The Demon Lord's Successor

“Wait!” you scream just as Steven, The Doom brother, is about to attack your party. “If you let the others go, I’ll go with you willingly and without resistance.”

“Hm, very well,” Steven says. “Come over here—Wait, what was your name again?”

“William,” you say.

“Alright, William, you come over here and stand next to me," Steven says. "The others just stay right where you are now.”

“Yeah, right!” Epsilon snorts. “We’ll stand riiight here, for you to fire at us at your leisure once the moron is out of the way.”

You reluctantly agree with the bunny girl and do not move an inch toward the Dark Knight. If you get through this you’ll have to teach a thing or two to Epsilon about her choice of words.

“Ah, the bunny saw through my ploy?” Steven sighs in half-hearted disappointment and charges a fireball from the palm of his hand that is still pointed toward your party. “Obviously I can’t let any of you leave now that you know about us and our plan.”

“But you haven’t told us about your plan!” you argue.

“No reason to tell it to soon-to-be corpses,” Steven answers as he keeps charging the fireball.

“But if you fire at all of us, you’ll also kill the one you want alive!” Epsilon shouts.

“Thanks for the advice, bunny,” Steven says and changes his open palm into a finger gun, pointing it at Epsilon. The fireball shrinks to the size of a grape, and after saying “Bang!” Steven shoots it out a bolt of fire, like a laser, straight at Epsilon.

Elza dashes in front of the bunny girl and puts up a massive, two-feet-thick ice wall to protect them both. The firebolt hits the wall and shatters it in an explosion of fire, water, steam, and ice-shards flying in all directions.

You cover yourself and Rosette from the debris.

When the steam settles you look up at Elza. She’s on her knees, alive, but with tears in her eyes, biting her lip, barely holding back from screaming. Her hands and forearms are a mix of red and white and covered in blisters.

“Pfft,” Epsilon chuckles, looking down at the woman who risked her life for her.

“Oh, some of you are stronger than I thought,” Steven says without lowering his finger gun. “I’ll make adjustments.”

The dark knight then charges another small fireball at the tip of his index finger.

“Quick, we have to attack him now! All at once!” Epsilon shouts. “Or he’ll keep picking us off one by one!”