The next day, the day of friendly competition, four factions filled the colosseum. Each faction took a side on the spectators’ seat.

Devil took the east side. The Heaven factions that composed with Angels and Exorcists that just arrived today took the west side. Fallen Angels took the south side, while youkai took the north side.

Somehow, it was not too unexpected; the one who took the role of emcee was Azazel and me.

At first, it was only Azazel who took the role of emcee. However, I was also interested in becoming one, so I joined him to add some comments and maybe diss some fighters later.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the friendly competition between 4 factions! I will be your emcee today. For those who don’t know me, allow me to introduce myself. I am the Governor of Grigori; Azazel is my name!”

He bowed his head and said, “Nice to meet all of you.” Then he raised his head and pointed his hand at me, who stood beside him.

“And there is also the sudden emcee that accompanies me.”

“Yo! I am the second MC today, the Lord of Pandemonium from the Nura clan. My humble name is Nura Riku. It’s nice to meet you.” I winked my right eye as I finished my introduction.

For the reason that I knew, the girls were shrieking when I did that. It had been a long time since I heard the shrieking. Was it since the time I attended Kuoh Academy?

It was a refreshing feeling. Showing off was what I was born for, which was ironic because Nurarihyon Youkai had always fought while hiding their presence.

“It seems that you are popular, eh, Riku?” Azazel joked around and made the crowd laugh.”

“It’s natural. I am just too handsome.”

“Hahahaha. Putting that aside, can you explain how the tournament worked? If the information that I got was correct, then you are the one who planned this tournament with Vasco Strada. Is that true?”

“That’s correct,” I answered Azazel with a nod. We had planned to explain this competition before it started, and he told me that it was better if I was the one who explained it.

There were various reasons, but the most important one was to reduce casualties. The casualties that he talked about were those who tried to fight me without knowing my real power.

I guess Azazel had a soft spot on him, huh? To think that he would like to minimalize the casualties.

However, it seems that his plan was backfired.

The crowd from the Devils and Fallen Angels faction was surprised that I was the one who suggested friendly competition.

“It seems some of you are not happy with that, eh?” Azazel said with a grin.

The crowd then booed and asked for explanations.

“Yeah!”

“How can a youkai such as him plan competition between three factions! He even brings his weak faction to join!”

“That’s right!”

Some expressed their dissatisfaction. At the same time, the youkai were glaring at them while fanning the flame.

“Buahahaha. Want to try us?”

“We will crush you like an ant!”

“Don’t make me eat your head, you silly devils!”

“Alright, stop it!” I shouted at them, and the youkai immediately stopped.

However, the devils were not stopped yet.

“Hah! They even followed that guy’s order!”

“Hahahaha. As expected of the weak.”

At that moment, Azazel stepped forward.

“Young devils, it’s better if you stop at that.” Azazel said with a deep tone without a smile. “If you continue that, I am afraid that your faction will be destroyed. This guy here…” He pointed his finger at me.

When he said that, I somehow knew that he would expose me, so I grinned and put off a show too. I used Fear to surround my body and spread my Senjutsu to oppress the arena, especially the devils' side.

As a black cloud of smoke came out of my body, Azazel then continued.

“He killed Rizevim Livan Lucifer by himself. And that’s the reason why we could hold the peace conference yesterday.”

The devils turned silent while the youkai cheered at my show.

“Riku-sama!”

“As expected of Riku-sama!”

“Long Live Nura Clan!”

Immediately the atmosphere turned to favor the youkai. As it was enough, I turned off all my abilities and said.

“Well, we are allies. Don’t worry about me. Let’s explain the rules of this competition.”

“Hahahaha. You’re right! This is a friendly competition, so we should have no hard feelings to each other!”

“You said it yourself!”

We, the emcees, were laughing while the devils couldn’t say anything. Some of them who knew my strength only smiled lightly.

The Devils respected strength; that was why Azazel put on such a show. He had already instructed the Fallen Angels, so they didn’t make such a fuss as the devils did.

As for the Angels, they were also informed by Michael. Not only that, they were not too caring about me as they were supposed to be holy creatures that couldn’t even lie, maybe. I was skeptical about that, though, as the Angels in the DxD even attacked Issei to get his… seed…

Putting that aside, Azazel began to explain the competition rules.

“First of all, the format of this tournament would be group against group! One group will have three people, and everyone is allowed to join. It’s also allowed to team up with someone from another faction.”

“Secondly, the competition will be held inside a special dimension like Rating Game. Ajuka Beelzebub has kindly lent his hand to create this arena!”

“Thirdly, no killing is allowed. Well, I guess it’s been resolved by the space created by Ajuka, but I guess I need to say this.” Azazel chuckled as he found the rules to be funny.

“And lastly… due to the special spectators' request.” Azazel looked at the special spectators. They were Odin, Susanoo, and Shiva. “It seems the first match will going to be a battle royale between four factions. Each will send one of their strongest fighters to fight.”

I didn’t know about it. I looked at Azazel with a dissatisfied look, but he returned a grin as if he had won something from me.

“Is that so? Then without further ado, let’s start the first one.” I shouted to make the spectators hear me.

They were all cheering and shouting a name.

“Diehauser-sama!”

“Dulio!!”

“Shemhazai-sama!”

Three factions shouted each name that they thought were the strongest fighters.

Meanwhile, in the youkai seat… They had started something else.

“Move off! I will go!” Aotabo shouted.

“That will never happen. As I will go as the representative.” Replied Kurotabo.

“I’m sorry, Kurotabo. But Kappa will go.” Said Kappa as he spurted water from his gills.

“Hey… your faction…” Azazel said to me while I just grinned back at him.

“They are always like that. But don’t worry, I got it.”

I looked at Hagoromo Gitsune, who sat soundly beside Kyokotsu on top of a big skeleton, Gasadokuro’s head.

“Let’s announce it.” I said to Azazel as I saw fighters jump to the arena from each faction.

“Alright!” Azazel shouted excitedly.

“From the devil faction, we have Diehauser Belial!”

“Woaahh Belial-sama!!”

“Diehauser-sama!!”

The devils shouted excitedly.

“Then from the Heaven Faction, we have Dulio Gesualdo!”

“Kyaaa! Dulio!”

“Beat them, Dulio!”

His fans were cheering from behind.

Dulio raised his hand to wave at them.

“From the Grigori, we have Shemhazai!”

“Don’t lose, Shemhazai-sama!”

Shemhazai walked with a tired expression. He sighed and mumbled. “Why me?”

“And from the youkai faction!” Azazel shouted and looked at me.

At that time, I had already used Kyouka Suigetsu to leave my Fake beside Azazel while my true body was behind Hagoromo Gitsune. I canceled Kyouka Suigetsu, matching Azazel’s shout, and reappeared behind Hagoromo Gitsune.

She immediately turned to me and said, “Don’t tell me.”

“Yo, help me in this one.”

I picked her up and jumped to the arena. She tried to resist at first but found out that it was useless.

Kyokotsu, who just realized that I had picked Hagoromo Gitsune and jumped, shouted from behind“Onee-sama!”

“Oh! It seems that Riku has picked her up himself! Once again, let me announce it!”

I put Hagoromo Gitsune on the ground and walked to Azazel. She was sending a death glare at me, but then she faced the other three who stood side arena in front of their faction seat.

“From the youkai faction, we have Hagoromo Gitsune! A lot of you must’ve never seen her, but her strength is real! From my information, she’s on par with Nurarihyon himself!”

The Kyoto youkai cheered loudly with the appearance of Hagoromo Gitsune on the middle of the arena.

And with that, the first match was ready to begin.

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