DeathGod's maniacal laughter died away until the only sound left was the faint hiss of settling dust. He surveyed the ruin with cold satisfaction. Balmount Kingdom was gone. Ruin absolute, silent, still. He let out a slow sigh and rubbed at his shadowy chin, as if polishing a thought. "Well, that's a wrap, then. What to do. What to do." His voice stayed casual, almost bored.
Smoke curled around his dissolving form as he turned. His features settled into a calm that belonged only to someone who'd already decided the world was nothing but an accessory to his own plans. "Maybe I should go meet Mother personally. No," he grunted, irritation sharpening his tone. "She can wait. The person I should see first is Pride." He spat the name like something bitter. "He must have grown stronger, and knowing him, he'll be a thorn in my neck. Pride is not someone to toy with. He is infuriating." His hand moved once, a lazy, dismissive gesture. "And then there's Wrath and Sloth. They might join the fight too. Or should I move on the Imperial Kingdom instead? It's rotting from the inside, and Greed likely already has his claws in it. Yes, the Imperial Kingdom might be useful." He let out a short growl. "It's exhausting, having to think this much."
He began to walk, his shadow trailing behind him like an obedient cloak. Each step left a faint cold where it passed. He muttered under his breath, a private complaint no one was there to argue with. "It keeps happening. No matter what I do, something always gets in the way. Did I take this path before? I can't remember anymore. Taking a life is... exhausting. But first..." He stopped, as if deciding which trivial annoyance deserved his attention next.
A scream tore through the quiet, so sudden and raw it seemed to rip at the air itself. "AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
DeathGod's lips curved into a smile. He turned slowly back toward the central crater, as if called by a pleasant song.
From the crater came a nightmare of broken flesh and jagged bone. Kibo clawed himself out on one ruined arm. Half his face had been stripped away, bone visible beneath ragged, red muscle. The other arm was gone entirely. His lower body had been taken too, absent and grotesque, as if the void had simply reached down and seized it. He moved with a single, skeletal hand gouging at the ash, dragging himself forward on bloody sinew.
Pain made his one remaining eye a bright, furious point. Tears burned the raw tissue around it. He stared at the ruined silhouette of the town, at Balmount erased down to nothing, and something like desperation tore through him. "Ignis! IGNIS! IGNNNNNIIISSS!" His voice was a broken thing, half sob, half curse. He called for Syl. Then Lily. Then Aunt Sora. Each name a ragged prayer thrown against the void. Please. Anyone. The thought shivered inside him like something trapped.
His Self-Healing fought like a soldier running on empty and was losing; the mana clung to him, patching, stalling, but it couldn't keep up. He was slipping toward nothing.
DeathGod walked forward with slow, deliberate amusement. His grin was clinical. "Ah. So you survived. I suspected you might." He crouched slightly, studying Kibo the way someone studies a curious insect. "It must be that dragon of yours, protecting your soul from termination. But I wonder how your body is still... intact. What method did that dragon use?" He tapped a fingertip against his chin, his tone pure detached curiosity, though every movement carried the weight of someone who had never once believed in mercy.
Kibo fixed his single, leaking eye on DeathGod. Pain hollowed his chest, but something like steel lived in the rawness of his voice. "I will kill you. I will kill you! I WILL KILL YOU!" The words tore out of him, ragged and earnest.
DeathGod's smile narrowed into something colder. "Huh? Who do you think you are?" Mockery dripped from the question, slow and tasting of contempt.
Kibo shouted it again, the threat a desperate animal's promise. He tried to push himself up higher, but his body betrayed him. DeathGod's expression hardened for only a heartbeat. Then he moved, fast but controlled, and drove a savage kick into Kibo that sent him slamming into stone. Pain exploded through the boy. He screamed, a single raw sound that filled the crater.
Kibo screamed again.
"Who do you think you are?" DeathGod snapped, kicking him a second time, his voice rising like a struck bell. "Do you think this is some kind of fairy tale? That you miraculously survived because of one stupid dragon, and now you fancy yourself the main character of some story, you idiot?"
He drove his heel into Kibo's ruined face, hitting the damaged eye with brutal precision. The orb burst with a wet, sick sound. Kibo's scream turned jagged, a spine-breaking note of agony that echoed off the crater walls.
"Serves you right, you foolish human!" DeathGod barked, each word landing like a stone. "Not even your weak grandpa could stop me. What makes you think you can? Are you a god? You're one worthless soul who got a second chance at life, nothing more. Do you think this is a play? This is the real world, and in the real world, things don't bend to your wishes!"
The constant, raw noise grated on him. He seized Kibo's skull with one hand and smashed the ruined face into the ash and stone, again and again, each impact a wet, grinding punctuation. "Shut up! Shut up!" he hissed, as if the whole world had gotten too loud for him.
When he finally let go, he stepped back and forced himself to breathe slow. Do not be distracted by a worm, his expression seemed to say. He watched Kibo struggle, watched the boy's broken body fight against the pain just to lift his own head.
"Come on, lift your head," DeathGod urged, his voice mocking and bright with cruelty, repeating the command like a game. "Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it."
Kibo hauled his head up with a ragged inhale. Blood and ash slicked his throat. His voice came out a ruined croak, raw and small but still burning with the same promise. "I will kill you."
DeathGod laughed, a sound with no warmth in it anywhere. "You humans are so relentless." He paced a slow circle, looking over the wreckage as if searching for a lesson buried somewhere in it. "Tell me, look around you. Oh, wait. You can't." He let the mockery sit for a heartbeat before continuing, merciless. "How exactly will you do that? Wait for your body to heal? By then I'll have conquered the world, and there won't be anyone left to oppose me. No one can kill me. No mortal. Not the Sins. Not my mother. Not even a god." His voice dropped to a whisper that tasted like a dare. "Well, except for the almighty. But who's asking?"
Kibo's screams had dissolved into ragged, frantic breaths; he couldn't focus on DeathGod's words through the fire still burning in his face. Annoyance stiffened DeathGod's shoulders. He reached out and placed a hand on Kibo's mangled torso. The touch was cold and precise. The agony that had consumed Kibo vanished in an instant, replaced by a paralyzing numbness that locked every muscle and sealed his throat shut.
"How's that now? Feeling any pain?" DeathGod asked, amusement sharpening his tone.
Kibo lay frozen, a puppet whose strings had been cut, then glued taut again. He couldn't move. He couldn't even shape his lips into words.
DeathGod shook his head, like he was looking at a disappointing toy. "If you can't speak, then I'll be off. I have conquering to do." He turned to leave, his long strides swallowing the ruined ground.
A tiny, desperate whisper tugged at the edge of his departure. "I promise you. I will kill you."
DeathGod paused, a hint of a smile returning as he turned back toward the boy. Up close, his face was patient and very cold. "I did ask you already. How would you do that? What's the plan? Are you just going to wait? Do you think the world revolves around you getting strong?"
Kibo's voice barely carried, a thread of sound pushed through the numbness. "I will kill you," he whispered again.
DeathGod paused, considering him with slow amusement. "Fine. This stubbornness in you, I would like to see you try." He extended a single shadowy finger toward Kibo's ruined skull, the motion deliberate, almost ceremonial. "I am going to enjoy torturing you."
The instant that finger brushed bone, the world answered with a sound like a vast bell struck underwater, a low, hollow chord that rolled through the air and into every rib in the crater. Then everything changed.
The total annihilation unwound itself, as if memory had been pulled back into place by force. Thorn fell to the ground, gasping for air like someone had ripped breath into him by hand. Morganna gagged violently and vomited onto the stone, bile and dust mingling together. Syl collapsed, unconscious at once. Sora's lungs burned; she began to hyperventilate, her eyes wide and stunned as understanding clawed up her spine. They had died. Then they were alive again.
We were dead. Sora's thought came in pieces, each heartbeat a small, scared thing. We were gone, and now... Her hands flew up to shield the girls before she'd even thought to move them, because terror doesn't wait for thought.
Thorn staggered to his feet, fingers trembling. He scanned the ruined skyline, half expecting DeathGod to be standing there triumphant, but only the ruin itself answered him. Then his gaze fell on Kibo. The boy knelt, silent, wrapped in a cold halo of DeathGod's mana that dripped off him like shadow fire.
What did he do to him? Is he possessed? Sora moved closer, the question bitter on her tongue.
The halo shivered, then dissipated like smoke. Kibo threw his head back and screamed, a sound part animal, part something torn straight out of a tomb. "AAAAAHHHHH! GEETTTTTTT OOOOOUUUUTTTTT!" The scream came out as a command, flung at some invisible tormentor.
He clawed at his own scalp, tearing hair away by the handful, nails slick with blood, then began slamming his head against the stone in a maddened rhythm. Each collision rang with a wet finality until blood pooled beneath him. His body convulsed with the insistence of someone being unmade from the inside.
Thorn lunged, desperate to stop him, but a hand was already there. It settled on Kibo's head with an impossible gentleness that contradicted every bit of ruin around them.
"You can rest now. Master," said the voice, low and calm.
Kibo went limp in that hand and collapsed into unconsciousness, as if finally allowed to stop fighting. Thorn froze where he stood. Sora's shielding arms dropped slack at her sides. The newcomer's presence pressed against them, potent and suffocating, yet threaded through with a warm light that made the dust around them look like dying embers.
Thorn stared, disbelief tearing across his face. "No. It can't be."
Morganna's expression changed all at once. Her gaze latched onto the gold rings, the unsettling ease of his smile. She spat the name. "THE SIN OF GREED!"
The man smiled in answer, and the aura around him deepened. He inclined his head the smallest fraction. "If you think I am merely the Sin of Greed, you're mistaken," he said, his voice silk over steel. "I am Demon King Greed, in your presence."
The pressure from him was overwhelming; every breath Thorn took felt measured by that weight. Instinct forced Sora to conjure a Glacial Veil, a thin frost etching into the air as a barrier for the girls.
"Demon King. How?" Thorn demanded, forcing himself into a defensive stance though his limbs still felt heavy with shock he couldn't shake off.
Greed chuckled, soft and amused. "You don't need to waste your breath, King Thorn. I'm not here for a fight. I'm only here to help my master."
Master? Kibo, or DeathGod? Morganna's eyes narrowed as she watched Greed carry Kibo like some fragile relic.
Greed's smile tightened, folding into something dangerous. "Don't even start thinking about it, King Thorn," he said, each word measured. The threat behind the smile was absolute. "Unlike my master, who plays with his toys, I will not hold back."
Thorn stood very still, taking in the fresh wreckage, the bodies still warm where they lay, the exhausted breathing of everyone who had fought and failed. Astrid, Mael, Nina, and Takashi all lay unmoving. The weight of it pressed down on him like winter settling into his bones. He let out a slow, ragged breath. It's a losing game. The thought sat in his gut like a stone.
Greed shifted Kibo in his arms and began walking toward the ruined castle, each step deliberate, almost ceremonial. "Thank you for understanding," he said, without looking back. "Now, let's attend to the necessary things of the kingdom." His voice carried silk and iron in equal measure.
As he passed Sora, he paused for the briefest moment and gave her a chilling smile that landed like a cold blade. "Lucky you," he murmured.
Sora's Glacial Veil melted away, as if it had never been there at all. She watched Greed carry Kibo off and felt something in her chest unclench, then break. Relief braided together with a hollow, aching worry. Her gaze fell, steadied, on Subaru's still body. Pain flared through her like a hot brand, but she forced herself up, hands trembling, because there were still people who needed her.
Morganna rose too, her knees weak but moving. Thorn, though, couldn't hold himself upright. He swayed, the world tilting under the weight of loss and exhaustion, and crumpled to his knees.
"Thorn! Thorn!" Morganna's voice cracked as she rushed to his side.
Thorn looked at her face, his eyes glassy and heavy with grief. Subaru. The thought was raw, something he couldn't swallow down. His lids drooped, the breath leaving him shallow, and the last thing he held onto was Morganna's frantic, desperate face.
Then he passed out.
....
Thorn woke with a sharp gasp, the name tearing from his throat before he even knew he was awake. "Subaru!" His breathing came heavy and ragged, each inhale scraping against his ribs. For a moment, the room held nothing but darkness and the echo of his own voice.
Then warmth closed around him. Morganna's arms. She held him without a word, her presence anchoring him through the chaos still churning in his mind. The smell of her hair, the faint trembling in her body, all of it reminded him he was still here. He exhaled shakily, relief washing over the deep ache that had carved its home into his chest. Slowly, he wrapped his one remaining arm around her, returning the embrace as if to prove to himself she was real.
His gaze drifted downward. The empty space where his arm should have been caught his breath in his throat. He stared at the wound for a long moment before his eyes wandered toward the jagged hole in the wall, the cold night sky beyond it framed by ruin. The stars looked back at him, distant and unmoved.
"Morganna," he said softly, untangling himself from her hold.
She gave him a fragile smile, her voice trembling slightly. "I was so worried, my love."
Thorn met her gaze, his own eyes warm but clouded with grief. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "It seems my hand can't be regenerated."
Morganna's smile faltered, but she nodded. "Yes. I tried. It's beyond repair."
"That's fine," he murmured, dismissing the wound with a tired wave. "Seeing you safe is enough." He paused, gathering himself. "How are the girls? How's Sylphira? How is everyone?"
Morganna reached out, brushing her fingers gently over his cheek, as if the touch alone could steady him. "Everyone's safe. Our daughter is with her friend, consoling her. They're both shaken, but alive."
Thorn exhaled, his shoulders sagging. "And Greed? Where's he now?"
Her expression darkened. "I don't know. As soon as he settled Kibo, he left, saying he needed to handle things."
Thorn pushed himself to stand, his body protesting every movement. Morganna rose quickly to steady him. "You need to rest," she urged.
"I'll rest once everything's settled," Thorn said firmly. He was already on his feet, a flicker of determination in his tired eyes. Morganna sighed but followed as they stepped into the corridor.
The castle hallways sat quiet, filled with the smell of smoke and stone. Their footsteps echoed softly as they passed through what was left of their home. Thorn broke the silence. "The people. Have they been reached? Any word from Eyrndor or Lucian?"
"Yes," Morganna replied. "We reached them not long ago. They've been told the war is over. They're not in the castle right now, they're out with the people, helping rebuild and find shelter."
"I see," Thorn murmured, the weight of leadership settling back onto him. "And Subaru's body?"
Her steps slowed. "His body's in the room you built for him."
"Is anyone with him?"
"Yes," she whispered.
They turned the corner, and the sound hit them first. Pure anguish. Lily's cries ripped through the stillness like blades, the kind of crying that had no rhythm to it, only pain. The door to the room stood open.
Inside, the sight struck like a physical blow. Lily knelt beside Subaru's lifeless body, her hair now crimson red. Her eyes, too, had gone crimson, swollen and wet, shining with heartbreak. She clutched Subaru's hands as if holding tighter could somehow pull him back. Her body shook with every sob.
Syl held her from behind, arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders, whispering over and over, "It's okay. It's okay. You're not alone." But her voice was breaking too, the words trembling into silence before they finished.
"Why is he gone? Why is he gone, my grandpa? Why is he gone? Why?" Her voice cracked again and again, desperate, pleading for an answer that was never going to come.
Thorn stood frozen in the doorway, the pain in his chest flaring until he could barely breathe. He looked at Subaru's body, at the stillness of it, the finality. His eyes moved to Sora, standing nearby, silent, her face unreadable but her gaze fixed on the corpse. Beside her stood Bram, his head bowed.
When Bram noticed Thorn and Morganna, he stepped toward them quietly. Thorn turned away first, stepping back from the door as though the sight burned to look at, then gestured for Morganna to follow him.
Bram joined them in the corridor. "Thorn," he called softly.
Thorn faced him, his voice low. "Bram. The people, are they safe?"
"Yes," Bram said, after a pause. "They're safe. I reached Wu and told him everything. He said he's already taking care of the situation."
Bram's lips parted, like he wanted to say more, but he hesitated. The words caught in his throat and died there.
Thorn understood, his gaze distant but steady. "Thank you, Bram. I'll leave the rest to you. I need to think."
Bram gave a silent nod before turning back into the room, his expression unreadable, though the weight of grief sat clear in his posture. The door shut softly behind him.
Morganna lingered beside Thorn, her voice gentle, barely above a whisper. "Thorn. I know how much you're hurting. Are you sure you don't want to speak with Bram? You both lost someone dear."
Thorn's lips curved into a faint, weary smile, one that didn't reach his eyes. "I will, Morganna. Just not now. Right now, we need to think about what lies ahead." He paused, the air growing heavier around him. "I still don't trust Greed. How he became a Demon King." His brows furrowed as the thought deepened. "Something about it doesn't sit right with me."
Morganna studied him quietly, her hands folded against her chest. "You think he's hiding something?"
Thorn's voice dropped into a thoughtful murmur. "Maybe. Or maybe fate just has cruel timing." He took a slow breath before changing the subject. "Besides that, what about the Paladin Knights?"
"They're awake," she said softly. "But they're grieving. They lost their captain."
A flicker of sorrow passed through Thorn's eyes. "I see. Then I'll visit them tomorrow."
Morganna hesitated. "One of their own is missing."
Thorn turned to her, his tone sharpening with concern. "Missing? Was he..."
"There's no need to worry," Morganna interrupted gently. "He left a letter before leaving. Seems he went on his own accord. Whatever his reasons, they're his to carry."
Thorn nodded slowly, a quiet understanding settling into his gaze. "It's understandable," he murmured. "Sometimes grief demands solitude."
He began walking again, his steps measured, heavy with thought. Morganna followed in silence, her eyes flicking once more toward the hall they'd left, where the sound of mourning still echoed faintly behind closed doors.
...
Outside Balmount, beneath the heavy weight of the moonlight, the Priest stumbled through the forest. His robes were torn, his breath ragged. Shadows clung to the twisted trees around him, their branches clawing at the sky. The scent of blood and damp earth hung thick in the air.
His mind was chaos. I need to report to the master. The mission is complete. What's my next task? Where, where is the rendezvous point? Each step came hurried, frantic. The forest seemed endless, the silence unbearable, until a voice, calm and cold, sliced through it.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The Priest froze. Every muscle in his body locked up at once. He spun toward the voice, heart hammering against his chest. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
Then he saw them.
His eyes went wide, the color draining from his face. "No. The Sins!"
From between the trees, Envy stepped into the moonlight. The mask he wore sat frozen in a perpetual smile, serene, yet impossibly unnerving. In his arms, he carried Takashi, the boy deep asleep, untouched by the tension in the air. Beside Envy stood Gluttony, a looming shadow, his sharp, predatory teeth catching the light whenever he grinned. The air itself trembled under the weight of their combined mana, thick enough to make breathing hurt.
The Priest stumbled back a step, trembling. "The Sins. What are you doing here?"
Envy tilted his head slightly, his voice smooth and quiet, but every syllable carried danger. "It's no longer the Sins," he said, taking a slow step forward. "It's Demon King now."
Gluttony's low chuckle rumbled through the trees as he followed Envy's advance, his grin widening in the pale light. The forest itself seemed to shudder, the darkness swallowing whatever courage the Priest had left.
"Demon King? How?" The Priest's voice cracked as he struggled to understand.
Envy tilted his head, his mask catching a faint glint of moonlight. "I did ask you a question," he said, voice soft but sharp. "Where are you off to?"
The Priest's mind screamed at him to flee, to run and survive, but his body hesitated. If I run, I die. If I stay, I die slower. Panic overtook thought. He turned and stumbled into the trees.
He made it only three steps.
A shadow streaked through the dark, and a hand seized his ankle. The next instant, the world flipped, his body slammed into the cold ground, the breath knocked out of him. Before he could scream, something heavy pressed down on top of him.
Gluttony.
The figure crouched low, his grin stretching unnaturally wide. Then came the sound, a wet, slicing crack. Pain tore through the Priest's body like white fire as he realized his leg had been severed clean.
He shrieked, clutching at the blood-soaked stump, his cries echoing through the forest. Gluttony lifted the mangled limb to his mouth and bit down with audible delight. The crunch of bone and sinew filled the silence that followed.
"Please!" the Priest sobbed, dragging himself backward, leaving a dark trail through the grass. "Please, stop! What do you want from me?!"
Envy stepped lightly over Gluttony's crouched form, his shoes silent against the forest floor. With the faintest flicker of irritation, he pressed his heel into the Priest's other leg. Bone shattered under the weight. The Priest's scream cut short as Envy's eyes glowed faintly, sealing the man's mouth shut with a whisper of magic.
"I did ask you, Priest," Envy murmured, his tone patient, almost kind. "Where are you going?"
The Priest's muffled cries grew more desperate, the agony in his eyes pleading for mercy. Envy crouched, tilting his head slightly, studying the fear with quiet fascination.
But before another word could fall, a new voice rolled through the clearing, calm, rich, dripping with cold amusement.
"You don't have to torture my toy right now, Envy."
Both Envy and Gluttony paused. The forest itself seemed to hold its breath.
From the darkness above, a figure descended, dark light tracing faintly around him. Greed's presence was unmistakable, his smile effortless and unreadable.
"Greed," Envy breathed, the name carrying both respect and an absence of surprise.
The Priest's eyes went wide with hope. Master...!
Greed's gaze softened with false sympathy as he regarded the mutilated servant. "Can you let go of him already?" he said, his tone light, but every word carrying weight. "He's suffered enough, hasn't he?"
Envy's eyes flickered, but he obeyed, lifting the silencing spell. The Priest gasped, the taste of blood and dirt thick in his throat. He immediately began crawling toward Greed, sobbing. "Master! Please help! I've done everything you commanded. Tell me what missions you have for me next!"
Greed chuckled, a dry, hollow sound that somehow filled the whole forest. "Oh, do be quiet, will you?" His eyes glowed faintly, his smile widening just enough to show something cruel underneath the charm. "Can't you see you're in the presence of three Kings now? Who gave you the right to speak?"
The Priest froze, trembling violently, his lips snapping shut without another sound. Fear swallowed him whole.
Greed's attention drifted lazily from the broken man to Envy, then to the boy sleeping peacefully in Envy's arms. His tone shifted, light but edged. "You've been quite a nuisance, Envy. Sending your boy without permission?"
Envy's masked face turned slightly, the carved smile seeming almost to deepen. "And what do you mean by that?"
Greed let out a low hum, the kind that made the air feel heavier around them. "Don't play innocent with me. You and I both know what lines shouldn't be crossed. What you did." He waved a hand dismissively, the air shimmering faintly with his power. "Is a no, no, no, for me." His grin sharpened. "You're already testing my patience, Envy."
Envy's tone stayed calm, but his mana rippled faintly. "You speak as if patience is something you actually possess."
Greed's smile didn't falter. "Oh, I do," he said softly. "Just not for those who forget who pulls the strings."
Envy's voice carried calm, edged with curiosity. "And you, why do all this? You do know what you've been doing is pointless."
Greed's eyes shimmered faintly beneath the moonlight. He tilted his head, smiling as if the question amused him deeply. "And?" His tone was smooth, dripping with confidence. "Didn't I accomplish what I wanted? Besides." He stepped closer, his gaze sharp and knowing. "What I do isn't always pointless, is it?"
Envy's mask seemed to darken in the quiet. "No," he admitted softly. "It hasn't been. The Master, how is he?" His concern stayed veiled, his tone almost indifferent, but Greed caught the flicker beneath the surface.
Greed chuckled low, the sound both charming and cruel. "Doing well, I'd say. Though." His smile faltered for just a heartbeat. "There's an issue I can't fix myself."
Envy started to speak. "Very well, if you..."
"I don't need your help," Greed cut in sharply, his tone losing its playful edge. His gaze hardened, the smile turning thin and dangerous. "I'm only telling you so you understand the situation. Don't think me foolish enough to let you near the Master, not after the stunts you've pulled."
Envy's voice stayed calm, though a quiet defiance lived underneath it. "Those stunts," he said, "were the will of the Master."
Greed's grin returned, sharp as glass. "And so is my decision."
For a brief moment, the forest went silent, only the faint rustle of leaves and the wet sound of Gluttony's feeding carrying through the distance.
"You've already found your way into the Master's life," Envy said, his tone faintly envious despite the calm. "Why shouldn't you allow me the same? I envy you, Greed."
Greed laughed once, dry and humorless. "No, no, no," he said slowly, waving a hand. "Let's not twist meanings tonight. Stay in your role, Envy, and I'll stay in mine." His eyes gleamed. "You're starting to sound a bit too... greedy."
Envy's head tilted slightly. "I see." His reply came short, but there was weight sitting behind it. He turned his gaze briefly toward Gluttony, who was ignoring them entirely, attention fixed on the trembling Priest.
Greed continued, his tone turning conversational again, though the undercurrent of threat never left it. "And let's not pretend I don't know what you're plotting. You already have a plan in motion to crawl deeper into the Master's circle, don't you?"
"Empty words," Envy replied flatly. "I don't know what you mean."
Greed's lips curled into a slow, predatory smile. "Oh, I don't need you to understand. I only need you to remember that I have eyes and ears everywhere. What you do is no secret to me."
Envy's mana pulsed faintly, but his voice stayed quiet. "Secret. You do realize I'm not one to hide anything?"
Greed laughed, and this time it was genuine, a mocking, dangerous sound that echoed across the dark woods. "Say whatever you wish. I couldn't care less what you plan. But remember this." His tone dropped low, almost a whisper, yet every word still carried power. "If any of you, any of the Demon Kings, dares to become a thorn in the Master's path, you will face the consequences. And I promise, it won't be pleasant."
The air grew cold. The weight of Greed's mana pressed against the forest like a suffocating blanket.
"If none of you want the whole world against you," he added softly, his eyes locking with Envy's mask, "then do not test me."
For a long, tense moment, neither moved. Only the trees dared whisper between them.
Finally, Envy's voice came, steady and low. "I wouldn't want that."
Greed's smile returned, effortless, disarming, dangerous. "Good. I appreciate your cooperation." He turned smoothly. "I'll be on my way."
"Master!" the Priest suddenly screamed, his broken voice piercing the silence. "Why? Why are you leaving me here?!"
Greed paused mid-step, glancing back. His expression softened, almost fondly. "Oh, right," he murmured. "I forgot about you." He turned to Gluttony with a careless shrug. "You can have him."
The Priest's eyes went wide with raw terror. "No! Master, please! I did everything! Please, I beg you!"
But Greed only gave a lazy smile as Gluttony rose to his full height, teeth gleaming in the dim light.
The Priest's screams split the air, short lived and muffled as Gluttony tore into him. Blood stained the soil. Greed watched for a moment, utterly unfazed, then looked back at Envy.
"Goodbye," he said simply, giving a courteous little wave before walking into the darkness, his aura fading with each step.
Envy lingered, his mask unreadable. He turned slightly toward Gluttony. "Hurry up."
Gluttony didn't answer. His attention stayed fully consumed by the feast, his jaw grinding bone.
Envy sighed faintly as he watched. He always did enjoy dragging things out.