POV: Wrath
I was abandoned by my parents at birth.
During my childhood, I was raised inside of a foster home, but my time there was far from pleasant.
Due to being born as a peasant who was born in the countryside, the other children who were supposed to be my family treated me as if I was an anomaly while my foster parents ignored my existence, despite taking me in.
As my time inside the foster home passed, I sought death as everyday was nothing less than hell for me.
Upon my life of hell, I grew to bore no emotions as I was unable to enjoy anything and was forced to look forward to being beaten into a pulp nearly everyday since they had the mercy to spare me on my recovery days.
I never understood why I was being treated the way I was until my ninth birthday, where all of the children who claimed to be my precious family would try to kill me when our foster parents were out for the night.
As I was being strangled to death, I was forced to bear witness to the devilish grins that all the children amidst the scene as they laughed among each other while I couldn't do anything else but struggle for my life, but for the first time in my life, I was finally granted a blessing.
In the face of death, I felt a rush of adrenaline throughout my body, rejuvenating my senses as I had manifested my Aspect, inducing terror into all of the children as they scattered away from me like roaches, trembling in fear from my mere existence.
It was strange.
Growing up among those savage beasts, I have never once seen their perspective of what fear felt like and as I watched them scramble for their lives, I felt an unfamiliar emotion for the first time in my life.
Delightment.
In that moment, I killed every child in the room one by one without any hesitation, seeking out those who had previously escaped the area within the manor as I laughed hysterically while I watched each one beg for mercy, overstimulating from the newfound emotion that I made sure to relish.
After killing all of them, I finally understood the reason why they decided to bully me as my heart raced with exhilaration from my sudden epiphany.
Because it was fun.
On that day, I became infatuated with death as I made it my dream to fight someone to the death.
I didn't want to fight just anybody though.
I wanted to seek out the strongest as despite my life up until that point being as miserable as it was, I wanted my death to at least be meaningful.
It wasn't until several years later that I would find out that I was the bastard child of a careless noble from the Jurokyu family, who took advantage of my mother until she died birthing me.
I eventually assassinated my father out of respect for my mother as I found him alone in the countryside due to his habit of preying on weak women and that event alone is what led to me becoming a villain in the eyes of our society.
Although I was now marked with a bounty on my head, I didn't care for my growing reputation as I continued to fight and kill those who stood before me in order to satisfy my insatiable hunger for joy and amidst my carnage, I came across those without a purpose due to being discarded by society, encouraging me to recruit them as eventually, I formed the Cardinal Sins.
I soon made it my dream to fight Joseph, who was the highest echelon of strength within this continent as I wanted to experience the thrill of death by the hands of the strongest man himself, but everything had changed after I ran into an Executive of the Hero Association.
In less than two minutes, we were utterly defeated as the Executive didn't even bother capturing us because he was interrupted by a frivolous phone call.
What was a fight for my life was nothing more than a minor inconvenience to the Executive.
For the first time in my life, I never felt such humiliation as I wanted nothing more than to rot away for the rest of my life, resorting to us running away and seeking refuge in the Exterel Mountains, where we came across a resort home used for vacation purposes as we soon made it ours, killing anyone who came within the premises of it.
A few months passed until the passion I once had for my dream caught a spark as I watched a boy no older than fourteen, fight against Joseph himself with the sole desire of killing him, despite the difference in their power.
Once their fight concluded, I didn't care about fighting Joseph anymore as there was only one thing that I wanted.
One last fight to the death.
~
As the boy approached me, he deactivated his Aspect and stared at me silently for a few moments as a gentle breeze of wind blew throughout the forest.
"Why show me mercy?" I questioned with a coarse tone as I struggled to retain my consciousness from loss of blood.
"You may have committed many nefarious crimes, but despite your actions, you don't deserve death, but a chance to atone for the sins you have committed as it is your obligation to pay back all of the innocent lives you have slaughtered." The boy answered soberly as I used the remaining energy residing within me to muster a smile.
I'm truly grateful that my last fight was against you, although…
"You're naive, boy." I remarked, collapsing face-first onto the cold, mossy earth as my consciousness slipped into the perpetual darkness once again, although this time, it was an oddly calming sensation.
POV: Rai Shinsei
The fight concluded with my victory as I stared at Wrath's unconscious body in silence until I let out a sigh.
I don't know what kind of life you lived, but nothing will excuse the innocent lives you've taken from this world.
May you reflect on your sins and seek for a better tomorrow.
Pondering on my fight against Wrath, I felt Pride's gaze piercing through the back of my skull, urging me to turn around and face him as I matched my eyes with his own, which were laced with animosity as he approached me, but despite his anger towards me, he chose to walk past me and prioritized checking on Wrath, whose body was currently experiencing hypothermia.
"I'm aware that we're irredeemable villains, but if you have any mercy within you, can you please let me heal Wrath and the rest of my comrades before you arrest us?" Pride asked with unexpected genuineness as I nodded before heading towards Aria, whose face was fairly healed along with Everett and Sarah, who had regained their consciousness, arising a sense of relief within me as they stared at me in incredulity while Arthur approached my side and placed his arm around my shoulder, using it to help himself stand.
"For someone who considers themself weak, you've put on quite the spectacle." Arthur remarked with a grin as I observed his body through the tatters of his shirt, which was marred with many minor cuts and severe bruises from Wrath's brutality.
"Are you even human? How are you able to move with those injuries?" I questioned, amazed, but also concerned as Arthur nearly fought every member of the Cardinal Sins and yet, he was somehow standing beside me as if he was fine.
"That's ironic coming from someone like yourself." Arthur replied with a chuckle as he removed his arm from around me and began massaging the side of his neck, rousing a sigh of defeat from me.
"Anyways, thanks for saving our lives today. I knew I made the right choice by choosing you to be on my team." Arthur said with a contented grin as he raised the side of his fist towards me, prompting me to accept his gesture as I bumped my fist against his own amidst letting a smile slip from me.