As it turns out, sometime a bit of will could be exactly what was needed, though, Iustus current will power hadn't been enough, he had noticed a slight improvement but not enough to not ending up awakening.
The solution was simple, by focusing on trying to improve his will power, the stat of the same name would simply increase with a level up, no need for some deep introspection when you could just increase something so easily!
Though finding things to get enough XP from had been a hassle, Iustus felt like he was finally ready to take on this damned dream and see was ahead.
Riled up, he failed to quickly fall asleep, obviously.
Rolling for a bit too long, he tried to distract himself by inspecting his muscles after following that girl's advices, he couldn't say that he was seeing much improvement for now.
While flexing his muscles repeatedly, he dozed off and ended up inside of the dream once again, only this time, something was a bit different, he had appeared closer to the fighting, much closer, close enough to almost be in range of the devil.
He also noticed something else, he could hear the voices of the people around, at he been unable to hear anything because he had been too far away? Surely that couldn't be such a simple explanation.
Everything else played out the same way, the warriors and soldiers were slaughtered in an instant and then Patience appeared, his sword was even more captivating up close, his droopy ears swayed a bit as he walked up to the devil.
They were about to speak.
What could these monuments of history, these extraordinary beings have to say to one another?
"Wrath, what are you doing now? These people aren't even slightly at the level you could want from them" spoke Patience, seeming unfazed and adressing Wrath as if it wasn't the first time they had met.
"Ahaha! What are you talking about bunny? Anyone who takes up a weapon means that they are willing to die by the blade! I can't just fight people on my level anyways, I would die of boredom" responded Wrath, his voice was just how Iustus had imagined it, it was pretty much two stones grinding against one another, time one thousand.
He was smiling like a madman, as he just swung his blade around, probably as some sort of stretching exercise.
Iustus stood his ground and managed to stay asleep as the intense wave of energy suddenly washed over him, the two of them pointed their blades at each other, it was about to go down.
Iustus doesn't know what he had been expecting, but he had definitely forgotten just how strong they were supposed to be, they moved around at a reasonable pace, it seemed like none of the two were speedsters who relied on their swiftness to outplay their opponents.
But he hadn't expected for him to be completely unable to see what was going on, their arms and swords moved so fast that Iustus had thought they had been vaporised, not even a blur or after image.
Even though their footwork wasn't nearly as fast and almost slow, it was flowing nicely and almost hypnotic for Iustus, his gaze was absorbed by it as he looked at it, unable to focus on anything else for a small instant, that small instant was enough for many things to happen.
Iustus would have no clue but while the devil kept on attacking, whether there was an opening or not, Patience stayed on the defensive and didn't even try to strike back, even allowing a few cuts to reach him without flinching.
The wounds seemed quite deep to Iustus but Patience paid it no need as his combat prowess were completely unaffected.
The fight had only started a minute ago but Iustus felt he had been there for hours on end as Patience unleashed his first strike, a single slash that severed the tendons in Wrath left wrist, rendering this hand almost useless.
Surprisingly enough, the devil didn't regenerate, Iustus felt like regeneration was a staple when it came to such powerful beings but all that happened was the bleeding stopping as soon as it began and his power seemingly growing.
Whether it was due to the injury in of itself or the sin of wrath doing its job, Iustus couldn't tell.
Patience kept on stepping back and Wrath had had enough of this tactic, with nothing but a stomp, he shattered the ground to dust in a wide radius, no footing was available for a few moments but the devil just launched himself forward with nothing but the strength of his arms, crashing his knees into the virtue.
Iustus saw nothing that happened after that as the rising dust covered his sight, he only heard to loud sound of something crashing down before the something else did as well.
The battle raged on further until the screen of dust was lifted, Patience seemed quite beaten up but didn't seem to notice at all as he fought just like before, Wrath's roars seemed loud enough to burst his eardrums multiple times over.
The young hero soon came two know what were the two things that had fallen first as Wrath no longer had any horns on his forehead, they had been cleaved right off during the fall.
After all that, nothing notable happened again, the two of them were swordsmen after all and used their sin and virtue in tandem with them it seemed, Wrath was always on the offensive, to the point that it was pretty much highly defensive as well while Patience seemed to always be on the defensive until he unleashed a single strike, always hitting its target and dealing notable damage.
It wasn't nearly as grandiose as Iustus would have imagined but he guessed that it was because of the lack of magic or anything of the sort used in this fight, they truly were pure warriors.
They could probably cause much more destruction with their strikes but were only using the right amount of force necessary with each blow.
The fight ended on a sight he had already scene before, for the painting had replicated this perfectly, minus the piles of corpses all around.
Patience thrusting his blade right through Wrath's chest, presumably through his heart as he pumped his virtuous power inside.
Immediately, Iustus was roughly pulled out of the dream and awoke once more.