A week had passed since Riser and Altair last spoke. Both young men were now standing in a large arena.
For the Rating Games, a location was selected —either created from scratch or inspired by a real place —and brought to life with magic. In a regular Rating Game, no one died; the arena transported the contestants away after they received a certain amount of damage.
Altair couldn't see anyone around him. However, he knew that thousands of devils and other creatures were watching at that moment, including his coven, Lyra, Lily, and the newest member of his peerage: Bellatrix. Even Daphne should be looking.
He turned his mother into a devil after receiving confirmation from Lily. The redhead was there when Altair used a pawn on his mother. The result was a complete success. At the end of the day, Bellatrix was pain-free. And she was strong. Fucking strong. Her UL was around 260,000.
Altair looked at the arena created.
It was Hogwarts. The massive castle had been selected as the setting for the fight. It was a reasonably faithful replica of the original. It imitated it almost perfectly. The only thing it failed to imitate was its magic. The atmosphere felt too mundane to be Hogwarts.
"Devils and she-devils!" Altair heard a commentator say. Suddenly, he felt a headache coming on just from the loud tone of his voice. "Today, we have a duel between gentlemen. Between the two most lustful men in the underworld!" Altair was sure there was laughter or uncomfortable giggling among those present.
"On one side, we have the third son of the Phenex, the proud phoenix: Riser Phenex!" he shouted wildly.
Altair looked at Riser, staring at him from his position; he was dead serious. The comments without the ovation really lost a lot of their presence. It was as if the commentator was talking to himself.
"On the other side, we have the most brazen panty thief in the underworld. Son of lust. Altair Asmodeus!" Altair easily noticed the difference in enthusiasm between each of the presentations.
"The battlefield will be a small school for wizards and witches in Scotland: Hogwarts!" he said without much enthusiasm.
"The players will be transported to their positions," the host announced.
"I'm going to burn your—"
"Silencio," said Altair, watching the blond's mouth continue to move while no sound came out of it.
Altair found his starting place among trees and undergrowth. He had been randomly sent to the forbidden forest; there was no other option. He wondered if the wildlife there would be the same as at Hogwarts. He began walking toward the castle.
He moved from tree to tree for several minutes.
"And... the descendant of an original Satan is hiding?" The commentator was on Altair's blacklist.
He had been walking for quite some time, but he couldn't find the way out of the forest. The trees towered high, and he was guided only by the position of the sun. Unless even that had changed, he was heading to a completely different place.
"Ascendio," he said as he raised his wand. In an instant, he found himself at the top of a tree. He looked at Hogwarts, a small dot in the distance. They had sent him so far away.
With a snap, he disappeared from the tree and appeared on top of another. Now the castle was completely in view. Another appearance, and he was on the grounds of Hogwarts. He wondered where Riser was. 'Did they send him to the forest too?' he wondered. But most likely, he was in Dumbledore's office, enjoying Lemon's fucking drops.
Altair cast a spell into the sky, announcing his presence. A massive explosion of fireworks consumed the sky.
"It seems he has finally stopped hiding and decided to face Riser Phenex!" the commentator said with joy in his voice.
'He's coming,' Altair said to himself.
In the distance, a huge flame was growing larger and larger. A man with enormous wings of fire on his back was approaching rapidly.
Glacius.
An icy current, accompanied by mist, shot out from the tip of his wand. Under equal conditions, water would always overcome ice. After all, it took considerably more energy to evaporate water than to extinguish a flame.
The spell Altair cast created a current of icy air with the ability to freeze objects. That blizzard could be used to extinguish fire with excellent efficiency.
Altair wanted to minimize his use of his Sacred Gear. Keeping that card up his sleeve would be best for him.
The fire around Riser diminished upon contact with the Glacius. Only to flare up even more intensely as the phoenix man drew closer and closer to Altair.
'He doesn't even seem like Riser.' That aura and magic felt different from the cocky man he had known before. Stronger and more focused, without a doubt. He poured more magic into his spell, and the currents intensified. His goal was to rob the flames of oxygen so they would go out. That would force the man to use only magic to create fire.
Normally, he could harness the natural elements to power his attacks, but without those resources, he would have to resort to his magic. The Phenex have incredible resilience, limited only by their magic. That's why Altair sought to make him expend as much magic as possible.
Altair jumped several meters backward. Debris flew from the spot where he had been seconds before. The grass burned in seconds, releasing a thin layer of steam.
"It's Riser who's pushing Altair back!" The comments went in one ear and out the other.
Riser threw powerful flames, but far from his body, they were not as potent, and a Glacius served to weaken them. Riser walked, his footsteps sinking into the earth. His gaze was serious, not the haughty one he should have had.
An explosion under his feet, and he launched himself at full speed towards Altair.
"Arresto momentum," Altair spat with some difficulty, the speed surprising him. Riser's body slowed down, allowing him to dodge with difficulty. "Bombarda maxima!" he said verbally and Aceleratio momentum without opening his lips, casting both spells at once. He learned that from his mother.
His wand touched Riser's chest.
Arresto momentum slowed the target's speed, while Acceleratio momentum increased it. Altair took advantage of the Phenex's momentum as it lunged at him: he stopped it, spun with the momentum, and, in the same movement, slammed a direct explosion into its chest as he accelerated Riser.
Altair had never imagined Hogwarts so destroyed. When Riser's body hit the castle, the explosion destroyed much of the surrounding area. Two large towers fell. Altair looked into the distance. Riser's body was regenerating. He had shattered his ribs.
A standard wizard couldn't cause that much damage with those spells. But Altair infused each one with an enormous amount of magic and threw them with enough force to damage high-class devils.
The sky lit up. There, countless lights began to take shape. Soon, a meteor shower fell toward Altair. Altair appeared above the black lake, cast a bubble head spell to breathe, and sank into the water.
He felt the currents of water move him. In the darkness of the lake, he saw a bright light. Steam rose from the water. He teleported to the surface of the water.
Glacius.
Again, this time he focused the spell on freezing the water from the surface to the lake's depths. He didn't freeze the entire lake, but only the part where Riser was.
The water, which had been boiling, gradually cooled until a layer of ice began to form and spread beneath the surface. Altair applied more magic, and the ice spread.
Honestly, he was having a hard time keeping the devil at bay. Ice was quite the opposite of fire, which was the element his Sacred Gear granted him.
He had noticed that Riser seemed quite eager to finish everything quickly. That was surprising, considering that a long-term battle suited the Phenex, as it was better suited for a grueling endurance battle.
'The devils started trading blows with the mages... No, that can't be possible, right?' The idea irritated him.
"And Altair needs the help of a lake to immobilize his opponent!" The comments cursed Altair.
'Does the narrator have wife, mother, sister or daughters?', Altair wondered.