The Broken Halo

Lilith released a slow sigh.

She had not expected Simon to become reasonable after learning what a Seed of Sin could offer and the danger it posed. Her concern lay elsewhere, in the darkness that remained above them even as the tribulation lightning weakened.

”The moment you complete forming a seed, you will be in immense danger,” she said. ”What is searching will be able to locate you.”

Simon’s smile faded slightly.

”And can you tell me what is looking for me?”

”I cannot tell-”

”-me without consequences. Yes, yes, yes I remember.”

He rolled his eyes.

”You’ve said it enough times. I would be more surprised if you actually answered.”

Lilith did not return his amusement. Her golden scarf stirred against her shoulder, although the air beside Simon had gone still.

He looked at her for another moment.

”Don’t worry so much. I’ll handle what comes.”

Then he lowered himself onto the scorched ground, crossed his legs, and rested his hands upon his knees. His six wings settled behind him while a thin current of the consumed power of the tribulation continued feeding Unholy Regeneration.

”You don’t even know what you’re promising to handle,” Lilith murmured.

Simon heard her.

He gave no response.

His attention had already reached the tiny presence inside his Infernal Heart.

The seed remained incomplete. Parts of its outline disappeared whenever he tried to examine them closely. Others had become dark enough to stand out against the surrounding Chaos Flame.

’Which sin are you?’

Greed seemed the obvious answer.

He had destroyed Velmora for his evolution, ignored Lilith’s warnings on the Path of Origin, and demanded more from a tribulation already capable of killing him.

But the feeling within the seed was different.

Simon watched another fragment of crimson lightning disappear into Devour.

Its hostile power broke apart. What remained passed through his circulation, repairing the flesh it had been trying to destroy.

The seed trembled.

”Gluttony.”

The word left his mouth softly.

He had expected Greed, but he could no longer mistake what he was feeling.

Ever since returning to Velmora, he had been consuming. Demons in the inn. Ancient bloodline imprints. The tribulation lightning meant to erase him.

His greed had decided what he wanted.

Devour had decided how he took it.

Simon followed that distinction deeper.

He could have stolen a weapon and kept it in his ring. It would have belonged to him while remaining something separate.

But nothing remained separate after Devour.

Another creature’s strength became the force in his muscles. An enemy’s power passed through his veins. Even the punishment descending upon him was being made into something his own body could use.

”I don’t just keep what I swallow.”

A crimson branch snapped against his shoulder. He barely noticed the wound opening or the flesh joining beneath it.

”I make it part of me.”

His breathing slowed.

The demons he had drained in Pipeline Inn were gone, but he had walked out with the strength and recovery their deaths provided. The Otheryn and Uruqath imprints had vanished into him, and his blood had changed.

Nothing he consumed had been enough to end the appetite.

UnholyRegeneration had given him a body capable of taking more. Strengthening that body had led him to seek a more terrifying lightning. Changing the nature of his lightning had made the power needed for a new Heart rank seem within reach.

And now that he knew something existed beyond the gods he remembered, even that breakthrough no longer looked like enough.

The thought settled without excitement.

He had mistaken satisfaction for a place he would eventually arrive.

Every gain had given his appetite something larger to reach for.

Inside his heart, a darker surface formed along one side of the seed.

”Even when I’m full...”

Simon’s fingers curled slightly against his knees.

”I’m still looking for the next thing.”

He remembered standing beneath the fourth bolt after his physical strength stopped increasing. He had not been relieved to reach his limit.

He had immediately searched for somewhere else to put the power.

His hunger had not ended when his body could take no more. It had begun demanding a body that could.

The seed’s outline thickened.

There was no foreign voice telling him what Gluttony meant. He was recognising something he had already done, again and again, with his hands, his power, and his own choices.

Devour had let him live that understanding before he possessed the words for it.

His thoughts slipped into a quiet, sustained clarity.

”Being able to consume something doesn’t mean I need it.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

”But I still want to know what I could become after swallowing it.”

The incomplete seed pulsed.

Its dark surface spread, becoming less transparent. For several heartbeats, Simon could see almost its entire shape.

Above the basin, thunder sounded.

Lilith raised her head.

The sound did not roll away.

It lingered in the air, stripped of direction, until the next rumble seemed to come from beside her rather than the clouds.

Dust continued drifting across the ground. Its faint scrape disappeared.

The smell of scorched stone faded.

Crimson lightning still moved around Simon, but its light no longer seemed to reach as far.

Something was occupying the spaces those familiar sensations left behind.

Lilith’s fingers tightened.

Simon’s seed pulsed again.

The darkness between the clouds seemed nearer.

Not lower.

Nearer.

His instincts suddenly recoiled.

Simon opened his eyes, and the trance he was in broke.

For an instant, he could not tell whether he was looking at the world or something waiting for the world to move aside.

He could see Lilith, the crater, and the lightning. Everything looked the same.

However, everything felt wrong.

’Stop.’

He pulled his attention away from the understanding gathering around the seed. His Will checked the inward movement before the last uncertain part could settle.

The seed remained.

It was almost solid, but not yet complete.

Simon drew a careful breath. He could still feel the presence searching through the stillness, trying to settle upon the small thing inside his heart.

It had not gone away.

Lilith watched him, her expression offering no reassurance.

”That close,” he murmured.

He had not learned an ancient formula or forced himself into an unfamiliar state. He had recognised a hunger he already lived.

Yet he was within reach of a natural Seed of Gluttony.

Devour had made the path frighteningly familiar.

’The Devourers...’

Their power did not merely resemble Gluttony to him now. It felt like an expression of it so complete that he wondered whether the race itself had been its embodiment.

What would have happened if he possessed their bloodline as well?

Would the seed have formed before he even knew to stop it?

Simon let the question pass.

There was something more immediate to consider.

He examined his Infernal Heart, then the immense power still passing through his body. His flesh had reached its limit. His bloodlines had changed beyond recognition.

His Heart had not.

’Complete the seed now, and I face whatever is up there with what I have.’

He looked upward.

The thought gave him no confidence.

Becoming a Greater Demon might not save him either. The presence beyond the fading lightning felt too distant from anything his current strength could measure.

But a better chance remained a better chance, however small.

”The Forged Heart first.”

He would advance before completing his seeds.

He would not abandon them.

He would only change the order of how he wanted to do things.

Simon steadied the circulation keeping him alive, leaving the nearly formed seed unfinished. He did not know how long he could maintain that state, and he had no intention of spending the opportunity admiring it.

There was one decision to make before beginning the breakthrough.

Gluttony explained his need to consume, but it did not explain everything he wanted to possess.

His bloodlines. His freedom. The power others kept beyond his reach. None of those desires had appeared merely because he could swallow something.

And he had meant what he told Lilith.

More than one.

He would seek the beginning of another seed now, then strengthen his Heart before allowing either to finish.

The next sin was not a nature he would have to pretend.

Simon lowered his gaze.

”Greed.”