Lazy Salvation

Lola was the first to feel them approaching.

She had been maintaining her position above the eastern wall for most of the fifth day, and she descended the moment the presences crossed the perimeter.

She landed between the army and the approaching six, then turned to face them.

Her expression, for the first time, was not the gentle, indulgent one she wore when speaking to Ashen or her soldiers. It was a face she often hid behind that softness, one that had simply been waiting for a moment that warranted it.

Cornelia appeared beside her a second later, landing from the opposite direction.

"Five?" Cornelia said.

"Unfortunately, five indeed," Lola confirmed.

"Looks like today is going to be a long day..."

"That's not such a bad thing." Lola's eyes swept across the approaching figures with careful attention even as she bantered with her companion. "After all... it might also be our last. Being a long day is good..."

"I like the optimism."

"Hmm. Still no word from Greed or Envy?"

A pause.

"No." Cornelia's voice stayed level. "Perhaps you should also—"

"I won't." Lola's tone remained the same, but there was warmth in it. "I have too many people who are precious to me here, Cornelia. Besides, my soldiers are still fighting. How can I run? Don't say such crazy nonsense anymore."

"Is that so...?" Cornelia smirked. "I never pegged you for such a noble spirit. Consider me impressed."

"Hah? What did you think of me before this?"

"A wanton slut."

"I'm happily married, and I even gained a son recently. Excuse you!"

While the two bantered, the Outer Gods actually stopped to listen with intrigued expressions.

Despite planning to blitz them as soon as possible, a group of deranged beings could follow a plan only so much.

"Ah~ Your camaraderie is lovely. I wish I could immortalize it by carving it into my flesh..." Love sighed with a flush.

False Mercy, standing beside her, tilted his head.

"Shouldn't we use this moment to attack?"

"Don't be rude. They are saying their last words. We should respect them," Mandate answered matter-of-factly.

Before False Mercy could retort, darkness enveloped his vision.

He wasn't blinded.

Rather, it was a fist, a mere millimeter from his face, blocking his line of sight.

{Activated Path Skill: Inner Union: Lust's Embrace}

{Activated Path Skill: Peak of Fury}

While the Outer Gods were mad enough to wait for their opponents to finish talking, the Sin Lords were still very much sane.

The whole exchange had been a charade to prepare their strongest combination. And the one they targeted was the weakest-looking among them, and the one whose ability was the most troublesome.

Cornelia unleashed her most lethal Path Skill.

Peak of Fury allowed her to store every ounce of excess rage and Wrath she accumulated over time for a single detonation.

And what she spent now was the accumulation of years, amplified even further by Lola's entire being.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM—

The resulting impact reshaped the hundred kilometers behind False Mercy.

As for his body...

It was nowhere to be seen.

***

From the army's center, through the chaos and the distance, Ashen watched them.

‘Why are you stopping me?’ He didn't know who he was saying it to. The old man, maybe. Himself. The situation. ‘Move…’

{It's your instincts. They know that you will be totally and utterly dead the moment you step onto that battlefield. There is no other possibility.} The Twin Soul's voice came evenly. {Even with me in the picture.}

"Even you...?"

Ashen felt dread spread through every part of his soul.

His most reliable, seemingly invincible Twin Soul was admitting weakness?

How?

‘Am I dreaming?’

{Don't misunderstand. It's your body that's holding us back. It can only withstand so much of my Concepts before it withers away. I could perhaps kill one; two if I trade our life for the second. Our death is guaranteed afterward.}

‘But Lola is there! She can keep healing me, and together—!’

{It's not the same.} He was cut off before he could finish the plausible plan.

{My Concepts are too much even for her. It would take days of her undivided attention to heal us.}

‘Then what?!’ he shouted furiously in his mind. ‘Should we just roll over and die?! Let's go!’

{Calm down. I may have a plan. It's incredibly risky and still carries more than a ninety percent chance of our death. But surviving isn't out of the question.}

‘Really...?’

{Yes. Trust me. I used this trick many times to save my allies back in the first timeline. Though after I abused it, it started having the opposite effect. But it should be fine this time, since we'll be using it for the first time.}

‘Alright... I'm all ears. Ashen listened attentively. What's the master plan?’

{It's simple... Run.}

"..."

***

Love reached Lola first.

The distance between them vanished in an instant, and when Love's hand came forward, it wasn't a strike so much as an embrace, pink and black mana erupting from the point of contact in a shockwave that lit up the perimeter for a kilometer in every direction.

BOOOOOOM—!

Lola was thrown back. She didn't go far; her feet found the ground almost immediately, braced, and she was already looking at Love with a frown.

‘With her skill set, such a reckless approach is actually more suitable for her,’ she assessed. ‘Troublesome.’

Love tilted her head, still smiling, and the flowers that weren't black yet began rotting even faster.

"Oh," she said softly. "You felt that. I was wondering if you would."

"Togetherness."

The counter-skill rolled out from Lola with intensity, and the rotting flesh petals drifting toward the ground changed direction, converging on Love instead as they were turned back toward their source.

Love looked at them with delight.

"Oh, how wonderful. It goes both ways."

CRUNCH—

The petals detonated.

From within the explosion, a familiar flesh monstrosity emerged.

On the opposite side of the battlefield, Cornelia had already activated Calm Beyond Fury. Her injuries from the last three days sealed at a rate that was frankly insulting to everything she'd endured, and she walked into the cluster of the remaining three without slowing.

Blazewolf Cataclysm ignited.

The wolf that erupted from her was larger than it had ever been, fed by three days of accumulated rage that had been kept under a lid since the campaign began, and when it hit Self-Consumption, it hit him with everything.

He dropped his arm.

He was eating something else before the wolf landed again.

The fire washed over him, burning him whole, charring him, and literally melting half of his body.

"Ohh," he said, examining the wounds the wolf had left with genuine interest as he tumbled through the ground. "That's the first external wound I've felt in a while. How curious. I wonder if it tastes different from the inside."

His shadow stirred.

It expanded and morphed until it took the shape of his own body, the only difference being that it was twice as large.

The shadow opened its mouth grotesquely before swallowing the half-melted body in a single bite.

CRUNCH.

When it did, the shadow ceased being ethereal and became a body of flesh, identical to his previous one, aside from being twice the size.

"Hm. Yes. Slightly."

Cornelia was already upon him, her fist drawn back, preparing to throw another punch.

He didn't react this time either, allowing the strike to land cleanly.

But Cornelia's jaw tightened.

...Because the creature before her had been only slightly bruised this time.

She shifted to Edict of Temperance before the next strike, condensing the wolf into a single point and moving at a speed that couldn't be tracked, the self-consuming being only managing to tilt his head in her direction.

The clearing around the impact point was enormous.

Self-Consumption was missing a section of his left side when the smoke thinned.

But the same phenomenon repeated itself, and Cornelia found that the same strike now dealt an insignificant amount of damage.

"Don't you understand it?" he asked with a good-natured laugh, ignoring her relentless punishment and even leaning into her kicks.

"I am Self-Consumption," he proclaimed proudly, "but the Self here refers to my weak self."

BANG—BANG—BOOM!

"What you are doing is futile; I will always consume my own weakness and emerge stronger."

CRACK—!

"So strike. Keep striking me and showing me my weakness! I shall eat it with relish! And when I have my fill, I shall have you for dessert!"

SHATTER—!!

"Hihihiaahahaha...!"

He was already regrowing his limbs from the last strike, not even needing to employ his shadow.

The parts that had been blown off had also begun crawling back toward him to be consumed and seemed, against all reason, pleased to be eaten.

Cornelia was contemplating how to handle this absurd situation when she felt another presence finally join the fray.

It was Mandate.

Instead of attacking, he merely looked at her with a gentle smile.

Cornelia felt her instincts flare and tried to look away, but it was too late.

Whatever he intended to do, he had succeeded.