The second stray devil was worse than the first.
Class A. Former Rook piece from a minor household. Something had broken inside it during the transformation, leaving a creature that was all rage and hunger with none of the cunning that might have made it dangerous. Just raw, screaming violence packed into a body that had grown too many limbs to count.
We found it in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. The smell hit us first - rot and copper and something else, something that made my devil instincts recoil.
"Spread out," Rias commanded. "Standard formation. Kiba, you're on point."
The Knight nodded and moved, his sword already drawn. The rest of us fanned out, each taking our position with practiced ease.
A week ago, this would have felt chaotic. Now it felt natural.
The stray burst through a wall.
Kiba met it head-on, his blade flashing in the dim light. The creature's claws scraped against demonic steel, sparks flying. It was fast, faster than the last one, but Kiba was faster still.
"Koneko!" he called.
She was already moving. The Rook hit the stray from the side, her fist connecting with what might have been a ribcage. Bones shattered. The creature howled and twisted, trying to bring its mass of limbs to bear.
Lightning split the air. Akeno's attack caught the stray mid-twist, electricity arcing through its malformed body. It convulsed, frozen for just a moment.
My moment.
I activated Stealth Mode and flanked, two Light Lances forming in my hands. The creature couldn't see me, couldn't sense me. I lined up my shots and threw.
Both lances hit. One through what passed for a shoulder, the other through its lower back. The stray screamed, a sound like breaking glass and grinding metal, and whirled toward where I'd been.
But I was already moving, already repositioning. Another lance formed. Another throw. Another hit.
"Ryder, push it toward me!" Rias called.
I understood immediately. Her Power of Destruction needed a clear shot, and the stray was too mobile, too erratic. It needed to be corralled.
Three more lances. Strategic placements, not to kill, but to herd. The stray stumbled backward, driven by pain and instinct, right into Rias's line of fire.
Crimson light bloomed.
The creature didn't have time to scream. One moment it was there, a mass of twisted flesh and rage. The next, only ash remained.
Silence settled over the warehouse.
"Target eliminated," Rias said. Her eyes found mine across the battlefield. "Excellent work. All of you."
The Fragment stirred.
"Competent. Coordinated. You're learning to fight as a unit." A pause, almost contemplative. "Which makes this the perfect time for a gift."
A gift?
The system display flickered to life unbidden.
[FRAGMENT ADAPTATION: TRIGGERED]
[TARGET: Phoenix Regeneration Analysis]
[ACQUISITION PRICE: WAIVED]
[THE FRAGMENT SPEAKS]
"This one is free, little thief."
"Watch the Phoenix burn and heal. Learn."
"One day, you will face a Phoenix."
"When you do, you will understand the difference between killing and winning."
"Between victory and survival."
"Between what you think you want... and what you will do instead."
[ABILITY ACQUIRED: Phoenix Analysis]
Effect: Can perceive regeneration limits and depletion
Note: Does not grant regeneration, only understanding
[WARNING: THE FRAGMENT'S GIFTS ARE NEVER FREE]
[TRUE COST: ???]
The knowledge settled into my mind like water finding cracks in stone. Regeneration. Healing factors. The way immortality was never truly infinite, just sufficiently long-lived to seem that way. Everything that healed had limits. Everything that regenerated drew from something.
I understood that now, in a way I hadn't before.
But the warning lingered.
You said no cost.
"I said waived. There is a difference."
What difference?
"The cost exists. It simply isn't paid now." The Fragment's voice carried something I might have called satisfaction. "Consider it... deferred."
That's not comforting.
"Truth rarely is."
We returned to the ORC building in high spirits.
The hunt had been clean, efficient, professional. No injuries beyond scratches. No civilian casualties. No complications. Just good teamwork and decisive action.
Akeno prepared tea while Koneko claimed her usual sunbeam spot. Kiba cleaned his blade with practiced care. Asia fussed over a small cut on my arm that had already healed.
"I'm fine," I told her. "Enhanced Regeneration, remember?"
"I know." She pressed her glowing hands to the cut anyway. "But healing is what I do. Let me be useful."
There was something in her voice, a need to contribute, to matter, that I recognized too well.
"You're always useful, Asia. Even when there's nothing to heal."
Her smile was worth the tingling sensation of unnecessary healing magic.
Rias watched us from her desk, something soft in her expression. Pride, maybe. Or relief. The shadows I'd noticed after the Phoenix message had faded, replaced by the warm satisfaction of a successful hunt.
"We should celebrate properly," she announced. "Dinner, perhaps. Somewhere nice."
"Can we go to the dessert place?" Koneko's voice carried unusual enthusiasm. "...they have the chocolate fountain."
"The chocolate fountain it is."
But I couldn't shake the Fragment's gift.
After the others dispersed to clean up and change, I found a quiet corner of the ORC building and turned my attention inward.
Explain.
"Explain what?"
The gift. Phoenix Analysis. Why now? Why free?
"Must generosity always have ulterior motive?"
With you? Yes.
The Fragment laughed, a sound like wind through dead leaves.
"Clever boy. Learning." A pause, weighted with something I couldn't identify. "Very well. A lesson, then."
I'm listening.
"The Phoenix is a creature of fire and rebirth. Immortal, they say. Undying. But nothing is truly immortal, little thief. Everything has limits. Everything can be exhausted."
And Phoenix Analysis lets me see those limits.
"It lets you understand them. Perception is not the same as exploitation." The Fragment's voice dropped, becoming something almost intimate. "But yes. When you face a Phoenix, and you will, you will see what others cannot. The finite nature of the infinite. The weakness behind the strength."
Why would I face a Phoenix?
Silence. Long, heavy, pregnant with meaning.
"One day, you will understand."
That's not an answer.
"It's the only answer you get. For now." The Fragment stirred, satisfied. "Enjoy your celebration, little thief. Treasure these peaceful moments. They are more fragile than you know."
The connection faded, leaving me alone with questions and no answers.
Phoenix Analysis sat in my mind like a gift-wrapped bomb. Free, the Fragment had said. No cost. But the warning echoed: THE FRAGMENT'S GIFTS ARE NEVER FREE.
Something was coming. Something with fire and feathers.
And the Fragment wanted me ready.
We never made it to the chocolate fountain.
The knock came just as we were preparing to leave. Sharp, precise, authoritative. Not the knock of a friend or a casual visitor. The knock of someone who expected to be obeyed.
Rias froze.
I saw it happen - the way her shoulders stiffened, the way her hands trembled before she forced them still. Her expression went carefully blank, a mask sliding into place over whatever emotions churned beneath.
"Rias?" I stepped toward her without thinking, positioning myself between her and the door. A protective instinct I didn't examine too closely.
"I'll handle it." Her voice was steady. Too steady. "Everyone, please wait here."
She moved to the door and opened it.
The woman on the other side was silver and ice.
Silver hair, perfectly styled. Silver eyes, cold and assessing. A maid's uniform that somehow conveyed more authority than any crown. She stood with military precision, her expression neutral in a way that felt like a threat.
"Lady Rias." Her voice matched her appearance - winter wind given words. "I apologize for the intrusion."
"Grayfia." Rias's mask didn't crack, but something in her voice did. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I moved closer. The Fragment observed silently, cataloguing the newcomer with clinical interest.
"Grayfia Lucifuge. Sirzechs's Queen. Power level: immense. Threat level: extreme. Recommendation: do not provoke."
I hadn't planned on it.
Grayfia's eyes found me as I approached. A flicker of assessment, quick and thorough. Whatever she saw, she didn't comment.
"I bring a message from the Phoenix household." She produced a sealed letter, the crest familiar from the message Rias had received days ago. "Lord Riser Phenex requests an audience with you. Tomorrow evening."
Rias took the letter. Her hands were steady, but I caught the white of her knuckles as she gripped the paper.
"An audience," she repeated. "Not a request. A demand."
"An invitation." Grayfia's tone carried no inflection. "Though Lord Riser was... insistent."
The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on. Kiba's hand rested on his sword hilt. Koneko's posture had shifted, ready for violence. Even Asia looked worried, her eyes darting between Rias and the silver-haired woman.
Akeno approached, her smile carrying an edge I'd never seen before. "And if Rias declines?"
"Then I will convey her refusal to Lord Riser." Grayfia paused. "And to Lord Sirzechs."
The name hit like a physical blow. Rias's mask cracked, just for a moment, frustration and something deeper flashing across her features.
"My brother sent you."
"Lord Sirzechs is concerned about the... situation. He believes direct engagement might resolve matters more efficiently than continued avoidance."
I couldn't stay silent anymore.
"Who's Riser Phenex?"
Every eye in the room turned to me. Rias's expression flickered - warning, fear, something else I couldn't name.
It was Grayfia who answered, her voice carefully neutral.
"Lord Riser Phenex is the third son of the Phoenix household. A High-class devil of considerable power and reputation." Her silver eyes met mine. "He is also Lady Rias's fiancé."
The word dropped like a stone into still water.
Fiancé.
I looked at Rias. At her trembling hands, her rigid posture, the barely contained emotion in her eyes.
"Fiancé," I repeated.
"It's... complicated." Her voice was barely a whisper. "An arrangement. From when I was a child. I never agreed to..." She stopped, collected herself. When she spoke again, her voice was harder. "It doesn't matter what I agreed to. The contract exists. My family signed it."
"And now Lord Riser wishes to enforce it." Grayfia's neutrality felt like condemnation. "Tomorrow evening, Lady Rias. I suggest you prepare."
She turned and departed, her footsteps fading into silence.
The room felt smaller somehow. Heavier.
Rias stared at the letter in her hands. Her whole body trembled, not from fear, I realized. From rage.
"That," she said quietly, "is about to change."
Her voice carried absolute conviction. And absolute despair.
The Fragment stirred in the back of my mind, pleased.
"The Phoenix approaches. And now you understand his fire."
I didn't understand anything.
But as I looked at Rias, at the girl who'd saved my life, who'd given me a family, who'd trusted me when she had no reason to, I knew one thing with perfect clarity.
Whatever was coming, she wouldn't face it alone.