The next day I wake up while thinking about how I should kill Theodore before he becomes stronger than me and how I should take over the throne of the two empires. I already got a plan formulated in my mind but I tried to control myself.
“…This is really problematic… I have no need for the thrones. This greed is ridiculous.” → Shen
I created a mental barrier around my mind so I won’t get too affected then took it out just like Sloth.
“Shen, what’s happening with you? Why is your heart so full of malice?” → Sylvia
Sylvia, who was right beside me, grabbed my hand and asked with anxiety in her eyes. If I started feeling hate for the two continents then everything would be lost.
“Haha~ Calm down Sylvia, I’ll tell you what’s happening right now.” → Shen
I started explaining to Sylvia about the test I need to conquer and how for one week I’ll be under different kinds of effects from the sins.
“A test? Are you going to be okay? Besides…Lust was your weakest?” → Sylvia
Sylvia looked at me with suspicion in her eyes. She was the victim of the Lust and she couldn’t believe it that it was the weakest.
“Haha~ I’ll be ok, and cough… I think that was one of the strongest…” → Shen
I said while a little bit of embarrassed. I still get a little red when I remember that night.
“I see~, is that so? Then, if I can help you with anything, then please tell me~” → Sylvia
Sylvia, for some reasons, seemed to be in a better mode.
“Ah, sure.” → Shen
I smiled at her till she walked over the next corner toward the cafeteria, then I got contacted by Ryu.
OY man! I did what you told me, it seems way better than before but, it was pretty hard in controlling my body. → Ryu
What did you have? → Shen
Gluttony. For some unknown reason, I felt like running around and eat all and everything! I was extremely curious how the four races would taste. Dude! These Sins are scary! → Ryu
Ryu felt anxious, if by any chance he failed to control himself, he would’ve killed someone from his group and even ate that person.
Hmm….then, try to lock yourself up in some place and have Isa guard you. → Shen
Bro, I’m on a ship, all this wood won’t be able to hold me! → Ryu
Even though it sounded a little bit arrogant, it was true.
Then explain to everyone what happens and tell them to use the anchor’s chains to keep you down. → Shen
Now that I think about it, I should do the same.
… That sounds so stupid and ridiculous… too bad is the only option. Haah… I’ll do that, thanks. → Ryu
No problem. → Shen
After talking with Ryu, I choose to do the exact same thing as him.
“Chain young master up?!”
The beast-men, demons and elves who were with me screamed in unison. The 10 leaders were on Ryu’s ships while I had with me only the Elves leader. Right now everyone looked at me with dumbfounded faces.
“M-master? Why is it needed to chain you up again? I don’t think I understood.” → Melinda
“As I said. I used some forgotten magic which attracted a primordial beast. It told me that, if I wish to continue using this magic then I have to pass his test. At every night he’ll insert inside me negative primordial energies which react like the seven deadly sins. Depending on my soul, I get them from the weakest to the strongest. I already beat Sloth, Envy and Lust. I have confidence in easily beating gluttony and not having too much of a problem with greed…the problem resides in wrath and Pride… If bad comes to worse, I’ll ask Sylvia’s help, but till then, to be completely sure I won’t wreck anything around here, please chain me up.” → Shen
After more debating and talking, everyone was ok with chaining me up. The chain used was as thick as my waist, making it pretty hard to be used on me. Then we thought of placing my limbs between the chains holes while it was used to entangle me. I looked like the most dangerous entity in the world with such huge and heavy chains around me.
“Alright! Such chains can’t be broken even by Grandmasters! Haha, great.” → Shen
I used some of the slave’s handcuffs with anti-magic, locking a great part of my powers and keeping me down.
Alright…4 days to go. → Shen
The next day, I felt Gluttony inside my heart the moment I woke up. My stomach was rumbling loudly and I saw everyone around me as walking pieces of meat.
“Dang it, you all look delicious.” → Shen
I said while looking at everyone. The men paled while the women reddened.
“Alright Shen, finish with that Sin fast, you’re bothering the others.” → Sylvia
Sylvia said with some indignation.
“Hmm… I’ll do so after you let me take a bite.” –> Shen
My eyes were shining like those of a hungry wolf while staring at Sylvia’s chest.
“You! If you don’t do it now, I’ll use lightning on you!” → Sylvia
Sylvia said while blushing.
How problematic. Saying this while looking with such eyes at me! He said is Gluttony, but why does it feel like is Lust again? → Sylvia
“…”
I closed my eyes and started moving the black hole inside my stomach. With some difficulty, after one full hour I moved Gluttony and placed it together with the other 3 sins then I opened my eyes.
“Aye~ done. I’m sorry everyone. It seems is better to lock me in a room so I won’t say any other words without thinking.” → Shen
I smiled bitterly and asked them to move me from the decks. I was then moved into my room.
When I was prepared to sleep, I see Sylvia coming inside.
“What’s wrong?” → Shen
“…I didn’t get the time to tell you before…I had another vision last night.” → Sylvia
“What? How come?” → Shen
Sylvia’s ‘future seeing’ happens in really rare moments and only when truly important events awaited to happen. What is so important to be viewed as a message? The God that gives Sylvia her visions is the God of Love, Hamata. She tries to help the residents of this planet with all she has and Sylvia told me, she’s the representation of altruism and selflessness. From what I heard, She seems pretty trustworthy.
“I had a dream…about Goddess Hamata. She told me, if I really wish to keep the balance of Yggdrasil, I must first get the help of the 2 fake Gods: Ashura and Tara. Of what I understood from Hamata, the 2 fake gods are kept in East and West respectively, fighting for the 4 races. They are kept in conditions worse than prisoners and used for eliminating the waves of demonic beings which come from Eihwaz continent…She told us we need to save them and then get their help.” → Sylvia
“What?! What does she mean by ‘fake’? Ashura and Tara are 2 gods from Buddhism. If they’re fake then that means every God from mythology is fake, too-…” → Shen
Wait! If I’m not wrong, such pompous names are also given to man-made catastrophe-level inventions… → Shen
I had a really bad feeling about this. If they were called ‘fake’ and had such mighty names, then that could mean only one thing…
“Did Goddess Hatama said something about artificially made creatures?” → Shen
Please make my thoughts be wrong. If I’m right, then the reasons why things like ‘end of the world’ are closing in, might already be at a karmic level… Damn, I will have a lot of work to do. → Shen
I said while looking downward at my feet. Even though I saw only the floor, I was able to tell something much uglier was forming bellow everything known by man.
“A-artificially made creatures?” → Sylvia
Sylvia froze for a moment then she recovered instantly.
“Like those in laboratories? I’m afraid they might be present in this world. A lot of churches and temples tried to stop them from creating such monstrosities but the empires wished for them to continue…” → Sylvia
She evaded eye contact and continued with a serious voice.
“What I told you it’s a secret from the masses. Only the high priesthood knows of all this. And I am one of them because of my adoptive father.” → Sylvia
Sylvia said then with a proud face.
I felt slight waves inside Sylvia’s heart as if she was hiding something but I didn’t question anymore, however, I asked something else instead.
“You? A high priest? Aren’t you a little too young for this?” → Shen
“The age doesn’t matter, it matters if you can have connections with the gods.” → Sylvia
Sylvia looked very proud of herself.
“I understand. So is like an oracle or something?”
I asked with a wide grin then got back on the main subject.
“Anyway. The reason why the empire needs such laboratories is that they need biological weapons. They create such monsters with ridiculous powers to fight the demonic beings or between themselves… And the ‘fake gods’ are exactly such beings…”
I started to frown. Reaching such a conclusion wasn’t that hard, especially for a book-worm like myself. Back on earth, the only reason why someone would create stronger and deadlier weapons was so that they could kill the enemy by sacrificing the minimum of allied troops. It was an evil yet the most efficient way of ‘winning with minimal sacrifices.’
What a bad moment. Right when I take the Leviathan’s test! → Shen
“Haah… Sylvia, contact Gregor and tell him to go at the frontier between Vestria and Eihwaz then search for someone named Ashura or Tara, we’ll do the same and go to the frontier between Nostrung and Eihwaz, we need to get those 2 out from there.”
I said with some urgency in my voice. If what goddess Hatama said was right, then their help would be indispensable.
“Sylvia, do you know more exactly on which part of the frontier they are being kept?”
The frontier is long for thousands of km and the latitude can go on both continents until they hit the oceans with glaciers from the N and respectively from S. Searching aimlessly like that would take forever.
“No, she didn’t say anything about an exact location. But I’m pretty sure they must be right at the border. They are fighting against the demonic waves, right? Then they must at the closest proximity between their respective continent and Eihwaz.” → Sylvia
“D-damn right!” → Shen
I was a little bit surprised by how fast she thought of this.
Sylvia answered me while contacting Gregor and telling him about her dream. While she and Gregor talked telepathically, I tried to think of what my next test would be.
I think is Greed now…I can’t say I’m not greedy…so I’ll have to use inner-fighting this time. I’ll see what I can do with Wrath tomorrow. however, Pride…If bad goes to worse, I’ll just ‘go with the flow’ and try to keep my consciousness. → Shen
“Ugh… Shen. It seems you’re not the only one that has it hard with the test .” → Sylvia
Sylvia smiled awkwardly.
“Ryu just finished the Sin of Envy…He was screaming from the other side of the Ship saying he wanted to get the bigger ship and how you should’ve given him all your skills and items for all he did so he can build the biggest kingdom for himself…and stuff like that.” → Sylvia
“Haha…Is in a way my fault that this happened. if I knew, I wouldn’t have given him the Draconic Materialization.” → Shen
I smiled awkwardly then continued seriously.
“Tell Gregor to warn Ryu about one thing. The fact that he became more used to control the Primordial energy means his body and possibly his mentality too, will become more and more like those of a dragon. He should be aware what sins the Dragons are mostly known for…” → Shen
.
On Ryu’s part.
“A dragon’s sins?…” → Ryu
Ryu then palled.
“Oh God…what I feared the most…” → Ryu
“Yeah…and Shen said that your wish to fight and desire to destroy and conquer comes from these sins. Plus Wrath, which is the strongest in you… I can’t tell why he said Wrath is the strongest when you’re always so smiley and barely irritated, only when you’re tired.” → Gregor
Gregor was a little confused after he told Ryu all that Sylvia said through telepathy.
“Haha~ he knows me the best… And that’s exactly the problem… didn’t you heard the saying; ‘the calmest people are the most dangerous’? Is like a glass in which you pour water. Some people have it bigger or smaller, and the bigger the glass, the calmer the person… But here is the problem, when you spill the two kinds of glasses, which one will make more disaster?” → Ryu
Ryu smiled feeling pretty tired at this question.
“Oh, God.” → Gregor
Gregor then palled after understanding the question.
“We need to bring the anti-magic handcuffs…Sorry, Ryu, this is for your and everybody’s wellbeing.” → Gregor
After saying so, he ran out of the room and brought around 10 anti-magic iron handcuffs.
“I understand, don’t worry. I would’ve done the same to myself.” → Ryu
But 10 of them… really?… Anyway, what I worry the most, for now, is not Wrath… → Ryu
Ryu then started reddening in the face and said to Gregor.
“Uh…oy Gregor…Please ask Sylvia to teach Bonny some kind of sound isolation magic and cast it around the room…after Greed there might be…ugh…there might be ‘a bigger problem'” → Ryu
“Huh?” → Gregor
At first, he didn’t understand what he meant but after seeing him reddening like this, he knew what might be next.
. “Ah… Right! Please wait a moment.” → Gregor
“Thanks…”
Ryu then focused on the last fight he had with Envy.
I felt like killing everything to get whatever little thing the ones around me had…what scary sins. And the thought of them becoming stronger is even scarier… Good thing I can get rid of them through the method Shen told me. Fighting them is hard, but at least is possible. → Ryu
“Oh! And by the way! We should leave the ship with the 10 leaders, you, Lissa and the 2 brats on the boat which will go to where our future kingdom will be. On the other ship, I’ll go with Bonny and try to save one of the ‘fake gods’. After we’re done, we’ll come to the place the rest of you had settled.” → Ryu
“Understood.” → Gregor
After Gregor left, Ryu remained alone with his thoughts.
…How in the world was ‘Lust’ the weakest?! I don’t believe Shen at all! He must’ve cheated in a way, that damn brat. → Ryu
Ryu grumped on his own until Bonny came to cast some soundproof spells around the room.
.
The next day on my part.
I stayed in my room with soundproof magic around it. I looked in-space with greedy eyes.
“Power! I need more power! If I wish to defeat all and everything then protect Sylvia and the others, what I need the most is power!” → Shen
The chains started to clatter and the ship itself started to shake a little bit, making everyone confused about what was happening.
“More… MORE!” → Shen
I shouted and the chains started to clatter louder and louder, forming small cracks around it. The handcuffs glowed with a red light and looked like they would explode at any moment.
“You swine. In whose body do you think you reside?”
Another voice of mine resounded in my head.
“UGH!”
My body convulsed a little when suddenly it stopped moving. After a few minutes, I woke up with a dizzy head and a strong headache.
“Ugh… that damn lizard… what’s up with this level of negative energy? A normal human won’t just be ruled by his Sins, he’ll get straight out possessed. A demon which would roam the world and bring disaster…” → Shen
This might be more dangerous than I thought… → Shen
