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"Rias" – Speech

'Issei' – Thought

[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear Ability/ Ddraig and Albion Speech

Beta'd by BigCC

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In the days following the deaths of most of my sisters, I was listless, almost to the point of being comatose. Why not? I was despairing. Everything I had loved had once more been cruelly ripped away from me, and the only one who had survived was now convinced that I had been a part of it.

To lose something once is painful. To lose something greatly similar to it a second time, once the initial wound has healed, is pure agony. And of course, once the initial pain fades, all you are left with is pure despair in its place. Food is tasteless and you have little appetite to begin with, colours are dim, watered down and bleached out. Nothing matters because you have lost everything that you strove for in life.

It took me a month to force myself out of my depression, and then another to repair the damage I had done to my body by my inaction and lack of appetite. Once that was taken care of, I set about preparing my plans to undo what that bastardised son of a bitch Amadeus had done.

Even if it meant infringing on the territory of God, even if it meant committing the most heinous of crimes, I would reclaim my sisters or die trying.

- From the Diary of Mei Schwarzwald

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The Illegal Twentieth Move: King Takes Queen

Throne Room, Palace of the Maō

"Well, if we needed some irrevocable evidence; then I think we've found it." Azazel said grimly.

"I still can't break through and contact Mei or my sister. She's somehow managed to shield her palace from all forms of communication magic; every spell we've tried has been completely blocked." Sirzechs growled. The Crimson Lucifer was glaring at the screen showing Mei facing down Amadeus, his beloved sister caught in crossfire, and was barely managing to keep his power under control.

"What puzzles me is why Mei never tried to tell us her side of the story." Ajuka mused.

"Because she deemed it irrelevant." Sirzechs replied coldly. The pieces had all fallen into place and he now had a very good idea how the Strongest Stray Devil's mind worked. "She blamed herself for not noticing Amadeus' plans and has likely continued to do so for the past three years. Regardless of the fact that she was completely blindsided by an unexpected tactic by someone she saw as weaker than herself, she has become obsessed with the need to redeem herself and undo what Amadeus did to her sisters."

"She...she's trying to being them back to life?" Serafall asked in disbelief. "But that would need...!"

"Yes. The power of a literal god, one able to summon and manipulate souls to a greater degree than even a master necromancer." The Crimson Lucifer confirmed. "Even as a Maō-class Devil, she would only be able to slightly alter a soul if it was right in front of her. With the power of a god, however...calling forth the souls of her sisters would not be beyond her."

"But how? To transcend her current self and undergo apotheosis into a god...even I don't know how she would go about doing that, not without some very costly and dark rituals." Azazel asked with a frown.

"Mei is one of the most brilliant magicians to have been born in the last millennia. She has to have figured something out, she wouldn't have risked everything like this if she wasn't sure she had a means to accomplish her goal." Sirzechs replied with a frown. "She likely lost any ability to trust others after being betrayed by Amadeus in such a cruel manner so she ruled out asking a god for their help, quite sensibly as well. Gods rarely do favours for free, and reviving her entire Peerage borrowing the power of a god would be impossible. No...she likely intends to use Hyōdō Issei's Sacred Gear in order to become a God, somehow."

"But the [Boosted Gear] has no abilities that would let its wielder become a god." Azazel stated. "Why would she want it then?"

"I think it's clear by now that Mei never intended to remove the [Boosted Gear] from Hyōdō Issei. We originally thought holding him hostage and this challenge presented to Rias and her Peerage were both a part of some sadistic game, but that doesn't fit with the truth we've learned about her motives and personality. No, if she wanted [Boosted Gear] for herself, she'd have removed it immediately after acquiring Hyōdō." Ajuka said firmly. "That begs the question of exactly what her plan is...or rather, was, before this 'clone' of Amadeus Bael showed up."

"She also has a point about whoever cloned it. Amadeus was definitely a capable scientist, but he specialized in Sacred Gear research; his knowledge about cloning and genetics were minimal." Sirzechs pointed out. "Someone was hoping to use Amadeus for something, something that was interrupted when Mei killed him."

"It's starting." Serafall said softly, causing the others turned their attention to the screen as Amadeus and Mei started their rematch anew.

With Chiaki

Seated on her older sister's throne, Chiaki bit her lip worriedly as Amadeus and Mei faced off. She had confidence in her older sister, trusted her skills and power, but still...this was the monster who had murdered her surrogate family for the simple sake of his own ambition and desires. Not only that, he had somehow created a clone body for himself that could use the power of a Devil without possessing the weaknesses that every Devil possessed.

'Nee-sama...' the new Stray Devil thought, fear gnawing at her being. She was going to lose her sister, come what may. Regardless of whether Mei won or lost this fight, Chiaki was going to be alone again.

"Die, you impudent bitch!" Amadeus howled, flinging a large ball of the [Power of Destruction] at Mei.

Utterly unmoved by the approaching ball of red death, Mei redirected her staff to point at it before releasing a beam of tightly condensed purple light from the tip. The narrow beam pierced through the t deadly orb of demonic magic, causing it to detonate harmlessly in mid-air several meters from her, before continuing onward to slam into a hastily-erected shield of demonic energy.

"Ngh." The false Bael Scion groaned under his breath as he reinforced the barrier to hold off the beam of gravitational energy. "What the hell have you done to yourself you monster!? There's no way that anyone should have been able to gain this much power after a mere three years!" he snarled out.

"As I said before, I have used anything and everything I could get my hands on in order to fulfil my goal." Mei snarled. "And I'm not your only opponent, you idiot!"

[Explosion!]

Amadeus was stupefied for a moment before an enormous red blast slammed into his back, catapulting him through the nearby pillar and straight into the wall with a scream of pain and his fancy clothes being shredded in the process, leaving his shirt in rags.

Hyōdō Issei stood ready, blank eyes locked onto the target of his orders.

"Y-You...you filthy Reincarnated piece of trash...!" Amadeus seethed as he pulled himself out of the crater he had made in the wall. "I am Amadeus Bael! I am a Pureblooded High-Class Devil! You are barely worthy of the name of the noble Devil race, you lower life form!"

"He's also engaged to Rias-sama there." Mei taunted, twisting the knife a bit. She knew very well that the Bael Scion hated powerful women, but he also despised 'interbreeding with lesser beings' by other Pureblooded Devils. If powerful female Devils absolutely had to exist, they should at least do the right thing and breed with their own pure race, to his mind.

As such, it was of absolutely no surprise whatsoever to the Queen of Blood and Betrayal that the man started seething even more furiously at Issei, distracting him enough to forget that she was present as well.

'Fool.' she thought coldly. Pointing her staff at her mortal enemy, she unleashed another blast of gravity magic, which slammed into him and sent him into another of the pillars once he bounced of the wall, crumpling to a heap on the ground.

This was Amadeus to a 't'. He was arrogant, easily distracted, wasteful in power when he cast his magic...the list went on. He had absolutely no aptitude as a combatant unless he had far more competent underlings and subordinates to keep him on a short leash, such as what Mei had done on the few times that the foppish scholar had been made to take part in a Rating Game.

And he'd even had the nerve to complain about her doing that, the ungrateful bastard.

"You know, I spent quite some time after you murdered my sisters dreaming up creative ways to kill you, Amadeus." Mei said almost whimsically as she casually floated forwards towards where her former [King] was struggling to stand up. "Creative, painful, oh-so-satisfying ways to kill you. I have a list somewhere, it's about two-thousand methods long, in no particular order."

The subject matter, combined with the completely casual way that she spoke of it, made ice crawl down the spines of nearly every other sentient being in the room, and quite of few who were watching from a distance.

"Yo-You...!"The false devil couldn't even spit out a full sentence, as he tried to force himself to his feet. His body was covered in dozens of wounds, his chest was a tapestry of openly weeping lacerations, his legs shook from the strain of merely supporting his own weight.

Ignoring him, Mei continued speaking. "You see, I had to plan my actions out fairly precisely, so as not to draw attention or provoke a response from the leaders of the Biblical Factions. Well, no more than they ordinarily would for an S+-Class Stray Devil anyway. So I only left my castle here for very tightly planned excursions. This left me with more than sufficient time to train, as well as a glut of personal time, so I planned everything out in excruciating detail."

"S-So what?" Amadeus sneered. Torn, battered, and having been tossed around like a rag-doll; the reborn Devil still managed to pull of a sneer of superiority.

He was truly a Devil of Pride.

"So, now that you are here before me, I can finally repay you for all of the suffering you have caused." the Stray Devil [Queen] said lackadaisically, raising one hand and creating a black basketball-sized sphere orbited by four tennis ball-sized spheres. "Dark Press!"

In an instant, the sphere formation teleported itself to a position above Amadeus and the magic was activated, forcing the Devil to his knees. With every sentence spoken by its caster, the gravity crushing him doubled.

"Gah...!"

"Every scream that you forced out of my sisters..."

"Kuh...!"

"Every second of agony..."

"Bi...tch...!"

"Every moment of anguish that Chiaki-chan and I were forced to endure as we watched helplessly from our bindings as you tortured and killed our sisters..."

"Gaa...aaaahhh!"

"For all of that...I shall pay you back for it ten times over!" Mei declared in a voice that sounded positively manic. An aura flickered into existence around her for a moment, one that Rias recognised.

"The Wrath Sin...!" she gulped. The four of the current Maō each bore one of the Seven Deadly Sins, primal powers that were linked to their positions. Sirzechs Lucifer was Lord of Pride, Serafall Leviathan was Lady of Envy, Ajuka Beelzebub was Lord of Lust and Falbium Asmodeus was the Lord of Sloth. No other Devil, even the Number One Ranked Master of the Rating Games, Diehauser Belial, or Grayfia Lucifuge, a former candidate for the position of Maō Leviathan, had ever been deemed worthy of the other three Sins of Gluttony, Greed and Wrath...until now.

For the Sin of Wrath to have resonated with Mei, if even for such a short moment, and that was nothing short of terrifying for Rias. It hinted as to her potential to possibly one day ascend to the same level of power as the Four Maō.

"D-don't get cocky...you lower life-form...!" Amadeus screeched, flaring an aura of [Power of Destruction] around his body, which ate away at the gravity magic pinning him to the ground.

"Hmm...not a bad effort, but if you were anything close to approaching competent, you would have used that technique as soon as I invoked [Dark Press] on you." Mei critiqued him, seemingly unaffected by the destruction of her spell. "As always, you lack the ability to push through pain and do what is needed to be done until it becomes unbearable."

"Fuck you, bitch!" the Bael Scion roared and started lobbing blasts of the deadly Bael Family Magic at her, which were dodged with a speed and ease that made it seem almost contemptuous.

"She isn't even trying..." Rossweisse said in awe. "Just how much as she sandbagging against us?"

"Too much." Rias said grimly. She daren't try and get to Issei right now; not only was the battle between Amadeus and Mei far more violent than she had dared to have guessed, but Issei was too embroiled in it to risk her Peerage to try and retrieve him. Worse, Mei was steadily escalating her attacks, each successive one becoming far less restrained and controlled. She was allowing the Sin of Wrath to take greater and greater hold, allowing her rage to guide her and sacrificing her control and precision as a consequence.

If only Akeno hadn't been defeated, then the Gremory Heiress might have been able to try something, as Akeno was just as skilled as she was in demonic magic and could thus shield the entire party to reinforce Rossweisse's own shield while Rias tried to get Issei, but alas.

"Buchou, Amadeus is doing something!" Xenovia called out, pointing at the Bael Scion, who was rapid-firing blasts of [Power of Destruction] as fast as he could make them with one hand, while he was rather frantically constructing another magic circle with his other.

"That's...an item-summoning circle." Ravel blinked in surprise. "What could he be trying to summon?"

"Whatever it is, it cannot bode well." the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess stated. Regardless of the suffering that Mei had inflicted on her and her Peerage, Amadeus had put the former Untouchable Queen through a kind of hell that Rias was certain that few could have survived with their sanity and morals intact. Anything he did was suspect and needed to be watched carefully. She frowned as she noticed something. "He's very clumsy with forming that magic circle."

"He really is." Ravel agreed with a sniff of disdain. "Any competent Devil of the 72 Pillars Families should be able to use a magic circle of that low complexity with ease."

"Yes...which means that this new body of his was designed specifically to amplify his abilities with the [Power of Destruction], rather than correcting for his lack of skill with demonic magic in general." Rias agreed.

That meant that whoever had aided the Beal Scion in his revival had been after the [Power of Destruction] in particular, something that made the Gremory Heiress nervous.

"I grow tired of this farce, Amadeus." Mei stated coldly as she shielded herself with a purple version of her usual magic circle. "You now possess middling competency with your Family's special magic. So what? For me, it is merely a minor inconvenience, nothing more. If you are going to pull a trick out of your sleeve, then by all means, do so."

"Fucking bitch!" Amadeus cursed, sweating as he finally completed the transport circle. "You'll wish you hadn't said that!"

In a flash of light, a box appeared at his side, which snapped open at his touch. Thrusting his arm inside, Amadeus sneered as he withdrew a metallic scythe with a reverse head shaped like an orb about the size of an apple.

"Recognise this, bitch?!" he asked triumphantly.

"That's...!" Mei eyed it warily. "The Artificial Sacred Gear, the [Scythe of Kronos]!"

"The Extractor!" Chiaki quailed in fear. "That's the monstrous thing that killed our sisters!"

"Exactly! I managed to send it to a hidden location before you managed to break free of your chains and kill me, you rabid bitch, but now I have it once again!" the madman cackled. "Now then...let's start the massacre again! [Balance Break]!"

The silver ball shone before bursting into silver liquid that enveloped his lower arm completely and started to grow and expand itself. In a matter of moments, it became a silvery-metallic oblong object fused with Amadeus' arm.

"[Scythe of Kronos Balance Breaker: Severing of Immortality and Kingship]!" Amadeus declared, his face practically split in half by a deranged slash grin stretching across his lips.

Mei, composed once again, snorted. "And so what? It takes thirty seconds to charge up a shot with that piece of scrap metal, all the time in the world to rip you to pieces!"

"Then by all means, try me, bitch!" the Bael Scion sneered and levelled the weapon right at her, opening it up to reveal its insides. Four spikes shot out of the opening and a golden glow started to gather.

"Like I'll let you use that abomination in my presence again!" Mei roared and sped forwards, charging straight for Amadeus. In a flash, a silver gear interposed itself between Mei and her prey, having shot from the box where the [Scythe of Kronos] had been taken.

"Tch...the [Automaton Gears] Artificial Sacred Gear...!" the Stray Devil grunted. "But I destroyed that one three years ago! How-?!"

"My glorious creation possesses the power of unlimited regeneration!" Amadeus shouted in glee. "So long as one piece of it remains intact, it will continue to regrow and regenerate itself indefinitely! I always made sure to keep a single gear stored away, so that even if some overpowered brute managed to shatter it, it would simply regenerate in time. Such a perfect creation is beyond you, Mei Schwarzwald!"

[Charge Complete!] the Sacred Gear on Amadeus' arm declared.

"I have you now!" the Bael Scion roared. "[Gear Shackles]!"

At his command, the floating gear in front of Mei split into four and chased after her from four directions. Taken off guard by the suddenness of the attack, Mei cursed and struggled as first one, then all of them locked around her limbs, holding her spread-eagled in mid-air.

"Nee-sama!" Chiaki cried.

"Stay back!" Mei shouted. "You might get caught in this blast as well if you leave the protection of the [Throne of Power]!"

"Suffer in agony as you lose all of your Sacred Gears!" Amadeus screamed. "[Extraction Cannon], fire!"

Golden light surged forwards from the end of the cannon as it fired, a beam of light emerging and shooting towards the helpless Mei.

"Hyōdō Issei! Use your body as my shield!" the Queen of Blood and Betrayal ordered quickly.

"NO!" Rias screamed as her Ise deployed his wings and quickly flew between Mei and readied himself to block the beam, [Boosted Gear] raised.

"Stupid bitch! All you're doing is giving me the chance to take the [Gauntlet of the Red Dragon Emperor] before your Gears!" Amadeus sneered.

"I wonder about that..." Mei said mysteriously.

With a shout, Issei punched with his left arm, right into the middle of the beam from Amadeus' [Balance Breaker].

[Explosion!]

Red light battled against gold light and scattered the attack from Amadeus' weapon all over the room, smashing into the ceiling, floor, walls and the remaining pillars.

"Wh-what?!" the Bael Scion's eyes were bugging out at this.

"Every single Sacred Gear you ever came into contact with was without a sentient mind within it, you third-string hack of a scientist." Mei stated coldly as she concentrated gravity magic on the gear shackles binding her limbs. "The [Boosted Gear] possesses the mind, will and soul of Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon, within it. And the Red Dragon of Domination would never allow himself to be ripped from his chosen host so easily. Did you think I would have ignored the existence of your so-called masterpiece there over the last three years when I could find no hint of it amongst the wreckage? I deduced it quite easily, I'll have you know."

"Ha...hahahaha!" Amadeus laughed mockingly. "Fool...the [Extraction Cannon] has to be locked onto a specific target first; that's probably why it didn't work. And the threat isn't over yet!"

"What are you-?!" Mei started expediting the destruction of her bonds, but before she could smash them, beams of golden light erupted out of the holes made by the scattered fragments of Amadeus' [Extraction Cannon] technique and shot at Mei, striking he all over her body.

"Argh...what...is...this...aaaaaarrrghhh!" Mei started screaming as her body was racked with pain and agony, her limbs thrashing involuntarily and her back arching as she screamed.

"Mei-nee-sama! NO!" Chiaki screamed in denial, flashbacks to that awful day appearing in her mind.

"Oh no...!" Rias felt dread well up in her as first one, then another of the Sacred Gears that Mei had implanted within her appeared around her body; [Fangs of the Blue Dragon], [Blood of the Berserker], [Hunter's Chance], [Wedge of Time], [Memoriam Blade], [Second Hand of Time], [Twice Critical], [Twilight Healing] and [Crown of Forethought], all of them appeared around her before silently floating over to array themselves around Amadeus.

With one final shudder, Mei Schwarzwald's body ceased its trembling and hung limply from the floating gears. With a contemptuous wave of one hand, Amadeus had the gears disengage from her body, letting the Queen of Blood and Betrayal collapse limply to the floor.

"Ah, and here are my prizes, mine at long last...hm?" the Bael Scion smirked before frowning. Giving his stolen Sacred Gears a once-over, Amadeus whirled around and glared at the insensate Mei.

"Where is the [Fatal Attraction]?!" he shouted petulantly, like a child who had been denied a toy.

Groaning with the effort, Mei forced herself to one knee, a wet rasp coming from her whenever she breathed. Chuckling slightly, she tilted her head mockingly at her former [King]. "Did you...really think...that you could...take everything of mine...again?" she asked with a jeer to her voice.

"You...what did you do?!" Amadeus hissed. "I programmed every one of my Peerage's Sacred Gear's unique signature into my [Scythe of Kronos'] memory, including your precious [Fatal Attraction]! It should be floating here with the others! Why isn't it!?"

"I changed its signature, you incompetent...dolt." Mei chuckled wetly again and brandished her staff at him. "You have the...signature of one half of my current [Fatal Attraction] programmed...into your...little toy...there. This...is the completed version of my Sacred Gear...[Fatal Attraction Zwei]."

"You...argh! You useless, interfering bitch!" Amadeus raged. He stomped over to her and backhanded Mei across her masked face. "Ow! Fuck, what the hell is that mask made of?!"

Mei, who had moved her head in motion with the weak slap to rob it of most of its force, laughed. "You...don't need to know anything. Congratulations are in order, I suppose. You have successfully dealt me a...fatal blow. I have less than a month to live now that you have...extracted most of my Sacred Gears. That being the case...I'm going to drag you down with me!"

Thrusting her staff into the air with her final words, Mei's body glowed as a massive sphere appeared above her, dark purple and crackling with energy.

"I-Is that...is that a mass of unstable supergravity particles?!" Amadeus exclaimed in fear. "You're insane! You'll destroy everything for miles around here!"

"It's worth it to destroy a louse like you!" Mei shouted roughly. "I'm dragging you down to hell with me! Gravity Force 199!"

In a burst of dark light, the sphere above Mei exploded, engulfing all of those in the room in its grasp. Then the camera feeds to those watching cut out into a haze of static.

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Next Chapter: The Twenty-First Move: Desperado

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