"We’ll leave them to the invincible God of War to deal with so we can get time to recover," Arlan chuckled playfully.
But Draven was serious. "I can buy as much time as I can, but it won’t be enough. We need at least a day to recover fully."
"It doesn’t seem like they’ll allow us that much time," Drayce said as he suggested. "We can do one thing: while Draven and I keep them engaged, you can leave with Snowflake and find Oriana."
"Let’s see," Arlan replied.
As the two sides prepared to fight, both exerted their power—darkness against the power of absolute darkness—but none of them were at their best. The demon leader used his power of darkness to attack, pushing all three of them back several steps.
"Damn, one demon is powerful enough to push us back," Arlan cursed, struggling to stay on his feet.
"We need to find a way to buy more time," Drayce said, also struggling. "Any ideas?"
"Use your smart, talkative mouths to trick this demon," Draven suggested.
Arlan and Drayce understood Draven was mocking them for all their earlier teasing.
"I’ll save my mouth to please my mate once I find her," Arlan replied.
"You’re making me want to go back to mine," Drayce added.
Draven sighed, realizing he couldn’t do much with these younglings and their teasing. "You two can leave. I will try to buy some time for you. Hide somewhere and don’t come out until you’ve regained your strength."
"I was joking when I said I would sacrifice you," Arlan said, standing firm against the demon’s power. "We are not cowards. We won’t leave you alone."
"But I was serious when I said it," Draven countered. "I won’t die. I’d run out of power and they’d imprison me. Later, you can come for me. It’s better to give up one rather than all. We stand a chance of winning that way."
Arlan and Drayce felt conflicted. They had no intention of abandoning Draven.
"All in or none," Arlan declared, determined to stay back. Drayce nodded in agreement. "We have absolute darkness. Just like you said, we won’t die. So, let’s get captured together. Maybe in their prisons, we’ll have enough time to recuperate and cultivate."
"They’re not idiots. They won’t let us cultivate when they see we wield absolute darkness," Draven commented, stepping ahead of them while resisting the demon leader’s power. "We’ll all be tortured instead."
"We don’t mind," Arlan and Drayce said in unison, pushing against the demons’ powers.
On the demon’s side, the leader’s laugh echoed as he saw his power overcoming the God of War and his two companions. He felt like he was on the verge of the victory he had long awaited.
"The God of War is nothing in front of me!" he laughed, continuing to use his power of darkness. His eyes narrowed at the three, who were resisting with everything they had. He created an attacking shield of darkness as powerful as he could, a sinister smile on his lips, and released it. "Today, I, the vice commander of the demon army, Eevrton, am going to kill the God of War."
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