Chapter 13

-x-X-x-

Making a great big show of thinking about it for a long moment, Issei hums before eventually giving Riser a simple nod.

"Very well. My three Fallen Angels… for one of your back pieces."

Riser's smarmy, smug face splits into a wicked grin at that, as the young devil clearly thinks he's gotten one over on Issei.

"Excellent. Then it's settled."

Turning to Grayfia, Riser raises an eyebrow.

"I assume you can finish setting everything up."

The moment Grayfia answers him with a nod and a respectful bow, Riser vanishes in a flash of fire. It's obvious that the man has no desire to spend a single moment more in proximity to Issei when Issei has his fiancé pressed against his side. Smirking a little, Issei slides his gaze over to Grayfia, pinning the maid in place. Slowly, ever so casually, he slides the hand he has on Rias' shoulder down and around, and casually gropes one of the red head's full melon-like breasts.

As Rias mewls and moans from the casual molestation, pressing herself FURTHER into his side rather than trying to draw away, Issei just smirks at Grayfia.

"I'm going to destroy him. You do realize that, don't you?"

Swallowing thickly, despite being far, far older than him, the maid jerks her head up and down in a janky sort of nod. Whether that's because of his true identity and power or because she's remembering his treatment of her, Issei couldn't say for sure… but if he had to guess, he'd go with it being a combination of both. Chuckling, Issei continues to have his way with Rias' tits, casually massaging his digits into her boobflesh through the blouse of her school uniform while Grayfia can do nothing but watch.

"Then you know that your sacrifice was ultimately pointless. Letting me fuck you so that I wouldn't deflower Rias… all in all, you managed nothing more than a stalling action. I'm going to beat Riser senseless, sever his betrothal to Rias, and take Rias as my own all the same."

He can feel Rias quivering and trembling in excitement beside him at his words. Meanwhile, Grayfia is quivering and trembling for different reasons entirely… or… is she?

"S-So long as propriety has been maintained… it's fine."

Issei blinks… and then laughs. He just laughs.

"P-Propriety?! Hah!"

Pulling his hand off of Rias' tit, he instead slides it back and around and up, until he's got a fistful of her red locks. Guiding her head down to his lap, he never breaks eye contact with Grayfia, even as her charge hurries to unbutton and unzip his pants, pulling out his cock and putting it in her mouth without him having to say a single word. Grayfia flushes as the sounds of Rias slurping and slobbering and inevitably choking on his cock fill the room. But to her credit, she doesn't say a word. After all, it's only Rias' virginity that she has to protect. Oral… oral is fine.

Issei guides Rias up and down his cock for only a little bit before letting her take the reins. The Gremory Heiress is quite enthusiastic in doing so, deep-throating his member all on her own, even as Issei lets go of her hair and slides his hand down her back all the way to her shapely ass. He drags her skirt up until he can slip his hand under it, and he slides his fingers past Rias' panties, fingering her with his arm over the top of her head as she bobs up and down most diligently on his member.

Grayfia stays where she is the entire time, even when Issei's release finally comes and Rias chokes herself half-unconscious trying to take him to his base and swallow every last drop at the same time. The maid doesn't move a muscle, staring at the scene with a flushed expression on her face and eyes that make Issei think she probably wished it was her in Rias' place.

Regardless, much of his seed explodes out of Rias' nostrils and the sides of her mouth as she fails to properly swallow his load. Letting out a sigh and giving Grayfia a 'what can you do?' sort of shrug, Issei finally breaks eye contact with the maid to look down with a sympathetic smile at the struggling red-haired heiress. Rias looks right back up at him through her watery eyes and her involuntary tears, and immediately gets to work cleaning up after herself, swirling her tongue along his cock as she cleans him off with her mouth while at the same time cleaning herself up.

"Good girl."

When he looks back to Grayfia, the maid is gone, as if finally escaping being the center of his attention and gaze had let her come back to her senses and flee the scene. Not that it mattered, in the end… Issei had already gotten everything he wanted out of this meeting.

-x-X-x-

"You know, if you want to forfeit now, feel free."

Issei lifts a single eyebrow at that, even as he stands across from Riser in a small arena. In another time, in another version of these events, Rias and Riser would have gone head to head in a Rating Game for the fate of her marital life. Rias and her peerage would have ultimately lost, and another version of Issei Hyoudou, one much weaker and much more tied to Rias like a dog on a leash, would have inevitably challenged Riser to a duel for his Buchou's hand.

In this place, in this timeline, they've cut out the middleman in several ways. Now it's Riser versus Issei, for Rias' fate on the line. Well, and a few extra pieces as well. Issei slides his gaze away from Riser, ignoring the man's showboating for a moment in order to look to the stands. There, standing apart from practically everyone else, are his three Fallen Angels.

None of them look particularly happy to be there. Nor were they happy when Issei had told them he was using them as a bet in a fight he was having with a devil. But it wasn't like any of them truly had a choice. They had effectively submitted to him, had bowed down before him and allowed him to conquer them. Truth be told, at this point he was pretty sure that at the very least, Kalawarner had outright fallen in love with his power. The other two were still scared of him, but also addicted to his dick at this point.

Regardless, they were here as a show of good faith, since the additional bet that he and Riser had agreed to was officially part of the terms of this duel now. Riser's entire peerage was also there, watching on, and Issei's eyes raked over all of them as he slid his gaze from the Fallen Angels to them. He can pick out the back pieces from the pawns with relative ease, and he finds himself considering which one he'll pick once this is all over with.

Ah, but he shouldn't ignore Riser forever, should he? Finally turning back to the impatient devil, Issei smiles somewhat blandly.

"Whatever do you mean? Why wouldn't I fight?"

Riser scoffs at that, bristling aggressively and leaning in to try and intimidate him.

"Come now, do you think I can't tell? You're weak. Even if you do have the Red Dragon Emperor sealed inside of you, it's obvious that you've only recently discovered that. Have you managed to unlock even a bit of his power, hm? Surrender and I won't beat you senseless. I'm a merciful individual, after all."

Issei just chuckles at that, rolling his shoulders and gesturing to Riser.

"Shall we begin?"

The smug smirk on Riser's face falters as Issei ignores his words, and the Phenex growls, leaning back.

"Fine then. Let's do it."

There's a countdown, as both fighters have made their intentions to do combat heard. The duel starts and Riser immediately lights him up with fire magic, the flames washing over Issei in an instant. It's an impressive display to be sure, a testament to the fact that Riser, for all his smugness, is indeed a fighter. If Issei were as weak as Riser thought him, the flesh would be burning from his body right now, his skin would be turning crispy, and he would be screaming in pain.

None of those things happen. When the inferno Riser summons has finally died down, Issei is standing there unscathed… mostly because of the red draconic armor he's now cloaked in. It's in the moment when everyone sees said armor for the first time as the flames fade to reveal Issei, that he lets loose on his power just a tad, allowing his presence to fill the arena.

Riser's eyes go wide and his countenance becomes dreadfully pale as he immediately takes a step back in instinctive terror. Issei in turn takes a step forward, but rather than letting the Phenex continue to retreat, his next step closes the distance between the two of them, Issei closing a gauntleted, clawed hand over Riser's face and slamming the devil down into the ground with a mere portion of his might.

From what Issei had heard, the Phenex Clan was known for their relative immortality, their regenerative capabilities second to none in the Underworld. Riser could replenish himself again and again and again no matter what damage he took, supposedly. Unless, that is, he took so much damage in one blow that it caused a shock to his system and left him unable to recover.

Issei's first strike does not do that. But that's fine, because Issei doesn't stop at one. Still gripping the devil's face, he slams Riser into the ground repeatedly, again and again and again. He applies just enough force to do great injury to the Phenex… but not enough to take him out of the fight too quickly.

To his credit, at first Riser tries to fight back and heal himself, when he first recovers from Issei's overwhelming presence. The young Phenex regenerates and attempts to slam more flames into Issei's face, which is currently the only part of him exposed. It does nothing, of course, not even singing a single lock of his hair.

Issei responds by slamming Riser back down again and forcing him to regenerate once more. He keeps this up until finally, the devil he's fighting breaks.

"P-Please… I surrender, I surrender!"

It comes out a fair bit more muffled than that at first, of course, and Issei, upon hearing Riser's words, pulls his clawed hand back and cocks his head to the side, leaving the devil in the indentation he's created using Riser's body as he looms over him.

"Hm?"

"I… surrender…"

And like that, the duel is over. Issei has won. Not that it was ever in doubt, of course. As his victory is announced, there's a bit of a ruckus in the stands, and then Rias is down there on the field as well. Issei has just let his armor fade away when the red-haired missile slams into his chest. He catches Rias with ease, even as she kisses him heatedly, her tongue pushing past his lips and into his mouth. It certainly looks like Rias Gremory is happy he's won.

Because Riser surrendered, they're able to heal the boy up and get down to brass tacks a bit faster. Namely, Issei finds himself face to face with Riser's peerage as Rias molds herself into his side and the Fallen Angels, he's brought along for this little event stand at his back. Staring at the back pieces in particular, Issei finds himself thinking that there's not truly much of a choice here… after all, why would he settle for a Rook, Knight, or Bishop when Riser has such a delicious Queen?

Riser's Queen, who Issei knows to be named Yubelluna, flushes under his gaze and fidgets and squirms, seeming to know that she's the most obvious choice… and judging by the way she's looking back at him with hooded eyes as she bites at her lower lip, she certainly wouldn't mind becoming one of his hoard either. It seemed that female devils were naturally attracted to power… and Issei had that in spades.

But even as he's opening his mouth to make his decision known, Rias' lips brush against his ear and she uses a gentle palm on his cheek to turn his head ever so slightly, directing his gaze to one of Riser's bishops instead, a beautiful blonde devil with dark blue eyes and her hair done up in drill-like twin tails. Once he's looking at HER, Rias speaks in a soft whisper.

"That right there is Ravel Phenex, Issei. Riser's younger sister. Just so you know ALL of your options."

Issei's eyebrows climb at that. He'd done a marginal amount of research into his opponent and his peerage, truth be told. He'd looked into the Queen more than anything else, mostly because she was the most gorgeous choice. But finding out that Riser's little sister was in his peerage and thus up for grabs… did that change things?

The others really weren't in the running, in Issei's opinion. In the end, it came down to a choice between Yubelluna, the Bomb Queen… and Ravel Phenex, Riser's sister. Which did Issei want? Who was he going to claim as his own? More importantly, really… who was he going to take alongside Rias Gremory? Because there was no doubt in his mind that immediately after this, Issei would be fucking Rias, finally. He'd waited long enough, and from the way the Gremory Heiress was rubbing up against his leg like a bitch in heat, so had she.

So, who would he 'invite' along to that particular rendezvous? Riser's Queen… or Riser's sister?