274 Who fights who? (2/2)

”Right... They all seem to have some dragon powers as well...” Evlin agreed, ”Wrath had dragon scales which made his skin near impossible to harm...”

”Gluttony had a dragon's lungs so he could breathe fire from his mouth and even eat or set himself on fire...” Claire noted.

”We also saw Envy on the west temple, and he had dragon wings which pretty much turned him into a wind mage...” Daren commented.

”Mmm... Anything on the other four?” Detra asked, but they all just shook their heads in denial.

She kept looking at the list. Seven demons, seven sins, seven dragon powers. She kept looking and analyzing and trying to come up with the proper strategy to deal with this. They had little to no information on lust, greed, sloth, or pride, so Detra would need to work on assumptions for how to set up her warriors.

”Can I ask to be the one to face Gluttony?” Leona asked while raising her hand.

Detra looked at her like she had just heard Leona ask to cut her own arm off, ”Are you kidding me?? You want me to send the fire mage to fight someone that eats fire???”

”I managed to use terminal fire as well, even if it was for just a short moment! If I can master this power, I'm sure I'll be the best match against him!”

Detra rubbed her chin, ”I don't know... Dia and the young miss can absorb energy... They would probably be better choices-”

”Please!” Leona begged, ”He destroyed my home! He almost killed my friends!”

”Ah...” Detra whispered, ”Revenge... It always comes down to revenge with you people...”

Detra took one look at Leona's expression and realized she had no intention of backing down on this matter.

”You said you could use terminal energy?” Detra asked.

”I managed to use it for a brief moment, yes... I have magic power and blessed power in me already... If I can just access to cursed energy again, I know I can beat him!”

”Very well... That does give me space to use the girls somewhere else... Congrats, you will be Glutonny's opponent.”

”Thank you!” Leona replied while bowing.

”Could you please not talk about 'using' my niece so casually...?” Evlin commented.

”Sure, sure... Anyway... ” Detra said while returning to her planning, ”That's one taken care of...” Who could possibly deal with Wrath... Who's the calmest one in this group...?”

”Probably Ria... But she can't fight without Auren... Plus, she doesn't have access to terminal fire...” Daren answered.

”Right... The terminal fire part will be a big problem if we try to make it so all seven of the ones fighting will have access to it...” Detra realized.

”Why not just pair people up?” Xadi suggested.

”Pair up...?” Evlin repeated.

Xadi then jumped down from Joseph's head and grabbed the piece of paper that had the rules of Knucker's game in it, ”It says here that we can use any weapon we want... Three of you guys can become weapons, right? Instead of trying to find a way to get everyone to access the terminal thingy, why not pair people up with the weapon kids? They all have the power already, right?”

”That's... Honestly not a bad idea... The power of a living weapon does work better when used in a team than when used alone... Marceus was a great fighter on his own, but he was always even stronger when fighting with one of his candidates by his side...” Detra commented.

”Of course it's a good idea, it's my idea after all!” Xadi boasted.

”Right... And whose idea was it to send the young miss to fight Mia alone Which resulted in that crazy girl stealing control over the crossbow mage's body and almost taking over the world?” Detra added.

”Details, details...”

”Let's see... So we have three terminal weapons... and one terminal mage...”

”Three terminal weapons?” Evlin repeated.

”Oh, right... I forgot to mention... ” Detra said, ”Dia can turn into a weapon too now... She's basically the young miss' champion...”

”Wait, what!!??” Evlin gasped.

She looked at the young girl and Dia reacted by raising her arm and turning it into a red metal blade.

”What in the world...??? When did that happen???”

”Focus!! We still have work to do!! We still need to pick out who will fight who...”

”Well... How about you, Detra?” Joseph suggested.

”Me...? What about me?”

”You can be pretty calm and collected when you need to be... You spent half a year hanging out with us after all... I'm sure this Wrath guy would be a piece of cake compared to it... Why don't you fight him?”

”Mmmm... True... I do have my patience tested on a daily basis...” Detra agreed while suddenly meeting eyes with Dia, ”And the young girl herself is also surprisingly calm all things considered... She could be my partner!”

”Eh!? Me!? With you??” Dia gasped while pointing at herself.

”I assumed you would have wanted to team up with Ellie or Marcus...” Evlin commented.

”While that would indeed be lovely...” Detra admitted, ”Neither of these two are nearly as collected as young Dia over here! It's decided then! We shall face this Wrath demon! Thank you, youngster Joey! This might be the first time you ever spouted something useful from your mouth!”

”Uuuhh... Thanks... I guess...”

And so the discussion went on. Detra and the rest of the group continued to discuss who would face whom and what weapon they would use. They tried to take everything into consideration. Personality, mental stability, combat style, weapon affinity, all in order to set up the best possible match against Knucker's demon dragons.

Evlin would ask for a little bit of time every now and then and try to get in contact with Ellie and Auren, who would in turn report that they had already located Ria, Ashley, and Marcus, much to Evlin's relief, and were now trying to fly over one of Ria's teleportation spots to meet up.

Everything seemed to be going well, with the sole exception that nobody seemed to have heard any news on either Gustav or Sphinx.

Part 2

While the planning progressed on the island of the north temple, on the other side of the world, near what used to be the temple of the south, a young blond man riding a golden-winged beast with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle was having a private conversation with one particular girl.

”You have a lot of guts coming back here after all that happened...” Gustav commented while glaring at her.

The girl had a look of absolute defeat, as if all life had lost its meaning and she now was just waiting for the sweet scent of death to release her from her prison.

”Hey... Mr. Horse... Long time no see...”