*special POV: Rias

The Chaos Brigade is no more!

That maybe is our greatest accomplishment so far. Not that we truly knocked them out the way we did to our previous adversaries; but we managed to mitigate their threat. The Dragon Ophis is now our ally, and with her in the bag, her comrades (Koneko's sister Kuroka among them) lost heart to continue being a threat to us. Hence the declaration.

My father Zeoticus Gremory seems to have understood that any period of inaction might turn boring for us, so he came up with a plan to have us against the vampires in an unofficial Rating Game. I have to admit, I was at first a bit jittery to hear of this.

Vampires... those lovers of the night, against us?

Not that we, for our part, actually fear them; we also have one of our own, Gasper Vladi, holder of one of two Bishop Pieces in my team. Despite his tender age, he is said to possess a Sacred Gear so 'sacred' as to be able to manipulate time--plus, he's a Daywalker.

Problem is, apart from him, we currently have limited information about these fresh adversaries--might be because we are so used to slug it out against Djinn teams...

For a start, it is said they too are Daywalkers, and they have someone called 'The Dragoness' among them. Probably similar to our having the Red Dragon Emperor (of whom I'm getting so passionate!)... but for a girl to have the nickname 'Dragon' is... kinda unusual. Well, Ophis is a Dragon too, but she's technically well out of my team. This one is inside theirs.

Father said he had sent the letter, and had given them two weeks' grace to reply. After that, we're going to The Arena for the match. Sounds simple enough.

Right now, it's Day 10. Four days left to figure out their official response--which, given the vamps' high sense of honor, might not be in the negative.

But the fact remains: we'll be up against contestants from another clan, and another race. No one could say for sure how such a match would develop...

On that at least I could count on the spirit of my team members. We too have been training for the previous week; and Issei, the Red Dragon Emperor to us, is particularly eager. Always the mood-maker, he is.

There is more. Rumors that we are soon going against the vampires give rise to cheers and whispers--call it fascination of the unknown if you want. Even my young nephew, Millicas, became quite curious about this, that he actually mentioned it during one dinnertime where even my brother, the Maou Sir Zechs Lucifer, was present:

"So you're going against the vampires now, huh, Auntie? Grandmom said they are powerful aliens, I hope you'll be fine."

"Thank you, Millicas. I'm pretty sure I will."

"A-ah~ but why does the match have to be held in so distant a place. I wanna see it too!"

"Oh, don't worry. If you're lucky, they might come to you."

"Grandmom won't allow it."

"Well then, just make a wish that they will, and we'll see."

"Okay..."

He nodded, still looking gloomy, and resumed the eating.

"Rias."

"Yes, Onii-sama?"

"After this we need to talk."

***

"Eh? We will be giving them the option of staying in our capital?"

"Yes. It is agreed, and strictly confidential. We don't want mobs to besiege the place they'd be staying in just to demand for autographs, to begin with. Second, we are the host. Third, our territory is days nearer to The Arena. Call it eve-of-battle courtesy."

"I understand. What about the technical preparations?"

"Some of those will depend on the nature of their response. If they don't mention any preference for a referee, for instance, we might recommend Grayfia again--in the capacity of being one of my servants, of course. As for the actual venue... would you mind if we use that replica of your school again? Well, this isn't strictly to the rules, but I hope you'd enjoy the battle more on familiar grounds."

"I leave the choice of places to you, Onii-sama. Not to have me win, but to give the spectators what I suppose they wish to see. At that," I smiled, "you better have some batches of extra tickets handy."

"Don't concern yourself too much about that, sister."