'I am alive!' excitedly thought Oath Breaker as he fell to his knees, he had immediately started running deeper into the forest after transferring into his last clone.
He seemed unharmed but was completely drained, he doubted that switch of body was going to leave no trace, it would take a while for him to be back at one hundred percent.
'It doesn't matter, I am alive and most importantly, I am immortal! As long as I have a clone active, I can live on even if the main body is killed!' he chuckled by himself through his heavy breathing.
"That is quite impressive, en effet" hearing this voice and very particular dialect, Oath Breaker suddenly froze, he looked up to see the man simply sitting down on a fallen log, wearing all dark and shaby clothes.
"Theli? What are you doing here-" the sin tried speaking but was swiftly cut off as the man clad in dark ignored his question.
"Oath Breaker, Oath Breaker... You are one hell of a lesser sin huh? You managed to push your impressive powers past their limits, you perfectly duplicated your soul and mind, I commend you for that, it took me longer than you did to do that" the sin felt oppressed as Theli just spoke to him without an hint of danger emanating.
"You have reached your potential, well not quite but the rest of the way is nothing but small improvements"
"He-hey, what do you want Theli?" asked the sin as he tried to stand back up.
"That's a typical question Oath Breaker, and I don't feel like making a grand speech today, I was busy you know?"
"I was feeding my chickens, the usual way, I thought doing somethings the good old way would be a good idea, to have some activities to do with my dear wives and my daughter, well, farm stuff is mostly a miss on my part but it is quite enjoyable, I always make sure to feed them at a certain hour, I like to see them learning how to recognise time frames and patterns, the chickens I mean"
"What the hell are you on about?" spouted the sin, feeling like the man was messing with him.
"Well, to keep it short, I was doing something and you just decided to jump the virtuous hero, I am not done with him you know? I am trying to have him develop his powers by himself, he is quite lacking in many departments so it is taking a while" explained Theli as he flipped a coin.
The sound of it pushing the air as it spun in the air was all that filled the silence for a few moments before it fell right back into Theli's hand.
"Thankfully, you lesser sins are more capable, Ingratitude, Idolatry and Corruption, these three had already demonstrated what they were capable of in full, not that it helped them survive but it doesn't matter"
"Do you think it was luck or skill that saved some of the lesser sins in the first battle? No, I intervened to stop you from dying before you had time to bloom!"
"That includes you Oath Breaker, when Ilmna, the heroine with the club found you, I cast a spell on her to make her stop searching for you, otherwise, she would have just ripped apart the whole ground and killed you" revealed the man as he casually crossed his legs.
"You aren't as strong as you think, you can easily be defeated by heavy hitters and by your own pride too, had you paid attention you could have avoided the first punch, you would have still been overwhelmed afterward but you wouldn't have been completely destroyed though"
The lesser sin stared at the man in disbelief, he didn't believe a word he was saying, there was no way.
"In any case, are you alright? You look a bit pale, I hope realising your weakness didn't give you a fever, don't worry about that, it doesn't matter anymore, you don't matter anymore" spoke Theli with a straight face as Oath Breaker wondered if that last part meant what he thought it meant.
"Don't even try it Theli! I won't let myself be killed so easily, I can still fight back! I am a sin! I am a legendary being!" shouted the lesser sin as he raised his fists.
"You sure are buddy"
"You're just a human! I don't care how much respect or trust Vainglory and the other sins have in you! I'll kill you" threatened Oath Breaker.
"That's rich coming from the guy who just got manhandled by 'just a human' some time ago but also, just a human? I don't think you understand Oath Breaker..." the sin suddenly felt like he had been turned to a statue as every inch of his body froze up in fear.
"Mythical beings, dragons, spirits, gods, devils and everything else, you shouldn't be afraid of them, because there are humans in this world, we are everywhere, present in every field, and we can kill anything as long as we try to, you should cherish your past as 'just a human', that is where true strength comes from, every possibility is possible as long as you're a human" for the first time ever, Oath Breaker saw the unreadable Ithelisemou with a clear expression on his face.
Still, under the immense pressure, Oath Breaker didn't give in.
He turned around, prepared to try and run away but someone was blocking his way.
The sin and masked person looked at one another for a split second before the man spoke.
"One thousand and twenty-four" spoke the man behind his wooden mask as he swung a machete at the lesser sin.
'An underling? This won't even leave a scratch-' the machete went right through the arm he raised defensively and then through his neck and then his other arm, cleanly chopping everything in its path.
The sin's blood gushed out as his decapitated head saw his body fall limply against the ground with a thud.
His head was picked up by Theli, who spoke some last words to him.
"Thanks for your cooperation"