"Takumi, the humiliation you dealt me… I have to pay it back!!" Riser snarled, then turned to his sister. "Ravel—this operation's going to depend on your planning!"
Ravel currently occupied one of his Bishop pieces. She was technically one of his Pieces, but she wouldn't be entering combat—her job was to strategize.
Now that she finally understood what had happened between Takumi and her brother, her expression was complicated, honestly a little pained. Even if she didn't want to be Takumi's enemy… her brother had been bullied this badly, and she couldn't not help.
They'd already talked it through with their parents, too. If Takumi's side lost, she would act as the intermediary and smooth things over, to keep Takumi from taking it personally and turning it into a bigger feud. But for now? She was going to do everything she could to make her brother win.
Ravel immediately pulled out a map of Kuoh Academy and marked it with a cluster of red circles—Takumi's base, key corners, likely lines of engagement—everything laid out cleanly.
"Based on the intel we've gathered, Takumi-san's lineup is roughly this group," she said, tapping the map. "We need to find ways to break them one by one—especially by taking out his Pawns."
Her pen paused, then circled a name harder.
"The biggest headache is probably Yubelluna. Her bomb magic is extremely advanced, and her strength is comparable to an Upper-Class Demon." Ravel's eyes sharpened. "To be safe, we should send two Knights for a decapitation strike."
She shifted to a different area on the map.
"Our Pawns can't be wasted. As long as they can get close to Takumi-san's base, they can promote into a Queen." She looked up at Riser. "Right now, the priority is gathering intel and tracking their movement—our strategy only works if we control the information flow."
Ravel distributed their forces efficiently based on the pieces Riser had available. Riser's mouth curled into a grin.
Their side's worst Pawn was Mid-Class Demon level. The rest were basically all Upper-Class Demons—Phenex Clan resources went into this hard. And everyone carried plenty of Phenex Tears. One dose would heal their whole body—basically extra lives.
With Takumi—the King—forbidden from acting, and with Riser's elites facing Takumi's last-minute picked filler pieces…
No matter how you looked at it, the advantage was his.
…
While Riser was smugly savoring his sure win, Takumi sat in the Occult Research Club room—legs crossed, one boot kicked up obnoxiously high on the desk.
"Mmm. Rias's office is literally a one-to-one replica… not bad," he mused, glancing around. "I'm kinda jealous of the tech that can open an alternate battlefield and clone Kuoh Academy this perfectly."
In front of him, the girls were tense and ready.
Freya couldn't hold back her worry. "Takumi-sama… don't we need a strategy? Without Norn coordinating, if we just bulldoze forward… what if something goes wrong?"
Takumi shook his head, smiling like he'd already won.
"Have a little confidence, Freya. And who says I don't have a strategy?"
He pulled out a floor plan of Kuoh Academy, then casually marked a few points.
"You split into three groups and push from three directions. Kureha and Yubelluna stay here and guard the base—stop anyone getting close. Everyone else moves out."
It barely qualified as a plan. From the outside, it looked like he'd drawn random arrows.
But none of the girls questioned it. They immediately accepted the order.
And the truth was—Takumi wasn't guessing.
With his X-ray vision and long-range hearing, he'd already tracked the routes of Riser's mobilized Pieces. Those three approach angles perfectly cut off Riser's offensive lines.
And in Takumi's allocation, Setsuna, Lapis, and Eve were about to collide with Riser's hidden trump card.
Phenex had borrowed a Bishop Piece from Sairaorg: Misteeta Sabnock.
A pretty-boy crossbreed from House Sobnock and a human, Misteeta wielded the Sacred Gear Trick Vanish. Its ability was to burn his stamina and mental power to the brink, and in exchange, completely seal a target's abilities for a set time.
Ravel's plan was simple: use Misteeta's seal to shut down Yubelluna's bomb magic. Based on their intel, Takumi's strongest presentable Piece was likely Yubelluna—cripple her, and Takumi's side would inevitably collapse.
Nice plan. Takumi thought.
Shame it was useless.
Because under his routing, Setsuna, Lapis, and Eve instantly intercepted the team trying to slip into his base.
…
"Our route's been discovered?!" Misteeta's eyes widened as he faced the three girls. He immediately contacted Ravel.
"What? Does that mean they've seen through our strategy?"
"Not necessarily," Ravel answered quickly. "It could just be a coincidence. There are only three of them, and they look like little girls."
Misteeta studied Setsuna, Lapis, and Eve more carefully—and the pressure in his chest eased a little.
He didn't recognize them.
And he recognized most strong Pieces and Demons in the Underworld. If he didn't know them, it usually meant they weren't notable.
More importantly, his side had four.
Besides him, there were two Pawn Pieces… and a nearly five-meter-tall monster of muscle—Gandoma Balam.
Gandoma was High-Class Demon level, and not the barely kind. Known in the Underworld as the Great King's Rook, he'd made a name for himself through sheer brute force.
With Misteeta's sealing ability plus Gandoma's crushing power, their combo was considered unbeatable.
Four versus three, and they had two heavy hitters—the advantage was theirs.
Ravel immediately issued the attack order through the miniature communicator.
The four of them snapped into battle stance. Misteeta raised his wand.
Setsuna, Lapis, and Eve responded without hesitation. After one look between them, Setsuna and Lapis surged forward first.
Eve, positioned in the rear, drove her magic power. Two completely opposite elements—one black, one white—condensed in her palms.
"Holy Magic—Sanctuary Shield, reinforce!" she declared in one smooth breath, then followed without pause: "Dark Malgic—Black Thorns!"
A pure-white shield instantly wrapped Setsuna and Lapis.
At the same time, dark-red thorns erupted from the ground, spreading toward the four at terrifying speed.
Misteeta's expression snapped tight the moment Eve moved. "Strong—watch yourselves!"
But his two Pawn Pieces didn't even have time to process the warning.
The moment their attacks landed, they were erased by the shield.
Before they could reset their footing, Setsuna and Lapis hit them—one with a clawing strike, the other with a brutal kick—launching them straight into the creeping black thorns.
In a single exchange, both were bound in place by the thorns and stripped of combat capability.