A hissing sound fills the air.
All around me, the cold itself seems to recoil as I begin unraveling the chokehold upon my powers; gold meets cold, and the result is explosive.
The house-sized ice block cracks and fractures, and pieces began flying and breaking off.
As if drawing a sword from my hip, I swing, light bursting into being mid-arc.
The ice block severs in twine, the hiss becoming a roar as the ice skips melting, and instead evaporates instantly against the edge of my freshly called blade.
Behind me, the severed parts of the ice explode against the ground, and my sword hangs lazily at my side. I smirk, putting my free hand on my hip as I look at Serafall.
"So," I start, gold bubbling around my body, "how serious do you want this to be?"
I watch Serafall's face twitch at that, "...do you think this is a joke, VILLIAN!?" She raises her staff, and the cold mist around us abruptly and violently lurches toward her, spiraling around the tip of her staff.
I chuckle.
An ice spike spears through my location a second later, deftly avoided by stabbing back and to the side.
Another is parried out of the air with a raise of my blade, the spike spiraling midair before promptly shattering like glass.
One more launches like a sniper rifle round, straight for my neck, and is redirected by my blade, and I leap back as the fire of ice becomes rapid.
One more becomes four, four several, until ice shards rain upon me, each seemingly with the force of a cannonball, smashing into the ground and carving the desolate rock beneath it with each wild impact.
Yet, not a single one reaches me, as my backpedaling is just far too fast.
I smirk, watching Serafall holding out her staff, the cold mist spiraling around it sparkling with artificial light as it hits off the freshly formed ice inside, before being launched.
She sees my smirk.
Her breathing grows just a tad more unhinged.
"Hold. Stilllll!" She cries, spinning her staff around in her hand. With my eyes, I can see the way the ice starts collecting within the cold mist, her demonic power shifting into a new form with masterful precision and speed.
Unfortunately.
"Nah."
Serafall freezes as I lean my back against her.
Now, Serafall's a real shorty. About as tall, if not exactly as tall, as Kuroka in fact.
I'm several inches taller than her, and a good bit of my upper body is practically lying over her head.
My head falls back, so my mouth is right against her ear as I continue.
"You oughta be grateful, ya know~?" I can't see her entire face, but I can tell how shocked she is, considering how quickly and easily I pulled this off. "If my mother hears about this, she'd go ballistic. Luckily, I actually like you a fair bit." I chuckle, "And you're waayyyyy better than your little sister, you know? So-"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY SO-TAN!?"
Serafall instantly whirls around, holding her staff like a baseball bat.
She swings for my head like it was a baseball.
At the same time, I felt a massive surge of demonic power; the temperature dropped to such extreme lows that my golden aura began to crackle in the cold.
Her swing misses, of course. I'm too fast for her to strike.
What came after, though?
An explosion of light, not as an attack, but as a byproduct of it.
I found myself suddenly closer to the purple sky and the fake artificial sun than I'd really like myself to be.
Why?
All of a sudden, I'm on the top of an ice mountain.
Already, the frost and ice around me were cracking and sputtering, hissing as they gave way to my power, but she did manage to catch my legs and bury me halfway deep into it.
The only reason I'm not buried under all this ice in some reenactment of my battle against Dulio is that I jumped. As I had been doing this entire time.
"Heh." I raise my sword, the blade glowing with heat, "Cheeky little magical girl…"
I swing it down.
The top of the mountain glows as my sword slices straight down and in. Clear ice blue turning to orange immediately, before it explodes like a volcano's top.
Fire, chunks of ice, sometimes a mixture of both, rain down, but at the moment, none of that matters.
The mountain shudders, not from the top, no, this time from the bottom, as though in response.
My sword comes down again, cleaving through a wave of spikes that suddenly seem to grow straight out of the ice.
When the spikes immediately spring back up again, I bring my foot down upon the whole thing, coated in bubbling, raging aura, and like a hammer beating upon an anvil, the mountain top itself shudders and rings.
The spikes smash apart against my leg, and a massive dent is impressed down upon the mountain originating from my sole.
I take in a deep, deep breath.
At the moment, I can't recall if I ever busted a mountain before. To be frank, I don't think I've had the opportunity to? Without destroying the surroundings, of course. Most of the time, there isn't even a mountain to pop.
And that's just the feat a high class can do, casually.
Ah, well.
I breathe out.
Before the ice gets a chance to recover, fire roars down from heaven to meet it.
In one moment, there was cold, frost, and icy mist rising.
In the next, all there was was heat, flames, and the haze of it all.
I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. The fire spewed forth from my mouth, smashing down like a chisel, straight through the ice, overrunning it before it could even melt, hollowing it out and completely overtaking it.
The flames don't stop there; as soon as they meet the ground, they explode out like a tidal wave.
I feel demonic power building to meet it, far faster than any of her attacks before.
I cut off my flames, stopping the flow of new fire.
And just in time, as the wasteland upon the ground turns from a fiery one into an entirely frozen one, just like that.
Light flashed with light, red and orange, became blue and white.
"Ohoh?" My breath is mist again, even all the way up here.
I believe I recognize that technique. That was her Celsius Cross Trigger, no? The one who can, with basically a wave of her staff, convert an area straight into a frozen wasteland.
I clicked my tongue at that. A shame I couldn't hear her call out the attack all the way up here, if so.
In a flash of light, I appear straight down on the ground, which was no longer rock, but instead straight ice.
It cracked and hissed beneath my feet as soon as I appeared, but I was paying little attention to slipping and falling at the moment.
I couldn't help but whistle, impressed.
All around me were my flames, trapped in solid blocks of ice, like elaborate ice sculptures. I couldn't see their colors, but I could see the impression, the waves and flows the fire made, almost carved into the center of the ice.
Almost casually, I block a shard of ice aimed at my eye while barely looking. The thing pinging off my blade and spinning off to the side.
"Cheap shot." I scoff, still only looking at my flames trapped within the ice.
I turn my head slightly, my gaze looking on Serafall standing atop an ice block trapping one of my larger gouts of flames, her staff pointed and locked on me.
"Don't. Care!" She huffs, gritting her teeth, "Making my job more painful is one thing! But talking badly about my So-tan!? I won't forgive it!"
I give the magical girl the side eye.
At almost that exact moment, I feel my phone buzz in my robe.
Heh. Nice.
"I didn't even say anything bad about her," I counter, "I just said you're better than her."
"That implies things!" She shouts back, this time pointing at me with her actual finger, "That implies So-tan isn't perfect! That she can be surpassed!"
I roll my eyes, "What, that she isn't the big guy upstairs?"
Serafall gags.
"H-How, HOW DARE YOU!?" She swings her staff wide, in an arc out in front of her, "So-tan is NOTHING like that guy! The meanest and most stuck-up old guy with an even STUPIDER hat, I bet!"
I hear rumbling in the distance.
"SO-TAN WOULD LOOK GREAT IN A HAT!"
And with that conviction, an avalanche comes washing in out of nowhere like a tsunami wave.
I don't actually see it first; I see the shadow of it first, prompting me to look up and see it.
The thing is giving me big world-ending apocalypse movie scenery type imagery.
Even though I'm giving the attack the blankest stare right now, it's still very impressive. Dozens of feet tall. The thing could easily total an entire city if it hit one.
It's just…did she NEED to call out such an attack as she did!? Seriously!
Okay. Actually? You know what?
I step forward, and suddenly, I'm right in front of Serafall.
"YOU'LL RUE - Eh!?" Serafall's very impressive monologue, I'm sure, was cut off right as I do, "H-Hey! HEY!?" Not only because I appeared, but also?
I grabbed her stick and hoisted her up into the air.
"But me down you paperwork making, So-tan slanderizing, VILLAIN!" Serafall cries out, even though she can very easily just let go of the damn stick.
"Nah." I deny her with ease, causing her to give a dramatic gasp, only to continue before she can interject, "Look. I'm doing this purely to have fun right now. That attack?" I point at it, the avalanche tsunami that's still rapidly approaching. "Awesome. What you called it out with…eh, not so much."
The short pink magical girl pouted, "Hmph! I have no idea what you're talking about!" She looks away.
I sigh, "Your call out was trash, and I'm starting to question how you're even a famous actress at this point." I lay it on her bluntly.
Serafall instantly perks up and immediately looks at me, scandalized, "W-What!? Not true! That line was totally awesome! If it were aired live, EVERYONE would love it!" She pauses for a second before adding with a giggle, "Especially So-tan~!"
My stare could not be more blank.
Welp. There goes the vibes.
I guess I should end this then, huh?
"You're so unbelievably lucky you're cute," I abruptly say, "and that I can't make tentacles out of my holy spirit powers. Or else this would end way differently."
Serafall actually blushes at that, "Cute!?" Then, she almost instantly switches, going pale, "T-TENTACLES!?" She goes to cover her chest with one arm, the other still up holding onto her stick, while her thighs press together in some vain attempt to cover nothing.
Because she's still wearing her clothes, miraculously.
That, and I can still see her panties; her skirt is literally that short.
"You w-wouldn't dare!" Serafall calls out, seemingly half pouting, half legitimately scared.
Should of saved all that money by cutting her skirt size down and invested in a pair of hearing aids, looks like.
Completely ignoring her, I roll my eyes and pull her right to me using her own stick, causing her to fall forward.
"E-EH!?"
Instead of grabbing her, though, I let her pass me by, and even let go of her fancy stick.
But only until she was about halfway past me.
Her feet didn't even touch the ground, and she was once again halted midair, my arm wrapped around her waist and hips, holding her there.
I don't need to see her face to feel her blinking at my back.
"Wait…what?" The sheer and utter bafflement at her new position was obvious.
"You gonna stop your attack!?" I suddenly ask, my voice raising slightly, the dozens of feet tall tsunami ice wave was that close now.
She probably doesn't hear me stab my sword into the ground beside us then.
"No! Why would I-"
SLAP~!
"I-I-IEEE!?"
Rather than answer that, because words wouldn't be able to travel soon, I simply showed her.
How?
Well.
Her skirt is very short. Serafall is bent over right now, at a full ninety-degree angle.
I can see everything.
Her panties are as stark white as her ice, and contain a pretty sizeable pair of doughy ass cheeks that I couldn't help but just give a good smack.
"H-Hey now! Y-You can't-"
SLAP~!
"E-E-EEEEE! S-S-Stooppp!"
Serafall immediately starts squirming under my arm. I flex said arm, and she's even more stuck than before.
"T-This is a foreign relation disa-"
SLAP~!
"S-S-SSTTIEEEEEERRRR! O-Okay! OKAY! I GET IT!" She flails around, desperately holding her staff out toward the wave.
The tsunami wave of ice crumbles apart, as all the force it had suddenly leaves it.
Around us, snow and ice suddenly fall, like a massive blanket. That's how close it was. With a shake of my head, most of it that fell on top of me is cleared off, but the area?
Completely covered.
It's all white with bits of ice poking out here and there.
I all of a sudden find myself almost up to my waist in snow and rapidly forming slush, and the worst part?
When the initial wave hit the ground, a bunch flung itself straight up into the air.
Now it's snowing, with drifts blowing about every which way.
Yeah, if this thing had hit a city at full force? Done. Even just this would cripple one. Thankfully, there's nothing like that out here, but still.
"T-There!" Serafall cries out, more than a little panicked, as she holds her staff with both hands, almost embarrassedly, "Now l-let me go!"
"Hmm." I hum, thinking about it.
My decision doesn't take long.
"Nah."
I feel her perking up, before she cries, "W-What!? B-But-"
I shrug, "What? You think doing one thing I told you is going to get you out of this?" She whimpers, I chuckle, "Nah. See, as I said? You're lucky I can't make tentacles," I feel her entire body, straight down her spine, shiver at that, "so this is what you're getting instead."
SLAP~!
"H-HNNNN!" She bites her lip to prevent her groan this time from being too loud. At the same time, I palm her now raw, red ass cheek, feeling her wince, and promptly move onto patting the fresh one.
To prepare it, of course.
"T-This is a-assualt, you know!?" She whimpers, as if that defense means anything.
Especially in this world.
I scoff, "You attacked me first. This is your punishment for being a naughty magical girl. Accept it."
"N-Naught-"
SLAP~!
"IEEEEEEE~!" I feel her jerk around, her legs kicking out, as her cry is suddenly muffled, likely by her putting her hands to her mouth.
"Yes. Naughty." I huff, "I know what you're thinking, that you thought you could get away with this because I'm pretty calm, for a god and all that." Her body stiffens under my arm, just a bit, "That my friendship with Rias would make it so you can act out a little more, let off a little more steam than you'd usually do in these kinds of situations, and that I'm strong enough to take it in stride, and all."
Seriously. I know Serafall isn't an idiot; most of what she does like this is an act for funsies. Hell, I saw her more serious side first, front and center.
"You guessed right, lucky you!" I confirm with a bit of pep, "But~!" I add on, my cadence shifting into something that makes her shiver, "You forget! That people like to have my own fun too, and, unfortunately for you…I can play ball right back~! So!"
SLAP~!
"HNGGGHHHH~!? Y-You, b-big-"
"Villain! Ho ho, why yes indeed!" I proudly, and boisterously laugh along, "This villain has captured a naughty~ magical girl, and plans to have his wicked way with her until she learns a valuable lesson!"
"W-Wicked w-w-way!?" Serafall exclaims, seemingly legitimately distraught.
"Why, yes indeed~..." I chuckle, darkly and huskily, as I squeeze her only slightly red cheek.
"N-Nmmheehhh~..." Serafall quivers under my arm before suddenly perking up.
Ah, she finally noticed, hasn't she?
Through the snow, a figure floats down, his two devilish wings carving an easily distinguishable outline through the fall.
"Have things finally calmed down, now?" Sirzechs floats on in, steadily. His feet lightly brushed over the snow drifts.
"S-S-Sirzechs-chaaaannn!" Serafall immediately calls out, wriggling under my arm once again, "Heeeellppppppp!" She cries, with over dramatic whining and all.
Sirzechs coughs into his hand and looks at me.
"I take it you're unharmed?" He asks, completely ignoring Serafall, who cries out incoherently in exasperation.
I nod, "Of course. Don't even have the sniffles."
Sirzechs gave a light good natured chuckle at that, "Good, I had figured as much, based on what my Ria-tan told me, and you said so yourself earlier, but…" he gives me a glance, head to, well, waist, considering the rest of me is buried in snow at the moment, "I don't believe there was exaggerating, was there?"
I shake my head no, to which he simply hums.
Serafall grumbles and shakes, continuing to try to free herself, to no avail.
Finally, Sirzechs sighs and looks down at Serafall, "Sera…" he huffs with a chiding tone.
I can feel her crossing her arms and pouting, to which Sizechs doesn't say anything further, simply putting a hand to his face and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Please forgive her." He asks plainly, "She isn't usually, well…" his words catch in his throat, which I don't blame him for; there really isn't a simple way to describe Serafall.
I simply wave him off, "Don't worry about it." I then pat her ass, causing her to yelp, "I'm keeping this, though, for as long as I'm here."
"H-H-Heyyy!" She cries, as if in protest.
Sirzechs though? He actually just nods, taking it in stride, "Privately, and Grayfia nor I will interfere."
No shot?
I nod right back with a smile, "Deal."
He smiles back. Done.
Everyone's happy.
Well. Except one.
"H-Hey! W-Wait!? D-Don't I get a say in this!? H-Hold on!" Serafall starts sputtering out, sounding increasingly legitimately panicked with each word.
"Now," Sirzechs continues, completely ignoring her, "shall we head back? There's still some time before the game begins…"
"Let's, then!" I float up, out of the snow, wrenching my sword from the ground as I do.
"H-Hey!" Serafall tries again, "H-HEY! Hnngghhh! S-Sirzechs-chan! How dare you sell me ou-"
My sword vanishes in golden light.
SLAP~!
"uuUUUUIIEEEE~!"
"Hush. Naughty magical girl. Don't scream when not spoken to." I chide her matter-of-factly.
Serafall responds with whimpers, and Sirzechs simply chuckles.
"Hang in there, Sera." Sirzechs encourages her with amusement, a certain look in his eye that I can't place.
Whatever it is, he only got a groan in response.
Now, I've got entertainment for my entertainment, I wonder what the food and drink from the underworld tastes like?