Wrath and Greed suddenly broke into a fight. Like two people playing musical chairs, or predators fighting over the same prey, they skipped any and all discussion and immediately tried to tear each other apart.
Just because they were both part of the seven sins didn't mean they were allies. At the end of the day, they cared only about themselves. It was to be expected, given sins weren't exactly synonymous with unity and collectivist values.
Darian's inner world was a complete mess.
Crash!
Greed, which had already emerged the moment Darian logged into the virtual space, pushed Wrath back with a peculiar power.
Clink! Rattle!!
Accompanied by the sound of falling coins, Wrath’s form began to be ruthlessly crushed. Every time it made a move, the sound of coins dropping only grew louder.
Naturally, Wrath unleashed overwhelming power in retaliation and pressured Greed. True to its name, most of its strength came from its fury. The sheer intensity of its rage felt like the roar of a terrifying apex predator.
Wrath let out a mysterious flame that rapidly burned Greed. Wrath tried to rip Greed apart, while Greed barely managed to defend against the onslaught.
At first, they looked evenly matched, but as time passed, Greed seemed to be getting pushed back.
Yet, that turned out to be a false observation.
“Heh. Hehe.”
Greed let out a strange chuckle as it fought in silence. Then, it suddenly opened its mouth wide and bit into something.
Surprisingly enough, the mysterious flame Wrath had created was effectively scattered by the blow. After that, the same kind of flame then began to blaze around Greed's hands.
It ate its opponent's power and made it its own. It looked similar to the authority of Predatory Assimilation, but it felt too different for it to be the actual Predatory Assimilation.
True to its name, Greed sought to take everything for itself. Its bizarre power allowed it to steal the strength of others. Each of their powers was based on the original influence Darian’s potentials held.
Even after Greed stole its power, Vrath didn't stop charging at it. It instantly lunged in and overpowered Greed, pinning it down.
As Greed flicked its hand, the sound of coins clinking rang out once more. Wrath staggered heavily once again, but Wrath was similarly abnormal and powerful.
Whether its arm was burning or twisting up with a weird noise, it didn't care. It climbed on top of Greed and maniacally hammered down on it.
With every hit, the surrounding terrain crumpled and scattered as if being pulverized into dust.
Greed struggled desperately to hold on, but it couldn't steal Wrath's power again. Its ability apparently had some kind of cooldown before it could be used again.
After getting slammed over and over, Greed strongly clapped its hands together, and the sound of many coins falling echoed once again.
As a result, Greed blocked Wrath's punch head-on for the first time.
Boom!!!
Wrath flinched in surprise at Greed's sudden boost in power, and Greed wasn’t the type to let such an opening slide. It slammed a powerful hit back at Wrath before putting some distance between them.
Wrath looked down at its hand. Greed hadn't simply stolen its power like it did with the flame. Instead, it looked like it obtained what it craved—something that didn't belong to it.
“Hah. You've gotta be kidding me. You're that greedy for someone else's power?”
“Ugh. Heh. It’s your fault for having such power. It was making me mad.”
Unlike Wrath, who had heavy anger bubbling underneath, the rage Greed showed didn't seem that deep. Instead, the light in Greed's eyes showed a strong resolve to get even more of what it didn't have.
“Whatever. I'm gonna tear you to pieces, no matter what.”
“Do your worst, asshole.”
The crazy, all-in potentials moved to shred each other to pieces.
However, that wasn’t all there was to Willow’s trap.
“Why... why the hell do you guys have that power?”
If Greed craved the devouring of others’ powers non-stop, the one who suddenly showed up couldn't stand seeing anyone else have power at all.
BOOM!!!
Another side of Darian appeared and triggered a massive resonance explosion right in the middle of the two's fight.
Wrath and Greed, both struck hard by the powerful blast, turned toward the one responsible at the same time.
In the completely half-destroyed crater, three Darians, shrouded in black flames, glared at each other like they were starting a three-way brawl.
Wrath couldn't hold back its fury and screamed, “Fuck!! Who the hell is this guy now?!”
“Someone else getting an opportunity instead of me? I can't let that happen. Others going back to the main body while I can’t? I can't stand that, either! I'm gonna drag all of you out!”
While Greed tried to steal and climb to the top, Envy was the kind of existence that dragged everyone else down with it into the abyss.
Envy, one of the seven sins that had been cast out of Darian by Willow, joined the fight.
* * *
There was a reason the original sins were being eliminated faster than expected. While dealing with powerhouses like Wrath required sacrifices, the sins themselves almost never cooperated with one another. In fact, they were more like enemies.
That was why the remaining potentials were able to successfully team up to kick them out. The sins, who didn’t even share intel on threats they faced, were stealthily ambushed one by one and given the boot.
Of course, the ones who had been expelled quickly realized what had happened and tried to return. However, Solomonia had already lured them into a prepared bespoke dimension and trapped them there. Once inside, they ended up fighting one another and constantly getting in each other's way.
The three-way fight gradually got so tangled up that no one could tell how it’d end. In the meantime, a few more presences appeared through the passage connected to Darian.
Gluttony and Lust.
With everyone but Sloth and Doomsday from the evil potentials present, the fight became a total mess.
Their power massively affected the stability of the entire dimension, but the bubble world they were in had been created to trap them from the start.
Gluttony and Lust. Greed. Envy. Wrath. The war between the five scorched the earth and polluted the sky.
“Damn it! Get lost!” Wrath yelled, knocking away Greed and Envy as they rushed it.
“Go to the other bastards here! Why are you coming at me?!”
“I can't forgive anyone who's stronger than me.”
“Hand over everything you've got. It's all mine!”
The original sins were terrifyingly direct in their motivations and actions. Things like psychological warfare meant nothing to them. They were simply running on instinct.
“Aaaah! You god-damned bitches!! I'm gonna tear every single one of you apart!”
Wrath, who had come out first and devoured Pride, was no different. It could influence Earth itself, yet at that moment, it didn't have the luxury to care. It had to deal with the lunatics charging at it.
The fierce clash between Gluttony, Wrath, Greed, and Envy instantly changed the terrain dozens of times.
Through all that, only one potential didn't actively jump into the fight.
Lust.
“Ugh. No rough stuff. I prefer things that are sticky and steamy...”
Unlike the other sins there, it calmly analyzed the situation. It figured it could get back to the main body, but doing so would mean it’d likely draw the attention of the remaining four potentials.
There was one chair, but five of them were trying to take it. It was a hellish situation, to say the least.
“If I stay here, I'm gonna get caught up in the fight.”
Lust’s only interest was deep, intimate affairs. All that sweaty stuff wasn't its thing.
Of course, the other potentials weren't gonna just let it sit still for long.
Boom!!!
A massive explosion occurred as a potential came flying toward Lust.
“Ugh. You barbaric bastards!”
“What the fuck are you going on about, you piece of shit?!!”
Wrath, who was bounced off by greed and envy, raged and threw a punch at Lust.
Compared to the other sins, Lust didn't give off a particularly strong vibe.
However.
Thud!!
Lust caught its immensely powerful punch with its bare hand.
“Oh, this bastard's pretty tough,” wrath grimly spat, unable to hide its fury, and threw another punch.
Yet Lust blocked its attack yet again, only to say, “Hey, did you know that when a victim fights back against an attacker, they demonstrate greater power than normal? It’s like a woman lifting a car off her baby.”
“What kinda bullshit is that, you fucking psycho?”
Wham!!
Wrath kicked Lust and sent it flying. Nonetheless, after a short while, it slowly got back to its feet and continued, “Even so, the crime still happens. Why do you think that is?”
“Ha. Seriously, these puny bastards are pissing me off!! God damn!!”
“It's because the attacker who commits the act shows more than seven times the power.” Lust gave a chilling smile. “Right now, I only see our sister Willow. I won't stop until I make her mine.”
It took a step forward while sporting a horrifying smile.
Boom!!!
Wrath was abruptly sent flying. It had no time to even react and resist against Lust’s punch.
“That means I'm always putting out seven times my usual strength, you idiot.” Lust, who had knocked Wrath away, lost interest again and looked for a way out.
It figured it’d be tough to get back to the main body from where they were. Yet, it also knew that didn’t matter. Now that it was out, it could meet Willow on its own.
Unlike the others, who instinctively wanted to return to the main body no matter how crazy they were, Lust was insane in a completely different way.
“Heheheh. Sister, your little brother's coming! I'll be right there, so just wait for me, my love,” it said in a chilling tone.
Just as it was about to interfere with the space and force its way out, it instinctively recoiled. A dreadful sensation washed over it, as if space itself had been severed.
“The space is cut?” It backed off with a bewildered look. Not many beings in the world could pull off something like that. “Mother... That would be Mother, wouldn't it?”
It licked its lips, thinking of Illyna, the one who mastered the Continuum-Attacking Blade to its limit.
In the background, the ongoing chaotic fight intensified even more. Eventually, Gluttony was the first to drop out.
Gluttony, the weakest in the fierce fight, had kept saving and hoarding its power even as it was being annihilated. Greed ultimately took away its power before Wrath finished it off, making it simply disappear.
The remaining original sins were Lust, Wrath, Greed, and Envy.
It seemed Willow’s plan to eliminate all the troublesome sins was succeeding.
However, an unexpected voice chimed in, “You idiots. You're being played right now.”
Unlike the other expelled sins, the potential had voluntarily left Darian’s consciousness, casually walked over, sprawled out on the floor, and spoke.
“If you guys are gonna brawl here... who do you think is gonna benefit the most?” the speaker, Sloth, said with zero enthusiasm.
“The hell is up with this guy?”
Sloth didn't get much hostility from the others, for various reasons.
It seemed pathetic, didn’t seem very appealing, or was just too lazy to even be envied.
Whatever the reason, the fact was, they all focused their attention on it once it chose to interject.
“Ugh. What a hassle... Listen up! I just wanna chill, so I'm only gonna say this once. You guys fighting each other here is just a trick set up by the other potentials who kicked you out. Any idiot could figure that out. Why are you guys this stupid?” Sloth sneered and gave a wide yawn.
“So what? Mess with me one more time and I'll kill you first,” one of the others threatened.
“Team up? Don't you guys wanna get back to the main body? Doesn't matter to me, though.”
The sins looked at each other.
Wrath had the greatest total power, but that didn’t mean it was overwhelmingly powerful.
If anything, Pride, who was sacrificed first, actually seemed weak. That was because of its nature of arrogance. It was arrogant despite its lack of power. That was simply a fact of its existence.
“Don't you want our sister Willow, Lust? How about you, Wrath, do you really wanna die fighting here? It's great you're raging out, but what then? Where are you gonna unleash all that anger? Same for you, Greed. You can steal the powers here, but what's next after that?"
Its logic shut up the three fighting sins. Meanwhile, Envy asked with annoyance, “What about me, you bastard?”
“You? Haah. Forget it. You do you.”
Its tone was enough to totally crush Envy’s pride.
“This son of a bitch!!”
Just as Envy was about to charge at Sloth, it slowly got up and advised, “Think about it. You're all just being played right now, you idiots. So, I'm making a proposal. Honestly, it's a pain, but getting a little annoyed in the pursuit of a goal is more like a tasty spice.”
It then plopped to the ground. “You've gotta pay them back for what they did. Lucky for you, I'll even help you guys get back.”
“You want us to trust you?” one of them asked with a scoff.
“Don't worry. I get something out of sending you all back, too. I don't care about anything else, I just wanna be lazy and chill.”
It seemed all the sins were about to jump on and accept its proposal.
“So, what's it gonna be?”
Sloth internally laughed at the idiots in front of it. Once it sent those guys back, it planned to eat the residual power they left behind and create a lazy paradise where no one could bother it.
From the start, Sloth had no interest in the outside world or the main body. It was an example of an extreme case of being twisted in a different way.
Watching the sins ponder, it patiently waited for their acceptance. It knew they'd never give up, after all.
The remaining sins all started approaching it.
“Alright. Looks like you've made your decision, so the plan is...”
Unfortunately, Sloth had overlooked a couple of things.
First, they had no common ground and barely knew each other; second, these were the guys who had dragged Lust into the fight, even when it didn't want to be involved.
In other words, they were even more messed up than Sloth thought. So messed up, in fact, that Sloth purposely leaving Darian’s consciousness meant nothing to them.
“Screw you, you fucking bastard! Who the hell are you to order me around and piss me off?”
“You piece of shit, ou piss me off!”
The sins in front of it were far crazier than it expected.
Boom!!
A massive shockwave wrapped around its body.
“Damn... I hate anything that interrupts my rest the most.”
An immense power, unlike anything the sins had shown so far, poured out of its body. At the same time, the remaining sins began to weaken under its influence.
If they wanted to fight, it just had to kill them all and get it over with. Then it'd be able to rest again.
“I won't ever tolerate diligence or sincerity in front of me.”
Sloth muttered a chilling remark and stood up. The sins, having just seemed like they might cooperate for a second, instead went into a massive brawl once again.
“Die, you bitches!!!” Wrath screamed at the top of its lungs.
The terrain of the dimension resumed being twisted and reshaped dozens of times per second.
* * *
The regular potentials successfully expelled all the original sins. The process should’ve normally wiped out a large portion of Darian's potentials, but Willow’s intervention changed things.
With a resolute expression, she checked the presence sleeping in Darian’s deep consciousness.
That one’s potential was something that even Davey couldn't sense. It wasn't going to be easy to kick it out.
Davey would take care of the cleanup once it was expelled, but Willow had to handle everything before that.
A spine-chilling aura flowed out from the depths of Darian's consciousness.
There was another potential at the opposite side, but it was way too faint. According to the other potentials, the one opposite of Doomsday was familial love.
It was a potential that restrained and constantly evolved itself to protect family. In a way, it was the one most like Davey. It was also the potential that originally had the highest chance of winning, aside from Doomsday.
No matter what, she absolutely had to wake up that potential so it could take out Doomsday for them.
However, since it wasn't easy to take out Doomsday with the power of a single potential, Willow started controlling end using her authority of harmony.
At the same time, Doomsday, which had been quietly asleep, started to pulse.
“If I just take you out, I can protect Darian,” Willow quietly muttered.
It was impossible for anyone else to accomplish that goal. Only she, the Goddess of Harmony, could interfere.
She figured she would most certainly earn her father’s trust this time.
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