"I don't know where the Magnus Blade is."
Halo sighed in disbelief.
"Given that Silent Hill's generation remains intact, it's probably the mucus from a Forgotten Sinner. Still, I've never heard of it solidifying into a weapon."
Halo scowled in bewilderment and exchanged glances with his clone.
Humans had ranks: Awakened, Knight, Assassin, Sovereign, Overking and Lost Saint. At least, those were the ones Halo knew—the levels his best friend had reached. If anything came after, he couldn't say.
Sinners had ranks too. Toddlers were weakest, then Perverted. These two wandered aimlessly, unlike humans and the higher Sinner ranks: Beast, Demonic, Forgotten, and Absolute.
Given they were a level above Demonic Sinners and he'd struggled with mere Toddler Sinners, the challenge ahead was clearly beyond his capabilities.
"Stick to the path I told you. Mucus or not, it's the only way you'll make it into the castle alive."
Saint had contributed what she could. Trapped as she was, she'd nonetheless explained the safest approach to Silent Hill in detail, and while her motives remained dubious, they seemed to serve Halo's survival.
Halo's clone had surveyed the path Saint laid out, and while it lacked speech, its frantic gestures communicated enough, the route was far from clear.
Yet waiting wasn't an option.
The sun was already directly overhead.
There was nothing left to say. Halo trailed behind his clone as they picked their way carefully through the gnarled and misshapen trees.
Halo had spent a few days in this world, from the academy's premises through his first assigned purpose. He'd witnessed the world's cruelty firsthand, and it had altered his view of life itself.
Yet his will to survive burned stronger than ever, especially his desire to make his way to the hero.
But achieving that meant playing along with the gods' twisted game. He had to survive and complete this purpose.
Tempus est dominus. Time is the master.
One step at a time.
***
With the clone guiding them, progress came more smoothly than Halo had feared.
As they moved forward, a pattern became clear, collapsed concrete buildings everywhere, decayed with age, their surfaces thick with moss and dust. Bush and scrub grew wild through some of the wreckage.
The ruins rekindled Halo's anxiety. Dark Saint had warned him about a Forgotten Sinner, and facing that tier of threat meant almost certain death.
He faced the facts, he couldn't confidently defeat even a Perverted Sinner if everything was on the line.
While he exhaled deeply, his demeanor told a different story. To any observer, he radiated calm assurance.
However, not long after, he stood upright and gulped down his uneasiness, his confusion trapping him in a deep daze as he glanced at the view before him.
A grim village lay before them, its streets lined with decayed and crumbling structures, an atmosphere of oppressive humidity and gray.
A snaking mud path threaded through the wreckage, guiding the eye toward an imposing castle that rose from a hill far ahead.
The castle towered over them with sharp spires and ancient stone walls, Sinners flying overhead in lazy circles while more stood sentinel on the battlements.
The clone jolted him from his thoughts, gesturing sharply toward cover. Halo immediately came to his senses and followed, both of them crouching low behind a ruined structure.
"What the fuck am I doing?" Halo muttered and slapped his cheeks.
He refused to die here, not like this. He understood that excessive paranoia was as deadly as carelessness. Fear gripped him, certainly, but he wouldn't let it paralyze him.
He needed to stay collected. He was Halo, feared by many, he couldn't be bothered by a higher threat.
He took a deep breath and calmed his nerves.
As he scanned the area, the reality was clear, they had to move like shadows. With Sinners circling above and sentinels watching intently from their posts, a single thoughtless action would be their last.
As he pondered their options, his clone turned to him with a directional gesture. The message was clear without speech, and Halo responded with a confirming nod.
His clone intended to reconnoiter, and, being both emotionless and made of pure shadow, Halo figured it stood a better chance of survival than he did.
Halo watched his clone navigate carefully between hiding spots, his mind working through their tactical options.
The clone could go without clothes, but its white hair and luminous eyes would betray it regardless. Besides, Halo refused to treat his sole ally here as expendable.
This was his clone.
They shared an identity.
This made him think harder than he typically did, though it yielded no brilliant alternatives.
Saint's warning echoed, Sinners dominated after dark, so they either finished before sunset or found refuge.
That narrowed his choices to one, hopping between collapsed structures for cover. Painfully slow, but his best chance at survival.
However, while his mind drifted, his heartbeat quickened beyond control and his body froze in place.
Labored breathing pressed against the back of his head, so powerful that his hair rippled with every exhalation.
Halo mentally cursed every god he could name.
A Sinner was right behind him. Its rank? Impossible to tell when his traitorous body refused to move and his only reference point was the lowest tier of Sinner.
Without warning, something wrapped around him slowly, almost carefully. His eyes darted downward as horror crawled across his skin.
Something like an octopus tentacle gripped his body. One moment there was only one, the next, too many to count had materialized.
His body trembled from within though he couldn't manage any reaction past a calm and composed one.
In an instant, the creature's viscous flesh settled over him like warm slime, conforming to his body as if melting into it.
The tenderness of it was deeply wrong.
Halo's terror began draining away, confusion rushing in to take its place.
He instinctively fought against the grip, but the tentacles that felt so soft were completely rigid, refusing to budge.
This situation was eerily familiar.
This wasn't any Sinner he had ever encountered, this meant it probably went beyond a Toddler Sinner.
The longer he remained trapped, the more the Sinner's body liquefied around him, and his efforts to wrench himself free by strength alone yielded nothing.
The Sinner obviously meant no harm and yet its habit had him drenched in sweat.
"I get it… This has to be a Perverted Sinner."
The realization formed into words. Toddler Sinners attacked from fear or fury, or simply because they were predators. But this?
This was completely different. It showed affection, the same attachment between a pet and a master.
The realization felt significant. Sinners weren't distinguished by looks but by how they acted. Still, he had no time to appreciate the insight.
Perverted Sinners outclassed Toddler Sinners in strength, and the creature's unyielding hold proved it. Stay trapped long enough, and those tentacles would squeeze the life from him.
"Tsk. I need something. Something."
The clone hadn't returned from patrol yet, and Halo knew that even when it did, it couldn't offer much assistance. This predicament required more than backup.
Halo's mind spiraled between thoughts.
Yet, he came up short.
His legs ultimately collapsed beneath him, forcing him to adjust his weight toward the ground. In that instant of movement, his eyes widened and a knowing smirk appeared.
Something changed.
His body slipped fractionally through the tentacles when he relaxed. The creature was essentially Oobleck, hardening against force but flowing around gentleness.
He went completely slack, relaxing every nerve and muscle, and the transformation was immediate. His body slipped through the tentacles effortlessly, sliding across the floor as he pulled himself to freedom.
The moment he found himself free, he finally got a better look at the Sinner.
He swallowed hard.
It looked like an ogre fused with an octopus.
Octopus characteristics dominated from the head down to its waist, but its lower body was decidedly ogre-like, with reddish, tough skin, tree-trunk legs, and grotesquely oversized toes.
It seemed to be in a state of rest. Though its face had scant definition beyond eyes and two breathing holes, Halo was positive the creature smiled in satisfaction, blissfully ignorant that he'd freed himself.
But Halo refused to take any more chances. Leaving without his clone went against his better judgment, yet remaining put him in greater danger.
He rose swiftly, intent on leaving this nightmare behind.
Yet before he made it beyond the collapsed building's cover, something made him freeze, his lungs constricting.
It bore the shape of a nightmarish dog, lips peeled back in aggression as fluid drooled between clenched teeth, its body unnaturally packed with bulging muscle.
He scowled. "For fuck sake."
Halo murmured the words quietly, but the second they ended, the Sinner's head was severed in a single clean cut, dropping and rolling across the stone.
Halo's eyes tracked right to where his clone stood waiting. Their eyes met, and the clone beckoned him forward.
Halo couldn't help but smile. The truth was undeniable, his clone had become irreplaceable.
***
[ Congratulations! You've slain a Toddler Sinner. ]
[ You've received a Sin Fragment: sloth. 1/10 ]
[ Your raw power has increased. ]
[ Your clone has grown stronger. ]
***
'Really?'
He exhaled as the cozy sensation coursed through his spine.