Gambit Of The Living Weapon

Daren, Lilith, and the pet beasts had all been captured by Drya and the demon leader and were now tangled in the vines of the plant-girl.

"Now... How about we try this again..."

The demon leader, who thanks to his curse had the appearance of the one whoever looked at him hated the most and thus was now looking like the east G.o.ddess for Daren, was sitting inside what appeared to be the old kitchen of the castle.

Daren and the rest were still tied up just wondering what this guy was going to do with them.

"First things first... Who exactly are you people and why were you trying to steal my bait?"

Daren looked at him confused.

"Your bait...? Your bait for what...?"

"..."

The demon leader rolled his eyes and approached Daren. He grabbed his head and smashed against the ground.

"Guaaahhh!!!"

"Daren!!!"

"I made a question... When I make a question, it"s polite to give an answer... Understood?"

Lilith could only watch in horror as Daren was grabbed like a little kid by the hands of the demon.

"Now... One more time... Who are you, and why were you after my bait?"

Lilith didn"t want to see Daren hurt again so she just told him the truth.

"We are Evlin"s friends!! We came here to recover her sister!! Now please let him go!!"

"Eh... Evlin...? The expert-magician that knows the location of the living weapon"s son?"

"She... She doesn"t actually know his location... That"s just a rumor..."

"I see... That"s a shame... We could have set a trap to get him... Oh well..."

"Ugh..."

The demon released his hand from Daren and he finally got his head out of the ground.

"I"m surprised to see that she would befriend a demon... Maybe she will listen to us after all..."

Daren glared at him after hearing his words.

"I am not a demon!!!"

"..."

The leader grabbed his head again and smashed against the ground one more time.

"Gaaahhh!!!!"

"Stop it!! Leave him alone!!!

"Oh, sorry, my bad... You were just glaring at me with so much hate that I couldn"t resist getting a little taste of your suffering..."

"Ugh..."

"There is no pain that tastes better than being completely humiliated by the person you hate the most in this world... My curse just gives me the opportunity to get some amazing negative emotions and sometimes I can"t control myself! Apologies..."

"Daren..."

"I"m fine Lilith... I"m fine..."

The leader came closer to Lilith and placed his palm next to his mouth while whispering something to her ear.

"Trust me, he"s not..."

This time, it was Lilith"s turn to glare at the leader. In her eyes, he was taking the form of the fire monkey demon that would always steal her family"s food when she was young and would make them starve for days.

"What do you want from us?"

"... ... ... Did- Did I not make it clear??? I want the mage of recreation!! What? Do I need to make a drawing for you??"

"Why do you want Evlin?? Why does everyone always wants to kidnap Evlin?????"

"We heard a rumor that she has the power to fuse with a monster... A golden griffin, much like this one that"s tied up on the floor over there..."

"Ugh... Boss... That IS her griffin... These people are her friends..."

"Ah! I see... Sorry, I"ve been alive for many centuries... You kinda start to miss small details like this..."

"Sure thing, boss..."

Drya was looking at the leader with worried eyes like a girl concerned that her grandfather might be starting to get senile.

"So that gave us an idea... What if we could use her to make humans fuse with demons?"

Drya then came closer and raised two thumbs up and pointed at herself.

"Like me!!"

"Like her! Imagine an army of demons, boosted by the power of anguish from humans screaming and crying inside of them? I could finally catch a break!!"

Lilith raised an eyebrow.

"A break...?"

"Yes!! I could finally stop gathering souls for the devour of whispers all the time just to heal the wounds of my demons every two seconds."

"You want to make an army of demons fused with humans just so you can be lazy???"

"Oh, I"m sorry... Would you like to spend all day killing humans just so you can fill up the energy of a cursed sword and heal a bunch of crybaby demons? Even I would like a vacation sometimes too..."

"Cursed weapon...?"

Lilith"s eyes started to widen up as she remembered the words of the south G.o.d.

[[ "Yes! Magical, cursed and blessed. The three strongest forces on the planet. If Evlin can use her power to combine all three in one weapon she will be even stronger than a champion!" ]]

She looked at Daren and realized he was thinking the same thing. If they could get their hands on that sword and give it to Evlin, she could make the superweapon that would defeat East.

But for that, they needed to defeat Xadi.

The plan to get Ashley back and use her knowledge to win against Xadi had failed, so Lilith needed to take a gambit on another idea.

"Would you like to make a deal?"

"Oho!!??"

The leader made a curious look and stared at Lilith as soon as he heard the word "deal". Lilith knew about the weakness of demons. They love exploiting openings in the human heart and getting people indebted to them.

She needed to play these cards right if she wanted to get out of there alive.

"We need help to defeat a mage that is allied with the demon slayers that are coming to this kingdom. We help you take down the slayers, and you help us take down the mage. What do you think?"

"Mmmm..."

Drya was staring at the harpy woman with doubt.

"You"re not going to ask for Ashley back?"

"You guys want to use Ashley to capture Evlin right? Even if I asked her back there is no way you would accept..."

"We would if you gave us stick-girl for her!"

"Nice try... The moment we get Ashley back, Evlin will just pulverize every single one of you... You would never let her go with a risk that big..."

"Ehe... Clever girl... But you sure it"s ok to leave Ashley with us?"

It"s not ok at all, is what Lilith was thinking. She wanted to grab her sword and just cut down every single demon in that room. But she needed to find a way to get Ashley back, and as much as she hated to admit it, she was still safe inside the dryad"s mind considering how important she was to use as bait for Evlin.

Lilith was feeling disgusted with her own idea. She didn"t want to leave Ashley alone with these monsters for even one second more. But they had little options at the moment. The demon leader managed to take both of them down without breaking a sweat. Only Evlin could defeat him.

"Ashley is strong... She is one of the strongest members of our team... I know she won"t let a pathetic demon like you take over her completely!"

"Is that so?"

"Is that so."

"What if I told you that Ashy is screaming with all her strength inside my head right now saying "Lilith! Lilith! Save me, Lilith!! Get me out of here! Please!! Don"t leave me alone with these demons!!" during this whole time?"

Lilith"s heart started to weight like a rock. If that was true then her friend was suffering, begging to be saved right in front of her, and Lilith had just told them that she could stay there for a little longer. Her hatred towards demons kept getting bigger and bigger.

"... If- If that is the case... Then I"ll make it up with her later..."

"Really...? What if during that meantime, I cause so much damage inside her heart and mind that no matter what you do, it won"t be able to fix her later?"

Lilith wanted to scream inside her mind "Please stop talking! Please don"t make this harder than it needs to be!". But of course, they would. They knew exactly how much this was killing Lilith inside and they were enjoying every second.

"I. Will. Save. Her!!!"

"..."

"But... I cant save her now... So I"ll just ask her to wait a little longer..."

Drya started to peck her forehead with her finger.

"You hear that Ashy? Traumgirl is asking you to just sit there and wait like a good dog! So try to behave!"

Lilith continued to glare at Drya. She wanted to stab that plant-girl a thousand times over. This demon tormented Ashley, tormented Gustav, and even tormented Daren. Lilith hated her so much that before she noticed, the demon leader changed his appearance to Drya"s original form.

She tried her best to hide her fury and looked at the leader.

"Do we have a deal or not?"

"Are you kidding? You take on all the slayers for us and all we have to do is beat one stupid mage? Heck yeah, we have a deal!!"

"Good... But there is one thing! The mage needs to go down first!"

"... Because...?"

Because he was keeping Evlin imprisoned in the white void. But she couldn"t say that or they would start looking for Evlin"s body in the south G.o.d"s church and capture her.

"Because the mage has the power of wind magic, and aerial attacks are the weakness of our group. If you take him out, there is nothing we can"t deal with!"

Lilith prayed that the leader would buy her lie.

"... I see... Fair enough then... One mage for a pack of slayers. Sounds good to me!"

The leader snapped his fingers and Drya released Daren and Lilith from her vines.

"I guess I don"t need to mention it, but if your group tries to trick us we will eat all of your hearts and feed your souls into my sword... Got it?"

A drop of cold sweat appeared on Lilith"s face.

"Got it..."

"And tell the recreation mage to hurry up and come save her sister. I want to get my army as soon as possible."

"..."

Drya approached them and started to grin.

"Ha! I bet they"re thinking that stick-girl would never cooperate with us. That she will just show up and turn her sister back to normal with her magic and try to rescue her from us."

The demon leader heard that and rested his chin on his hand.

"I see... You two!"

He stared at Daren and Lilith while pointing with his hand.

"Tell the mage that if she doesn"t come in twenty-four hours, I"ll just turn her sister"s body into dust."

Drya reacted with a jump after hearing that and looked at him with a pale face.

"Eh!!!??? B- Boss???"

"What...? You"re just a bait after all... If you can"t even do that then I have no need for you..."

"I- I see..."

"And tell her that her body will stay with me the whole time. If she really is stupid enough to try and disobey our commands, she will have to face me!"

Lilith took a deep breth and answered him.

"Understood..."

"Nice doing business with you..."

Part 2

In the middle of the streets of the southern kingdom, a black lion monster walking on two legs and a red harpy girl covered in silver armor could be seen getting some distance between themselves and the demon castle. They were being followed by a golden griffin, a green dragon, and a white pegasus.

The rescue mission had been a complete failure and the rescuers almost turned themselves into hostages as well. There was little they could do now besides regrouping with the rest of the team and coming up with a new plan.

Daren and Lilith were returning to the church of the south G.o.d when Lilith suddenly realized something.

"Oh! Dang it! I forgot!!"

"Huh... Forgot what?"

"We can"t return! They have spies everywhere! If we come back they will discover where we are hiding Evlin!"

"Oh... True..."

"Ugh!!! I hate demons so much!!!"

"... Yeah... Me too..."

"Ah, sorry Daren... I didn"t-"

"I know... I saw... Your face when you were talking to her... You really truly despise demons... How can you not? They are such terrible creatures..."

"I"m sorry... But that doesn"t mean I hate you! What she said back then... That was just me acting on emotions... I truly honestly like you!!"

"..."

"Daren?"

"But I"m still a monster... And no matter how much you put on a brave front... You still can"t stand looking at me right?"

"... I"m sorry..."

"I see..."

"..."

"I"ve decided then..."

"... Eh...?"

"Lilith... I"ll find a way to get rid of this curse for good! And when I do..."

"...?"

"Let me be the only one who can take care of you..."

"Take... Care...?"

"Lilith...!"

"...!!??"

"When this is all over... Will you marry me?"

"... ... ... Eh...!?"