The Dark Forest

Year 820 | Month 5 | Day 8

Sylvester watches with more than a little boredom as his soon-to-be student pretty much mutilates herself by forcing Wrath transformations over and over again. Just waiting until the danger period is passed and doing it again and again. Barely skirting the rules of the universe with what she’s doing.

And the amount of pain she has to be enduring to do it makes Sylvester briefly wonder if she’s a masochist. But in reality, he knows she’s just too goal oriented to ignore a way to push ahead.

The skeleton watches from high in the trees as the Wrath Sin’s influence spreads with each and every transformation. A sight that has him convinced that this forest will become a forest people will be avoiding for decades.

Unless they want to be corrupted that is.

Unlike with the Seven Deadly Sins themselves, if someone else who isn’t strong enough enters a location influenced by a Sin, they will end up being corrupted. And in some serious cases, possibly even turned into a monster. One controlled by the Sin that corrupted them.

Which in this forest’s soon-to-be-case means they’d go on a rampage killing everything they see. Unless ordered otherwise by Wrath, that is.

Sylvester is already an undead though. And he’s Tier 4 as well. So he doesn’t have to worry about the Sins influence.

The Irregular continues to watch over the course of a few more days, only briefly pausing when he notices an intruder. Someone who shouldn’t be here and clearly has harmful intentions towards Wrath.

Sylvester lets out a mental sigh – seeing as a skeleton can’t sigh – and jumps down from the tree the moment the intruder appears in the Wrath-influenced clearing that Wrath is currently unconscious in after having done another transformation. And his appearance startles the intruder, who Sylvester believes is an angel. One of the Guardians from Earth.

The angel appears to be male, with long white hair and white angelic wings stretching out from his back. Meanwhile he’s wearing some sort of white robe.

“Begone, Guardian of Earth,” Sylvester speaks, his cold voice echoing throughout the clearing as the angel ignores the Wrath trees hitting him.

The angel in question glares at him, but he doesn’t leave. Instead he asks, “Are you enjoying your punishment, Reaper?”

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That question has Sylvester full on laughing before he returns the question, “Are you enjoying being beaten by your own creation?”

The angel’s glare worsens at that, and he tries to move around Sylvester to attack Wrath. But Sylvester doesn’t allow him. He instantly floods the clearing with miasma while avoiding his soon-to-be student and enveloping the angel. An angel whose power is still limited to just the initial levels of Tier 4. Whereas Sylvester is in the late stages of Tier 4, having regained more of his old power since Wrath left the World Tree.

“No, I don’t think I’ll be letting you harm a hair on her head,” Sylvester says while slowly stepping towards the angel, using his miasma to bind the much weaker being with his arms and legs stretched out. “I never did like you angels and your petty god. You all just sit on your little heaven on Earth and toy around with the people below without giving them any help at all. Then you try to force them into a war for something you have no right to have.”

Sylvester shakes his head, using his miasma to cover the angel’s mouth so as to keep him from speaking.

“And I know you’re just gonna spout your usual self-righteous crap at me, so there’s no point even letting you speak,” the Irregular continues before glancing back at Wrath and raising his hand with his thumb bone on his middle finger bone. Then he turns back to the bound angel again and snaps his fingers, making the miasma tear the angel apart. “Just wait for my student to become strong enough to take on your god. Now that will be fun to watch.”

Then Sylvester begins to jump up back into the trees again, only to pause as he notices another uninvited guest arriving. But this one isn’t here to attack Wrath. So Sylvester resumes the process of jumping up into the trees again before looking down to watch what he does.

The man who walks into the clearing is the same person who showed up in that hologram his student had not too long ago.

Interesting…

From what Sylvester remembers, this one is in a group who is not following the orders of their world’s Protector. He’s also likely the only reason Wrath is alive today, having helped her when she was tossed into the Dark Forest in the first place.

Which means he’s okay in Sylvester’s eyes. Even if he’s from Earth.

The man also doesn’t seem to have sensed Sylvester. Although he clearly sees the torn-apart corpse belonging to the angel Sylvester killed.

And he doesn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest. Mostly just confused. Also possibly assuming that Wrath killed him judging by the way the man is glancing between the corpse and Wrath.

Something Sylvester finds interesting is that while the angel was attacked by the Wrath influenced trees and monsters near the clearing, this man wasn’t.

Another sign that he isn’t here to harm her.

If the skeleton had to guess, the man is most likely here due to Wrath’s rather long absence. Since she has been in the Dark Forest for a while now without leaving.

Sylvester would be surprised if her father didn’t grow worried during this time.

Although his sending an invader from another world to find her is a little surprising if that’s true.

Eventually the invader simply finds a place to sit down and seemingly begins training one of his skills while keeping an eye on the surrounding forest. Likely settling in to protect her from adversaries while she’s unconscious.

Looks like I’ve been replaced…

Sylvester would raise an eyebrow at that if he had one, but he doesn’t. So he just continues watching from high above.

As he always does nowadays.