The battle continues. Me, already badly injured, against Wrath, who has just shed his protective skin, causing him to change colour. We both dodge and attack, with Wrath occasionally hitting me while I still fail to hit anything myself. He's far too fast and still has the upper hand. Finally, by sheer luck, I manage to land a blow that cuts him lightly across one of his shoulders. The cut is neither deep nor dangerous. But enough to infuriate Wrath. "Fuck you, kid! I was gonna go easy on you, but now I already wanna tear you apart!" Wrath shouts. He makes it seem as if I had just hurt him badly. Which I obviously hadn't. Wrath continues his rambling, eventually throwing his sword far away from him. It is almost impressive how far he has thrown it. I let out a small grin. "I'm a fair player." I say, as I throw my sword away as well. I clench my fist, secretly afraid of how good Wrath might be in close combat. And It does not take me long to find out. Wrath lunges at me, not with a punch, but with a kick! I'm taken aback by this sudden attack, but instinctively manage to defend myself by raising my right arm to my head, where Wrath was going to kick me. From there on out, fists fly around like crazy, Wrath and I just trying to land as many punches as we can. As each of us tries, we get faster and faster! At some point it happens. We hit each other in the face with full force at the same time! Not only do I basically 'fly' back from the impact, but Wrath barely budges from the force of my own punch. And even worse is the fact that Wrath recovers. And I do not. I just lay there for a while, out of breath and my mind completely out of it. That was a punch more painful and stronger than any human could've done it. But just as I was about to return to the fight, something unexpected happened. Hubris holds me back with one hand and steps in front of me. "Let me take it from here. You're nowhere near strong enough." I hate to admit the truth, and I don't want to. But just as I'm about to give up and let Hubris take over, the voices in my head make sure I hear them. "You're weak.", "Shame on you.", "I thought you wanted to beat him." These are just a few examples of how they put me down. It mentally destroys me, but I use these thoughts as motivation, and as fuel, to get up and fight again. I can't just give up like it's nothing. "I will finish this alone! Even if it kills me!" I shout as I push him aside. It is difficult, and it hurts, but through sheer will I stand up again. I grab my sword and clench my teeth. A last thought races through my mind. "So this is what it feels like... The moment when you either go beyond your limits and become stronger... Or give up and stay weak." Wrath already senses that something bad is about to happen and grabs his dagger. But not even that can stop me at this point. I leap forward, and all the adrenaline in my head causes me to be much faster. With my sword in a tight grip, I can think of nothing but my intention to kill. Our weapons clash again, the only difference being that now I can actually keep up with everything Wrath does. My brain is filled with so much info on what I need to do next, how hard to hit, where to hit, and so much more, but at the same time it feels like a void. I cannot think. All I know is the task at hand, and I execute that task like a lifeless machine - that task being to kill Wrath. I continue. Wrath notices what I've become and desperately tries to keep up with me with all his strength and power. But he notices, that it may not be enough for much longer. I have surpassed not only myself just now, but also anything that a human being is supposed to be able to do, and maybe even Wrath himself as well. And finally, it happens. After another successful and powerful strike against Wrath's dagger, it seems to fall apart, as if it had never been a dagger at all. Now, instead of slicing Wrath all over the place, I have other plans on how to end the fight. I take a small step back and strike. Not with my blade, but I summon the black serpent to finish the job, rather than making use of a normal blow. The Serpent emerges fully out of my sword, and with all its might it hurls itself at Wrath, who has no chance to defend himself. He's finished. As the snake lunges at Wrath, it opens its mouth wide. First it bites into one of Wrath's legs as he desperately tries to punch and kick the snake. But to no avail. Wrath is thrown several meters into the air and the snake opens its mouth even wider. It crawls along the walls until it finally takes off, lunging towards Wrath, who is still mid-air. Once it reaches him, it devours his entire torso. And disappears while still in the air. Everything is silent. No more snake. And no more Wrath. All that's left of him are his head and legs, which the snake didn't seem to wanna eat. I can't believe it. I just killed Wrath! "We did it!" I exclaim. I have never been so excited about anything before. As a result of all the adrenaline in my body, and all the strength I had just put in, both my eyes seem to have popped a vein inside them. But I never noticed, and Hubris never bothered telling me. I rush over to him and give him a massive high five. Even though he doesn't seem like much of a fan of such gestures. Once I calmed down a bit, I couldn't help but notice something. Wrath's legs are gone, as if they were never there. And where his head used to be, there is now just... a cube? "Hey Wrath, what is this cube?" I ask, still a little confused about what is going on. But as always, Hubris has the perfect answer. "This is a Radon, Krays. Every single one of the seven deadly sins has one. It's the main source of their power. The devil created each one of them by putting fractions of his own power into these cubes and locking them up to give to the sins." "That's sick!" I say. And I almost sounded like some excited kid, as if this was a totally normal situation or revelation. "But...these Radons are kind of useless to me, aren't they? Should we just leave them there? Or is there something someone like you can do with them?" I ask, now full of curiosity. "Now that I think about it... A human might be able to claim the power from this cube, just by touching it. I'm not sure about the side effects... But it might actually work." I waste no time testing this theory. I take a step forward and quickly pick up the brightly glowing Radon. At first nothing happens. But that doesn't last long. Bright red rays come out of the cube and not only run into my arm, but it looks like they are going straight into my veins, as they start glowing in that same bright red color. I immediately drop the cube in panic. "What the hell was that?!" But it is already too late. I can feel my veins pulsating inside me, even without touching them. It's as if they are about to burst. I fall down to my knees, holding my arm and grunting madly. It is an unbearable pain. Not only that, but... I start to feel strange. And that's when the worst happens. Unknown memories entering my brain as if they were my own. Feelings of violence, anger, and images of horrible, unimaginable deeds flood my mind. It hurts my head. It hurts everything in my body, it makes me writhe, crumple and whimper in pain. Those unknown memories in my head get worse by the second. It feels like the suffering of every single being that ever had to do with Wrath as sin is just being dumped into my brain all at once. It is truly horrifying. At this point, every reason of mine to be happy or feel anything close to that has completely and utterly vanished. So did the pain in my head, and the unknown memories also stopped flooding in. "What the Hell was that?!" I scream. I don't think I'll ever be able to process what just happened. "You okay?" Hubris asks. I don't really think he cares, but it's nice that he decided to ask anyway. "What made you think that I'm okay right now!" You can really tell by my eyes, how much physical pain I have just been in. Hubris shrugs, but then continues to speak. "Do you feel any difference? Like, have you gotten any stronger?" I'm asking myself that, too. Once I managed to collect my thoughts and stand back up, I already notice something. "I feel much lighter", I say, still not really able to believe that something like that made me stronger. "Good. Try running for a bit", Hubris suggests. I don't see why not, so I get into position. And then, I run. I run so fast, even Hubris' eyes widen. Well, they don't. They can't. But if they could, they most likely would. "That's fast. Probably even faster than Wrath now." He says calmly. "Yeah" I answer, my voice kept low. What earlier just looked Impossible and even inhuman to me, is now no issue at all anymore. "Alright, we should keep moving now, don't you think?" Hubris asks, with almost a cheerful voice. Wouldn't expect that from him. "Actually, let me try one more thing.", I answer. Then, I reach my arm out. "I wanna try to do what Wrath did...When he pushed his skin out and used it as some sorta blade." Hubris tilts his head in confusion for a second, but then remembers and nods. I keep my hand reached out. To my surprise, it actually works! But it looks really disgusting when a human does it - I end up scaring myself, so I make my skin go back to normal and promise myself to never use that ability again. Once my initial disgust wore off, I turned to Hubris. "I've tested everything I want. Let us go." Hubris nods. Together we go to the door a few meters behind Wrath's throne. We push it open, revealing a large, probably very long staircase. I cannot help but be excited about what is to come as we hurry up the stairs, towards what will probably be our next, even stronger enemy.
