Read Novel Full Chapter 325: World At War
Chapter 325: World At War
Carver stood on the ramparts, looking up high in the sky. He was clad in his onyx armor, his helmet pressing tightly against his head, doing the most it could to contain his Wrath.
Chastity stood to his right, her arms folded over one another, the tips of her fingers gripping her biceps.
Next to them, lining the ramparts, stood the strongest Beakon had to offer alongside a plethora of strong refugees from various conquered territories.
All in this elite force had their eyes locked up.
All looked toward a tall man with long blond hair standing in the air, on nothing. Silver and gold armor with purple streaks adorned his body, yet no helmet hid his prideful face and the glare fastened upon it.
Breaking the silence in half, the prideful man roared:
“So, you have truly stooped this low, Wrath?!”
All but Wrath and Chastity shuddered at his voice.
“You have overstepped your bounds.”
Chastity spoke with a calm, honeyed voice that eased the fears of her fellow soldiers.
“Pride… I’ve long been advocating for the world to witness the dungeons and Vice in a different light. That they are intelligent life that is simply misunderstood. Wrath here has finally helped me convey this sentiment to my people… but you? You are an enemy of my mission. My justice. For that, you will be judged.”
Carver clicked his tongue at her words, but didn’t care to refute. She said something that aligned with his goals, but he also knew something more about her motive.
But he kept that to himself.
Pride showed little reaction.
“And who would you be?”
“Ah, how crass of me to fail to introduce myself.” Chastity bowed slightly. “I am the Hero of Virtue, Chastity. My name is Theresa Lynch. My role is as your executioner.”
“My executioner?! How bold a proclamation!” Pride laughed. “Too bad you lack the strength for me to consider that anything but a crude joke.”
At his words, Chastity smiled warmly.
Wrath sighed, then gazed back up at Pride.
“What are you doing here without your army?”
Pride shook his head. Then, using Aether to project his voice, shouted to the entire nation of Beakon.
“I’ve come to inform you all! Beakon is now under my rule. All who recognize my sovereignty will get the privilege to faithfully serve me for the rest of their lives. All those who oppose this fact of life shall not be spared a shred of mercy. Refuse acceptance now and your future pleas shall fall on deaf ears! I will be waiting in the Western Pass for all who accept my gracious offer!”
The weaker soldiers on the ramparts crumpled to their knees and held their hands over their ears, while the strongest listened without care.
While his offer might be enticing to a regular civilian, one who’d heard the horror stories of Pride would know better.
Most already knew serving Pride meant your life was a matter of his whim. If he wished you dead, it was so.
Carver waited for the “idiot” to end his spiel, then turned his back to the King of Hearth.
With his own inflection of Aether, he ordered:
“I am Wrath. You people know me as the Careless Destroyer, Wild Slaughterer, among other unflattering monikers… If any dare follow Pride’s order, I will see to it there’s some truth to those titles.”
Naturally, he didn’t care to dull the effect of his Aspect.
Pride sneered:
“Turning your back to me? How insolent.”
Wrath cast a glance over his shoulder at his insufferable adversary. Then, he slowly began to turn and face him. As he did, a red substance slipped through the cracks of his armor and pooled in his hands.
One of the masses stretched and formed into a longbow, the other into an arrow.
Calmly, Wrath nocked the arrow, then released.
The first shot of the war had been fired.
***
Sitting in the throne room, surrounded by her Champions, Sylvia looked down on the foreign emissaries glaring at her with spite oozing from their eyes.
“War, you say?” Sylvia chuckled. “There will be no war, only a slaughter.”
A moment later, Sylvia lazily waved her hand.
The white floor was painted red.
‘How dull.’
Why even send these delegates when this declaration had already been silently made?
Turning to her side, Greed asked the empty air:
“Would you mind connecting to your other half and dispelling this annoying ability?”
The smoky specter, the snack she stole from Lust, materialized from nowhere.
“Of course I would.”
‘Tch…’
There was a severe loophole the specter had been exploiting. While he did have to do everything she said, she couldn’t exactly order him to use [Severance]. Well, she could, but the other half had to accept joining once again.
Something it had repeatedly denied.
“Ah, no matter, I’m sure your other half will connect sooner or later. I can wait until then.”
It’s not like the information was all too critical to her. In fact, Greed didn’t need to know much about Lust. What she needed to know was the Akkuron-Celestia War.
Oh, she also had a personal curiosity in knowing what became of everything she’d said to Envy.
‘I wonder how she’s using that knowledge?’
Greed doubted Envy could kill Lust.
Well, even if she could, Sloth would stop her…
‘Something this snack figured out somehow.’
During their negotiation two months ago, Mias had oh so confidently declared Greed couldn’t kill the Dungeon Core… which was correct.
As Sloth would never allow a Vice to get their hands on another core of the Vice.
Greed had learned firsthand the mistake of such a thing. Back when she fought the old Envy and Lust alongside the old Gluttony.
‘But how did he know?’
His explanation didn’t exactly help.
‘He said something about the door to the Council and whatnot.’
But Mias had been using technical, annoying terms Sylvia didn’t feel like trying to understand, so she’d let it go. However, she didn’t let Mias’ intelligence go to waste.
He’d even become a strategist for her war campaign.
She was now Queen of Windshire, soon to be Emperor of South Hela.