'Where even am I?' Iustus truly had no clue where he was going, signs were a rare find in the countryside and they tended to be written in local languages rather than the continental language, so even if he was somewhere he knew by name, he wouldn't know.
He was heading toward somewhere that seemed to be important enough to be indicated, all of the signs seemed brand new, they even smelled fresh, who had made and planted these so recently?
The snow was thick and it seemed to have been snowing heavily for some time now, Iustus had to struggle to get through the natural barrier that was everywhere.
His mana could help but being unable to mold it into any element, melting the snow was beyond him and using his mana as he usually did seemed excessive as well as dangerous, he wouldn't want to give off his location, he was heading toward the next sin after all.
The element of surprise was always welcomed, last time, Corruption had been prepared to receive an attack but it had been because that copper saint had been after him, the next one shouldn't be expecting a thing.
Iustus noticed a wall, there were some strange metallic prickled threads on top of them, another sign rested above the entrance, this one seeming much older.
"Who in their right minds would name a city Sht'ole?" He muttered to himself, although he probably shouldn't be surprised, most places had insulting names, it was just that they were written in a language only locals would recognise.
The single sun in the sky was uncovered a bit more as a cloud moved out of the way, causing the virtuous hero to suddenly be blinded by the reflection on the pristine white snow, catching himself before making a fool out of himself.
'Well, there isn't anyone outside with this weather anyways-' he thought, with so much hard snow piling up, it was dubious whether or not the people could even open their doors to go outside, there wasn't anything they could do, so they might as well stay in the relative comfort of their homes.
Ready to prove him wrong, a suspiciously human shaped pile of snow started shifting and a arm reached out from the snow, grabbing Iustus nose of all things as the pile of snow started talking.
"What the fuck are you doing? My brother died at the Battle of Hoover Dam. You're desecrating a war memorial" spoke the pile of snow as it started crumbling, revealing an unexpectingly tiddy looking man.
His tone of voice wasn't as furious as his contorted expression seemed to indicate, this man looked terrrifying in a way Iustus didn't know existed until now.
Iustus tried to say something but stumbled on his words a bit and the tone of his voice from having his nose clenched shut didn't help him gather his words.
"Cut the kid some slack will you? I am sure he wants to apologise about it" spoke another man from behind Iustus, he couldn't turn to look at him as he was still in the grasp of the crazy man, which seemed dressed like a typical city guard.
He let go soon after the other man spoke and looked at Iustus expectantly.
"Hum, yes, sorry about that, I didn't mean too" he said carefully, expecting the guard to just grab and break his nose the moment he didn't pay attention.
"All right, apology accepted. Don't let it happen again" spoke the man in a normal tone as he just went back to standing still.
Iustus carefully back off from who was most likely the local crazy man before turning around to look at his savior.
Immediately, he felt like something was off.
"Have we met before?" he asked the owl-masked man as he looked up at him before looking down and notcing that this man was somehow not left any footprints in the snow, the snow wasn't nearly as high as outside for some reason but it was still quite deep.
"Jamais, you seem lost, like a little lamb, could I help you?" spoke the man, Iustus had no clue what that first word was but the tone made it sound like he meant no.
"Help me? There's no need, I am just passing through..." tried saying Iustus but the man wasn't having none of it.
"You should stop and think Iustus, think! What is that you lack? Come by, I'll show you to a nice little hut" Iustus was about to deny his offer but suddenly felt he should listen to this masked man.
He failed to notice anything weird with his own reasoning or the man's words and just nodded his head.
"Ahaha! You are easily 'convinced' aren't you? That would be a problem if you were to continue on your path, you would die way too soon! I am a fast worker but you need to let me do my job at a good pace still! Corruption and Milakro was alright, I have been done with the two of them for a while" spoke the man as he put a hand on the hero's shoulder.
"I am not done with any other quite yet though, I need some finalisations, neither am I done with you"
"One thing you need to keep in mind, is that sins are meant to have archnemeses, an opponent they are particularly powerful against but also weak to, the lesser sins should also have been like that I believe, hard to be sure, there weren't any in the last generation"
"The sins don't have their natural enemies here however, you are a replacement with no clear virtue, you may be slightly more efficient against sins but they will be much more powerful against you, you are blank, you are extra weak with only a mild compensation"
"In short, you don't stand a chance to defeat them all, maybe a few lesser sins and maybe give a cardinal sin some trouble, you should look toward the future" advised Ithelisemou as he placed his gloved hand on the hero's head, inplanting an idea in him.
"Stay around for a while, I'll make sure no one notices that you are the virtuous hero and I will even prepare something just for you, look forward to it" the owl-masked man was suddenly gone as Iustus found himself in another location, completely different place than the city he was in earlier, he was in the woods, next to fairly big hut, without thinking about it, he entered it as he had been told to.
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"Where were you?" asked Malina as she just saw Theli appear out of thin air.
"Just corrupting a hero's mind, business as usual" he casually responded as he removed his mask and flashed a smile at her.