Vale clutched at his head, gripping at the strands of purple in his hair.

Diligence sighed, then added:

"Now, now. Go sit back on your rock and cooperate. Unless you want to hear more unthinkable truths. Or maybe more proof of the truths I’ve given."

Vale didn’t even know when it started, but a steady stream of tears flowed down his cheek.

’No, no more....’

Vale stayed on the ground, covering his ears as if that would stop her.

All the progress he’d made in moving toward the future had been ground to a halt by revelations of the past. Revelations too harrowing, too overbearing to merely overlook.

How was he supposed to cope with his entire life up until now being nothing more than a lie built by Sloth’s whim?

Diligence had already said enough. She needn’t say more.

Her point... her point had been received.

Still, the Hero of Virtue continued, relentlessly and without care.

"I get that we have all the time in the world, but have some agency, Lust. Frankly, it’s embarrassing. You’re acting like a child. Well, speaking of children..."

A few more moments passed, Vale making no motion to move or act as Diligence had graciously requested.

"Did you know you were adopted? And that neither your adoptive dad nor your mother abandoned you. Actually, it was you who abandoned them. Because of Sloth’s claim on you, they needed to be taken out of the picture."

Vale didn’t want to listen, but he couldn’t ignore her words. Each insidious syllable crept and nestled in his mind.

’Please...’

Too much. It was all too much.

’Stop... I beg of you.’

"Eh? That look on your face does not suit you... Have I done too much? Oops... Well, I guess I’ll give you your space. Come comply when you’re ready."

The sharp edges of pebbles sunk into Vale’s skin, a few even drawing thin lines of blood.

That pain was the only thing providing him a shred of sanity. It let him know he was alive.

Because pain couldn’t lie. It was the only proof he had that he was an individual and not some puppet.

But that proof wasn’t nearly enough to hold his shattered mind together.

Diligence sighed and began prattling to herself.

"Oh, if you’re wondering how I know all of this... Well, Sloth, the real one, was quite diligent in her affairs. Ha! Diligent, how ironic! But, she made sure I knew. That I knew so I could use these truths when the time came."

Was Fleur truly not human?

Sent only to break him?

Sell him a false love — a false love that became his foundation of self.

A foundation built with the sole purpose of destroying it, sinking him deep into a muted world.

"Truly, that Sloth — the original one, not the charlatan wielding her power — I admire her. To have directed fate’s force to such a degree, and all on her own, what greater display of purpose exists!"

Vale clutched at his naked chest with blood-soaked hands.

’Damn it...’

It hurt. His chest hurt. It was on fire.

[Lust] failed to hold down his doubts and fears. It failed to muddle his feelings as it should. Almost like the ability was locked away — its damning effect entirely neutralized.

’Why...?’

Meaning. What was meaning in a controlled, curated world?

He’d acknowledged in the past that maybe his life wasn’t his to live anymore, but... it never was? Not even back on Terra?

How deplorable.

How awful.

How sinister.

’I can’t...’

"Well, obviously it wasn’t on her own. She had people like you. Dutiful pawns who didn’t even know they were pawns. Oh! Do you know what chess is? I believe they had that on Terra. Or at least a version of it. I think they called it... sovereignty."

’I just can’t...’

Vale couldn’t deny it.

All the evidence pointed toward that truth — Diligence’s truth.

Vale dug his fingertips into his sides in a vain attempt to calm himself.

To remind himself he was himself. That he was him. He had his own desire and will.

Diligence, upon witnessing this embarrassing reaction, shook her head and sighed.

"It’s abhorrent, you know. People say honesty is a virtue; but it’s only a virtue until they hear a truth they don’t want to acknowledge. Then it becomes a lie."

’W-wait!’

The Pivotal Law!

How was Sloth supposed to send Fleur across dimensions with a task in mind?!

Only a shattered being — a corrupted one — could travel without consequence!

Sure, Vale and a few others defied that law, but...

’But!’

Diligence chuckled, then said:

"Ah, that fleeting look of hope on your face? Have you remembered something? The Pivotal Law, maybe? Well, Fleur wasn’t exactly sent in with remembrance of her task, but it was imprinted into a splintered soul — a soul sent for reincarnation. A soul with an invisible line drawn to another soul, yours. Ah... that look of consternation. Perhaps you need a slight measure of solace. Let me frame it like this: Fleur loved your soul because she was told to, yet never once did she know she was told. She was inclined to fall madly in love with you, but never did she know of her imminent death."

Vale stopped struggling, relaxing his hands.

He wanted to deny it — he vehemently tried; however, he began thinking back to Fleur’s actions.

Her stalking of him and saying she was drawn to him by his soul. Even more...

Fleur’s overall weird obsession with souls. She spoke as if she could see them. It always felt like a manner of expression — a metaphor — but now Vale twisted it to mean something literal.

...

Nothing.

More tears came, but he didn’t register them.

All he did was think.

’It was real...’

Their love was real, right?

Sure, it was soul-forged. But that love was real!

Fleur hadn’t loved him to break him; that was simply a byproduct of loving him!

Yes...

Yes!

That made perfect sense! An inordinate amount of sense!

So why...

Why did Vale still hurt?

Why was he still on the ground, his face pressed against the stone?

Why couldn’t he think it...

Why couldn’t he grasp that truth; grasp it and manipulate himself into thinking their love defied fate? That it was real...

Because it wasn’t.

Whether Fleur knew it or not, she’d perfectly played her role in breaking Vale’s spirit — playing out her given task from the real Sloth with utmost purpose.

’Damn it...’

’Damn it all.’

’Sloth... You, you bastard...’

Why? Why did she have to exist? Why did Vale have to catch her eye?

’Fate... what the hell even are you?’

Fate. That heinous bastard who’d started all of this nonsense.

"Seriously? You’re still crying? I only said that to unnerve you. Had I thought this would be the reaction, I would have taken a different approach."

’...’

Vale knew...

That even if Diligence’s power was interrupted, and she couldn’t see the future in this talk — this current instance taking place in his mind only — that this knowledge would corrupt and eat away at him.

And even knowing that, she still said it all...

Such a monstrous woman was supposed to be a hero?

A woman who’d stoop to something so low as gutting a man’s love? The foundation of his existence?

How treacherous.

How... diligent.