Chapter 593: Jealousy is My Power (93)
Chapter 593: Jealousy is My Power (93)
A hole had been pierced in the sky where the pure white light had settled.
The upper portion of the shattered barrier crumbled away like crystalline dust. The hollow puncture revealed an inner layer as white as a blank canvas, and the blood-red moon that had hung in the mid-heaven was half-destroyed, tilting precariously.
A single blow.
Nothing remained where the man’s footsteps had passed. In the center of the gouged earth lay a vampire, sprawled helplessly, and around the crater, the monsters summoned by ‘Greed’ lay scattered in mangled pieces.
Their master, ‘Greed,’ had not escaped unscathed either. She lay collapsed, groaning as she clutched the empty space where her right arm had been—blown apart beyond recognition.
It was impossible to tell exactly what he had done. Only the perpetrator of this carnage would know.
The others had witnessed only one thing.
A flash of light.
That was all.
Afterward, there was only the man, treading slowly out of the crater.
With the vampire at his back, his eyes still held a terrible exhaustion. It was a gaze that suggested it wouldn't be strange if he collapsed right then and there, yet he forced his body to move.
The explosion had been intense.
Nowhere inside the barrier had been spared from the aftermath. Naturally, the blood-red tentacles that had been binding the Great Witch and Elsie were no exception.
A faint groan and a strange sound escaped the fallen Great Witch’s lips.
“F-firstborn…”
The man, who had been walking in silence, flinched and froze.
His golden eyes turned toward the Great Witch, staring blankly.
For the first time, an emotion resembling ‘hesitation’ flickered across his face. He averted his gaze slightly, then looked back at her again.
How long did he stand there?
Hesitantly, he took a step forward. Toward none other than the Great Witch.
His gait was somewhat awkward as he trudged toward her. Everything from his expression to his attitude felt strained.
Perhaps this was how a prodigal son felt when visiting his parents after a long absence.
Eventually, his steps halted before the Great Witch. Her eyes were even misted with a faint dampness.
“I… I am sorry… Because your foolish master left you all alone…”
To whom was this apology directed?
The man stood in silence for a long time after hearing those words. Then, he carefully bent his knees and very slowly reached his hand toward the Great Witch’s cheek—just as a moment broke the spell.
“I won't forgive you…!”
Boom! A spiteful fist slammed into the ground.
The man snapped back to his senses with a start, then let out a deep sigh as he slowly stood up.
His golden eyes, submerged in fatigue once more, turned toward his rear. There, a one-armed girl lay prostrate.
Actually, the term ‘one-armed’ was inaccurate.
Blood-red threads were flowing from the girl’s empty shoulder, forming the shape of an arm. Not that this would dull the pain of losing the limb.
‘Greed’s’ golden eyes burned with murderous intent.
“Did you think a mere human could harm me and get away with it? This level of pain, torture worse than this! I’ve endured it hundreds, thousands of times already!”
“Is that so?”
At the man’s indifferent reply, the girl’s body wobbled as she stood upright.
The regeneration of her lost arm was already complete. Trembling as she suppressed her rage, the woman snapped her fingers.
With a sharp click, the blood-red moon emitted its final radiance.
Bathed in the eerie moonlight, the monsters began to rise one by one. The unfortunate victims whose very souls had been mortgaged in an unfair trade shrieked in agony.
They were the faceless assailants led by ‘Greed.’
Kreeeeeeeeeee—!
Their phlegm-filled howls sounded almost like screams.
“Who the hell are you? Even if we can’t fully manifest the power of the Seven Deadly Sins, we are still the Seven Deadly Sins! We aren't beings a mere human can face!”
“I am a human.”
At the shamelessly blunt answer, the girl bit her lip in further indignation.
Her bloodshot eyes glinted with hostility. Sensing their master’s will, the monsters began to slowly surround the man.
“…Fine. You don’t want to tell me? It doesn’t matter; I can hear it from you slowly later. More importantly, what happened to my brother?”
“Who knows.”
“You’d better answer me right now…!”
In the next instant.
With a rushing sound, the blood-red moon floating in the sky unraveled. Shrinking in volume instantly, the moon became tens, hundreds of thousands of threads that blanketed the heavens.
This was likely the full power ‘Greed’ could muster.
As if that weren't enough, the girl plunged several exceptionally bright blood-red threads into her own body.
Thud. Thud.
The threads embedded in her spine began to throb like veins, incessantly injecting a crimson mist into her body.
“If you don’t, you’ll regret it! The ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ are qualitatively different from humans… We don’t have fragile bodies that die when the head is lost or the heart is pierced. As long as Omeros’s grace exists, we revive infinitely! Do you see now? Do you see what a hopeless battle you’ve picked?!”
“A hopeless battle, you say…”
Despite the girl’s sharp threats, the man’s expression remained unchanged.
His lack of reaction only made the girl more agitated.
“Give me back my brother!”
“Can a monster even have a brother?”
“The owner of the body you’re occupying! My one and only love who will compensate me for my lost time!”
The faceless assailants lowered their stances in unison, preparing to spring. The blood-red threads covering the sky crossed each other with a sharp, metallic rasp.
It was a situation where not even an escape route was visible.
The man merely stared at the girl with indifferent eyes, showing no sign of even reaching for the sword at his waist.
Regardless, ‘Greed’ screamed with all her might. Her bloodshot eyes revealed her sheer desperation.
“That is my brother, you bastard!”
A waterfall poured down from the blood-red sky.
The sight of the blood-red rain clouds covering the heavens plunging toward the narrow earth looked as if blood had become a dragon to swallow the land. The lower part of the barrier, unable to withstand the force, groaned and began to collapse.
And what of the ground?
Hundreds of faceless assailants lunged at the man simultaneously. Though some monsters were swept away by the blood-red waterfall, their terror did not lie in numbers alone.
An immortality that allowed them to rise again and again, no matter how many times they fell.
The screams of restless beings who could not even achieve death without their master’s permission scattered in all directions along with the roar of the impact.
One second.
That was all the time needed for a disaster akin to a natural calamity to occur. The merciless bombardment did not discriminate; the Great Witch and Elsie, who had not yet regained their senses, were also in mortal danger.
The wrath of a Seven Deadly Sin was fierce. Even if she hadn't awakened her true power, this was the full strength of a being capable of twisting the laws of the world.
Naturally, it was not something a single human could handle.
That is, assuming this man could be defined as a ‘single human.’
The anomaly occurred immediately.
‘Huh…?’
The girl could only think blankly.
A Single Flash without a sound.
A silver horizon was drawn across a world of darkness, like a galaxy. Every obstacle in its path was simply cleaved in half and vanished.
It didn't matter what it was.
The blood-red threads pouring from the sky, the faceless assailants charging repeatedly, and even the girl who commanded it all from behind.
A shadow raced through a world split in two.
‘Greed’ knew this, but she couldn't respond properly. Her upper and lower body had been severed at the waist.
Yet, the girl did not die.
Blood-red threads were already knitting her separated body back together. It was just that the man had already reached her.
There was no sword. A fist pressed into the solar plexus of the girl, whose body had just been reattached.
Just as she felt the pressure.
Boom!
“Guh, aack…!”
Her internal organs twisted.
A massive shockwave ravaged her entire body, centered on her solar plexus. A horrific sensation, as if electrified insects were devouring her flesh and then returning.
It was a blow that could crumble a mountain. No matter how tough a body was, no one could remain unscathed after a direct hit from a Mountain-Crushing Strike.
This was the secret behind why the girl’s body had exploded earlier.
But this was only the beginning.
A few monsters with relatively intact bodies lunged at the man. Ignoring them entirely, the man grabbed the girl’s arm, which was just beginning to mend.
Then, a devastating shoulder throw.
Crash!
With a violent roar, immense momentum slammed the girl into the ground. The force was so powerful that the faceless assailants filling the area were launched into the air around the point of impact.
The lower part of the barrier was gouged deep, and the girl lay motionless, trailing blood. Blood mixed with shattered brain matter leaked from the eyes, nose, and ears of the hollow-eyed girl.
At this point, even the blood-red threads could not immediately regenerate her body.
Or rather, to be precise, it was the result of the girl’s subconscious fear.
After all, even if she regenerated, she would only suffer pain again.
Cough. A mouthful of blood erupted from the girl’s mouth.
“It seems there’s been a misunderstanding…”
Only then did the girl’s body snap back to its senses and begin to recover rapidly.
Groaning, she propped herself up with trembling arms. In the golden eyes looking up at the man from the ground, a foreign emotion had taken root.
Fear.
It was a feeling she hadn't felt in so long that she had no way to hide her shaking pupils.
The man met her gaze and slowly lowered his posture. And just as he reached eye level with her, his rough hand twisted and gripped her hair.
“Kyaa, aaah! It—it hurts…!”
“Do you think I’m doing this because I can’t kill you?”
His voice was beyond indifferent; it was chilling.
The fear in the girl’s golden eyes deepened. She let out a sharp, hiccuping gasp, and a faint moisture even gathered at the corners of her eyes.
“It’s just that there are more valuable things to do than killing you. Your disposal is the novice’s responsibility.”
“The… the novice… Don’t tell me, my brother? You, you! What did you do to my brother… Gack?!”
Thud.
The man’s fist slammed into the girl’s solar plexus once more. The light vanished from the eyes of the girl as she spat out another clump of blood.
Had she not been a Seven Deadly Sin, she would have died more than four times already.
The girl’s body, its internal organs completely ruptured, convulsed. The man heartlessly tossed aside her near-corpse of a body.
Flop.
Looking down indifferently at the girl sprawled like trash, the man swallowed a hollow laugh.
“‘Brother’… Hah, she has no idea what her own future holds.”
With that, the man turned away. He was certain the girl wouldn't recover for a while.
However, she wasn't the only Seven Deadly Sin remaining here.
“Don’t move!”
A desperate scream rang out.
The man’s dry eyes turned toward the source of the sound.