Sloth's figure rose into the air; completely unabated by the heavy downpour and the force of gravity - Leo followed suit with his body rising into the air without his control.
Winds ripped through his clothing and dishevelled his hair making it a complete mess. A pillar of white light encased the two figures and shot into the sky, parting the clouds in one smooth motion. It was completely opaque, obscuring the vision of the onlookers who looked in awe at the scene.
A ray of moonlight cast down upon Sloth and Leo illumining them in a faint glow, Sloth's mask glinted a pale blue which contrasted with its radiant red eyes. The magic circle engraved on Leo's chest began to glow a pearly white, which synchronised with the shine of the magic circle carved into the ground. A blinding flash of light filled Leo's vision causing his retinas to be seared by the intensity.
An ethereal effigy separated from Leo's body, he hovered effortlessly in the air in a horizontal position; the body dropped onto the solid rock floor with a thud, its eyes lifeless and unfocused.
The effigy looked in likeness to Leo, almost seeming identical - however, only his outline was the same, half of his hair was pitch-black while the other half was ashen white producing a stark disparity, the former was on the right side while the latter occupied the left. His left eye was a dark brown, his right eye was a ruby red.
His body was devoid of the clothing Leo had been wearing and instead was completely nude. His chest was vacant of the massive scar running across Leo's chest; it was completely smooth and clear of any blemishes - his knee was free of the bloody graze present on Leo's knee. All the other minor cuts and bruises Leo had sustained were also not present.
The ethereal figure sprung into action, he jolted awake and stood upright - he faced Sloth with a gleam of hatred in his eyes. His bare chest puffed up as he took a long quivering breath of air. His eyes shot around, observing the state of his body.
To his horror, his body was translucent and ghastly. he looked down causing his heart to sink, his corporeal body was lying lifelessly on the ground, the magic circle on its chest still radiating a pearly white light.
His eyes fixed back onto Sloth with even more contempt present and Sloth peered back with its 3 eyes; not a shred of emotion leaking through. Abruptly, Sloth's 3 eyes flared as though oil had been added to a fire.
4 chains, with sharp spear-like tips, materialized out of thin air - they shot towards the effigy at breakneck speeds and wrapped around his limbs, restraining his movements entirely. The spear-like tips dug into his ethereal flesh, securely embedding themselves.
Multiple shrieks of anguish escaped his mouth as the razor-sharp tips gouged out his flesh, his face contorted into an extreme grimace of pain. His eyes became bloodshot with pain and anger as he glared at Sloth. He would've shouted obscenities at Sloth, however, the constant, searing, excruciating pain, that ravaged his mind, prevented him from doing so.
A misty, ethereal gas seeped endlessly out of Sloth's eye sockets and congealed in front of it; the flickering eyes made of magic waned in and out of existence like the flame of a candle fighting defiantly against the wind, refusing to be put out. The magical eyes dwindled out of existence leaving hollow eyes and Sloth cascaded to the floor and landed with a boom! Its black body slowly disintegrated leaving behind the mask on the floor.
The ethereal gas coagulated and took the form of a humanoid. It had bulging muscles that threatened to tear through the skin. Its body was a massive 3m tall and was akin to bronze in colour which contrasted with its white hair that was similar to the ethereal Leo's right half.
Its face was bearing a mask identical to the mask on the floor, it was devoid of a mouth, a nose and ears; the only features present were the eyes, or to be more precise 6 eye sockets that contained a pitch-black abyss, and the horns protruding from its forehead.
Sloth's effigy was much more solid and opaque as compared to Leo's ethereal self. It calmly pointed its right hand at Leo, its palm facing him. The bronze muscles glinted and gleamed under the moons' watchful gazes. Its bronze skin started to break away from its right arm in large clusters, floating gently in the air before it vaporized into a black mist that flowed into its hollow eyes.
Beneath the bronze skin was fibrous strands of midnight-black muscle intertwining and weaving together to form a rugged bicep and forearm. The muscle fibres unravelled and also disintegrated into a black mist that quickly flowed into its abyssal eyes.
All that was left were bones that gleamed a metallic black and soon the bones quickly deteriorated into black haze which seeped into its vacant eye sockets. The arm that had previously been facing Leo disappeared altogether.
As the inky haze was absorbed, something on Sloth's neck began to glow. It was situated on the left side of Sloth's neck; Leo strained his eyes to make out what it was.
At a glance, he could tell what it was, it was an ouroboros, the definitive sign of the seven sins - the hosts of the seven sins would be branded with an ouroboros somewhere on their body depending on their sin.
6 glowing red eyes made of magic took residence in Sloth's eye sockets, they were identical to the ones Sloth had when it had conjured itself before Leo. Each eye flared much more intensely than it had before, this cast the mask in a deep shade of red.
The air turned cold and the pillar of white light surrounding the two individuals flared in magnitude, which irradiated the scene in an icy, lifeless light.
Inside the pillar of light, a dark grey fog leaked from Sloth's eyes and from beneath its mask - the grey fog slowly crystallized into a hulking greatsword above Leo's head. The blade of the sword glinted a sharp, menacing lustre that threatened to cut Leo in half with one fell swoop.
Leo observed the 6 gleaming ruby eyes that flickered continuously as they fizzled out of existence. His attention soon shifted to the gargantuan greatsword looming forebodingly over his head; strangely enough, he couldn't hear nor feel his heartbeat but he was sure it was about to jump out of his chest at any moment. Pure dread filled his mind, he had experienced so many close shaves with death, was he finally going to face his judgement?
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His life flashed before his eyes. He could vividly remember the satisfying and cathartic feeling of his fist making contact with the other kids' faces, the joy of beating them all into a pulp before the adults rushed in to stop him.
He reminisced about the times when he started fighting and the ambition to improve enough to join the military as a mighty commander. To conquer the others and end the great war; not for his country, but for his own glory and fame.
To train for this "fantastic" and "upstanding" cause, he had relentlessly challenged, beaten and brutalized the other orphans. At some point, they had begun fearing him; not daring to accept his challenge. All except for one, Valour. He was a worthy training partner. Good enough to fight him and inspire improvement.
But he was a fool. A person who only fought when his friends were harmed. He didn't take Leo up on his challenges regardless of any provocations and abuse hurled at him. That's why he had to beat up all the others. It didn't fill him up with pride to beat such novices but he had to do so to get what he wanted.
However, that had changed today. He had gone too far. The caretakers were already vexed at his actions and how to deal with it until Leo had finally gone far enough that they could kick him out without a guilty conscience.
The timing was terrible for Leo. He had finally awakened the potential Valor had; The glowing fist was clearly evident of that. It was too bad he would never find out what it was. Nor would he get to climb to the apex of power in this world. He wouldn't get to fulfil his dreams of conquering the world with power and glory in hand.
His mind turned blank and his hazy, cloudy eyes became focused and resolved. There was no use in lamenting over his fate now, the end was nigh.
Leo's attention fixed on the grey greatsword hanging threateningly above him, he accepted his fate with resolute eyes. Had he faced this kind of predicament earlier on into the night, he would have writhed in anguish over the absurdity of his unluckiness.
Leo might have been a slight musclehead but he wasn't stupid, he had experienced so many close shaves with death at this point, he could tell that the world was just telling him to die already.
He had escaped death's clutches so many times at this point yet whenever he had done so he would always be greeted with another catastrophe - he was certain that if he escaped this fiasco, the very Gods would chase him to the deepest reaches of the abyss and smite him down. Or the earth would split apart at his feet and swallow him whole.
Leo felt tears well up in his eyes. They rolled gently down his cheek leaving behind a trail that glistened in the moonlight. He closed his eyes; not in fear or apprehension, but acceptance.
Leo had fully accepted his fate, his 12 years of life all lead up to this moment. He felt that he had lived an alright life; a life clawing towards his goals but failing to grasp them in his hands. That was not to say he didn't enjoy it.
The ghostly greatsword cleaved through the air causing the wind to howl in pain; its sharp blade sundered cleanly through Leo's soul without the slightest resistance, rending his soul asunder into two halves. One half was the black-haired, brown-eyed left side which represented the human half of his soul - the other half was his white-haired, red-eyed right side which signified the vaunite half of his soul.
I see. Binding his soul to this world like one would imprison my undead children, but even they cannot escape the clutches of the river Styx completely. So you have already abandoned having him alive but he will not be dead either. Not alive, not dead so he is just an object; not that he wasn't just an object for us to fulfil our objectives.
The chains binding the human half unbound themselves and retreated through the dimensional distortion from which they came, effectively disappearing into thin air. The human half of his soul disintegrated into a pale mist that was carried away by the wind. On the other hand, the vaunite half was still shackled by the chains.
Sloth confidently flew forward and, with his left hand, grabbed the greatsword by the handle. Sloth's hand, which would easily dwarf a grown man's head, seemed minuscule in comparison to the size of the handle. Sloth's grip didn't even fully wrap around the section it was holding.
That changed in less than a second. The spectral greatsword condensed in size, the originally 30m long weapon was now 2.5m long; its size would still overshadow a grown man but now it fitted comfortably in Sloth's grip. Its ethereal appearance became more opaque and corporeal.
Sloth raised the greatsword and cleaved off the ouroboros present on the left side of its neck. A pale tether connected the shallow crater left behind on Sloth's neck and the mark of sin clutched in Sloth's hand. Sloth lurched forward until it stood right in front of the right half of Leo and then it planted the mark of sin squarely on his neck.
A powerful shockwave erupted from Leo's soul causing even Sloth to be pushed back several metres. A clean slice of the pillar of light surrounding them was erased for a brief period. The ethereal tether connecting Sloth's soul to the mark of sin vanished.
An unemotional and apathetic announcement escaped Sloth's non-existent mouth, "The first pawn of the end has been made! Your eternal majesty, gaze upon your work!" The space split and an eye peered out from the void, its gaze inspective of the quality of the product. In mere moments, it flitted out of existence yet its presence was still there.
So you saw me yet you still wish to compete. Good. Completely unafraid even with our difference in power.
Sloth's body started to crumble starting at its extremities. Layers of bronze skin flaked off to reveal the black muscle underneath. The mask fractured and shattered like a crystal before flaking off into wisps of mana, leaving its face bare.
Modelling your creations after us, are you? Do you not fear their wrath any longer? To commit such a taboo among your kind, the other ones will not take it kindly but I sense your intentions. There is no need to fear a dead man's retribution.
Just as its expression, formed of countless eyes and a mess of features which mortals would likely describe as monstrous, turned to one of contentedness, it noticed a small portion of Leo's hair was blighted with brown.
[I made a mistake. To think he would be tainted by lightning… what a disgrace. Phase 1a is partially unsuccessful. I will have to monitor Test Zero closely. Hopefully, the others aren't failures. I won't make the same mistake twice. Lynidos will likely try to take advantage of this… seems he'll have to stay in there longer than I expected.]
A bony hand made of pale mist erupted from Leo's corporeal body and ensnared the remnants of his soul before dragging it down into his body. The hand looked like the reaper's grip. Leo's body immediately underwent a change; his pitch-black hair was bleached an ashen silver and a crackling yellow haze escaped from his pores. Although a small amount seeped back in.
Sloth erupted into a cloud of darkness which engulfed itself and Leo. The cloud collapsed in on itself and disappeared leaving nothing behind.
The pillar of light fizzled out. The onlookers had scuttled out of their houses and gathered into crowds en masse where their attention was drawn to the collum of light penetrating the heavens.
They had been intensely watching the event for 10 minutes with great intrigue and worry when all of a sudden, the mountain that had once pierced the sky majestically had disappeared entirely leaving the onlookers flummoxed and bewildered.
This event would go down in history as one of the greatest mysteries and the start of the modern age. Many would travel from all over to Birsch village to study the disappearance of the mountain and its significance as the marker of the final night of the Gods. "The disappearance of the Giant's Lance," would go down in history.