Devil Ninja

Chapter 40

The day of the Rating Game had finally arrived.

Naruto and the others were sitting on a train owned by the Agares Clan, one of the remaining 33 Devil Clans of the 72 Pillars. They were the second highest-ranking clan amongst the 72 Pillars. Holding the rank of Archduke, they were tasked with being the moderator between the Bael Clan, the Four Great Satans, and the remaining Noble Devil Clans.

"It shouldn't take much longer for us to reach our destination," Rias said from where she sat on the couch. She had taken Naruto's left. Ophis was on his right. She seemed to be trying to drill a hole through his head. At least Koneko and Ravel weren't suffocating him by trying to sit on his lap. Instead, Koneko was playing video games with Gasper while Ravel watched them and tried to understand the mechanics behind the game.

Ravel had never played video games before coming to the human world.

"Isn't Agares a flying city or something?" asked Issei suddenly. He was sitting on another part of the same couch, but surrounding him was Asia, Raynare, and Xenovia. Irina was sitting between their two groups. She looked from one group to another as though unsure of which side to join.

Rossweisse was with Irina in sitting between Naruto's and Issei's group, which Naruto was going to start calling Naruto's Harem and Issei's Harem so he didn't get them mixed up. However, unlike Irina who kept glancing back and forth between the respective harems, the former aid of Odin was staring at Naruto with a complicated expression.

She was probably remembering their conversation in Kyoto.

At one point during their visit to Kyoto, Rossweisse had gotten shit-face wasted, made a fool out of herself, and then lamented her lack of boyfriend. Naruto had told her that he would gladly date her. However, they hadn't been given a chance to go on a date since coming back home. Naruto was too busy dealing with the upcoming culture festival and training for the Rating Game against Sairoarg and his peerage, while Rossweisse had been stuck in teacher meetings.

"It is," Rias said. "The floating island was created using incredibly complex and powerful magic from the Old-Maou Era. Very few people understand how it works, though Brother once informed me that Ajuka Beelzebub understands the intricacies behind it. Due to that, the current Beelzebub has servants working their to maintain the core and keep it from falling to the ground."

"Pretty cool stuff," Issei said.

"It is definitely 'cool'," Kiba greed. He was standing, unlike the rest of them. With his arms crossed over his chest, the princely Knight looked at Issei and smiled. "I've never been there myself, but I've seen it from afar. Just looking at it from a distance is enough to give you chills. I can't imagine how much power must have been required to lift such a thing into the sky, nevermind keep it floating there."

As he listened to Kiba talk, Naruto imagined the Chibaku Tensei technique that Nagato and Madara had been so fond of using. He didn't think this floating island would look like that, though.

"On that note, I should mention that the crystals used to create evil pieces are found in the Agares Clan's territory," Rias added.

"Members of the Agares Clan also possess the unique trait to control time to some degree, and they have the propriety to 'recover fugitives'. This is why their First Head was known as the Devil who made deserters return," Ravel provided a small but informative lesson after hearing what Rias said.

"Now I'm really curious to see this floating city," Naruto admitted. "By the way, how can we get there by train if it's in the sky?"

"There are actually three ways of entering the city," Azazel told them, holding up a hand and listing the ways off them. "The first is to teleport their using a magic circle. This way is only permitted to VIPs or when there is a special matter that needs attention. Because of how important Agares City is, there are many people who might try to use this method to sabotage their operations, which is why we aren't using it. The second way is to use airships. We're going to be using the third method, which is by taking a gondola from the ground and going up."