90: Chapter 90

The peak of High-Class Devil—and above that, is the Ultimate-Class Devil—

Just as the expressions on the faces of Rias Gremory and Himejima Suzaku grew increasingly grim, Riser Phenex forcibly took a step up from High-Class Devil to the initial stage of the Ultimate-Class Devil.

In an instant.

The mere pressure of that aura made Rias Gremory and Himejima Suzaku feel a tightness in their chests, making it difficult to breathe.

"Nirvana," is it...

From Himejima Suzaku's words, Rias Gremory finally understood what had happened to Riser Phenex.

It was not strange that Himejima Suzaku knew this.

After all, the Vermilion Bird Spirit Beast and the Phoenix were natural enemies, and they knew each other's secrets clearly. Besides, how many contractors like them had been killed by the Phenex Clan?

The person who knows you best is often your enemy.

"Quick! President, attack together!"

Himejima Suzaku shouted.

"The Nirvana has just been completed, and his power is at its weakest and most unstable right now; we still have a chance to turn the tables!"

As soon as the words fell.

Rias Gremory reacted immediately, launching an attack simultaneously with Himejima Suzaku.

Without holding anything back, they unleashed all the power they could use. To hold back at a time like this would be utter stupidity.

The orange firelight and the crimson flames collided and intertwined in mid-air.

The sky shook in all directions, with rumbling sounds coming in waves.

With the ruins of the old school building as the center, the ground cracked with layers of fissures that spread continuously in all directions.

"Rias Gremory..."

Akeno Himejima had been desperately blocking the attacks of Yubelluna and her peerage.

Having just dodged an attack from Ravel Phenex, she couldn't help but glance in the direction of Rias Gremory, her eyes filled with worry.

"Daring to be distracted while fighting us, you really look down on people too much."

A massive magic circle blasted towards Akeno Himejima head-on.

Akeno Himejima's expression changed, and she immediately mobilized the power of lightning to counterattack, while simultaneously rapidly retreating several steps.

Just as she had anticipated.

The attacks from the four Pawn pieces had already landed where she had been standing, as precise as if they had been timed perfectly.

"Tch."

Ravel Phenex watched as Akeno Himejima once again nimbly dodged their joint attack, and she began to feel anxious.

If they could have finished off Lady Rias Gremory's Queen sooner, perhaps her brother wouldn't have been in such a rush to use Nirvana.

...

"Rias Gremory, it's useless!"

The combined offensive launched by Rias Gremory and Himejima Suzaku was completely blocked by Riser Phenex.

Although his aura was still unstable, he had indeed stepped into the realm of the Ultimate-Class Devil.

There is an insurmountable chasm between the High-Class and the Ultimate-Class.

Not everyone is like Luo Yu or Cao Cao, carrying a Sacred Gear and able to easily kill those of a higher level.

The Phoenix flames exploding from Riser Phenex surged toward Rias Gremory and Himejima Suzaku, layer after layer, covering the sky and earth.

The two of them hurriedly dodged. Just as they avoided it, they heard a "bang" in their ears, as if something had shattered.

"Riser Phenex, what are you doing? Why are you destroying the Rating Game's teleportation mechanism without authorization?"

Sona's voice, filled with anger, exploded throughout the different dimension.

Rias Gremory and Himejima Suzaku didn't know what that voice was about, but she knew clearly.

Riser Phenex's attack just now had directly shattered a rule of the Rating Game within the different dimension.

Now, even if they suffered a fatal wound and were on the verge of death, they wouldn't be teleported out like Koneko and the other one.

"Sorry, Sona, it was just an accident."

Riser Phenex replied perfunctorily, with no trace of apology on his face. "This power of the Ultimate-Class Devil is a bit bloated; I couldn't control it for a moment."

But the firm killing intent in his eyes was by no means an "accident."

"Riser Phenex, you had better not do something you will regret."

Sona gave a final warning.

Her sister, Serafall, had given her a few pointers, and she had almost guessed what Riser Phenex wanted to do.

But guessing it was useless.

They couldn't use this as a reason to interrupt the Rating Game, right?

That would be too much of a joke.

The Phenex Clan would certainly not agree. Their family's third young master had even thrown in Nirvana; without a valid reason, even if she were the sister of the Demon King Serafall, she had no authority to call a stop.

Riser Phenex curled his lips in disdain.

Even if the Gremory Clan valued emotions, would they really make a big fuss over a peerage member who "accidentally died" in the game?

"Filthy things should just disappear."

Riser Phenex grinned, revealing a ferocious smile.

The Phoenix's flames scorched half the sky, changing its color as if intending to roast the entire firmament.

Even the barrier of this temporarily constructed different dimension began to ripple, with faint signs of being melted through.

This space was originally intended as a battlefield for High-Class Devils; no one expected a combat power at the level of the Ultimate-Class Devil to appear.

In the blink of an eye, the sky full of flames suddenly turned into countless meteors, smashing down frantically.

"Suzaku, watch out!"

Rias Gremory's expression changed suddenly.

She realized—this move by Riser Phenex was not aimed at her at all. The dense fire meteors, over ninety percent of the firepower, were all locked onto Himejima Suzaku; what fell on her side were merely a few residual flames used to block the path.

In the stands, the current heads of those Pure-Blooded Devil families were not surprised at all by Riser Phenex's actions.

From the moment he forcibly broke the game rules with Nirvana, his goal had been very clear—to kill the contractor of the Vermilion Bird Spirit Beast.

Koneko and Bennia, who had been teleported out of the battlefield, were so nervous that they dared not even blink.

Sona sighed in her heart.

Things were heading in the worst possible direction.

If something really happened, she simply dared not imagine—if Himejima Suzaku were to meet with any misfortune, how Luo Yu would uproot the Phenex Clan.

"Just die here completely, Vermilion Bird Spirit Beast!"

After shaking off Rias Gremory, the ferocious look on Riser Phenex's face was completely exposed.

Killing intent radiated outwards without any concealment.

He engaged in close-quarters combat with Himejima Suzaku, every move aimed at taking her life, leaving no room for mercy.

Himejima Suzaku, who was already at a disadvantage, was beaten back repeatedly, only able to desperately dodge fatal blows.

"Riser Phenex, stop it!"

Rias Gremory finally saw it clearly—the Phenex Clan intended to wipe them out completely. Suzaku was her person, and she would absolutely not allow such a thing to happen!

She wanted to rush over to save her, but having taken only two steps, Riser Phenex's Phoenix flames smashed over with precision, forcibly driving her back.

"Trouble..."

Himejima Suzaku, who was hard-resisting Riser Phenex's fierce attack, was already bleeding.

Riser Phenex's aura surged violently, breaking through directly to the level of the Ultimate-Class Devil.

The Phoenix flames on his body surged and rose, almost suppressing the Suzaku Fire to the point of extinction.

Bang!

A punch smashed down.

Himejima Suzaku tried her best to block, deflecting most of the power, but her two arms were still burned by the Phoenix flames, tearing her skin and flesh.

That brutal force sent her flying, slamming her hard onto the ground fifty meters away.

Rias Gremory clenched her teeth, wanting to rush up to help her block. But she hadn't even gotten close.

"Rias Gremory, just stay there."

Riser Phenex waved his hand casually.

The ground shook violently, as if something was about to crawl out from underneath.

Boom—

A wall of fire broke through the ground, trapping Rias Gremory inside, and the scorching flames wrapped tightly around her like a cage.

"Damn it!"

The wall of fire formed by the Phoenix flames emitted an astonishingly high temperature; sweat beaded on Rias Gremory's forehead, and her entire face was roasted bright red.

She bit her lip, continuously blasting attacks condensed from the Power of Destruction, smashing them hard against the wall of fire.

In terms of power level, the Power of Destruction of the Demon King's family was indeed stronger than the Phoenix flames of the Phenex Clan.

But the problem was that Rias Gremory could not yet control this power.

Her control over the Power of Destruction was too inexperienced, and the power she could unleash was simply not enough. All the attacks that hit that wall of fire were unceremoniously swallowed up.

"I really didn't expect that you could actually survive the last great purge."

Riser Phenex's voice rang out slowly.

"But you should not, by any means, have appeared before me again. Still want to rebuild the Himejima Clan? Still want to let the bloodline of that Vermilion Bird continue?"

Himejima Suzaku's expression changed instantly.

She widened her eyes, staring fixedly at Riser Phenex, her voice trembling: "It was you who did it?!"

After Luo Yu wiped out the elders, high-level officials, and most of the members of the Himejima Clan that time, he still left behind a group of children.

Those children had not participated in the assassination of Aunt Shuri at all; they were all innocent.

No matter how cold-blooded Luo Yu was, he wouldn't go so far as to kill children.

As for whether they would come to seek revenge in the future, Luo Yu didn't care at all. If they dared to come, they just needed to be prepared to die.

But things were not that simple.

After Luo Yu destroyed the Himejima Clan, Himejima Suzaku had taken those children and fled for a few days, but suddenly a group of mysterious people appeared and dealt them a fatal blow.

Things were already miserable enough, and this was adding insult to injury. Almost all the children were killed. Only one or two remained, and they had survived only because she had protected them with her life.

Himejima Suzaku had originally thought that it was those exorcist families in the Far East who, taking advantage of the Himejima Clan's downfall, had come to cut weeds and eliminate roots, and to steal the heritage.

Such things were too common over there; the infighting among exorcist families was always vicious.

But she never imagined—that the ones who did it were actually the Phenex Clan of the Underworld.

Once this truth was dropped, her mind was full of fire, burning so intensely that she couldn't think of anything.

Her eye sockets were red and burning hot, and even the Suzaku Fire within her body went berserk along with her emotions, blazing fiercely.

"You... deserve... to die!"

She gritted her teeth, squeezing out the words one by one, her voice full of killing intent.

Riser Phenex, however, didn't take her anger seriously at all, saying lightly: "The only one who will die here today is you. The last contractor of the Vermilion Bird Spirit Beast should also be cut off today."

In his view, whether it was Himejima Suzaku or Rias Gremory, they were already fish in a barrel. Two High-Class Devils, what kind of waves could they still make?

Rias Gremory hadn't expected that Suzaku was carrying such a burden.

The disgust she felt for the Phenex Clan suddenly surged—not even sparing children who had no ability to resist, they were indeed worthy of being Pure-Blooded Devils. Cold-blooded to such a degree.

She also began to worry whether Suzaku would be impulsive.

Riser Phenex was clearly trying to provoke her; she must not be led by the nose by anger and do something that couldn't be undone.

Rias Gremory's mind raced, even wondering if she should just admit defeat. This Rating Game was fundamentally unfair, and continuing to fight was meaningless.

Just at this moment—the flames on Suzaku's body suddenly extinguished.

Riser Phenex spoke mockingly: "What? Ready to die? Or is it that your Suzaku Fire can't hold on anymore?"

Himejima Suzaku didn't say a word.

She just stared fixedly at Riser Phenex with those eyes that looked at a dead person. It made Riser Phenex feel uncomfortable all over.

The flames suddenly spread out, and the entire different dimension was instantly burned into a sea of crimson.