Chapter 293 - Alternative Universe

Everyone were speechless upon witnessing an explosion akin to a nuclear blast and if it weren't for their superhuman speed having gone several dozen kilometers away from the blast radius and bare witness at the massive explosion that made the whole mountside trembles and the barrier separating the space from the outside began to quake from the sheer power of the attack. 

The beast that took the blast head on was a Tarasque, a Beast created by the Leviathan, one of the apocalyptic beasts. The Leviathan is different from the devil Leviathan clan as they have been gifted the power of the apocalyptic beast giving them dominion over the sea and water. 

This beast was immensely powerful, having powerful resistance against magic, physical attack, soul, etc. The only attack it couldn't completely resist is Divine and Holy attacks yet even those attacks seem to only give the creature minor wounds. In the past, The Saint Martha was able to tame the beast by using divine prayers and sealed it away as it was too powerful but now it was able to break free from its weakening seal and grew stronger than before. 

The Saint Maiden in their group held the heroic spirit of Saint Martha having sensed the impending danger summoning a few of her allies in hopes of sealing it yet they all struggled to stand against. Even so, an unknown assailant was able to give a devastating attack obliterating a large part of its body and struggle to regenerate from the attack. The explosion was likely capable of defeating Satan to a High God class. 

The rankings are: Low/Tier 8-C, Middle/Tier 7-C, High/Tier 7-A, Ultimate/Cadre/Low God/tier 6-C, Satan/Middle God/Tier 6-A, Super/High God class/Heavenly Dragon/Tier 5-C and Dragon God/Tier 5-B.

Brought to you by Mini-Ryuu.

The spectacle was jaw dropping making them wonder who was held responsible for causing such catastrophe aftermath. The saint maiden, Martha turned to look at Basara and questioned her.

"Care to tell us how you knew about the incoming attack?" Basara was a bit shaken from the attack and took a moment for her to escape from initial shock and said. 

"I heard a female voice telling us to fall back and I asked Fafnir if I should trust her." Fafnir is a Sacred gear and one of the dragon kings and is known as the Foolish Greed Dragon king. She had been sealed after being defeated by the Heroic Sigurd and became a sacred gear after her body had been greatly weakened.

At first the dragon king was displeased from the outcome and sought to destroy everything and claim what rightfully hers only to eventually change as every reincarnation made her understand her flaws and grow to cherish what she truly needs. Fafnir became a surrogate mother to all wielders she once had and was the few sealed creatures to have met a wielder who treated her like a person rather than a tool. 

In the end, her greed extends to her host wishing for what is best for them and willing to do everything for them so long she is treated like a person. Her ability is straightforward where her sacred gear is called Banishing Shift having the power  to banish anything whether it's physical or magical attacks or emotions, even concepts to the zero-dimension space, in other words, they cease to exist. 

However, she cannot truly turn something into nothing and merely send something close to Zero. Unlike Jin-Ah Nothingness, her power is like the decimal point where it is not truly destroyed while Jin-Ah turns something That Is, into That Is Not. That is, is another name for Yesh while That Is Not is Ayin, the Pre-existential Entity of Non-existent. In the end, her power can even contend against the Heavenly dragon for a short time as her power is basically sustraction. 

[ Indeed, from my experience with people and sensing their intention, this one did not hold anything ill and likely wanted to observe us but surprisingly intervened. I do not know their goal or ulterior motive therefore we should act vigilant. ] 

They all nodded as the group went to investigate the Tarasque and found it more pitiful up close as they were only able to see that the creature was heavily wounded but it was completely different from what they saw before them. The beast had been weakened to a state where its high speed regeneration grew significantly slower and barely kept itself alive. Saint Martha gazes with pity at the creature who she did not blame for its nature and begins to pray for the creature causing golden light to shimmer around them and chant.

"Oh Lord Almighty, I beg of the exalted one and cleanse this creature, for it may find peace in your arms." The golden light showering around the beast as it tried to escape but unable to and soon enough the malice that came from the creature began to be cleanse while the beast roared in anguish trying to stuff them yet in the end the Tarasque slowly had every bit of madness vanish where it seem to be at peace where pain was no more and stared at Saint Martha seemingly thanking her before turning into gold dust finally defeated. Everyone watches as the son of the apocalyptic beast vanishes from the world. 

Before long the group sense someone arrived and saw a scarlet haired woman wearing a silver armor as Saint Martha observed her trying to see if she was an enemy or not and said. 

"May we ask who might be and why are you here?" She recalled that they had cast barriers in order to protect the people outside and keep everything a secret. Saint Martha was on guard but was not tense while the others were a completely different story where the blue haired girl held her katana tightly and the blonde one did the same but less tense while the brown haired and violet blue haired was more relaxed than the others. The scarlet haired, Erza spoke and said.

"My name is Erza Scarlet, truthfully speaking I am lost as I don't know where I am and arrive in this place without prior knowledge. The last thing I remember is that I went on a mission from my guild and then here I am."

Ryuu decided to use this background since it was not a lie and can act as if she had amnesia since technically she doesn't know anything about the world and most of what she knows is from the novel that is likely not accurate. Saint Martha began to think as she is the oldest in the group and was more collective than them and said.

"Amnesia? I'm not sure if you are lying or not but tell me, do you know anything about the supernatural and other factions? As far as I can see, you are a capable mage and it is strange we never heard about you." 

Truthfully if anyone has this kind of power then their names would eventually travel far making them a valuable asset to any faction. Erza tilted her head and said.

"F-Faction? Supernatural? I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about. I'm telling the truth, I don't know where I am nor where I came from. The only thing I remember is my name and my power, that's all." Saint Martha frown started to feel pity and believed that she suffer from amnesia and said.

"It seems you suffer from a type of amnesia….if this is the case then come with us." When she said those words, the blonde haired young girl voiced her thoughts and said.

"Master, are you sure about this? We don't know who she is, shouldn't we try to see if she's telling the truth?" Saint Martha shook her head and said.

"We are heroes and helping people is our job. Not to mention, it may be our lord that has brought this young girl for us to meet who has helped her from this endeavor and in turn we help her." She said with a smile making the blonde one nod and said.

"If you say so, well Scarlet-chan, thank you for saving us! I'm Joan D'arc, it's nice to meet you." She introduced herself soon followed by the blue haired girl and said.

"We are grateful for your assistance, I am Yuki Nonaka and this is my younger sister." The violet blue haired young girl went closer and said.

"Hi there, my name is Kurumi Nonaka!" The next one was the brown haired girl and said

"I'm Basara Toujou, and this is my partner Fafnir." Her weapon glowed and said.

[ I sense you are telling the truth but not the whole truth. Fortunately, you don't seem have any ill intent therefore we'll take your word with a grain of salt. ] Basara heard her partner and commented.

"When did you start using metaphors?" Fafnir scoffed and said

[ Silent you. Regardless, the way you spoke do you truly not know or remember the supernatural? ] Erza shook her head and said.

"The only thing I know is my name and my power. Everything else is blurred or blocked by something." The weapon glowed and Saint Martha begane to think as she said.

"Someone might have tampered with your memory and whoever that is, we will find out if you come with us to our Hero Faction. For the time being, we will see what is supernatural and what the hero faction is. It might help restore your memories." 

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Flashback.

Draconic Deus. 

Yesterday. Few hours after meeting the Hero faction. Outside time 11:30 AM. 

Elysium, Divine realm in outside time, Ryuu's bathroom.

Ryuu frowns at all the new things that she heard coming from Erza. For starters, the Hero faction is another faction consisting of Heroes or humans with sacred gears who sought to protect humanity against other races. They are neutral at the moment and act like mercenaries in protecting people who can't protect themselves against the supernatural. 

The term rough heroes also pop up as some heroes did not ally themselves with the hero faction. Ryuu thought that this rogue hero is likely Cao Cao and his group of idiots. He'll be the one to search for them later and concentrated his attention when he heard the name of the characters that were supposed to exist from another universe and thought to himself.

'To think that the Testament of Sister New devil character is in this world. They may not be the exact copy but still…if Yuki and Kurumi exist then Chisato Hasegawa, Mio Naruse, Maria, Sheila, Lucia and many more. I wonder…' As he was lost in his thoughts and wondering about draconic deus was when Judecca popped up and said.

{ Do you wish to know about this world? }  Ryuu gave it some thought for a moment before declining and said.

'Its fine, I don't want to spoil the fun!' He evilly grinned at the thought of them, especially Chisato Hasegawa. Though, Ryuu won't act as if he knows them or entitled to have them but just wanted to see if he could court them if not then it's fine. Erza noticed this smile frown and pinch him and said.

"The moment I said their names you acted like perverted. Tell me do you know them?" Ryuu nodded and said.

"Yes, they are characters from a show called Testament of sister new devil and one of them, Basara is the main protagonist and supposed to be a man but it seems this world knows what I want hahaha." He jokingly said the last part making Erza pinch even harder and pretend to get hurt.

"Aw aw sorry, stop. I was just joking." Erza snorted and said.

"Humph, acting as if you are getting hurt. Regardless, we are currently traveling back to where the hero faction is located. Do you plan on contacting them and forming a peace treaty?" Ryuu nodded and said.

"I am but you should observe which group of heroes are corrupt and I'll handle the rest. However, for the time being do your best to copy their sacred gears." Erza nodded having greatly benefited from joining the hero faction as the place likely had many weapons and sacred gear users. After a while, they finished their shower and Ryuu headed to continue doing his paper works while he also returned back to his mansion where Asia was. 

The moment, he was rewarded by the system Ryuu used his Omnipresence to return back to where Asia saw him returned and greeted by Kie, Justine, Nezuko, Trese, Cha Hae-in, Jin-Ah and Amihan who was on Asia lap flew towards Ryuu and said.

"My dear consort, how was your trip?" Justine stepped forward and said.

"Yeah, how did your walk through the woods go?" She smirked at the reference while Trese shook her head and said.

"I do hope you did not kill them as you know what it meant from killing them?" 

Trese knows how a faction works since she is one of the mediators from her world that help keep the faction or tribe from having large scale war. Though she trusts her husband and his ability as she knows at times, he acts immature or rather places his demeanor to one since if he truly wants then he can be calculative and cruel but dislikes it and prefers his laid back self. Kie nodded and said.

"What did you do to them?" Ryuu nodded looking at Asia who sat in between Jin-Ah and Nezuko and said.

"I killed the guy and turn the three fallen into a slave and maid while one of them head to Grigori to inform that Old Crow about the situation." He sighs and begins to think that this world is more complex than he initially thought but it aside walking up to Asia and said.

"Now that's been taken care of, I would like to talk to you  about enrolling you at Kuoh a few days from now." Jin-Ah and Nezuko perk up and say. 

"Hey, can we join Asia!?" Nezuko eyes sparkling since she still remains the same bubbly and outgoing girl despite her mental age being older than Asia after training often in time dilution in the past. Ryuu rubbed his chin and said.

"I don't see why not. But are you sure? It's not like you are there to learn or study?" They embarrassingly smiled and said.

"At least we'll help Asia at school and defend her from those perverts!" Jin-Ah said while Nezuko nodded and Ryuu to sigh.

"Fine. I'll have to talk to inform Rias about it for now and work on the paperworks. For the time being, try your best to feel at home, Asia. If you ever need any help don't be afraid to ask." Ryuu smiled softly patting her head making Asia blush feeling indescribable warmth making her heart all fuzzy while the man before her winced slightly feeling her kind and our heart hurting him but didn't mind it. 

'She reminds me of you….Sophia.'