“So let me get this… straight is it? Ok, Issei went on what was supposed to be a standard Contract last night but when he got there the client was butchered and the killer was waiting for him. Issei confronted him, with no idea why he didn’t run from the killer, only to get his butt handed to him by what you described as a Rogue exorcist. Said exorcist for some forsaken reason still has light infused weapons even though he is no longer associated with the church.“ Alicia walked next to his best friend towards the school, having come back from his excursion to Kyoto, recapping everything Koneko had told him about what happened on thursday. “The exorcist could be placed next to the urban dictionary's photo of a raving fanatic. Issei is nearly killed by him but is saved at the last minute By Rias and the rest of you only because she got a bad feeling about ‘something’ and sent her familiar to check it out.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Now, despite the fact you have magic and Medical supplies, you can’t heal him instantly because Light is poisonous to devils. So you want my help because you believe that because they don’t originate from earth or one of it’s sub realms it won’t cause him one of the normal adverse effects.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“But you have no idea what will happen to him once I do use my magic or my own Medical supplies on him so Rias wishes for me to test a poison cure on him first to see if that works before we dive into the finer details.”

 

“President wishes for Issei to get better.”

 

Alicia put his head in his hands and groaned deeply. He felt Koneko pat his back in an attempt to reassure him. Why was it whenever something interesting happens he either arrives after it happened or near the end because it is getting very annoying having to hear this after the fact. Alicia should probably check up on Issei after class is done for the day. Not that he would really get a chance during the day as there was an important test scheduled today that even had the remaining two-thirds of the perverted trio holding off on their antics for the time being. 

 

Granted if they attempted to coerce him into taking pictures of one of the locker rooms, while the had occupants, Alicia was going to lock them in a closet for the entire day while they were in their underwear.

 

“Ok i’ll swing by the clubhouse after the test and see if there's anything i can do to help Issei.” he said after a few moments of thinking. If nothing else he can give his praise on survival. “Does ‘congrats on not dying again on a simple contract’ sound good?”

 

Koneko gave him another of her weird looks before shaking her head no.

 

“Why are you giving me that look?” 

 

Alicia may be dense.

 

It wasn't until around 6-6:30 that Alicia was able to make his way over to the Occult club, metally grumbling all the way about how Issei just had to get hurt and how this wouldn’t have happened if he had worn some sort of armor to protect himself. Maybe he should ask Rias for some contacts for blacksmiths or metalworkers and get some basic armor made up for them, actually would they even accept his gold coins? Or would he have to do some odd jobs to pay for it?

 

Now that Alicia thought about it, doing odd jobs would be a nice change of pace from school work and making sure his Ragged reaper wasn’t trying to eat any stray animals.

 

The trap knocked on the door out of habit, and hearing a quick affirmative he entered the room. The first thing he saw was Issei sitting on the couch with his pant legs pulled above his knee caps allowing Kiba better access to the boy's wounds. The sight made him frown, it reminded him of the early days of his quest and how he had a very small supply of healing items.

 

“So Rias, what exactly did you need my help with?” Alicia asked with a cocked head, looking at the red head behind the desk. “Koneko gave me the basics but I would like some more details, no offence Koneko.”

 

Rias sighed and leaned back in her leather chair. “Like my dear rook told you, I would like to have Issei’s wounds healed with your items. I figure this would be a good opportunity to test how they work on a devil, how well they do work, and Issei it brought back to peak condition without having to go towards the more extreme method I can do. I don’t think it would help much considering how much Blood he would be losing.”

 

“What in my lady's name would do that?” Alicia exclaimed, alarmed at the admission. Not that Issei was much better with how pale he was. 

 

“Well umm, to put it as bluntly as possible.” Rias coughed and blushed just enough for everyone to see. “Me and Issei would have to sleep in the same bed, completely naked and have to cuddle while we sleep in order for me to heal him quickly. He would be right as rain by the morning.”

 

The celestial put two fingers in front of him, opening his mouth to try and comprehend the sheer amount of bullshit that he just heard. He looked between his fingers straight into Rias’s eyes as blood started dripping from Issei’s nose and he gained a vacant look in his eyes.

 

“I will use my healing spells before I let you do that… I'm not even giving that the benefit of calling it a spell!” he exclaimed. Alicia thought that was one of the worst healing techniques he’s ever heard of and he’s seen dozens of them. “In fact, I'll make a healing salve for his legs and whatever other wounds he may have. I don’t know how my poison cure medicine would work against light poisoning and I don't want to risk it.”  

 

“Thank you Alicia, let us know what we can offer you as payment.” Akeno said with a smile directed at the trap, who simply waved the queen off.

 

He may or may not have convinced his caretaker to grow some seeds he still had in some greenhouses so it wasn’t a big deal. Nevermind his habit of collecting all the things meant he had a lot of things to burn through.

 

“Just don’t freak out, I got to grab some things from my sigil space.” Alicia sighed as he reached into the small sigil that appeared not far from him, ignoring the startled cries of the rest of the room's occupants, and started shuffling his arm around trying to grab something. The Traps eyes narrowed and the tip of his tongue stuck out of his mouth without him realizing it. 

 

‘No that's too weak, that's too strong, I have no idea if that's safe to use on a devil, that's for mana.’ He thought as he pushed through some different healing items in a crate. He was looking for some very specific things and he couldn’t remember exactly where he put them. Maybe it was in the bagged goods crate? But he could have sworn he put them in the dried goods crate. If they weren't there he would have to check the healing crate but that would mean he would hav- AHA nevermind it was at the bottom of the crate, wait no this was only part of it. “Kiba, could you quickly get me a pitcher of water and a small cup? You don’t have a mortar and pestle in the club house do you Rias.”

 

“No? What do you need a Mortar for?” Rias asked as Kiba quickly left the room to the clubhouse's kitchen. 

 

“Because I need to rehydrate the ingredients for a healing slave after I crush them into a powder.” Alisic said as he pulled his arm out of the sigil, taking a step back he threw his arms out and expanded the sigil and threw his torso into it. The rest of the room watched in bemusement as they heard the sounds of things getting shoved out of the way, also the fact that the trap had a leg sticking in the air as he pulled himself more into his sigil space. “And ugh i really don’t think ale would be a very good substitute. For the healing salve.”

 

As Koneko tried to sneakily stand behind the teen, who was wearing the girl's uniform, for obvious reasons, her crush had a tendency to throw items he was going to use behind him and she was going to catch them. Rias decided to focus on the, debatably, more important details.

 

“You have alcohol!” RIas felt her jaw drop at the casual admittance, with how innocent the celestial acted at times she was not expecting him to have alcohol.

 

Alicia didn’t stop digging around the crate as he threw something over his head, luckily Koneko managed to catch it before it hit the ground. “Well yeah, along with wine and mead. Remember Rias, my world doesn’t have nearly as many water purifying techniques as yours does and most of our spells are combat oriented thanks to the large number of monster families.” 

 

That's not counting the fact there are dozens of slag pools scattered around the continents forcing soldiers, travelers and merchants to carry around barrels full of wine that was not wine. Or the dozen or so monsters that live in pools, rivers, lakes, the ocean all ready to pop out in the middle of the night and ‘contaminate’ the water stores. 

 

Alicia threw three more bags and a small box over his shoulders, Koneko snatching them out of the air, before hopping out of the Sigil. Turning back to face the group he was greeted with the sight of most of the devils having a disbelieving look, rolling his eyes he reached back into the Sigil space and pulled out a wine bottle. It wasn’t all that impressive, the majority of the bottle was a dull brown with a cloth wrapped around the base, presumably the date was written on it as well.

 

“If you don’t believe me, here is a bottle of Stornway traveling wine. I have dozens of these bottles so while on my travels whenever I get thirsty I would have an ample supply of liquids to drink.” he said, thanking Koneko for the items before setting them on the coffee table. “Don’t worry there's not enough alcohol in it for anyone to get drunk off of it.”

 

As most of the group gave the bottle a weary glance, the celestial opened the box that held his personal mortar and pestle. The piece of equipment, like a good bit of his personal items, was something from the observatory as evident by the white marble like base and gold edging. It was like someone took a small block of marble and carved a bowl out of it, while the pestle was half made of a dark yellow wood. Setting a different bowl on the table from the box for the crushed ingredients, Next he pulled out a simple bundle of dried leaves and tore half the leaves off and set them in the mortar. Picking up the pestle he crushed the dried strong medicine leaves into as fine of a powder as he could before dumping it into the bowl.

 

“Just be warned it does have an acquired taste.” he called out, noticing the way Koneko was watching him. He flashed her a quick smile before turning back to the salve.

 

Up to crushing Pestle was a handful of dried and diced Trevil roots that was soon crushed and added to the bowl, he made sure to the ingredients a quick stir with a wisk to mix the powders before he grabbed the next ingredient. Which was a cracked Rockbomb core. Grabbing a chisel and a hammer he set the core on the table, with a few strikes he managed to get some of the bright red inner core from it. It was a bit more difficult to crush it into a powder but nothing Alicia couldn't handle. Adding it to the bowl of ingredients he stirred it so the powders made a bowl of primarily dark green powder with specks of bright red scattered throughout.

 

“Ack!” while this was happening Akeno had grabbed a small glass for the Stornway wine to try it. Judging by the hacking sounds she was making… The vinegar-like drink did not agree with her at all.“hal!”

 

At all.

 

“Told you!” 

 

Alicia ignored the repeated hacks form the group, he had enough of drinking that stuff thank you very much. Three years he had to drink that stuff so it was nice to see someone else react to it.

 

“Why is it so vinegary!” Issei exclaimed in disgust, trying to wipe off the immensely sour taste off his tongue with a napkin Akeno handed him.

 

“Because commonly whenever there was a long trip liquids containing small traces of alcohol would be used as the group's drinks as bacteria would be able to survive and wouldn’t go bad for a while. Stornway wine was some of the cheapest travel wine, they called it wanderers wine, in the entire region with a small barrel that can be hung on a horse being only like 70 gold coins.” The first time he tried it Alicia acted nearly the same way Issei was. His friends nearly laughed their selves stupid laughing at him. “But due to the cheapness it's far from the best quality and often turns to vinegar wine.” 

 

“Thanks for the warning” Kiba tried to sound angry but the effect was ruined when he coughed right after.

 

Going back to the salve he put the mortar and pestle back into the box before grabbing the final bag. Reaching inside he pulled out a small glass bottle full of a cloudy blue fluid that seemed to produce its own condensation on the glass. He dumped the bottle's contents into the bowl before grabbing the pitcher and pouring the contents slowly enough that he could stop in the drop of a hat. Ever so slowly the powder combined with the water and shiver shrubbery leaf juice into a sort of thick paste. Alicia gave the paste a narrow look, trying to find any imperfections that would mean he would have to remake it, something that wouldn’t be hard, just annoying. After a few seconds he concluded the healing salve was good.   

 

“Alright the salve is finished, Issei if you wouldn’t mind i need you to lay down on the couch while i apply it to your knees.” Alicia said, gathering his tools and bringing them to the edge of the couch.

 

Issei coughed as he laid down on the couch, thanking Rias in his mind for getting such large couches that he was able to lay down on one without his legs going over the edge. The Celestial laughed quietly before carefully removing the bandages covering his wounds, silently noting the way the wounds looked. It was his first time encountering a wound like this and he wanted to know what exactly his items would do to such an injury.

 

Pulling out a rubber glove, it makes cleaning up so much easier when handling things such as salves, and scooped some up. He carefully applied it to the surface of the wounds, not flinching when blood slowly but surely coated the young man's legs. It wasn't something he was unused to. As most of the Gremory Peerage tried to get the taste of Stornway wine out of their mouths Koneko got closer to her friend.

 

“I’m going to give you a choice, Issei, I can leave this on for the next hour and repeat it two more times to let it slowly heal you.” Alicia patiently explained. “Or I can heal you in a few minutes. Your choice.”

 

Issei hesitated for a second before telling him he would like to be healed now rather than later, trying to ignore his now numb knees. It reminded him of the icyhot stuff he had to use sometimes while he was in his growth spurts. 

 

“Alrighty then, i do the quick method.” The Celestial removed his gloves and put them in a plastic bag before tossing it in the trash. Rubbing his hands together he felt his magic rush through his one fleshy limb. “Just don’t freak out, ok, this requires fire.”

 

“Wait what!”

 

“Too late.” Alicia smirked as he snapped his fingers. A small candle sized flame burst into existence above his palm before flying right at the salve. Issei screamed as he tried to move away from the small fire, not really getting far due to his numb legs. The rest of the Occult club also screamed out as the Celestial rolled his eyes in exasperation. It’s like they've never seen a rapid MedBurn before. It’s not like the fire was going to hurt him… hopefully.

 

…

 

Nope not burning him. 

 

<THUD>

 

Issei just passed out and the occult club was still screaming.

 

“Why are you screaming!” Alicia quickly got sick of hearing them so he turned around and gave them an annoyed look.

 

“Why wouldn’t we be! You just set my pawn on fire!” Rias shouted in anger, gesturing wildly at her now unconscious pawn. A small part of her was wondering if she would damn the consequences and try attacking the Celestial for her probably MORE injured Pawn. “Are we supposed to act some other way!?”

 

“It’s just a medburn he’s fine, just a few more seconds and Issei will be right as rain.” Alicia gave them a confused look while he crossed his arms. Really what was the big deal, it’s not like he was purposely burning him. The Shivery shrubbery Leaf juice and Rockbomb shard both made the area where the salve was placed numb, well the Rockbomb shard also acted as a igniter for a fast medburn. The Treevil root had minor properties of Yggdrasil leaves thanks to the fact Treevils kept a few in their leaves, it was kind of like Yggdrasil dew in a way. And the strong medicine acted as the main healing component.  

 

When combined together with water it became a medical salve that slowly heals wounds or fast depending if you used fire. This makes it one of the more useful medical salves he could make seeing as it could heal a wound in just a few seconds. Alicia could have warned them but this way was a lot more fun and it’s been a while since he’s done one.

 

“What in maou is a medburn!” 

 

Alicia had to scratch his cheek as he tried to think of the best way to describe it.  

 

"It's full name is medical burning first and foremost, it's one of the fastest medical techniques I know of and is used by armies in the northwest regions due to said speed. Why? don't your healers have something similar?"

 

"No!" Akeno exclaimed, shocked to even hear that was even a thing. "What would require you to set yourself on fire to restore your body!" 

 

"Lots of monsters capable of shredding normal humans?" Alicia really didn't understand what the problem was, don't the humans stab themselves with a ton of needles for relaxation? Something like that. He was probably missing context and stuff again. Maybe the devils have a Human guide book?

 

As the rest of the devils gave him a look that showed anger, Alicia thought he would ask them later…

 

Who knew sentient beings were so complicated with traditions and history and stuff. Sometimes it made Alicia wish it was as simple as his guardian duties. Find monsters, kill them, protect the humans, and gather benevolence for Yggdrasil. Really that was all he did while he protected angel falls, no sense on learning the history of the place you're protecting when you might leave your post in a few short decades to train your disciple. 

 

I’m ending this scene here as I have no idea where to go with this, have a different scene instead. 

 

In an entirely different dimension, inside the heavenly temple of the Almighty. A delicate hand grasped the handle of a beautifully crafted tea cup, bringing it to a pair of pale pink lips. Said lips belonged to a heart shaped face, framed by golden blonde hair which in turn was adorned with a wreath made with emerald green leaves. 

 

Celestria hummed in delight as she tasted the tea one of her darling children made for her, it always brought such joy to her heart when she saw her children enjoying themselves. Especially after the realm was torn asunder by her disobedient child, Corvus. A small frown found purchase as she thought about the traitor, it had been months since the fight between her champion and Corvus. She remembered it clearly despite the fact she was busy keeping the realm in one piece for the most part and gathering the souls of her children.

 

The goddess had managed to see the moment her champion had struck Corvus’s orb of destruction and despite being on what was technically a totally different realm, Felt the magic explode on a scale she had never seen before. After the dust had settled, both metaphorically and literally, she had immediately tried finding her beloved son's soul to bring him back to life but had been unable to find it. The only souls she could find were the monsters and her traitor son Corvus. While she was known as the benevolent goddess, she had shown the traitor she was in fact the daughter of Zenus. By ripping his soul apart until it became more tormanted than a tormented soul in the deepest demonic cavern.

 

Her slight frown turned into a satisfied smile as she thought about Corvus screaming in agony as she made him feel every bit of pain he had caused to every Celestial and mortal during his ‘rebellion.’

 

Letting out a saddened sigh she set her teacup down with a clink and stood up, preparing to check on a personal project of hers. Her heels echoed in the vast halls as light shined through the large stained glass murals created by her more artistic children. Stopping in front of a rather gorgeous piece of art Celestria gazed upon the mural showing the ‘Hour of Judgment’.

 

It showed her champion and his companions on one side and Corvus and his generals on the other. 

 

 As she walked out of one of her many garden rooms she felt it, a sliver of magic reached towards her. One she recognized quite well.

 

“Aquila.” Her tone was no nonsense as she directed her attention to her personal guard. Aquila for his part reacted immediately. He knelt to the ground and put a fist on his chest.

 

“Yes my lady?” the bald Celestial said.

 

“I have a task for you, one I know you will handle with utmost diligence.”

 

“Say the word my Lady and I will carry it out in your name.”

 

“Gather my heralds and your twin, bring them to the throne room as soon as possible.” Celestria said, already thinking about who else to bring. Hmmm. Her spouse always wanted to spend a vacation with her. “I will be gathering my love in the meantime, and do make sure they have their best equipment on.”

 

“At once my Lady, but I must apologize.” Aquila said standing up with a certain grace only his sister could match. “What could require all of us, is there another demon lord returning?”

 

Celestria couldn’t help but giggle at the expression her child was making, her darling son Aquila was always so serious in his duties. Shaking her head the Goddess spoke.

 

“No, nothing like that. I believe i have found a lead in regards to my missing champion.” Celestria had to suppress another giggle at the gobsmacked expression he made, one that was immediately replaced by an expression of steadfast determination. “Now hurry the quicker we get ready the faster we can reach him.”

 

Aquila slammed a fist on his chest plate as he bowed to his Goddess. 

 

“I will not fail you my lady.” 

 

“I have no doubts about that, now go.”

 

Celestria ascended the stairs leading to her throne as Aquila hurried off to gather her heralds from whatever they were doing. After her dear champion had released her from her Yggdrasil form, one of the first things she had done was enter her fathers throne to find it empty and the whereabouts of her father unknown. It was only after her champion and his mortal companions defeated Equinox did she realise what happened. One by one the party defeated the grotto bosses and released the shards of her father, but even after Excalipurr was defeated, Zenus didn’t reform and as such she had assumed the role of ruler of the heavens as it fell to her as the eldest daughter.

 

As the goddess waited for her three heralds and Pavo to arrive she began thinking about the last place her beloved was. To be honest she couldn’t remember the exact location, the land had changed too much for it to be the same. Maybe her sister would know? She did travel the lands with her champion so she must have sensed her beloved's aura at some point so it wasn’t that far out of the realms of possibility. 

 

“Lady Celestria, I have returned.” Aquila knelt at the bottom of the stairs as three other newly born Celestials entered the throne room and saluted her. Pavo entered not long after. “Your heralds and messenger are ready for your task.” 

 

She let a beautiful smile across her face as she looked upon her greatest warriors, staring directly into their souls and could not find any hesitation or doubt. Only the fiery determination in their eyes as they waited with baited breath.

 

“Have you given them the news?” Celestria asked her guard only for Aquila to shake his head.

 

“No my Lady, I believe you should personally tell them. They would have been too… excited otherwise.” Aquila explained, knowing them as well as they did the heralds, the normally peaceful heavens would have erupted in noise had they been told. 

 

Celestria gave him one of her motherly smiles, indirectly causing him to blush slightly. Rising from her throne she stepped down the marble steps to be level with her heralds.

“Rise and Rejoice my heralds for today is a joyous day for us all.” Celesria’s eyes flashed with her divine power as she fixed them with a look. “For Alicia, my Champion has been found.”