Game of Monsters - 83 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

I Tried So Hard

[Serafall Leviathan]

She knew what she was doing was a bad idea. Joshua’s uncle lived, after all, closer to Church territory than he did literally anybody else, let alone devils. However, there was no way she’d just stand by and do nothing as one of her friends, few as they were, was in danger of dying.

As she prepared to teleport with as many forces as she could gather in such quick notice, which wasn’t much, her mind replayed the desperate call she’d gotten from Yasaka. It didn’t matter if she hadn’t been able to gather many soldiers or anything else. She was going there personally anyway, power was something that shouldn’t be an issue. Serafall was more worried that they’d need a healer, which was why she had prioritized those over anything else.

“I sure hope everyone’s ready,” Serafall said, receiving only affirmative responses. Not that she waited for those before activating the teleportation circle. A second later, they were all standing on the street, close enough to the house of Joshua’s uncle to…

‘Oh no,’ she thought, dread filling her as she witnessed the wrath of a Fallen Angel thunder its way down on an innocent, unassuming house some distance away. Although, it took Serafall a second to realize that no, Joshua wasn’t dead just yet. She could feel him, his familiars and three Fallen Angels under the attack. She could also feel, however, how their energies were dropping dangerously fast as they resisted the attack. ‘That won’t do,’ she decided, narrowing her eyes.

The devils behind her took a step back as she gripped her Levia-tan staff and waved it up to the sky. Before she could even fire an attack, however, the presence vanished into thin air, making her narrow her eyes. Her confusion increased further when a presence she hadn’t even felt before appeared and disappeared before she could even react. It seemed that this time, whoever was attacking Joshua had come prepared just in case.

Just what Serafall hated, smart idiots.

At least the attack had stopped and Joshua was now safe. Safe, but with disturbingly low magical energy, she realized. Serafall moved as fast as she could to check on him, and make sure that the other Fallen Angels that remained didn’t get any ideas, even with the state they seemed to be in. She wasn’t going to take any chances for the moment, that was for sure.

“Joshua, are you ok?” Serafall asked, kneeling down next to the man. His familiars seemed to be fine, tired and downright unconscious in little Margalo’s case, but mostly fine. Joshua himself though, he was incredibly pale, his whole body shaking and sweating.

“Philip… the twins…” he breathed out, barely seeming to be able to get the words through his lips. “Basement.”

“You four,” Serafall said instantly towards four of the medics she brought with her. “Go to the basement, there are humans there that need help.”

“Thank you…” Joshua mumbled, deflating even more, if that was even possible. “Those three… attacked here… too…” he added then, his now dull blue eyes turning towards the Fallen Angels that were off to the side, pelted with holy daggers of Joshua’s, one of them even having Morag’s poisonous threads on her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal-” Serafall started, only to be interrupted.

“They… helped…” Joshua said, the last of his strength leaving him as he fell forward. His face would have been the first thing to hit the ground if she hadn’t been there to catch him, her arms wrapping around him. “Thank you…” he told her, his voice barely audible before he fell unconscious.

“Don’t mention it,” she whispered to him before turning to the rest of her subordinates. The fighters had already positioned themselves around the perimeter, looking for possible threats. The rest of those that were more medically inclined were checking on Joshua’s familiars. One of them though, stood behind Joshua, waiting for permission from her, which she gave with a tight nod.

Then her eyes moved to the side towards the Fallen, who seemed to barely be clinging to life as it was, completely unconscious. ‘You did a number on them, Joshua,’  Serafall mused, somewhat proud of her friend’s accomplishment. Joshua was really moving up in the world. She couldn’t wait to see where he’d get, if he was already handling Fallen Angels like they were just anyone after a year and a few months.

“Someone treat those Fallen. I want them to be as fine as possible… No need to be quick about it though,” Serafall ordered and a few medics moved towards the aforementioned people. If it were up to her, she’d likely throw them in a cell until she could interrogate them, maybe even personally. However, she had a feeling that Joshua wouldn’t be happy with that, so she could do him a small favor and make sure they were at least treated decently. That was as much as she was willing to do though.

“Serafall?” Yasaka replied when she called, and the Satan could almost hear the worry as clear in the woman’s voice as she had felt it herself before arriving. It was sort of why she called so quickly, really. She understood, which was why she wanted to reassure her.

“He’s fine, just magically exhausted… very magically exhausted,” Serafall answered the unasked question. “There was a Cadre of the Fallen here though,” she added, and if she knew Yasaka well enough, which she thought she did, she was fairly sure that she was narrowing her eyes. “Time to call Azazel. I think I know who that was.”

“... I called the Church, they shouldn’t arrive there, which should help,” Yasaka said, after taking a moment to calm herself down. “They’ll still know you were there. Not sure you could go anywhere near their territory and not have your presence known.”

“I’m just awesome like that,” she joked, even as her mind worked on a solution for that.

“Quite,” Yasaka humored her wryly. “Now, I can probably-... Wait a second.”

Serafall blinked then, wondering what could possibly get the youkai’s attention at that moment. This seemed like a pressing matter, especially since both of them were involved in it. The Church and Heaven could get quite angry at them. Justifiably so too, at least in the eyes of most people.

“... Heaven has the Church under control,” Yasaka told her after a long moment, apparently still processing that information herself. Both of them remained silent then.

“Well… Joshua, you have more friends in high places than I thought you did, and that’s saying something,” Serafall said then, looking down at the man that was now being treated by one of her medics. From the look on the devil’s face, it seemed that things were fine enough to relax.

“That’s one way to say it,” Yasaka replied, sounding about as surprised by the revelation as Serafall felt. “I knew that the angels wanted to make an ally of him but… This is bound to cause more friction with the Church.”

“They are either giving up and wanting to pull some brownie points with this… or Joshua is just that important,” Serafall guessed at that very moment. She’d have to ponder on that for a little longer, but those were the guesses that immediately came to mind. The question was… why would the angels place such focus on Joshua?

If they had known of the things he was working on, like the Healing Spell he was attempting to create, then Serafall could have understood. However, they were keeping a tight lid on that. What else could interest Heaven so much that they’d risk getting into a Civil War amongst their own people to get it?

“Something to think about,” Yasaka said, sighing wearily. “Any chance Joshua is at least in condition to be visited soon? Kunou will get worried if he vanishes all of a sudden.”

Serafall refrained from pointing out that she probably wouldn’t be much better.

She didn’t think she’d like getting those words returned to her, after all.

“He should be. It seems he used too much magical energy too quickly and too roughly to defend himself and the others here,” Serafall explained, looking towards the devil that had and was still checking and treating Joshua to confirm that. Receiving a nod, her shoulders relaxed, even though she hadn’t even noticed they were tense. “I’ll see if I can have him back at his place soon.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you for the call,” Serafall replied, shaking her head. She really didn’t want to think what would have happened if the youkai leader hadn’t called her. Chances were the Church would have been too late though, since Joshua was on his last legs when she arrived. “Tell Ku-tan that I said hi, yeah?”

“Sure… See you, Serafall.”

“See you later, Yasaka.”

With that conversation out of the way and the communication spell down, the Satan looked around. Her people seemed to still be working on Joshua, his familiars and, less importantly, the fallen. The guards were still doing their thing and… Then she saw the medics come out of the house.

Serafall didn’t like the looks on their faces.

[}-o-{]

[Joshua Davis]

When he woke up, he felt like death. Just breathing felt like a struggle and his eyelids felt like they were the heaviest thing when he tried to open his eyes. His body felt empty, without any energy whatsoever to call upon. Looking inside to himself, he was disturbed by the absence of almost any magical energy. He’d never sensed himself so… He didn’t even have a word for it.

Reaching through his bond, he checked on his familiars, noticing that they seemed to be mostly fine, if weary.

‘Altered Status?’ he called when he finally mustered enough strength to open his eyes.

[Severe Magical Exhaustion

Drastically decreases the rate at which the user regenerates stamina, health and magic.]

‘Well… that sucks,’ he thought to himself, sighing as he buried himself on the bed he was resting on. He was back home, he realized as he checked his surroundings. He’d been set in a “medical” room instead of his own though. ‘Never thought this place would see use,’ he mused.

He tried to call on his wards to fill his body with new magic but all he got was a very painful experience. Groaning, he decided to give up on that. It seemed that fending off that last attack had taken its toll. He’d have to deal with the Altered Status the old fashioned way, with time and Meditation.

“You are awake?” a little voice asked and he turned to the side. Or, maybe it was more accurate to say he dropped his head to the side. “Dad!” Kunou exclaimed from where she seemed to have been lying her head next to him. “I was really worried, dad,” she told him, all but whimpering as her little hands wrapped around his.

“Silly,” he breathed out, barely managing that much.

“Dumb dad,” the girl told him, smiling weakly. “You’ve been out for a full day, dumb dad,” she added, making him blink slowly. “Cheshire and the rest are fine, they’ve been very lazy though, but that’s because they are recovering. Serafall and mum said you would take even longer than them, but that I could visit. I… didn’t want to leave you alone in here. Hospitals suck.”

“... Home,” Joshua went with for a response, seeing as he didn’t seem to have much more strength than to speak single words. He’d have liked to have a moment to activate Meditation, seeing as the skill was likely to help him recover faster. However, Kunou had obviously been very worried. He could spare a few minutes to reassure her that he was fine, even if they were a struggle.

“Still a hospital,” she grumbled, pouting at him. His lips tugged up almost on their own, which was good because it still felt so incredibly taxing even with that. “I’m glad you are fine, dad.”

“... Philip?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Ah… Mom got a little scared for a moment, but she said they are all fine,” Kunou answered unsure. Joshua could tell there was more to it, she was hiding something from him. He didn’t push though, he’d do that with Yasaka or Serafall, whoever visited first. For now though, his daughter had been distraught because of him.

“... Home-work?” he asked, suddenly glad that he was so very exhausted. It made it easier to keep a straight face, especially with the positively scandalized look on Kunou’s face.

“Of course I didn’t do my homework, dad!” she whined. “I was worried sick!”

“... Lazy,” he told her, and this time he couldn’t still couldn’t help but smile, even with as tired as he felt.

“Stop being a meanie, dad, or I’ll leave,” she threatened. It would have been a good idea, actually, but just because it was the logical thing to do didn't mean he would. He could delay his recovery a bit. Kunou had been looking forward to a nice dinner and instead got him unconscious after an attack. He could give her this much. “Ah, I’ll get you a cup of tea!” the girl announced all of a sudden and Joshua blinked slowly as she rushed out of the room.

‘So much for spending time with her, huh? Might as well meditate for a bit,’ Joshua decided, because he had a feeling he’d need all the energy he could get. It was going to be a long day to get Kunou to relax again and maybe Jeanne too. On top of that, he needed to check with Serafall or Yasaka to know if his family was alright, Kunou’s words had been less than reassuring.

Closing his eyes, he delved on what little energies he had in him. His magical energy was almost non-existent and his life energy felt sluggish at best. However, he did his best to focus on them and only them. Life Concentration probably would help too, especially if he could get his life energy to move at a normal speed, he guessed. Better be careful while going about it though. No need to worsen his condition.

As Joshua worked on that, he felt Cheshire drag herself through the house until she reached his room and then struggled until she set herself on his bed. There, she laid herself next to him, pushing her head under his hand. Interrupting himself for a moment, he made his fingers move the slightest bit. A warm feeling reached him from the bond and he took a long breath in.

Opening his eyes again for a moment, Joshua took a moment to relax and do nothing. No meditation, no Life Concentration, nothing at all. It was… sort of nice. He usually had things to do, regardless of the time of the day. Obviously, many of those were things he enjoyed or found interesting, but he didn’t remember the last time he’d done nothing at all.

Of course, that’s when the System decided to interrupt him with something.

[Quest Complete: Save Philip Woods and his family.

Rewards:

+ 5 levels to all stats.

+ 5 levels to Ward Magic.

+ 5 levels to Neutral Magic.

+ 10 levels to Electric Resistance.

+ 10 levels to Light Resistance.

+ 10 levels to Dagger Mastery.

+ Title Update: The Professor.]

‘Those are quite a few levels…’ he mused wearily. ‘Wait, I think… B- rank, nice,’ he added with a slight smile on his face. ‘Now, as for the rest…’

[Joshua Davis

Title: The Professor

Race: Human

Strength: 81

Speed: 76

Dexterity: 76

Vitality: 88

Perception: 74

Magic: 117

Life: 30]

‘Nice, very nice indeed,’ he mused. ‘The skills are pretty self-explanatory though, I want to know what the title change is though. That’s- What?’ he asked, baffled at the text in front of him.

[The Professor

Increases the growth speed of Magic, Spells and magic related Skills by 50%.

Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Spells by 40%.

Increases the growth speed of Skills and Spells you teach by 100%.

Spell level is removed. All spells are averaged to the level of their branch.]

Sure enough, when Joshua called for the Spell list, he saw that all it did now was list the spells he’d actually used so far, nothing else. There wasn’t even a Consumption value or anything. Just the names of the spells. ‘This is huge,’ he thought to himself. Sure, maybe it’d hurt some of his higher leveled spells, like the Detection and Monitoring Wards, but everything else would be a plus. No more having to grind a spell from the ground up.

‘This is amazing,’ he thought then, grinning widely. Or as widely as he could at the moment, which wasn’t much. That wasn’t all though, it seemed, because a moment later, a new screen appeared. This time it wasn’t a standard one though. Instead, it was one from the Egyptian gods.

[New Perk Acquired: Blessing of Set]

‘What in the actually fuck?’ Joshua asked in his mind, and he was sure he’d have exclaimed that out loud if he’d had a little more strength in him. ‘Set? Of all gods in the Egyptian pantheon?’ Now, he might not have been familiar with very many of the desert deities, mainly because there were a lot of them. However, he was very familiar with a select few, since they were kind of a big deal.

One such case was Set, god of violence, chaos, strength and the desert. That was as much as Joshua could remember off the top of his head. Well, that and that the myths didn’t seem to make up their mind if he was good or bad.

From the Charm, which had been set on his bedside, he was hit with a feeling of pride and amusement.

[Minor Blessing of Set

The user can change their body into sand.]

‘That’s… I gotta test that, as soon as possible,’ Joshua thought, eyes slightly wide. What did the skill truly mean? Would he turn into a pile of sand on the ground if he used it or would it be… Judging by the indignation he felt coming from the Charm, followed by amusement from two others, that clearly wasn’t it. Which meant that this would turn out a pretty neat skill.

He couldn’t wait to try it out.

As it was, it’d probably take a bit to recover, so that would have to wait, sadly.

‘Welcome to the club though, Set,’ he thought, receiving an amused feeling in response. Maybe the deity would be more chill than he expected. He certainly hoped that would be the case. Having to deal with the god of violence and chaos didn’t sound like a good time otherwise.

[}-o-{]

[Yasaka]

She often hated how much time her “job” took from her life. Most of the time, it’d be because it took her away from her daughter, but that wasn’t quite the case that day. Sure, it was still there, but something else was added to it. The fact that it had stopped her from checking on Joshua through the whole day.

Granted, she’d received a call from Kunou saying that the man was awake, but it wasn’t the same to be told such things. Just like it wasn’t enough to hear her servant’s reports on her daughter, back when she’d been even busier than she was those days. Fortunately, with things being much better with the devils and things generally settling into a much more calm political weather, Khaos Brigade notwithstanding, she had more free time.

Which made it even more frustrating when it still could get in the way.

“Ah, Yasaka, welcome,” Jeanne greeted her with a smile as she urged her to get in their house. She gave the girl a smile back even through her irritation and impatience. “Come on, they are together at the medical room.”

Somehow, even with all that she knew and had been told, the mention of that room made Yasaka tense ever so slightly. It was silly, she knew. Joshua was fine and he’d recover soon enough. Still, it didn’t stop her from feeling unsettled by the fact that he needed that room at all. That Joshua had been so bad after his encounter with the fallen and the Cadre, specifically, that he had been out for a whole day and likely would require lots of rest and attention for a while too.

“He’s fine,” Jeanne reassured her, and it dawned on Yasaka that maybe she was being more expressive and obvious than she thought she was. “He’s just gotta recover from some heavy magical exhaustion, from what they’ve told us. He’ll be super tired but he’ll get better, is the summary I got.”

“That’s good,” Yasaka replied eloquently, suddenly feeling very awkward. Safe to say, she wasn’t very used to that, if at all. Nevertheless, Jeanne either didn’t notice or ignored it. Yasaka was grateful for that regardless of which one it was. Instead, the girl simply hummed as she guided her towards their destination.

As she reached the door, Yasaka stopped for a moment, watching as Kunou babbled about some thing or another, waving her hands in the air enthusiastically. A slight smile, not unlike the one on Joshua’s face, appeared in her face at the sight. It was always such a delight and a relief to see Kunou behaving her age for a change. No matter how long it had been since she started doing so, after years of seeing her own daughter put on a mask, it was nice to see her without it regardless.

She was grateful to Joshua for that, every single day.

“Mom!” Kunou greeted, jumping as she realized her arrival and rushing to give her a hug.

“Hello, sorry for being late,” she apologized, almost on instinct, even if it was still the truth.

“It’s fine, come on,” her girl let go of her, instead grabbing her hand and dragging her towards Joshua’s bedside. “I was telling dad about these ideas I have for our cards,” her daughter said and Yasaka smiled.

There was still that slight twinge of awkwardness in her at hearing Kunou calling Joshua her dad, but it was going away quickly. Her daughter was positively ecstatic about the whole thing, so she was happy for her, if nothing else. Besides, she had some ideas about the matter that…

But that was a topic for another day. Yasaka could ponder on possibilities regarding the extraordinary man in front of her when he wasn’t lying on a bed after almost dying. It wasn’t the time for that right then and there, for several reasons.

Thus, Yasaka simply focused on what Kunou was telling her regarding the fox people she was creating for the game she was making with Joshua. Sometimes, either Joshua or her would make a comment or a suggestion, but otherwise they let the girl talk away. Considering how nervous and subdued she’d been the whole time the man had been out, Yasaka was happy to just see her back to her new normal.

She probably would need to have a talk with Joshua regarding his own safety. For Kunou’s sake as much as her own, really. The man better be understanding, or maybe she’d give him a piece of her mind as she’d thought of doing before.

For the moment, however…

“What… happened with Phil… and the twins?” Joshua asked, his weary tone and sluggish words taking him some time to get through. Yasaka was grateful that he waited until Kunou went away for a bit.

“They… They almost died,” she told him, hesitating for a moment. Joshua was a direct man, however, and so she decided to be direct with him. No need to beat around the bush. “They are fine now though,” she added almost instantly, else the man would get worried for nothing. “There were just too many energies, strong ones at that, in the area for mundane people to withstand, even with your protections.”

“I didn’t… know that-”

“It’s not something that most supernatural people have to deal with often, or even care about, in most cases. It gets overlooked often. I’m sorry for doing so myself,” Yasaka told him, feeling terrible about that. She’d known about Joshua’s family. He’d known that things could happen to them but she just… She got a dismissive wave of Joshua’s hand halfway through her apology. He gave her a forced smile then.

“They aren’t… suited for… this world,” he said. It wasn’t a question as much as it was a statement, but she nodded regardless. She’d checked and gotten reports on the family and they were… As mundane as they came. Everyone had potential in the supernatural world, of course, but some did so more than others. The magical readings on the twins and Philip were almost non-existent. No Sacred Gears in sight either, which would have likely been picked up by Joshua anyway. There was nothing on them at all.

“They are not,” Yasaka replied then, giving the man a sad smile. There was only one thing for him to do if he didn’t want a repeat of what had happened, risking his relatives actually getting killed this time. She didn’t insult him by telling him what to do, however. Joshua could decide what to do in regards to that himself.

Judging by the sigh he let out and the way his face showed his despair clear as day, it seemed that he didn’t have a better solution than the one she had come up with herself.

“Away…?” he asked, his eyes shining with unshed tears as he stared at the ceiling over them. She nodded, a soft smile on her face. “Can you…?”

“I’m probably not the best suited for it, but I’ll talk with the Church and Serafall for you,” Yasaka reassured him, placing a hand on his arm to comfort him. She knew how much those relatives meant to him. He’d talked with her several times about them. “And I’ll make sure they do a good job, the formers, that is.” Because there was no way Serafall would half-ass such an important thing for Joshua.

“Thank you,” he told her, giving her a smile, even if it looked as strained as it could possibly be. “Can you stay... For now?” he asked, and she returned his smile with a soft one of her own.

“Of course,” she agreed easily. How was she to reply any other way?

A few hours later, arrangements were made for Philip Woods and his two daughters to disappear in the mundane world. Far, far away from the supernatural side of things, hidden from anyone and everyone on the hidden side of the world. They’d continue living their lives as they had, unaware of what had happened.

It was for the better, even if it meant they wouldn’t even remember Joshua’s latest interactions with them and that the man would never be able to see them again.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Ok, so… I’m a little nervous regarding the PoVs of Serafall and Yasaka. Nervous that I might not have caught their characters well enough, nervous that I might not have showed as much as I wanted or should. However… Well, it is how it is, right? Hopefully I’m worrying for nothing.

That’s the main part I’m concerned about for this chapter, but certainly not the only interesting one. I can’t wait to see what you guys think about what happened. As it is, this is all I wanted to put into notes, I think.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What kind of fic would be “just what you were looking for” if you started searching right now?

See you.