Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena POV.
"Very well, my dear devils, today's special Rating Game rules are dice figures!! For those who aren't aware, let's quickly review the rules! Each participant will be assigned a value based on their corresponding piece in a pawn measurement."
"Pawns are obviously worth one pawn each, bishops and knights are worth three pawns, rooks are worth five, and queens are worth nine pawns! The value of each king is being decided right now by our esteemed committee of judges, so let's stick to the rules for the time being! "
" Both kings will each roll a die; the sum of both numbers will determine the value of pieces they can send! You can send any number of people, as long as their combined value does not exceed the value of the dice!"
"Does that mean our dear Prince will have an advantage or a disadvantage?! With only three pawns, Serena Prince will be able to send all her servants in most combinations, but she only has those three pawns!"
"Will they be strong enough to defeat the Peerage and Vaelion Paimon himself?! We'll find out!! And they just gave me the value of each king! Vaelion Paimon's value has been determined to be 9! A sum determined by his own strength, his servants, and in comparison to his opponents!"
"While our beloved Prince, Serena Prince, her value is determined at a 6 for the same reasons! Even if her strength is not weak, her smaller number of servants, having only 3 pawns against her opponent's 12 servants, the self-worth of our prince has been decided by a 6! " shouted the presenter.
I just hummed as I looked at my opponent, whose face hardened. And I couldn't blame him; a 6 was a really low number for a king. There was a 72.22% chance that two dice would roll a 6 or higher.
Even so, I hadn't planned on going out to fight; this was mainly for the others. Although I had already achieved what I wanted, Vaelion Paimon possessed a demonic pillar trait, and from what I could see, it was a natural affinity for wind, like the Sitri. It was a greater affinity than the Phenex had, so it was a gain.
"Very well! With all that finished, please, both kings approach the center of the arena! " said the presenter animatedly. I started walking towards the center, as did Vaelion Paimon. We both stared at each other, and I just smiled slightly.
"Good luck." I told him honestly; he seemed slightly surprised but nodded.
"Likewise," he said before grabbing his die. I did the same. Then we each returned to our positions; we had designated spots where we could discuss strategies privately. I went back to my spot and got ready.
"And roll the dice!" shouted the presenter. I dropped the die almost lazily without even looking at the result, unlike Vaelion, who seemed genuinely tense, his gaze darkening. "It's a nine!!!" shouted the presenter. I almost wanted to smile amusedly; a nine was more than enough to send the four of us down in the first round. "Please, kings, decide which members will fight in the first round!" shouted the presenter.
I didn't even look at Lucy and Rebecca as they walked forward and climbed onto the platform to wait for me to teleport them to the battlefield, which didn't take too long.
"Oh? It seems Serena Prince has decided to... I-I think I'm seeing things, the only ones going down this round are two of her pawns, Rebecca and Lucyna! " the announcer said, trembling and somewhat worried. "On the other hand, we have Vaelion Paimon, who has chosen to use 8 of his points by sending down his rook and his knight!" the announcer said, now with increasingly controlled urgency.
Good choice of his, I suppose, a pretty good combination, someone tough and someone offensive, against two unknown people would be a good combination.
"Are you sure you don't want to make any more changes?!" the presenter asked, and I sighed.
"I'm fine like this," I said easily, my voice echoing throughout the stadium. Vaelion Paimon nodded with a frown.
" O-very well, p-please get ready! " said the presenter. Rebecca smiled sadistically, took off her jacket, leaving her in only her underwear, before the Light softly shone around her before equipping her Titan armor.
The contradiction and bewilderment of someone like Rebecca, who was so small, suddenly wearing a full suit of thick, bulky, and heavy metal armor, were truly unsettling.
Rebecca's armor definitely belonged to a titan, but its colors were entirely hers; its base color was a pale blue, while the details were a light pink.
Her Malorian was on her thigh, but besides that, she had no other firearms; instead, she slammed her fists together, causing Arc lightning to course through her arms.
Lucy also took off her jacket and dropped it beside her, then slowly walked backward and dropped into the air. An almost holographic air seat formed behind her, holding her in place. Then she moved her hands, and a holographic keyboard, along with several screens, formed in front of her.
The two opponents prepared themselves in the same tense manner.
"Begin!" shouted the presenter. Lucy's hands blurred and slammed down on the holographic keyboard. Instantly, several icons appeared above Rebecca and her two opponents.
Rebecca's were green, with a small upward-pointing arrow, while her opponent's were red with downward-pointing arrows. Each featured a small chibi Lucy figure in a different pose. One was a small Lucy running, another flexing her muscles, another a small Lucy with wide eyes, and the last one looking very confused. Speed, strength, senses, and reaction time—Lucy had attacked them all.
I sighed heavily. Lucy had adapted her Aether Editing just like Silver Wolf; in fact, since we had the original template thanks to GLaDOS, Lucy had taken most of the edits Silver Wolf had made and kept them for herself.
After all, the video game-like interface was much more intuitive than the monstrosity that was GLaDOS, which was just blocks of text and a barrage of code.
Lucy had decided to use visible icons, mainly to mislead her enemies. She didn't need them, but placing them would give her opponents a false sense of security. If they believed her negative effects only lasted while the icons were above them, then she could catch them off guard at other times.
They even had a small clock circulating to show how long it would take for the effects to wear off. Lucy was actually having more fun with it than she'd expected.
Rebecca also had the same icons, but hers were green, so Lucy had enhanced them. It hadn't really occurred to me that Silver Wolf could do something like that, but… it made sense. If she could inflict so many negative things on her enemies, it shouldn't surprise me that she'd be capable of doing the opposite with her allies.
And in fact, it was easier, on the one hand, Lucy could already access our 'code' more easily, she practically already had a backdoor to use it, and there was also the fact that we did not resist her. Hence, the effects were stronger and faster on us than on her opponents.
So an upgraded Rebecca shot forward at great speed, literally flying through arc energy towards the slowed-down enemies, then practically slammed headlong into the opposing knight, who couldn't react, and sent her flying dozens of meters as arc energy exploded around her.
Rebecca stopped in place, leaped out, still enveloped in lightning, and crashed devastatingly onto the opponent's rook. The rook let out a groan of pain as it was slammed into the ground. Rebecca hadn't stopped; she leaped once more, even more Arc energy coursing through her body, and she descended with even greater force.
She struck the rook once more, which tried to cover herself with little success. Rebecca just jumped again and fell hard, again and again and again and again, until the rook was buried and barely breathing, the lightning of Arc flashing and hissing all around her.
Rebecca raised her hand, a sword pierced her hand as the knight reached her, she didn't even flinch, she simply pushed her hand down through the blade of her opponent's weapon, her hand grabbed the hilt and the knight's hand, then she headbutted the opposing knight, stunning him, then she raised her fist, which crackled again with Arc energy and punched the knight hard in the cheek.
Rebecca still maintained her iron grip on her opponent's hand, so the knight couldn't back down from the force of the blow. Rebecca simply yanked her up and struck her again. The knight groaned as blood ran from its mouth and nose. Rebecca released the knight, which fell to the ground. Rebecca simply raised her fist again and slammed one last punch into his cheek, slamming him against the ground.
Finally, she stood up, looked at her two unconscious opponents, took the sword from her hand, opened and closed it almost indifferently, and turned to approach Lucy.
"Lady Prince's pawns win!! Lord Paimon's knight and rook have been defeated in an impressive style! I don't even know what we just saw, my dears!! It seems our prince's pawn, Lucy, just used some kind of magic to weaken her opponents while strengthening her partner, Rebecca!"
"Thanks to that, an enhanced Rebecca was able to defeat both her opponents with just her fists and lightning, with extreme ease! Is this a combination made in hell?! It was incredible, my devils! Let's see how this Rating Game unfolds! It's time for round two! " the announcer shouted as the crowd roared. I chuckled as I gripped my die.
Their next roll was a 5. Lucy and Rebecca climbed back onto the platform and teleported back to the battlefield. Meanwhile, Valerion Paimon had chosen his remaining rook and a person who had used two pawns.
Lucy adopted the same position as she sat in the air. Rebecca, instead, placed both hands in front of her, and her body was enveloped in solar energy as a huge mace of fire, bigger than her, appeared between her hands.
I could see the surprise in the opponents' eyes as Rebecca switched weapons and powers, and I smiled as the fight began. Lucy unleashed her Quickhacks on the three of them once more.
Rebecca ran towards her opponents, this time much slower than before, but still fast enough to reach them almost immediately, but not so fast as to prevent them both from escaping her initial attack.
Rebecca's mallet descended vertically and struck the ground, exploding in a blaze that melted the ground. The blow did not harm her opponents, but solar energy moved through the ground, following both opponents, taking them by surprise and exploding beneath them.
The explosion stunned them enough for Rebecca to move, turning horizontally with her mallet near one of her opponents. Her mallet struck the pawn hard, which groaned in pain as it was flung away from Rebecca.
The enemy's rook got close enough to Rebecca to try to hit her. Rebecca didn't even move to avoid the blow; she simply let the fist hit her on the head. Rebecca dropped her mace, then grabbed both of her opponent's shoulders and used it to propel herself forward.
Her knee, enveloped in solar energy, struck her opponent's chest with force, staggering him backward. Rebecca raised her hand, and a small hammer with an eagle's head appeared in her hand and brought it down upon her enemy's head, stunning him even further.
Then she turned and threw the hammer at the pawn who was running toward her. The pawn dodged it, but the hammer exploded beside him, knocking him down. Rebecca lunged at him, raised both hands, and two hammers appeared in her hands as she descended on the pawn.
The pawn managed to raise both hands to defend himself, but Rebecca's strength broke his defense. Rebecca raised the hammers again and slammed the pawn to the ground. In no time, both had been defeated once more.
The same thing happened in the following rounds. Rebecca changed weapons once again; this time, a void axe appeared in her hands as she fought against a bishop and three pawns. And then, a stroke of luck came when the dice rolled a 12, and Vaelion Paimon sent his queen and a bishop into battle.
This time, the opponents tried a different strategy, launching an attack against Lucy. Both began using large-scale magic to try to defeat her quickly. Rebecca created a vacuum dome around Lucy to protect her before charging at the opponents with a vacuum shield in hand.
Nothing they threw at her could destroy Rebecca's vacuum dome, so Lucy was completely safe. They then tried to attack Rebecca, but she barely seemed to care what hit her. She kept advancing, using her shield to attack rather than defend. Finally, the opposing queen and pawns couldn't keep up with Rebecca and the constant debuffs Lucy created.
The opponent was left with only Vaelion Paimon and a single pawn. Once we rolled the dice again, the sum was 10, enough for both of them to go down. I, on the other hand, simply let Riveria go down this time; Vaelion Paimon had gone down alone.
Riveria held her staff with a serious expression. They both waited for the signal to begin and moved simultaneously. Vaelion pushed the wind around him and surged forward with great speed, trying to finish Riveria off before she could do anything.
Riveria opened her mouth to begin chanting her magic, but what came out of her mouth was not her usual long chant; no, what came out of her mouth seemed to be a song of such beauty that it was extremely difficult to explain, mainly because Riveria did recite the words of the magic chants, dozens of words. Still, they were all said in a fraction of a second, less than it would take to say a word normally.
Even so, the chant was really pleasant to listen to; it was quick and short, with a hint of serenity, almost of determination.
Once the chant ended, nine tails of Kokonoe magic appeared behind her before Riveria completed the second chant, and the tails disappeared.
Via Shilheim, Riveria's barrier magic, nine domes formed around her, blocking any physical and magical damage. Vaelion's attack stopped at the first barrier.
Riveria sang again, the tails appearing once more as she finished her second chant. Thousands of lightning arrows appeared around her and were launched toward Vaelion, who began to dodge swiftly, using his wind as a shield to withstand the attacks.
Riveria was unfazed; she sang again, the tails appeared once more, and another chant followed. This time, dozens of circles appeared behind her. Hail Dust. Dozens of magic ice bullets shot out along with the lightning arrows.
The ice bullets froze everything they struck, even a wind shield. Vaelion retreated and created a tornado around himself, strong enough to protect himself from Riveria's attacks. Riveria simply invoked the next spell.
From the ground, enormous circles began to emerge before huge fire tornadoes erupted, trying to consume Vaelion. He gritted his teeth and pushed his demonic power, strengthening the tornado enough for it to grow and grow, quickly taking the form of a giant with Vaelion inside.
His entire body was composed of enormous tornadoes, strong enough to extinguish Riveria's fire tornadoes as he struck them. Riveria moved her staff once more, her mouth moving.
Nine Wynn Fimbulvetr emerged from Riveria and consumed everything, freezing lightning spears, ice bullets, and fire tornadoes, which froze in place and began to freeze the wind of Vaelion.
Vaelion looked urgently at the colossal ice magic and tried to back away. He created two tornadoes in his hands and brought them together above his head. The two tornadoes didn't merge; in fact, they began to spin around each other, forming a huge drill above his head, which he then launched forward.
The force was strong enough to fight and stop Riveria's ice magic. The enormous explosion covered the entire battlefield in dust. Vaelion moved his arm, and the wind banished all the dust; he was a little battered and tired, but otherwise appeared completely unharmed.
He looked around, trying to anticipate Riveria's next move, before looking up to see the sky filled with hundreds of violet circles. A small, harmless laser beam emerged from each one, immediately targeting Vaelion. Moments later, they all exploded into beams of light that shot toward him.
It was a new personal magic that she had created with the knowledge of her new template.
Template Stacking I [Riveria Ljos Alf has Merlin (Prototype) ( Nasuverse )] -20 [485]
Although the improvement in her magic and repertoire wasn't much at first, High-Speed Incantation - Ex Rank was already proving to be worthwhile.
Riveria's huge deficiency in magic had been corrected; by using High Speed Incantation, the words came out of her mouth at great speed, finishing her enchantments almost instantly.
With just that, Riveria was now on a completely different level than its previous version. The great barrage of lasers quickly began to overwhelm Vaelion. When one of them finally managed to break through the wind defense it had formed, the following lasers immediately struck it.
Riveria continued bombarding for a few more moments before canceling her magic. Vaelion finally appeared, completely battered, but still standing, covered in cuts and wounds, a determined look on his face. Riveria simply accepted the challenge and opened her mouth once more.
Thousands of circles appeared around him and immediately pointed at Vaelion, who stared wildly at Riveria before sighing and slumping back, practically surrendering. I chuckled softly as Riveria flicked her staff, and all the circles transformed into flower petals as they vanished, ending the fight.