83 Clashing of goals

Part 1

Mia and her group were entering the demon kingdom and observing the destruction spread on each of the buildings.

Clayton, one of the demon-slayers and Mia's personal servant came closer to ask how they should proceed.

"Our first objective is finding big sis and her little friends and cutting them into pieces. Xadi, can you find their location with your finding spell or whatever its called?"

The young mage with an eyepatch approached her after hearing his name being called.

"Its "Tracking spell", and no I can't find her. The spell was developed to contact your allies so that they could reveal their location so they could be rescued. I doubt the little girl considers me one of her allies right now..."

"I see... That's a shame then... Are you sure she is still stuck inside the white place?"

"Very sure. She can't do anything while I keep her locked in there."

[Then we need to strike now! This is our best chance to get her before she can run away again!]

"Calm down darling, calm down..."

Mia tried to put Marcus at ease while he spoke inside her mind in his double silver katana form. Mia could feel his immense desire to find Evlin and slice her head off.

Clayton approached his master and made a suggestion.

"Lady Mia, maybe she is inside the church of the south god!?"

"You sure...? Last time I checked, she and her little group seemed to be on very bad terms with gods."

"Definitely! The girl showed extreme interest in finding a way to return to her home. She probably is speaking to the god so he can give her the power to do so!"

"Mmmm... I see... She's homesick... Poor thing... Let's go kill her and end her suffering!!"

"Yes, my lady!"

Mia turned around and pointed her blades at Xadi.

"Use your wind magic to get a good view of the area. Try to find any building resembling a church."

Xadi wasn't a big fan of being ordered around by a toddler but it's not like his goals were any different from hers so he just followed her command.

"You're the boss..."

"You bet I am!!"

Xadi raised himself with his wind magic releasing energy from his wooden gauntlet, but before he could gain much altitude, he spotted a horde of monsters coming this way.

He hurried to rejoin his team and warn them of the incoming threat.

"We are about to be ambushed!!"

But Mia just looked at her as if he told her what day of the month they were in right now.

"... And...?"

"Didn't you listen?? We are going to be attacked!"

"Is that what I asked you to do?"

"...?"

"What did I ask Xadi?"

"..."

"What-did-I-ask?"

"For me to find the south god church..."

"And did you find me?"

"... Not yet..."

Mia then grabbed his collar and pulled his face towards her.

"Then why the hell did you think it was ok to return???"

"!!!"

Xadi was trying to free himself, but even with the power of his silver gauntlet, Mia was still stronger than him.

"If I give you an order, then you listen to it!! Got it??"

"... G- Got it..."

"Good! Now get back there and do your job!!"

"... Understood... ... ... My... Lady..."

"Good boy!"

Mia smirked as Xadi returned to the air to look for the church once again. She could feel her hands shaking for some reason. She tried to confirm it and it wasn't her hands, it was her swords.

"Daling...? Everything ok...?"

[I'm fine... Just excited to cut some demons...]

Marcus was feeling strange. For some reason, Mia's words "Do your job!" made him feel really uncomfortable and he couldn't figure out why. He was feeling like his mother, the East goddess would appear out of nowhere and start punishing him again, just like she would do each time he tried to disobey her orders.

[He said there is a horde coming... Get ready!]

"Ok, darling! Slayers!!"

"Yes, lady Mia!!!" x 6

"Let's go have some fun!!"

And as she said that, Xadi's warning came true and a massive group of monsters and demons started to come out from the streets and pounce on their direction. All of them screaming things like "Huumaaans!!!", "Slayeeeers!!!", or "Fooood!!!", as if they hadn't eaten anything in years and were just dying to end their starvation.

Mia and the slayers assumed battle positions and engaged the creatures.

Part 2

"So which one is the mage?"

The demon leader was observing the start of the battle from the top of his castle with Daren, Lilith, Drya, and the pet monsters behind him.

They had reunited to prepare for the incoming invasion from their mutual opponents and were now settling the deal they had organized before.

Lilith spotted a man using wind magic to fly around the city as if he was looking for something and assumed that was Xadi.

"I think that's him..."

"You think?? You ask me to take care of one of your opponents and you don't even know what he looks like?"

"I never really met him! He was defeated by Evlin and Ashley before they encountered us. You're the one who's keeping her prisoner, why don't you ask?"

The demon leader turned his eyes away from Lilith and her obvious displeased face due to speaking to him and looked at Drya who was by his side.

"Well? You're the one who has her memories... Is that him?"

Drya thought about the situation for a moment. She knew that the man flying around was Xadi, but if she told that to her leader he would just destroy him in two seconds. And for some reason, she knew that Evlin's friends were trying really desperately to get rid of Xadi.

Not only that, despite so much time passing, Evlin still hadn't shown up to get Ashley back. Drya joked about it sometimes, but she knew Evlin would never abandon Ashley. Why hadn't she showed up yet?

Something was going on with Evlin's group and she needed to move carefully. Right now, her goal was to distract the demon leader so she could steal his sword, and Xadi would barely be a good enough distraction.

"That's not him... It must be some person that he's carrying using his magic from the ground to scoop the terrain..."

"!!!??" x 2

Both Lilith and the demon leader looked at her with eyes of shock. Lilith was the first one to speak.

"It's not...??"

Lilith truly believed that was Xadi but considering she never met him she had no ways of confirming it.

The demon leader looked at her with eyes of suspicion.

"Are you sure...?"

"Definitely... The mage must be hiding inside the city somewhere..."

Drya needed to trust her plan. She needed to make the demon leader fight Marcus at all costs.

"Well... If you say so..."

She saw his reaction and started to feel relieved. If the leader ignored Xadi and tried to search around the city he might encounter Marcus by accident.

"Then, let's get on with this."

The demon king moved away from the balcony. Drya expected him to just grab her and jump into the battlefield while looking for Xadi. But instead, he just approached the pets that Daren and Lilith were keeping by their side.

He extended his sword towards them and started to gather some energy on its tip. Daren looked at him confused while feeling the power of negative emotions starting to gather.

"What are you doing...?"

The leader gathered more power and answered Daren's question.

"These monsters are too weak to fight in this kind of battle... I need to turn them into demons so that they will have a better chance."

"What?"

And before anyone could react, the energy from his sword was unleashed over the monsters and they all started to change their appearances.

As the negative energy continued to be absorbed by them, they began to look less like beasts and more like humans.

Their bodies started to shrink in size a little and they stopped walking on all fours and were now standing on two legs.

What was once a group of monsters was now a team of three demons.

A young boy covered in golden fur with two huge wings on his back and a tail, a white centaur also with wings with the same color as the rest of his body, and a green lady covered in scales with a long tail on her back.

Evlin's griffin, Gustav's pegasus, and Ria's dragon were completely transformed into what appeared to be a combination of half-monsters and half-humans.

Lilith stared at the scene without knowing how she was supposed to react. She was particularly puzzled by the small golden boy.

"Sphinx...? Is that you??"

The boy who was once Evlin's beloved pet looked at Lilith after seeing her trying to talk to him, however, his eyes acted as if he was looking at a stranger.

"..."

Lilith glared at the demon leader.

"What did you do???"

"I just helped them reach their full potential! Demons are created from humans who absorbed too much cursed energy, while monsters are created from animals who absorbed too much cursed energy."

"What...?"

"But if you continue to inject them with even more cursed energy, monsters will eventually end up becoming demons as well!"

"You mean cursed energy comes from suffering??"

"... That wasn't obvious?? It's right there in the name, "cursed energy!". The second humans start releasing their hate and regret, these emotions are absorbed by the magical power covering this world and end up becoming cursed energy."

"...!!!"

"Blessings are nothing but evolved magic power drenched in prayers... And curses are nothing but evolved magic power drenched in suffering..."

The demon leader extended his hand and pointed at the battlefield in the middle of the city.

"As the leader of all the demons in this kingdom, I command you... Fulfill the end of my bargain and tear apart the tempest magician!!"

The three demons bowed towards that command and shouted in unison.

"Yes, master!!" x 3

Lilith was horrified by seeing Sphinx talking and obeying the demon leader as if he was some kind of servant of his. She couldn't stop thinking about how Evlin would react after seeing her beloved friend like this.

Sphinx, the winged centaur, and the dragon lady all leaped from the balcony and started to charge towards the war alongside the rest of the demons and monsters.

Drya looked at the demon leader worried that her plan had just been completely ruined.

"Boss... You're not joining the fight?"

"A true leader never charges in front of his troops."

"I- I see..."

"Let them weaken the enemy first and then go for the attack after they used all their energy."

"V- Very clever boss..."

The leader then looked at Daren and Lilith with his intimidating eyes and grinning menacingly while keeping his arms crossed.

"You two better keep your end of the deal as well... The life of your little friend is in my hands after all."

Lilith continued to feel uncomfortable being by the side of these two. She wanted to rejoin with Gustav, Auren, and Ria, but she also didn't want to leave Ashley alone again.

She needed to wait for the right moment Xadi was defeated and Evlin would wake up so she could go for the attack.

The same way Lilith was waiting for the opening to save Ashley, Drya was waiting for the opening to get the cursed sword, the demon leader was waiting to get his hands on Evlin, and Marcus was waiting for his chance to finally unleash his rage on those he was chasing.

During that moment, inside that city, all the moving pieces that were put into motion due to Marceus's, Evlin's and East's actions were starting to gather in one place, opening the curtains for the final battle, the war of the three powers.