"You killed my father, Serian Valhorn, the virtue of Temperance!"
Sarian slashed down at Sloth, channeling his power into a burst of light. He accelerated, cutting through Sloth's low gravity field before it could disrupt his path.
Sarian's blades impacted with an invisible layer surrounding Sloth, composed of chains overlapped on top of each other, leaving no gaps in his defence.
Despite this, Sarian only increased the pressure on his blades, slowly chipping through the invisible chains. Sloth wouldn't let his defence break so easily, increasing the chains' speed and their vibration, burning into the blades of light, reducing their form.
Sloth mounted the majority of his power onto Sarian, increasing the gravity around him a hundredfold, slamming into the floor, allowing for Sloth to retreat slightly.
With his injury, the blades of light dissipated, becoming particles once again. Sarian tried to push himself off the ground, but to no avail; the pressure only increased as he struggled.
The gravity pressing on the soldiers had been released, but they weren't out of danger yet, as the first line of the formation had fallen limp.
Their heads all had the same injury, a bloody gash in place of their brains. A scarlet river forms in front of the formation.
No other attacks followed the first; his culling of the frontline was a warning not to interfere in the fight unfolding between their eyes.
"No one move!" ordered Ratella, freezing everyone in place, dread overtaking their senses after watching their comrades fall, reducing them to bloody corpses, all light exhausted from their bodies.
The conflict between Sloth and Temperance wouldn't be interfered with.
"I do remember Temperance, a formidable opponent, but your anger is misplaced, as I didn't kill Serian Valhorn. He almost killed me, actually, just unfortunate my master was in the area. She slaughtered him after he insulted her, so you should really be hunting her, not me. "
"You are lying to save your own skin. I don't even know who you speak of!"
Sarian's anger did nothing to help him withstand the pressure on his body, leaving him with a mouth full of ash and dirt.
"Hm, I suppose you are better off not knowing who my master is. You would just end up like your father after all."
"You bastard! I'll kill you for that. The last thing my father taught me—I'll use it to rip the light from your body and add it to my collection!"
Sloth distanced himself from the prone man, wary of his declaration bringing all the chains to his aid and defence.
"Edict of Light, Warding Shield."
With the Edict's protection, Sarian rose from the dirt, standing tall before the man; the gravity no longer pulled at him. Sloth then extended his power back onto the soldiers—pinning them to the ground and forcing their movements to become laboured and sluggish.
Sarian summoned a greatsword mirroring his late father's swing into Sloth's defences, impacting at a staggering force, putting Sloth's balance off.
Ratella became unnerved by his sudden surge in power. He flew closer to Sloth's location, hovered above them, and monitored their fight.
"With this, you die by my hand, Devil of Sloth!"
Sarian pressed the weapon into the chains protecting Sloth, their movements doing nothing to slow or damage the greatsword of light.
"His defences are breaking! Do something before I do, Ratella!" Liliana cried, worry and anxiety lacing her words.
The unyielding force was beginning to crack the structure of the invisible chains that comprised their integrity, leading to more cracks to ripple across their surface.
"I surrender!" cried out Sloth. His pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears; the embodiment of Temperance was completely lost to his rage.
Ratella dove down rapidly toward Sloth, pausing time as he reached him. He grabbed Sloth by the collar and pulled him skyward, lifting him out of Sarian's attack range.
He grasped Sloth and flew with him high in the sky, carrying him to safety.
When time returned to its natural course, Sarian's attack cleaved through the air, all resistance suddenly gone, and he lost his grip on the earth, collapsing to the ground. His greatsword dissipated with the loss of focus.
Ratella hovered over the unit, holding onto Sloth before touching down on the ground, drawing the soldiers' gazes, all surprised by his intervention, which saved their enemy from certain death.
"Ratella? What are you doing, saving the Sin from death?" asked Samael, his mind growing wary of him and his hand subconsciously grasping the pommel of his sword.
"I thought I was toast, I'm too tired for this live or death stuff. Please leave me out of it next time, master!" cried out Sloth, tears flooding down his face, looking totally exhausted by his near-death experience.
"Oh, shut up. Be a good prisoner and close your mouth."
Ratella gripped the man's neck tightly and marched him toward their supplies. He grabbed some rope, ignoring the piercing gazes of his hundred allies.
He tied Sin's hands and legs, then threw Sin to the ground. Afterward, Sin soon fell asleep—a pattern that seemed to repeat during both their meetings.
"Ratella! What are you doing?! One moment you are all for the murder and torture of Devils and the next you are for their safety."
Sarian summoned two shortswords, pointing them in his direction. His breath laboured, and the uneven fight between Sloth had a drastic impact on his body.
Liliana returned to his shoulder; his time stop had left her alone in the air. Despite her lack of speech, he could tell she was relieved by Sloth being alive and not cleaved in two by the irate man.
"Aspects of Shadows have no value to the war and could be disposed of in any way necessary. However, Sins are overarching commanders and have connections to the Horsemen, so they should be interrogated for all the information in their minds."
"The harmonic song is clear that all Devils must be executed. To go against that would be treason!"
"So would be defying a Seraphim. Now let's get ready to go back to Brightnight, ready the equipment."
Sarian was stuck between two routes of treason; picking either would mean his eventual execution, no matter the reason for raising his arms against a Seraphim.