Motohama stood in the abandoned church's doorway, watching Rias rush past him toward the crumpled form of Kiba Yuuto. The blonde knight lay sprawled across the stone floor like he took a hit from the Mahoraga, from behind.
Beside him, Xenovia and Irina were equally battered, the blue-haired exorcist had multiple slashes over her not so reliable black combat suit, while the twin-tailed one, was bleeding from a massive gash across her chest and forehead, painting half of her face crimson.
"What the hell happened here?"
Motohama muttered, scanning the wreckage around him. The church's interior looked like someone had taken a sweet time to get rid of dirt from each corner.
'This doesn't look like they fought here. More like someone dumped their unconscious asses after beating them elsewhere'
'Could it be?'
Rias dropped to her knees beside Kiba, her fingers trembling as she checked for any faint remains of his life. Motohama caught the flash of genuine fear in her blue-green eyes, but then her eyes widened.
"Motohama!" Rias said out loud, without looking back "The healing potions, please give them to me!"
He fished two vials from his dimensional storage and tossed one to Akeno, who stood by Irina's side with a troubled expression. The queen caught it without looking, already tilting the wounded exorcist's head back to pour the liquid down her throat. Motohama knelt by Xenovia and uncorked his own vial to make her drink his potion.
"Open your mouth" he said, lifting her head "Unless you want to meet your superiors with a face full of ugly ass scars"
Soon enough, Xenovia's eyes fluttered open halfway, still hazy. She tried to speak but only managed a wet gurgle. Motohama grimaced a little and poured the potion past her split lips, to let her have all of it.
The effect was immediate! Flesh began to knit back together with an audible squelch, bruises fading from purple-black to yellow to nothing in seconds. Her breathing evened out, and color returned to her pale cheeks.
GASP!
Xenovia bolted upright, sucking in air like she'd been held underwater for a while. Her hand flew to her chest, then patting frantically as if surprised to find herself intact. Across from them, Irina did the same, twin-tails whipping around as she looked wildly at her surroundings.
"Where... where are we?" Xenovia's voice came out hoarse, her mind still swirling with jumbled memories.
Irina's eyes went wide and then she said out loud with starry eyes "Are we... are we in Heaven?" Then her gaze landed on Motohama, and her face lit up with relief so genuine it was almost painful to witness "You're in Heaven too, Motohama-kun! Does this mean God actually—"
Bonk!
Motohama's palm connected with the top of her head in a perfect downward chop. It was all she needed, the potion had done its job, but wasn't enough to knock some sense back into that gospel-fried brain.
"Oww! That hurts!" Irina clutched her head.
"If this was Heaven" Motohama said flatly "then why the hell would I be here?" He glanced at Xenovia, while she caressed her head with muttering some inaudible words "We're still in the land of the living, unfortunately for all of us"
Rias had pulled Kiba into her arms the moment he'd stirred into sanity, pressing his head against her shoulder. The knight murmured "Buchou..." while she squeezed him tighter with tears running down her face.
Motohama stood, dusting off his clothes with a sigh "Alright, What happened to you three? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like someone beat you unconscious elsewhere, and dumped you here"
Xenovia struggled to her feet, swaying slightly before catching herself against the wall. Her fists clenched, skin as she relayed what had happened "We had just finished strategizing our assault against Kokabiel's base..."
Irina shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself "Then this... this purple fog just exploded from underneath us! Before we even knew what was happening, we were transported somewhere, but it was this same church, where we were attacked!"
Akeno's eyes widened fractionally "Another dimension...? I see. There's only one Sacred Gear capable of such manipulation...Dimension Lost. It's a Longinus-class gear that isolates victims in pocket dimensions. Tell me, the place you were taken, did it look like our town, but warped?"
Irina nodded hurriedly "Y-yes! Exactly like that! The church was there, but it was all black and white, while mists were everywhere"
'Why would the Hero Faction deploy Dimension Lost on two random exorcists and a devil knight? Unless...'
"Hey" Motohama said abruptly, cutting off whatever Akeno was about to ask next "The Excalibur fragments you two were carrying. Tell me you still have them?"
Xenovia's face went pale for a moment, as she realised that they were no longer in possession of them.
WHAM!
She slammed her fist into the wall beside her "Those bastards! They took my Excalibur!"
Irina's hand flew to her empty hand, patting frantically where her sword should have been in a ribbon form "No... no no no no..." She grabbed Xenovia's arm, shaking her "Xenovia! They took Mimic too! We've lost both fragments! The Church is going to strip out of our status....we'll be excommunicated!!"
Xenovia clenched her fist as she couldn't help but imagine such a scenario for not only failing the mission, but losing the swords they were trusted with.
'So the Hero Faction has allied with Kokabiel'
'Sigh, fighting a Cadre-class Fallen Angel wasn't bad enough, now we've got Sacred Gear users with world-ending potential joining them as well'
SLAP!
Everyone's heads swiveled toward Rias, who stood in front of Kiba with her palm still raised. The knight's cheek blazed red, and his eyes were still hollow as a dead zombie.
Rias shook him, giving an absolute command "Snap out of it, Yuuto! You nearly lost your life! Can't you see that?!"
Kiba didn't match her gaze but replied "I'm sorry, President. I can't abandon this path. The children who died in that cursed experiment, who were tortured and discarded as failures... I owe them vengeance. I'll shatter every Excalibur shard, even if it costs me my life."
"Hate to interrupt this touching moment" Motohama said, already backing toward the door "but I need to head back to my house for a bit. I'll meet you all at the club room later"
Akeno looked at him in surprise, with a slight concern "Is everything alright, Motohama-kun?"
"I need to grab some supplies" he said, waving dismissively "I'll be back in a minute"
He didn't wait for permission before walking out into the night air, by summoning a teleportation circle. Behind him, he heard Rias resuming her argument with Kiba, her voice getting desperate with each attempt.
Motohama just hoped they'd all survive long enough to worry about his death wish later.
---
Motohama stood in his room, staring at the neat row of healing potions lined up on his desk. Thirty vials, each one glowing faintly in the lamplight.
He'd spent weeks preparing this batch to sell in the Underworld, his ticket to establishing himself as a legitimate potion merchant.
"And now I'm handing them out like free candies because everything's going to hell, now that they both joined hands. Or maybe it's just me thinking too much"
He began transferring the potions one by one in his dimensional storage. The vials vanished with soft pops, absorbed into the pocket space.
'Hero Faction allied with Kokabiel' The thought gnawed at him 'If they join to fight at the Kuoh Academy like in the original timeline, the whole town would end up getting destroyed. Even Benemune's protection won't mean shit against that level of power on their side'
He pulled out his emergency summoning pamphlet with a Sitri Sigil on it. Serafall Leviathan's personal hotline
He swore to use this only if the situation was genuinely apocalyptic, and if Hero faction were actively targetting then, they they can't spare even a minute to wait for arrival of their forces.
Only a Satan Class Devil would match this level of danger.
Motohama held the pamphlet and magic poured from his core, down his arm, into the parchment. The deep blue lines began to glow, lighting up the magic circle as he calmed himself that he can now deal with this fucked up situation.
'Almost there. Just a few more seconds and—'
Then, purple mist erupted from the floor and grabbed him from his foot, snapping away the pamphlet out of his hand.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
The purple mist swallowed him whole before he could reach out to the pamphlet, landed on his bed.
. . .
[ The Dimension Lost Dimension ]
Motohama stood up with his arms raised defensively, his Eyes of Future fully activated and blue light flickering across his irises as he got a glimpse of a horrifying image in his head.
Channeling shockwave through his legs, he launched himself forward without wasting a single second. The world blurred into streaks of gray and purple as he crossed his front yard in a single bound, hit the street, rolled, and came up on the opposite sidewalk.
*BOOOOOOOM!*
His house disintegrated into flaming splinters. The shock waves hit him a second later, with the last bit of a wave of heat and pressure that would've vaporized him if he'd been three seconds slower.
Motohama watched the flames flickering in the crater where his 'home' used to be.
The purple mist was present everywhere, transforming the familiar streets of Kuoh into almost purple as a whole.
His Eyes of Future filled him with new information of multiple figures approaching from the right. Motohama turned slowly, keeping himself totally calm, even though the situation was daring him to lose his composure in front of them.
Then, after a moment, they emerged through the mist one after another.
The one leading the group stepped forward with True Longinus rested against his shoulder, somehow the spear's blade gleaming despite the colorless atmosphere. The rest followed behind him with different sets of expressions, but the one with a single arm had the most enraged one out of everyone.
The leader's smile widened, as he stopped at a fair distance from Motohama.
Motohama stared at the Hero Faction squad, with his Eyes of Future fully active and his arm covered up in the white glow of Tremor.
'This is the worst possible situation I have ever been in'
He readied himself, but not before a familiar sound resonated in his mind, offering the opportunity amidst the chaos.
- - -
Quest : Survive the ambush of Hero Faction
Reward : Rank 12 Gacha Ticket
Alert! The Rank of Gacha Ticket will reduce if outside interference is involved!
- - -
Motohama read the reward twice before his eyes drifted to the warning at the bottom of the screen.
A moment later, he let out a long sigh.
'Why do I suddenly feel like I'm the side character who just walked into a Shibuya Incident?'
. . .
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