“Well howdy, you must be the princess Lucy was talking about!”

“Princess?! Is she really?”

Elizabeth was shocked to see the two sins in front of her, a large boy in girth and height and a tiny girl exuberantly scanning her.

“I am the princess of Lumina, Elizabeth Tern. Who are you two?”

“Name’s Clyde Redstone. This puppy dog here is-“

“Hayley Martina! It’s so nice to meet another Princess!”

“Oh, you’re a princess too?”

“Yes! Well…” the joy in Hayley’s voice quickly vanished, “no, but I’m going to be.”

“That’s not how that works. You have to marry someone who is already a prince or king.”

“I am well aware; knowledge of this vexing predicament is why I have partaken in extreme practice of my beauty and knowledge.”

“Why are you talking like that?”

“A monarch exudes dignity, to do so her diction must match.”

“First, I don’t talk like that. Second, I’m the only princess in Lumina, there are no princes.”

“Well, I mean…” Hayley struggled to find her words, batting back in forth between ‘Well’, ‘I mean, and the ever popular ‘uh’.

“This is a riveting conversation and all,” Clyde interjected, “but I was wondering if you’ve seen Lucy?”

“She’s up on the roof.”

“Could you get her down?”

“Why can’t you go up there?”

“Jade told us never to go up top. I know he ain’t here, but just the thought of him finding out gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Fine!”

Elizabeth stormed back to the roof, contemplating giving Lucy another punch even if she would get one in kind. Her anger began to wither when she couldn’t immediately spot the girl. There was no place to hide, only small shrubs on raised rectangles of concrete that didn’t hinder her sight one bit.

Hurriedly pacing the garden when she recalled the setting sun, Elizabeth attempted to look over every nook and cranny for the absent sin. Calling out her name proved futile, searching for her was a bust, thus the princess returned to the sins, Clyde arguing with a flustered Hayley over something the princess couldn’t make out.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. We were arguing on the roof just a few minutes ago. Maybe she just ran away.”

“Wait, I can find her.”

Elizabeth stared wide-eyed as the princess-wannabe transformed into the sin of pride. At first she expected it to be just like Lucy’s form, but while this devil’s features were equally obscured, it was shorter than the original human and it boasted four sclera which were glowing white with no pupils or iris present. This was not true of the fifth eye that opened in the middle of the forehead, a purple sclera surrounded a yellow iris.

“What are you- just, what is this?!”

“Shh, I’m trying to find Lucy.”

Both Clyde and the princess watched as Pride closed all but her fifth eye, the pupil methodically scanning the surrounding. In dead silence, they waited for a response, until finally the sin relented.

“I can’t find her. That’s not possible.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“My mind’s eye can see anyone and anything. It can see you from miles away, it can see into the future, it even lets me see things I never asked to see or know. Somehow, I can’t find Lucy.”

“She has to be somewhere. Elizabeth,” Clyde turned to the princess, “you do whatever it is that suits your fancy. The rest of us are going on a search and rescue.”

The cowboy had hustled to the floors below while the remaining sin glared at her idol.

“What happened on the roof?”

“We talked.”

“And? I know there’s more to it than that.”

“Did you learn that from your five eyes?” Elizabeth teased, but Hayley had not reacted.

“People don’t just run away.”

Hayley had turned around and followed in Clyde’s footsteps, the remaining girl joining her. On the bottom floor, the two had met with the remaining sins. None of them had taken notice of the princess as she obscured herself behind the staircase pillar. Curious of the conversation, she poked her head out as to not alert the others of her presence.

“What act of madness is this?! Lucy is gone and our best tracker can’t spot her. This is truly a conundrum.”

“She just disappeared without a trace? Must be a practitioner of space.”

“I really hope she’s okay.”

“Same Alex. I’m not sleeping a wink tonight if she’s out there alone.”

“Why do you care?”

The chattering among the sins came to an abrupt end as Elizabeth stepped out in front of them.

“Why do any of you care? She’s only been here two days. You barely know her, who cares if she runs away?”

“Maybe where ya’ll are from, two days isn’t nothing, but when you’re a sin, you’re family here.”

“Yeah, and we treat her like family back. Unlike you who made her run away.”

“I didn’t make her run!...did I?” Elizabeth whispered the last part under her breath.

She wanted to defend her claim, but all that came to mind was a rocky history with the friend she supposedly cherished. The princess could feel the glares of the other sins as her thoughts began to twist and mangle.

“Ahem!” Westin stepped forward, “we can distribute the blame later. Right now, we need to make a plan.”

“Right,” Clyde stepped forward this time, “We’ll split up in pairs. It’s getting dark, so be careful of the monsters. I’ll go with Xandir to the east, that’s where most of those beasts will crawling around.”

“Since I can fly, I’ll check the mountains to the south.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Me too,” Alex stood beside Westin, “I’ll take the southeast.”

“That leaves me and Dustin to check the forest.”

“What about me?” The princess regretted asking that question, as now attention was back on her.

“I doubt you can see out there in the dark, you would be a liability. Just keep checking the garden area while the real princess searches for her friend.”

With their plan in order, the sins left Elizabeth alone to ponder her next course of action. She knew it was too late to leave, the darkness draping over the area. She could attempt to find her way out, but would almost certainly end up running blind until some monster killed her.

With no feasible way of returning home before morning, the girl resigned herself to the top of the tower, keeping watch in case Lucy magically reappeared.

“Damnit, why did you have to go and run off? Why would you care about what I think? It’s not like we’re friends anymore.”

“Lucy!” Pride shouted down the aisle of trees.

The devil squeezed her wand, frustration building as she passed identical, non-descript tree after identical, non-descript tree after identical, non-descript tree after identical, non-descript tree after-

“Have you found anything yet Sloth?” Pride quivered.

Despite her bravado to rush out and find the missing sin, Pride was reluctant to stay in the woods. There was no breeze, no cacophony of insect chirps, not even the white poles surrounding her would breathe or budge. Nothing but deafening silence filled the wide empty halls.

Pride’s heart stopped when the quietest shuffling of dirt had burrow itself into her ears. Opening her mind’s eye immediately, she hopped to her left, a claw extending from the sky, slicing the right sleeve of her cloak.

Crashing onto the earth was a wolf-like creature; propping itself on its hindlegs, its head was lost behind the leaves while standing straight-up. Bending its knees slightly and adjusting its claws for an onslaught, the beast lunged at the tiny girl, only to crash head first into a wall.

“Nice job idiot, but you aren’t getting past my mirror walls” Pride mocked the creature as it laid still on the soil, shattered glass blanketing its back.

Turning away from the fallen beast, the devil resumed her search.

“You just don’t give up, do you?”

Another wall of glass was summoned, forcing the attacker to a halt. With one mighty slash, the fragile wall crumbled.

“As a princess, I have better things to do than put down bad dogs, but I guess you forced my hand.”

Three mirrors had appeared around the beast, catching its attention. Holding her wand up, Pride unleashed a beam of a light toward the werewolf’s dome.

Despite the distraction, the beast merely tilted its head without urgency, avoiding the beam. The projectile had bounced off the surrounding mirrors, growing in circumference with each bounce until a much larger laser was again directed at the wolf.

Ducking, the werewolf had again easily dodged the attack.

“Shit.”

Snarling, the beast approached, bearing fang and claw. Pride could see death in his dilated, red pupils as drool poured down its jaw while growling menacingly.

Before it could take its final leap, it felt a tug at its arm. Rending its claw at whatever dared to stop it, the wolf was quickly filled with regret.

“Sloth!”

Standing behind the beast was an oval shaped devil, most of its body encapsulated by a tortoise shell. Pocking out from the bottom were gargantuan stubby legs and arms the size of tree trunks.

The nails of the beast had bent backwards after striking Sloth’s arm. The enemy had staggered briefly before clamping onto the sin’s head with the mightiest bite it could muster; this too proved to be regretful, as its teeth began to loosen and fall from their gums.

Dazed, the werewolf had begun to retreat, but now it was Sloth’s turn: putting his hand inside the beast’s mouth, he began to open the jaw wider as it whimpered and desperately slashed and kicked. With one final violent, ripping motion, the wolf’s mouth was torn wide open, its body going limp as it was tossed to the ground.

“Brutal.”

“If Lucy is out there, we can’t take any chance she’ll run into this thing.”

“Yeah well…I could have done it. I had it lined up and everything!”

“We oughta head back. At least she has one less monster looking to eat her if she’s still running around.”

“Yeah, I could do this all night, but a princess needs her beauty sleep.”

Hoping onto Sloth’s back, Pride turn her head toward the forest one last time before nodding off.

“Sorry…”

“We were supposed to be friends forever, get married, live as a king and queen. You didn’t have to be able to use mana when you could have been a king! But no, you threw that all away to be” the princess stopped, pondering the right word, “normal. Normal…”

“Looks like we’re in a fine mess.”

“A fine howdy-do indeed! But isn’t that what ya’ll want? I thought this little scenario turned you into a little boy in a room full of candy.”

In a steep pit, Wrath and Gluttony were back-to-back, surrounded in all directions by plants that walked on roots, bore razor sharp teeth, and latched on to anything and everything with their many roots. These voracious, carnivorous beings were dubbed octoplants for their intelligence in problem solving and use of roots as various limbs.

Wrath and his partner, a berry shaped devil adorning a white chef’s hat and gigantic spatula, were not phased but their predicament.

“Of course I’m eager, but I have to remember to save you some. I’ll take the five on my side, you can take the remaining three.”

“Enough jabbering, let’s kick some ass!”

Wrath had rushed to his left, vines grabbing hold of his arms and body in order to stop his assault. With one swing of his sword, the vines all came loose, the next swing lobbing off the head of one of the plants. The roots of the decapitated mosnter had sauntered back and forth before a new head formed.

“Remember, take out the root!”

“I guess I’ll have to get to the root of the problem!”

“One more outta you and no breakfast tomorrow.”

“Fine. Westin would have loved that one.”

Before he realized it, one of the plants bit off the fingers Wrath used to grip his sword.

“You were lucky, I was in a good mood,” stretching out the nubs on his hand, new fingers had emerged from the nubs, “but you went and ruined threw it all away!”

Charging up energy in his sword, the sin unleashed a glowing red wave the split his target into pieces. In the next few moments, he followed up by destroying the other four in similar fashion.

In the opposite direction, a plant had lunged for Gluttony, but it was stopped cold in its tracks. Literally, as plowing the giant spatula into the ground caused the earth under the creature, and the monster itself, to freeze solid. With a mighty slam, the frozen monster was shattered to pieces by the underside of the cooking utensil.

Grabbing the sin was another of the plants, pulling him forward while it held its jaw wide open. This beast also received the bottom end of his weapon, however it was now boiling hot, causing even the ground to melt. With its vines dry and withered, Gluttony was released.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

The last of horde was fleeing, realizing its folly too late. The chef had opened a hole in his stomach, a suction emanating from the core pulled in the last octoplant. Despite anchoring itself, the beast was uprooted and pulled into the void. Closing up the hole, the sin patted his belly before returning to his partner.

“She’s not here.”

“Wherever she is, I hope she’s not hungry, or cold, or lonely, or scared, or-“

“Get a hold of yourself man! She’s a sin, she can handle herself. Let’s just head back before more show up.”

“Maybe you had the right idea all along. Here I am complaining that you aren’t locked up in a castle like me, that you chose to run away instead of remaining trapped; you even took me with you. Am I stupid?! If I’m really free, like you said, I can go places. I can be a normal a person, we can be normal people.”

“Find anything?”

The succubus strained to raise her voice above a whisper. The flapping of her wings would have drowned out her normal speaking voice and she had no other way of communicating with the gargoyle. She was grateful to be in the air, as she believed it was the greatest chance they would have to find their lost member and it excused the frail looking sin from fighting.

“Watch out!”

Just as luck would have it, company arrived to spite her. A fowlcrow had dove for Lust, just missing as she dodged to the side. The bird in question was all black, a beak sharp and straight like a sword, talons that could tear into metal, not to mention being a gargantuan five foot in height alone, an average for its size.

“This will be quick: I hold it still, you go for the kill.” Lust commanded.

Greed had inhaled, his body expanding. Forming a diamond at the end of his cane, he flew at his target, slower now due to his trade of stats. The avian had already adjusted itself from its previous strike, and with the sin’s sluggish movement it would easily evade its attack were it not for the sudden impulse to do nothing. Although it knew the imminent danger was drawing ever closer, it could not control force itself to move, taking the violent stab to its chest.

With its life fading, the fowlcrow plummeted to the mountain range below.

“That mind control ability of yours is scary, but its handy when situations get hairy.”

“It’s not the only thing of mine that’s scary. Did you find anything?”

“No. I don’t know where that girl went, but we’d better return. No sense wearing ourselves out.”

“We can’t just leave her out here! She’s cold and alone and terrified.”

“Or maybe one of the other groups found her. Or she returned to the tower. Or she ran to a random town.”

“I hope you’re right. You better be right.”

As Lust retreated to the tower, defeated, Greed could only follow behind. Far, far behind.

“At least you have a family here. These guys are probably fighting tooth and nail to find you and they barely know you. Meanwhile, they probably hate me. I’m just like my mom, driving everyone away. You probably ran because you were scared or angry. I scared you back then, I hit you, and I hated it when you were with her. No wonder you used me. I just wish you could hear all this.”

Elizabeth loomed over the garden floor, tears pouring down like rain as she chastised herself. Just as she brought her head up, under the dim lights of the garden was Lucy. Sprinting toward the unconscious girl, she coddled her friend’s body.