Myths Reawakened

The screams didn’t last long before blazing golden light came crashing in. Having lost a pair of black wings, Milne could no longer balance the berserking Golden Law and Seven Deadly Sins in his body, and his impenetrable defense fell apart. The golden light bisected him at the waist, even disintegrating his lower body.

Wayne was also within the range of attack of the golden light. It was so fast that he couldn’t get away in time. Eyes glowing golden, Hesione manipulated the whipping light and scattered it into bands of Golden Law before it could hit Wayne.

Energy that had been condensed into a thread suddenly expanded, which inevitably led to an explosion.

A golden mushroom cloud slowly rose with fine patterns forming a complex shape inside. Drowned out by the golden light, the shape radiated an enchanting, dangerous glow, casting everything in proximity in a layer of silky gold.

The stunning scene was soon interrupted by a piercing light slicing through the sky. Deafening explosions rang, and heaven and earth resonated. It felt as if the entire world was shaking.

Soft golden light was replaced by the black and red of the smoke and fire. It quickly expanded like a rousing giant beast, devouring everything around it without discrimination.

Intensely hot currents shot in all directions, and riding along, flames spread like flying dragons, bringing destruction everywhere. The resulting shockwaves from the explosion slammed into the ground and trees in the area, bringing them high into the air before tearing them to pieces.

The air was permeated with the smell of heat and death.

Wayne flapped his broken black wings, coming up to Hesione with missing limbs. As his body slowly regenerated, he complained, “You went too hard, Śār. You got me, too.”

“You got close on your own volition. Besides, I pulled back at the last second.” Hesione remained unfazed. If not for Mona’s intervention, she would’ve seized the chance to kill Wayne as well.

“That’s true. You did pull back.” Having mostly recovered, Wayne nodded and said, “You’re wonderful, Hesione. I know that while you say you don’t want me, you like me.”

(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄) (눈益눈)

There was not one part of Hesione’s existence that liked him. She hoped that he would behave and stop using her good manners as an excuse to push further.

Putting her rage aside, she ignored Wayne and wondered about something else: Mona had accepted her memories and thus accepted transformation. In theory, she should be gradually turning into Hesione. However, that wasn’t the case. Something was wrong. Among the two sets of memories, Mona’s maintained the upper hand. On the contrary, Hesione had been changed more.

What was wrong?

“Ack, ack...”

Hearing the weak coughs, Hesione put aside her confusion and tightened her grip around the Oath Sword. Amid the scorching air, rising dust, and rolling black smoke, Milne emerged with only half of his body. He was completely charred by the intense heat and energy. His ten fingers, handsome face, and one remaining pair of white wings had turned into charcoal.

“He’s still alive?”

Wayne knew how powerful that attack had been. He was fine only because Hesione had pulled back at the last second. Otherwise... well, he wouldn’t die, but he would turn into air and recombine into a solid state, losing the black greatsword he had acquired not long ago.

But how did Milne survive? His energy had gone berserk, so the devastating external energy should’ve detonated him. This didn’t make sense!

Wayne looked over and saw writhing charcoal slowly grow into a fleshy sphere. It was all pale and covered in crisscrossing ridges of wrinkles, forming chaotic and eerie patterns on his skin. Against the pale backdrop, countless black chains grew out of the flesh, splashing around like tentacles.

Behind the sphere, a massive pair of white wings slowly unfurled like the wings of a newborn bird, with slightly damp feathers.

Rip!

The fleshy sphere’s wrinkles shifted, opening into numerous pairs of golden eyes. Bands of Golden Law swirled around each pair with a terrifyingly holy presence.

Wayne made a rough count. There were more than a thousand eyes in total, which would be triggering to someone with trypophobia.

An angel!!

It was the form of an original angel rather than a beautified, humanoid angel as described in the revised Sacred Tome.

Hesione gave Milne a regretful look. There was something beautiful about his angel form, but the chains representing the Seven Deadly Sins undermined that beauty, adding an element of corruption and making the overall picture look evil.

The Seven Deadly Sins had gone bone deep. Milne hadn’t fallen only because of the Lord of Envy’s temptation, but also because of his own choice.

He was beyond salvation!

Hesione sentenced Milne to death and immediately executed the penalty. She urged Mona once more to accelerate their integration. Once they were fully integrated, they could also transform into their original form.

Mona thought their current form was quite ideal. Three pairs of handles would make it easier for Wayne to accelerate.

Are you hearing yourself?! Hesione’s wings fluttered with rage. She clenched her jaw, the cross-shaped stigma on the tip of her tongue hidden behind her teeth.

In her fury, her six wings expanded, and golden bands of light spread to project the Eye of Judgement, with a cross pupil.

The hellish angel and the Śār had used their ultimate moves at the same time. Not one to be outdone, Wayne weaved black chains with the Seven Deadly Sins to create the projection of a black sphere behind him. A vertical eye opened on the sphere, slowly whispering in low voices.

No matter what appearance he adopted, be it an elven or a demonic one, they were nothing but added filters to change his looks. His true form always featured a large eyeball and a paleness.

Three figures confronted each other in the air, their intangible pulsing energy colliding. Space crumpled like a sheet of white paper before being flattened once more.

Looking at the endless stretch of ruins left in the aftermath of the battle, Wayne praised the demon’s responsible behavior of setting up a barrier before the fight, protecting the human world from the devastation.

Hopefully, the next demon who descended would be as polite as Milne.

The three’s powers fought for dominance. Hesione’s was most noble and pure, while Milne’s was most chaotic and powerful due to the combination of Golden Law and the Seven Deadly Sins. Wayne...

Well, Wayne’s power couldn’t be described as mighty; it was insidious. The low whispers were pure chaos and filled the wrinkled space around him, covering it in a layer of white flesh. In terms of corruption, his was undoubtedly the most corrupting.

None of them said anything. Milne seemed to have lost the ability to string together sentences with his thoughts. The uncontrolled switch between the volatile Seven Deadly Sins and the serene Golden Law left his thoughts jumbled.

The Lord of Envy had balanced the incompatible Hell and Heaven, but only on the surface. At his core, Milne was a chimera of contradictions. It seemed like he was operating well, but Milne.exe was actually full of bugs.

Under the circumstances, Milne’s prowess stemmed from his uniqueness, allowing him to overpower any demon or angel at his level. At the same time, however, he had lost the possibility of further evolution.

The Heavenly Father had opened a window for him, but the Lord of Envy closed it and welded the door closed.

Bam!!!

Milne roared with hundreds of eyes unleashing sacred flames indiscriminately. What should’ve been blazing white fire was an ink black, manifesting the Divine Comedy of the Seven Deadly Sins.

“Such incredible power, but it’s near its end. If it’s your trump card... I gotta say, no one can conquer the world without sanity.” Wayne murmured, weaving his whispers with his thoughts before transmitting the message through the large eyeball.

Milne seemed to understand it. Flapping his white wings, he lunged at Wayne.

Lies never hit as hard as truths.

Take Hesione as an example. Wayne had gotten through her defense many times, not only because of his signature shamelessness, but more so because he had been telling the truth.

Stung, Milne refused to accept reality. He believed the kind stranger that the Lord of Envy envied his talent, that he was more powerful than the Seven Demon Lords, and that he was the chosen one destined to conquer the world rather than Envy, Pride, or any other demon lords.

The fleshy sphere was over ten meters in diameter. Despite its bulk, it was incredibly fast. It reached Wayne in an instant and aimed over a hundred eyes at him simultaneously, shooting out black flames to burn him to charcoal.

Hesione stood before Wayne reflexively, guarding her master under Mona’s influence.

She raised the Oath Sword high above her head, interweaving bands of the Golden Law and sending them soaring along the blade like its extension. She slashed at Milne fiercely. At the same time, the Eye of Judgment emitted golden light to restrain Milne.

Wayne’s endless whispers were also effective in taking down Milne’s defense of thoughts. The conductor’s baton nudged the sheet music of the Divine Comedy of the Seven Deadly Sins, making the chaos even more chaotic.

The eyes on the sphere darted around aimlessly. Facing the Oath Sword swinging down toward it, it did nothing but breathe out demonic flames, having forgotten the most basic defense and evasion.

Whoosh!

The white light settled. A vertical line split from the top of the pale, fleshy sphere to the bottom of it. The eyes that had been severed instantly dimmed, turning grey with an eerie, hazy light.

The next second, the fissure on the sphere mended itself. Aside from the few dead eyeballs, the attack seemed to have done no substantial damage.

Unfazed, Hesione pushed Wayne away and made more swings, precisely taking out several eyes with every attack. Wayne committed the scene to memory. Based on his understanding of Heaven, it seemed that the Heavenly Father had been pursuing the evolution of the Void, namely the Astral Plane, with the ancient god as the ultimate goal, and He might have succeeded.

Angels were the Heavenly Father’s vassals or the products of His experiment in His pursuit of evolution, so angels similarly went down the path of the Void.

In that case, Milne’s incredible vitality was no surprise. The truth of Astral life was greater than anything. An Astral life could not be wiped out easily unless it lost in a debate.

Wayne watched from a distance as Hesione destroyed more and more eyeballs on Milne’s body, eradicating his vitality. This might be Heaven’s way of executing a traitor. The knowledge could become useful in the future.

Two minutes later, Hesione calmly made the last swing to kill the last eyeball. As it closed and lost its light, the pale fleshy sphere lost the ability to breathe out fire. It had met its end, unable to sustain its form. The white flesh melted and fell to the ground like raindrops. At the same time, information spread.

The information was about the scriptures of the Golden Law and the Divine Comedy of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The Book of Greed perked up.