"Well," Paxton remarked, sitting on his bed and watching Goddard stare up at the ceiling, "that could have gone better."
Goddard scowled at his brother, but didn't rebut the observation.
It was only an hour ago that Goddard had tried to explain what happened in the future, and even Alciel opened his wings to lend credence to his words. In response, the future Seven Sins failed to comprehend any of it and left to think about what they were told. Now the future was up in the air, and Goddard had no idea what he could do to remedy the situation besides the most agonizing thing: wait.
Mini, now openly in her demon form, approached Goddard and looked at him with something approximating concern. The last thing the future warrior needed was patronizing pity from a demon, but the girlish way she cocked her head to the side in confusion was almost too human. He turned over on his side and stared under his brother's bed frame.
A pair of feet slipped over the bedside as Paxton got to his feet and stretched a little.
"Guess we should go train," he said, putting an arm at a time into a stretching bend.
"Is training all you can think about?" Goddard chastised.
"No, but that's usually why I do it. When I'm focused on something as complex as the necessities of fighting, I enter a flow state where everything else seems less important. It helps to clear my mind, and you look like your mind could use some clearing."
"That's stupid," Goddard said, "let's do it."
Reaching into the school-issue standing closet, Paxton grabbed a sack of training equipment that smelled strongly of burnt rubber. It was the smell of the odor-eaters they used in this world, and Paxton was just thankful it was sparing him from what the training equipment would smell like otherwise.
The brothers exited their dorm just in time to see Samson enter his dorm room. He didn't even give them a nervous glance before closing the door. They walked down the halls to the outer circle courtyard and around the circular school shape. They found the stairs that led down to the warrior training grounds, which were empty except for a few eager students looking to get ahead in the semester.
Paxton dropped the back and listened to the clacking of metal objects before opening the top and pulling out 20lb metal bracers. He tossed a pair to Goddard, who started putting them on his wrists for training.
Goddard finished and looked at his sparring opponent, who had placed one bracer on his wright wrist and the other on his left ankle.
"What do you think you're doing?" Goddard demanded.
"My enemies do not wait until I'm on balance and in full control, so I should train not to be," Paxton explained.
Goddard sneered, but removed one bracelet and attached it behind the other.
"Copy cat," Paxton sneered with a coy smile.
The two brothers got into position, equidistant across the sand pit and outside either of their striking distances.
After staring at each other for a minute, Goddard asked, "Are you going to call it?"
"I called it ten seconds ago," said a voice behind Goddard as the Paxton he hadn't broken eye contact with flickered into nothingness.
"SH-" exclaimed the younger brother as a pair of meaty hands wrapped around his throat. Goddard found himself flipping end over end backwards before being twisted mid-air to confuse his direction further. Before he could gather his wits, his shoulder halted his full weight in the sand, cushioning the fall.
Standing over Goddard, Paxton had a goofy grin worthy of being punched, so the younger brother powered up his weighted arm and threw a deserving blow his way. The arm missed entirely, passing through Paxton's face as the mirage dissipated.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
"Not even close," said a distant voice as something gripped Goddard's legs.
"DAMNIT PAXTOOOOON!" screamed the younger brother as his older sibling gave him a good hammer toss out of the sand pit and into the packed grass.
The two brothers, with both of their blood boiling, wrestled like wild animals until Goddard got distracted by the setting sun and received a harsh punch to the face for taking his eyes off of his opponent. He pointed out that the hallways would be too dark to navigate if they postponed any longer, and they both had sand and grass stuck to every pore. They had to make it to the showers quick unless they wanted to wash off in total darkness.
The duo ran to the showers, but in doing so, passed the hallway with their dorms and noticed a light above their door. It looked like a circle with a four-point star in the middle.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Paxton asked, opening the door to toss the gym bag inside.
The door slid silently open, but the noise of a crying child finally reached the outside.
Sitting, shivering in the corner of the room was a bruised and battered Mini, her red skin fixed with black and blue splotches. Standing over her with one clenched fist and something that looked like a beam sword emerging from his other fist was Alciel, who spared the look back before realizing he no longer had time to spare. Swinging his sword down, Alciel felt his arm suddenly jerk backwards as Paxton pulled it with all the force he was capable of.
In the air, Alciel grew out small wings that beat once to change his trajectory before being swallowed by his robe, but Paxton was somehow much faster. He was already on the angel with a neck choke and pretzeled legs that put both of his arms into a full nelson.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" Paxton shouted with the rage of thousand fathers.
Alciel choked has his neck was constricted by a thick, sweat-covered arm, "W-w-we had-d-d v-v-visit-t-tors...! D-d-demons!"
"Demons!" Goddard shouted, suddenly interested in the commotion. "Demons aren't supposed to walk the earth for another six years!"
Paxton lessened his grip so Alciel could explain, "They were an envoy! The seven dukes of hell! Looking- looking for her!"
The angle turned to the side so his captured arm could point an accusing finger at the little demoness bleeding in the corner.
"Tell them to go fuck themselves," Paxton ordered.
"They bring war!" Alciel gagged as the arm tightened more around his neck. "They want to start the campaign early so the little refugee can't escape!"
Paxton slithered off of the angel, landing between it and Mini like the guardian he was; only for Goddard to run up and throttle the angel, shouting, "Explain!"
"This morning, the seven dukes of hell notified they would be visiting later," Alciel swallowed. "I thought they would take a few weeks, but they arrived a few hours ago! They said that the demon king had been overthrown and they were tracking demons who had escaped into this world. They asked for our cooperation to handle it discreetly, but they threatened us with starting the invasion early to... cut off the loose ends."
"So you were going to give Mini up as a peace offering," Paxton surmised. His tone was neutral because he recognized it as the smarter move, but he was crouched and ready to go in case anyone tried something.
Goddard saw this and said to his brother in heartfelt compassion, "Paxton..., we can't keep her!"
"Bold of you to do what demons want," Paxton cursed his brother.
"You'd best believe I'd take Mini all of this earth if it caused the slightest inconvenience to the demon lords," Goddard rebuked, "but we are hopelessly outmatched right now! The only defense we have against the demon lords are the Seven Deadly Sins, and they are woefully unprepared! We can't fight them right now, we need time! Time that Mini can buy us...."
"Go to hell!"
"I'VE BEEN THERE ALREADY!" Goddard roared. "DON'T YOU REMEMBER?! I WATCHED MOST OF THE HUMAN RACE DIE IN FRONT OF ME TO THE BASTARDS WHO ARE KNOCKING AT OUR FUCKING DOOR! EVERYONE I LOVE! EVERYONE I HATED! SLAUGHTERED TO THE LAUGHTER OF DEMON DICKWADS! This time was supposed to be different! We were supposed to meet the demons head-on as the best Seven Deadly Sins there could ever be! And you're trying to start the war early to save one single, demon bitch!"
Mini flinched, and for a moment, even Goddard felt bad for saying what he believed was necessary.
"You want time, huh?" Paxton challenged. "What if I gave you time?"
"Huh?" Alciel chimed in.
"What if I could stall the demons? Maybe give you more time than you could hope for!"
"And how are you supposed to do that?"
"... I'm working on it."
"Yeah, not a chance."
Goddard reached out to the little demon girl, but Paxton slapped his hand away with considerable force. The two brother's eyed each other, and they could see neither of them intended to back down.
"Alciel," Goddard addressed the angel without taking his eyes of his prey, "tell the demons we'll arrange an exchange."
The angel nodded and went to leave, but heard the crack of Goddard tackling Paxton to stop him from intervening. The two brothers collapsed into a tangle of flaying limbs of supernatural strength as Alciel slipped out of the room, closed the door behind him, and flew all the way back to his compatriots.