It was the evening of the 3rd day of the rite. Damien was currently in his dorm room, planning to sleep early to get some rest due to the physically demanding morning. He would not be able to get any. There was the sound of knocking on the door of his room.

He went to open it. The moment the door opened, he saw what he dreaded to see the most.

Standing outside the door to his room was...

A human-sized wooden puppet.

A familiar mechanical voice began to say “Old friend! It is so good to see you aga-”

“DO SOMETHING, SHAITAN!” Damien shouted, cutting him off.

‘Silence, Damien. What is it you desire, Marionette?’

“Ahhh, you are as intelligent as I remember you being.”

The reason Shaitan had not killed him on the spot was because he did not sense the presence of a demon from the puppet, which meant that an ordinary wooden puppet had come to them instead of the marionette himself, and it had come unarmed.

‘Enough flattery, speak, before I change my mind and decide to kill you.’

“I would like to propose a momentary truce, and an alliance.” the doll plainly stated.

‘For what reason?’ Shaitan asked.

“WHAT! You can’t seriously be considering this, Shaitan! He nearly killed us just earlier today!” Damien was dumbfounded by the sudden development.

‘Yes. He cannot be trusted. Him not coming here with his real body is enough evidence of this. He most likely plans to betray us, but we should judge the merits of his proposal before deciding.’ Shaitan spoke telepathically to only Damien.

At that, Damien remained silent, closing his fists tightly.

“Are you aware of the dragon participating in this ceremony?” the puppet questioned.

‘I am.’ Shaitan lied. He did not know which dragon was participating in the ceremony, but he did not want to reveal that piece of information to the marionette.

The marionette’s doll went on, “Then that will make things easier. Let us combine our forces against the dragon Rhysthart. You, with your power in the night, and I, with my legion of puppets.”

The statement had shocked Shaitan. Rhysthart was a powerful black dragon, perhaps as well-known as Shaitan had been in Hell, and he was unsure whether or not the dragon could be defeated alone with his current power.

“I have been tracking him for quite some time today with one of my puppets. Rhysthart had slain 5 other demons just earlier today, surely you must have felt their presences disappear, as well? If we, among the strongest of demons, do not ally ourselves to vanquish him, I fear no one will be able to. If the dragon becomes the Demon King, that would be rather unsightly, nay, unbeautiful.”

The marionette had left out that another reason he wanted to slay the dragon was because he had also secretly wanted the dragon’s beautiful red eyes.

Disregarding that, he was right. 8 other demons have died throughout the day, and the dragon Rhysthart had been responsible for the deaths of 5 of them.

Shaitan was weighing the benefits of the offered partnership inside his mind.

‘Very well. We shall be comrades until the defeat of Rhysthart.’ Shaitan finally decided.

Damien only shrugged.

“I knew I could count on you, old friend!” the marionette’s puppet said mock-happily.

Both demons had their own ulterior motives amidst this alliance.

Shaitan had thought it was an opportunity to dwindle the marionette’s fighting potential by having Rhysthart eradicate the majority of his puppets.

While the marionette, on the other hand...