Chapter 42 - Logic vs Instinct

It didn't take very long at all for Rias to reach the throne room; it was a wide area with various marble pillars, a clean ornately patterned floor, and a large golden throne.

On the throne was a girl with short neck length black hair, glasses, violet eyes, and a crown.

She was Sona Sitri heiress to the Sitri household and the little sister to Serafall Leviathan, the strongest female Devil. Sitting on the throne with her golden scepter in hand she looked down on the red headed heiress of the Gremory household.

"Sona!" Rias called out stepping towards her friend. "I've gone against your plans and made it all the way to you! It's over!"

Sona didn't respond and instead she just stared at Rias with the shadow of her hair covering her eyes. She had a somewhat grim look on her face as if she was quite troubled by "having her plans foiled," making Rias feel that much more confident.

While in tactics she may be inferior to Sona, in a one on one fight she was certain that Sona could not beat her. The difference in the power of their skill sets was just too vast.

(Sona must know this too so I need to be careful.) Rias thought noticing that Sona was still just looking at her.

"Sona?"

"..."

Rias takes another step forward. "Hey! You aren't just going to give up are you?"

"..."

"I'll really attack you if you don't surrender!" Rias takes another more angry step towards the throne.

"..."

"I've already won then." Rias takes another step but steps onto something drawing her attention. "A… seashell?"

Indeed on the floor was a simple seashell. Just a normal everyday seashell. Not something one would normally have to take note of.

Looking back up from the shell Rias' eyes widened with shock as she saw Sona's figure which had been sitting coldly on the throne dissolve into a puddle of water leaving only her cape, scepter, and crown behind on the golden throne.

"Wha-" Before Rias could wonder aloud in confusion about what happened the seashell erupted into a fountain of water grabbing and enveloping Rias. The water surrounded her, suffocating her as if she were deep in the ocean and Sona stepped out from behind the throne.

"Leviathan Ocean Prison!" She yelled raising her hand into the air and all of the seashells hidden around the room erupted with water which joined into Rias' water prison making it bigger and putting more pressure on the red head inside.

She flailed around in the water trying her hardest to hold her breath however bubbles kept escaping her mouth slowly but surely draining her of her breath. In desperation she covers her mouth but still more and more bubbles come.

"Unfortunately Rias I had always planned on you arriving here. In fact this is exactly what I wanted!" Sona called out, but there were doubts in her mind.

(Do I want to win this way? It's like admitting that I can't even begin to contest with Rias in a fair one on one fight.) She was troubled. In truth she hadn't expected Rias to struggle so much with her opener and had actually been planning on a proper fight. (If it were Cebrail she would win, Power of Destruction or no.)

Sona had something to prove in this fight and it wouldn't be possible if Rias lost to a cheap trick like this. To catch up to Cebrail's monstrous talent she needed to be able to call Rias weaker than herself with complete certainty. She had to defeat the Gremory heiress in such a way that it was indisputable.

She watched as Rias struggled more and more and her eyes began slowly rolling back into her head as she lost consciousness.

Rias too had something to prove. Or perhaps more so a reputation to uphold. She was the little sister of Sirzechs Lucifer the strongest Devil. If she lost in such a humiliating way it wouldn't just reflect poorly on herself but also on her brother and the Gremory family as a whole.

She didn't want to be known only for her name and connections; however she couldn't deny that such things were all she had at the moment. So she couldn't end up disowned or married off or treated like trash like her cousin Sairaorg Bael.

As her emotions ran high and the feeling of losing crept ever closer to her heart she made a last ditch effort enveloping herself in the Power of Destruction before making it erupt from all sides blasting her way out of the water prison with raw power.

She fell to the ground hard and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees.

"*Cough* *Cough* *Hack*" She coughed and threw up all of the water haphazardly. She had really just nearly lost and that last attack she had done to break out destroyed most of her clothes leaving her in a tattered uniform and her underwear. While it was humiliating even with no one but Sona around at the very least this meant Rias was still in the game.

"*Cough* *Cough* How was *Hack* How was that Sona…" Rias could barely get out her sentence while she was still coughing up water.

"It was good. As expected of you Rias." Sona said simply and took off her glasses preparing for a real fight.

Rias stood up and looked at Sona in front of her with one eye half closed and a small bit of water dribbling down from her mouth to her chin.

She had thought her victory in a one on one was assured with the Power of Destruction and she was right that in raw power Sona could not beat her in any way shape or form, however Sona wasn't someone that had ever relied on raw power to win fights.

She had trained with Cebrail and her older sister for two months, mostly to spend more time with Cebrail but still. Training was training. Her skill had been raised to a degree and while she wasn't a genius capable of keeping up with the absurdity that was the white haired Angel she had a lot of time on her hands during summer.

When Rias with a more serious expression wiped the water off of her chin Sona knew the Gremory heiress had finally regained her bearings.

Rias charged up the red and black energy that was the Power of Destruction in both of her hands and fired it out as a small but dangerous wave, however anticipating such an action Sona dashed backwards throwing two seashells in front of herself.

"Wave Barrier!" Water erupted from the shells producing a wave that collided with the Power of Destruction canceling it out. Rias wasn't skilled in it's use as of yet nor was she strong with it and as such its destructive capabilities were only so much when using it.

(Her range is limited, if I can keep my distance her Power of Destruction won't even be able to touch me.) Sona thought as she pulled out more shells between each of her fingers and tossed them.

"Water Spears!" As the shells sailed through the air they dissolved, turning into spears of water headed straight for Rias Gremory. Thinking quickly however Rias waved her hand in front of herself producing a curtain of black and red energy which destroyed the water spears upon them making contact.

Sona wasn't done and dashing around Rias she snapped her fingers causing the water around Rias' feet to freeze trapping her in place.

"Huh?!?" Rias pulled at her foot in confusion and a bit of fear.

Sona tosses a handful of shells high above Rias' head using a rather powerful spell that was incredibly draining for her current inexperienced self.

"Collapsing Water God!" The shells exploded into a massive amount of water which began falling from the sky collapsing into Rias' surprised face.

As the water landed Sona breathed heavily thinking she had won however to her shock streaks of familiar black and red energy flashed in her vision as he only warning as a large pillar of pure Power of Destruction erupted completely erasing all of Sona's efforts.

"Tsk! Only you could just throw around that much Demonic Power without breaking a sweat…" Sona said a bit bitterly upon seeing Rias mostly unharmed from her strongest attack. "I always wondered why people don't use their strongest attack first..."

Sona wasn't someone with boundless amounts of Demonic Power, for a High-Class Devil in fact her amount was pretty average and so using two pretty big spells, those being her opening move and her most recent one, she was already somewhat in danger of dipping to deeply into her reserves.

It didn't help that her cost efficiency when using spells wasn't all that great just yet. Still however she felt as though she could win, Rias only had the Power of Destruction on her side so all Sona had to do was stay out of her limited range and land one good hit on the Gremory heiress.

(If Sona keeps staying that far away I won't be able to hit her. Even if I can outlast her stamina wise, if I can't hit her then eventually I'll lose!) Rias thinks a bit frantically. She had no plans for defeating Sona if it were to come down to such a disadvantaged fight however she knew that at the very least she wouldn't get anywhere just by standing around.

The only option was to keep moving forward!

Rias with this in mind sprinted towards Sona forcing her to move back once again while tossing a few more shells releasing torrents of water.

Rias creates another curtain of the Power of Destruction stopping in her tracks and blocking the attacks before boldly charging once again.

Sona in the time Rias was paused had made enough of a distance to not be all that troubled by Rias' bull headed advance and created another wave of water forcing Rias to stop and counter with her own wave of black and red Demonic Power.

(She stops everytime she uses the Power of Destruction, but how long can this stalemate go on for? I need to find an opening.) Sona thought tensely seeing Rias run towards her once again forcing her to throw a few more shells which turned into spears of water.

Something however changed this time around. Rias did not stop, instead she tried to dodge.

"That won't work Rias!" Sona yelled believing this to be the opening that she was looking for and redirected water towards Rias again.

Unfortunately there was something neither Sona nor Rias really realized and likely wouldn't until far later into the future.

Rias was bad at training. She was bad at learning with books or with other boring activities. She wasn't interested in learning the fundamentals. However her talent could not be denied, when put under pressure, the pressure of real combat, the pressure of an equal fight. As one might expect from a main heroine she would learn as the battle went on. Adapt and grow.

This was a talent much different from Cebrail, rather than simply being capable at mastering anything but unable to learn from her opponents, Rias was the opposite, she could only learn from her opponents and nowhere else. She leveled up through battle rather than through mindless stat grinding.

The more she saw Sona using the same moves the more they were ingrained into her subconscious. The path they took, the force they'd strike with, the speed they'd travel.

So as those spears came back towards her she managed to dodge them once again to Sona's and even to her own surprise, she was a girl of instinct over logic and with the distance between herself and Sona now somewhat closed she knew what she had to do.

She raised her hand and fired a wave of black and red energy and hit Sona with it. The force of the blast not only destroyed all of her clothes but also slamming her into the wall knocking her unconscious instantly.

The battle was over.

"Game OVERRRRR! The Attacking team wins!" Roygun announced to all of the students cementing Rias' victory.