In the sky, where a pure white light had settled, there was a gaping hole.
The shattered limit of the barrier fell like crystal powder. The empty void revealed a skin as white as drawing paper, and the blood-red moon that hung in the middle of the sky was half shattered and tilted at an angle.
A single strike.
In the wake of the man’s footsteps, nothing was left behind. At the center of the hollowed ground lay a vampire who was helplessly sprawled out, and around the pit were the monsters summoned by ‘Greed’, shattered and scattered everywhere.
The owner of ‘Greed’ was not spared either. Clutching the empty space where his right arm had burst out without a recognizable form, he lay there groaning.
What had been done was beyond comprehension. Only the perpetrator who brought forth this calamity could know.
The only scene the others witnessed was just one.
A flash of light.
That was it.
Afterward, only the man, trudging out of the pit, was visible.
His eyes, turned away from the vampire, still held a terrible fatigue. It was a gaze that wouldn’t have seemed strange even if he collapsed at any moment; nevertheless, he was determinedly moving his body.
The explosion was intense.
There was no place inside the barrier that could escape the aftermath. Naturally, the blood-red tentacles that had bound the Great Witch and Elsi were no exception.
From the fallen Great Witch’s mouth came a faint groan and a strange sound.
“F-first….”
The man, who had been moving without a word, suddenly stiffened.
At last, his golden eyes were focused on the Great Witch.
For the first time, the emotion of ‘hesitation’ emerged on his face. He briefly averted his gaze, then returned it to the Great Witch.
How long had he been like that?
Hesitating, he took a step forward. Toward none other than the Great Witch.
His steps, shuffling along awkwardly, were troubling. Everything from the man’s face to his demeanor felt off.
He must have felt like a wayward son searching for his parents after a long time.
Before he knew it, his steps came to a halt in front of the Great Witch. Her eyes even held a hint of moisture.
“I’m sorry… I’m a useless teacher, having left you all alone….”
Who was he apologizing to?
The man stood in silence for a while after hearing those words. Then, cautiously bending his knees, he was about to slowly reach out a hand toward the Great Witch’s cheek when—
“I won’t forgive you…!”
With a loud bang, his fist struck the ground.
The man finally shook off his daze and let out a deep sigh as he slowly got to his feet.
Once more, his golden eyes, filled with fatigue, turned toward the back. There lay a one-armed girl, sprawled out.
In fact, the term ‘one-armed’ was imprecise.
Because from the hollow of the girl’s empty shoulder, blood-red threads were flowing out and taking the shape of an arm. Yet, that did not diminish the pain of having lost an arm.
‘Greed’s’ golden eyes blazed with malice.
“How dare a mere human think they could harm me and come out unscathed? This pain, this torture! I’ve endured it hundreds, thousands of times!”
“Is that so?”
Along with the man’s nonchalant response, the girl’s body staggered upright.
The lost arm had already completed its regeneration. Trembling with rage, the woman’s fingers met.
Pop! With a snap of her fingers, the blood-red moon emitted its final glow.
Monsters, receiving the eerie moonlight, began to rise one by one. Unfortunate sacrifices, whose souls were sure to be mortgaged after an unfair deal, let out a scream.
They were the faceless goons led by ‘Greed’.
Kreeeeek—!
That hoarse cry sounded eerily like a scream.
“Who are you, anyway? No matter how much you can’t fully wield the power of the Seven Deadly Sins, we are the Seven Deadly Sins. We are not beings a mere human can contend with!”
“I am human.”
With an outrageously casual response, the girl bit her lip in indignation.
Her bloodshot eyes glimmered with hostility. The monsters, sensing their master’s will, began to encircle the man.
“……Fine. You don’t want to tell me? That’s alright; I’ll just listen patiently. But more importantly, what happened to my brother?”
“Well…”
“You’d best answer immediately…!”
In that next moment.
Slashing through the sky, the blood-red moon unraveled. In the blink of an eye, the moon shrank down, turning into thousands, tens of thousands of threads that covered the void.
Perhaps this was the full force ‘Greed’ could unleash.
The girl, seemingly unsatisfied with that, inserted a few particularly bright threads of blood-red light into her own body.
Thump, thump.
The threads lodged into the girl’s spine began to thrum like arteries, continuously feeding her body with a stream of scarlet light.
“Otherwise, you will regret it? The ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ are fundamentally different from mere humans… there’s no weak body that dies just by losing its head or getting stabbed in the heart. As long as there’s the grace of Omeros, we live infinitely! Now I understand how hopelessly you’ve stepped into this fight?!”
“A hopeless battle, huh….”
Even with the girl’s sharp threats, there was no change in the man’s expression.
The more this happened, the more agitated the girl appeared.
“Give me back my brother!”
“Can a monster even have a brother?”
“The owner of the body you possess! The one who can compensate for my lost time and is my one and only love!”
The faceless goons all lowered their stance in unison, preparing to leap. The blood-red threads that covered the sky intertwined with a sharp friction sound.
It was truly a situation where even an escape route was invisible.
The man merely glared at the girl with indifferent eyes. He showed not even the slightest inclination to reach for his waist.
Regardless, ‘Greed’ exerted all its strength to shout. The bloodshot eyes revealed the girl’s intent.
“That’s my brother, you bastard!”
From the blood-red sky poured forth a waterfall.
The sight of the blood-red raincloud, shrouded over the sky, pouring down toward the narrow ground felt as if blood itself were a dragon engulfing the earth. The lower part of the barrier, unable to withstand the force, was about to crumble with a loud noise.
What about the ground?
There, hundreds upon hundreds of faceless goons were simultaneously pouncing on the man. While some monsters were swept away by the blood-red waterfall, their fear lay not solely in numbers.
They were immortal; rising again and again even after collapsing.
Their screams, unable to even achieve death without their master’s permission, mixed with explosions that reverberated from all directions.
One second.
It was merely the time needed until a disaster bordering on a natural calamity occurred. That merciless barrage spared no one, likely putting the Great Witch and Elsi’s lives at risk since they were caught off guard.
The wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins was ferocious. Even though it could not awaken true power, it was a force that could bend the laws of the world.
It was undoubtedly beyond the capacity of a mere human.
Yet, under the assumption that this man could be defined as ‘a mere human’, this was a hypothetical scenario.
An anomaly occurred immediately afterward.
“Huh…?”
The girl could only think blankly like that.
An instant flash without a sound.
The Milky Way painted a silver horizon in a world of darkness. The obstacles that obstructed it were all cut in half and fell away.
Nothing mattered.
The blood-red threads pouring from the sky, the faceless goons who repeatedly lunged at him, and even the girl who commanded all this from the shadows.
A shadow dashed through the half-sliced world.
‘Greed’ was aware of this but could not properly respond. Its upper and lower halves separated at the waist.
Yet still, the girl did not die.
The blood-red threads were connecting her separated body once more. The man, too, had only just reached the girl’s line of sight.
There was no sword. The fist had just pressed upon the newly formed girl’s solar plexus.
A momentary sensation of pressure was felt.
Bang!
“Urgh, gah…!”
Her insides twisted.
A massive shockwave tore through her body centered around her solar plexus. It felt as if electric insects were gnawing and returning through her body, a horrifying sensation.
It was a blow that could even demolish a mountain. No matter how resilient one’s body, surviving a direct hit from a boulder strike was impossible.
This was how the girl’s body burst apart.
But this was just the beginning.
Several monsters, whose bodies were relatively unscathed, rushed toward the man. Yet, he paid them no mind and instead clutched the girl’s arm, which had only just begun to recover.
And then came the explosive throw.
Bang!
Along with a loud explosion, a tremendous momentum slammed the girl into the ground. The faceless goons, filling the area, were flung skyward around the epicenter of the blast with incredible force.
The lower part of the barrier caved in, and the girl remained unable to move, spilling blood. Blood mixed with her shattered brain matter oozed from the girl’s empty eyes, nose, and ears.
At this point, the blood-red threads could not immediately regenerate the girl’s body.
No, to be exact, it should be viewed as the result reflecting the girl’s unconscious fear.
After all, if she regenerated, she would only suffer pain again.
A cough erupted from the girl’s mouth, spilling a handful of blood.
“It seems there was some misunderstanding….”
At last, the girl, who had been jolted back to consciousness, began to heal rapidly.
Groaning softly, she planted her trembling arm on the ground. Looking up at the man from her fallen position, there was a new emotion settled in her golden eyes.
Fear.
It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a very long time, so the girl had no way to hide her trembling gaze.
The man lowered his posture slowly as he met that gaze. And just as their eye levels aligned, his clumsy hand twisted into her hair.
“Gahhh, ahhh! It hurts…!”
“Do you think I’m doing this because I can’t kill you?”
His voice was devoid of concern, even cold.
The fear that resided in the girl’s golden eyes deepened. Tears gathered in her eyes as she let out a hollow gasp.
“There are far more valuable tasks than just killing you. Your fate is for the novice to decide.”
“N-Novice? You mean my brother? You…! What are you doing to my brother…?!”
Bang!
The man’s fist struck her solar plexus once more. With a rush of blood, the light in the girl’s eyes vanished.
Were it not for the Seven Deadly Sins, she would have been dead more than four times over by now.
The girl, with all her internal organs burst, shuddered violently. The man flung her body, now half-dead, without hesitation.
Thud.
Looking down upon the girl sprawled out like garbage, the man suppressed a laugh.
“‘Brother,’ huh…ha, ignorant of the future that awaits you.”
With that, he subtly turned his body. He had gained confidence that the girl would not recover for some time.
However, the Seven Deadly Sins that remained here were not limited to just that.
“Don’t move!”
The shout, uttered as a last resort.
The man’s dry eyes briefly glanced toward its source.
