"You killed my father, Serian Valhorn, the virtue of Temperance!"
Sarian slashed down at Sloth's form accelerating his speed with the power of light blitzing past his field of low gravity before it could disrupt his path.
Sarian's blades impacted with an invisible layer surrounding Sloth composed of chains overlapped on top of each other leaving no gaps in his defense.
Despite this Sarian only increased the pressure on his blades slowly chipping through the invisible chains. Sloth wouldn't let his defense break so easily, increasing the chains speed and their vibration burning into the blades of light reducing their form.
Sloth mounted the majority of his power onto Sarian, increasing the gravity around him hundred fold slamming into the floor allowing for Sloth to retreat slightly.
With his injury the blades of light dissipated becoming particles once again. Sarian tried to push himself off the ground but to no avail the pressure only increased with his struggles.
The gravity pressing against the soldiers had been released but they weren't out of danger yet as the first line of the formation fell limp.
Their heads all having the same injury, a bloody gash in place of their brains. A scarlet river forming in front of the formation.
No other attacks followed the first, his culling of the frontline being a warning to not interfere in the fight unfolding between their eyes.
"No one move!" ordered Ratella freezing everyone in place dread overtaking their senses after watching their comrades fall, reducing to bloody corpses all light exhausted from their bodies.
The conflict between Sloth and Temperance wouldn't be interfered with.
"I do remember Temperance, a formidable opponent but your anger is misplaced as I didn't kill Serian Valhorn. He almost killed me, actually just unfortunate my master was in the area. She slaughtered him after he insulted her so you should really be hunting her, not me. "
"You are lying to save your own skin. I don't even know who you speak of!"
Sarian anger did nothing to aid his attempts at withstanding the pressure on his body, his attempts leaving him with a mouth full of ash and dirt.
"Hm, I suppose you are better off not knowing who my master is. You would just end up like your father after all."
"You bastard, I'll kill you for that! I'll use the last thing my father taught me to rip the light from your body and add it to my collection!"
Sloth distanced himself from the prone man wary of his declaration bringing the all chains to his aid and defense.
"Edict of Light, Warding Shield."
With the Edict's protection, Sarian rose from the dirt standing tall in front of the man, the gravity no longer affecting him. With this Sloth stretched his power back onto the soldiers locking them onto the ground, their movements becoming laboured and sluggish.
Sarian summoned a greatsword mirroring his late father's swing into Sloth's defenses, impacting at a staggering force off putting Sloth's balance.
Ratella began to become unnerved by his sudden power increase flying closer to Sloth's location hovering over them monitoring their fight.
"With this you die by my hand, Devil of Sloth!"
Sarian pressed the weapon into the chains protecting Sloth, their movements doing nothing to slow or damage the greatsword of light.
"His defenses are breaking! Do something before I do, Ratella!" ordered Liliana newfound worry and anxiety laced within her words.
The unyielding force was beginning to crack the structure of the invisible chains comprising their integrity and leading to more cracks to ripple through their surface.
"I surrender!" cried out Sloth put his pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears, the embodiment of Temperance was completely lost to his rage.
Ratella swiftly dived down towards Sloth, pausing time as he did so, grasping Sloth's collar and dragging him upwards into the sky clear of Sarian's thunderous attack.
He managed to get Sloth clear of danger grasping onto him high in the sky.
When time returned to its natural course, Sarian's attack cleaved through the air, all resistance suddenly gone causing him to lose his grip on the earth, collapsing to the ground. His greatsword dissipated with the loss of focus.
Ratella hovered over the unit holding onto Sloth before touching down on the ground gathering the gazes of the soldiers, all surprised by his intervention saving their enemy from certain death.
"Ratella? What are you doing saving the Sin from death?" asked Samael, his mind growing wary of him and his hand subconsciously grasping the pommel of his sword.
"I thought I was toast, I'm too tired for this live or death stuff. Please leave me out of it next time, master!" cried out Sloth, tears flooding down his face looking totally exhausted by his near death experience.
"Oh, shut up. Be a good prisoner and close your mouth."
Ratella had his hand tightly around the man's neck walking towards their gathering of supplies finding some rope ignoring the piercing gazes of his hundred allies.
He tied the Sin's hands and legs, throwing him to the ground. He soon fell asleep, which seemed to be a common occurrence in their two meetings.
"Ratella! What are you doing?! One moment you are all for the murder and torture of Devils and the next you are for their safety."
Sarian summoned two shortswords pointing them in his direction. His breath laboured and uneven the fight between Sloth had a drastic impact on his body.
Liliana returned to his shoulder, his time stop had left her alone in the air. Despite her lack of speech, he could tell she was relieved by Sloth being alive and not cleaved in two by the irate man.
"Aspects of Shadows have no value to the war and could be disposed of in any way necessary. However Sins are overarching commanders and have connections to the Horsemen so should be interrogated for all the information in their minds."
"The harmonic song is clear that all Devils must be executed. To go against that would be treason!"
"So would be defying a Seraphim. Now let's get ready to go back to Brightnight, ready the equipment."
Sarian was stuck between two routes of treason, picking either would mean his eventual execution no matter the reason for raising his arms against a Seraphim.