Suddenly a change in tone could be heard through the intercom of the fox mask visor. “Ani?! Ototo!? Is that you?! I’ve sent out Sebastia countless times, but she couldn’t find you! How did you two end up in Paradiso?! Wait, does that mean the two of you defeated Pei?!”
“I am still here, you dumbass cotton butt!” Pei shouted as she transformed back into her human form and sat on the throne chair comfortably.
“How did you find-?! No, there is no time for that now. Ani, Ototo. I beseech the both of you to help Pei with her quest. We need to get the keys of the Demon Metropolis’ Dungeon Core to weaken King Baal. I promise to have a long talk with the two of you about what has happened after we separated.”
“BUT THAT FOX…LADY SAID U HAVE NEW MASTER!”
“Sorry Ototo, I do. In order to save King Baal, I had to switch sides. That is all I can reveal for now. If you do not trust me, I believe Pei can convince you enough with her strength. Ani, continue to protect your brother. – FIREBALL INCOMING!” Moloch was interrupted, and the voice channel got cut off.
“What are you going to do now? Continue to fight me?” Pei asked as she rested on the throne, only to realise how comfortable it was. Was that the reason why so many kings and queens loved their throne chairs that much? “If not, hand me the keys, swear an oath to protect Moloch and I will teleport you to him immediately.”
“FOX LADY CAN DO THAT?!”
“careful. she might be using magic to deceive us. like how we were constantly being deceived by this place’s illusion.”
“BROTHER, YOU MEAN THIS IS ANOTHER TEST FOR US?”
“i can’t say for sure. but what if we trust her and this happens to be another test?”
“Seriously? I cannot believe I went through all that effort to try convincing you guys! I thought you were Moloch’s subjects, comrades, friends or whatever else you might call yourself. Sigh, fine… brute force it is, then.” Pei said as she stood up with her paper fan, and decidedly walked towards the Black Minotaur puppet. Their guard was still down, and they continued to treat her as a being with little to no threat.
“rules dictate that we cannot easily give up the prison supervisor role or else they- ow!” the yellow pauldron was hit by the Pei’s paper fan that swooped in and whacked him from the side nearly sending him flying.
“Please, just stop wasting my time and give me the key! I promise I’ll send you to Moloch right now if you do!” Pei bargained while continuing to whack the yellow pauldron forcing the Black Minotaur on the defensive.
“SMALL SIS, STOP HITTING MY BROTHER!”
“SMALL SIS?!?!” Pei looked at the red pauldron with fiery eyes, and Ototo feared that he had said something terribly wrong. To his surprise, Pei went towards the red pauldron and gave it a little pet at the edge of it.
“Good boy. Looks like at least one of you brothers knows their manners well. But call me pretty sister next time, okay?”
“SEE BROTHER ANI? PRETTY SIS IS GOOD PERSON! SHE NEVER HIT ME!”
“gosh, ototo. that is why lord moloch wanted me to protect you.” The yellow pauldron sighed at the situation. He understood by the way she had easily attacked that they wouldn’t be her match and judging by the way she showed kindness to his brother she also wasn’t a bad person per se.
“lady- i erm mean pretty sis. please wear us on your shoulders. we will open the Prison Core for you to get the dungeon core key. but if we sense any deceit on you, we will not hesitate to cut you down.” Ani offered with a bit of trust in her.
“I will gladly take that blow.” Pei nodded her head as she picked up the pair of pauldrons from the Black Minotaur and to her surprise, it turned into dust the moment she removed the pauldrons from its shoulders. Even the axe it was carrying dissipated like yet another figment of reality. “Huh, I wondered if that Man Puppet Moloch had been holding to, would also disintegrate this way if I forcefully pull him out like that?” She thought to herself.
“Also, don’t tell me that was how Moloch looked like before he turned into a cotton butt?” Pei asked, and the other two had no idea what she meant by ‘cotton butt’. They thought it was some magical artefact.
“NO, LORD MOLOCH MORE HANDSOME. HE HOLDS NO AXE!” Ototo replied though Ani decided to keep his comments to himself. Pei did as instructed and placed the pauldrons on her shoulders, and suddenly the pauldrons took over the control of her arms and got a shock.
“OH MY GOD, SHE COULD HAVE KILLED US INSTANTLY!?!?”
“i – i …i guess you are right. we are sorry to have doubted you.” Ani said in an apologetic voice. How much had she held back when attacking the Black Minotaur just now?!
“Hmm? I did not sense any release of memory and information or any psychological attack on me. What did the two of you do just now?” Pei started to check if this place had left any holes in her psychic barriers allowing the two of them to take over her body,.
“no, there is no need for us to do that. the moment we came into contact with your body, it has already told us you’ve been through more battles than us. that your duels were much fiercer than us. there was no need to – urgh why are you hitting us so hard?!”
“PERVERTS?! YOU GUYS ARE PERVERTS?! WHO ALLOWED YOU TO ANALYSE MY BODY?!” Pei screamed as she kept whacking the two pauldrons.
“SHE CAN TALK LIKE ME?!” Ototo was happy for the wrong reasons.
“please calm down, pretty sis! we don’t have any choice in this form, we learn the prowess of anything we touch! we were only relieved that you did not kill us and instead gave us the opportunity to assist our lord! i will show you the key right now! ” Ani surrendered in a hurried manner as the beating did not seem to stop and for some reason, she appeared to prioritise beating him over his brother. He really started to feel as if he was going to die.
Not soon after, when Pei finally calmed down, the pauldrons opened the throne chair and revealed the Prison Core. With a few mumblings coming from Ani, the core released the key which by itself looked rather unique.
The key was not made of any crystal but instead covered with a layer of reflective mirror all around it, reflecting whatever Pei saw.
“Seems fitting of ‘Limbo’ stage,” Pei whispered as she kept the key and took off that disgusting pair of pauldrons. “Now repeat after me by swearing an oath, and then I can send you off to Moloch,” Pei instructed the Pauldron Brother who did as instructed before being sent off to meet their long-awaited Minotaur Lord.
One key down… Eight more to go?
