“Give up, you’re not strong enough.” Sooyoung warned her opponent who was standing in front of her. 

“Oh, Sooyoung I’m not here to fight you.” The opponent spoke in a mocking tone as he gave her a smug smirk.

“I’m only here to stop you.” It did not take a genius to know something was up with the ceremony and Sooyoung was no idiot. 

“Move.” Her metallic claws started growing as she ordered her opponent to get out of her sight when she realised it was all a trap to lure her away from the ceremony.

“You may try.” The possessed body challenged her as black smoke started seething out of the host's body.

“Oh it’s on, !” Sooyoung shouted before she made a dash for her opponent as her body shifted into her beast form simultaneously.

*****

“Seulgi!” Joohyun had shouted out for her when the Lord of Greed's fist came for her face. She did not know why she called out to Seulgi, who had disappeared from her live without a single trace but her first instinct when she faced danger was to call out to her.

Seconds had passed but Joohyun was not pulverised by the Demon Lord like she had expected. Sensing that there was something abnormal, she opened her tightly shut eyes to see the back of a woman standing in front of her to block the Demon Lord’s attempt at hurting her.

The woman who had grabbed onto Seunghyun’s fist turned back to give Joohyun a calm smile to reassure her. 

“It’s alright now, Joo Joo. Just close your eyes and things will be over in minutes.” Seulgi had said it with so much calmness that it also calmed Joohyun’s fear.

Strangely, she was reminded of the night two years ago where it all started. The Seulgi who stood in front of her to protect her from harm had a similar silhouette to the woman who protected her that night. The woman who had stood in front back then had also said the exact same words as Seulgi. Realisation dawned upon her as she noticed the black flames on Seulgi’s forehead. 

‘So, it was you all along.’ Somehow, it felt right to Joohyun. It felt right that the person who saved her that night in the nick of time was Seulgi. 

“Took you long enough.” She smiled back to Seulgi who had turned back to face the other Demon Lord.

“Indeed, you’ve took long enough O' Lord of Wrath" Seunghyun mocked her with a smirk plastered on his face. He pulled back his fist from Seulgi’s grab and jumped backwards to allow himself space. 

“You truly disgust me. To think that such a prideful demon like you would go full force on a human.” Although her words were harsh, Seulgi had spoke in a calm tone of voice and smiled sarcastically to the Lord of Greed. It was clear that she was suppressing her anger. 

“I only did it so you would show yourself, Seulgi.” The Lord of Greed answered as magic circles lit up on the ground. Black smoke covered the area between them before it dispersed only to show several different puppets of the Lord of Greed. 

“Isn’t that Sir Yunho!” Junmyeon who had picked himself up from the ground shouted in shock as he spotted Yunho amongst the Demon Lord of Greed’s puppets. 

Yunho was not just an excellent Knight for the Church of The Seven Virtues, he was also one of the pioneers of the Knights. Although he should have been dead for two centuries now considering his death during the second Holy War, his face was still everywhere in the church. There would be paintings of him and the other first six Knights in almost every textbook and walls of the church.

Jung Yunho was a great leader of the Knights and was the first ever Knight of Humility. He was also the one who lead the other six Knights in the battle against the Lord of Pride during the first Holy War. Unfortunately, only Taeyeon and him survived after the war. 

Tragedy struck the church once again when they lost Yunho to the second Holy War as his head was mercilessly severed by a rage filled and uncontrollable Demon Lord. Taeyeon who was originally the Knight of Patience had to take up the role of the Knight of Humility to lead the church as she was the only original Knight left.

During the first Holy War, the church had suffered great loss as five Knights were sacrificed in order to weaken and finally take down the Lord of Pride. In the first Holy War, a total of five Demon Lords were slayed while both the Lord of Greed and Lord of Pride survived until this day. 

During the period from after the first Holy War to the second Holy War, the church had been pumping out new demon slayers as much as they could and tried to produce as many Knight level demon slayers as possible in hopes to be ready if a new war were to arise but they were proven to have not been prepared enough when the second Holy War was waged. 

Even with a completely new set of Knights where two were able to wield the vermillion flames of Purgatorio seeing as one of them was from the church's Prodigy Project, the seven Knights who thought they could take things easier with the Lord of Pride being absent from the war were completely overpowered by the Lord of Wrath.

“Look again.” Seungwan who stood beside Junmyeon said as she observed the new puppets summoned by the Lord of Greed. 

“No way.” Junmyeon was speechless as he too, observed the rest of the puppets. All the other puppets of the Lord of Greed were faces they were all familiar with. 

There stood a total of six puppets and each of them were the pioneers of the demon slayer world. They were the first and original Knights of the Seven Virtues.

Yunho, Siwon, Boa, Taeyeon, Jeongsu, Changmin and Jinki were the first Knights of the Seven Virtues and Seunghyun had six of them as his puppets. 

“Took me quite the effort to preserve their bodies. What do you think, Seulgi? Do they impress?” The Lord of Greed showed off his collection proudly as Seulgi looked around her surrounding. 

Two Knights on the battleground yet they still could not do any damage on the Demon Lord. She supposed she should not blame them for the incompetency since both Junmyeon and Seungwan were far too young. They have not even passed their first century as Knights, what was she to expect from them? 

“Sigh, they’re all watered down anyways.” Seulgi shook her head as she replied mockingly to the Lord of Greed to provoke him. 

It was true, the puppets of the Lord of Greed would never be at their full strength if they were dead. The only way for them to be at their full strength would be to make them puppets while they are alive with their souls trapped in their body forever. 

Anyone with a brain would choose to do it this way but the souls of the Knights were too strong. No Demon Lord would waste their chances on devouring the souls of these Knights. Not even the infamous puppeteer, Seunghyun. 

“Even if they aren’t as strong as their original selves, they would still be strong enough to take down a Demon Lord.” Seunghyun responded with a calm voice seemingly not offended by Seulgi’s words.

“Why don’t you give my latest collection a try then? Great Purifier.” He smiled at Seulgi, challenging her to fight against his collection of Knight puppets. 

“Sigh, Yerim! Run out and call for back up!” Heaving a sigh, Seulgi commanded Yerim to call for reinforcements. She then turned to look at the two actual Knights, “Don’t just stand there, take care of the others!” And last but not least, Joohyun.

“Hyun, I need you to follow Yerim alright?” She looked back to Joohyun, asking her to follow Yerim. 

“No, I’m not following her. I want to stay and fight with you.” Joohyun refused Seulgi’s words as she held out her hand and immediately, a sword from one of the fallen demon slayers flew to her hold. 

“Fine, you can stay but don’t fight with me. Go help the others.” Seulgi relented seeing as Joohyun was very much determined to stay and fight beside her but she was worried, worried that she wouldn’t be able to protect Joohyun if she was somehow distracted by her opponents. 

Suddenly, two arrows were shot coming their way before Joohyun could even argue with Seulgi about why she should fight with her instead. Seulgi who had quick reflexes turned and hugged Joohyun to cover her from the arrows. The two arrows that were aimed at them touched the ground and exploded immediately. 

“You didn’t think I would just stand here and watch you act lovey dovey now would you?” The Lord of Greed questioned Seulgi as he ordered his Knights to attack them. 

Seeing as the fight has started, Junmyeon and Seungwan quickly jumped into action to attack the puppets but were outnumbered as it was a two versus six fight.

Seungwan immediately summoned her white flames as she fought head to head with Jinki who was also a swordsman. When she successfully deflected Jinki's blade and was about to counter attack, two waves of freezing ice sword beams came her way. 

Sh