Chaper 32

Now in front of Eden were all the trainees, and before he commenced the raid, he wanted to assess their fighting abilities. "Okay, I'm going to do a fighting assessment. First, it's going to be my group, then Rias's peerage. Rias, you and your peerage don't have to watch, but I think this will be valuable for you to see," he explained. Then, he had his group line up at the beginning of one of the training areas.

"Unlike Rias and her peerage, you three don't have a specific enemy to defeat, so your assessment will be a bit more generic. But that doesn't mean it will be less challenging than Rias's peerage, so be on guard," he warned. After stating this, he began to set parameters for the simulation. The environment was going to be his own high school, albeit abandoned, and the enemies would resemble a typical human adventuring party one might encounter in a tabletop RPG. With the parameters set, he glanced over at his team.

Their equipment had changed from before. Raynare was somewhat similar, but now she wielded a magic longsword instead of creating a sword using light energy. She still wore what was essentially a bikini, but he had added armor plating to make it more practical even though it was still just a bikini. Mittelt also wore a gothic lolita outfit, but aside from the spear he had given her, she wore a circlet to serve as a spell focus. Asia, on the other hand, looked the most different. She wore her nun uniform under a cloak called the Wings of Flying, which could transform into bird wings to allow Asia to keep up with her flying allies. She also wore a circlet on her head as a spell focus and had a magic dagger on her hip along with a light pistol on her back.

"Okay, let's make sure your training really shines today, girls," he encouraged before sending them into the simulation, taking on the role of a spectator.

As he watched the entire simulation as a spectator, Eden could observe both the actions of the enemy and his allies. The enemy team consisted of a martial fighter, wizard, barbarian, ranger, rogue, and cleric. It was evident that they were outnumbered from the start. His team immediately took to the air. Eden had taught them that when you can fly and your enemy cannot, always use it to your advantage. They had learned this through getting surrounded in a dungeon even though they could fly.

In the air, they quickly located the enemy, and Raynare and Mittlet began performing dive attacks, swooping down from the sky before ascending again. The first dive caused some damage before the enemy wizard cast the "fly" spell on both the fighter and the barbarian. The rest of the enemy team used ranged spell attacks to keep the two airborne. Asia was targeted, but an incoming arrow hit the magic shield around her before she started healing both Raynare and Mittlet, who had sustained minor wounds.

Seeing an opportunity, the two enemies in the air launched a countercharge. However, Raynare and Mittlet had centuries of experience in air warfare, so they quickly executed a counterattack. It was a mild success, with Raynare landing a good hit on the barbarian. Due to the continuous barrage of spells from below, she decided not to push the attack. For about a minute, they were locked in this standoff, with Raynare and Mittlet taking risky attacks and wounding the two airborne enemies, but unable to deliver a killing blow.

Mittlet was the first to alter the flow of the battle when she struck the martial fighter directly in the torso, piercing at least one major organ with her spear. Capitalizing on the distraction, Asia cast her own spell. A ray of light emanated from behind the two main combatants, striking the wizard and turning him into dust. The spell was "holy disintegration," the light magic version of the Eldritch spell simply named "disintegration."

Raynare, now frustrated that her team members were getting kills while she was still in combat, went on a reckless attack against the barbarian. Her gamble paid off, as she took a hit from him but managed to sever his arm during the counterattack. At that point, the battle was essentially over. The cleric on the enemy team attempted to heal the fallen fighter but was too slow. By the time Mittlet had made landfall, she was wreaking havoc on the backline, thrusting her spear through one's neck while another fell victim to a holy spear spell straight to the temple. As Raynare also descended to the ground, the battle was well and truly over. Asia healed Raynare's injury from the battle, bringing her back into the fight.

After the battle had ended, the three of them exited the simulation. Eden assessed their performance, saying, "I'll give you an 82%, which is a B-. Asia, if you had acted more swiftly with 'holy disintegration,' the battle could have ended sooner. Raynare and Mittlet, neither of you used any of the magic spells I created especially for you during the battle. I know the saying goes that old dogs can't learn new tricks, but you guys are incorporating new combat techniques I've taught you, so try to integrate more magic into your fighting style. You are dismissed."

After dismissing them to take their two hour break. Afterward, he looked at Rias. Without saying anything, she just nodded to show that she was ready. The simulation Eden had prepared for Rias and her peerage was a practice bout against Riser's peerage.

"Enter whenever you're ready," he said before going to spectate.

As he observed the fight unfold in the setting of Kuoh Academy, Koneko, Issei, and Kiba rushed in for a headfirst attack on Riser's peerage. Meanwhile, Rias, as planned, remained back with Gasper and Akeno, ready to assist wherever needed.

The first development was that Ravel and another bishop from Riser's peerage, Mihae, took to the skies to observe the fight. Gasper, now looking at Rias for approval, charged at the enemy bishops, casting a space spell, 'Crush,' on both of them. This defeated Mihae but not Ravel, who managed to regenerate using her phoenix flames. The two then engaged in a fierce magical duel. Gasper could have finished the fight earlier using his Baelor vision, but Eden had advised him to wait until the right moment, as he couldn't activate it for long and couldn't use it again afterward unless he drank someone's blood.

Seeing that the situation wasn't going to change anytime soon, Eden shifted his attention to the engaged members of Rias' peerage. While Gasper was taking on a fellow bishop, the vanguard of Rias' peerage had already dispatched around three pawns and a rook. The vanguard consisted of Ile and Nel, the girls with chainsaws, Shuryia, a tanned-skinned member of Riser's peerage dressed in a bikini, and Isabela, the one with the mask.

With such rapid success, the remaining members of Riser's peerage descended upon them like a hammer, while Riser and his queen went to duel Rias and Akeno. The rest of Riser's peerage encircled Rias' vanguard.

"Beasts of Destruction!" Rias, seeing her vanguard surrounded, cast a spell summoning birds made of Destruction energy to attack the encircling members of Riser's peerage. It was a good decision, one she shouldn't have had to make if her vanguard hadn't gotten themselves surrounded, Eden thought. Now that Rias had expended her magic, she had to resort to using the power of Destruction, as she had done before her training.

The Beasts of Destruction fulfilled their role, injuring Riser and his queen Yubelluna, halting their advance momentarily. Meanwhile, they helped Rias' vanguard defeat two pawns and a knight while severely injuring the others, making it easier for Rias' vanguard to finish them off.

Before that, Rias used cattleling to bring Koneko back to her side to help fight Riser. The battle between the remaining two in the vanguard and the rest of Riser's peerage progressed smoothly until Kiba became overzealous and ended up defeated. Issei, seeking revenge, managed to defeat the rest of Riser's forces arrayed against him before coming to assist Rias.

The battle on that front seemed to be going slightly worse. Koneko had been defeated by Riser, sacrificing herself to protect Rias. Akeno dueled Yubella, and they were evenly matched in power, with Yubella having more combat experience, giving her a slight edge. Gasper, having defeated Ravel, was now helping Rias fight Riser, using his Sacred Gear, Baelor's Eye, to keep Riser in check.

The battle reached a standstill until Issei returned, and with him, Gasper and Rias, they managed to defeat Riser, ending the simulation.

Observing this, Eden concluded that the Path to Victory was correct. The original plan laid out by the spell called for only 8 days of training in the simulation before the raid. However, Eden decided to extend the training to 17 days based on the results he witnessed. While Rias had won, she had not done so with the overwhelming victory Eden had hoped for. His pride wouldn't allow those he had trained to win by such a margin against someone like Riser. He aimed for an overwhelming victory, which this was not.

As those who survived exited the simulation and those who were defeated joined them, Eden had only one thing to say, "After the raid, I'm putting you all through the wringer, especially Koneko, Akeno, and Kiba; you all failed. The rest of you did alright." After that, he left to prepare for the raid. Two hours later, all the trainees gathered in front of the dungeon gate, a place they had become familiar with over the past eight days. Eden then entered the room. Knowing that he would have to essentially tackle the raid alone, he had equipped himself with every piece of magical equipment he thought he might need.

He wore black dragon scale armor obtained from a Divine-class black dragon. On top of that was The Cloak Ancile he had on was an Artifact-class protective magic item capable of shielding him from attacks even from beings like Indra. His circlet was also an Artifact called Inevectus that Increased his intelligence and wisdom by 25 times. And that was just the beginning. On each finger, he had at least a Legendary-class ring, each containing life-saving spells like full heal or self-revivify, or highly destructive spells like meteor swarm or apocalyptic tornado.

Seeing him fully equipped made everyone in the room nervous as he began to speak, "This dungeon, this raid, is the reason I allowed you to train here. To even enter this dungeon, you need ten people. But that doesn't mean your role is significant. In fact, I don't expect any of you to survive in this dungeon fully. However, once it's finished, you will be brought back out when I defeat it. So think of this as another training opportunity."

With those words, he opened the portal to the raid dungeon, and everyone followed him inside whether that liked it or not.