“The truth of life...” Lord of Envy murmured in response to the whisper in his ear, mocking, “How much of the Astral Plane have you seen, little mage? And you dare claim that you know the truth of life?”

Envy disregarded Wayne’s arrogant claim. Evolution wasn’t easy. The Seven Demon Lords had stagnated for years, unable to move on. How could a human mage guide him in evolution? Even if he did nothing, Wayne wouldn’t be able to do anything to him!

The seven deadly sins weren’t mutually exclusive. Each demon lord was prideful in their own way. The Lord of Envy considered it beneath him to prove himself to Wayne, so he didn’t stand around and do nothing.

Instead, he raised his hand and brandished the Divine Comedy of Seven Deadly Sins in the form of black chains, which extended and expanded indefinitely, wrapping around the five pillars of pale flesh before clamping down like a venomous snake.

The black chains easily corroded through the pale skin, sinking into it.

So weak!

Envy grew even more derisive. Just when he was going to spread his corruption to teach the little mage what true evolution was, though, he realized to his shock that the Divine Comedy that had melded with the pale flesh had disappeared; it was gone in an instant, as if it had been devoured.

Envy straightened. Only then did he take the human mage fighting alongside the Śār seriously. Given the man’s advanced mastery over the Void, he couldn’t have been a simple legendary mage who had fallen in the Astral Plane.

Was he a demigod? But he didn’t seem like one!

Things were so strange that Envy once again suspected this to be a trap set up by Pride. Out of caution, he stopped using the Divine Comedy against Wayne.

Swelling darkness poured out of the demonic sword, shaped by thoughts into pythons that could devour energy. The pythons opened their fanged maws to bite the quickly shrinking pale pillars.

They entered a gridlock. Envy had access to inexhaustible energy, while the paleness seemed ready to engulf everything in the world. Neither came out on top in the collision.

Envy squinted, going from looking down at Wayne to looking at Wayne. His evaluation for the human increased manifold.

Splash—

The five pillars propped up the sky. The dome of darkness in the sky had become covered in paleness, which rained down in droplets and evaporated at contact with the darkness around Envy, burned away by its powerful energy.

As the rain intensified, however, the white rain gradually doused the energy guarding Envy and made contact with him. He had created this body of flesh and blood by recombining energy matter with powerful thoughts, so in essence, it was his thoughts that were hit.

At the moment of contact, corruption spread. Lord of Envy raised one hand, murmuring under his breath as he watched his palm slowly turn pale. Surprise and confusion warred on his face, making him unsure of what expression to make.

It was a possible evolution. Though the path might be dangerous and lead to a dead end, and one misstep could lead to a deadly fall, there was no doubt that Wayne’s path of evolution held more hope than his.

Envy! Intense envy rose in Lord of Envy’s heart!

His eyes turned cold as he glared at the sky with boiling killing intent. He cut off the corrupted thoughts and tore them to pieces. A tremendous dark light radiated from him, resisting the paleness and rejecting the nagging whispers.

You make sense, but I’m not listening!

Compared to the Goddess of Darkness, who was down-to-earth and willing to explore more possibilities, the Lord of Envy was much more arrogant. Wayne’s enthusiastic demonstration of his evolution only made Envy feel humiliated and roused his murderous intent.

Black cracks ripped the pale dome open. Envy manipulated boundless darkness to break out of the pale cage. His dark eyes locked onto Wayne, and as if teleporting, he was suddenly in Wayne’s space, bringing his demonic sword of darkness down.

Wayne’s pale blade blocked the sword of darkness. The resulting ripples reached beyond the seal of the Gates of Heaven and influenced the natural phenomena outside. Dark clouds gathered in waves with crackling currents.

Turbulent clouds stirred in the gloomy sky. Like an upside-down ocean, it seemed ready to pour onto the ground at any time.

Umar was having more and more trouble holding on. Though no one had targeted her, the wild energy was difficult to endure, beyond what she could take in the human world. The thickening killing intent, especially, overwhelmed her soul with pressure and made it increasingly difficult to breathe. Her view went from colorful to monochrome and then to all white, as if she were seeing Heaven.

Rumble!

Up in the sky, darkness and paleness clashed. The two fierce blades stirred up rising shockwaves as they were swung with increasing power. Energy continued to be compressed, twisting the surrounding space until it crumbled.

The spatial rift in the darkness was prevented from recovering because of the berserking energy. It wasn’t until the two figures moved away that it contracted dramatically, erasing all matter within and crushing them into pure energy to be randomly released to the edge of the world.

Clang—!

Lord of Envy realized he couldn’t finish the fight quickly. His eyes once again glinted with vicious light. “Human, your name.”

“Himbo!”

“Good name.”

“...”

Wayne reaped what he sowed. Morphing his hands into blades, he used dragonslaying swordsmanship on Envy and, while Envy hurriedly raised his sword to parry the slashes, sent four tentacles to grapple Envy’s limbs.

Envy scoffed derisively, retreating quickly. He was such an experienced fighter that the chance of catching him off guard with a sneak attack was almost zero.

Hum!

Wayne’s large chest eye glared at Envy, its chaotic, disorderly whispers making his scalp tingle. The sudden surge in influence made Envy freeze for a moment.

It was enough!

Wayne’s four tentacles held onto Envy’s limbs as he charged in to stab him in the face and chest.

“Too slow!”

Since he had fought Mona earlier, Envy was still on a fighter’s high. Facing the incoming blades, he pushed the energy in his body outward to stop Wayne, not willing to let his thoughts come into contact with Wayne due to his potent corruption.

A flash of white light came from behind. Envy heard only a ripping noise before he looked down and saw the tip of the Oath Sword.

“Hesione, it’s unlike your prideful self to sneak up on your enemy from behind. You have fallen.”

Envy’s face twisted in pain as the sacred flames burned his thoughts. Using the Divine Comedy of the Seven Deadly Sins, he suppressed the wild flames in his body. The moment his thoughts went still, however, Wayne caught the opening and pierced through his face and chest with his crossed blades.

The Golden Law could be suppressed by the Divine Comedy, and the evolution of paleness could be suppressed in the same way. Envy fought two opponents on both fronts, living up to the reputation of a demon lord from Hell.

If he didn’t have three blades putting six holes into his body, he would appear cooler.

Wayne tightened his tentacles to fight Envy’s resistance, his chest eye continued to whisper. While it wasn’t enough to make Envy lose his sanity, it was enough to halt his thoughts, making it difficult for him to steadily output the power of the Divine Comedy.

At the same time, the two blades that had pierced through Envy’s body grew tendrils to plunder the Divine Comedy. Well, the copyright remained as Envy’s, so he wasn’t stealing per se, but copying. No matter how much the Book of Greed ate, it couldn’t take away the knowledge that had belonged to Envy.

It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the book was having a good feast.

Wayne’s smile grew increasingly vicious, the wrinkles on his pale, featureless face wiggling. The more knowledge he acquired, the greater his power, and the more potent his corruption.

Monster!

Sensing Wayne’s changes clearly, Envy was reminded of the Lord of Gluttony and the Lord of Greed. Wayne resembled them greatly in his indiscriminate consumption.

Envy’s dark, long hair morphed into countless venomous snakes, staring at Wayne and Mona from the front and back to inflict a vicious curse on them. While the two were temporarily stunned, he broke free of the tentacles and escaped.

As soon as he was free, he cut off the corrupted thoughts and destroyed them again, rejecting evolution and preventing Wayne from acquiring his thoughts.

His thoughts had been weakened repeatedly, so he stopped summoning more to this world. He saw Pride’s hand in this situation, suspecting it a trap. A serious blow to his thoughts in the mortal realm would weaken him in Hell, and Pride would be able to conquer his land. It was a plan within a plan within a plan. He had to admit that it was smart.

However, Pride would not get what he wanted as long as Envy retreated quickly enough!

Even so, Envy felt reluctant. Regardless of whether he had descended of his own volition, he had descended. If he returned to Hell a loser, how would he ever keep his head high before Pride?

After some hesitation, Envy shifted his focus to the approaching Mona, his lips curling into a cold smile. Swinging his demonic sword of darkness, he met her attack head-on, bringing down the abyss with his thoughts. As he successfully took the initiative, his expression grew even more ruthless.

The lifeform from the Astral Plane was too insidious, so he couldn’t take down Himbo immediately. However, he could take care of the now fallen Hesione.

“Hesione, you want to awaken, don’t you? Then I’ll give you that!”

Envy’s eyes transformed into snake eyes. Intangible power shot down, resembling but differing from the Divine Comedy of the Seven Deadly Sins. The knowledge wasn’t something regular people could comprehend.

Mona stilled. Influenced by her memory snippets, she held the Oath Sword vertically before her. The Eye of Judgment appeared in projection behind her. Another two pairs of white wings unfurled, so she now had a total of six.

The projection of the Eye of Judgment consisted of a cross and an eyeball. Golden light pulsed as the cross contracted. The eyeball unleashed another intangible energy shockwave.

The two energies collided, but didn’t offset each other. Mona had attacked so hurriedly that she failed to hit the Lord of Envy, instead getting hit by the curse he inflicted.

She had rejected Hesione and refused to become Hesione, so at the end of the day, she was Mona rather than the Śār who presided over numerous angels.

The strange energy rushed into her body, weakening her all of a sudden. Her hand, clutching the Oath Sword, turned into a clawed hand that looked distinctively hellish. The mutation spread through her body, reaching the six wings and the Eye of Judgment.

“Hahaha, Hesione, I hope you’ll remember who you are after you fall. Then, I’ll await your arrival in Hell.” Envy laughed out loud. Instead of escaping in a rush, he couldn’t wait to enjoy the wonderful show that would follow.

A tentacle curled around Mona’s waist, tightening before releasing her. Her mutation reversed, and she was herself again.

It all happened so suddenly that Envy was still laughing when the process ended.

“Hahaha... ha...”

“Huh?!”

Envy gaped at Mona. It took a lot to make a demon lord gape. It was clear how great the shock was.

He gulped, staring at the dual blades as they swung toward him. He forgot to resist and ended up bisected at the waist.