It's worse than I thought.

Far, far worse than I thought.

In the short time I was waffling over whether to believe gluttony, I may have already waited too long. During my discussion with the sins and virtues, my sixth sense started screaming 'danger' without me so much as bothering to think about the odd creature.

I'm not the strongest amongst us— not by a long shot. Yet, one by one, each of the others was greeted by the same rude awakening. We're already quite far out of our league.

So, we decided to release the Abyssals. 'Why the hell not,' I said, 'Let those accursed things fight it out.'

The reason the Abyssals were sealed isn't because they're strong. It's because they can't be killed. The longer we're around them, the weaker we get, and the stronger they get. This one-sided power drain is therefore permanent.

The danger isn't that the Abyssals are strong: it's that they can only ever get stronger.

Thankfully, we sealed them away before they became a threat. Then, we killed the God of Time who created such vile things.

Technically, we wanted his weapon, Pure Evil. That's true. But we wanted to seal it for the same reason. That thing made the Abyssals.

Yet, somehow, the God of Time hid Pure Evil. We've never been able to find it. I've voiced my concerns that this creature is the God of Time's ultimate creation. I suggested he used Pure Evil to create it. Not just its powers. No. He made the weapon itself, sapient.

That's why we couldn't find it.

Everyone was aghast; everyone except Justice.

Justice won't cooperate on this mission. At first, she also wouldn't explain why.

Back during that era, we all unanimously agreed. Pure Evil was to be named as such because it meant the end of all things. Both good, and bad. Ultimate destruction. The end of existence. If that thing fell into the wrong hands again, well, there might not be anyone left to argue about it.

Now why would Justice, of all the virtues, choose to not participate? I said she didn't have to participate, but I wanted to know her reasons at least. I said she owed us that much as the literal embodiment of justice.

She broke down crying. 'I'm not just!' she screamed. 'I never was!' She continued screaming the same thing on loop. Like an insane mortal; not an intelligent virtue. Not a being who's supposed to be above many lesser gods.

I tried to console her.

What in the world happened? What did it have to do with this monster? Why was she so hung up on it?

Sigh.

Time is of the essence. I can't wait for her to calm down. But I've kept trying to console her. Even as we sins and virtues stand around the seal, disassembling it, trying to aim those damn Abyssals toward the so-called dragon...

Which is difficult because they want to go toward the lower universe's empty pockets of space. The various spatial voids, instead of where we want them to go. I guess it's an Abyssal instinct? The Abyss wants to go to merge with the abyss? Something's off, though, because they're proving much too difficult to steer. That's why they're not yet unsealed.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Though— not everyone's really participating.

Indolence had to be carried here, so his emaciated body is acting as a power bank.

Deception is, as usual, pretending to help but not doing what he agreed upon.

He seems to be building a...

Is that a bomb?!

image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/126.png]

...

No, it's probably a fake bomb which unmakes itself. Or maybe he's not even building anything. Maybe him being here is itself an illusion. Maybe we're all under a mass hallucination that the sin of Deception ever existed.

I roll my eyes.

It's deception all the way down with that guy. If it weren't for the fact that he kills so many sin servants, I doubt his existence would be verifiable most of the time.

Pff. I need to stay on track.

I care about Justice, so I took the time to think about it from her perspective. What do you know? Love prevails, and releasing the Abyssals feels unjust to Justice. I get that. I won't keep asking her to participate. Especially not with how she is right now. Still, I must know. What's she so incredibly upset about? It hurts seeing her so broken up.

[...]

Love » "Ju- I mean, are you doing better?"

Justice » "Thank you for not saying it."

Love » "I, uh. Okay, sure. How are you?"

Justice » "I'll never be better. Not until I get rid of my false virtue."

Love » "False?"

Justice » "Yes, false. Mine means to act with propriety, honor, righteousness, and goodwill."

Love » "That's true, and you embody that virtue."

Justice » "By taking away others' free Will."

Love » "Th— Oh. Oh, no. No, I— I see what you're saying."

Justice » "Yes. My virtue has always been false. Always."

Love » "What does that have to do with the dragon?"

Justice » "He knew what I didn't. About... About..."

Love » "You don't—"

Justice » "No, I do. J— Justice. I'm NOT just. HE is."

Wait. This thing we're trying to kill knows justice better than Justice herself? Then—

Love » "What about the others? What about me?"

Justice » "I don't know, Love. You're in the same situation, aren't you? We've all lived for so long assuming our authorities gave us the right to act as we pleased. What if that's merely a lie we told ourselves as an excuse to get stronger? Perhaps only Greed and Gluttony could claim to be untarnished, since theft and consumption encompass their sins. Deception, too, since lying to himself is par for the course. But Pride? Powerful though he is, he'd be ashamed! Imagine him realizing he's been stealing away others' chance to be prideful on their own merits. There's no pride in doing that."

Love » "I get it. I do. However, since we embody our sins and virtues, we can't cast aside ourselves. Perhaps we lied to ourselves for the sake of power— but we haven't done a bad job managing the universe. Without us, the Abyssals would've consumed everything."

Justice » "And NOW you're all releasing the damn things! So WHAT if that dragon is strong? Stronger than the Abyssals, even? So WHAT?! He's more honest than Truth, more righteous than Justice, and more caring than... You. He's not a mindless Abyssal. Let him be."

Love » "Ouch. I think you've bludgeoned me with one of your damn counterweights."

Justice » "No. Don't. Not right now."

Love » "What do you— oh, sorry."

Justice » "Never mind that. Please tell Truth, Pride, Honor, Dignity, and Temperance what I said. I think they'll be most likely to listen. Faith and Hope I'm not sure about, but Prudence may also back out for the sake of due diligence. If the others want to cause a disaster? Fine. We'll simply have to be there to help them re-seal the Abyssals. But we can't keep betraying who we are any longer."

Love » "I'm making a chat. Do join if you can— I'd appreciate your help convincing them. But, what about our sins and virtues? What do we do about those?"

Justice » "I don't know. Maybe we can... Talk to him."

Love » "The dragon?"

Justice » "He knows us better than we know ourselves. Maybe he can help us remove them."

Love » "Remove our sin and virtue? They are us; we embody them."

Justice » "Do we? We lied for so long and grew strong on our own lies. Perhaps we've been misled about the nature of our Will-stealing talent."

Love » "Do you think the God of Time..."

Justice » "Yeah, he knew."

Love » "So, when we killed him—"

Justice » "Right."