Plan Bravo

Whoa... Are you seriously telling me that this kid IS the First Seat Dementor Pillar?! In the novel, it was mentioned but never confirmed. Everyone praised this kid and said he would become the First Seat one day, but this moment demonstrates that he is an actual Pillar.

That means this kid isn't joking, and Bryan had every right to talk proudly about Duncan. The side quest was a duel with Duncan after the meeting, just before dinner. I pondered about it before Duncan spoke up.

"A duel against you would be enough to see if I'm up for the task or not. If I can deal enough damage to you, you will allow me to go onto the Major Mission. I may be a child, but I am the only one out of the five children to reach the First Seat rank."

"Not even my twin sister could best me in any duel, so I am mighty proud of that and confident that I can stomach taking a few lives," said Duncan as he tilted his head to the side.

Though it was only a split second, I could've sworn that his eyes had changed color, turning luminous green. So this kid is the Grim Reaper of the Barren Pillars. I'll have time to think about the duel later, and I will settle the current plan. Alright, let's say if I do have this kid...

That would make the whole team a total of five Mages going against the Five Ducklings. I was still sticking to the earlier plan of letting Duncan handle Astria. Now that Raiyen is part of the sting operation, would he be the best to go up against Raijin, or would Tomoe be a better choice?

And I still have the storm to figure out as well... My head is going for a workout today! So finally, I gave up on thinking and gave the members free reign on who they'd like to fight.

"Listen up, while Mavislin is engaging with Fabian Brookes in the main mansion, we've got only a few Chimes to take down all the Five Ducklings, which are the targets we've spoken about yesterday. To do so, right after we bust into this 'branch,' we would be splitting up."

"Each of us will handle a single Duckling and rendezvous at the top of this underground facility, at the 'trunk.' Now then, I've decided that I would be going against the Black Knight since her fighting style is very similar to mine, and I could easily overwhelm her."

"I'd like to give you all the liberty to choose who you'd like to battle," I explained, moving the floating screens around so the group could take another look at the targets' profiles.

"I'm going to go against Raijin since I would know how to kill him in the quickest way possible. However, why do we have a few Chimes to defeat our targets? I thought Mavislin should have enough power to fight Fabian Brookes?" questioned Raiyen.

"I'm not underestimating the Valkyrie's power to keep the main bad guy at bay. However, one of the reasons why FB has got a strong grip on these Mages is because of another thing; their bodies have been artificially modified. Look at these scans," I asked, showing Raiyen the screens.

The Time Mage's eyes widened as parts of the Mages' bodies were highlighted in bright red. I overlooked this aspect until I glanced at Raijin's full-body image. The kid's legs were highlighted in red, so I found it odd. I compared it to the rest, and everything clicked.

"These 'missing' parts in red were created by Fabian as a tracking device of sorts, like the Signal Crystals to the Map Crystal. So when Fabian is forced to use his Magecraft or if he feels that he is in danger, the guy can use this device to call the Mages back to him."

"I'd say we've got a solid two Chimes based on what I've searched about this device. But, of course, this thing works both ways; if we engage in battle with the targets, the devices will signal Fabian. But only if their lives are at stake or when Fabian calls them back to his side."

"Whether he chooses to acknowledge it would be up to our luck that night. Another thing about the device is that it has a self-destruct button once its user is deceased, so be cautious when dealing with that final blow. The best way to stop it is to destroy the device before you continue battling."

"Here are the devices' locations, be sure to memorize them. Then, when fighting them, follow Raiyen's method and find the quickest way to finish your target off by destroying their Elemental Cores after you've broken the devices. I'm not too optimistic about getting prisoners this time."