"Pfft!"
"Took you awhile," Altria muttered as she effortlessly cut down dozens of shadow hands with her holy lance as she tries to rush towards Envy, but several hundreds more would replace them, clawing their way towards her and preventing her and the others from getting closer.
She glanced back to find Brunhilde, Ereshkigal, Gudako and Mash appearing behind their group from a golden portal made from bones.
"Are you laughing right now?" Altria asked.
"....Sorry, but I heard what Zenkichi said," Brunhilde said, chuckling and almost burst out laughing. "Seriously, out of all the one liners he could've pulled, he chose that?! Hahahaha! Oh, I am so holding that over his head."
Altria blinked, "You heard him? How?"
Gudako snickered, "We all heard it. Zenkichi was blessed with the power of Kur, the Underworld, and he has some telepathic-type skill. The blessing sort of enhanced it so...we all heard what he's been saying for a while now."
Mash tilted her head, "I don't understand. Why is it funny?"
Gudako giggled and patted her head. "Don't worry Mash. You'll get it after a movie night and reading a couple of comics that ties to the movie."
Brunhilde looked at her in surprise. "You read comics and American movies?"
Gudako nodded proudly, as Mash quickly shielded her from several shadow hands. "But of course! I'm not a proper Otaku if I don't know a few comics and its affiliates. I actually got into American comics when I saw that Spiderman show."
"Comics? Movies? A spiderman? What are you all talking about?!" Ereshkigal indignantly cried out as she summoned forth enormous cage-like structures from the underworld to crush and restrain the shadow hands. "Do we really have the time to talk about such nonsense?! We need to help Zenkichi and defeat this monster!"
"Right! Right, right! I was just trying to lighten up the mood, hehe..." Gudako scratched the back of her head, her expression turned serious. "But it doesn't look like we can even approach her."
She looked towards Zenkichi and Quetzalcoatl, both powerful beings of their own right—one was a Divine Infernal while the other was one of the supreme beings of Aztec mythology, respectively—they were both empowered under the sun, and they still couldn't reach Envy.
She was shocked to see Envy, who had her Authority of the Underworld stripped from her and returned to Ereshkigal, was still holding her ground against them! Focusing the majority of her shadow hands against them, it was as if a dark sea surged forth, each hand reaching and clawing at Zenkichi and Quetzalcoatl as if it had a mind of its own.
The shadows formed an almost impenetrable wall around Envy, crashing against the two fighters in waves and dragging at their limbs like grasping tendrils.
Before that ocean of shadows, Zenkichi and Quetzalcoatl appeared like ants.
""Fists of the Sun!""
However both of them stood defiantly and clenched their fists together, their voices merging in a powerful battle cry. A blinding light erupted from their fists, each strike infused with the intensity of the sun itself.
The radiant energy seared through the darkness, casting brilliant beams that cut deep into the wall of shadows, forcing the tendrils to recoil.
Zenkichi's and Quetzalcoatl's combined assault sent shockwaves reverberating through the battlefield, each blow creating explosions of light that temporarily tore open gaps in the ocean of shadows.
But Envy was undeterred. With a smirk of cruel satisfaction, she raised her arms, and the shadowy hands surged back with renewed fury, filling in the gaps as quickly as they were created.
Her voice, laced with malice, rang out.
"Did you think mere light could extinguish the envy I am made of? I am boundless! I will consume everything you hold dear!"
Zenkichi, fighting through the exhaustion, smirked and flared the golden flames radiating from his body. "Like hell you will! Burn, Solar Flare!" He pulled back his left arm, golden flames converged on his palm and ignited with a brilliance that outshone even his previous attacks. With a fierce roar, he thrust his left hand forward, unleashing a blinding explosion of light and heat straight at Envy.
The golden flames erupted from his palm in a massive wave, crashing into the wall of shadows with a force that sent tremors through the ground.
The radiant energy tore through Envy's defenses, searing away layer after layer of her shadowy hands.
For the first time, her expression shifted to one of genuine alarm, her eyes widening as the golden flames continued to burn through her defenses, inching ever closer.
"...Even after hundreds of loops, I still can't defeat you? Are you really this strong? Or is this fate? No, I refuse to believe it!" Her expression hardened and her hands began to move hypnotically, dark energy weaved around her delicate pale fingers.
"Authority of Envy, Absolute Zero Hour!"
Suddenly the shadow hands, Zenkichi, Quetzalcoatl, everything else around her began to freeze—time had stopped. The entire battlefield fell into a suffocating stillness, as if trapped in a photograph of the moment.
The golden flames from Zenkichi's attack froze mid-air, flickering in place like captured sunlight, while Quetzalcoatl's fiery aura halted, forming a statue of blazing energy around her.
Envy floated at the center of it all, breathing heavily but triumphant. Her fingers still traced patterns in the air, holding the delicate threads of her Authority like a puppeteer controlling her strings.
She smirked, her eyes glinting with malice as she floated toward the frozen Zenkichi and Quetzalcoatl.
"Absolute Zero Hour," she murmured to herself, almost in awe. "A power that not even gods can defy—time itself bent to my will. You never had a chance."
She gazed at him with a complicated expression—hate, love, sadness—all emotions blending together in her eyes as she reached out, hesitating just a fraction of a second before her fingers brushed against Zenkichi's frozen face. Her lips curved into a bitter smile.
"How many times has it come to this?" she whispered softly, as though confessing a truth to herself. "How many cycles, how many lives, how many different versions of you have I faced? And yet...it's always the same."
"I can never win against you. Hundreds of tries, thousands of tricks...all failed. Haaa..."
She leaned down, resting her head against his chest. "How did things turn out this way? In the beginning, I simply wanted to kill you and devour you—becoming a true Monster of Sin. And yet, hundreds of loops, I've lost. In mind, body and....heart."
She chuckled and swipe her hand across his neck, only for it to pass through his neck harmlessly.
Envy looked down at her hand, disappointed. "As a powerful authority, it holds one restriction—I cannot attack those frozen in time; whether they be people or things."
She frowned, clenching her hand. "I tried rewinding time for a short while several times, yet your movements wouldn't be the same each time," she muttered, frustration tightening her voice. "As if even frozen, some part of you defies the flow of time itself."
Her gaze softened, and she studied Zenkichi's face as if searching for an answer hidden beneath the surface. "I've tried everything. Trapped in this endless cycle of trying to kill you, only to fail again and again. It's maddening, you know."
She chuckled. "Although, that does make me mad or insane, since I kept on playing with this game of ours. But....that would mean denying my whole existence."
She smiled, dark and filled with malice, as her darkened eyes narrowed, reflecting the twisted emotions within her. "After all, I am Envy. Born from the deepest depths of resentment, bitterness, and endless want of humanity. To stop fighting, to give in.... it would be like admitting that my birth was wrong."
"So, let's keep fighting...shall we?"
There was a brief moment of silence and then everything began to move—not forward however, but back.
All the way back to—
"What?!" Envy's eyes widened in shock and disbelief, as the time rewinded back only when Brunhilde and the others arrived.
"I knew my power has been getting weaker, but it isn't to the extent that the rewind has shortened! Why is this happening..." She then turned her gaze towards Zenkichi, her eyes narrowed into a calculating look.
"....No, I don't sense any surge of temporal energy from his body. None of them in fact. Then, is it from a third party—"
Envy barely finished speaking when a chill ran down her spine. A subtle, almost imperceptible tremor reverberated through the fabric of space around her, chilling her to the core. She froze, feeling a presence—ancient, powerful, and watching.
"No... It can't be," she whispered, her calculating demeanor breaking for just a moment, her gaze darting around as if searching for the invisible interloper. "Not her!"
But the sudden heat; warm, gentle and exciting, that spread throughout her body—which centered mostly on her chest and loins—was unmistakable.
Immoral thoughts began to invade her mind—mostly about the things she would do to the male she started liking. She licked her lips, her eyes was hazy and face flushed red—her right hand made its way to her right boob. And her juices began leaking out of her crotch and down her thighs, making her rub her thighs together as she whimpered and moaned.
"N-No! M-Must...fight it!"
Envy bit down on her lower lips so hard that it started to bleed, making her snapped out of her dazed state.
She gritted her teeth and turned her head—gazing indignantly towards the far sea.
"Lust....is waking up!?"
...
AN: Sup~ Anyways, I might not post chapters on time next week, cause it's Christmas and all, so please don't be alarmed if I haven't uploaded. Peace ✌️
Also, use this code: 97397 for 50% off on membership~ C'mon now, feel the spirit of Christmas~ Hohoho~
Lore about me! I got appointed as the Santa at my school, from elementary to even college! 😅