DxD 0049: Asia’s Trouble

Rias looked at Abaddon with a deadpan look, “Not everyone is as strong as you, thank you very much…” She said.

“Hey, I’m far from being strong enough. In front of the big leagues, I’m no more than a child. I can’t even break into the top 50 of the overall rankings in the rating games. A lot of the peerages have leaders who are weaker than me, but the numbers aren’t something I can handle alone.” He said with a shrug.

(A/N: Abaddon isn’t weaker than I said, I’m scaling up the rest of the world if you hadn’t figured that out by now. That’s the AU part.)

“You’re a newborn baby in front of them. Of course, you can’t beat the main leaders of the underworld—“ Rias paused for a moment, “You’re top 50?” She asked with disbelief.

Abaddon got an amused yet proud smile on his face. “Some of the games were private since I was too adamant to fight them. They wanted to save face so they agreed to a private match instead.” He said amusedly, “That’s why my public rank is so much lower.

“Fucking monster…” Rias didn’t have any more words and could only change the topic, “Back to the topic. I’ll go talk to Sona about it. I’m sure that we’ll end up doing some sort of competition.” Rias’ attitude instantly changed after she said that and she leaned sensually onto Abaddon before saying, “You’ll take my side, right Abaddon?” She asked while gently caressing his arm.

“My lovely cousin…” Abaddon got an indulging and fond smile on his face and brought his hand to Rias’ head gently caressing her luscious crimson hair. Rias got an anticipatory expression as she smiled sweetly and looked at him with cute expectant eyes, “If I pick sides then Sona will murder the fuck out of me.” He said in the most loving tone to her.

Rias’ expression instantly changed and she pushed his hand away before getting up from the couch, “I hate you.” She said before sitting beside Asia.

“How sad… You only care for me when you have something to get out of me… At least I still have my Akeno.” Abaddon lamented as he gave Akeno’s sleeping face a gentle look. She’d fallen asleep a while ago due to how comfortable she felt.

“She’s my Queen, Abaddon,” Rias said flatly. “And?” He asked, “Considering that you’re also mine, by extension all the women in your peerage should be mine. That’s just fact.” Abaddon stated. His words had a unique effect on Asia as her head practically started releasing steam while her face started burning.

“Stop acting like I’ve declared some undying loyalty to you,” Rias said angrily.

“I love gaslighting you… Your reactions are so cute.” He laughed, “And it’s only a matter of time before you profess your undying love for me. That’s a given.” He looked at her teasingly.

“I’m not talking to you.” Rias turned her face away. “Asia, I want you to take care of Akeno and make sure that this bad man doesn’t do anything to her, okay?” Rias asked Asia in a gentle voice. As she got up, “I’ll go talk to Sona.”

“Okay, Rias-san…” Asia turned to look in Abaddon’s direction and saw the amused smile on his face. She felt a blush creep up on her face as she said, “I know that you aren’t a bad person, Abaddon-san.” Asia said to him with a sweet smile.

“How so?” He asked, genuinely curious. “I just do…” Asia cutely tilted her head to the side and said with a naive expression on her face.

‘How peculiar…’ He thought before saying, “Tell me Asia, how is devil life faring for you?” He decided to make some small talk.

“It’s… different from normal,” Asia said after a moment of thought.

“How so?” He asked her.

“I think that ever since turning into a devil… god may have forsaken me. Every time I pray or think of the Heavenly— ouch!” Asia exclaimed in pain before continuing, “—Father,” She flinched in pain again, “It hurts…” She completed her pained sentence, “The same thing happens when I try to pray or recite the holy scriptures.” She said with a grimace that didn’t suit her face.

“Come here, sit beside me.” Abaddon beckoned Asia closer who didn’t think much before moving to his couch and sitting beside him.

Just as Asia took a seat, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and froze in her place while letting out a suppressed, “Eep!” That was when she felt an unprecedentedly comfortable warmth flow through her body that emanated from that arm. She felt so comfortable that she leaned back into the couch and felt her shoulder brushing Against Abaddon’s side.

“Don’t worry. As you said, I’m not a bad person, right?” Abaddon smiled amusedly, “I called you to sit with me because I’m going to tell you something that might be a little sad for you to hear… We’re devils, right Asia?” He asked.

“Mhm…” She nodded while turning her head to look at him.

“I’m sure that in the church they’ve told you about how devils are the incarnation of evil and that you must despise any and all devils.” He said and Asia nodded in agreement again, “But I believe that all should should be treated with kindness…” She gave her views to which Abaddon just smiled.

“The truth is that we are the polar opposite beings to Angels, who are considered the messengers of God. ‘God’ has Heaven as his domain and the Devils have the Underworld as their domain, essentially equivalent to hell. Do you get why you always feel pain when trying to pray?” He asked.

She let out a weak whimper before saying, “I’ve been forsaken by God?” She asked rhetorically with her voice trembling. She’d already come up with an answer.

“That’s not it, Asia…” Abaddon didn’t want her to cry so he decided to comfort her with a little lie.

“It’s not?” She asked him and he replied, “No. The pain is due to the sacred gear system that was set up by God. It has nothing to do with his thoughts toward the Devils. All the hostility between the devils and angels is due to their opposing natures and that’s it. It has nothing to do with being forsaken by god…” His words were unclear as he seemed to be saying confusing things. He was just trying to comfort the poor girl who’d lost the faith she’d followed for her whole life.

“So, I can still pray?” Asia asked with hopeful eyes.

“It’ll hurt, but I don’t think there’s any problem in doing that,” Abaddon said to her, “Though I want you to come to me if you ever feel too much pain, okay? I’ll help you mitigate the aftereffects of the pain.” He said to her.

“You’d do that?” Asia asked him with bright and grateful eyes. “Of course. On another note. I heard that you were disowned from the church where you were raised. What happened?” He asked her, curious about the story. He’d only gotten some snippets from Raynare as she didn’t know everything about the situation.

“Oh…” Asia grew downcast before she continued, “It all started after I awakened my power… The sacred gear as Akeno-san calls it. I was turned into the holy maiden due to my power to heal… But I didn’t really have any real friends or companions. People mostly shunned me while treating me as the ‘holy maiden’ who could heal. Though I felt more like a monster from their behavior toward me. At one point, I ended up healing someone that the church didn’t approve of, it was a devil in a horrible state… And after I healed him, the church found out about my actions and threw me out.” Asia said with a hint of sadness.

“Hm… Did you leave the church often?” Abaddon asked with a thoughtful expression.

“Hm? No, not really. I don’t think I’ve ever left the church. Why do you ask?” Asia asked.

“I find it peculiar that you found an injured demon near a church… Usually, they would be doing their best to run away from holy places. And if you didn’t leave the church how did you find the demon?” He asked.

“I was strolling in the garden when he stumbled in…” Asia said.

“Can you show me how he looked?” Abaddon asked before casting a magic circle, “Touch this circle with your hand and think of the face of that demon if you don’t mind.” Abaddon said.

“No problem,” Asia said and placed her palm over the circle. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. “Okay, Asia, you can stop now,” Abaddon said and Asia pulled her palm away from the circle.

Abaddon wagged his finger and the circle turned to face him. Abaddon overlapped it with another circle and there was a flash before a projection was created in the air for a few moments before dissipating.

“That motherfucker…” Abaddon said with a whisper in a tone of disgust and annoyance as he looked at the face of the devil whom Asia helped.

“Abaddon-san?” Asia’s gentle voice calmed Abaddon down he didn’t explode with power and held himself back.

“This was a setup… That devil tricked you.” Abaddon said with annoyance.

“What do you mean?” Asia asked, not getting the gist of the situation.

“I mean that he wasn’t injured. It just acted that way to make you heal him and then got it reported to the church so that they would get rid of you. He most likely wanted to have you in his peerage, that disgusting fuck.” He said. Contempt was dripping from Abaddon’s every word.

“Who was it?” It was Akeno who asked that.

“You’re up.” Abaddon noticed as he looked at his lap, only to see Akeno looking at him seriously, “Who was it?” She asked again with a light frown on her face.

“Diodora Astaroth,” Abaddon said with a disgusted expression on his face.