"Looks like the plan worked!"Gustav was observing the fight as it progressed from a safe distance. He and the rest of the group had long since left the church of the south G.o.d as soon as the war started since they felt their location would be an obvious place to search for them.
They were hiding inside of an empty warehouse and were all watching as Mia and her group continued to slash demons left and right as if she was taking walk on the beach.
"My G.o.d, Ria... What"s wrong with your sister...??"
"Don"t ask me... I stopped trying to understand her a long time ago..."
Gustav, alongside Ria, Auren, and a still sleeping Evlin, were all trying to avoid engaging in the fight while their leader remained defenseless. They were carefully waiting for the moment where Xadi would lose control of the spell that was keeping Evlin imprisoned in the white void while both his team continued to engage against the creatures.
Gustav at first was filled with hope since both of their enemies were keeping each other busy, but he then started to worry after realizing a small detail that could ruin their plans.
"This is bad..."
Ria approached him confused.
"What"s wrong?? What happened??"
"Xadi is not joining the fight!"
"!!"
Ria came closer to the window Gustav was using to watch the battle and indeed, there was a young man who was just flying around with wind magic like a lost kid looking for his parents.
"That has to be him... Is he afraid or something? Why isn"t he fighting??"
"... Probably because of my sister..."
"...?"
"She can be very compet.i.tive... She probably doesn"t want him to take any of her targets..."
"OK, seriously... What is wrong with your sister??"
"Be my guest and go ask her if you want..."
"Ugh... No thanks... Ah, wait!!!"
Gustav continued to watch the chaos outside and noticed that Xaid finally got attacked. A group of three demons jumped on him and were starting to surround the mage.
"This is it!! Our big chance!!"
"Wait a second..."
Gustav seemed really excited since it looked like they would finally get to achieve one of their goals, but Ria realized something strange about that particular group of demons that were ganging up on him.
"Is that... Is that Sphinx???"
"What...?"
Gustav looked again and realized that one of the demons had a strong resemblance to Evlin when she was in her golden form.
"That can"t be possible... How... Sphinx is a griffin... That looks almost like a Evlin in her fused form!"
"I recognize that golden fur anywhere!! That is Sphinx!! Ah!! And that"s my pet dragon!! And that"s your winged horse!!"
"...!!! You"re... You"re right!!!"
Gustav didn"t know how but for some reason, all of their pet monsters were now looking like much more humanoid figures and were engaging in battle with Xadi.
"How is this possible? Evlin is right here with us. Is there someone else that can use recreation magic??"
"I don"t know... But right now... They are our best chance to save Evlin! Ah!! Look!!"
Ria pointed at the scene and noticed her sister was coming to rescue Xadi from the beasts.
"Ria!! Make a barrier!! Now!! We can"t let Mia save Xadi!"
"On it!!"
She followed his command and watched as her sister smacked her nose against the barrier and fell on the ground. Considering the amount of trouble Mia gave towards her when the two were kids, Ria enjoyed that very much.
"Wow, that felt good!!"
Gustav noticed her smirk and continued to watch the fight. He saw that Mia was staring at the barrier and acting as if she was talking to someone. He a.s.sumed she was speaking with Marcus with her mind considering she was carrying a pair of silver swords.
"What is she doing...?"
"Mmm... This is my sister... So she"s probably enjoying the fact she finally found something worth cutting..."
"What...?"
"Yeah, she"s probably filled with joy knowing that there is..."
Ria began to stutter as she realized something terrifying.
"An opponent... That is worth... Defeating... ... ... Oh, no..."
"... You mean... She"s looking for us??"
"Oh, no!!"
Ria gasped as she saw Mia looking around for a while and then suddenly starting to run towards their direction.
"She found us!!!"
"We need to move, now!!! Auren!!!"
"Huh!?"
Auren, who was taking care of Evlin"s body, heard Gustav calling for him out of nowhere and almost jumped out of his chair.
"Mia and Marcus are coming!! We need to take Evlin out of here!!!"
"Ah!! Understood!!"
Auren then grabbed Evlin in a princess-carry position and started to rush towards the exit of the warehouse. Gustav and Ria were following right behind him but as soon as they reached outside, the encountered a large demon as tall as a small house with a humanoid muscular body, red skin, covered in spikes, and carrying a huge mace.
The demon stared at the four of them with his four red eyes and smiled at their sight.
"Foooood..."
He raised his mace and tried to squash the group in one swing! Gustav saw the attack coming and shouted to his allies.
"Auren! Ria!!"
"On it!!" x 2
The two raised their hands and a pair of transparent golden s.h.i.+elds appeared in mid-air to parry the attack.
The demon"s mace was repelled and almost made him fall on his back. Ria used this opportunity to launch her s.h.i.+eld into the demon"s legs and made him trip. She then shouted for the group to run.
"Let"s go!! Now!!"
They avoided the demon who was trying to grab them with his ma.s.sive arms while still laying down on the ground and continued to gain some distance from him and Mia. The demon stood up and began to chase them while making the earth shake with each step.
"Foooood!! Stop running away food!!!"
Ria looked at him and shouted back.
"If you don"t want us to run, then stop calling us food!!!"
The demon heard her comment and started yelling again.
"Not-Fooooood!!!! Stop running away not-food!!"
"That"s doesn"t help either!!!!"
"Ria!! Stop chatting with the demon!!"
Gustav tried to call her attention while they continued to run. Even with all the silver metal they were carrying they still couldn"t outrun the demon for some reason.
"How is he so fast??"
They kept trying to escape when Gustav realized what was happening.
"He"s not fast, we are the ones who are slow!!"
"...??"
Ria and Auren looked at Gustav confused with what he meant.
"You two are not being boosted by the silver metal because you are using all your power on the barrier to keep Xadi imprisoned!"
"What??" x 2
Auren took another look and realized that Gustav was actually running much faster than the two of them.
"So all the power of the metal is being redirected to our s.h.i.+elds?"
"I think so..."
"Then-"
"Not-Fooood!!!"
Just as Auren was about to start his sentence, the red demon leaped to grab him with his ma.s.sive body covered in spikes and attempted to squash him and Evlin.
"Aaaahhhh!!!"
"Auren!! Make a s.h.i.+eld now!!!"
Gustav tried to scream at him, but before anyone could react, the demon was sliced in an "X" formation by the swing of two blades and cut into four parts.
"Not... Food... ?"
The demon"s head fell on the snow after saying his final words before dying and rolled around like a football.
The group stared in shock, not at the mutilated demon, but at the one who managed to kill him.
"Big siiiiiis!!!! I found you!!!!"
"Oh, Lord..."
Mia was right in front of them wearing her usual malicious grin while carrying a pair of silver katanas drenched in the blood of the red demon.
Mia was paying close attention to the scene in front of her. Her big sister and her two friends, one of which was carrying an unconscious Evlin on his arms.
"Seems like Xadi"s spell worked after all!"
Mia was so shocked by encountering her sister that she didn"t even notice that her curse was reacting.
"Mmm...?"
She tried to sense the source of the golden blessed energy and realized that it was coming out of Ria and Auren.
"Big sis... Are you... Are you a champion???"
"..."
"You are!!! You are a champion too!!! This is the best day ever!!! My big sis is the great challenge that I"ve been waiting for so long!!!"
"..."
Ria was terrified. Her sister and Marcus completely trashed her group the last time they faced each other. If she wasn"t careful they might be killed and sliced to pieces just like that demon.
She used this chance to speak with Gustav and Auren with his telepathic ability.
[Gustav... I"ll open a wind-scar. You take Evlin and get out of here!]
[A wind scar? But you only have a few shots with it! You really want to use it now?]
[Yes!! We need to keep Marcus and Mia busy until Evlin wakes up...]
[What!!?? You"re not coming??]
[With her speed, even if we try to run, my sister will just find us again... We need to stall for a bit.]
[Maybe we should teleport out of the kingdom...]
[If we do, we will lose the south G.o.d"s debt.]
[But Ria... She is going to kill you!]
Auren came closer to Gustav and placed Evlin in his arms.
[Don"t worry Gustav... This is why we gained this power to begin with, remember?]
[But, Auren...]
[Keep Evlin safe... You"re the only one who can!]
[...]
Ria stepped forward and started to talk with her little two-hundred years-old sister.
"You were right sis... I am a champion... So if you two want to fight someone, the fight with me!"
Mia started to burst with joy after hearing this news. Her favorite person in the world was also the one who could cure her boredom. On top of that, she was going to fight her while using her sword-boyfriend that her sister hated so much. She couldn"t ask for a batter outcome.
"This is the best day ever!!! I love you big sis!!!"
The twin-ponytail child began to rush to stab her sister and Ria immediately opened a wind-scar to push Gustav inside of it. Auren joined Ria"s side and the two raised a pair of s.h.i.+elds to block the little girl"s attacks.
"Huh...?"
Mia was surprised to see that Auren was also joining the fight.
"Ah! You"re the bald guy that tried to propose to big sis that night!!"
Ria became even angrier after being reminded that her perfect proposal night was interrupted by her stupid little sister.
"Which means... This is a double date!!! This is even better than before!!! You"re the best big sis!!!"
"G.o.d, please just shut up..."
Auren looked behind him and watched as the wind-scar that Gustav had entered started to close. He stared one last time at his friend and gave his farewells.
"See you soon Gustav!"
"Auren!! Ria!!"
Before Gustav could reply, the scar closed, and he found himself back at the church of the south G.o.d.
"Please be careful you two..."