Chapter 13: The Burning of the School and the Plucking of the Phoenix
The sky over Kuoh Academy had turned an artificial, sickly shade of violet. In the dimensional gap, the school was no longer a place of learning; it was a chessboard.
The Gremory and Phoenix circles flared in the central courtyard, vomiting two distinct armies into the arena. On one side stood Riser, draped in fire and arrogance, his fifteen pieces fanned out behind him like a peacock's tail. On the other, Rias stood with her back straight, her hands trembling not with fear, but with the weight of the gamble Lucian had forced upon her.
Lucian himself didn't join the line-up. He was already gone.
Leaning against the entrance of the gymnasium, his three-tailed fox familiar, Tamamo, draped over his shoulders like a living scarf, Lucian watched the ley lines. During his prep week, he hadn't just studied books; he had studied the school's infrastructure. He knew every copper pipe, every stone pillar, and every magical vein running beneath the concrete.
"The board is set, Tamamo," Lucian whispered, his fingers tracing a faint rune carved into the gym's brickwork.
"Are you sure about this, Master?" the fox asked, her tails twitching as she sensed the skyrocketing heat from Riser's presence. "If the triggers fail, we aren't just losing a game. You're becoming a bird-cage ornament."
"Then let's hope I'm better at math than Riser is at humility."
Phase 1: The Phoenix's Opening Gambit
Riser didn't believe in subtlety. "End this quickly! Burn them out of their own home!"
At his command, a dozen Pawns erupted in flames, charging across the courtyard. The air hissed as fireballs rained down.
"Issei, take the front! Kiba, flank!" Rias commanded, her voice cutting through the roar of the flames.
The battle unfolded with the brutal choreography of the anime. Kiba was a silver blur, his [Holy Eraser] swords shattering the fire-constructs of the Phoenix Pawns. Akeno soared above, her priestess robes fluttering as she rained down jagged bolts of holy lightning.
"Ara ara, you're quite warm, aren't you?" she teased, her eyes cold as she neutralized the aerial support.
Issei, however, was struggling. "Dammit! There's too many of them! [BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]" He charged a group of three Pawns, but their synchronized fire-wall sent him skidding back across the tiles.
"Lucian! Where are you?!" Issei roared, coughing as smoke filled his lungs.
Lucian, watching from the library rooftop, didn't move. He wasn't a soldier; he was the architect. "Wait for it," he muttered. "Six... seven... eight."
As the Phoenix team pushed the Gremory front line back toward the gymnasium, eight of Riser's pieces crossed a specific threshold—a line of motion-triggered micro-runes Lucian had etched into the tiles days prior.
[Trigger: Spatial Distortion - Maze of the Mind]
Suddenly, the Phoenix Pawns stopped. To the Gremory team, they were just standing there, looking confused. But to the Phoenixes, the world had shifted. The hallways stretched into infinity; their allies appeared as enemies; the very ground felt like it was liquid.
"What is this?!" Yubelluna, the Bomb Queen, narrowed her eyes from the rear. "An illusion? No... it's a spatial loop!"
The advance stalled. The Phoenix formation broke.
"Now, Issei!" Lucian's voice rang out through the school's PA system, a touch of mockery in his tone. "The trash is waiting to be collected!"
Phase 2: The Binding of the Flame
With the Phoenix team disoriented, the counterattack was surgical.
Kiba blitzed through the confused Pawns, his blades dancing. Issei, finding his opening, roared a battle cry that was 90% hormone and 10% adrenaline. "FOR BUCHOU'S FREEDOM! [EXPLOSION!]" He delivered a boosted punch to the Phoenix Bishop, the impact shattering the illusion and the Bishop's ribs simultaneously.
"One down," Lucian noted. He wasn't stealing kills; he was providing the openings.
Whenever a Phoenix member tried to regroup, Lucian activated the second layer. Invisible threads of mana, coated in fire-reactive seals, surged from the gymnasium pillars. They didn't burn the enemies; they drained them. Every time a Phoenix devil used fire magic, the threads tightened, feeding on the heat to fuel the binding.
"It's like a cage made of our own power!" one of the Phoenix Knights screamed as the mana-wires wrapped around his wrists, grounding his magic.
Phase 3: The King Descends
Riser had seen enough. "TRICKS! NOTHING BUT COWARDLY TRICKS!"
The roof of the main building erupted. Riser Phoenix descended like a falling star, his wings spanning twenty feet, trailing white-hot embers. He landed in the center of the courtyard with such force that the spatial runes shattered instantly.
He ignored Issei. He ignored Rias. His eyes locked onto the library rooftop where Lucian stood.
"You," Riser hissed, his voice a jagged edge. "You're the rat pulling the strings. You think a few strings and stickers can hold a Phenex? I'll burn the very concept of you out of existence!"
Riser blurred. He was too fast for Lucian to track with normal eyes.
[Copy: Soul-Anchor Seal - 30% Output]
Lucian threw his hands forward. The purple geometric seal he had copied from the Underworld specialist manifested in mid-air. It hit Riser in full flight.
The Immortal Phoenix jerked to a halt, frozen in time for exactly five seconds. His flames turned a dull, frozen grey.
"Now! Rias!" Lucian shouted, his nose beginning to bleed.
But Riser was a High-Class Devil. Five seconds was his limit. "IS THAT ALL?!"
With a roar of pure, unfiltered ego, Riser shattered the seal. The backlash hit Lucian like a physical hammer. He was thrown backward, crashing through the library window and smashing through two interior walls before slamming into a chalkboard.
"LUCIAN!" Rias's scream echoed through the school.
Phase 4: The 30-Second Destruction
Lucian slumped against the wall, coughing up blood. His vision was swimming. Riser stepped through the hole in the wall, his hands glowing with a heat so intense the air itself was warping.
"You're a clever little devil, Lucian Gremory," Riser said, standing over him. "But cleverness doesn't survive the sun."
Lucian looked up, a bloody grin on his face. "Tamamo... move."
The fox leapt from his shoulder. Lucian's eyes didn't just turn red—they turned a void-like black with a pulsing purple core.
[Surgical Destruction: Synchronization Collapse]
Lucian didn't aim for Riser's heart. He aimed for the "nodes"—the metaphysical points where Riser's immortality was tied to his peerage and his family's ancient crest.
"Thirty seconds," Lucian wheezed. "That's all I need."
Thin, needle-like strands of Power of Destruction shot from Lucian's fingertips. They pierced Riser's shoulders and knees. They didn't explode; they dissolved. They began eating the very "concept" of Riser's regeneration.
"What... what is this?!" Riser staggered. He tried to heal, but the flames flickered and died. The purple energy was acting like a virus, rewriting his biology to refuse the fire.
"20 seconds," Lucian counted, his skin beginning to crack under the pressure of the mana. "15..."
Riser screamed in frustration, his power plummeting. Outside, the "Phoenix Network" collapsed. Yubelluna felt it first—her strength, which was tied to Riser's King-piece, began to drain away. The "Queen" boost vanished. Her wounds from Akeno's lightning stopped closing.
"10 seconds..." Lucian's eyes were bleeding now. "5... 0."
Lucian collapsed, his mana circuits completely fried. He fell into a heap, unconscious before he hit the floor.
Phase 5: The Final Blow
Riser stood shaking, his regeneration stalled, his pride shattered. He was vulnerable.
"RISER!" Issei's voice was a thunderclap.
The Red Dragon Emperor charged, his armor gleaming in the dying light of the dimensional gap. With Riser's regeneration crippled by Lucian's surgical strike, every punch Issei landed stayed.
[BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! TRANSFER!]
Issei funneled everything into Rias. The Heiress of Gremory stood before the weakened Phoenix, her hands glowing with a massive, swirling orb of Destruction.
"This is for my family," Rias said, her voice trembling with emotion. "And for my Bishop."
The blast consumed the courtyard. When the smoke cleared, Riser Phoenix lay face-down in the dirt, his clothes in tatters, his immortality failing him for the first time in centuries.
The Aftermath: The Price of Loss
The Game was over. Rias Gremory had won.
But as the Phenex family arrived to collect their humiliated son, Riser did one last, spiteful thing. He looked at Yubelluna, who was kneeling in the dirt, exhausted and depowered.
"You were inefficient," Riser spat, his voice a pathetic croak. "You let a branch-member dismantle our network. I won't have a Queen who fails me."
Before the officials could intervene, Riser used his King's authority to dissolve her position in his peerage. He didn't just trade her; he stripped her. He routed the remaining "Phoenix Essence" from her body back into himself to speed up his own healing, leaving her cold, weak, and abandoned.
"She is your problem now, Gremory," Riser sneered as his father dragged him into a teleportation circle.
Yubelluna sat in the grass, her flames gone, her eyes vacant. She was no longer a Queen. She was a woman without a home, transferred via a contract to a boy she had just tried to kill.
The Recovery
Lucian woke up two days later in the Kuoh infirmary. His entire body felt like it had been tenderized by a giant.
"You're an idiot."
Lucian turned his head slowly to see Rias sitting by his bed. Her eyes were red from crying, but her expression was one of absolute fury.
"I won," Lucian croaked.
"You almost died!" Rias shouted, then immediately burst into tears, throwing herself onto his chest and hugging him so hard his ribs groaned. "Don't you ever do that again! Do you hear me?! I don't care about the contract, I don't care about the house—don't you dare leave me!"
"I'm... still here, Rias," Lucian whispered, patting her head awkwardly.
The door opened, and Grayfia stepped in. Her face was a mask of cold perfection, but the tray she was carrying was shaking. She walked to the bed, looked at Lucian, and for a split second, her composure shattered. She leaned down and hugged him, her silver hair spilling over his face.
"You reckless, foolish boy," she whispered into his ear. "Sirzechs-sama is beyond furious. He said he will 'fry you alive' when you return to the Underworld."
She pulled back, her face returning to its stoic mask, and abruptly stuffed a warm, steamed bun into Lucian's mouth. "Eat. You need to recover. You have a new 'assistant' waiting for you in the hallway, and she looks as miserable as you do."
Tamamo curled up at the foot of the bed, one eye opening to look at the chaotic Gremory family. She let out a soft fox-sigh and went back to sleep.
The bird was plucked. The Queen was taken. And Lucian Gremory had officially survived his first war.