Chapter 437
Impossible, impossible, impossible.
Those words echoed meaninglessly in the Demon of Envy's mind.
"What'll it be, Envy?"
The Demon of Envy.
With dark circles under his eyes, tousling his seaweed-like blue hair, his pale, unhealthy complexion twisting in agony.
In this operation, he had been entrusted with overall command by Gilgin Ardagón, a heavyweight of the Primordial Faith.
Before being made a sacrifice for the Cup of Apostasy, he had experience commanding the private soldiers of a certain noble.
Triggered by something, he became a follower of the Heretic Church, and through the church's skillful guidance, became a fanatic of the Primordial Faith, gained power as a servant of the evil god, became a sacrifice for the Cup of Apostasy, and transformed into a demon soul.
"Envy, it's too late to back out now! We'll charge that temple and tear those heretics to pieces with my power!"
Until just moments ago, he had felt omnipotent from the超常 power of a Deadly Sin demon, obtained by shedding his human body through the Cup of Apostasy.
"Ehh, wouldn't it be better to run? I mean, Greed, Lust, Pride, and Gluttony all got taken out, you know?"
"Hmph! That's just because they were incompetent! With me, Wrath, here, we wouldn't be outdone by some brat like that!"
The one sent to Pride's location was Envy's familiar.
Using a function not present in FBO—sharing the familiar's視界 like an image—these three had watched the battle between Pride and the human.
In that situation, the Demon of Sloth advocated retreat, while the Demon of Wrath insisted on continuing the operation.
"Ehh, no way. Let's stop, it's such a drag."
"Tch! Weakling! Sloth! Show some motivation!"
Neither was willing to bend, and there was no sign of reaching a consensus.
"Enough! Be quiet! Can't you be a little quieter?! Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to do!!"
The Demon of Envy, who was supposed to be the coordinator指示d by the church, wasn't coordinating at all, leading to the current discord. On top of that, Lust, who should have mediated between the antagonistic Deadly Sin demons, was already down, leaving three strong-willed, selfish demons.
Cooperation at this stage was impossible.
"Huh? What's that tone? Acting like a senior just because you transformed a bit before me? I'll kill you."
"How annoying. Can I just go home already? Even if it's just me?"
As they emanated a tense atmosphere, glaring at each other in a standoff, it came.
"Found you."
The bushes rustled, and from them emerged a single boy.
"Oh, it's you."
In his left hand, a worn morning star.
Topless, with fur wrapped around his waist—the蛮族 style.
If he wore a bone helmet instead of a bandana on his head, it would be perfect, but that part was slightly off; it was a tired-faced human boy.
The human who had slain four demons: Greed, Lust, Pride, and Gluttony.
For the Heretic Church, an existence called an apostle of the Goddess, one that must be killed as an enemy of the Primordial God.
What happens when such an existence appears before Wrath, a demon who loves the act of combat?
His body covered in dragon-like scales, with sharp horns growing from the back of his head—at first glance, he looks like a dragon-kin.
But this existence is a demon.
"He looks strong!"
"Wrath, wait!"
The Demon of Wrath, its cruelty amplified, ignoring the Demon of Envy's restraining shout, unleashes its violence.
In party terms, the Demon of Wrath is a front-line attacker.
Paired with Pride's back-line attacker, it's a physical front-line attacker.
Not as much as Gluttony, but it has toughness and speed. Above all, because it possesses dragon factors, its normal attacks are always lethal blows.
"Tch! Sloth, back me up!"
"So troublesome."
"I'll kill you!"
"I'll heal you, so it's fine."
Its combat prowess is acknowledged even by Envy.
Outwardly showing reluctance to admit it, inwardly, Envy thought maybe, just maybe, Wrath could kill this human.
"What!?"
As Wrath and the human boy clashed, Envy tried to activate his skill, but his eyes widened at the scene before him.
"Sloth!"
"Yeah, yeah, so troublesome."
He instantly saw through the boy's target and moved to disrupt it, but—
"Too slow."
Feigning engagement with Wrath, the boy dodged, slipped past, and sprinted straight for the back line.
The human's target was Sloth.
Liberta's acceleration speed, impossible to gauge through a familiar's eyes.
Standing directly before Sloth, who was showing drowsy signs, he swung his weapon without mercy.
"Kaha!?"
Sloth crossed his arms to protect his face from the attack, but the morning star slipped through his defense and struck him directly in the abdomen.
Simultaneously, the sound of bones breaking echoed.
"How troublesome..."
Despite wincing in pain, the blow wasn't fatal.
So Sloth immediately began healing himself.
With the potential of a demon body gained by shedding his human form, his durability was far higher than an ordinary person's.
Additionally, due to Sloth's magic-oriented stats, he could use healing skills abundantly.
Unless it was a one-hit killing blow, Sloth became an unsinkable ship.
"Targeting Sloth, who can heal allies—that judgment isn't wrong, but it seems your attack power can't exceed Sloth's healing capabilities!!"
He endured, and he was healing.
Seeing this, a winning formula began to form in Envy's mind.
"You ignored me!? I'll kill you!"
Furthermore, at this point, Wrath's switch flipped.
Wrath's unique skill, 'Wrath of the Demon of Wrath', increases stats based on anger.
The drawback is that focus narrows on the target that triggered the anger, but compared to berserking, his thinking remains冷静 and his mind works.
The human boy seemed to know that Sloth was the key to the party's sustained combat capability and had schemed to crush him first, but apparently hadn't anticipated his durability and recovery能力.
We've won, the formula solidified in Envy's mind.
Use Sloth as bait, let Wrath attack.
If Envy then applied debuffs with his skills, this human would have no chance of winning, Envy judged.
"You're last."
But to measure this human, the demons' capabilities were insufficient.
"Huh?"
If Envy's reading was correct, the standard move would be to give up on finishing off Sloth and move to intercept Wrath.
However, the human's actions deviated from Envy's reading.
Without looking, he dodged Wrath's attacks and focused entirely on chipping away at Sloth's life.
He smoothly wove his own attacks together with Wrath's, pummeling Sloth mercilessly, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
"Wh-wait, this is, uh-oh."
His attack speed exceeded Sloth's healing ability, steadily draining his life.
"You! Ignoring me!"
"Wrath! Get away! I can't use my skills!"
"Stay out of this, Envy! I'll kill this one!"
The boy's movements were calculated; he didn't just move to kill Sloth. He also kept track of all three demons' positions, constantly using Wrath as a shield to block Envy's debuff attacks.
Due to the skill's drawback, Wrath's mind was consumed by anger, and his attacks, while growing in ferocity, became monotonous.
Envy grew irritated and tried to change position to use his skills, but—
"UGAAAAAAH!!!"
"Shut up! Wrath!"
Completely ignoring Envy, Wrath's blood-boiled rampage got in the way, preventing skill use.
"It's, hopeless."
Meanwhile, Sloth's life continued to be drained.
And finally, a fatal blow landed on his face.
Sloth flew like a ball, tumbling across the ground.
He was still breathing.
But it was clear at a glance that another hit would be the end.
Just as Envy decided this was too dangerous and tried to activate a skill targeting both Wrath and the boy, an anomaly occurred.
A black, shadowy figure emerged, drawing both Envy's and Wrath's attention.
"This is the end."
While their focus was diverted, a dull sound echoed.
"!"
It was just a momentary glance away, but for the human, that instant was enough to finish the job.
The Demon of Sloth lay limp, limbs splayed, powerless.
"YOOOOU!!"
Seeing this, Wrath's anger intensified as he lunged, but the human casually glanced at him and lightly dodged.
He was being toyed with.
No, his movements were calculated and foreseen.
Envy finally realized, here and now, that the skill level of the man before him was in an insane realm.
Greed, Lust, Pride, Gluttony, and now Sloth taken down—and with that, he finally understood.
This guy was not someone to make an enemy of.
Envy's spine ran cold—an abnormal situation where Envy actually envied Wrath, whose anger-clouded mind completely failed to notice this.
"Don't run."
Wrath's attacks were like a storm.
Swinging his arm generated gale-force winds; a kick shattered the earth.
Immersed in this world of violence, yet the space around the human's movements alone seemed eerily calm, his precise movements perfectly replicated.
Envy, frozen in terror, even noticed himself taking a step back.
The human easily turned his gaze towards him.
"Eep!?"
A chill ran down Envy's spine.
What is this being? The question flashed through his mind.
Envy didn't know a human like this.
So, oblivious to his own startled cry and the sweat trickling down his forehead, he reacted.
"Stay away!!"
Facing the human approaching while dodging Wrath's attacks, Envy launched his own attack.
Envy's unique skill was 'Seal of the Envious Demon'.
Driven by envy of others' abilities, it was a magical skill to prevent them from using their skills.
Black chains shot from Envy's hands. If bound by them, both passive and active skills would become unusable, and—
"What are you doing, Envy!?"
—they also had some physical binding capability. He tried to bind the human with this seal, but the result was binding Wrath instead.
"No, that's not it! I meant him!!"
Unable to admit the fact that fear had clouded his judgment, he looked around for the target he'd lost sight of, but he was nowhere.
"Envy! Behind you!!"
"What!?"
The enemy wasn't in his field of vision.
But Wrath, watching from a distance, alone saw the human silently landing from above and circling behind him.
Startled by Wrath's words, Envy reacted and tried to intercept, but it was already too late.
"Guuuh!?"
A morning star swung into his lower back.
Bones cracked, searing pain shot through him, and literally broken in two, Envy was immobilized.
"...Monster."
"Coming from you guys, that's rich."
Despite being a Deadly Sin demon, despite gaining power, that power he thought was so great was declared worthless by a single boy.
Unable to accept that, Envy glared at the human and cursed him.
He didn't expect such petty words to stop him.
What Envy saw in his eyes was the human calmly defeating demons.
But to the demon, that figure looked less like a human and more like something else entirely.
The attacks raining down were精准无误.
Efficiently delivering blows that would surely end a life.
Was that truly human?
Perhaps it only seemed that way because he was a demon, but until his consciousness faded, Envy pondered the question with no answer, and his life came to an end.
"WOOOOOAAAAH!!"
Freed from Envy's skill, Wrath lunged at the human with all his might.
"This weapon, it's most effective against you, you know."
But the human swung a blow at Wrath that answered the question of why he'd left such a combat-loving demon for last.
"I-Impossible..."
A single blow, and Wrath's life nearly vanished.
He had braced himself to endure an attack of this level, aiming for a mutual kill.
But this attack far exceeded his expectations.
"Well, for you, with dragon factors, taking a dragonslaying weapon head-on is just impossible."
Crushed by the impact, the last remaining Demon of Wrath scattered upon the earth.