The Black Minotaur stood up, and this action finally made Pei realise why it reminded her of Moloch. More accurately speaking, it had reminded her of Moloch’s man puppet. Like the Minotaur Lord, Pei believed that her opponent must also have been reduced from their former self into a set of pauldrons who were now controlling that Black Minotaur like a puppet.
“Is that why they are in a state of limbo? Unable to find their master and having doubts about serving the new one?” Pei wondered to herself as she readied her weapon. There should be no need to pull punches for she knew that delaying time here would only cause more problems.
Besides, killing them should allow the Black Minotaur to reunite with Moloch, and he could explain the situation from there. No use babbling at an enemy who refused to listen.
Surprising her less and less with each time, the ‘reality’ in front of her shattered once more and in the next moment, the Black Minotaur appeared behind her, attempting to strike her back with one fell swoop. It was only through instinctive reflex that Pei was able to block it with her reinforced paper fan. Following up on it, she redirected the force energy as part of her counterattack.
“THIS HUMAN STRONG!” The red pauldron lit up, giving his opinion while the emotionless Black Minotaur merely complied to its puppeteer’s orders.
“i agree. usually most people are already dead by this time. we should be more careful with this opponent, brother.”
“System, do you think killing will work against these pauldrons? They are …non living entities.” Pei recalled that the System should be unable to get anything that was not alive and breathing.
“Unable to confirm. The capture of Moloch was based on his renewed fealty to our User and not because of User’s blade. However, other instances in the Dungeon World have proven that System has also been able to capture robotic beings despite them not being a form of natural life. Former Crane Bellator Pei should experiment.” In short, all the System stated was to just give it a try. If she killed the Minotaur Lord’s subjects, and they were not able to be captured, they could only curse their wretched fate.
“What? And if they die?!” Pei did have time to reply as she had already restrained her strength allowing the Black Minotaur to have the upper hand for now.
“Former Crane Bellator Pei, it is best you concentrate on the battle. This is the Dungeon World. Death here is nothing permanent. Remove all thoughts and get the key to the Dungeon Core. User has already begun his counterattack. No failures allowed.” The System emphasised the need for victory and Pei began to recall why she was in such a dilemma.
She had been like that for most of her life, unable to make her own decisions. She had wandered through life following her parents’ instructions to train to become the next clan head… until the rebellion.
Some of her clan people believed that Pei’s insistence of interfering was because she had been roped in due to her innocence and naivety, making her think in ‘righting the injustice’. In contrast, others assumed that it was because of the enhanced coercion by Kraft of the Fox Clan. Nobody believed it was her path nor her own decision to follow through the rebellion.
Ironically her actions, along with the others ‘foxes’ who had all acted according to what they each thought would be for the greater good of their clan, had inevitably caused their clans’ rapid decline.
After the most promising candidates for the next chiefs of their respective clans were gone, the ones left behind had resulted to infighting. Despite the rebellion going well in the first stages, the fallout of the involved clans had led them to their rapid decline.
And once Panda Clan Head Zhou Lin had been taken out by them, with no one else to obstruct the annexation of the Royal Zodiacs, most of these clans were decimated by the Royal Clans as part of the revenge for the damage their ‘leaders’ had caused.
It might have been their victory to stop the frenzied Zhou Lin… but ultimately was it worth the cost? They had partially gone out to spare their clans the exact fate, their actions had brought upon them… Kraft, as the first Original Bellator, had been the one to suffer this realisation.
To spare his weakened comrades from feeling the same, he had decided to place his ‘foxes’ into bullets, partly to help them recover, but mostly in order to shield them from all these unwarranted hate from the remnants of their clans.
Yet, they were not oblivious to it since the System had revived them as part of a deal. Even if it was in the initially unstable form of foxes, they were privy to listen to the hearsays and rumours as Kraft forged ahead alone into the future. Pei was the one most affected by it and her uncaring attitude when she came out of the ‘fox’ bullet was due to the unseen consequences she could not bear the burden with.
She had once looked up to Kraft as a mentor, a leader, and possibly a person who she could trust with her life. That had been her faith for him until the end of the rebellion.
—–
“AN OPENING!” The red pauldron shouted once more, but it awoke Pei up from her needless thinking. Still, there was sufficient time for her to react, and she transformed into a fox, preventing the Black Minotaur’s axe from slicing her into two.
“Ahhh…why am I bothered with so many thoughts all of a sudden? Is this one of the functions of this floor? SHIT, Moloch could have mentioned that!” Pei cursed under her breath before she did a backflip in her fox form and landed on the throne chair.
“Do you wish to see Moloch?” Pei shouted from the throne, and the Black Minotaur lowered his guard for a moment.
“how can we know that you are his ally and not someone who has manipulated him to go against our king?” The Yellow Pauldron asked.
“And that is your reply after what the King did to you? Tell me, wasn’t your King the one to have reduced you two brothers into this pathetic state? Wasn’t he the one to banish Moloch in the first place? Yet, you still have loyalty to your King?” Pei questioned.
“YES. KING BAAL FOREVER OUR KING. MOLOCH MADE PRISON TO SAVE KING BAAL. MOLOCH NEVER BETRAYS.”
“Then, there you have it. Right now, Moloch is fighting against King Baal to save him. If you don’t trust my word, maybe you will trust his. Take this mask and look through it. System patch them through to Moloch.” Pei demanded as she felt there was no need for slaughter, the more she thought about it. Not everything needed to be solved with violence.
The Black Minotaur picked up the mask and did not smash it, throwing the System’s expectation out of the window. Thus, the System complied to Pei’s whims and connected it to Moloch’s private channel.
“Pei? Is that you? Do you need help with Paradiso’s defences? Be quick, I do not have much time to talk with you. Jin’s already riding halfway through the sky bridge wreaking havoc amongst the enemy frontlines to fight against Baal. If possible, you guys should clear it even faster to help Jin. Otherwise, I don’t know if we have enough powers to stop Baal’s rampage.” The constant yapping of Moloch suddenly broke the spirits of that pair of Pauldrons on the Black Minotaur.
“milord!”
“MILORD!”
