Summary[]
Issei Hyoudou barges into Rias Gremory and Riser Phenex's engagement party in order to save Rias from the engagement that was arranged without her choice, as he battles Riser for Rias' future.
Prelude[]
Rias Gremory was arranged to marry Riser Phenex due to an agreement between their parents. Rias, who wanted to marry for love and not an because of obligation or an agreement, wanted to cancel her engagement as she and Riser agreed to have a Rating Game match to settle the matter, with Rias being forced to marry immediately if Riser won or the engagement being canceled if Rias won.
During the match, Rias' peerage put up a valiant fight as they were able to retire nearly all of Riser's servants except 2 (Yubelluna and Ravel) and Riser himself, but ultimately lost due to their lower manpower, with Issei continuing to fight Riser even after reaching his limit as Rias forfeited the game to save Issei.
After waking up from his injuries that he obtained in the Rating Game, Issei finds out from Grayfia that Rias and Riser's engagement would soon happen. He also finds out from her that only Asia had not gone to the ceremony due to staying behind at Rias request to take care of Issei's injuries. Ashamed and frustrated, Issei began to cry and lose hope, until Grayfia gives him a teleportation paper, that will allow him to go to the Underworld.
Asia then comes in, and Issei tell her of his plan to go down to the Underworld and bring Rias back. Asia offers to come with but Issei tells her to stay at the Hyoudou Residence where it would be safe. Asia agrees and Issei leaves, but not before asking Asia to bring him something from his room, which she does. Issei then enters the magical transport circle, where he begins talking with Ddraig.
Issei then enters the place where the engagement party is, and declares his desire to bring Rias back with him. The guards try to step in and stop him, but they are stopped by the other Gremory team members; Kiba, Akeno and Koneko.
Sirzechs then appears, telling everyone that he was the one who gave Issei the means to get him here. Sirzechs then explains that he wanted Issei to go against Riser, in a battle of Dragon vs Phenex, in a battle of whether or not Rias will remain engaged to Riser. Riser agrees as Riser and Issei begin their fight in the centre hall, having all the devils watch it.
History[]
At the beginning of the battle, Riser begins to mock Issei by stating that he knew all of the Boosted Gear's abilities. Issei simply looked at Rias, and states that he will finish the fight in less then ten seconds. Issei then promotes to Queen, and by sacrificing his left arm, temporarily activates his Balance Breaker: Boosted Gear Scale Mail.
Issei builds up his demonic aura, and blasts it at Riser, who is able to evade it. Issei then tries to hit him in the air, only to crash into a wall. Riser then uses his fire to cover himself up. Issei launches at Riser, using his demonic energy, and the two's fists collide with each other, cancelling out each others attacks.
Issei is then able to get a hit on Riser, using the cross, which he reveals he had gotten from Asia. Riser then builds up his demonic energy and launches another attack, Issei does this as well and they clash once again, and once again their attacks are cancelled, but Issei loses his armor, as he had used too much power.
Riser then confidently walks to Issei and begins to choke him, only to have Issei reveal another holy object in his possession, Holy Water. Issei then Boosts the holy water so that even a High-Class Devil would be affected by it, and then uses it on Riser, extinguishing his flames and weakening his Immortality. Issei then uses both the holy cross and holy water at the same time and punches Riser directly in the face, knocking him out and ending the battle.
Conclusion[]
After defeating Riser, the engagement gets canceled; Issei goes to Rias and tells her that they can leave, as he takes Rias' hand. He then takes out the paper that Grayfia had gave him and uses it to summon a griffin that he and Rias leave on.
Zeoticus Gremory apologizes to Lord Phenex for how the engagement turned out but Lord Phenex stated that he didn't mind as he wanted to thank Issei for helping teach his son humility as the two discussed the fact that Issei as the Red Dragon Emperor came to the Devil's side, and it was only a matter of time until the White Dragon Emperor appeared as the two would clash.
On top of the griffin, Rias is thankful to Issei for rescuing her while feeling sorrowful for the fact that he had to give up his arm to do so. As she worried that another engagement would be brought up and that he would get more hurt if he tries to rescue her, Issei responded that if a new engagement comes, he will give his other arm or his eye as he will keep on saving her due to being her Pawn. Fully falling in love with him, Rias gives Issei her first kiss as they return to the human world.
Due to wanting to deepen her relationship with Issei, Rias moves into the Hyoudou Residence, with Issei's parents happily obliging.
The battle at the engagement party left a significant impression among the devils gathered as the Gremory Clan was criticized by the other Devil clans for breaking off the engagement as the engagements between households were an important and ancient tradition among Devils, with some of them gossiping behind the Gremory clan's back.
However, due to Issei's splendid battle performance against Riser, which included demonstrating his Balance Breaker, his evaluation among Devils rose. After Kokabiel's attack and Yuuto Kiba's own increased evaluation, Rias was granted permission from the higher-ups to unseal her first Bishop: Gasper Vladi.
After observing the battle and Issei defeating her brother, Riser's sister, Ravel Phenex, also fell in love with Issei as she began having regular contact with him each time, he would visit the Underworld and was traded to her mother from Riser so that she could eventually be traded to Issei after he became a high-class Devil and obtained his own peerage. She would also move into the Hyoudou Residence and attend Kuoh Academy in order to grow closer to him.
Rias' Queen, Akeno Himejima, also developed an attraction to Issei as she would try to seduce him at various times while attempting to further his relationship with Rias. She would later fully fall in love with him before the peace conference of the Three Factions.
Participants[]
Gremory Peerage[]
| Name | Information |
|---|---|
| Issei Hyoudou | The Pawn servant Devil of Rias Gremory and the Red Dragon Emperor. He was defeated by Riser during their Rating Game due to reaching his limit after fighting Riser's servants. He later came to the Underworld to take back Rias as he was forced to fight Riser again to determine the fate of Rias' engagement, as he defeated Riser and took Rias back. |
Phenex Clan[]
| Name | Information |
|---|---|
| Riser Phenex | The third son of the Phenex Clan and fiancé of Rias Gremory. He was supposed to marry Rias due to an agreement by their families as he fought in a Rating Game to determine the fate of the engagement, with him winning the game as Rias surrendered to save Issei. During the engagement party, he was forced to fight Issei again as Issei wanted to take Rias back, with Sirzechs Lucifer requesting that the two fight as a show for the engagement, with Riser being defeated by Issei. |
Other[]
| Name | Information |
|---|---|
| Rias Gremory | The King of the Gremory Peerage and master of Issei as well as the fiancée of Riser Phenex. She wanted to cancel her engagement with Riser due to wanting to marry out of love, as she and Riser were given the option of settling the matter of the engagement with a Rating Game. While training for the match, she began developing feelings for Issei. During the match, she fought against Riser but decided to forfeit the match after Issei was being pummeled by Riser in order to save his life. She later attended the engagement party as she watch the battle between Issei and Riser. After Issei's victory, she left with him on a griffin as she fully fell in love with him and gave him her first kiss. She later moved into his house to grow closer to him. |