DxD 0071: Forced Help

"Honestly, you church dogs are really dumb, aren't you?" Abaddon chuckled as he swirled the sword in his hand while a red glow appeared on the sword and the bandages on it disappeared.

"Woah? You can use the Holy Sword?!" Irina the ever-airhead still didn't seem aware of the situation and was still cheery like normal.

"Irina, do people say that you're an airhead all the time?" Abaddon asked with genuine interest.

"Yeah, they do! How'd you know?" She asked with surprise evident in her eyes.

"Intuition…" Abaddon said with a serious tone, making Akeno let out a 'Pfft…' sound, barely suppressing her laugh.

Abaddon turned to look at the poor girl who was clenching her fists with tears in her eyes, "Asia!" She jumped and looked at Abaddon with red eyes. She didn't say anything and only looked at him as tears fell down her cheeks, "Tell me. Do you believe in God?" He asked her.

Asia could only release whimpers as she looked down again.

"Look at me." He said with a deep and intimidating voice as she froze and looked at him with even more tears falling from her eyes, "Answer me. Tell me. From the bottom of your heart, do you believe in God?" He asked her with a gentler voice this time.

Asia took a few seconds to reply, but the words instinctively left her mouth, "Yes, I do…"

"Say it again and louder this time," Abaddon ordered her.

"I still believe in God," Asia said in as loud of a voice as she could manage before collapsing on the ground as her legs lost their strength. Abaddon signaled to Akeno who helped Asia stand back up.

"Then hold your head high and say it with pride. Don't listen to what these church dogs are saying. Ignorant fools who don't have any respect for superior beings don't have any worth."

"Superior?" Xenovia said with a disdainful groan as she spat disrespectfully on the side.

"Of course. Devils are the direct antithesis of Angels. And the church was no more than a collection of dogs that the angels were taking care of until recently. And now you no more than abandoned street dogs." He said disdainfully.

"Don't make me laugh…" Xenotia was headstrong. She took a battle stance as she threw away the robes, revealing her bodacious figure that was clad in a tight black leather bodysuit. Irina followed after her and threw away her robes too.

"Oh, you'll laugh all right…" Abaddon smiled widely with a diabolic smile as he raised the sword that he was still holding and started pumping his Power of Destruction into it.

"What are you doing?" Xenovia said with a horrified expression as she looked at Excalibur Destruction which was pulsating with faint red veins appearing on its surface, "Stop it!" Ignoring the pain in her gut, she jumped at him in an attempt to snatch away the sword.

"I think we should stop here…" Irina finally also made a move as her thin rapier-like Excalibur Mimic appeared in her hands and she stabbed it in Abaddon's direction.

He punched Xenovia away again and grabbed Irina by the throat, though he didn't choke her and only held her back with a firm grip, "You're cute, Irina…" He said as he deflected her sword with the Excalibur Destruction that was in his other gauntleted hand, "Not to mention that this bodysuit is tight in all the right places…" He gave a once-over at her body.

As her sword was deflected away, Irina replied, "Oh, thank you for the compliment, Mister Unknown Devil. But I'm supposed to stay celibate and save myself for God…" She said in a bubbly tone.

"Pity…" Abaddon shook his head with a smile as he pushed Irina away and said, "Just stand there and look cute, okay?" With those words, he started pumping even more Destruction energy into Excalibur Destruction.

"Stop him, you airhead!" Xenovia shouted as she desperately tried to get up, but the multiple fractures that she'd received from Abaddon's two attacks weren't helping.

"There's no point, Xenovia. He's too strong for us…" Irina shrugged her shoulders, "Mister…" She didn't know his name, "…Handsome yet dangerous devil, could you please not destroy that sword? We need it to fight the Fallen Angels for our holy mission." Irina asked him earnestly.

"Hmm…" Abaddon looked at Irina with interest, "I might let your sword survive… After you apologize to Asia for being so rude to her." Abaddon smiled as he stopped pumping the Destruction energy into the sword and pulled everything back, leaving the sword with minimal damage.

"Sure. We were imposing our ideals on Asia even though she's already a devil now. I'm really sorry, Asia. I didn't know what you went through and kept asking you mean things." Irina was the first to apologize. However, Asia only responded with a weak whimper of agreement.

Abaddon turned to look at Xenovia who still seemed headstrong, "Since she believes in God, then she should follow God's commandments. If she has fallen to the extent of becoming a Devil, then she should sacrifice herself for forgiveness…"

"It's always the headstrong ones that cause the most problems…" Abaddon sighed as he took a page from Akeno's book and blasted her with a bolt of lightning, making Xenovia release a pained scream.

"Choose between your sword and apologizing to her." He gave Xenovia an ultimatum.

She looked at him begrudgingly before turning her head toward Asia, "I'm sorry for imposing my ideals on you, Holy Maiden…" She said with a scoff only to be blasted by another bolt of lightning.

"Not enough," Abaddon stated as Xenovia's blue hair seemed singed in some places.

"I'm sorry, Asia… I shouldn't have tried to execute you by manipulating your guilt…" Xenovia sighed resignedly.

"Was that so hard?" He dropped the sword back in front of Xenovia.

"Who even are you?" Irina asked as she cautiously made her way to Xenovia who held the sword weakly while kneeling on the ground.

"Abaddon Bael." He stated with an amused smile.

"I see…" Irina's only reaction was evident by the slight widening of her eyes as she helped Xenovia up and put her arm around her shoulder.

"I forgot to ask, what is your so-called Holy Mission?" Abaddon asked as he was curious. He was asleep when they told Rias.

"We have to get the three stolen Excaliburs back from the hands of Kokabiel and his followers," Irina said tacitly, unlike Xenocia's vague words from before.

"Kokabiel? One of the leaders of Grigori? That Kokabiel? And the church sent you two?" Rias couldn't help but look at them in disbelief. They were far too weak to contend against a real cadre, even if he was on the lower end of the spectrum of power.

Xenovia was the one to answer this time. She smiled wryly and said, "As you said, the church has been steadily losing support from the angels and until recently, we had completely lost contact with them. After the incident where the swords were stolen, we were contacted by their leader again and given the task of either retrieving or destroying the Excaliburs. We were the ones chosen to be sent on this holy mission."

"More like a suicide mission, but whatever…" Abaddon chuckled and said, "Take that guy with you. He'll be your handler in this territory." Abaddon pointed at Koba who had a complicated expression with his fists clenched tight enough that they were drawing blood.

"Huh?" He looked up in surprise.

"We don't plan to be allying with Devils…" Xenovia said stubbornly.

"I didn't give you a choice. I've been asked by Azazel to pay attention to this situation and help out if possible. Out of the kindness of my heart, I decided to agree." He said with a chuckle.

‹Extorting the poor guy to his bones is of course a gesture of your kindness…›

Draig's words shed some light on why he even let the church girls live. Abaddon was a Devil inside out and wouldn't bat an eye before killing anyone. The only reason that he decided to spare them was because he wanted them to act as bait to lure out Kokabiel. It also served the bonus purpose of getting Kiba's situation sorted.

Abaddon chuckled after hearing Draig as he told the two exorcists and Kiba, "Now fuck off. Get out of here." He waved his hand at them. Kiba looked in Rias' direction only to see her nod.

"I'll go too…" Koneko volunteered as she looked between Rias and Abaddon who both seemed agreeable.

"Let's go Xenovia…" Irina said as she walked out of the room. Followed by both Koneko and Kiba.

"Act in moderation and don't cause too many problems for my Koneko or you'll have hell to pay…" Abaddon told them with a terrifying smile as he watched them leave.

Koneko turned to look at him with a begrudging expression and showed him her tongue before turning back.

"Well, that was fun…" Rias commented casually as she kept sitting on the couch with one leg crossed over the other.

"It's fine. Kiba will finally get that Holy Sword Project bullshit out of his system," Abaddon said as he walked to Asia and kneeled beside her, "You okay, Asia?" He put his hand on her head and gently combed the hair that was in front of her face to bring it behind her ear.

"Mm mm…" She nodded slowly, "Just a little overwhelmed… The church was such a big part of my life and now…" She trailed off as she choked up again.

"It's fine. You have a new family now, right?" Abaddon put his hand under her chin and made her look up at him.

"Mmm…" Asia couldn't help herself from hugging Abaddon of her own accord and burying her face in her neck as she cried her eyes out.

He rubbed her back gently and soothed her as she whimpered and sobbed on his shoulder.

‹You really are after her whole Peerage, aren't you? I wouldn't be surprised to see you going after that girly boy that she has buried in that box in the basement.›

Draig's words had Abaddon feeling speechless.

'I'm not going after Asia. And I'm definitely not going after that damn femboy…' He thought to Draig.

After sobbing for a while, Asia's whimpers died down as her breathing grew stable and she fell asleep.

"Can you take her back to her room, Akeno?" Abaddon asked as he stood up with Asia in his arms.

"Of course, A-kun." Akeno nodded and took Asia from him before leaving.

***

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