Feeling incredibly itchy, Iustus jumped up from the ground, expecting to see Ithelisemou just standing in a corner but he saw nothing of the sort, all he was seeing was the bizarre place he was in now.
The place was covered in sand and the walls surrounding him were of some sort of stone that looked very much like sand as well, sand was even pouring out of gaps in the walls and ceiling, softly sprinkling some of it everywhere, including Iustus's hair and inside of his cloth.
This was the source of this horrible itchiness, Iustus moved into a spot without any sand leak, got rid of as much of the infesting sand as possible and after doing some thinking, he started heading toward the only direction available to him.
'Is this another part of that place?' he wondered, it was filled with bizarre and insane stuff already, it wouldn't be surprising if there was a desert themed area just for the sake of it.
This temple-like place or perhaps dungeon-like, Iustus wasn't certain how to describe this monotonous, sand obstructed pathway, it felt so empty, as if there was no point to being there at all.
However, it was fairly obvious that it was Ithelisemou that had sent him here, so certainly, he had something in stock for him.
The virtuous hero could vaguely remember something about dying to a bug, was there a gigantic cockroach or spider roaming this place?
Thinking about that, he looked down at his wrists and ankles, none of the metal bands were there anymore, only the marks they had left by pressing down on his skin, he could barely feel the difference with how deep of an indent it had left.
He tried blasting a hole to the outside but as soon as his mana left his body, it was like something or someone broke it down instantly, no matter how quickly, how close he was to the wall or how slick he was trying to be when attempting it, it wouldn't work.
With no choice left, he went on the sole way available for him until he reached a room, right in front of him was a throne, upon which was seating some sort of fossilised, humanoid bug.
Iustus couldn't tell what it was supposed to be.
Had he known, he would have recognised it as the insect, sometime associated with the apocalypse, plagues or other cataclysms, specifically when a thick swarm of them appeared.
A locust, it was a tall, taller than two meters even in the shape it was now, two legs and four arms, compound eyes, a pair of antennae and four wings, its legs were robust and clearly meant to jump great distances.
It's body was dried up and seemingly filled with sand, in fact, sand seemed to be produced without stop from inside of its body.
Iustus could sense the distinct aura and presence of a sin on this thing, but it didn't make sense, this being was clearly ancient, having been there long before, way before the current generation of sin.
The young hero couldn't fathom the idea that the ancient sins could still be around.
Even in this decrepit state, it's presence was strong, Iustus didn't get how a dead body could have such an imposing feeling to it.
He soon got his answer however.
Feeling the distinct aura of virtue, the dried up insectoid slightly twitched one of its antennae, the movement was so subtle that Iustus didn't see it but he definitely heard it as it made out loud cracking sound.
Iustus backed off, just as the sound of cracking got louder and louder, the insectoid was moving more and more parts of his body, snapping his mandibles, the old sin had no need to move his head to clearly see who was intruding upon his domain.
As his condition meant nothing, the ancient sin stood up from his throne, rivers of sand flowing from the breaches in its worn out body.
Spreading its four arms, he stepped forward, ready to slice the hero into multiple pieces with his sharp claws but the old sin's condition made it slow and allowing Iustus to blast him with his mana before he could be killed.
The brilliant mana filled the room for a moment and surprisingly, especially for himself, Iustus wasn't dead and the old sin was nowhere to be seen.
Or so it appeared to the young hero at first, the old Gluttony had crumbled to sand from that single hit.
Iustus almost heaved a sigh of relief but he was quick to realise that no kill notifications appeared at all, instead, he fell the sinful pressure intensify incredibly and suddenly, a four meter tall locust humanoid popped up in front of him, standing in the pile of sand left by the living fossil.
It's carapace was sand colored and frankly, apart from its pristine carapace and newfound height and stature, due to being a bug, he still looked just as dead as before in that regard.
Without even seeing anything, only able to block through pure instinct, Iustus found himself outside, laying in a desert, having been sloppily back handed right out of the throne room, through an innumerable amounts of walls.
Dazed, Iustus saw the old Gluttony, looking as fresh as ever, immediately land ten meters away from him, without being seen coming or making any sound.
"And now, the convergence will begin" Iustus heard a familiar voice but before he could even register what it said or even begin to be slightly distracted by it, something had already happened.
Suddenly, Iustus was seeing red everywhere, had the sand always been read and he had just never noticed?
Was it the sin? It couldn't be possible, he wasn't even near Iustus yet, he had just slightly moved his right arm, he had done nothing.
Although...
Now that Iustus thought about it, why was the sand so close? He could feel the rough soil right against his cheek, the sin seemed enormous from this point of view but it didn't matter, Iustus was wondering what had happened for him to end up in this situation.
He remembered the initial awakening of his powers, his meeting with Occult, encountering Gregory, fighting Occult again, for some reason, his mind was thinking back to all of this.
He also saw his parents, his childhood, the village before it was scorched.
Then, he finally noticed something that should have been obvious but he had simply prefered to not notice.
A headless body, dropping down in slow motion.
'That must have been where the blood came from...' he thought calmly as another question came to him.
'Whose body is that?'