The entrance of the cave collapsed.
Upon closer look, Invidia, still donning the grey metal full armour, now has the ring of Avarice on his left middle finger. Including the lavender gauntlet of Acedia by his left forearm, bracer of Ira by his right, and necklace of Gula by his neck. On his back, now visibly seen is the white cape of Avaritia, flapping from the cold wind that blows in the 9th Circle of Hell.
His helmet now only covers the half of his face, revealing his rugged black hair, and an eye that squints as tears are coming out of it. The cracks on Invidia's armour are more visible than it was previously. The poor Sin trembles on the ground of the white icy snow, not because of the petrifying blizzard, but because of the lost of his siblings.
The thought of losing his sassy, but kind brother; Avarice, and the slow, yet understanding Acedia, tears his heart.
"Why....?" asked the sin of Invidia as he clenches his fists.
"Just...why?"
His tears drop on the snow as they crystallised as soon as they touch it. Invidia then proceeds to punch the ground, cracking the guard of his knuckles, and bloods pours out through it.
"Why?!"
The sin of Invidia screamed at the top of his lungs as the freezing flakes of snow that rose from the impact of his fist, touches his face.
Invidia, now all four on the ground, straighten his back, before looking behind him.
The view which he sees are just the blues of a frozen lake and whites of the snow which lies arounds it. He then gets up on his feet, as half of his foot burrows in the snow.
He takes a step forward, before looking into the frozen lake, and made eye contact with frozen bodies of men and women inside the frozen lake.
Invidia closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
He opens them once more, now with a clear mind, and a clear objective in mind, finding the truth from the 'Warden of Hell'.
...
Hours after hours, he walks, yet not one being can be seen in sight. the only thing that moves in the frozen lake of Cocytus are the chilling snowflakes.
But the Sin did not give up.
Not one bit.
He keeps walking with the broken suit, despite the piercing cold.
Then, his patience was somehow rewarded. He saw something out of ordinary on the frozen lake; four broken steel chains and a pair of frozen black wings.
"It couldn't be..." His only revealed eye widens in disbelief.
"Yes. It could be," a voice of an old man rings behind Envy.
Invidia turns his back as the ring glows and an assault rifle appears on his hand. He aims the rifle to an old man, clothed in a suit with a cane in his hand.
"There's no need to be violent, Kaze Fujiwara," the old man said as he merely looks at the Sin, who was shocked to hear his real name.
"Who are you?!" He demanded as he still aims the barrel of the gun to the old man.
"I will introduce myself once we meet again in the Overworld."
The old man takes a step forward to Invidia. Invidia takes a step backwards as his hands shake nervously.
"But I have the answer you look for."
Invidia slowly lowers the rifle as it disappears from his hands. Albeit hesitant, he sighs before talking to the old man again.
"Speak."
The old man nods and places his other hand onto the hand which grabs the cane.
"The warden has long gone," said the old man which was replied with a scoff from Invidia.
"Well that's obvious."
"Long," he said once more. "Gone."
Invidia understands which what he meant and gestures him to continue.
"He made a deal with the Gate Keeper of Souls; in exchange of his freedom, and the five realms."
"Five-"
"Heaven, Earth, Spirits, Hell, and the Abyss."
Invidia ponders upon the information, as the old man moves towards the Sin, and places his hand on his shoulder.
"I am sorry for your loss, but I am sure that the true Guardian will explain everything to you."
Invidia tilts his head.
"The 'true Guardian'?"
The old man takes his hand away as he turns back from Envy.
"Until we meet again, Invidia."
The space that surrounds the old man distorted before he himself disappear completely from Invidia's sight, leaving the confused sin of Invidia standing on the frozen lake of Cocytus.
...
"That's it. That's all I found out," said Kaze, now in the hospital gown, while Avarice sits by the edge of the bed, Ryvern looks at the floor as if he is in a deep thought, and Ver with her arms crossed by the window.
"Gate keeper...." Ryvern softly speaks. "Angela better not screw things up."
Ver changes her pose before speaking, "What happened to other Sins?"
She received a saddened look by Kaze as Avarice looks down.
"Lust was killed in the first invasion, Gluttony sacrificed himself to save us from the infected devils in the 4th Circle, Wrath held the massive armies of infected sinners in the 6th before dying, and Pride..." Kaze trails off.
"That whore ran away before getting killed by the damned Horseman after Wrath did his best to protect us," Avarice finished the sentence for Kaze with a slight venom in his tone.
"I should've known that the horsemen would follows their master," said Ryvern, catching the attention of the other three.
Avarice grits his teeth, remembering the death of Avaritia in the hand of the Horseman. Even if she tried to ran away, she still his sister.
"Let's just hope the next dungeon would not be an invasion from the Abyss."
...
Now outside of the hospital, Ryvern and Ver walks side by side without Greed or Envy with them. Without speaking a thought with each other, the two only looks to the view in front of them, that is, until they see a rather depressed Nora Gregory; in her casual clothing, standing in front of a coffee shop while looking distant.
"Nora." Ryvern catches her attention.
"Oh, Ryv, I'm sorry, I didn't notice-" Nora stops herself as her attention turned to the white haired lady. "-you..."
Ver smiles at her before looking at Ryvern. She looks back at Nora who is fidgeting her fingers.
"Ah, Ver." She introduced herself, while holding out her right hand. "I'm his friend."
The red haired girl suddenly brighten up as she shakes Ver's hand.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Nora, his schoolmate!"
Ver sneakily turns to Ryvern as he can see her grinning at him. Ryvern rolls his eyes as Ver turns back to Nora, who just released her hand.
"What were you doing, Nora?"
"Ah- It was...nothing."
"Oh. Well, now that we're here," he looks up to the sign of the coffee shops that literally says; 'Coffee Shop'.
"Want to grab a coffee?" He looks back at Nora and gestures to the coffee shop.
Nora flustered with a tint of red on her cheeks. She slowly nods to Ryvern while looking away. The whole scene earns a snort from Ver, who struggles to contain her laughs.
Ryvern's face turns as he comes to the realisation of the situation. He can only sighs before speaking;
"Not in that context... Christ..."
...
"A Latte and 2 Iced Americano," said Ryvern as the waiter nods and leaves the trio at the table.
Ryvern then turns to the red head.
"So what's wrong?"
Nora slightly jolts and timidly looks at Ryvern.
"It's...nothing."
She trails off.
"I see," Ryvern left a cold reply to which the white haired beauty next to Nora clicks her tongue.
"Tch. This is why you have no girlfriend, boss."
Nora bodies immediately tenses up as she looks at Ver happily. Ver smirks as the silver haired teenager sighs.
Ryvern then looks at Nora to say something but in the corner of his eyes, he sees the waiter coming with their orders.
...
The trio sips on their drinks before Ryvern talks to Nora.
"Did the Beelzebub's descendant disturbed you or something?"
The red head was taken back at his statement.
"How did you know?"
"I have my sources."
"Stalker?" Ver said only to be ignored.
"He's been bothering me lately..." Nora spoke out her mind. "And I just found out that my family decides to move the date of our marriage sooner than it was before."
"And when is that?"
"Next week..."