Gambit Of The Living Weapon 82 Preparing For Battle Ii

"Boss, is it ok to just let them go like this??"

Drya was back to her room inside the dungeon and sitting on her bed with her legs crossed while talking with the demon leader.

"You could have at least killed the monsters that were following them, or maybe taken traumgirl's silver armor."

"It's fine... We are still trying to reach a peaceful agreement with the recreation mage. If she found out we captured her friends right after we captured her sister, she would never agree to work with us..."

"Mmmm... I wonder..."

"But just in case, you are now forbidden from leaving my side. I can't let any harm come to you while you have our bait inside of your head."

"Understood boss... I'll be in your care..."

"Good... Once the invaders arrive, we shall dispose of this mage that her friends are so worried about."

"Mmm... By the way..."

"What...?"

"... Nothing... Just wanted to ask if I could stab you one more time!"

"Sigh... The deal was once per day... Now try to rest... I don't want to waste another dose of my sword just to fix your wounds again..."

"Understood boss..."

The demon leader left the dungeon through the hole Daren and Lilith had made, leaving Drya alone in her room.

Drya released a small sight and laid in her bed like a starfish.

[You really like to lie huh...? Why did you tell my friends I was crying?? I wasn't making a single sound!!]

"Huh...?"

Drya suddenly heard someone's voice speaking inside her mind.

"Oh hey, Ashy. I almost forgot you were here... You've been quiet for a while..."

[Why didn't you tell your boss that the group that was invading was being led by Marcus?]

"Why should I...? You heard him... I'm just bait that he can dispose of once he no longer needs me..."

[So you just going to let him charge into battle like this...?]

"Correct!"

[Demons really are the worst...]

"Thanks, girlfriend! I love you too!"

[...]

"You heard him right? He will have to keep us by his side the whole time. I don't think he would lose to Marcus but he will definitely have some trouble with him."

Drya raised her arms and turned them into vines. The vines started to gather having one taking the form of Marcus and one having the form of a demon. She then started to play with both figures as if they were fighting.

"While he is distracted dealing with momma's boy, I'll use this chance to steal the devourer of whispers from him!"

She created a third figure from her vines that looked like her and moved the figure as if she was stealing something from the demon figure.

[So you will be using Marcus as bait... To keep your boss distracted while you stab him in the back?]

"Pretty cool huh? With the power of the sword and your pain inside of me, Even stick-girl won't be able to touch me!"

[Oooohhh... I see...]

"... What...?"

[Nothing... It's just... You were putting up such a brave front that I almost didn't noticed... You really are a good liar after all...]

"What are you talking about...?"

[Youre actually terrified, aren't you?]

"Excuse me????"

[I mean yeah, you would be... On one hand, you have the sister of the one that can boost all your demon friends into a very powerful army as a hostage...]

"..."

[On the other hand... You just stole the sister of one of the most powerful mages on the world... You must be soooo frightened!!]

"Oh, please... Don't make me laugh..."

[I mean, just look at what happened a while ago... You couldn't even beat Daren and Lilith... Even with me inside you!]

"Hey, shut up..."

[When all is said and done... You're all talk... You're actually really weak arent you?]

"..."

[I bet you can't stop thinking about the image of Evlin barging through these walls and coming after you to make you pay for everything you did to us.]

"Oh please... Stick-girl would never kill me as long as I have her little sister with me..."

[Isn't that even worse?]

"Eh...?"

[If she won't kill you... Doesn't that mean that she will just keep bas.h.i.+ng you against the ground until you let me go?]

"... ... ..."

Drya started to sweat after hearing that. She just realized she might have been in a tougher spot than she imagined. She just spent the last day completely antagonizing Evlin's entire team. She would come for her, and when she does, she would unleash all her fury on Drya.

"..."

[Maybe you should stick with your boss for a little longer...]

"N- No... If I get the sword I'll be even more powerful than him right now... I can definitely win if I just have the sword..."

[I see... I hope you're right... It would be a shame to see all your hopes and dreams going up in flames just as you were starting to get some luck!]

"... Quiet... I delt with your group, I can deal with anyone..."

[Indeed... You delt with my friends when they were tired, frustrated, wounded, and unfocused. I'm sure dealing with either Evlin or your boss when they are at full power will be just the same...]

"... ... ..."

[Are you sure you dot want to warn him about Marcus? You really want to risk getting on his bad side in case your plan fails?]

"My plan won't fail!! A battle is about to start... I just need to let both sides destroy each other and collect the spoils later..."

[If you say so... For your sake you better be right!]

"Don't you mean for our sake?? What happens to me happens to you too!!"

[Oh, please... I stopped caring about myself a long time ago...]

"..."

[Right now... I just want to enjoy watching your tap-dancing your way into your own failure...]

"..."

[Good luck Drya!]

Ashley remained quiet from that moment on, leaving Drya with her own thoughts to consider. She was starting to think about what she was actually trying to accomplish and began to think that she might be trying to bite more than she can chew.

But she quickly dismissed that feeling as she realized she would never get an opportunity as good as this one to get all the power for herself. Even if she had to risk running into a three-sided war between the demon leader, Marcus, and Evlin.

She tried to tell herself that this was just Ashley trying to get a bit of revenger on her for the way she was treated.

"I won't fail... I won't..."

Part 2

[Gustav! Can you hear me??]

Gustav was observing Evlin still asleep when he suddenly received a message from Lilith.

He jumped out of his chair when he heard her voice after being worried about their safety for so long.

[Lilith?? Oh! I'm so glad to hear your voice!! Are you two ok?? Did you get Ashley??]

Lilith pondered for a bit to consider if they were truly "ok" considering everything that happened. Daren got a ma.s.sive wound into his feelings, one of the pets was killed, and Ashley was still locked inside of the dryad's body.

[We are... Fine... But we still don't have Ashley... We ran into some trouble...]

[W- What happened?? You two stayed quiet for so long! I was worried about you.]

[Sorry... The demon castle's barrier seems to block outside contact somehow... We couldn't reach you while we were in there...]

[I see... Are you coming back to the church?]

[We can't... The demons have eyes everywhere... We don't want to risk revealing Evlin's location...]

[Then...]

[But we have some good news...]

[...?]

[We found a cursed sword for Evlin's superweapon!]

[You did??]

[Yeah... It's in the hands of the leader of all the demons...]

[!!!]

[We tried to come up with a plan to get him on our side so he could defeat Xadi for us. This might help with... Our situation...]

[I see... Making both sides fight each other... But how did you convince him??]

[We promised that we would deal with the demon-slayers for him...]

[WHAT!!!??]

[Calm down, calm down... We don't need to actually defeat them... We just need to hold them off until Evlin wakes up.]

[Ah... Ok...]

[When the battle starts we will only have one chance... As soon as Evlin returns we will try to steal his sword and rescue Ashley again.]

[You will betray the demon leader in the middle of the battle? Sounds risky...]

[Gustav... When was the last time we did anything that wasn't risky?? Our whole lives are a never-ending series of gambles...]

[R- Right... You're right... So how do we proceed?]

[In four hours we will rejoin with the demon leader and receive Marcus and his team. You guys stay there and continue to protect Evlin.]

[Four hours?? Why?]

[... That's when my future sight stops working...]

[... Oh...]

[That's when Marcus will enter the city...]

Part 3

"... I see..."

Evlin was once again reunited with Gustav inside the white void and catching up on the latest developments.

She had just heard about the failed attempt to rescue Ashley, how the demon kingdom did in fact had a sword that could build her superweapon, and how two teams would be joining together to face Marcus in a couple of hours.

"This demon leader guy... Does he have a name or something...?"

"Daren and Lilith didn't give us any name..."

"Yeah... I'm not calling him "Demon leader" every time we talk about him... From now on, I'm just going to call him Chuck."

"... ... ... Chuck...?"

"It's the name of a scary doll from a movie that terrified me when I was a kid. I hated that doll and you said this guy takes the shape of the one you hate the most, so I'm just going to call him Chuck."

"If- If you say so..."

Gustav was expecting Evlin to go into despair and start yelling into the heavens about how she wanted to get out of there and tear the demons apart, but she was surprisingly calm right now.

"..."

Gustav was looking at her waiting for some kind of reaction but she just remained quiet.

"You're not mad??"

"... I am..."

"..."

"I am so mad that I just want tear off my own arm just so I could have something to punch!!"

"..."

"But that won't help anything... Right now... I'm saving all my frustration for when I face our opponents..."

"I see..."

Gustav was surprised about how much Evlin seemed o have matured.

"Thank you for the update, Gustav... But I need to go back to my training right now..."

"Training...?"

"I'm trying to concentrate on evolving all of my magic spells... Trying to come up with new ways to use them in battle... For some reason, this place really helps me think with clarity..."

"You can do that?"

Evlin glared at him as if thinking "The h.e.l.l did you just say???".

"Ah! No, I didn't mean thinking with clarity... I meant... Can you really train your spells without being in your physical body?"

"... I can... All of my spells are born from the strength of my will and creativity. As long as I have those, I can just come up with anything I want."

"I see... Are you not worried about Marcus and the demon leader thought...?"

"..."

"I mean... Marcus and ... Chuck...?"

"Worrying won't get me anywhere... Once the time comes and I have to deal with the two of them for real... I'll decide what I will do..."

"Understood... I'll leave you to it then..."

"Thanks, Gus... I don't know what I would have done without you..."

"Same here..."

"I'll wait for you guys to save me!"

Gustav could somehow feel it inside Evlin's words. They had honesty in it. She really did believe in them this time. Gustav was proud of Evlin finally trusting him.

"... Understood!"

Part 4

"So this is it huh...?"

A small group consisting of six men wearing trenchcoats equipped with silver armor, one young man wearing an eyepatch and with two gauntlets in each hand, one of wood and one of metal, and a small young girl with dark skin, black hair tied up in twin ponytails and carrying two silver katanas were approaching the gates of the demon kingdom.

Mia turned around to face her recently upgraded small team of demon-slayers as they were about to enter their destination.

"This is the big moment, friends! If anyone needs to pee better go now!"

The entire group was staring in unison at their leader just waiting for her command. Every single one of them couldn't wait to finally engage in the battle they have been preparing themselves for such a long time.

Mia observed their resolves and released a small grin.

"No one?? Ok then!"

She turned around and with a double slash of her katanas, tore the gates of the kingdom into four pieces.

"let's get this party started!!"