How to Kill A Phoenix

Serafall leaned back into her chair. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Ajuka turned towards Sirzech, agreeing with Serafall's question.

Sirzech pressed his hands onto his temple and sighed.

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In the colosseum, two teams stood opposite one another. One team comprised of 13 individuals and the other of only one.

Riser and his peerage of girls sent a mixture of menacing glares and mocking snorts towards Dylan.

"So," Riser said, brushing his hair back. "What's your name, human?"

"You can call me Dylan."

"Dylan," he repeated, looking upwards to try to memorize it. "Well, I must commend you. This is the first I've heard of a human picking a fight with a Devil, especially one of my stature."

Dylan furrowed his eyebrows. "Stature?"

"What?" Riser asked back, confused.

"What do you mean by 'your' stature?" Dylan air quoted. "What've you done aside from being born into your family?" His tone of voice sounded genuinely confused and curious.

"I--I found my peerage!" Riser shouted with renewed conviction. "The greatest harem!"

"Oh," Dylan lazily nodded. "Cool. It's just that I've never really heard of you before, and I'm really only talking to you because you lucked out by getting contracted with Rias," he confessed. "So, if you don't mind, would you please surrender so that I don't have to kill you?"

Riser's face furrowed in anger and then into a haughty laugh. "Really? You think you can kill me?"

Dylan shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Riser cleared his throat, but even that sounded pompous. "Have you not heard of the great Phenex clan?" He noticed that the human didn't show any reaction, so he continued. "Well, let me tell you. We are the most powerful clan in all of the Netherworld. Our very blood is infused with the blood of the mighty Phoenix. We are unkillable. Any damage done to us will be healed and regenerated within mere seconds! We are might itself! And I am your deliverer!"

Before Dylan could respond, Grayfia's voice rang out within the colosseum and the stands where excited devils jeered and cheered.

"Today, we have a Rating Game between Riser Phenex and his peerage against Dylan Leux! May the strongest win!"

As she finished, the colosseum shook and transformed into a dense forest. In the middle, there stood a gigantic 4 or 5 story mansion.

"Ah," Riser sighed. "Homefield advantage."

Dylan looked around his surroundings. "I guess Grayfia pulled some favors to get the battlefield to take place in a lush forest." He chuckled. "That woman; always looking out even when it isn't needed."

He began a light stretching routine. "Ah. Now, how should I go about this?" He placed his hand on his chin. "Hmm. As much as I'm grateful for Grayfia getting me an advantage, it would be much more fun to see her pout." He cracked a smile.

He closed his eyes and inhaled a hefty breath.

He opened his eyes and, with a single hand seal, blew out an enormous fan of flames, guzzling and devouring every single object it touched. At its largest point, the flames were almost the size of the entire battlefield.

The spectators were flabbergasted. Over half of the field was doused in fiery madness. Everything burned.

Then at the head epicenter of the flames, a figure of a bird started to take form, then a screech shocked the entire game into silence.

The fire took the form of a giant, mystical Phoenix, consuming everything into absolute nothing. Not even ash was left.

Then, an announcement could be heard. "Phenex's Pawn--eliminated."

Then another. "Phenex's rook--eliminated."

Then 8 more, leaving only Riser, his queen, and one of his bishops left.

Staring at the Mars-like battlefield, Dylan looked up at the audience cameras and winked at Grayfia. Though, as Dylan didn't specify who the wink was for, it resulted in some adverse effects that he did not intend.

As Riser regenerated from the damage, he saw that all but two of his peerage had been eliminated. He gritted his teeth as he slowly turned insane. "How dare you!" he lurched forward and wobbled due to a part of his leg not yet fully healed. "I'll fucking kill you!"

He fell forward again, tripping into one of the desolate craters made by the fire. He looked out with a clearer mind and saw that the once luscious green garden had turned into a desolate war field; a no man's land.

Even the mansion was reduced to rubble and ashes.

"I call it [Mystic Phoenix Flames]," Riser heard from above. He whipped up to see Dylan, the human, floating in midair, looking down at him. "A combination of [Mystical Destroyer Flames] and [Phoenix Flower Fire]. You like it?"

Yubelluna and Ravel, Riser's Queen and Bishop respectively, stared at the man in awe. They got into combat positions and were ready to attack. But before they could, their King stirred.

Riser stood up while dragging daggers into Dylan with his glare. "You call that fire?" he muttered under his breath.

He swiftly summoned a pillar of hellfire from his hands and sent it to envelope Dylan. "THIS is fire!" he screeched with unhinged joy.

Dylan crossed his arms and took the full brunt of the flames, being completely devoured by it.

"I am the son of the great Phenex clan! I am the descendent of the original Satans! You are nothing but a human!" he preached as he increased the size and the intensity of the flame pillar with his demonic energy.

Yubellana and Ravel watched their King with pride. Even though on the inside, they were a bit hesitant about celebrating after the human's show of power, they still held a firm belief in their King to be the most powerful.

However, a voice could be heard under the roaring fire. "Y' know, I've always wondered what the difference is between regular fire and fire from hell." Riser's pillar began to lose size, slowly dying down and revealed Dylan's untarnished figure. "I still really can't tell the difference, to be honest. They're both really hot."

Riser was stunned. "H--how?" he stuttered, panicked and afraid. His remaining pieces were fairing no better.

"Water beats fire, baby," Dylan cooed. If one looked closely, there was a semi-transparent case of water that encapsulated Dylan and doused the flames that came near it.

Dylan started to pool the thin water together to the size of a fist and was preparing to shoot it towards the three.

"Wait," Dylan called out. "Let me try something."

Dylan started making hand signs similar to when he wafted out a comet of fire.

Then he heard a bell sound ring out in his head.

[Ability Gain!]

[Ice Manipulation (LV: 40)]

[Higher level due to it being a combination of pre-existing abilities with high mastery]

Dylan smirked as he shot the fist-sized water ball towards the three Devils.

Seeing that her brother had expended more energy than intended, Ravel sent out a stream of hellfire to destroy the attack and push back the human.

Dylan then extended his fingers resulting in the water ball separating itself into approximately 50 bullet-sized droplets, effectively avoiding the hellfire, though some were evaporated.

The water bullets rained down on the three, though having no effect at all.

Noticing this, Riser turned back to Dylan and laughed in ridicule. "Is this all you've got?" he snorted, forgetting his earlier displays.

However, as Riser was taunting his enemy, the pieces of droplets that landed on him and his peerage started to crystalize and spread.

Feeling something cold on their bodies, the three of them looked down at themselves to see ice forming all over their bodies and growing at rapid speed to encase them entirely.

At the sight of the use of ice, a few faces in the audience were shocked and very much intrigued, especially a certain Satan.

In a panic, Riser and crew used their hellfire to melt the ice off, but even with their hottest flame, the ice was coming off at a snail's pace. The reason for this was that as the ice turned back into water, Dylan just turned it back into ice again. Of course, some were lost into vapor, resulting in the slow progress.

Dylan watched as his enemies squirmed and grew a bit bored of it. To end it quicker, Dylan sent a quick piercing of lightning into Yubellana and Ravel to knock them unconscious.

"Phenex's Queen and Bishop--eliminated."

Dylan floated down to the helpless Devil writhing around in a block of ice. "Do you surrender?"

Riser gritted his teeth. "I am the son of the great Phoenix! I will never surrender to a disgusting human like you!" He increased the intensity of his fire to cut through the ice faster.

Dylan watched him struggled with unamused eyes. He flicked his hands and caused the ice to melt away into harmless water.

Riser slumped down to his knees due to overusing his demonic energy. He then heard Dylan's voice: "You kneel real well."

Hearing this caused anger to surge into Riser's veins and to unleash everything he had left in his reserves. With a bloodcurdling shout, Riser shot forth the most powerful hellfire he could to burn the man alive.

Dylan flicked his hands again, forcing the fire to shoot off in a different direction than intended.

Riser didn't have the opportunity to be surprised as he felt himself getting lifted into the air by an invisible force. Looking over to the human, he saw Dylan have his hand out and moving it upwards, forcing him into the air.

"Surrender." Dylan's voice was unnervingly calm.

At this point, all Riser could do was to surrender or buy time for some of his energy to regenerate. And luckily, he was a Phenex, known for their regenerative abilities. "I--I.." he pretended to stutter out. 'Come on!' he thought. 'Just a minute more!'

But then, he felt himself being pulled from every direction. "Wha--" But before he could understand what was happening, an excruciating pain shot through each of his limbs. "Ah!" he cried a piercing scream.

Dylan was slowly spreading out his fingers. "I'm running out of patience, boy. You may be immortal, but you can certainly feel pain."

Riser was being literally pulled apart like a medieval torture scenario where a man would be pulled from each limb by a horse. "AHH!" The joints of his arms could be seen, breaking apart and healing back just as quickly and then being torn apart once more, resulting in perpetual torture of immense pain without end.

Riser's consciousness was basically gone at this point. He was nothing but a screaming animal that knew only pain.

"Surrender!" With a shout from Dylan, all four of Riser's limbs were torn completely off.

And just as they were beginning to heal, Dylan used his telekinesis to create an impenetrable barrier in each open joint, causing them to be unable to grow back their limbs.

"Surrender before I rip off your head."

Without another word, Riser fell forward and lost consciousness due to the pain.

"Phenex King--eliminated. Leux wins!"

Dylan listened to the announcement in shock. "Oh, he didn't have to verbally surrender? I just had to knock him out?" He rubbed the back of his head. "Or is it that he just couldn't fight anymore?" he wondered for a minute, but then came to a definite conclusion. "Eh, whatever. I still win anyway."

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In one of the audience booths, Serafall Leviathan was looking on at the human in piqued curiosity. Ice manipulation was her specialty--something that she had trained for years to master. And yet, here was a human who had managed to do it with ease, and on his first attempt as well. She could tell.

'I will be looking into you, Mr. Leux.'

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In the announcer stand, Grayfia had a bit of a hard expression on her face. She had fought so carefully for the battlefield to take place somewhere with trees--something she knew Dylan excelled at--only for him to spit in her face.

He even had the audacity to wink at her.

'Oh, you'll pay, Dylan,' she thought to herself. 'You will pay indeed.'

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In separate booths, Venelana Gremory and Lycenia Phenex (A/N: My name for Lady Phenex) looked on in shared amazement. 'Sirzech wasn't kidding,' they thought. 'That man is extremely powerful and dangerous.'

In the booth with Lady Gremory, Rias had an undiluted smile on her face--one of complete happiness and bliss. She knew that Dylan was powerful but not this powerful.

And now, with that power, he had single-handedly conquered the evil dragon that had kept her in its castle and had rescued her. The only step remaining for the damsel princess and the courageous knight was to get married.

At least, that was what the storybooks said.

Akeno was watching along with her King. Her expression was more complicated. She was happy that Dylan could handle himself and that her King--no, her friend was now free from something that loomed over her all her life.

But... as much as she was happy for her King, there was a part of her that couldn't help but be jealous. In front of her was the perfect man--a knight in shining armor, as Rias used to describe her stories to her.

And yet, he was saving another princess. Not her.