"President, did you see me?!" In a dark alley, Issei looked at Rias excitedly, waiting for praise.
"You did well, Issei. Five consecutive boosts are no longer a problem for your body" Rias praised him appropriately with a smile. She was also extremely happy with the results he had shown.
Defeating a low-ranking rogue demon only one week after being reincarnated was already incredible. Even Koneko or Kiba, reincarnated demons for around a decade, were barely mid-rank demons.
"I'll become even stronger and protect everyone, President" Issei declared confidently.
"You're still weaker than me" Koneko's voice sounded in front of them.
"But I'll defeat you quickly!" Issei said without feeling offended this time. "President, do you think I'll reach Koneko's level soon?"
"If you keep this up" Rias thought. "I think you could achieve it in three weeks to a month"
"Ooooooh!"
"Ugh, you're so noisy" an annoyed voice suddenly sounded, startling everyone.
At some point, without them noticing, they had been surrounded by a group of unknown people.
"How?" Rias muttered.
"Hahaha, surprised?" said a long-haired blond boy with his hair tied in a high ponytail and wearing a long robe arrogantly. "We placed a stealth barrier. Even though we're right in front of you, it still applies"
Kiba also became serious. The only way to locate his enemies was through sight and hearing. He could not find those behind him or hidden unless he specifically looked at them. That meant that if they fought, he would be facing hidden attacks the entire time. He quickly conjured a sword in his hand and several more in the air.
"You don't know how irritating it was to watch you fight that rogue demon, all that wasted potential, that strength you don't even know you have" the blond boy sighed. "But it's fine. Once we obtain it ourselves, it will show its full potential"
Hearing this, Rias went on guard while destructive energy crackled in her right hand.
"You won't steal Issei's gauntlet, no matter what methods you have"
"Gauntlet?"
"Clade, stop wasting time and start using the card. We'll buy you time" a short-haired black-haired companion told him while pulling a golden whip out of nowhere and running toward the group.
The others did the same, conjuring various magical attacks or weapons and advancing.
As for the so-called Clade, he took a card out of his pocket and activated it. In front of his eyes, a progress bar slowly began to advance.
[1%... 2%... 3%...]
"Damn, this is going to take a while" Clade muttered irritably upon seeing the loading time.
On the other side, as soon as the dozens of people began moving toward them, Rias's group also prepared themselves.
Koneko stomped hard on the ground, propelling herself forward with force toward the nearest person, someone who thought an axe would be enough to defeat her. She destroyed the axe and then the attacker's face before moving toward the next one.
Kiba threw several swords toward a group approaching specifically to attack him, making them retreat to dodge or protect themselves. The distraction was enough for Kiba to already be in front of them, cutting horizontally with his main sword.
"Arghhh!" One of their arms was wounded, causing them to drop their weapon. They were no longer a threat, so Kiba stopped paying attention to them and struck the nearest one in the back of the neck with the hilt of his sword.
He jumped backward to dodge a magical fire attack and then bent down to dodge a barrage of air blades. Using that same movement, he propelled himself toward the nearest one and pierced their chest with his sword.
Shiiing!
The sound of the sword emerging from the body of their impaled companion echoed through the night, making them tremble in fear for a moment before recovering.
"S-It's only one, let's go!"
"Yes, we don't have to win, we just have to hold out!"
"Keep attacking!"
Once one recovered, the rest followed, attacking the blond swordsman as a group.
...
"Why is this guy so strong? I thought he was weak?"
Meanwhile, elsewhere, those attacking Issei were surprised to see his abnormal strength and resistance, which did not match what they knew about him.
"I don't know, but he just punches randomly. He doesn't know how to fight. Attack intelligently!"
"Uoooh! Come at me, you bastards!" Issei shouted excitedly as he punched an attacker's face with his gauntlet.
However, before he could move again, his foot was caught by a whip that held him and pulled him forcefully, making him fall to the ground.
"Kughhh!" While he was on the ground, a mixture of magical attacks hit him directly in the back, burning his uniform and leaving a huge burn scar across his entire back.
"We got him, he's weak!" they said excitedly after defeating one.
"You bastards, you..." Issei tried to stand up angrily, but it was useless. The whip pulled him forcefully again, throwing him against a nearby wall.
"Is he done?"
"Is he still alive?"
"Cough... cough."
Although their expressions changed when they saw that he was still alive, his near-death state restored their spirits.
"Damn..." Issei did not finish again. He was pulled by the leg once more, this time being thrown back toward the group.
But even nearly dead and surrounded by a huge number of people, Issei refused to surrender.
"Boost!" he shouted forcefully while clenching his fists tightly.
His entire body seemed to tremble in pain as he forced himself to use another boost, as if he were about to explode, but Issei endured the pain and grabbed the whip.
"Hehe, are you an idiot?" The black-haired guy from before, the one with the whip, mocked Issei upon seeing what he was doing and pulled on the whip.
It was not a normal whip. Normally, the strength of a whip depends on the user. The more force used when pulling, the more powerful the whip will be. But his was different. You could charge it with mana beforehand, making it several times stronger than yourself. After several weeks of charging, his whip now had the strength of fifty people concentrated into a single point, and he had absolute confidence in it.
But when he pulled on the whip, his expression changed to panic. No matter how hard he pulled, he could not get it out of Issei's hand.
"What is..." He did not finish speaking. Issei pulled the whip forcefully, dragging its user toward him as well.
In the blink of an eye, the next thing he saw was a huge hand right in front of his face that grabbed him and slammed him into the ground with all its strength.
A huge crater opened in the ground before his body dispersed into a pile of pixels in the air.
This time, everyone around him backed away in fear, wanting to flee, but Issei did not let them escape.
Lastly, Rias was dealing with all her enemies with ease. A large number of low-level enemies were nothing against a high-class demon.
The destructive energy turned anyone it touched into nothingness, opening a path toward Clade.
Although she did not believe they could actually take Issei's Sacred Gear, it was better to make sure. They had already shown several strange methods, and she could not take the risk.
Even so, despite Rias's destructive power being much greater, she was still advancing at the same speed as her subordinates.
Not because her enemies were stronger, but because the numbers were simply different. If each of her subordinates had around fifteen to thirty enemies, she had at least a hundred. Not only that, but they deliberately threw themselves in front of her magic just to hold her back for at least one more second.
Rias still could not understand where a new faction with so many people had come from out of nowhere, but it did not matter. She had to reach Clade and stop whatever he was trying to do.
After killing dozens of them, moving less than a hundred meters in about ten minutes, she finally reached him.
Clade looked at her, fear flashing in his eyes as he looked at the air in front of him as if urging it to hurry up.
"I don't know who you are or what your methods are, but I won't let you succeed" Rias said as bolts of destructive energy formed around her arm, which was extended toward the blond man.
But although the man panicked for a second, this changed almost instantly. A cold and confident smile formed on his face.
"Finally! It reached one hundred percent, I did it!"
Rias looked at Issei in panic, only to see, confused, that he was completely fine.
"W-What?" Clade's confused voice was heard. "Already summoned?! What do you mean by that?!
You can't summon someone who's already been summoned? What kind of rule is that?!
Wait! 100%. Cancel the rule nullification on the 100% rule and use it on that one.
What?! What do you mean it still can't be done?!"
Clade began muttering a bunch of things unknown to Rias, his expression changing from happiness to disappointment, then hope, and then despair again. His face looked like an emotional roller coaster.
However, his expression soon became even worse, but as if he wanted to prove that it could get even worse, his face transformed into a mixture of absolute fear and total desperation.
"T-This is bad! You can't nullify the rule because the summoner is here? B-But there's only one person with that unit" he muttered in terror before shouting at everyone. "Run! Lucifer is here! Lucifer! We have to leave as quickly as possible before he realizes what we're trying to do!"
As soon as he said that, as if everyone understood the terror his words represented, all the remaining people, one third of the original number, activated a device that teleported them all away from the place immediately.
Rias simply stood there with confusion reflected on her face and her arm still extended before canceling her magic.
"What just happened?" she muttered in confusion, but received no answer.
______________________________________
I have a new fic about Syndrome in Marvel. Go check it out if you're interested.
Name: Marvel: Creating a World Where Everyone Is Super.
(Don't worry, this message will only be here for one month and then disappear)
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)