Regeneration: 58% → 52% → 47% → 41%.
Each strike carved another percentage from Riser's immortality. His flames dimmed with every wound, every moment of sustained assault. The arrogance had vanished entirely now, replaced by something I'd never expected to see.
Desperation.
"ENOUGH!"
Phoenix fire erupted in all directions - not a controlled attack, but a desperate explosion. Full power. Everything he had left, thrown outward in a wave of destruction.
The blast caught us all.
Koneko went flying. Rias barely raised a barrier in time. I threw myself behind a stone pillar that vaporized around me, the heat searing through what was left of my defenses.
When the flames cleared, only two of us were standing.
Rias. And me.
"Together," she said.
Her Power of Destruction crackled around her hands, crimson-black energy hungry for consumption. My Light Lance formed - dimmer than before, fed by reserves I didn't know I still had.
We didn't discuss strategy. Didn't need to.
We attacked.
Power of Destruction and Light Lance struck Riser simultaneously - one from the front, one from the side. His regeneration tried to keep up. Failed. The wounds overlapped faster than his Phoenix flames could seal them.
Regeneration: 41% → 38% → 34%.
"Stop - " Riser staggered. "This isn't - "
We didn't stop.
Rias pressed from the front, her attacks relentless. I circled, striking from angles he couldn't cover. Every wound took longer to heal. Every flame burned lower.
Regeneration: 34% → 29%.
His fires guttered. The brilliant Phoenix power that had seemed invincible now flickered like a dying candle.
Riser tried to run.
He turned from the fight - actually turned his back and fled toward the boundary of the Rating Game arena. Wings of flame carried him upward, desperate for escape.
Rias appeared in his path.
Power of Destruction formed a wall before him, crimson energy crackling with lethal intent. He veered left. Another wall. Right. Another.
"You don't get to run, Riser."
Her voice carried something I'd never heard before. Not anger - something colder. The voice of a woman who'd spent months living in fear of this man, now watching him try to flee.
"You don't get to threaten me. Threaten my peerage. Treat me like property. And then run when it stops going your way."
Riser's eyes went wide. "Rias, please - "
"Fight. Or yield. Those are your options."
He fought.
Badly.
Whatever pride remained forced him to turn and face us. Phoenix fire blazed - weaker now, a shadow of his earlier power. He threw everything he had at Rias.
She walked through it.
Power of Destruction consumed his flames, erasing them from existence. Her steps were steady, relentless, the approach of judgment that couldn't be stopped.
I hit him from behind. Light Lance through the shoulder.
He spun, tried to counter. Too slow. I was already gone, circling, striking again.
Regeneration: 29% → 24% → 19%.
Each wound carved deeper. Each regeneration came slower. The Phoenix was dying, one percentage point at a time.
"Please - " Riser's voice cracked. "I'll - I'll break the engagement. Give you whatever you want. Just - "
Light Lance. Ribs.
Regeneration: 19% → 15%.
[PHOENIX ANALYSIS]
[Regeneration: 15%]
[STATUS: CRITICAL]
[One more sustained attack will deplete regeneration entirely]
[ENEMY HAS YIELDED - GAME RULES REQUIRE CESSATION]
[ECHO ALERT: INTRUSION DETECTED]
[SOURCE: Dohnaseek combat memory - Light Lance origin]
[INFLUENCE: Rising]
"I YIELD!"
Riser's voice echoed across the Rating Game dimension. Broken. Desperate. The cry of a man who'd finally understood he could lose.
"I YIELD! The game is over! I surrender!"
The system should have responded. Should have announced the winner, teleported us back, ended the engagement.
It didn't.
Because I was still moving.
"He yields," the Fragment observed, its voice clinical. "The game ends. You win."
I heard it. Understood it. My body kept advancing.
Light Lance formed in my hand. Brighter than before. Hungrier.
"Stop," Riser said, scrambling backward. "I yielded! The rules - "
Something cold stirred in my chest. Something that remembered the contempt in Riser's eyes when he'd spoken of Rias. The casual cruelty when he'd burned Kiba. The arrogance of a man who'd never faced consequence.
Weakness deserves death.
The thought wasn't mine. It tasted like fallen angel contempt - like Dohnaseek's cold certainty that power existed to crush those beneath you.
Finish what you start.
[ECHO ALERT: INTRUSION DETECTED]
[SOURCE: Dohnaseek combat memory - Light Lance origin]
[INFLUENCE: Rising]
"Ryder."
Rias's voice cut through the haze.
I stopped. Light Lance trembling in my grip, aimed at Riser's throat.
"It's over," she said. "We won."
Did we? The echo whispered. *He'll come back. They always come back. Unless you make sure - *
"Ryder." Rias's hand touched my arm. Warm. Real. "Look at me."
I looked.
Her eyes held concern. Not fear - she wasn't afraid of me. But she saw something in my face that worried her.
"It's over," she repeated. "Let it go."
The cold thing in my chest fought back. Dohnaseek's instincts screaming that mercy was weakness, that enemies left alive became threats, that the only true victory was -
I lowered Light Lance.
The echo raged. But I was still me. Still human enough to know the difference between justice and murder.
"...yeah." My voice came out rough. "It's over."
"I YIELD!"
Riser's scream broke the moment.
The Rating Game system finally responded - whether because I'd stopped advancing, or because the rules required verbal confirmation, I didn't know.
"Riser Phenex has surrendered. Winner: Rias Gremory."
Light consumed the arena. The Rating Game dimension dissolved around us, returning us to reality.
But the echo didn't fade.
"Interesting," the Fragment observed. "You stopped. Why?"
Because it would have been murder.
"He's a devil. You're a devil. Murder is... flexible."
I'm not him.
The thought came with less certainty than before.
"No. You're not. But you carry pieces of him. And pieces have weight."
Dohnaseek's instincts still churned beneath my thoughts. The satisfaction of violence. The contempt for weakness. The cold certainty that power existed to dominate.
I'd stopped. This time.
But the echo was stronger than before. And somewhere in the darkness, the Fragment was pleased.
"I YIELD!"
The words still echoed as reality reasserted itself. Riser on his knees. Rias standing victorious. The underworld's nobles watching in shocked silence.
We'd won.
But something in my chest whispered that the real battle was just beginning.