The Duel (TWDM Chap 30)

“The duel will be starting shortly, Azuma Kaito,” A gorgeous woman with long, silver hair spoke at the doorway to the room Azuma was sitting in.

Even calling her ‘gorgeous’ was an understatement, as the woman was a complete bombshell. She had a beautiful thin face, long silver hair that flowed down to her shapely rear in a ponytail, and an insane body. Her both covering-yet skimpy maid outfit, which didn’t showcase much skin but was so tight that the woman's every curve was on display, did nothing to hide her hourglass figure, large perky breasts, long legs, thick thighs, and even thicker behind. 

Sirzechs really is a lucky bastard.

Azuma was pretty proud of his dungeon's array of sexy maids, which was really just Worse Rias, a bunch of sexy dryads, and Raynare whenever she was feeling freaky, but he had to begrudgingly admit that Sirzechs had him outdone here. His wife and maid, the woman standing in front of Azuma right now - Grayfia Lucifuge, was-

Fuckin’ smokin.’ Think he’s dumb enough to randomly bet her to me?

Azuma knew the answer was blatantly ‘no,’ as the Maou Lucifer, and Rias’ older brother, was far from the idiot Riser was.

But a man can hope!

“Thanks, sexy maid,” Azuma hummed, nodding at her words, which were referring to the event that was about to take place.

A humiliation ritual!

In reality, it was his duel with Riser Phenex, though ‘humiliation ritual’ might be a more accurate description with how powerful Azuma had become in his dungeon-conquering arc. Now, he was pretty confident he was going to kick Riser’s ass - though that same confidence wasn’t shared by everyone.

“Please don’t call my brother's wife ‘sexy maid,’ Azuma,” Rias spoke, as the busty woman was sitting next to him in the preparation room. Said room just had a long bench, a couple of bottles of water, and a fridge with some fruit and a few snacks in it.

“It’s a good description,” Azuma said defensively, looking over at Grayfia, “You are a sexy maid, right?”

Grayfia stared back at him blankly for a moment, her face staying emotionless. Then, the tiniest bit of red dusted her cheeks.

“...I suppose that would be a good way to describe me, Kaito-sama.”

Ah, it’s good to have a shit-ton of CHA!

“S-Stop seducing her!” Rias flushed, glaring over at Grayfia as she got flattered by Azuma’s words, “And stop falling for it! My brother would kill Azuma if he saw this!”

Nah, he wouldn’t care.

Her brother was the same man who let Grayfia give Issei a sponge bath - a nude sponge bath, mind you - in the series. Azuma was pretty confident that the man didn’t care what Grayfia did, because, as was the case with most devils, both the men and women tended to have harems or multiple lovers.

I don’t like sharing, but there is something appealing about going after a married woman.

But Azuma pushed those thoughts away for the moment, turning them back to the impending duel.

“Are you sure you’re prepared, M- A-Azuma?” Ravel asked, sitting on his other side as she cutely leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder as her breasts pressed into his arms. She instantly ruined that cute and romantic image by glancing up at Rias with a superior smirk, causing Rias to huff as she also leaned forward and pressed her much larger breasts into Azuma’s other side.

“Yeah, I’m not worried,” Azuma just shrugged, “I’m more worried about the whole Underworld knowing about me now, but it’ll bring more attention to the resort, so it’s fine.”

The ‘New Merlin vs Rising Phenex’ had been marketed well over the past week, both by Lord Phenex, Ravel, and, surprisingly, Ajuka and Sirzechs. Azuma didn’t have any type of relationship with Rias’ brother, but the man apparently had an interest in him.

Doesn’t everybody these days, huh?

Azuma felt like a new ultra-powerful being who could kill him with a snap of their fingers was taking interest in him every day, and he didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing.

As a result of the marketing, the stands outside were packed. There was not only a majority of the remaining 32 Pillar families in attendance, but also a flurry of young devils, and even a couple of VIP guests. Azuma had already spotted Hades, the God of the Dead, along with Azuma’s apparently now-friend Azazel, and even the supposed ‘Strongest Exorcist’ Dulio Gesualdo. Azuma thought it was weird that an exorcist was coming to watch a duel in the Underworld, and one being held in the middle of Devil territory, but no one else seemed to have a problem with him being there.

I guess when you’re the ‘strongest’ of something you can just do whatever the hell you want, huh?

Azuma was staring into space blankly as he was lost in his thoughts for a moment, but luckily, no one noticed. No one noticed his response either, despite Ravel directly asking him a question, because Rias and Ravel were having a silent battle of wills as they glared at each other across his lap. 

I might not be ready anymore.

Azuma’s arms were both starting to hurt as the woman on each side of him was gripping him tighter and tighter. His right arm had already disappeared within Rias’ massive breasts, and Ravel was trying the best to do the same despite not having the size to do so.

“...Are you sure you’re in the right preparation room, Phenex-sama?” Grayfia asked dryly, watching as Ravel clung to Azuma’s arm despite the fact that he was about to duel her brother, “Riser-sama’s waiting room was empty. He’d probably like some support.”

“He’ll be fine,” Ravel answered distractedly, not caring as she continued to cling to Azuma and glare at Rias.

“It’s a shame that he’s alone, but it’ll let him focus on preparing for the duel more,” Azuma glanced over blandly as Renegal spoke, both he and Layla being in Azuma’s waiting room as they abandoned their own son.

“Yes, it’s quite sad,” Layla frowned, looking distraught as she thought about her son sitting alone and waiting for the duel, “But he needs to learn to live without his peerage around anyway! Though, it’s a shame he doesn’t have a family or something to support him…”

That’s you, y’know?!

Riser’s own mother being sad that he didn’t have any familial support as she actively abandoned him to wait with Azuma was ironic, and Azuma was actually starting to feel a bit bad.

Maybe I should just let him win? I’ve already taken enough from him…

…

…

…

Hah! You can never take enough!

Azuma started to chuckled at his own thoughts, knowing damn well he wasn’t going to let Riser win. It was good being an asshole, because then you didn’t have to care about being nice.

“What’s so funny?” Aphrodite frowned, stepping forward as she was in her biggest form, “I wanna know!”

“Just thinking about how I’m gonna beat Riser’s ass,” Azuma waved her off, standing up and stretching out his stiff arms as he glanced over at Grayfia, “Is it time yet?”

“The duel will begin shortly,” Grayfia nodded in confirmation, “You can start making your way to the arena, Kaito-sama.”

“Thanks, sexy maid,” Azuma nodded again, stepping past the woman as she struggled not to blush again.

“W-Wait! For good luck!” Azuma paused, blinking in surprise as he turned around to see Aphrodite speed-walking up to him. Before he had a chance to respond or react, she leaned forward, her massive jugs pressing into his chest as her lips pressed against his.

She pulled back quickly, blushing far too much from just a kiss considering she was a Goddess of Love.

“W-Wait! I wanna do that, too!” Ravel stood up off the bench, walking up quickly as she repeated what Aphrodite did, but taking it up a step. She stepped forward, placing her hand on Azuma’s chest, and then pressed her lips into his for a moment longer than Aphrodite had. She stepped back, looking over slightly smugly at the Goddess, who huffed in response.

When did this become a competition?

“Then, if we’re all wishing him good luck, I will as well,” Rias nodded, standing up off the bench with a small, mischievous smile on her face. She stepped up to Azuma, taking another unneeded step forward as her large breasts pressed into his chest. She pressed her lips into his, then, uncaring for any of the other visitors in the room, reached down and gave his crotch a light squeeze.

“Win for me, okay?” She smirked again as she pulled away, giving Azuma a small wink as he stared at her dumbly.

But if it’s a competition like this, then I won’t complain!

“Sure,” Azuma just grinned back, very casually reaching up, placing his hand on Rias’ large, soft breast, and giving it a squeeze as she moaned from the unexpected action, “I’ll definitely kick his ass now!”

Azuma promptly turned away, ignoring the indignant huffs that came from Ravel and Aphrodite at his actions. He stepped through the door, quickly heading into the long tunnel outside the room as the occupants who had shared the waiting room with him went to go watch from he stands. 

“Wait until they announce your name, Kaito-sama,” Grayfia called after him, and he just nodded casually.

As he continued down the tunnel, the roar of the crowd in the arena became audible. It wasn’t so much a roar at the moment, as it sounded more like a loud chatter while the spectators talked amongst themselves, but Azuma was sure it’d get loud once the actual duel started.

This is my first introduction to the whole supernatural world. 

Azuma had become rather well-known within the devil society, as he was known by most of the young devils as well as all the Maou for being the ‘next coming of Merlin,’ and a few of the clan heads knew about him as well. His resort was also pretty popular in both the human and the supernatural world, meaning his name was definitely out there, but this would be the turning point.

In the wider scope of the supernatural landscape, this was where he would really gain attention. All the Pillar families would know his name, and even the various fallen angels and other supernatural beings in attendance would take notice of him. It was one thing to be known as the owner of a popular resort, but it was another thing to be known as the man who defeated a Phenex.

In the grand scheme of the world, Riser definitely wasn’t that powerful, but his ability made taking him down tricky. His bloodline allowed him to heal any injury, and until he ran out of energy and demonic power, he was unkillable. Even the pain he felt was mostly negated, which meant making him tap out was difficult.

In the end, there were only three ways to defeat a member of the Phenex family: Have a way to negate their regeneration, destory their entire being with one attack, or be so much stronger that even in a prolonged fight, where the Phenex could lose countless times and continue attacking you without being setback, you could still win.

The first two were out of the question for Azuma, as he didn’t have a way around Riser’s regeneration, and he wouldn’t want to even if he could. The whole point of him agreeing to the duel was to bring attention to the resort, and the best way to do that was to beat Riser at his own game.

He also couldn’t use a one-shot attack, as he wasn’t actually trying to kill Riser, just kick his ass. As a result, only the ‘out powering Riser’ strategy was possible.

I’m going to beat him so badly that he won’t even have the strength left to regenerate by the end. I’m going to humiliate him.

Azuma wanted to not just beat Riser, but to beat him so badly that the entire supernatural world would have to take notice - and, in the process, take notice of his resort.

I’m gonna be so fuckin’ rich after this!

Supernatural beings staying in his resort would give a lot more points than the current majority-human guests, as being more powerful correlated to more points coming in daily.

“Greetings, esteemed audience. I am Grayfia Lucifuge, and I will be the referee for the duel.” Azuma was pulled out of his thoughts as Grayfia’s voice came out from in front of him, no longer behind him, as it sounded like she was speaking through a microphone.

“And I’m your commentator, Magical Girl Levi-tan!” 

Serafall? They picked SERAFALL to be the commentator?

Azuma just sighed, being ready to tune out the eccentric woman as she was sure to spew nonsense for the majority of the fight.

“Now, for anyone who doesn’t know, Magical Girl Levi-tan has some pre-fight analysis for the duel!” Serafall’s voice continued, booming out extra loud into the arena in front of him, “First, on the right side, it will be Azu-tan! I think Azu-tan will win because he’s cool, hot, super smart, and made my So-tan become a Magical Girl! Cheer for Azu-tan now!”

You’re not supposed to tell them to cheer, y’know?

Azuma chuckled, walking forward through the tunnel as a large light shone in front of him. He stepped out, walking into the large, circular colosseum-esque fighting ground. The floor was made of stone, with thick walls surrounding it. Above those thick stone walls came the stands where the audience sat watching, and Azuma had to resist flinching as he walked out.

There was a roar of cheers at his entrance, sounding more like a football stadium than noble devils watching a duel. There were also a lot of people - which Azuma expected, but there was a large difference between knowing thousands of people would be watching and actually seeing those thousands of people - as the stands were packed.

I should put on a little show, right?

Azuma did his best to smile charmingly, raising his hand as he waved to the crowd around him. Whether it was because of his high CHA or because the crowd would just cheer at anything, the crowd cheered even louder at his wave.

“Next, on the left, it’s Riser Phenex!” Azuma was stunned as he heard Serafall use the man's whole name, as the magical-girl Maou had even referred to Great Red - the massive ultra-powerful dragon living in the Dimensional Gap that Serafall was definitely not friends with - as ‘Red-tan.’

How big of an asshole do you gotta be for even Serafall to not like you? She likes everyone!

“Now, for the pre-analysis for Riser Phenex! I think he’ll lose to Azu-chan, because Azu-chan is way cooler, way hotter, way smarter, and made my So-tan become a magical girl! Don’t cheer for Riser Phenex!” Serafall shouted dramatically, 

Azuma’s charming smile almost broke as Serafall’s ‘analysis’ of Riser was the exact same as her analysis for Azuma - literally, as instead of analyzing Riser, she just said the exact same things about Azuma again.

Despite Serafall’s ‘don’t cheer,’ the crowd around them still erupted with cheers as Riser stepped out into the arena across from Azuma. The man was smirking arrogantly, and he raised his hand to point dramatically at Azuma.

“You’ll regret accepting this duel, human! Riser will burn you to a crisp and take back Riser’s peerage and Rias!” The Phenex shouted.

‘You’ll regret accepting this duel?’ Did he forget that he practically begged me to accept it?

Azuma’s face didn’t break at Riser’s words, just continuing to smile charmingly as he stared down the man. They were roughly a hundred feet apart as they were a bit in front of the tunnels they entered from, and Azuma silently prepared for what he was about to do to the arrogant man in front of him.

Time to stomp this shitter into the ground.

 “The duel will continue until Riser Phenex is no longer able to continue fighting! Killing is not allowed!” Serafall continued, then quickly corrected herself as Grayfia nudged her, “O-Or if Azu-chan can’t continue fighting either, I guess!”

You could at least try to be unbiased, Levi-tan!

“There are also no weapons allowed in this duel!” Serafall continued, now saying something that Azuma had told Lord Phenex to ensure the crowd knew, “Since Azu-chan uses a sword, he’ll be at more of a disadvantage, but he’ll still win since he’s even more talented than Merlin! He’s also way cooler, hotter, smarter, and made So-tan become a magical girl, so he’ll extra win!”

Has she said that three times now?

Riser had been pretty pushy for someone who had been begging Azuma to accept his duel, as after learning Azuma was a swordsman who could use magic - thus being a, in Aphrodite’s words, ‘super rare magical swordsman!’ - he had requested that the duel be just hand-to-hand combat and magic.

Which puts him at an advantage, but fine by me.

Riser didn’t use a weapon to begin with, so the rule didn’t hurt him at all, but it would hurt Azuma. Despite that, Azuma had agreed to the condition, as it would just make Azuma’s win even more impressive as he beat Riser at his own game.

“Now, when I reach zero, you can begin fighting!” Serafall shouted, starting her countdown, “Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!”

There will be many nsfw devtoks made from this broadcast.

The fight was also being broadcast on the devnet, as there was a large ‘recording circle’ in the air, which just looked like a huge magical circle that was glowing lightly. Azuma could already imagine the less-than-wholesome edits that would come from Serafall’s countdown.

“Two! One! FIGHT!” Serafall cheered, and the duel officially began.

“Taste the fires of a true Phenex, hum-” Riser started to shout arrogantly, his hands raised as a flame formed on his palms. However, he was cut off as his head disappeared.

Yes, disappeared. Azuma shot forward, literally moving through time with [Time Dilation] as he appeared in front of Riser with his hand cocked back. His fist slammed into Riser’s face, literally smacking through it and knocking it clean off his body.

If Riser had been a normal devil, he would’ve died right there as his head was disconnected from his neck. However, he was a Phenex, so a burst of flames shot upward from his neck as his head reappeared on his body. He was obviously shaken from the sudden beheading as he took a step back, but wasn’t given a moment of reprieve.

I’ve trained way too hard for you to be able to match me, Riser!

Azuma’s training was just lazily doing various workouts in a half-assed way as Artoria stood by to accelerate the progress, but he had still trained nonetheless. His stats far exceeded a normal high-class devil at this point, and he didn’t need his genuinely impressive sword skills to handle Riser.

“Lucky shot-” Riser started despite his eyes being wide and nervous from the immediate attack, and he was cut off again as a hole appeared where his mouth was.

Azuma’s arms blurred, moving so quickly that to an untrained eye it looked like he had dozens of limbs instead of two. Punch after punch slammed into Riser, cutting through his flesh effortlessly and creating holes in his torso, arms, shoulders, and face. Flames swiftly filled each hole as the wounds regenerated, but that didn’t mean Riser was unharmed.

He stumbled backward, barely remaining standing as his brain tried to process the hundreds of blows constantly removing his flesh. While Phenex’s didn’t feel the full-force pain from attacks, as they were instantly healed, that didn’t mean they felt nothing. Riser could very clearly feel the sensation of a fist punching straight through him, tearing through flesh, muscle, bone, and organs effortlessly, and the split-second of pain that came before he healed.

While it was just a split-second of pain, that started to add up as Riser was sent stumbling back, slowly backpedaling to the tunnel behind him as blow after blow rang down on him. The split seconds added up when you were being punched multiple times a second, and Riser was in a world of pain.

“D-” A hole appeared in his jaw.

“AMN-” Another fist slammed into his cheek, deleting his entire face.

“YOU!” Riser finally finished the words, and a burst of flames shot outward from his body. Riser’s eyes were full of pain, a slight fear from the constant blows, but it was finally time for his counterattack-

Sike.

Azuma didn’t care for the flames at all, letting them slam into his body as heat engulfed him. He ignored the slight pain, as his END was high enough to negate most of it, and his fists continued to slam into Riser.

To put it bluntly, it was more of a beatdown and less of a fight. Riser never got another hit off, as the Phenex barely even got a thought off while his body was constantly destroyed and healed again. His demonic power slowly drained from the constant regeneration, and his demeanor started to show it.

He had started off confident, and the few words he was able to get out maintained his arrogant attitude.

“FEEL-” Hole in his mouth.

“A PHENEX’S-” A hole in his cheek.

“FLAMES!” Another hole appeared in his jaw a second later.

After that, as Riser’s flames did nothing and Azuma didn’t let up, the man’s arrogant demeanor dropped a bit.

“RISER- W-WILL - DEFEAT - YOU!” Was his next sentence, which came out in between blows.

My arms are starting to get tired.

At this point, Azuma’s arms were starting to feel heavy from the constant punching, and maybe from Rias and Ravel’s earlier choke-hold grips on him, so he barely registered Riser’s slowly desperate turning words.

“S-STOP - PUNCHING - SO - QUICKLY  - YOU  - HUMAN!” Riser sounded angry, though there was a pained undertone to his voice.

Man, this sucks. Riser’s a lot stronger of an opponent than I expected.

Not because the Phenex was actually fighting back, but because he was lasting long enough for Azuma’s arms to get sore.

“S-SEROUSLY - YOU - BASTARD - STOP!” Riser was starting to sound a bit desperate now as his body was repeatedly filled with fist-sized holes, and his bursts of flames did nothing to Azuma.

Fuck, I don’t know if anyone's ever been this tired before. I’m gonna need a lot of comfort sex after this.

Azuma didn’t even realize his thoughts were ironic, as he was pitying himself while Riser was being blown into bits multiple times a second.

“W-WAIT  - STOP - SERIOUSLY - PLEASE - I’LL - DIE!” At this point, Riser was genuinely begging, desperate to stop the pain as he started to run low on demonic power.

I’m supposed to be the Dungeon Master. Fuck, how did I get myself into doing this grunt work?

“PLEASE - STOP - I - GIVE - UP!”

Azuma blinked, his lazy thoughts and punches ending as one of them was caught by a palm.

Did he actually block my-

Azuma thought for a split second that Riser had some sort of anger-filled powerup, genuinely blocking his punch and stopping the beating, but instead it was Grayfia. 

“Riser Phenex-sama had surrendered. The duel is over,” She said bluntly, her tone even and professional as she held his fist back, appearing out of seemingly nowhere in the arena.

Wait, already?

Azuma blinked, realizing for the first time that Riser was in fact sitting flat on his ass, staring up with wide, traumatized eyes as he clutched at his chest.

Oh, damn. Did I go too far?

Azuma had been so caught up in his self-pity that he had gone into training mode - which was where he usually just waved his hand around, abusing his system to farm stats while he mentally focused on something else. In this case, the fight had become so easy so quickly that Azuma had accidentally stopped focusing on Riser - instead lamenting over the fact that he was doing ‘grunt work.’

“AZU-CHAN WINS!” Serafall called out into her microphone, and the arena erupted with roars and cheers.

Well, that was fuckin’ easy.

“I’m gonna go fuck your peerage now,” Azuma smirked lightly, causing Riser’s already traumiatized expression to become more horrified as he stood up straight, “But, first…”

I thought my shirt would get burnt off in the fight, but he literally didn’t even fight back, so…

Azuma abruptly reached up, grabbing both edges of his shirt as he pulled apart. He ripped apart the fabric easily, revealing his muscular chest, which had two large words painted on it with black paint: Dungeon Resort.

“IF YOU LIKED THAT, COME TO MY RESORT IN KUOH, WHERE I’LL BE KICKING ASS EVERYDAY!” Azuma shouted dramatically, pumping his fist into the air.

His plan for this duel was not just to bring more attention to his resort, but to use it to kick-start a fighting arena section that he had hastily built over the past week. Luckily, devil workers moved quickly, and it was already ready to be opened the next day.

Azuma planned to personally take on a couple of duels in it, building hype off his duel with Riser and raising his own reputation a bit, and then to shove off those duties to some of his monstrous units in colosseum-type events.

For a moment after his reveal, no one said a word, and Azuma got slightly worried.

Was that too corny?

Then, the roar came back tenfold, and Azuma’s lips twitched up into a grin.

As he stood in the arena shirtless with the cheers raining down on him, and with Riser still looking traumatized as he looked on the verge of tears, Azuma felt like his resort had a very bright future.

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