, differently from the Devils' Rating Games, was going to be divided into two tiers of power because, as the ambassadors explained during the announcement, it made no sense to put a low-class person fighting against an ultimate-class powerhouse. That news had thrown the population of all four factions in a festive mood. Even more when it was explained that there was no need for a Devil being a King for him to assemble a team. To a lot of low-class Devils, this was an opportunity for them to be noticed by others and have a better chance in life. The only requisite for signing up was being a resident of one of the territories under the fours factions. The absence of any rules that limited the teams to only having a single race was pointed out during the announcement too, with the ambassadors saying that having different races in the same team meant the possibility of using more diverse strategies during the matches. A tournament for single participants was announced too with a division of three ranges of ages for it instead of power classification. The same rule of the Allied Rating Games was applied to the sign-up of this tournament too.

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A month quickly passed and things were quiet in the supernatural world. Aside from the protests of some of the more conservative people against the mingling of the four factions, no terrorist attacks or things of the sort happened. Which was a good sign in one way, and bad in another. It showed the more experienced people that a big storm was brewing on the horizon. Even more with them knowing that there were still enemies in hiding.

And they were right. During the opening ceremony for the Allied Rating Games, they attacked. A contingent of more than five thousand enemies appeared around the stadium that had been chosen to house the opening ceremony and first games. Between the enemy army were Devils, Fallen Angels, Humans, and some other races. In the front of the group, acting as the commanders for the bunch, were Cao Cao, George, and a silver-haired young man that made some of the older Devils gasp after seeing him.

A few minutes before that happened, Erik, who had been watching the opening ceremony in one of the VIP rooms together with his non-Devil wives and the rest of his family, let out a very audible sigh when he felt a lot of people suddenly appearing inside the boundaries of his senses.

*sigh*

Hearing that coming from Erik, his wives and big sister, Hestia, looked at him in concern. They knew that that kind of reaction coming from him apparently out of nowhere meant the arrival of problems, making them immediately spread their senses to search for it. And they found it in the presence of dozens and dozens of people that were still 'popping' near the stadium apparently without a reason. They very much doubted that they were here for the ceremony since the tickets for it were limited and the stadium was already full.

"I imagine that they are not here to watch the opening ceremony. Enemies then?"

Selena asked from her seat at Erik's side. She already knew her husband's answer, but wanted to ask anyway. Erik nodded his head at that.

"Don't we need to warn the others?"

Calypso asked while taking a sip of her tea.

"There is no need for that. The people behind the organization of the event spammed the place with security-type wards. Their security measures aside, the stronger ones watching the ceremony probably already noticed the arriving enemies."

Erik calmly replied to Calypso.

"They did. Look. There is already movement within the leaders' place."

Joan said and signaled to the open area that was reserved for the leaders of the four factions together with their delegations. Erik's family turned to look at the place and saw that they were talking in hushed tones between them. The guards part of the delegations were alert as ever for any kind of attack. At that moment, Erik received a call from Serafall.

Because of her position as Satan Leviathan, Serafall, together with her peerage, could not watch the ceremony together with the rest of her family and was watching it together with the other leaders. Serafall's Bishop, Kuroka, being the more sensible of the group to other energies due to her specialization in senjutsu, was the first of the bunch in the leaders' area to sense the arrival of the would-be-invaders and warned her King, which in turn warned the other leaders. Soon enough, all of them had sensed the appearing people and were on alert while talking about how to proceed with what was about to happen. Serafall took that opportunity to call Erik.

"Erik, problems are on the way."

The image of Serafall said to her husband.

"Yes, Sera. We already noticed them."

Erik replied to Serafall, who nodded her head at that. She had been almost certain that he had already felt the incoming enemies but called to warn them in the same way.

"Any idea of who they are?"

Serafall asked Erik, who shrugged at that.

"Who else but the people that don't learn when to stop? From what I am getting as feedback, it is the leftovers of the Hero faction, the Old Satan faction, an until now unknown faction, and some others. They seemed to have gathered a lot of people that had something against the Alliance."

Erik replied in accord with the feedback that he was getting. Serafall frowned at that.

"Anyone that we should be careful about?"

Serafall asked Erik, who shook his head.

"Nah… Aside from the guy wielding the True Longinus, the others are no problem for the lineup that you have there. Those guys must have some problem in their heads to decide and attack them all together. But… There is one person with them that could become a problem. Not for his power per se, but because of his identity."

Erik replied to Serafall, who groaned at that answer. Her image then took a serious look at Erik before speaking again.

"It is him, isn't it?"

Serafall asked Erik, who just nodded his head in confirmation and made her sigh in response. Serafall, like all of Erik's wives, had free access to all of her husband's intelligence reports and when Erik mentioned a problem that could happen because of someone's identity, only one name came to her mind, making Serafall give a brief look to her friend and rival of a long date.

"Take care of the family for me, will you?"

Serafall said again as she was called by Ajuka Beelzebub from her side of the call.

"Always. Nothing will happen to them. Don't worry about anything else and just go nuts there."

Erik replied to Serafall, getting a smile and a nod from the bubbly Satan. She understood very well the meaning behind Erik's words.

"Just take care of your friend too, ok?"

Erik said again to Serafall, making her smile change to a more solemn one.

"I will. Love you all. Take care. Bye-bye."

Serafall said before finally ending the call.

"Hero faction? Realy? Those guys don't learn anything?"

Selena commented after the call had ended. From their booth, they all could see the movement that was happening in the leaders' area. The opening ceremony had already been interrupted and a bunch of people could be seen flying over the stadium. The cameras from the media stations that were covering the opening ceremony live were already aiming at the sky while the announcer's voice was booming through the magical speakers around the stadium for the crowd to stay calm and in their places.

"As our husband said earlier: Problem in their heads."

Calypso replied calmly, making the children in the room laugh at that, not at all concerned by the huge fight that was soon going to start.

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