As the eye appeared, a crown, white and entangled with writhing flames, spawned over Yuyui’s head. The eye itself was a pool of dark brilliance, at the center of that darkness, a symbol akin to white fire.

Rias noted the sudden change in Yuyui at once and clicked his tongue. He knew the powers of all the eyes the Order of the Trodden Rose had created, after all, he’d met them and inherited one eye himself because of the agreement Fulgardt had made with Nigerra.

’The Eye of the Prince. That must be it – with such a distinct look,’ Rias thought, and he felt for his face. ’Will it be effective against me?’

Sila descended on him again. The Adamantine Beetle was using only physical attacks, which rendered the properties of his own eye – the Eye of Backfire – meaningless. (It only worked against energy-type attacks in the user’s direct line of sight.)

Sila dropped an axe-kick on Rias’ head, and as he avoided it, his instincts flared. It wasn’t the first time. He hurriedly turned away from the former Tower General, raising his guard against another opponent that had appeared behind him.

...But then his hands fell away. ’Damn it!’

Yuyui landed the blow clean in Rias’ face – a straight punch livid with as much strength as she could channel into a single limb while carrying over freakish momentum. The blow didn’t do much damage to the Divine necromancer, but Sila’s fist to the back of his cranium did. Rias fell forward into Yuyui’s knee. She then struck him in the abdomen, the sternum, and delivered an uppercut with so much momentum that it launched him upwards, setting up Sila’s elbow strike. The Marauder landed it right into Rias’ back, cracking his spine.

’I see!’ Rias thought, and he made the Egg of Future Dawn spin like a top. Only he remained unaffected while everything within the miniature world was tossed like a salad.

...But Sila and Yuyui didn’t lose their bearing.

One was a monster who could adapt to speed with her Eye of Moving, and the other was a Divine-level Null Lifeform with powerful wings, not to mention a keen anticipation of Rias’ ability to manipulate the Egg.

But be that as it may, the two were stalled for a microsecond. That was enough for Rias to escape from between them.

’That woman has a powerful soul – stronger than the one I had before I transcended to Divinity,’ he thought. ’That’s probably why that eye of hers is working on me despite the disparity in our strength.’

And indeed, the Eye of the Prince made the user’s enemies reluctant to guard against their attacks. In close-quarters combat, its effects were devastating. The same was true when it was paired with the Eye of Moving.

’It’s barely working.’ Yuyui, frowning at the thought, was in front of the fleeing Rias in the next instant, crouching to crash into his legs. Rias toppled over, only to suddenly be snatched into the air by a massive white serpent that emitted cold vapors. It was Grim.

When she saw the creature carry the necromancer into the wide skies, Yuyui cursed and turned in the direction it had come. Surely enough, she saw what she had expected: a large leopard, tar black and riddled with twinkling stars. It was hugging its torso with all its limbs, like some abstract statue. Paradon Parody.

’You’re pushing it, Grim,’ Yuyui thought, grimacing. She began climbing the air using her Eye of Moving, Sila following behind her.

Rias was clenched between Grim’s teeth. They were certainly sharp, but not enough to crush him as they would have done a mortal. Groaning in fury, the necromancer saturated his fist with Nitros and blasted the roof of Grim’s mouth with it. With a hiss, Grim released him.

...And his serpentine eyes shrank. He felt cold fear when his eyes met those of the necromancer.

Rias did something he hadn’t been allowed to do since the light from the Absolute Sun had shone earlier.

SHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

An unseen slash whipped from the air and sliced right through Grim’s serpentine body!

"Grim!" Yuyui cried, but she didn’t stop. She was upon Rias in an instant. With the Eye of the Prince active, Rias was momentarily rendered unable to retaliate against any of her attacks... and by extension Sila’s. The former Tower General decked Rias with a blow so hard that it knocked his jaw loose. He healed it immediately, however.

Just now, he had managed to wrestle control of Aimon from Vali. That was why he was able to cut down Grim and heal himself. But when Sila kept wailing on him, his authority over the conduit would keep slipping, and with Yuyui closeby, he wouldn’t be able to defend himself at pivotal moments.

It was a harsher form of ragebait. It triggered...

’Again?’ Rias felt it again when Sila knocked him back down to the sands – a sensation that made him feel for his face. Since losing his mask when he was fighting Elita, nothing had been the same.

Not his body. Not his soul. Not even the Egg.

Rias gritted his teeth. When Sila and Yuyui pincered him again, attacking from both sides, fury rose from him like a tide.

This just wouldn’t do anymore!

"Don’t underestimate me!" he cried at the top of his lungs. He meant it for Yuyui, for Sila...for the Egg of Future Dawn as well. "I am a student of Death!"

His words resounded indeed to his enemies.

...And then something changed.

The Egg moved. Everyone felt it. It didn’t whirl around like before to disorient Rias’ enemies. No. It wasn’t even Rias’ doing, yet he felt what had happened more intensely.

The Egg seemed to have crossed some great threshold, arriving somewhere it shouldn’t have been able to reach. Suddenly, Rias felt an abundance of signatures outside the Egg – a Deity, many mortals... and Arch-Liches!

’What in the world...!’ he thought, baffled.

His enemies didn’t spare a moment to consider what was happening, however. In fact, one of the enemies he thought he’d cut down suddenly joined them.

As Yuyui blasted Rias with a hook to the jaw, and Sila tackled him to the ground, pinning him with a foot, Grim, returned to his human form, healed through Granted Restoration, pointed at the necromancer with three fingers, and cried, "Aggrante!"

The blast sent Rias reeling. He hadn’t managed to defend with Undeath essence in time. Ravaged, he tumbled over the ground and kicked off the air for balance, but the three enemies didn’t give him time to breathe.

’I knew there was something off about this thing!’ he thought while trying and failing to guard against Sila’s wing, which suddenly turned erect and sharp and cut across his face. ’The Egg is no longer mine alone! Someone else is involved!’

Rias made the Egg churn in one direction, and the exposed area up above tilted below, trading places with the ground. From it, what was going on outside was revealed.

Two individuals rushed into the Egg at once. They didn’t join the fray, however, tackling Rias along with Sila, Grim, and Yuyui.

Savast, accompanied by Baddan, landed by Kintar’s corpse. A dark air began revolving around him as he took in the look of her, how badly her frozen elemental form had been crushed to ensure that she was well and truly dead.

Baddan wasn’t half as sentimental as Savast, but he could sympathize. He could understand the turmoil boiling through Savast right then. After all, it was...