DxD : Emiya Shirou

"Chanting?" Reya, a Bishop and thus one of the magic experts of the group, asked. "Like for a spell? But he's a Devil now; doesn't he realize that unlike human mages we don't need chants or circles to cast spells?"

"That's what we all thought too." Sona agreed. "Some of the Elder Devils watching actually started laughing and claiming how it was too soon for the kid to fight if he doesn't even know how to cast a spell properly."

...

Frowning at the thought of the Elder Devils, she continued, "As much as I hate to ever side with those old fools, at the time I was forced to agree. If Shirou didn't even understand the basics of how his Devil powers worked, it was going to end becoming even a bigger massacre than anyone ever expected.

"I was already apprehensive enough about the fight already, finding out that he was unable to use Devil magic however pushed me over the edge. 

I quickly turned around to find my sister and convince her to end this fight before she got her Queen killed, but the moment I caught a glimpse of her face, I froze in place. 

She was wearing a look that I recognized all too well, a cocky 'I know something you don't know' expression of hers that she always wore just before she was about to prank someone..." she paused before admitting.

"Which more than often than not was me.

"Not sure whether to feel reassured or even more terrified by the revelation, I decided to simply stand out of her line of fire for the moment and watch how things played out. By the time I turned back towards the match, Shirou had just completed his chant and...well, to say what followed was unexpected would be putting it mildly.

"A ring of fire emerged from beneath his feet, quickly spreading across the field to encircle Sirzechs within its embrace and, with a flash of blinding light, a giant dome of flames had replaced the ring.

"It was a brand of magic that no one had ever seen the like of before. Despite its appearance, what we first believed to be flames were actually not, as it emitted no heat and a Phenex member in the audience could sense no fire in its construction.

"Not only were we faced with a form of magic that we could neither understand nor identify, but we also lost track of the two combatants as none of the cameras or sensors we had scattered across the battlefield could see through the dome. 

The few that were caught within its range did not transmit any images, which was supposed to be impossible. The only thing we could confirm was that both Shirou and Sirzechs were inside of the dome. And within nothing else we could do, we resigned ourselves to waiting it out.

"Fortunately our wait was not a long one. Hardly a minute had gone by since the formation of the dome that it began to collapse, every bit as abruptly as it had appeared. We could finally see what was within the dome, but what greeted our eyes however was a bloody and wounded Sirzechs Lucifer...

...who had been brought down to his knees."

For a single moment, the entire Counsel room became so silent that you could have heard a pin drop before the silence was abruptly broken by the combined yells of shock from each and every member of her Peerage.

"EHHH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!"

Rubbing her head at her Peerage's overreaction, Sona muttered under her breath, "By the Satans, they're multiplying."

"He did what?" Squeaked out a frightened Ruruko.

"B-b-but didn't you just say he lost?" A confused Saji question.

"I haven't heard anything about that! I thought all that happened was him giving Sirzechs a good fight." Tsubasa exclaimed, eyes wide in surprise.

Raising a single hand up, Sona signalled her Peerage to be silent, which they immediately complied. After waiting for a few seconds to make sure that they would remain silent, Sona continued.

"I believe you are all misunderstanding something. First of all, Saji." She locked her sights onto her Pawn, "Shirou did lose. He was spotted a few seconds later, unconscious and lying face down on the ground only a few yards away from Sirzechs, having succumbed to his wounds."

Turning her eyes away from her Pawn's onto her Knights, "As for why you haven't heard of this, Tsubasa, I thought it would have been obvious. Sirzechs is widely considered to be the strongest Devil in existence, his strength is so acclaimed that most people actually consider him invincible, untouchable even.

"While that is for the most part untrue, it is a useful image to have. As the public face of both the Maous and the New Devil faction as a whole, he needed to be viewed as a perfect and unmatched being. 

Despite the possibility that Ajuka Beelzebub may actually be every bit as strong as him, the entire Maous and Elder Devils agreed to make Sirzechs as the new poster boy for the New Devil faction when the war ended, so they did their best to bolster his admittedly already high reputation.

"That's why they could not allow the details of the match to spread. Even if he did win the fight, that he was injured at all, by a newly minted Devil at that, could not be allowed to be known to the public. All the High-Ranking Devils that were there were unanimous in that. Even my sister agreed.

"Besides, Shirou had a distinct advantage in that fight. Sirzechs's primary weapon was his Power of Destruction, something that is simply too dangerous to be used outside of a life or death situation. While he could still use it defensively, it is highly unlikely that he was able to utilize its full offensive capabilities against Shirou without taking the risk of killing him.

"On the other hand, there is no way of telling if Shirou would have also performed better in a life or death battle. Each and every one of Shirou's swords struck Sirzechs in non-fatal areas, or not immediately fatal at least. Whether Shirou would have done better or worse in a real fight," she shrugged, "Who knows?"

"Swords, Kaichou?" Her so far silent Queen asked.

"Ah, that's right. I didn't get a chance to explain that, did I?" She recalled, "When we first caught sight of him, Sirzechs body was completely littered with swords. There was easily over half a dozen blades piercing his entire body. Chest, back, legs, shoulders - everything. And there were even more planted on the ground around him. Because of that, many theorized that Shirou's magic was based on swords somehow."

"You mean just like the one he showed us." Tomoe realized.

"Exactly that."

"If he made dozens of swords like that one, I can completely understand why he did so well." Momo barely withheld a shiver at the thought of that weapon. She may not have been the most knowledgeable about swords, but she was the best in the Peerage at sensing magic. 

Even when she sat on the other side of the room, she was overwhelmed by the pure power that poured out of that sword, it was so dense she could almost taste it. 

"That sword was dangerous, Kaichou, easily a Maou level weapon."

"I, as well as many other of the Devils there, agree with you. Some even speculated that some of the swords that were spotted may have been of God-slaying level, but the swords all dissipated into bits of light before anyone got the chance to examine them."

"Either way, while Shirou may not have been able to beat Sirzechs, he was able to wound him. His blades were able to reach him, to pierce the armour of the strongest Devil. At that point, Shirou's strength could no longer be denied."

"That was enough to silence any dissenters. The Leviathan's Queen had proven his worth and was acknowledged by both the Elder Devils and the Maous as an Ultimate-level class Devil and was awarded the rank of Prince, making him an equal in status to Heirs of the 72 Pillars.

"The final result ended up completely satisfying the Reincarnated Devils faction, as this had not only dissuaded them of any doubts of my sister's stance on Reincarnated Devils, but it was also the fastest rise in rank to have ever been recorded for a Devil, Reincarnated or otherwise.

To make things even better, Shirou is the first and only completely reincarnated human Queen to have been made part of a Maou's Peerage. This has caused my sister's reputation to flip among the Reincarnated Devils, actually making her the most popular among the Maous instead of the least." Sona shook her head in disbelief at that.

"I swear, if I didn't know any better I would think she had planned the entire thing straight from the start."

"What about the Pure-Blooded Devils? I doubt they would have been pleased by the result." Tsubaki, the most politically conscious member of her Peerage, asked.

"That's the best part, every Pure-Blooded Devil that strongly opposed the rising pressure to grant more rights to the Reincarnated Devils were there to witness the fight and were completely cowed by his strength. 

For Devils, power is everything, and Shirou's strength was indisputable, so they quieted down. For now. I have my doubt they will remain that way for long."

"The problem hasn't been fixed by any means, but this event was able to buy the Maous much-needed breathing space and have given them enough time to strengthen their position before tackling the issue.

"By the end of the day, my sister had gotten her Queen, dealt with the population's discontent with her and also decided to grant her Queen a title to honour the occasion."

Tsubasa broke out laughing at that, "Yeah, I remember that title. It was awesome." At the words, several of the Devils in the room began to chuckle along with her.

"What title did she give him?" Saji asked Sona, confused at the reaction of the rest of the Peerage.

A small, mean spirited smile appeared on her face, making her look so much like her sister it frightened everyone watching.

"They named him..."

The Queen of swords.

...

There was not a single shred of doubt in my mind; somewhere out there, Archer was laughing at me.

I pushed myself off the wall that I had been leaning on, located at the opposite end of the corridor that held the Student Council. I stopped reinforcing my ears, no longer interested in eavesdropping on the rest of their conversation, and made my way to a quiet place to have my lunch.

Which reminds me, I had to make sure Sona starts setting up measures to protect her room from magical surveillance. Just because this was a human school is no excuse for her to get sloppy. That I was able to listen in on her for the past five minutes without her noticing was all the proof that I needed to convince her.

And still, I couldn't get rid of the sensation that Archer was laughing.

Ok, sure, he may have been betrayed by the ideals he had dedicated his whole life to, murdered by the very people he was trying to save and has to spend the rest of his existence in a perpetual hell as one of Alaya's Counter Guardian, forced to murder millions of innocent people for the thing sin of happening to be in the way, but even he has never experienced anything as embarrassing as this.

I mean, really, 'Queen of Swords', how tacky was that?

It was a good thing that there was no one in the corridor or they would have witnessed me fall to my hands and knees in despair. Knowing my luck, I would have ended up with an even more embarrassing nickname by the end of the day if anyone did end up seeing me.

I could tolerate the swords part, but Queen? Oh, come on, I was a guy! That Serafall has kept on trying to get me to adopt one of the songs made by the 'Queens" as my personal theme song didn't make me feel any better about the matter.

Oh, my Pride, my aching Pride. It actually physically hurt. It was moments like this that I sincerely hated being a Devil. When I was still a human I simply wouldn't have cared. 

It never mattered to me what other people thought of me and I would have barely given any thought to an embarrassing name I might have been called by. Hell, I was dubbed the 'Janitor' by most of my classmates all through junior high and all the way up to high school and it didn't even phase me.

Ever since I became a Devil, however, Pride has ended up becoming my personal 'Sin'. Fortunately, it was mostly limited to my swords and cooking, but every now and then it crops up.

Like whenever I hear myself being referred to as a Queen.

Letting out a sigh of surrender, I decided to let it go. I had better things to do than waste my time over something I couldn't do anything about, like making sure Sona or the Gremory girl didn't get themselves killed.

I could feel the good mood that I had been enjoying since returning back to school plummet at the thought. War was coming, whether with the other three fractions or some of the other groups that despised Devils. One way or the other, war was coming to the Underworld.

That's why I had to go to such lengths to make sure Sona allowed me to train her. Sona, in the end, was half-right. Her sister did send me to train her, but not for the game. I'm not sure Serafall's heart can take it if anything happened to her little sister, so I was here to make sure I'd never have to find out.

Besides, I liked Sona, I would have been happy to watch over the kid even if Serafall didn't ask me to.

Oh, just listen to me, I'm starting to sound like an old man. I was barely a year older than most of my classmates and I'm already thinking of them as innocent children.

Still, I can worry about it later. Right now I better hurry if I wanted a chance to eat my lunch. With that last thought, I quickened my pace in my quest to find a suitable place to spend the rest of my lunch.

.-but still, I was the Queen of swords.

Shut up, Archer.

...

Tsubaki was finishing up some last-minute paperwork, when she realized that her King wasn't in her usual spot, double-checking their work. Instead, she stood in front of her chess set, glaring down at it.

"Kaichou," approaching her, the Queen hesitantly asked, "Is something the matter?"

"...I just realized something," after an abnormally long wait, Sona answered.

"I never got the chance to play a game with him. That jerk tricked me!"

========================

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :

 p atreon.com/Aerle