James looked at the three enemies who were now standing in the middle of the deck. They stood there motionless with their voices audible when Dora's mother said:

"He is insane, a child who is willing to commit suicide like this isn't worth wasting our time. let's just kill him and end his misery fast."

"I can't agree more, but we need to settle this before we kill him. let him suffer more for his foolishness and let's now discuss our own business. Who is going to take what?" the Immortal said.

"I will take that child's scepter, you two will discuss the other scepter with yourselves," Ricaro said with a decisive tone.

"No, I will take the two scepters," Dora's mother said decisively.

"You can't, if you don't negotiate terms with my disciple here, then we will kill you and each one of us will have his share. It's a fair deal, what do you think my dear disciple?" Ricaro said while looking towards the Immortal.

"Don't listen to him, he will kill you at the nearest chance. Let's kill him here and end this," Dora's mother hurried to say.

"Kill me? you are such a ruthless girl," Ricaro said with an amusing tone as he was enjoying this.

"You don't need to follow his orders, let's kill him and divide everything between us," Dora's mother said.

"Everything?" the Immortal finally spoke.

"Yes, do you think he is a poor one like us, I bet he has more artifacts than us," Dora's mother said.

James, on the other hand, had nothing to do or say except to watch the three of them about to fight each other. The situation was still tense, however he knew either way he and Dora would end by death.

He held his hopes over Rigo, however at this precise moment his hopes faded away.

The three in front of him each took out a weapon, one sword, one spear, and one stick. All weren't simple looking weapons, as he could feel a tremor deep inside his soul when he saw them.

'I can't save you for long, your escape plan can't work either. They have rank three artifacts, which means they could shoot a large cruiser like the one we are inside from far away and destroy it.'

Suddenly the voice of the scepter rang inside his mind. James already felt his escape plan wasn't applicable here. forget about going away and be shot from these fearful looking weapons, the small cruiser had no chance to come near the opening without being shot with any weapon of them.

"Are you crazy Ricaro, this ship won't withstand the full blow of our weapons," Dora's mother said at the same time the long sword in the hands of Ricaro began to shine faintly with blue color.

"What are you afraid of? We can sustain ourselves in space for enough time for our battle to end and be rescued. As for the two fools here they would die. Don't tell me you still have some feelings for your daughter," Ricaro replied instantly with a chuckle.

This man was enjoying all of this, even the current situation where he would face two foes at the same time. He wasn't afraid, he was anticipating this fight and the aftermath with it.

"No, we can't destroy this ship. We are inside a hostile territory now and in the middle of a brutal war of multiple sides. None of them is completely loyal to us, so it's not wise for us to fight with all our might," the Immortal said, expressing his opinion.

At the same time, there was another debate inside James' head.

'You want me to tell my men to stand down and wait?' James said.

'You should be. My rank isn't any higher than those men's artifacts. We need my brother so we can help you more. It's a good thing they showed their weapons, however if we need to overcome this, we need four of their weapons, not three,' the scepter said.

'What's the purpose of those anyway? More weapons mean more threats, right?' James asked with confusion, he couldn't understand the logic of the scepter so far.

'This isn't about threats, it's about opportunity.'

'What opportunity?' James asked.

'I and my brother need two equivalent artifacts to consume if we will be merging together to form a higher rank artifact. These four artifacts are essential for us to be upgraded, or else we will be of no use for you.'

James stayed silent for a few moments as he was thinking about the words of the scepter. For him, he had no other option right now, as he and Dora would definitely die if he didn't act.

And he needed to act soon.

"Listen to me, how far are you from the hole?" James whispered.

"Not far, in less than twenty seconds I could be in front of you," Rigo replied as he was eager to come and save his leader.

"Stand at your place for now, the situation here is quite serious," James whispered.

"Is this because of these old weapons? They seemed harmless to me," Rigo said with some doubt.

"They aren't that simple, they are very dangerous. They could blast the whole ship from far easily and simply like that. You stand in your location and wait for my instructions," James explained slowly with a soft voice so no one could hear him.

No one except Dora heard him, as she looked at him strangely. For her, either James was insane to speak to himself or he had a way to communicate with another one outside here.

She hoped he would be the second one, or else both were doomed.

"Affirmative," Rigo answered but he was still doubting the judgement of his leader. For him, these three very old weapons were like sticks hitting his steel ship, no har would happen from that.

'Good, you have a capable man. Now, let him throw my brother to me when I tell you,' the scepter said.

'What do you mean by that?' James instantly asked.

'I need my brother to merge with, and we need more weapons for the merge to be upgraded to the next level. we will wait until one more weapon appears, and then I will interfere and prevent them from getting the way of my brother.'

James was speechless for a second, as this plan was the most horrible plan in his mind. Too many variables, and he had nothing to depend upon except a strange sound in his mind.

Was he going crazy? That was what he was thinking about right now.

'You need to trust me, so I can help you and get you out of here safely,' the scepter said, 'don't worry, I won't let anything bad happen to me and my brother, and for your luck you aren't the bad thing, they are.'

James didn't have the luxury of options to select from out here, so he had to either submit to this crazy idea or let himself be butchered by whoever won this about to begin the fight.

"I need you to throw the scepter from the cruiser to me, can you do that?"

James finally chose to follow the scepter's crazy idea. For him this was insane, and for Rigo he felt his leader had lost his mind.

"Didn't you just tell me not to come to the hole?" Rigo asked in a way that made James understand what was going on inside his mind.

James didn't feel well regarding this plan, however he had no other choice so he whispered:

"There are things happening here, but I can't explain it right now. You will wait for my mark and when I give the signal to you, you can come at the hole and throw the scepter to me."

At the other side, Rigo sat on his seat motionless for a few moments. His mind was trying to find any anomaly in his leader's mind, but he couldn't find a flaw. James was fine, and his mind as well.

The only variable was that strange scepter which disappeared and James replaced its position. Rigo couldn't find any connection between all these dots, but he couldn't let his leader die there.

He had to help James, so he began to process the ways of accomplishing that.

"We have a problem, to throw the scepter I need to reach the cargo door and open it. without that I couldn't deliver the scepter to you."

James instantly understood Rigo's fears.

"The two traitors at Dora's ship?" he whispered.

"Right, I can't find them and I have no time to look for them. If I leave the commanding deck they will take over everything here."

James knew what would happen in this case, he would lose his only way out ticket from here.

The answer was simple, as he said it with his soft calm tone:

"Rigo, kill them all and be ready to open that door and deliver the scepter to me."

Dora's eyes widened as she understood what would happen to her friends and crew, however her emotions right now were a mess and her mind wasn't acting normally.

So, she couldn't even open her lips to oppose James' decision. As for Rigo he simply answered:

"Affirmative my leader."