29

With all of Riser's peerage eliminated except for himself and his queen, all that was left to do was find the idiot. It turns out he was hiding in the ruined throne room. Riser probably thought that this setting was appropriate for a final battle. I just thought it was kind of cliche and cringey. Of course, I wasn't one to talk with all the fanfic tropes I had fallen into during my time in the DxD universe.

Yubelluna, Riser's queen, was at least aware enough to trap the door with her signature bombs. Of course, they didn't do much because Valerie covered us with a shield before they could blow. Bulma and Lavinia didn't even give Riser the chance to monologue, shooting him in the head with a laser and freezing him into a statue respectively. Toga finally made her entrance, appearing behind Yubelluna and stabbing her in the neck.

By the time Riser's flames had thawed him out, he was alone. He looked around, taking in the bind he was in. Instead of doing the smart thing and surrendering immediately, Riser thought this was the perfect chance to monologue.

"Riser sees that you appear to have Riser at a disadvantage here. No matter! Riser will show you why that is incorrect. Then Riser will take what is rightfully his! Rias will be Riser's! Your pitiful peerage won't be enough to stand in Riser's way. Witness the power of the Phenex clan, you orphan fuck!"

Riser let out his honestly impressive wings. The Phenex clan's wings of fire were pretty dope looking in person. Dozens of meter wide orbs of flame and wind sprung into existence around Riser. An unnatural wind picked up in the throne room. It was strong enough that Valerie had to form a barrier around my peerage to avoid anyone getting cut by the wind's fury.

I started Dio walking up to Riser, summoning my Warpfire to act as armor. I was prepared to beat some sense into his thick head, but I didn't get the chance. The temperature in the room quickly started dropping. A single glance back told me that Lavinia was furious. Absolute Demise was manifested in the form of an ice doll that looked suspiciously like Ranni the witch.

"Take it back." Lavinia's ice cold voice cut through the noise of the hurricane Riser had started.

"Never! The great Riser was just speaking the truth!" Riser said, doubling down on his insult.

I winced, "Your funeral, dude."

"Assoluto Argento Mondo," said Absolute Demise in a tone that sounded like the clinks of icicles in the wind.

The room's temperature dropped further as the wind Riser had made was appropriated by Lavinia's Balance Breaker. All I felt was a comforting chill, even when massive pillars of ice formed around Riser. A cage of conceptual ice worked to imprison the Phenex.

Riser's flames tried and failed to fight the Longinus' Balance Breaker. His orbs of fire started to freeze into solid chunks of impossible ice, and he started visibly shivering from the cold. His fiery wings started to crystalize, causing him to drop to the ground. A seemingly living sheet of ice quickly grew across the ground, reaching for Riser's legs like frozen tentacles.

Riser started to freak the fuck out, scrambling away from Lavinia's ice. He didn't even have time to stand. Absolute Demise hounded him until his back was up against one of the frozen pillars.

"Wait, wait, wait! We can talk about this!" Riser pleaded, his hands turning visibly blue and his back stuck to the pillar.

"You shouldn't have called Darling an orphan," came Lavinia's dead cold reply. Toga was jumping in excitement in the background. In fact, all of my peerage seemed to be silently cheering Lavinia on from behind Valerie's barrier.

Riser tried feeding demonic power to his flames as a last ditch effort, and I could feel the power itself being frozen by the Longinus. Sacred Gears were bullshit. Frost slowly crept up Riser's body. Riser's struggles became weaker and weaker as he succumbed to the ice. Lavinia made a Riser popsicle. I could see the pain and fear on his frozen face.

Lavinia's cold expression thawed as she admired her handiwork. Absolute Demise was dismissed, and the room slowly started to warm back up. I knew Lavinia was sensitive about my past for me, but I hadn't expected her to go full yandere at the mention of my orphan status.

My victory was called, and I moved to do something about Riser.

"Lav, you know you're going to have to thaw him out, right?" I said, hugging my queen. She nodded into my chest and took a breath to collect herself. Just like that, Lavinia was back to the slightly airheaded girl I loved.

Lavinia took her time defrosting Riser, and gave him one last glare when she was done. Riser looked sufficiently cowed by the ice woman's gaze. Soon enough, we were teleported back to our staging room.