Chapter 58: Find out it's mostly for invasive hogs

"Hm… This power is a bit concerning, but nowhere to the level which you suggested." Odin commented as he stroked his beard while looking at a portal displaying the Rating Game fight between 'Momon' and Serafall. "A lot of previously unseen abilities, but nothing too crazy, from a god-level point of view. Honestly, I'm more worried about that kid in the audience."

"Kid?" Sirzechs asked and Odin brought forth a view from the audience, focusing on a lithe 'girl' sitting on the lap of a well-endowed one in a bit secluded part of the audience. The 'girl' looked quite drunk and was occasionally hiccupping, and also struggling every now and then to get away from two huge breasts on 'her' head which were keeping 'her' still. "Ah, Gasper-san."

"She's giving me the creeps." Odin commented, opening one of his narrowed eyes just a bit. "Moreover those are two nice melons she has resting on top of her head. Who's the boob-queen?"

"That'd be my sister's ex-Queen, and Momon's Pawn, Akeno Himejima." Sirzechs sighed. "And yes, she's taken. Anyway, I am aware that Gasper is quite powerful, but…"

"Not that, I don't mean her power. She just generally speaking makes my spine shiver when I look too deeply into her." Odin explained, hand-waving SIrzech's words. "There's something… unnatural about her."

"She's a boy."

"Oh. I thought… hm… that explains the feeling I get, that she- er, he is something else than what I thought." Odin paused, confused, then glanced at the view again. "Well, that explains it, I suppose."

"Are you absolutely sure he's of any use?" Grayfia leaned in to whisper to Sirzech's ear.

"We can only hope." Sirzechs told her as Rosseweisse whacked Odin in the back of his head, shaking him off his stupor.

"Anyway, I haven't seen anything that'd tell me Momon was this 'Anti-Being'. A strong devil, sure, perhaps on the level of a minor god, but…" Odin paused as something happened in the view- namely the yellow-armored-uniformed shape took form, and then pointed his staff at Serafall. And then...

The very dimension itself decayed under the curse that had been inflicted upon it.

"Geh?"

.

.

"AAAAAAHH!" A scream of pain and fear echoed in the Rating Game pocket dimension.

Momonga braced himself as the flood of blackened, sickly and yellowish water that was like thin pus washed over him and poured off his body like water from bird's feathers.

'Hm, indeed, poison is effective against her. More so since she uses water which hits her extra hard as her vessel of power becomes her poison. Regular poison probably wouldn't work, but since that super-tier spell imbues poison with a curse that makes it impossible to resist, she can't just separate the poison from the water.'Momonga noted how Serafall's health dropped like a rock as he had kept the [Detect Life] active through the whole thing. He kept [Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown] at hand the whole time though, just in case she was pretending the effect was greater than it really was. 'Hm, by a quick calculation that super-tier spell is thirty-two times more powerful than its regular variant because of five consecutive [Boosts]… and since Super-tier spells don't consume mana, it hasn't drained me dry… but it seems that the cooldown is affected by [Boost] in case of Super-tier spells. I can normally cast four every day, but after I used five [Boosts], it counted as me using thirty-two, which means I'll have to wait for roughly a week to cast another Super-tier spell.'

He had guessed that the Super-tier spell would react as it did as the 'Ero-World Class Item' seemed to scale both the 'spell effects' and 'spell drains' at the same rate, and thus he stopped at five [Boost]s.

It seemed that he had estimated the inflicted damage quite accurately as well, considering how hard the spell had hit Serafall, as he had managed to fairly accurately pinpoint her weakness and hit her hard enough to severely incapacitate her but not kill her outright. After all the public backslash from killing a Maou would likely tip the favor of the Underworld severely against him.

Nevertheless, Momonga knew that Serafall had a resistance hole for fire, but had a weakness to curses and poisons. Her initial reaction to getting hit by Negative Energy had told Momonga as much- while the energy itself was neither curse nor a poison, the fact imbued damage caused such an extreme reaction on her meant that she likely had a hole for both it in her 'profile'.

Indeed, once he had realized as much he had deliberately avoided poisons and such, and led Serafall to believe that he had thought her fire-resistance hole to be her weakness, leaving her overconfident and careless as she had most likely thought that Momonga had figured her 'weakness' to be fire. He then further reinforced the illusion by mostly using fire-based damage, which drew her further into the illusion.

After all, if Momonga hadn't realized the Maou's true weakness and had instead attempted to attack the Leviathan with fire-based abilities then the water that made the creature would have likely extinguished any flames he cast and reduced the initial damage of the spells into nothingness- which, in turn, would set his defeat in stone.

And, thus, his 'last' attack, made with poison Super-tier spell, was actually his 'first real' attack.

"You're scary, you know that, Momonga-sama?" Ddraig seemed a bit wary as the dragon kept hiding in the corner of his mind, somehow making its massive 'body' seem almost unnoticeable.

'Now, how to capitalize on this…' Momonga thought about Serafall, her role and her uses as the girl washed 'ashore' and the flood of pus that the water-Leviathan had turned into seemed to disperse.

Amazingly the clothes Momonga had made for her were still intact, but Momonga guessed that the poison probably wouldn't damage them either way.

"H-Hurhg…" Serafall vomited thick yellow pus out of her stomach while her face was pallid and her movements sluggish. "That's… super gross… you filled me with your… sticky thick stuff… without even… blurgh… taking me to dinner… bluuuuuurgh… once…."

"Oh, but didn't I offer you something to eat?" Momonga lifted his hand in front of his face, closed it and then opened it almost as if he was marveling at his own power. "How do you like the power I served you, Sera-tan?"

"Gwoss… Mo-kun's cooking is grooooooss…" Serafall coughed more pus out. "Uwaaaaah…"

"Now, will you surrender, Serafall Leviathan?" Momonga billowed his trench-coat, causing Serafall to wobble back on his feet.

The Maou still had roughly thirty percent of her health left, after all.

"I refuse!" Serafall looked resolute. "So-tan rejects you! So I shall fight to the end! You can court her again in the next century!"

'...The hard way it is…' Momonga sighed.

Cracks began spreading in the fake 'Kuoh', and Momonga got a seriously bad feeling from whatever that was pouring into the 'reality' through the cracks.

He dispelled his [Dimension Lock] just in time for two magic circles to form, one under Momonga and one under Serafall.

The pocket dimension's sickly yellow sky cracked, and then the dimension broke.

.

.

Sona and Ravel were watching the Rating Game unfold from the VIP guest seats in the arena that surrounded a gigantic portal-like view into the Rating Game itself.

Sona was holding tightly to a handkerchief with both hands, wringing it in desperation as she saw the battle unfold.

"It's useless, you know." Ravel's voice was a bit askew, unusual for the normally headstrong and even arrogant girl. "You can't win."

"What do you mean, Ravel-san?" Sona asked, more to distract herself from her growing nervousness than because she wanted to know.

"You've already lost. Momon… Ahiii… ahahaha! You don't even know who Momon is… And you've lost already:" Ravel's voice turned a bit high-pitched, and her face conveyed distress that caused Sona to pause.

"What… what are you talking about, Ravel-san?" Sona felt something grip her guts as she looked into Ravel's eyes. She knew the feeling well by this point- fear.

"Momon-sama… Aha… He's the Supreme Being." Ravel told her almost as if it wasn't a big deal. "Hehe…"

"That- that's a jest made in poor taste, Ravel-san." Sona nonetheless felt her cramping muscles ease up from the fact the girl could still make such lame jests.

"...I'm not joking, Sona-san… Heh, he told me himself. Not directly, but directly enough." Ravel's face sprouted a crooked smile. "Tell me, has anything gone your way since you caught his eye?"

Sona paused.

"I've heard that you like to challenge your potential suitors to a chess game. Like how Rias challenged Riser-nii to a Rating Game, to get out of her marriage contract. The game where Riser-nii died. He died, so that Momon-sama could take Rias-san instead." Ravel continued, then her smile crooked even further. "Did you challenge him, Sona-san?"

Sona blinked, then recalled the first time she had seen Issei- no, Momon. "I… challenged him into a chess match."

"And what happened?" Ravel tilted her head, the wicked smile never leaving her lips.

"He… did something outrageous and I flipped the chessboard." Sona's eyes widened just a bit.

"And what would you consider that to be, if your opponent flipped her chessboard?"

"...Conceding." Sona's tone turned choppy and mechanical.

"Aha, let me tell you a story… You see, I tried to kill Momon-sama thrice already." Ravel said with zero hesitation, remorse or change in tone. "The first time, he sent some dumb blonde kid instead of him to the trap, and I couldn't spring it. He sent his servant, you know, the one who's terrorizing the Underworld with the undead, to capture and torment me when I realized who he was and planned to reveal it to everyone. Instead he rescued me and became a hero, while I was seen as a 'mentally unstable girl that needed Momon's pampering' after what I went through."

Sona's face paled.

Ravel continued, almost as if her accusations were not a big deal. "The second time I tried to kill him, I tried to stab him, and he mind-controlled me and forced me to consent to him raping me. The third time I tried to kill him, he seduced my mom, and had my dad divorce her and then Momon put mom on top of the explosives I had set into his bed."

The girl's eyes were lifeless and dull, and Sona felt her breath stall utterly from the words and from the delivery.

"R-Ravel-san!" Sona's words failed her as she realized that Momon might not only be a teenager with surprising, confusing and unique powers that could match Serafall, but also someone who had unholy intellect, cruelty and cunning to match his seemingly benign insanity, the latter which he used to cover all the former- and perhaps Ravel was speaking the truth about Momon's true nature.

The cult that had popped up did not help Sona's mental state as she recognized it as Momon forming a core of uneducated, ignorant and young devils to a death-cult in order to lead a revolution in the Underworld in the name of the 'True God'… while he'd sit back and allow Devils to fight Devils in second bloody civil war, all the while the Three Factions would be thrown into a war and the Supreme Being would emerge from Momon to finish off those who survived.

"Ahaha… So, you now know how he fights. That is, he does not fight fair." Ravel's tone was shaky, as if she was about to break. "You've already lost to him once, using the chess match you used against your previous suitors, and he made you concede to him without you even realizing you did it out of 'your own will'. He already had your engagement set in writing as a wager, so you are unable to wiggle your way out of it through a Challenge…"

"But Serafall will win! She will! She must!" Sona started to feel an unfamiliar feeling- panic.

"Aha, maybe, maybe not." Ravel's head tilted to the side. "But, do you think that if he wins, no, if he doesn't win, that he'll take it out on you?"

"W-what do you mean?" Sona's breath caught in her throat.

"Do you still recall what he did when I tried to explode him? He didn't punish me." Ravel's crooked smile looked incredibly fake. "He punished mom. He punished dad by taking her from him. He broke my family."

"...He'll punish Serafall if he loses, and is denied me." Sona's face paled. "Unless… Unless I…"

"Hehe… You always went on a about 'wanting a man who's more intelligent than you' if you were to marry…" Ravel leaned back on the seat. "So… How does it feel to meet one, Sona-san?"

It was at that precise time the Rating Game screen showed the two combatants looking at one another and the fighting came to a pause...

And the dimension cracked, but before the whole dimension could collapse one more fail-safe activated and teleported both combatants into the center of the arena, in plain view of the observing crowd.

"I'll never lose! Not as long as Sona-tan believes in me! My powers are beyond your comprehension, Momon-kun! As long as So-tan does not want to marry you, I shall never fall!" Serafall's defiant cry echoed across the arena.

"...I see. In that case… I'll have you instead!" Momon's counter was just as defiant, but its challenge far worse.

The simple words caused Sona to almost puke, and she had to reach to grab the seat she was sitting on to stabilize herself as she saw Momon- no, The Supreme Being extend his arm towards Serafall, and Sona knew instinctively that Momon would finish off Serafall with whatever he was planning on doing.

"Hehe… hehehe…." Ravel's low-tone chuckling felt like a ticking of a doomsday clock to Sona's mind as she glanced away. "Look. It's not over yet."

Sona knew what she had to do, but… she lacked the courage.

Serafall stood up, and pointed her staff at Momon, and at that moment she looked like an insect pointing a stick towards a horrifying creature that'd squash it without so much spending a second thought.

The aura Momon was giving off made him look somehow gigantic, and the yellow armor and dress uniform made him look like a destroyer given form, a creature that would come and devour all before it.

Momon said something, and Sona screamed as a heart appeared in Momon's hand, and Sona instinctively knew whose heart it was.

It seemed for a moment that even Momon was surprised by the heart appearing in his hand, but the moment passed in a flash.

Serafall stumbled and placed her hand against her chest, and Sona missed the expression on her face as she looked away from Sona and towards the heart in Momon's hand.

"G-gahh! T-to steal a young maiden's heart, after such bold words… Mo-kun- blergh- Y-you truly are despicable…"

Momon performed a grand flourish, opening his dress-uniform cape to its full spread and making him look like a tyrant, a master about to finish off an opponent.

But instead, he offered his hand, the free one while his hand carrying Serafall's heart was curled and moved to the side, almost as if to convey to everyone watching that he was giving Serafall two options- 'obey me or die'.

"Levi-tan... I'll let Sona-chan go... if you offer yourself to me!" Momon offered her- a classic 'deal with the devil', that caused almost all of the female devil spectators to swoon a bit. "Join me. Together we are stronger..."

Serafall paused for a while while holding her hands on her chest, above where her heart used to be.

"Uooaaah! An innocent girl like me has no choice! I cannot resist this much evil! This much coolness! I can't! Mom, I'm sorry, your daughter has been seduced by the evil- by Mo-kun! I acce-" Serafall's blood ran like a fountain down from her mouth and to her chest, but her posture was full of confidence.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sona screamed as the plan was laid bare before her eyes. 'She's… Momon's… He's going to hurt her, lose and free me from the engagement… and then seduce Serafall and have her marry him instead!'

She tore at her face with her nails in desperation and screamed at a 'energy screen' which had sprang forth as a safety measure between the combatants in the arena and the spectators in the crowd, protecting the latter from the former. "SERAFALL! SERAFALL! CONCEDE! I BEG OF YOU! I… I'LL ACCEPT! I'll BECOME MOMON'S WIFE! STOP THIS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE"

It was almost as if the Maou managed to hear her desperate cry through the energy wall as her head turned over towards Sona.

"Aha… I see it now… your despicable, evil plan… to take my heart, and give yours to another… I can hear So-tan! I can feel her resolution in my chest! In my thoughts! But my bond with her cannot be broken by mere heartbreak! I'll never lose to you if…" Serafall coughed and fell on her knees... but struggled back up.

Sona's breath caught at Serafall's words.

"Aha… a fool's hope." Ravel muttered from the side.

"I'll never lose if… I TACTICALLY RETREAT INSTEAD!"

The magical girl did a grand flourish, grasping at her now-missing heart, and flopped on her back like a doll whose strings had been cut.

A teleportation circle appeared below Serafall before she could turn motionless, however, and teleported her away.

"Serafall Leviathan- teleported away, er, Retired voluntarily." The voice of the announcer, Diehauser Belial echoed from the loudspeakers, like the bells of doom wailing death on all the land. "Momon Phenix wins! What an exciting match! And congratulations to those who bet on Momon-san's victory! Sucks for those who bet for Serafall-sama!"

"Ahii… see?" Ravel's chuckles caused Sona's head to spin and she glanced at the girl, only to meet Ravel's empty, glossed-over gaze. "You never had a chance. Ever since you were born- no, it could be perhaps better said that you were born for this purpose. For him to slowly toy with you, and then break you like a meat doll. Everything you did against him will be turned on its head. Every trap you lay you will find at your own feet. Every assassin you hire will poison your own food. This… is the fate of anyone who opposes the Supreme Being."

Sona's hands felt cold.

"Even now, as your sister faced a battle which she shouldn't and wouldn't lose, she lost. You lost it for her. Because of her." Ravel's head tilted, and the lifeless stare continued to bore into Sona's soul. "Like that chess-game. Hehe… Did you think he'd fight fair? You two danced on his strings the whole time- there was never a time during which you were in control of your own actions."

"You… Momon sent you." Sona's voice was cold as ice. "To force me to do that- to force me to tell Serafall to concede!"

"Ehehe… Perhaps. Perhaps I came out of my 'own' volition. There's only one who knows for sure." Ravel's glossed-over eyes turned towards the view of the arena where Momon stood alone like a conqueror, like a king…

Like a tyrant.

Sona sat down on her seat as her shaking legs could no longer support her… and for the first time in a long while, she cried.

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