When pride intercepted his thought of Lin, its detestable grin spread even further as he reveled in a certain masochistic idea. He had the appearance of a righteous man, but his mind sought everything except virtue.
Contrary to its appearance, it wasn't morality that it took pride in. It was the appearance of it. Lust and pride were similar in this way. Vanity is integral to both, though this is true of their past more than it is of their future.
Slowly, savoring every syllable, it asked, "Oh, you worry about Lin. Really? Not yourself?" It laughed a soft but malevolent laugh. "No, I suppose you're right to worry for her." It pointed in the direction of the house. "They were over there, weren't they, your... family? You want to see them again?"
Jean couldn't respond through his bawls, but pride didn't need a response; he would make Jean go over there no matter what he answered. Pride bent down to his face before grabbing him by his neck and hoisting him into the air in front of him. It made sure not to cause serious damage, but his glinting gauntlet still left massive bruises on Jean's neck.
With that, pride began to levitate before flying full-speed towards the house, unassisted by any wings, with Jean dangling helplessly the whole while. They were facing one another, so when they reached the house, Jean couldn't see it at first, but pride could.
"Come on, Jean," it cooed softly. "If you want to see them again, you'll have to turn around, won't you?" It taunted him because he could only struggle against its grip. M, Lin, Yun, and several hired hands were outside, watching the apocalypse, though M was trying to make Lin and Yun go inside.
But they were still there when Jean and pride arrived, and when they recognized him, they yelled, "Jean!" That was when M realized that his gamble hadn't paid off. It was because of him, wasn't it? They were at fault. They were why hell had risen from the abyss.
As soon as this realization hit M, he used one of his signature combat spells, which made a series of sub-spells that took the form of various geometric patterns, unfold within milliseconds to create what looked like a tube or cylinder composed of two-dimensional circles and various inscribed shaped that stretched all the way from M's hands to pride's neck.
Its purpose was to wrap around its neck like a collar and create a circular void that bisected the neck scarcely a hair thick to separate its head from its body. As a cutting instrument, it was perfect; no physical defense could protect against it, but pride needed no physical defenses. Its armor, like everything else, was for vanity.
Before M's tube could create a lethal collar around pride's neck, pride responded with its own spell, which was assisted by an even greater number of sub-spells and unfolded into its own tunnel, though this one was many times faster than M's. Its purpose was to deal with him by teleporting M to one of three versions of wrath. Pride wasn't here to take care of a pest like this. It would make someone else take care of M. On the battlefield, nothing could stop wrath, so why not push the responsibility to the one most suited for it?
But M wouldn't let that happen. He hadn't managed to gain independence from Vespucc by being an ordinary noble, after all. His experience was more than enough to tell him that he had to get the others inside while he dealt with the threat.
But he needed to neutralize the immediate danger first. Much to pride's chagrin, M destroyed its spell by causing his own to explode, which set off a chain reaction in pride's. Realizing it might take a few minutes if it didn't deal with M immediately, it cast Jean aside and covered him in an egg-shaped ellipsoid of solid white light, and as he did, M barked at the others to take shelter inside.
Jean was too weak to intervene, so it wasn't worried about him as a threat, but tracking him down again would be slightly tedious, so he had to be sure he couldn't move by imprisoning him. After making sure it was all in place, it tried the same trick again by using the same spell that unfolded into tunnels, though this one was a slightly different variant that was used 16 times. They created invisible circles, within which were inscribed shapes, that would activate when biological matter touched them.
One was aimed at M, and the other 15 were aimed at multiples of 22.5 degrees. Only pride understood the purpose of the ones aimed away from M. M thought they were vanity again, just extras meant to make the spell look more impressive. It was hard to tell what was and wasn't when fighting something like this.
But he responded appropriately by activating one of his more complex spells designed to resist a barrage of offensive spells. Layers and layers of invisible patterns surrounded him on all sides, and when pride's new spell was five feet (1.52 m) from him, the patterns reacted and created miniature sub-spells that invaded the offensive action and exploded when more than half of it had been compromised.
It was one of his more impressive defensive countermeasures and a panacea to nearly all simple forms of offensive magic and detrimental spells that targeted him. It would also neutralize incoming friendly spells, of course, but it was almost perfect for this kind of situation.
Above a certain level, most spellcasters had a spell of this kind, though some were more impressive than others, and pride was just testing if he had such a spell with the one aimed at him. Seeing as he had such a spell, pride cast another 15 spells of a different kind, these operating on a similar principle to M's collar.
The seven spells moved below each spot he cast the 15 original spells and created a kind of cup full of dirt before creating a void also less than a hair's breadth wide to separate the dirt in the cup from the surrounding earth and to sever any roots in it. Then, they lifted them up as 15 rocks that pride could control and send flying through the air with ease.
Pride sent them each after Jean, one after the other. Seeing as he couldn't get through his defense with magic, he did so with these physical objects. But this was the standard countermeasure to M's kind of spell, so he conjured up the typical reaction to this countermeasure and attacked each rock with his own spells.
Each was a simple tunnel that led to an explosion at the center of each rock, blasting packed dirt through the air in wonderful detonations, but that created a smokescreen, behind which pride began casting another spell, this one opening a path to a planet far away from this one.
The path took no shape. It was entirely invisible and open only long enough for a horrible creature to appear. When this creature stepped upon the earth, a wave of immolation spread from it. Its flames had been pent up for so long that simply being on this planet caused it to release them. They were uncontainable, even for this titan.
It battered the house and scorched the wood. Its exterior became ash, and the beautiful green leaves in the nearby forest ceased to exist. The trees in the forest were all set ablaze as an unrestrained fire that would decimate the forest was started by the titan's mere presence.
This one was another counter to M's spell, though it was not a conventional one. The titan was over 35 feet (10.7 meters) tall and stood as tall as the house. Before it could take a swipe at M, pride cast two more spells on the titan's hands, though this spell was more sophisticated than the others, as the energy connecting his body to the spells while he set them up was invisible to the naked eye.
Seeing as his magical defense wouldn't help here, M dispelled it and prepared a separate spell to bolster his physical defense. One half of the spell created a barrier inside his skin that strengthened it and prevented it from tearing while the other half weakened any kinetic energy that came close to his body. This would protect against internal injuries.
But when the titan hit M, he was still sent flying, and at the time of impact, M lost his target. He couldn't focus on pride anymore, as it wasn't there. The titan's open hand touching M was all it needed for pride's spell, which had been cast on its hands, to activate.
Instead of retaliating to pride's offensive, M impacted a being that felt as hard as stone. It was wrath. Pride's teleportation spell worked. Wrath's body of muscle and bone stood unfazed by M's prodigious body impacting against its own as it brought a massive hand to grab M's body and try to crush the light from his eyes between his fingers.