An hour had passed. The chill of the night air had settled in, and the city sounds were quieter now. Still, no one came.
Not a devil, not an angel, not a single supernatural being.
It was as if Issei's death had gone completely unnoticed, a small tragedy in a big city.
The weight of it settled on Arthur's shoulders.
He had waited, trusting in the story, trusting in the established flow of events.
But the river had changed its course, and he was standing on the wrong bank.
If he left Issei here, the boy would die for good, his soul fading away without a new vessel.
The Red Dragon Emperor, the hero of this world, would never rise.
"Alright,"
Arthur muttered to himself, his decision made.
"Plan B it is."
He took his hand from Issei's chest and stood up, looking around the empty park.
The small, silver bands on his wrists shimmered faintly in the moonlight.
He could feel the immense power of Great Red and Ophis humming, ready to be used.
He didn't need to bring Issei back as a devil.
He had a different kind of power, a power that could fix this without changing the boy's nature.
He knelt again, this time placing both hands on Issei's chest, one over each wound.
He closed his eyes, focusing on the boundless energy of the Lifestream. It flowed through him, a river of life and creation.
He wasn't just using magic; he was tapping into the very essence of existence.
He felt the wounds on Issei's body, the physical holes left by the light spears.
They were deep, fatal. He channeled the Lifestream's energy, not as a sudden burst of power, but as a gentle, flowing stream.
The light spears had left behind a kind of spiritual poison, a corrosive energy that would prevent natural healing.
He had to wash that away first.
The wounds began to glow, a soft, green light spreading across Issei's chest.
The light wasn't just healing the physical body; it was mending the tear in the boy's very soul.
The two holes closed up, the skin knitting itself back together until it was smooth and unblemished, as if nothing had ever happened.
Issei's eyes fluttered open, a gasp of air filling his lungs.
He sat up, his body uninjured, his mind in a state of confused terror.
"Y-Yuma?"
He stammered, his eyes wide as he looked around, a flash of fear on his face.
"What happened?"
Arthur stood, a hand on his shoulder, a look of calm seriousness on his face.
"The girl you were with... she wasn't a girl. She was a Fallen Angel."
Issei's eyes went wide.
"Fallen... an angel?"
"An angel that fell from grace, yes,"
Arthur explained, keeping his voice low and steady.
He couldn't reveal too much.
"She tried to kill you. But I stopped her."
Issei looked at him, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Who... who are you?"
Arthur smiled faintly.
"Think of me as a traveler passing through. I saw what was happening and decided to help."
He looked at Issei's face, in pure shock and disbelief.
The boy's Boosted Gear was still humming faintly, a deep, unconscious power. It was still tied to him, and it was still a ticking time bomb.
"You need to go home,"
Arthur said, his voice firm but kind.
"Pretend tonight never happened. You didn't meet her, you didn't see me, you didn't see anything. Go home and stay safe."
Issei nodded, still too shocked to do anything else.
He scrambled to his feet and, without another word, turned and ran, the sound of his footsteps fading into the night.
Arthur watched him go, a sense of unease settling in his stomach.
He had saved Issei's life, but he had completely derailed the story.
Rias Gremory, who was supposed to save and reincarnate him, had failed to show up. Something was wrong.
Arthur made his way back to his apartment, his mind racing.
He had to figure out what had gone wrong.
He couldn't just sit around and wait for the next event to unfold. He had to be proactive.
Once inside his apartment, he sat at the small dining table, the single note from the Biblical God still there, a constant reminder of his purpose.
He focused his mind, channeling his connection to the Lifestream. It wasn't just a power source; it was a well of information, a cosmic library of all that had happened and was happening.
He wasn't trying to read the future, just to see what had changed in the last hour.
He closed his eyes and pushed his awareness out, not into the city, but into the very fabric of this reality.
He felt the threads of power, the intricate web of energy that connected everything.
He found the thread of Rias Gremory, a powerful, scarlet-red energy humming with magical power.
Her energy was a bit frayed, a little agitated.
He followed the thread back to its source, back to the Occult Research Club building, a location he knew was near Kuoh Academy.
He felt the energy of the other devils in her peerage—Akeno Himejima, Koneko Toujou, Kiba Yuuto, and the others. They were all there, but their energy was also agitated, like they were in a state of readiness, but something was holding them back.
He pushed his consciousness further, following the trail of a different energy, one that had momentarily blocked Rias's path.
It wasn't a powerful energy, not like a high-level devil or a sacred being.
It was a dark, chaotic energy, like a puddle of oil in a clean stream. It was the energy of a stray devil.
A low-level, discarded devil, a rogue. It had caused just enough trouble, a small-scale fight somewhere in the city, to distract the Occult Research Club long enough for them to be late.
Rias had gone to deal with it, and by the time she was done, Issei's death would have been a done deal.
She had been stopped, not by a major threat, but by a simple, random act of chaos.
This was not a part of the original story.
In the canon, a low-level stray devil wouldn't have been enough to stop Rias.
Her peerage would have been more than capable of handling it quickly. Something was different, something was off-course.
A new realization hit him. The Biblical God's message.
He had told him that he was brought back to the past.
What if the changes were not just because of his presence, but because this past was already different?
What if the original story was just a possibility, a blueprint, and the reality was already off-kilter?
He felt the presence of Great Red and Ophis within him.
He didn't need to ask them for their thoughts; he could feel their agreement.
This wasn't a game of observation anymore.
This was a world that was already heading for disaster, and he had been dropped into the middle of it.
He sat back in his chair, the weight of this new information heavy on his mind.
He had two choices. He could go back home, climb dungeons, get stronger, and then come back to a world that might already be lost.
Or he could stay, investigate, and try to put things back on track.
He looked around the simple apartment, the life of a mundane human now an option for him.
He could live here, attend school, and blend in while he figured things out.
He could watch the story unfold from the inside, a part of the cast instead of a spectator.
He pulled out the non-descript phone and looked at the map again. Kuoh Academy.
It was a high school, a perfect place to blend in.
The Biblical God had arranged for him to have an apartment near it, so why not take it one step further? He could enroll as a student.
It was a risky move, but it was the most logical one.
By becoming a part of the school, he would have a front-row seat to the unfolding events.
He could get to know the characters, understand their motivations, and learn more about this changed world.
He could be there to interfere when things went wrong, to push the story back on its proper course.
He thought about the irony of it all.
The Lifestream, a part of him now, gave him the power to fix and create.
He could fix the broken thread of this world's story. It was a delicate process, a kind of spiritual surgery.
He had to be careful, a single misstep could unravel everything.
He was no longer just an observer. He was a participant.
He was a new character in a story that was about to be rewritten.
He set his jaw, a sense of grim determination settling over him.
He wasn't going to wait around for things to go wrong. He was going to make sure they went right. He would find out who or what had caused this change.
He would learn all he could about this world's balance and the forces that kept it in check. He would fix this.
He looked out the window at the distant lights of Kuoh Academy, a silent promise to the people living there, to the devils, angels, and gods who were about to have their world shaken to its core.
He had a part to play, a role to fill, and he was ready for it.
Great Red and Ophis were happy that he decided to help their universe.
And if it was him. Maybe beating Trihexa wouldn't be just a dream anymore.
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