Ethan fell onto the cold stone floor of the Pale Choir sanctuary, his body shaking uncontrollably. The massive drain from the Annihilation Protocol was nothing compared to the searing cold of the injury.
Elias rushed to him, her fingers tracing the wound on his back—a necrotic, spiritual laceration where The Fangs' Shadow Law had grazed his sigil.
"The wound is anti-life," Elias observed, her voice tight with professional dread. "It's not fire, not light. It's the imposition of voided order—a total suppression of energy flow."
The spiritual shock was paralysing. He was crippled, not by force, but by the cessation of chaos.
"They're a counter," Ethan rasped, forcing his mind to function through the pain. "Lucien sent a bespoke solution. They don't track the fire. They track the chaos. My Reality Warping is their beacon."
They retreated to the holographic projector. Elias ran the energy signature of The Fangs through the Choir's infernal database.
The analysis was chilling. Shadow Law was the principle of absolute, localised infernal Order. It was the antithesis of Ethan's raw, unpredictable power.
"They create an anti-chaos field," Elias confirmed, pointing to the data. "They find your chaotic surge, and they impose total spiritual rigidity. It neutralises the Reality Warping, leaving you reliant only on dampenable Wrath and consumable Gluttony."
Ethan stared at the projection of his new enemy. He couldn't fight them. They had removed his best weapon and his only escape mechanism. He couldn't simply turn off the Reality Warping—it was too integrated into his core after the previous soul collections.
The Angel's Shield
He needed a shield. Not a physical one, but a spiritual disruptor. He needed something so antithetical to infernal order that it would confuse the Shadow Law's precise tracking.
He looked at the map, visualising the known energy signatures of the city. He didn't have to look far for the perfect disruption.
"Seraphina," Ethan said, the name tasting like ash and steel.
Elias stared at him. "The Angel? You want to bring the Angel of Purity into the hunt? She is seeking to contain you."
"Precisely," Ethan replied, his voice regaining its cold, tactical edge. "The Fangs rely on the surgical precision of their infernal order. Seraphina's divine light is an absolute celestial order. The two are polar opposites, but both are blindingly bright on the spiritual spectrum."
He explained the strategy: The Fangs were looking for a single point of chaos (him). If he hunted in the immediate vicinity of a massive, moving point of celestial order (Seraphina), her presence would create such a massive spiritual cross signal that The Fangs' precise, infernal tracking would be jammed. It would turn a single, clear signal into a chaotic white noise, disrupting their Shadow Law counterfield.
The risk was astronomical. If Seraphina cornered him during the Annihilation Protocol, his spiritual shock would make him an easy target for containment, or worse, purging. But it was the only way to avoid the Executioners.
"You are using your hunters to hunt your assassins," Elias summarised, a reluctant respect in her voice. "A horrifying, brilliant manoeuvre."
The Next Prey: Envy
With the new strategy set, Elias pulled up the file on the next target.
Target: Marcus Lantz.
Sin: Envy (Social Comparison and Resentment).
Location: The Apex Tower, downtown. Headquarters of OmniView, a massive social media corporation.
The location was ideal for Envy. The soul fed on the constant comparison and resentment generated by billions of social interactions. It was hiding in plain sight, protected by the dense, self-obsessed spiritual clutter of the modern tech world.
"The Envy soul is an anchor of emotional toxicity," Elias explained. "The host, the CEO, uses OmniView to subtly manipulate the emotions of billions, generating constant resentment and comparison to feed the soul. It's a high-density target."
The complexity of the target matched the complexity of the new strategy. Ethan would have to locate and annihilate the soul amidst the constant surveillance of a global tech company, while navigating the terrifying cross signal of the celestial Angel and the infernal Executioners.
Ethan focused on the map, locating the Apex Tower. He forced the warring energies in his core into a fragile, momentary peace. The Wrath was the fire. The Reality Warping was the bomb. The Sloth was the dampener. The Pride was the arrogance to attempt this suicidal plan.
He looked at Elias. "Find me the Angel. I need to know where she is at all times. I will bring the chaos directly to her light."
His redemption would be a bloody, selfish, and desperate lie, played out on the highest stage of the city's power. He rose, the pain of the Shadow Law injury a constant, chilling reminder that his time was finite. The hunt for the Envy soul was on.
This is a fantastic chapter that raises the strategic complexity to new heights. The concept of using Seraphina as a spiritual jamming device is a compelling twist.