James kept his eyes focused purely on Riser as he rolled his shoulders, tasting some blood in his mouth. His hood was knocked off because of the sudden impact with the wall, revealing his facial features.

He clenched his Boosted Gear and soon would be filled with more strength with a cry of {Boost} from his crimson gauntlet, keeping the Boosted Gear in its original state to hide how much he has actually grown. So, this guy wasn't just all talk and had some kind of power behind his punch. Those flames stung like shit, but that was a small price to pay if it meant keeping stopping this bastard from forcing Rias to marriage.

Riser would look at this brazen fool with a glare, his hands surrounded in flames. He tasted some of his own blood for a brief second and while it healed, it was the taste of the liquid alone that shocked him. This Pawn was definitely not an ordinary one and if he is intent of endangering the future of Devils, then he must die. Rias will have plenty of time to search for a new one once the marriage is finished.

Riser and James glared with hatred at one another, trying to analyze their opponent and learn anything that they can that can be used against the other.

The two of them glanced towards Rias who had a shocked expression before it quickly turned to worry, her eyes constantly switching between Riser and James. Her worry was focused on James, she didn't think that he would do this and hoped that he knew what he got himself into.

The Dragon and Phenix lunged at the other in unison, sprinting towards their enemy with the lust for blood clear in their eyes.

It would be just before their fists clash, they practically froze in place. Unmoving, stuck in the middle of their movements. The reason for this? A terrifying pressure that seemed focused pure on Riser and James. The two slowly turned their heads to see that it was Grafia staring at the two of them with a serious expression. "There will be no more fighting, do the both of you understand that? Or else I might have to get involved."

Riser would grit his teeth, the flames surrounding his fists vanishing as he knew that getting a fight with the strongest queen is a death sentence. His blue eyes glared at James. "This isn't over…"

James would sigh softly as he stepped back, lowering his fist before glaring back Riser with narrowed eyes. He nodded his head, turning his back to Riser as he pulled his hood back over his head while walking. "You bet it isn't…"

The Pawn would take his seat on the couch and focus his eyes on glaring at the blonde king as he would be stepping back towards the wall before he stood on the magic circle once more, arms folded over his chest.

Seeing that James and Riser had gotten their bloodlust out of their systems, Grafia would silently sigh before she continued with her words. "Master, Sirzechs, and those from the House of Phoenix knew it would turn out like this. To tell you the truth this was to be the last discussion meeting. Everyone knew that it wouldn't be solved, so they decided to make a last resort."

That would catch the attention of everyone currently present in the room, all eyes focusing on Grafia. Well, except James and Riser they were still glaring at each other like they were arch enemies.

"A last resort? What do you mean?" Rias would ask as she put her hands on her hips, looking quite annoyed about this entire situation as is.

"If you wish to push your opinion forward, then how about you settle it with a Rating Game with Raiser?"

Those words seemed quite shocking to everyone in the Gremory peerage. A rating game? It made Rias completely speechless by what she just said.

James still kept his stoic expression, his eyes glancing to anyone that may have knowledge before looking over to Kiba where the Knight would soon clear the metaphorical question mark on the Pawn's head.

"A game played by Devils with peerage that has their servants battle each other…" Kiba would explain to which James nodded his head at the explanation.

He recalled what Rias told him one time to which he drew a comparison similar to that of being a gigantic chess game. It's used mostly by mature Devils if they wish to grow in social standing, potentially something that James will have to do in the future.

Oh, god he's going to have to get his own servants…

Normally, his mind would be hurting about the sudden headache from mentioning the big guy in the sky, but the sheer thought of having to get his own servants in the future has brought him near the point of having a stroke.

"Normally only mature-aged Devils can have official matches, but an unofficial match can enable a less mature Devil to participate in an unofficial when it includes issues that—" As Grafia was explaining, Rias would finish her words.

"Involve houses." That only seemed to anger Rias even further because of the fact that they knew it was going to go this way. "How much do they plan to interfere with my life….?"

Grafia glanced over to Rias and started to speak once more. "Does that mean you decline?"

The crimson beauty would shake her head. "No, I accept. Let's settle this with a game, Riser."

The moment the blond stood up with that smirk on his annoying face, James would stand up to and step over to his King.

"So you accept? Excellent. Just know that I already have participated in the games and I have won in most of them, do you still accept?" It was clear arrogance knows no limit and once they stood across from each other, the two Kings stared at one another with their auras filling the room.

"I accept and i'll blow you away." Rias was fearless and smiled in the face of the Phenix who seemed to scoff at her words.

"Fine, if you win then you are free from the marriage and can what you wish, but if I win…" He turned and looked over to James as he was stepping up to look Riser face to face. "Then you will marry me immediately.."

"Understood, then I have confirmed the opinions of both sides and I will be in charge of the game between both households. Is that okay?"

"Yes." Rias would nod.

"Yeah." Raiser said while he was currently having a stand off with James as the pawn clenched his fists..

The silver haired maid bowed her head, having the confirmation from both Kings. "Understood, then I will inform both houses of the decision."

Raiser tilted his head to the side, focusing on the rest of the peerage as he looked to Koneko, Akeno, Kiba, and Asia which caused a slightly frightened reaction from the former nun.

Seeing the Bishop slightly hide behind Kiba only pissed off James even more as he tilted his head to block Riser's view of the others.

"Hey, Rias? Are these all of your servants?" Riser asked as he looked to Rias with a smirk to which her eyes narrowed as she nodded her head.

"So what?" Hearing that answer made Riser laugh as he backed up from the King and her seething pawn, walking back towards the magic circle and standing in the center.

"Then this game will be laugh only your Queen, the 'Priestess of Thunder' can fight on par with my adorable servants." Riser said in between his laughter.

"You wanna test that, asshole?!" James ever so respectfully chimed in, patience starting to fail him once more. If he doesn't restrain himself soon, he may charge at the Phenix again.

With a snap of his fingers, the summoning circle would glow once more and shadows started to step out of the symbol of the Phoenix. A lot. Of shadows.

There were fifteen people that all stood around Riser, a full peerage. The part that irked on James even more was that Ddraig was completely right. It was peerage completely full of women. "You have got to be shiting me.."

His eyes glanced over the members and he could start to guess the respective roles of each of the women, seeing a woman with a large sword that he could easily guess was a Knight and then he saw a woman with robes and a hood that had to be either a Queen or Bishop. Then all eight of his pawns. Unlike James who is a single Pawn, but had all 8 pieces in him.

All of them looked at James who stood in the center of the room, glaring at Riser from the shadow of his hood and his glowing crimson gauntlet. They then looked to Riser and saw something that James failed to notice the first time.

The cheek that James punched had a small, but noticeable bruise that was somehow taking a very long time to heal. One of the women finally spoke, one of his pawns. "R-Riser-sama! What happened to your face?"

The scowl that formed on the face of King was something that made James chuckle, putting a hand on his chest as he felt much better. He wiped the smirk off that piece of shit's face after all. Today actually ended up being a good day after all. "That was my doing actually, i'll take responsibility for that."

That seemed to anger the woman as she looked over to the Gremory pawn before speaking. "What makes you think that you can put a finger of Riser-sama?!"

James cracked his knuckles, looking directly towards the Phenix King before glancing downward at the Pawn that was speaking to him. He turned his back towards the Phenix peerage as he said the last of what he wanted to say. "You should keep your precious Riser-sama on a tighter leash or get him a muzzle, because if he doesn't shut the fuck up i'm going to make sure that I get the other cheek!"

Riser has seemed to have had enough of this Pawn's endless disrespect that was headed in his direction to which he would finally speak. "I'm growing tired of hearing your constant barking, Mira!"

The girl that spoke to James would nod her head, she was around the same size as Koneko and wielded a staff as she would enter a battle stance before lunging at James and swinging her staff at his body.

He stopped in his tracks at the feeling of the staff hitting his body, feeling the strength behind it would push any average Pawn….Sadly, James was not an average Pawn.

James finally let his aura fill the room and compared to the fires of Phenix and the destructive power of Rias, his was a different aura it was filled with an darkness and rage towards his enemy. He slowly turned to the left, looking towards Mira with his eyes narrowed as they soon began to glow crimson. "Now...Was that a smart idea?"

To say that Mira was shocked would be understatement, she expected James to go flying into the desk, but instead here he was glaring at her like death himself. It was safe to say that she was very scared of the heavy darkness that suddenly weighed down her body.

James raised up his left hand, pointing the tips of his fingers at her stomach. There was only an inch of distance between the two Pawns. "Goodbye…."

He thrusted his arm forward, his hand curling into a fist yet the damage she took from it was similar to that of being hit by a truck as she was lifted off her feet and sent directly towards her peerage to which she landed in arms of her fellow pawns.

(Really? A one inch punch? I knew you were watching Bruce Lee movies too much…) Alex would shake his head at James' antics, laying back down on Ddraig much to the ire of the heavenly dragon.

He then took a deep breath, slowly calming himself down as he would turn away from them. The darkness fading as quickly as it came. He then stopped himself to look at Riser and narrowed his eyes, his gaze going to each and every one of the members of his peerage before returning to their master. He said nothing yet the message was clear. 'Test my patience again and the body count is on your hands.'

With that message made clear and his actions showing his bite is as strong as his bark, James would step over to Asia and gently hold on to her shaking hand. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and a small smile that only she could notice. She stopped shaking soon after that.

After everything finally settled down, the meeting was relatively quiet as Rias and Riser would discuss a time frame for when the two should have the game. He called it a 'handicap' because if they had the games now it would be too easy.

It was decided that the Rating Games will be happening in 10 days times. 10 days to train and prepare for what may be the hardest fight in James' life. He's already been talking with Ddraig and Alex about increasing his training even more than he already has. He can't allow anything to fuck that up, he needed to fight to the best of his abilities.

Right now, he was be sitting down on the couch and contemplating about this whole situation. He already told Dana that he would taking a trip with the club and he'll be gone for awhile, but there was something else that nagged at him that caught his attention. When he saved Kazuko, she mentioned a name that sounded very familiar….

He stood up, walking down the hall to his adopted sister's room and walking inside. She would be busy typing away at her laptop, unfocused on what he was doing. She almost jumped out of her seat when James put his hand on her shoulder. "Jesus, James! Don't scare me like that…"

"My bad, my bad...You really should keep watch of your surroundings, Dana." James only chuckled at her reaction, folding his arms over his chest and leaning his back against her desk.

"I need to put a bell on you….So, what can I do for you? It's not like that you come in without a reason." Dana always knew that James wanted something when he willingly came into her room. Usually it's information or wanting her to look into something.

"Elizabeth Greene. Does that name ring any bell?" James asked to which Dana's expression turned serious as she looked to him, her hands removing themselves from the keyboard and focused purely on her brother.

"How do you know that name?" She knew that name well, almost too well. She still had a lot of information from years ago about a lot of unsavory things that happened especially in New York.

James ran his fingers through his hair as he looked down to the floor, closing his eyes. "I've been having a lot of dreams recently and they've been including a blonde woman. She's...locked up in this room.."

Dana would sigh as she would start typing at the laptop, quickly loading up a bunch of files from her archives before leaning back in her seat. "All of the files were just sent to your phone. I know what you're thinking, James. Elizabeth had a son, codenamed: PARIAH. The child was stationed in a base in California, but around the nineties...the child escaped."

James looked at her with his eyes starting to grow wide, looking forward as he processed everything that happened. before soon he would hear Alex chime in.

(James, I was looking through your memories and I found a lot of ones that were...hidden. Locked away in your mind. Do you want me to unlock them..?)

"Yes..." He spoke mentally to Alex before realizing everything, knowing just how much this meant for his life as he would look over to Dana. He raised up his left hand slowly, watching it slowly transform into a claw.

He told Dana about everything after what happened with the Fallen Angels, it was hard to keep it a secret from her anyway because she hit him on the chest when he was beating her ass in a game and saw how his wound recovered and the almost 5 hour conversation of convincing her to let Asia stay here with them.

She knew the truth, did she like it? Not really, but she saw how much everyone in the club cared for James and how much he changed being around them. In the month that he's been around them, they got the kid to smile which is something that only a few people has been able to do since being in New York. But she still has to worry for him, he's still her brother no matter what.

Dana would stand up as James lowered his hand as it turned back to normal and his head tilted downwards to look at the floor, having an expression of complete shock at the truth that he was told before soon he felt himself being hugged and he looked upwards to see Dana was holding him tightly in her arms.

"No matter what you are or what you become, James….You will still be my brother." Hearing those words from his older sister made him hug her back, trying to gather himself and focusing back on the task that was at the top of his priority list.

The Rating Game.

"Thank you, Dana…" He said softly before letting out a chuckle and releasing his sister from his hands. "I guess now is the best time to tell you that me and Asia are gonna be gone for a little on a trip with the club..."

"...What?"

{...Uh oh….}