"Very well. Then pay me back with your life."
As soon as Huberos heard these words, he knew that there was nothing more he could do.
Silence overcame the void, and it was likely that he was left alone.
'Is she gone? Did that woman leave me in this place?'
"Ah, there is one more thing."
The voice of the woman spoke again, this time the young and cheerful voice.
"You have died, yet your soul had not left your body quite yet as a result of the undetermined state which you are in. Therefore, you should still hold the ability to control your own abilities right now within this space. When I revive you, however, that will no longer be the case. Release my comrades. This is an order."
'This is an order'
The woman spoke with complete authority.
Despite her own demeanor, that of a young woman, she spoke with complete confidence, ordering Huberos around as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
She was above him.
Period.
"I understand."
Huberos made an image within his mind of the link which bound the four, and he broke the chains of said link.
"Now I said before to pay with your life. However, did you think that meant I would kill you?"
"Did.... it not?"
"Nope! I'm going to use you for all you're worth. So you'd better work real hard."
The energetic voice responded quickly, however the mature and demented voice then took over.
"Because if you don't, then I'll show you just how horrible it is to keep on living."
----
"Hm. That is strange indeed. I felt something just now, almost as if I regained consciousness and the feeling of having a body for just a moment.... yet I still remain here within this void. Are the three of you still present as well?"
"Still here."
"Yep."
"Mhm."
Trevor questioned his three comrades from within the state of darkness, to which they immediately responded.
"You're right tho. For a sec we were released, but now we've been put back into the darkness.", Ashley murmured. "That's weird. And this darkness.... feels different. It's.... darker?"
"What is that supposed to mean? How can darkness be darker?", Garett asked with a laugh.
"I don't freaking know. It's darker. That's all I can say."
The void which they were in previously was pitch black, so for Ashley to say such a thing placed confusion within the minds of the four, yet it was in the next moment that they heard a voice.
"It's pretty scary in here, isn't it? Or maybe it would be if we all weren't messed up in the head in the first place."
"Determined? So you've made it in here as well. I presume then that you have freed us from the control of the Host of Pride?", Trevor asked.
"Hm? Ah, yeah. You're now within my void. So I've gotto talk to a few more people, but things have been successful thus far. I just have a grand finale to perform then we should be good. Ah, I assume we can consider this the end of the games?"
"I have no issue. Keeping up the pretense of these battles would likely be fruitless given the state of things.", Trevor responded.
"Hey, Determined. What the hell is going on here? Did you betray us or did you not?", Samantha chirped.
"Of course I wouldn't betray you!", the angelic voice stated.
"Though that isn't a bad idea.", the demonic one replied. "Hahaha...."
"That doesn't answer my question at all. Matter of fact, it makes everything more confusing."
"Just don't worry about anything and leave it to me. You'll be back in those bodies in no time. However.... perhaps I should make you all into my slaves while I'm at it? After all, I could just keep you all locked in here indefinitely. So maybe I should establish a bit of a hierarchy while I'm at it?"
"Don't say that! I mean, they've helped us so much. Why would I make them into my slaves?"
"Because we're better than them?"
"Agh..... why are you so....."
"You are truly strange, Determined. Yet it is that strangeness which makes you such an interesting figure to take the helm of this ship which we have obtained.", Trevor stated, cutting off the banter between Claire and Clarice. "Do you understand why I made such a mistake during the battle today, leading to such a situation?"
"Hmm.... I suppose it was because you knew all this would happen?"
"In a sense yes, but not precisely. You should know well that I am a man who hates allowing someone else to take on a responsibility. And the more important the responsibility, the less I trust another person to handle it correctly. Why then, would I leave everything in your hands in this manner?"
If Trevor had a physical body, he almost certainly would be smirking deviously.
"Because no matter how many simulations I ran, allowing you to take control would always yield the greatest results."
"Are you saying you'll become my slave?"
"I'd prefer not to. However, if you use that word in the sense of allowing you to become the official ruler of the Dictatorship, creating a hierarchy where I work directly underneath you as the intelligence manager, then I have absolutely no disagreement."
"Then it shall be done. And the other three?"
"I mean, it should be obvious, but I'm the craftsman. I'll take a position as the lead scientist and take control of all construction and crafting.", Garett stated. "I'll become the Research and Development Head."
"And I suppose I'll ensure that the slaves underneath us don't forget their place. If they do, I'll..... influence their minds a bit.", Samantha added. "So I suppose I could be considered HR?"
"And I guess I'll....."
Ashley had nothing to say.
"Uh....."
"Don't you want to make everything burn?"
At the question which the demented voice spoke, the girl begun to giggle to herself.
"Yes.", she responded. "Can I do that then?"
"Keep it to the scum. But yes. I think sending you out to the human realm to cause a disruption should be..... interesting. As far as responsibilities... well, I suppose you can be considered our military branch... though you're more of a weapon than a commander. Alright. Then, I'll be releasing you four now. I'm going to have a little chat with the other two."
And with that, the antiheroes felt the warmth of owning a body once more.
They opened their eyes to see the dark sky of the demonic realm, looking around them to see a crowd filled with worry.
"Your excellencies!!"
"You've returned!!!"
"Thank goodness!!!"
"We thought something had happened!!!"
Standing up, Trevor dusted off his own suit, and taking the hand of Samantha, he helped her up.
'Indeed, something has happened. Something which was..... far better than my own estimations.'
The other two stood up as well, and Ashley hung her arms over the shoulders of Garett, flashing the people a wicked smile.
With an arrogant grin, Trevor held out a hand, making a grasping motion.
"Did you think I would allow victory to slip from my own hands? To think you all had such little faith in myself. Ah, but you must forgive me, Coran. It would seem that I've lost you and your family to our opponents within this round. Furthermore, it would appear that a number of rules which were set have been broken. New pacts have been formed, therefore we will have to renegotiate the rules of the gamble."
Turning around, Trevor witnessed the body of Huberos, which was filled with holes as he lay dead on the ground.
Furthermore, many dragonic demons and plantmen lay with their own limbs chopped off, and they all had died due to blood loss.
The ones who were not injured looked at the antiheroes- and Garett in particular with fury.
And finally, the two other Hosts of Sin were not present.
"It would seem we need to wait for everyone to arrive to finalize any agreements. Therefore...."
With the wave of her hand, Samantha formed a number of seats from her own barriers, to which the antiheroes all sat down in regal positions.
"I wonder what there is to drink while we wait? Could someone from the crowd be a dear and get us something?"
----
"Hmm... so we have a boy who was sold into slavery and starved to the point of madness, and a girl who was domestically abused, overworked until she went insane. You Hosts of Sin truly do represent your own sins, albeit in a strange manner."
"Who is it?"
"What do you want with us?"
Gormand and Apathia too had been transported into the void, unable to move for they held no physical bodies.
It was as they arrived that they heard the voice of the demonic woman.
"What do I want with you? I've already broken the Host of Pride. He's going to be my newly acquired slave. So what of you two? Do you hate me so much to the point where you would rather die?"
As they were asked this question, the two were stunned.
Did they hate this woman to the point where they would rather die than serve her?
Both of them had been abused by slavemasters in their past, so the term slave did not sit well with either of them.
However, it was the truth that Apathia and Gormand had not done anything themselves to destroy the slave society in their own city. Rather, they had simply risen from their own positions out of slavery. They even took on slaves for themselves, through they would never abuse these slaves like they had been abused.
"I'm... not going to do any work. I refuse. I'll..... I'll never do any work again. I don't care if you beat me..... if you hurt me..... if you put me in pain... I...."
The dragonic girl quivered as she spoke, but even so she continued.
"I will never go through all that again."
"So you just want to spend your days doing nothing, being lazy?", the demon asked.
"Yep.", Apathia replied.
Silence filled the void for only a moment, and Apathia felt as if her heart would rupture- though she had no heart.
'Did I..... piss her off? Is she going to torment me now? Is she going to.....'
"Fine. You've already worked quite hard in your life. I guess I can cut you a break. But..... that's also quite a problem for me you know. How will I look if I just accept you as my slave and don't force you to do any work for me? That wouldn't be very in character. People might start thinking I'm some sort of generous leader."
With a demented laugh, the demon mocked her own words.
"Pfft. Yeah right. As if they'll ever see me that way. Fine. And what about you? Don't you just want to eat a whole lot of good food? Become my slave. Work for me. You've got an able body, and you can do some good labor with your strange skill. You remove physical properties from substances by consuming them. There are a lot of uses for that. Do as I say, bow your head before me, and I'll let you eat as much as you want. After all, we've got a pretty good chef back in our capital."
As Claire spoke, Gormand would have perked his own ears up at the mention of a good chef- if he had ears.
"Oh..."
The thought of trying new foods enticed him, however there was something which held him back.
'But.....'
Gormand was reminded of the deaths of his comrades.
Huberos, Envidia, Vex, and Avarco.
Being fellow Hosts, they were all well aware of each other's suffering. It was this that united them.
Even if he wanted to, Gormand couldn't merely forget this bond.
"What about..... the others?"
"The others? Ah, you mean the other Hosts? Or your people?"
"Both.", Gormand responded.
"They can be my slaves as well. I'm pretty generous, don't you think? I guess I'm like a CEO who keeps on handing out jobs to everyone who applies. Of course, I'm not paying my workers anything, but that doesn't really matter. I give them a whole lot of benefits, after all."
"They.... can be your slaves?"
"Ah right. I guess they're dead in your mind?"
The woman let out a snicker, and with one last statement she disappeared from the void.
"There is no such thing as death for me. Death is like an off switch for a computer. The computer itself cannot turn itself on. It needs an external user to turn it on. However, I am that external force. I am the one who determines everything."
As she made this statement, the woman had but a single thought which she did not speak out loud.
'Because suffering determines everything in this universe.'
----
The time: Right after the seven gems shattered after performing their circles around Claire.
Everything froze.
The moment those gems shattered, the world around Claire came to a stop.
The breathing of those around her, the rumbling of the earth, the movement of the clouds in the sky.
Everything had been stopped.
And then, it hit her.
Emotions.
However, they were not just any emotions.
Horrible emotions, so great that Claire felt herself about to hurl just by the mere experience of such emotions.
In this moment of frozen time, Claire lived through the course of seven different lives.
Memories filled her mind, overloading her to a point which could not even be described as madness.
It was so overwhelming that Claire believed she would implode at that moment, processing so many horrid emotions at once.
The rejection which Lustia felt from those around her, and the desire to be loved while surrounded by those who could do nothing more than hate.
The fury of Vex as he watched his own woman stolen from him by the very man who had beaten him senseless, using his own good will against him in order to win over the woman through twisted words and manipulation.
The despair felt by Avarco as that doctor robbed him of his mother's life, unwilling to give a single dime for another person's sake.
The raging jealousy of Envidia towards her sister, and her anguish at the disparity within their lives and treatment as a result of a prejudice far out of her control.
The utter humiliation suffered by Huberos as he was beaten senseless before all, used as a demonstration of insolence in order to boost the ego of his enemies.
The starvation experienced by Gormand as his own master denied him the right to eat anything, and the desperation to go to such lengths as to even consume meat which was not even fit for a dog.
And finally, the agony of Apathia as she was forced to work beyond the limits of any person, held to expectations which were far beyond the realm of unreasonable.
All of these things, Claire felt at once.
And it ate away at her mind.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to cry out in torment.
She wanted to destroy everything.
She wanted to eliminate every last thing within this world at that moment.
For the suffering which Claire was currently experiencing was the combined suffering of the most decrepit, devastated, foregone beings in existence.
It was at this moment that Claire truly and fully understood what it meant to be a host of sin.
And as if knowledge had been infused to her as a result of this experience, Claire came to a realization.
'I....'
Shivering, Claire trembled.
She was terrified beyond all existence.
She was tormented beyond anything she had ever known.
Yet she stopped her shivering.
Looking forward, she frowned.
'I... haha.... I finally figured it out.'
Claire stated these words with hints of insanity in her voice, crackling with laughter.
'Heh heh..... hahaha!!!'
Being driven into mad laughter, Claire looked up with a grand smile, spreading her hands to the sky.
At this moment, her form began to change to her 'fallen angel' state.
With a grin, she closed her eyes as her feathered wings turned black, and her eyes changed colors underneath her eyelids.
The tar flowed around within her body, mixing itself around to form a dark grey as her other features begun to change as well.
'I finally figured out who I am.'
Claire said this with a slightly sad tone, laughing once more quietly.
'Heh...'
Holding her forehead, she then begun to cry.
Wrinkling her expression, tears dropped from her face.
'The origin of both sin and virtue.... there is only one thing which can create both sin and virtue.'
Wiping her own tears, she looked up with her newly transformed eyes.
She forced herself to breathe in deeply, looking straight forward and accepting it.
'Suffering.', she whispered.
Not wanting to hear such a thing, she frowned at her own statement.
'I am suffering itself.'
'Is this right?'
'Is this wrong?'
'Should I care?'
'Why am I even here?'
'Doesn't matter.'
'I need to do this.'
Having undergone enough torment to sustain multiple lives, Claire looked forth with nothing less than total resolve to do anything for the sake of her own goals.
'Because this is the only way.'
----
The arena, filled to the brim with the slaves of the antiheroes, was filled with cheers on their return.
And then, three things happened at once.
The first- the body of Huberos was filled in. The holes repaired themselves, and the demon opened his eyes. Not only Huberos, but all the people who had their limbs sliced off were instantly healed and revived.
The second- Tera, Gormand, and Apathia reappeared out of nowhere, having been transported into a dimension of nothingness and back.
And the third- each and every person within that arena felt a presence so overwhelming that they froze with terror.
"Hello, my slaves. Me and my other self have gone through quite an ideal just now, so I hope you bear with me. I might be acting a bit different from usual, after all. However..... there is something which I need to discuss with each and every person here.
It was then that she appeared.
Flying in the sky, the fallen angel fluttered her wings.
They were feathered like an angel, yet they were pitch black like those of a raven.
Her halo too was a pitch black, wrapped around with bones and miniature skulls.
One of her eyes was red with white sclera. The other, silver with black sclera.
Her silver hair was perfectly kept, wrapping around her gorgeous white dress.
She had two adorable black horns poking out of her forehead, unlike the crooked ones which she previously had.
Furthermore, her own skin was a dark shade of grey, and it was completely smooth- free of veins and wrinkles.
However, her two hands remained the same as before.
One was black and wrinkled, covered in veins, and with claws.
The other was pure white, perfectly kept and almost shining.
Looking around with a smile, the being waved her hand.
In an instant, four more beings appeared.
They were wrapped in chains, completely constrained by whatever magic the fallen angel had cast upon them.
As soon as these beings appeared, the jaws of three in particular fell.
Huberos, Gormand, and Apathia merely gazed at the four who had been brought before them, unable to even comprehend the situation.
"This is my proof of..... goodwill? I suppose it could be called that."
The demon waved her own hand, and a series of chains formed from nothing, constricting the three as well.
Looking down at their constrictions, the three were surprised beyond words, unable to even so much as react.
However, it was the girl who was typically too lazy to even speak who let out some words, ignoring her own bonds as a tear dropped from her single eye which peeked through her lime green hair.
"Vex.... Lustia.... Envidia.... Avarco..... you..... are all alive?"