Feeling the cold embrace of the chains coiling around his head, Corruption was reminded of that fateful day and what had led to such an outcome.
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The time during which both he and Milakro had been truly alive was so far back, it was during the reign of terror of the previous sins, what a joke it was, he had hated these sinful beings with all of his guts back then.
Valerien and Milakro had both joined the same temple, the one founded by none other that Chastity, a crazy preacher by all means, whose sermons appeared to be shouting competitions but his yells must have been quite convincing for many chose to listen to him.
His defeat of Lust had only made his following grew but it was during that time that Valerien started noticing something.
He had listened to Chastity's words and recorded them many times, rereading his words again and again in an attempt to truly understand the wisdom he was trying to pass on.
And he had only noticed one thing, the virtue only ever strictly forbid anything related to the seven sins but only warned about anything that could lead to them, he believed that one could commit evil without being sinful.
At least, that was what Valerien had understood.
Comparing his newfound understanding with the many followers, he noticed that many always tried to avoid any evil and followed the virtue's words in the strictest way possible, they had become zealots who couldn't think for themselves.
He could only see this as a lack of understanding, something that could be fixed, so when he became a confessor, he tried to push people toward for autonomy but this only brought another realisation.
They couldn't change, they wouldn't, they weren't truly listening anymore, they had lost their minds.
They didn't want guidance, they wanted clear instructions.
The first time, it hadn't been on purpose, he hadn't expected anyone to do as he would say.
And yet they did, they did anything he would tell them to, unable to see the obvious wrong in his words, without noticing it himself, he had started doing nothing but push them away, no longer would he try to enact the vision of Chastity nor his own, he had simpy started to find allure in pushing those people down horrible paths.
He knew that he was throwing them in the maws of sins but justified it to himself as simply getting rid of the mindless.
The consequences of his actions didn't go unnoticed however and Milakro was the first to confront him about it, trying to plead with him to go back on the right back but to Corruption, there was no going back, for him, this was exactly what needed to be done.
Though, the feeling of these cold chains on his skin reminded him more of his very last few moments, it had been a surprise for sure.
Right after his judgement had been decided, on his way to be emprisoned, Milakro appeared, he never would have expected such swiftness and explosive power from his old friend but it was true that he had received paladin training.
In an instant, he grabbed one of the chains that had bound Corruption and wrapped it around his neck, a swift pull on each side was all that was needed for his head to come cleanly off.
With such a brutal execution, all attention was diverged to the copper saint and Valerien's sins were somewhat overlooked in the light of the murder.
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"That's it Valerien! You can't escape!" spoke the chained saint as he pulled on the chain, bringing the lesser sin down to his level.
"Are you going to kill me for good this time?!" spoke Corruption.
"Didn't I tell you already? We need to make our way to hell, to cleanse our sins" the copper saint's tone surprised the sin, would it not be his destination if he died either way?
"What do you-" answering his question, the ground suddenly cracked as blood red light poured out of the earth.
Iustus was flung away by the sheer presence of sin coming out of the cracks while the two priests remained in the center of it all as charred bony hands started reaching out from the ground.
They first grabbed the chained saint's ankles and robes, before some of the charred skeletons emerged to grab the chain and the sin as well.
Corruption couldn't believe his eyes, Hell! This was actually Hell! The sinful presence was intoxicating even to him, that was the kingdom of the devils, the ones that spread the sins, the original corruptors!
Corruption was frozen as both he and Milakro started descending into the fiery pits, the blood red light grew blinding for Iustus who was forced to turn away to avoid having his eyes melt.
When the light faded away and he felt like it would be safe to look, everything was gone, the chained man and the lesser sin were completely gone, all that was left were the peaceful bodies of the previously corrupted.
'What the hell was that?' wondered Iustus as he touched the ground that had been cracked moments earlier, it was perfectly normal soil, no sinful dimension resided under there.
Had the priest just conjured up a portal to whatever this might have been? The hero hadn't noticed him doing anything of such grandeur.
Iustus went to stand back up but felt a piercing pain in his skull as words poured out, informing that Corruption had, in fact, been defeated.
As he had expected, he felt his power suddenly grow but the system also informed of something unfortunate.
Simply telling him that his powers wouldn't activate automatically after death anymore, meaning there would be no coming back like against Occult.
He felt proud of this victory but it had really all been all thanks to that Milakro and Corruption had been a non-combat focused sin as well but he had still managed to escape his grasp, he had remained locked in place even after the sin had started falling down as the effect of Corruption still clung to him, he might have been able to regain his composure and do something had the copper saint not been there.
All in all, this was a victory that clearly reminded Iustus that he was still too weak.