Chapter 333: In the Name of Sloth— (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 333: In the Name of Sloth— (6)
Sloth, calmly gripping Ladan’s trident, murmured.
Everyone froze.
It was a strange sight. Sloth’s condition could not be described as good, even by the most generous standards. His body was a wreck, battered by countless attacks.
Furthermore, his murmur contained no mana. There was no overwhelming pressure behind it. He simply spoke as if stating a plain fact.
And he held only one emotion.
Pity.
That was all.
Doubt flickered in Alon’s eyes. What was that emotion Sloth was showing? Where did it even come from? Why was he making such a face?
But those questions didn't last long.
“It’s a shame,” Sloth continued slowly.
And then.
KABOOM—!!!
Immediately after an explosion loud enough to burst eardrums, Ladan appeared, trembling violently as he spat out black blood.
Sloth stood before him, looking down with cold arrogance.
As Ladan collapsed, coughing up streams of dark red blood, Seolrang was the first to move.
BOOM—!!!
With speed that defied perception, Seolrang swung her leg like a whip toward Sloth.
KRA-BOOM—!!!!
With another thunderous roar, Sloth’s body ground into the earth, sliding to the right.
However.
“!”
There was no change in Sloth. He merely lowered his right hand—the one he had used to block Seolrang’s foot—with an expression of utter boredom.
Seolrang’s eyes widened for a moment before her face contorted into a deep scowl, and she lunged again.
Golden currents of electricity crackled, temporarily levitating everything in the vicinity. Objects floated as if in a vacuum before suddenly exploding outward.
Seolrang’s fist slammed into Sloth once more.
Again, a maddening roar erupted, and the surrounding landscape was overturned. Yet, even though the Sin was pushed back, he lowered his arms nonchalantly as if he had taken no real damage.
Seolrang bit her lip hard and charged again.
Zap—Crackle!
Golden lightning sparked in every direction, targeting Sloth’s entire body.
His head, his right side, his flank, his legs, his back—the lightning flickered in and out of existence.
The enemy’s body was pushed here and there, but only for a moment. Soon, Seolrang raised her leg to drive it down toward his head, but—
“!”
In the next instant, for a fleeting second, she twisted her posture.
She barely—only just—managed to block Sloth’s counterattack.
SCREEEEECH—!!!
The power was on a different level. Seolrang, pushed back so far that a massive line was carved into the black meadow, gritted her teeth and forced strength into her trembling arms.
But anyone present could easily tell who was winning.
““……””
Sloth was still covered in wounds. Yet, that very fact cast a heavy silence over everyone.
Everyone watching had come to understand one thing: in their current state, they could never defeat Sloth.
One by one, they recalled Sloth’s words. His murmur, neither loud nor soft, claiming he would make them understand why it was only natural for them to die by his hand.
That sentence, spoken like a monologue, was now seared into everyone’s minds.
“Ha…”
Someone let out a hollow, absurd laugh. Someone else stared blankly, paralyzed by terror. Others stood still as if they hadn't even processed the situation.
But they all shared one thing in common.
They all had no choice but to accept Sloth’s words.
This is an opponent we can do nothing against.
This is an opponent we cannot defeat.
This is an opponent we cannot even hope to challenge.
The soldiers.
The knights.
The nobles.
The mages.
…They understood. They had no choice.
The will drained from their eyes. Their spirit and courage vanished like a futile breeze. The bravery they had maintained even when the disgusting Flesh Lumps attacked was now replaced by a thick, suffocating fear.
However.
“…….”
Alon remained expressionless and calm.
‘The situation is at its worst.’
He assessed the current state of affairs coldly. Sloth’s personality was different from what Alon knew, and his plan had gone awry the moment Sloth appeared.
To put it bluntly, Alon had failed.
Yet, Alon did not despair. It was fine. He hadn't revealed his final trump card yet.
“…….”
Alon looked around. Sloth was busy engraving the reality of defeat and surrender into the hearts of those gathered here. After confirming the scene, Alon looked up.
The Rift was still forming in the sky ‘as planned,’ and his Art of Defying Heaven had not yet been deactivated.
This wasn't a total defeat yet.
“…….”
Alon had already revealed his plan without reservation. Now, he would combine the necessary elements to forge a new one. The resulting plan was naturally flimsier than the one he had spent days devising, but there was no doubt it would be effective.
Recalling this, Alon quietly watched the sky. He saw the Rift, which had been part of his previous plan.
“…….”
All that remained was time. Time to endure against that nonsensical, irrational being. Time for the Rift to hold until the plan was complete.
But among those present, there was no one who could stall for time against the Sin of Sloth.
Not Seolrang.
Not Ladan.
Not Elivan, the protagonist of Psychedelia.
None of them could stop the Sin before them. Even if everything was prepared to handle a Sin, the actual Sin that had appeared was an irrationality far beyond what Alon had expected.
Even so, he couldn't give up. The moment he gave up, everything would end.
“…….”
Alon toyed with a statue in his pocket. It was the artifact he had obtained from the Labyrinth of Whispers in Rosario after dealing with the half-awakened Sin of Mysophobia: the ‘Beast of Possibility.’
A single-use artifact with the effect of summoning the ‘user’ from their strongest period in time for a set duration.
“…….”
Of course, even using this wouldn't make it easy to stop the Sin before them. But that was fine. All Alon needed was time.
And so.
“Ladan.”
Alon threw the Beast of Possibility to Ladan, who was closest to him. Ladan caught the statue with a momentary look of confusion.
“Inject your mana into it.”
Following Alon’s words, Ladan breathed mana into it without hesitation.
Immediately after, the statue glowed brilliantly and swallowed Ladan whole.
WROOOOOOOOOM──────────!!!!
A violent surge of mana erupted. Everyone’s eyes were drawn to it in an instant.
“…….”
Sloth’s weary gaze also turned toward Ladan, who was emitting a brilliant blue light.
The light radiated an increasingly fierce mana. Yet, Sloth simply stood there, indifferent. Even though he might have felt that the situation was about to change, Sloth took no action.
No, if anything, a strange sense of anticipation seemed to flicker in his bored eyes.
Finally, after the mana exploded outward and the light slowly faded, there stood…
“……What?”
A bewildered Ladan.
…Ladan, wearing his usual blue armor.
A single emotion flashed through Sloth’s eyes.
It was—
“…….”
Clear disappointment.
* * *
Everyone’s eyes were on Ladan. Seolrang, Elivan, the mages, the soldiers, and the knights.
And in their eyes, there was nothing but doubt and disappointment.
It was only natural. Ladan had received something from Alon and released a burst of mana that seemed capable of shaking the entire earth, so a faint hope had begun to stir in everyone’s hearts.
Maybe there’s still a way to overcome this despair?
But what emerged from that powerful explosion of mana was simply… Ladan, looking a bit cleaner than he had moments ago.
Any differences? To the knights, soldiers, and mages, there were none.
To Seolrang’s eyes, she might have thought, ‘Oh, he’s a bit taller, and he’s suddenly gotten a bit stronger.’
…And Alon, who knew exactly what the ‘Beast of Possibility’ was, felt much the same.
‘……What happened?’
An artifact that summons the ‘user’ from their strongest period. Alon had expected the Ladan who appeared now to look like he was ten or twenty years older. Since Ladan was someone who collected relics and used them as weapons, he would naturally grow stronger as time passed.
Yet, the Ladan before him didn't look significantly more experienced than the original.
“……I suppose there’s no need to wait any longer,” Sloth murmured, his boredom replaced by a strange sense of letdown.
Whoosh!
He unleashed his mana.
Gah!
Soldiers outside the Black Territory immediately began to retch and faint. Overwhelming purple mana spread in all directions instantly.
Creak! Crackle!
The Flesh Lumps that had been lying still as if dead began to move one by one, bound by threads of mana.
Just as a silence filled with despair and groans began to settle again—
“Ah—”
Suddenly, Ladan, who had been looking around to grasp the situation, let out a low exclamation as if he had realized something.
“It’s the past, isn't it? Brother is still here, too.”
Ladan turned his gaze and found Alon. He nodded as if he understood everything.
“Then my job is to stop this guy?”
He pointed at Sloth and reached a conclusion. As if it were no big deal. Calmly.
There was a strange, eerie sense of dissonance.
“You think you can stop me?” Sloth replied wearily. He sounded indifferent, as if the idea wasn't even worth considering.
Hearing that, Ladan stared at him with a blank expression for a moment—
[Ah—]
Then, as if he finally understood, he let out a smirk.
[Rise, my Apostles.]
He spoke.
CRUNCH—!!!
The Flesh Lumps that had been wobbling threateningly to their feet suddenly exploded. No, it would be more accurate to say they shattered.
It was closer to a metamorphosis. A metamorphosis where caterpillars tear through their hard cocoons to emerge as butterflies.
And finally, what emerged from within was—
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!]
A white giant.
Several times larger than a human, yet possessing a similar form—a Pure White Existence, strangely gaunt like a victim of famine.
“!”
The moment Alon saw it, he realized one thing.
‘I was thinking about this all wrong.’
No, it was more accurate to say he hadn't considered it at all. He had assumed Ladan would have grown stronger through relics. Because that was the Ladan he knew.
But that was only the current Ladan, the one Alon had saved. The original Ladan was someone destined to be used as an Avatar of Sin—someone who, for whatever reason, was bound to be entangled with the Sins.
In other words, the strongest version of Ladan across countless parallel worlds… was not the Ladan who had reached the pinnacle by mastering relics to their limit.
Nor was he someone who mastered a special power. Nor was he the one possessed by Jealousy.
The strongest Ladan in every existing world-line…
That was—
Pure White Existences began to fill the ground. Simultaneously, Ladan’s appearance began to change. He looked as if he were devouring the manifested Sin—
His blue armor turned a blood-like red.
“Can I stop you?”
His blue hair turned black. His once-blue eyes took on a bizarre red hue.
“Of course I can—”
And for the first time, looking at Sloth, whose eyes were wide with disbelief, Ladan spoke.
“Because I’ve already…”
Ladan twisted his lips into a wide, tearing grin.
“…eaten things like you before.”
It was Ladan, who had become a Sin himself.