The first thing Peter noticed when in the room was the interface box.

  [Option: Use double tap to destroy an additional Bonefiend core Y/N (Can be used by any team member that participated in the fight against Bonefiend) 60]

  ‘Crap’ despite the core burn through the Bonefiend core still had at least one more. Apparently, someone else beat him to the punch because it just disappeared. Not too big of a deal. Likely Elyra. ‘Oh crap,’ Peter thought, looking around.

  They knew Predator had been eliminated for good, not even having a spare core, but it was possible some other had been double tapped into elimination. Had Gretchen still been alive when the battle ended. His worries were soon alleviated.

  “Come back you basterd,” Elyra cried.

  Peter saw just a flash of a pink figure in clothes disappearing into a stairwell. A stairwell leading to the insect faction side. Elyra was raging after him. She was going to get frozen by the interface. However, Gabriel intercepted her. Gretchen was watching from off to the side. Normally, Peter stayed down here and opened his goodies, but this time he would accompany his team members back to their table.

  It took a few minutes to cool Elyra down. She was not completely off the lobster boil idea, she was just more content to start planning and imaging how she was going to do it. Then finally they were all back at the table. It was a bit odd, not seeing the short wiry guy there with them. Now they were a group of four. Predator being eliminated and Eli’s betrayal were not the only bad outcomes. Bonefiend had survived.

  “Probably because Eli double tapped us, we did not have enough cores to burn through his final few,” Gabriel stated.

  Elyra looked like she was grinding her teeth. She looked about to blow up again, luckily Gretchen distracted her. “Hey, we eliminated the other 6. Putrefy is gone, as are a few others… There are only 22 rookies left,"she exclaimed.

  Peter took stock himself, with Boris' aid. There were the four of them. Then there were 9 cores in the insect faction. Nine now that that bottom feeder was over there with them. Peter was distracted for a moment as he looked over. Eli uncomfortably stood talking to insect cores. Gabriel caught Peter looking. They were all looking.

  “The guy obviously made a deal with them before our match,” Gabriel said, scratching his wing.

  “Yeah, it's a wonder that none of us noticed,” Gretchen commented. The four let it drop as they watched their new arch enemy make good with his new group.

  Peter went back to tallying the rookie cores. With the 9 insect cores, that made 13. There had only been the 2 elemental cores, once lightning got eliminated a few years back. Then the five from the reptile faction. Then only Rock golem, who preferred to be alone. Finally, there was Bonefiend, wherever he was skulking about. Probably too ashamed to show his face upstairs. That did indeed put them at 22.

  Peter was just about to start digging into his rewards when a core approached them. All four of their eyes widened. It was black hole, 67. It was one of Void’s four followers. Black hole was an unassuming human with a large black overcoat. Actually, kinda similar to Abyss’ dress style. Was it just a thing they all idd? More concerning was why this guy was here.

  They had not done anything to offend Void. At least not anything lately. Peter’s mind flashed to his deal with Abyss, his use of the armageddon dragon, who clearly had a void based attack. Still other than armageddon B tier one offs, Peter had not showcased anything this year. Why now?

  It was like a nail in his coffin when Black hole finally spoke. “Mr. Design the Void millennial would like to see you now. Please come with me.” When Peter did not immediately jump to his feet, Black hole added. “Last thing you want to do is make him wait. Please don’t upset him. I’m the one that will be forced to attack you if you displease him, so come on, I would rather not burn the resources needlessly.”

  Peter gingerly stood to follow. “Anything I can do to make a good impression, so you know he doesn’t want to destroy me?”

  “Not really, just give him what he wants. They always get what they want,” Black hole said after turning to look at him with pitch black orbs instead of eyes. They looked like Agatha’s Peter realized. Peter cringed at the thought of the spider lady, hopefully she would in turn betray Eli or kick him to the wayside.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Being told to give a millennial whatever they wanted was not exactly a comforting thought. What could he have that a millennial would even want? The guy had been around for 8,000 plus years. The second oldest core other than Dragon. Void was only one year behind the giant reptile.

  His nerves were set even more alight when he saw that it would not be one but two millennials that he would be meeting with, and the other most definitely have something against him. The demon millennial reclined back. She grinned at him despite Peter still being several hundred feet away. It was then that he realized he had frozen in place from shock. He urged himself on.

  So the demonlord or Abyssal fiend core was even more of a hottie than Elyra. No half bovine half either, she was a pure human form with copper colored skin and black hair. The form she showed off with a slip dress like nightshade and now Elyra. The two ram horns protruding from both sides of her head did not break the entrancement.

  Peter forced his eyes to look over the rest of the group. The woman was 6,000 years old, basically a granny 100 times over. Not someone he should sell his soul to, despite maybe wanting to. Then Delilah came to mind and he felt like an ass. It was easy to overlook the sexy granny demoness now.

  Two of the other forms were Void’s other subordinates: Rift, 507, and Eclipse 967. The latter of which would likely be culled soon. The next form Peter immediately recognized since it was a member of his year group. It was Stone golem, Void’s current protege. Void was actually the last person Peter saw.

  Void looked like a middle aged scientist. With white hair swept back complete with sun glasses. For some reason, Peter’s eyes kept skipping over the guy if he did not force himself to notice him. A quirk of his core type, Peter supposed.

  The presence of the golem like core from his year group already put Peter to ease… slightly. There is only one thing that they all had in common. Peter, Bonefiend, and Stone golem were all in the same year group. Both of the other two were the two millennials' proteges. He had just beaten one of them. Sure it was a group battle, but Peter had done most of the work on Bonefiend himself, including killing somewhere near 200 A tiers and all 4 of the guys S tiers. Peter could only worry why Bonefiend was not a part of this little get together.

  “Have a seat,” Void gestured at the open chair. Peter quickly did so. He was facing both of the millennials, with the stone golem core on his left and Void’s subordinates on his right.

  It was the demoness who spoke up first. “You really humiliated me today. Outnumbered and you still defeated my protege and all his friends.” Her tone was playful, but her gaze was predatory. Peter just waited.

  She continued soon enough. “Now normally, I would be like whatever. They all get taken out someday, but Voidy won’t let it go.”

  “You’re the one who cannot let it go,” Void corrected. It was clear from his demeanor or his tone that he would rather be doing anything else.

  The abyssal fiend core flashed the other millennial a smile before turning back to Peter. “Now you took out my Protege… Yes, I know he survived.” She said waving her hand to ward off any retorts. As if any of them would dare correct her, other than Void that is.

  “But unfortunately, this year there are two millennial proteges. Void’s disciple has been a total stick in the mud, not fighting at all. You on the other hand are swamped with enemies. I’m afraid if I don’t intervene, Voidy here will hold the position, that his disciple was better than mine, over my head for the next century.”

  “So you’re here to play match maker?” Peter asked, glancing between the sultry demoness and the other millennial who could seemingly care less about any of this.

  “Precisely, you and stone Golem here will face off next year so that we can prove that his protege was not superior to mine. It won’t be a problem right, fighting year to year is kind of your thing, and we should ensure the same conditions after all.”

  “Uhhh… well based on how things fell out. We were setting up to be facing the insect rookies next year. If I don’t participate, my group will likely get wiped out.”

  “Not an issue, that funnel web spider will hold them off, so you can take out Voidy’s protege. Then you can get killed by them the next year, if that's what you're set on doing.” The demon millennial clapped her hands together clearly excited about the idea. Weren’t the Millennials supposed to be unconcerned with rookies? It was clear that Void was.

  Ever one to try and take advantage of the situation, Peter decided to go for it. “ Sounds like a plan then. I don’t suppose, ole Stone golem and I could get some trades. Won’t it be more interesting to see how we use your core types to defeat the other.”

  Void looked like he could not believe Peter’s gumption, but the demoness perked up. “Oooo, that would be fun. Stone Golem probably has most of the Void faction types, so he can pick types from whomever he wants in my faction instead. But you guys have to feature our units prominently.” She winked at Peter.

  Everyone looked toward Void. “Standard trade from all present, except the rookies. The winner will get the others card type then. Design once you’re done come see me.”

  Even the demon millennial raised her eyebrows at that last comment. Peter gulped. That did not sound good, despite Void’s neutral demeanor. Still he internally was cheering as he traded two cards for Rift, Eclipse, Black hole, and finally Abyssal fiend. Abyssal fiend and black hole were elite types just like void, diamond, abyss, or dragon. His stock of elite type cards was really growing.

  “Oh Design,” the demoness called after him as he turned away. He promptly refaced her. “When you get back to your group, send that demoness my way.”

  Peter nodded. This was getting crazy. He was about to have a one on one with Void, the demon millennial wanted to do the same with Elyra. Now it's time to pay the piper. Of all the millineneals, Void might have the most against him, depending on what he knew.