The final, pathetic plea echoed in the stunned silence of the viewing chamber. On the dozen monitors that had displayed the brutal, bloody ballet, the fight was over. The red-eyed demon stood over the broken form of the immortal phoenix.
people were standing in their position rooted .
The laughter came first. It was a raw, cathartic wave of relief from Rias's battered peerage. Issei, despite his injuries, let out a whooping cheer, tears of joy and relief streaming down his face , celebrating with asia. Kiba leaned against a wall, a pained but triumphant smile on his lips. Akeno's laughter was a low, satisfied purr, while Koneko allowed a rare, small smile to grace her features. They had won. They had endured hell and won.
The crying came from the other side of the room. Riser's peerage, who had watched their proud, seemingly invincible master be systematically and brutally dismantled, huddled together. Tears of sorrow and empathy flowed freely as they saw the agonizing pain he had been forced to endure. They didn't see a defeated lord; they saw a master they cared for, broken.
But most, the most powerful and influential among them, were silent.
They were silent because none of them had expected to witness a fight so raw, so pure .
Sona Sitri stared at her monitor, her face a mask of cold, intellectual disapproval. She was repulsed. To her, this wasn't a display of strength, but a regression. To see a sentient being, a human, behave with such animalistic ferocity was antithetical to her belief in order and intellect. A man should be above the beast, not embrace it so completely.
Lord Phenex, Riser's father, was a statue of stone, but his mind was a maelstrom. He couldn't fathom his son fighting for so long, so desperately. Beside him, Lady Phenex, his wife, was weeping silently, her hand covering her mouth. After so many years, she had finally seen her youngest child push past his arrogance, to find a sliver of true strength, only to have it so utterly denied and crushed. Lord Phenex looked at the smiling, blood-soaked face of Jin Kazama on the screen and thought, with a grim finality, *Alas, my son has met a monster.*
Lord Gremory, Rias's father, also couldn't believe his eyes. He struggled to reconcile the image on the screen with the spoiled princess he had known. The Rias he saw today was a Kings. She had led her peerage, she had fought with courage, and most shockingly, she had made a choice he had considered shameful. The inclusion of a human, which he had feared would bring him eternal disgrace, had instead proven to be a mark of his daughter's sound judgment. He never imagined Rias would encounter such a person.
And then there was Sirzechs Lucifer. The Crimson Satan had watched the entire fight with an unreadable expression. But as Jin stood victorious, his body healing, his grin feral and triumphant, Sirzechs felt something stir within him. It was a feeling he had not experienced in centuries, a deep, primal wanting. A desire. Not for a thing, not for a territory, but for a person.
He wanted Jin Kazama in his peerage.
Grayfia, standing behind him, knew her master and husband better than anyone. She felt the shift in his aura, saw the new, acquisitive light in his eyes. She spoke softly, her voice a gentle anchor to reality, fulfilling her role as both his Queen and his wife.
"It will be hard to acquire him, my lord. He is… stubborn."
Sirzechs' gaze shifted to her, acknowledging the wisdom in her words—a gentle warning against the sin of greed that could consume even a Satan. "Yes," he said, his voice a low rumble.
Their moment was broken as Riser's final, begging words echoed once more. A flicker of disappointment passed through the silent observers. They understood his breaking, but it was still a slightly ignominious end to such a spectacular battle.
Grayfia, ever the professional, acted. Her voice, calm and official, rang out through the system. "Lord Riser Phenex has forfeited the match. The winner of this Rating Game is the House of Gremory."
She made a gesture, and Riser's broken form vanished from the area in a flash of light.
The tension in the viewing chamber finally broke. People took a collective breath, stabilizing themselves to deal with the necessary next steps. Lord Gremory and Lord Phenex, their faces grim but business-like, moved to a private area to formally dissolve the marriage contract. Riser's peerage let out a quiet sigh of relief that their master's suffering was over. Lady Phenex and Lady Gremory, united for a moment as mothers, began to make their way to the teleportation chamber where their children would soon emerge.
Sona began furiously typing, analyzing every moment of the fight, trying to fit this chaotic, brutal data into her ordered worldview.
But Sirzechs Lucifer just stood there, his gaze still fixed on the screen displaying the now-empty area, his mind already calculating the first move in a much different, much more difficult game