_Chapter Begins_
His hoarse breaths flowed through the gaps between his clenched teeth. A sweat drop rolled from his eyebrow and flowed down to his chin.
William's chest rose and fell at an alarming rate, and his arms shook uncontrollably like a scared animal.
Scared… that was the impression you would get out of William if you only looked at his body language.
But a face… a face makes all the difference in the world.
A deep scowl of disgust and anger sat over his face, and William's pitch-black eyes were shrunken and shaking.
He was so angry—so disgusted and appalled. But he didn't know why he felt this way.
Even when he tried to think rationally, it was like something was preventing him from doing so.
And this feeling of dread, anger, and disgust was only growing stronger the more time passed.
William lifted his head up and looked toward the wooden abomination, which was still guarding his dagger despite the fact that it could also feel the approaching dread that he was feeling.
He knew that the wooden fiend was smart enough to hesitate when faced with danger. So why was it still here, guarding his dagger?
It was obvious that whatever was coming to their location was a being stronger than both it and William put together.
So then why did the wooden creature insist on staying…
William's fists clenched, and he held himself back from punching the ground.
"You think you're tougher, huh? You really think you're better than me!?"
The ugly monster was challenging him. It was trying to prove that it was the superior being between the two.
It stayed there, basically telling William, "You can leave if you want, but that proves my superiority."
The thing was literally playing a game of who chickens out first, and it believed that William would be the one to do so.
At that moment, William suddenly relaxed his hand and lifted it up to his face—gently caressing his cheek.
Looking back at his fingers, he was overtaken by shock. A thin layer of water was gliding down his fingers.
"Am I really… crying?!"
Coming into this fight, he had promised not to run away like last time… he had promised that he would kill this beast with his own hands.
But at this moment, all those promises that he had made to himself suddenly lost all meaning.
Was he really going to risk permanently dying by the hand of a higher being just to get his revenge on the wooden abomination?
These tears were not tears of sadness… they were the tears of a shattered ego, as William had already made his choice.
"I… need to… run away!"
All that self-talk about not running away and getting revenge for all of the painful deaths he had experienced—and here he was, accepting defeat, and a humiliating one at that.
Wiping his tears away, William got down to his knees and placed a hand on the surface of the crystals below.
But before he disappeared into the reflections, he looked one last time at the monster that had killed him so many times.
Their eyes met once more, but this time there was a clear winner in their eye-contact match.
William's pitch-black eyes faltered to keep eye contact, and his lip quivered at the gaze of the gleeful monster.
Meanwhile, the gaze of the wooden fiend was completely unshaken—staring William down like a predator would do to its prey.
In the end, the will of the wooden abomination completely absorbed whatever was left of his will.
This was the weakest that William had ever felt in his life. He felt more vulnerable now than back when he was a homeless guy being hunted down by a cult.
With a groan, he uttered a single word.
"R-Reflect."
And with that, he was gone. But just because he was gone did not mean that he could not watch.
He moved a few hundred meters away and settled on hiding behind a pile of crystals.
He did not stay in the reflections for obvious reasons—namely, his soul.
Now that he was further away from the spot where he had been fighting the wooden beast, he noticed the stark difference in his emotional state.
There was still bitterness, disgust, and anger in him, but now it felt more natural.
When he was there at that spot, it was like his emotions were being manipulated and enhanced tenfold.
Not to mention the fact that the anger and disgust he was feeling were not even directed at the wooden abomination—at least not initially.
After he accepted defeat to the wooden fiend, only then did he feel angry toward that thing. But before that happened, his anger and disgust were directed toward something else… but what?
"Looks like I am about to find out."
A blinding light showered the dark and empty sky of Hell, making the purple haze of the planet of Envy disappear in an instant.
William was rendered blind by the light, as it was so intense that it was almost like a miniature sun had appeared.
For a few seconds, there was only darkness as he kept his eyes closed—waiting for the light to go away.
"Huh?"
William's head lowered, and he looked down toward his chest. Of course, he did not dare open his eyes.
"What is the orb up to now?"
The "orb," or the Sin of Envy as it should probably be called—he could feel it moving around inside his soul.
This was a very, very bad sign for him.
The last time this had happened was when he and Jane had gotten swallowed by that cursed red fog.
Did this light have the same effect as the red fog? He had no idea.
All these emotions—the dread, anger, and disgust that he had felt up to now—were they really his emotions?
The Sin of Envy had invaded his very soul, so it would only make sense that it could influence it.
So maybe… all these emotions weren't actually his. Maybe they were from the Sin of Envy.
It was only a theory, but it would explain a lot about his intense emotional state.
But there was no time to theorize, as the bright light that had appeared in the sky finally began to fade away.
Putting his hand over his eyes for some shade, William looked up at the sky where the light source had first appeared.
It took some time, but after a few seconds of looking, his eyes finally caught sight of… something.
At this moment, William could only freeze up like a scared puppy. His mouth hung open, which made for a funny sight.
"What is that…"
A white tunic flowed in the air, making the world seem brighter by just its mere existence. White strings of hair hung above the tunic, matching its color and vibe perfectly.
Two white wings flapped across the sky, making it seem as if freedom itself had arrived in Hell to free every trapped soul that lay there.
The eyes of the lady—they were completely white, making her whole appearance a single color that completely seemed unnatural here in purgatory.
Her presence sent out a ray of warmth and kindness like William had never felt before.
If he had been a normal person, he would have been undoubtedly drawn to her, like a flower longing for sunshine.
But deep inside his soul, the Sin of Envy made it apparent that it did not like this presence of warmth and kindness one bit.
It showed this by making him feel all types of emotions, mainly anger and disgust.
It seemed that William's theory had been correct.
He did his best to suppress and muffle the feelings that the Sin of Envy was planting in his mind.
But the will of the Sin of Envy was just too strong for him to handle. It was like a small fire trying to resist an entire ocean.
"Damn it, I knew this would happen one day!"
Clutching his head, William couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Did he really think that a sin would invade his soul and then just let him do whatever he wanted with its powers?
But truthfully, he knew that the Sin of Envy would not remain a slave to his will for long. And as it seemed, the orb had decided to show its dominance over him today.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud and familiar roar.
William lifted his head and looked at the spot where he had last seen the wooden abomination.
In the distance, a sight ripped straight out of a page from a fantasy novel caught his black eyes.
A beautiful angel made of white radiance faced a giant abomination made of wood.
It felt like the world itself was split in two.
One side was filled with warmth and empathy, coming from the angel.
And the other was filled with madness and death, coming from the monster.
It truly felt like Heaven and Hell themselves were clashing.
And he...he felt nothing but hatred for both of them.
_Chapter Ends_