CRACK—
She only saw a blur. Barely managing to raise her hands, she felt them cracking next.
KRAAASH—!!
Then, she found herself on the earth, sinking alongside decomposing corpses. When Cornelia gazed up, she saw that thing in her previous position, merrily swinging its winged hand around as if it had just swatted a fly.
"Heya~ She flies so good!" It chirped, then turned its head—too far, vertebrae popping audibly. "Hey Cassius! I've taken a liking to this one. Leave her to me. You can go ahead and play with the other kids~"
It gestured vaguely toward Ashbastion with skeletal fingers.
Cassius spared her one last glance before nodding. He stepped into the air, and his figure shot forward in the direction the Outer God pointed.
Cornelia's gaze drifted to the two Catastrophes. They didn't follow the man, to her immense relief. No… since the summoning of that thing, they hadn't even acknowledged his existence.
All they did was bow in the thing's direction with fanatical worship, as if they were in the presence of their father and God.
'They might actually be…'
Cornelia smiled bitterly.
The supposed God finally turned its attention to her.
'I guess it's time to use that, even if it's somewhat risky… Not like it's less risky than staying idle now anyway.'
While she feared taking the last step, it wasn't like she'd stayed still in the meantime. Her next move was the fruit of her relentless effort to tame her wrath.
She closed her eyes briefly and reached inward. She dived past annoyance, past irritation, past anger, past rage…
She kept diving until she reached the core of her wrath, and she let her whole being immerse in that rageful state.
So much anger! So much need to vent it!! The will to just let go and unleash it, spreading destruction in her wake, was almost unbearable.
But she prevailed. This feeling was a constant for her, after all. And in her prevalence, a new path revealed itself.
As Cornelia reached for it, she experienced that sensation once again—and the understanding that accompanied it.
It was simple and complex at the same time. The essence was to understand that in this reality, everything has its opposite, and without one, the other cannot exist.
Happiness cannot bloom without first experiencing sadness.
Love can't be distinguished without first tasting hate.
How can one know sourness without first partaking in sweetness?
…And how can wrath exist without its opposite—Temperance?
The answer is simple: It cannot.
And the consequences are even simpler to predict. When one understands wrath and feels it so thoroughly, they are forced to acknowledge and understand the other side of the coin, unknowingly, at the same time.
So, looking at it from another perspective, every Sin pathwalker is also a master of Virtue.
When she opened her eyes again, only a second had passed, but the ever-present wrath in those pupils was no more.
In its place, only deep tolerance that could endure any waves existed.
{Virtue Path Skill Activated: Calm Beyond Fury}
Her injuries started mending at an absurd rate. Her broken ribs, sliced flesh, even the overheated circuits and the injuries she'd sustained over the last months of fighting—all of it knitting back together.
Secrets only tilted its head, allowing her to heal. To it, the sturdier the toy, the better.
Cornelia lifted herself. The moment she stood straight, the endless patience in her eyes hardened, then gave way to endless wrath.
{Sin Path Skill Activated: Blazewolf Cataclysm}
A rampaging inferno shaped like a wolf charged forward, leaving nothing standing in its path. Before the wolf could bite down on its intended foe, her face changed once more, back to one full of control and temperance.
{Virtue Path Skill Activated: Edict of Temperance}
The wolf abruptly morphed into a fire spear, countless times more condensed than its earlier form.
SKREEE—
BOOM—!!
Secrets merely lifted its winged arm to catch the spear before flinging it aside. The resulting shockwave was the most catastrophic one so far.
But Secrets was more interested in the injury on its wing—curiously looking at the leaking mana of its conjured body.
"Well, that was fun! Now it's my turn!"
{Sin Path Skill Activated: Bloodline Traverse}
It didn't get to finish speaking. It found the woman's form suddenly filling its vision.
She was pointing a finger at it, and on the tip of that finger was a white point. Secrets recognized it immediately for what it was.
"Oh."
The cataclysm compressed to a single minuscule point by the edict of temperance didn't strike—instead, under her feral grin, it detonated.
BOOOOMM—!!!
Two figures were eventually revealed after the fire mushroom cloud dispersed.
One was Secrets, who now sported many more wounds of the same kind as its first. The other was Cornelia, who was in much worse shape but was healing in an abnormally fast manner.
"Ha… hahahahaaha… that was… FUNNN!!!"
It happened again—she blinked, and the monstrosity was suddenly upon her. This time, it didn't strike immediately. Instead, it tilted its head while every eyeball lifted an eyebrow.
The effect was nauseating.
"Can you do it again? It's been sooo long since I've been wounded that I forgot the thrill of it… even if this is not my real body~"
A flaming fist was its answer, but this time, it didn't allow the strike to land. Before it reached, it was suddenly behind her.
Cornelia reacted instantly. Her straight fist seamlessly transitioned into a backfist.
"Whooa~!"
The strike and the resulting explosions struck at nothing, because the crow was suddenly right above her, looking at her almost encouragingly.
'Some kind of Space concept.'
She concluded.
"C'mon, do that switching thingy again! You almost reminded me of my kind, containing opposite concepts like that. Really intriguing!!"
Cornelia's strikes got faster and more shrewd with every second, but Secrets always teleported away at the last moment, not forgetting to leave a teasing remark and a gleeful smile every time.
It was almost as if it really had come down to play and had no other intention besides that.
"Ahhhh… I really can't hold back my curiosity!!"
Its voice pitched higher.
"Normally, I would hold back from giving myself spoilers, especially while playing with such an exciting friend, but forgive me… I just can't!!!"
With that, it looked into the secret of her duality, even while dancing amid her increasingly frenzied blows.
"Hum hum… So it's not true duality… but a temporary state. You can't keep the concept of Virtue for more than a few seconds, or you risk getting stuck there forever!"
Dread kept mounting even as she fought with increasing ferocity.
'Can it peer into my thoughts? Or is it reading my memories? But it already possesses Space… how can it hold such conflicting concepts?'
Even she, who wielded opposite concepts, could only do it separately—and only for a few seconds before she had to switch back each time. And that was only because one led to the other, so they weren't truly separate.
The only concept one could hold aside from their first is a derivative of it, or one that precedes it.
For example, if one comprehended the concept of Storms, they could safely derive the concept of Rain from it with enough understanding. Or they could acquire a concept that precedes it, such as Water, which is harder.
But they could never branch to a totally unrelated concept.
This Thing was reading her mind, prying her secrets, while also showcasing mastery over the element of Space.
She didn't know how it could stay sane with such conflicting concepts in its body, but then, as she looked at the mad glee in its grotesque eyes, she realized something.
Maybe the childish act and the provocations weren't merely to rile her up.
Maybe its declaration that it would "play" with her didn't have any deeper meaning or plot.
Maybe it was her folly to consider for even a second that this creature had a sane thought in it.
"You're insane."
The words were said with such revulsion that even the jolly Secrets seemed to get pissed.
The playful tilt vanished. All its eyes fixed on her at once—pupils contracting to pinpoints.
"How rude."
And the next moment, instead of it moving, she found herself moving through space—to finally land right on the trajectory of its swiping claws.
She was able to move her body at the last moment, using her Wrath skill to traverse the space past the swipe.
When she avoided danger, she felt a sting.
Looking down, she found her right hand missing.
She could regenerate an injury of this caliber at the cost of a bit of mana, but what grated at her was how her Second Step body was shredded with such ease.
'It seems that this may be my last night, after all.'
She recognized now that if the crow hadn't been playing with her, she would have long been dead… That now, she was merely living thanks to its whims.
She cast a brief glance back at the fortress where her subordinates and the citizens she'd spent most of her life protecting resided… one last time, as if to engrave it into her memory before looking back at her foe.
Its beak arched into a friendly smile.
Cornelia didn't understand how that was even possible.
'Well, either way, I'll fight until the end. I hope you can forgive me, Sabrina… I'm leaving first.'
BOOOOOMMM—!!!!
⛧
⛧
⛧
Meanwhile, while the Outer God was having fun with its prey, its conspirator and summoner wasn't sitting idle either.
"Cockroaches, every last one of you…" Cassius muttered as he watched the sight atop the wall from above.
He'd killed most of the soldiers on this section of the wall and even made a hole through it to allow the monsters to flood in.
But some persistent ones refused to stay down. They were a step below him, but their combined might was able to halt him, even if momentarily.
They lived mostly because he was running low on mana, but he knew he had to end them soon enough, since with his domain unfolded, he could perceive a group of nuns rushing from the opposite section. Those would only complicate the situation if they arrived before he cleaned things up here.
Looking down, he glanced at the first nuisance—an obese woman who'd kept healing her allies while spreading her poison on his body. She was a charred corpse now. He'd made sure to get rid of her first, not due to the poison, but for her persistent healing.
The second one was a slim woman with a scholarly air that refused to fade even as she lay with both her legs pulverized. He didn't know what tricks she was using, but his skills' lethality was being steadily reduced, and he was sure she was the culprit.
'She will be the next target.'
The next, and biggest cockroach, was none other than the half-asleep man at the very front. Despite his languid gait and skinny build, he'd tanked every strike and saved the others from death more than once.
But the most annoying one was undoubtedly her.
'Sabrina Chase.'
Cassius, of course, knew of her and her competence. His cult's information network had made sure of it.
"That woman's right hand… and as annoying as her. What an irritating pair."
The mutter didn't escape the supernatural hearing of the third-step transcendents below, and the moment Sabrina flinched at the mention of her mistress, Cassius took that chance to attack once more.
With a gesture of her hand, ice was conjured to halt his advance long enough for her shadows to leap in and momentarily stop him in place.
This allowed Wiseman, their most resilient shield, to get in on time before the legless woman, who had no way to avoid the upcoming strike.
But Cassius's Astrologer had already recorded enough of their patterns for him to anticipate all of this.
The momentum driving him forward fizzled out as he let himself almost come to a halt, but not before putting his body face-to-face with the shadow-wielding maid.
He conjured a fireball—not before him, but right at the tip of his back. The moment it manifested, it exploded, creating a pushing force enough to hurl him right at her.
Sabrina could only unblinkingly watch the figure warped in fires of rage and hate reach her.
Everything happened in a fraction of a second. A momentary distraction was just about to announce her end.
She knew that in this position, everything was already hopeless. Her foe's fist would flatten her head in the next moment, and even if she somehow survived that, he would be too close for her to change anything.
Now, only a miracle would save her. Even if the Sin Lord herself were present, her fate would stay the same.
'Mistress…'
The last fleeting moment was spent remembering the only person she considered family. Her big sister figure, and sometimes even her mother.
…Fortunately for her, a miracle invoker was nearby.
'Ah…?'
Cassius suddenly found inertia failing. Instead of collapsing downward, his body seemed to be flung upwards, back to the sky.
The next moment, he found something missing… His heartbeat.
Looking down, a fist-sized hole was there instead of his heart. A trail of light seemed to penetrate the hole, and when he looked back, he found it parting the clouds.
"Ah… BLRKK…"
BOOOOOOMM—!
The sound of the delayed detonation was the last thing he heard.