Chapter 53: Devilish x Deal

Rias and her peerage sat on the couch opposite of Akira after briefly greeting Grayfia, of course, they all knew her. It wasn't like it was uncommon to encounter her when she was an unofficial servant of the Gremory clan.

For some reason there was a thick air of tension between them, for Rias at least, Akira was just kind of confused about why she was so tense. But he decided to not waste brain cells on something so minor.

'Why did he decide to join now? Is it really fine?' Such thoughts were racing across the redhead's head before she finally vocalized her thoughts to the handsome young man in front of her.

"U-um Akira-kun? Is what Grayfia said to me really true?" Hearing her words Akira simply raised an eyebrow. She had doubted her intelligence before, and it seemed like that was for good reason.

"Considering Grayfia is behind me, your peerage is in my house after Alpha let you in and I am not the least bit surprised I cannot imagine it being true." Hearing it like that truly did make Rias feel a bit stupid.

"Why?" She couldn't help but ask. It may have been stupid to question the help she desperately needed but she was far too curious. By all means, he should not want to associate with her knowing everything she was dealing with at the moment.

"Well, isn't it obvious? What kind of friend would I be if I ignored your plight? Besides, did you really think I would let you get snatched up by cooked chicken?"  He lied as naturally as he breathed.

Rias and her peerage were too moved to see the stare of utter exasperation Grayfia gave to Akira.

[+10 Affection with Rias Gremory]

[+15 Affection with Akeno Himejima]

[+10 Affection with Koneko Toujou]

[+10 Affection with Kiba]

Of course, just as Rias was about to say something Akira stopped her by raising his hand.

"Of course, I want something in exchange. While I may do this because we are friends I also do not want to lose my humanity for nothing, I am sure you understand." To that Rias nodded, she was ready to pay top dollar to get him into her peerage already, having him join without any benefits would not be any better than scamming him after he already made his stance clear and the deals Sona would give him.

Akira simply held up 5 fingers.

"I want 5 unconditional favours from you that I can call on whenever I want for anything I want. I also want to keep my complete autonomy. I will participate in mandatory events as a peerage member but I will not be made to do anything outside of that." His tone left no room for discussion.

Rias could agree to those conditions. As long as it got rid of Riser almost anything was fine for her. It's not like Akira would take advantage of those favours. And she wouldn't force a member of her peerage to do anything they didn't want to.

"I accept as long as the favours do not directly endanger my peerage members." To that, Akira nodded and motioned over, and from behind one of the walls emerged one of the fallen Akira defeated in... maid clothing? 

Rias glanced over to Akeno and seeing her sadistic and slightly aroused expression couldn't help but grimace. She really had to talk to Akeno about her fallen angel problem sooner or later. Probably later.

The maid placed a piece of paper on the table and Akira pointed to it.

"Alright, I just need you to sign this then."

"A paper contract? Why?" Rias was rather confused.

"Not exactly, this here is a binding vow, it simply makes sure that we both fulfil our end of the deal." Rias could accept that, it wasn't like she was going to scam him.

Although she had never heard of a thing like that but also this was Akira. She quickly signed the contract only briefly looking over it in her excitement. She felt something affect her but didn't know what.

"Alright then, let's do this. I trust that you have the piece with you?"

"Yes, a bishop piece since you are a magician." Akira nodded and Rias pushed the bishop piece into his chest.

She was incredibly excited but in contrast, Akira's expression suddenly changed to an unreadable one.

---<[Akira PoV]>---

As the bishop piece was pushed into me I prepared for the inevitable.

At least it was the bishop piece which meant my Wisdom and Intelligence would basically double, with that my chances of winning against Riser would shoot up. not to mention flight and devil magic as well as the racial bonuses.

But something unexpected happened.

[Race change item detected. Change race to: Reincarnated Devil(Human / Bishop)?]

'Thought Acceleration.'

The piece is already inside me but I can reject it? What would happen if I did? This gives me an obvious way out of this altercation but I still have to help Rias against KFC.

Think, if Rias managed to fail in reincarnating his last hope after Grayfia and Sirzech's tried so much they they would definitely try to still get me in. After all, it was a technical difficulty.

Riser would not object, he couldn't care less since he views himself as unbeatable in this altercation.

The old satan cry baby bastards might cry about it but it is far more reasonable to allow me to join the fight rather than Sirzech's himself to intervene.

It's doable.

It makes sense, the powerful unique magician with unforeseen powers wasn't able to be turned immediately so they make an exception.

'Cancel'

But immediately after I cancelled the race change I felt something go wrong inside me. The evil piece was trying to change me and my body was forcefully making it stop.

But not without consequences.

I felt conflicting energies run rampant across my body.

'Ouch.'

Tearing muscles and bones ripping over the skin and making blood gush out of every available orifice.

'Yikes.'

It felt more like my entire blood flow was reversed and every nerve connected was torn.

'That really hurts.'

I saw red, not because of some reason like anger or indignation but because the blood vessels in my eyes had literally burst, I could see Rias and CO jumping up from their chairs to help me... somehow?

What were they even going to do anyway? The only one with healing among them is Rias and her healing requires nakedness as per DxD guidelines.

Good grief, I would use reversal but I don't really want to reveal it yet and in doing so I would have to cancel Pain Killer. And considering how badly this will hurt I kind of don't want to.

Under all of their gazes, I plunged my hand into my shadow and pulled out 3 vials of intermediate health potions, they were a bit more expensive than regular ones, requiring Honey, tea leaves, wheat, and spring water.

The reason why I was letting them see potions already was because I was going to reveal it sooner than later anyway. 

As my vision and hearing turned to normal I could see Rias holding me and giving me a slightly teary look. 

"Akira-kun!? Are you okay? Was that a phoenix tear? How did you even get one?" I let her calm down a bit before answering.

"Well, since we are close and all, those are my original creations. I just call them potions for convenience's sake. Although I am sorry Rias, it seems like these Evil Pieces don't work on me." I said in a solemn tone but glanced over to Grayfia, she looked conflicted.

Hearing me Rias looked like she had just been slapped. And I admit I felt just a tiny bad about it. I don't blame her, someone she liked just got fucking jostled and she seemingly lost her only way out of engagement.

"Right, they didn't work on you. But then what do we do?" But as she was falling into deep thought Grayfia interrupted.

"Do not worry Rias-sama, I will bring this matter up to Sirzechs-sama. Since Akira-sama was not able to join your peerage purely due to technical difficulties regarding the Evil Pieces an argument could be made that Akira-sama be allowed into the rating game regardless as long as you challenge Riser-sama and he accepts." As Grayfia said that, Rias' eyes gradually brightened up, even I was slightly affected by that much charm.

Rias jumped up and grabbed Grayfia by the shoulders as Grayfia's facade of professionalism broke for a split second as she broke into a slight smile.

"Really?"

"Yes, indeed. I will discuss this issue with Sirzechs-sama today."

"Thank you very much Grayfia." Rias realized how childish she must have looked as she tried to slip back into her onee-san persona.

After that Rias calmed down and after making sure I was okay left my house along with Grayfia. Before going she asked me to meet her in the club room tomorrow afternoon to talk some things over.

It was noon right now.

Should I do it? I know Riser is no slouch, being able to match the boosted gear balance breaker in physical might which is no small feat. Not to mention immense magical power and hyper-regen immortality. He is the definition of a troublesome opponent that I can't just simply defeat by outwitting him, it will be a painful battle of attrition.

I need as much power as I can get.

...Fuck it, as much as I don't like the bastard I will have to face him sometime soon won't I?

[Training Card: Toji Fushiguro]

Allows you to train for 10 days in 1 day under Toji Fushiguro.

Ughh, mghhh I really don't want to face him again. But I must face my demons to face the devil.

I notified Mittelt to tell the others to not disturb me in my basement for at least 24 hours. After that? I pulled the card from my inventory and tore it in half.

!If you liked the chapter then drop me some stones!

A/N: What did you think about this chapter? I would really like to hear your thoughts about it. Your comments and suggestions motivate and fuel me.

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