The 999th Salvation was a Virtue worthy of its of its Virtue Name. This Virtue helps guide Ivan's hands and actions towards reacting to various situations.
As a person who seeks mostly to aid others, his ability allows him to feel people's emotions and even tell who really needs to be saved, and who does not. And most especially, how far he had to go to free that person from their agony.
For those whose pain were as tormenting as his was, Ivan would go to any extent at eliminating the cause, regardless of whether it was an object, person or the crulest of demons.
By all means, he was insane. But he was mankind's saviour. That title would require no less devotion.
———
The white spear rushed right by, barely touching the tree-man's ear and stabbing into the ground.
The tree-man flinched, its eyes trailing off Ikky's figure as it rushed at the amber-eyed man. Taking advantage of the surprise attack that had just diverted its attention, Ikky met its approaching force like a solid wall, throwing a blow square to its face and launching the tree-man off the ground and to the side.
"Score!" He grinned.
"I was expecting you to catch and subdue him." Ivan's voice reached from the sky as he descended.
"Haven't you learnt to expect the opposite from me?" Ikky cackled.
Soon, the tree-man slowly began to get back on his feet. But before he could, Ivan flew over to pick him up by the ankle and blast off into the sky.
Ivan made sure to switch his angle of flight and speed up at certain occasions so the tree-man could not bend its upper body to touch him, all while flying over to the black trees.
Looking behind, and noticing Ikky had followed along, Ivan asked the amber-eyed man to throw a fist at one of the black trees ahead. Ikky shrugged and did as he asked, holding back some of his strength so as to not punch holes into the dying trees.
"You found a way to turn him back?" The amber-eyed man asked as he threw a blow at another tree.
Moving from the tree farthest to his right, Ikky was about to punch the sixth one, when the forest suddenly began to shake, roars coming from different directions.
"What's happening?" Ikky asked as he threw another blow.
Feeling obligated to answer Ikky's question because of his help, the sky-man guessed.
"The actual trees are still connected to the small ones on the prophets' backs, so they're most likely coming to defend their main bodies."
"What? Shouldn't I be wrecking these trees then?" Ikky punched the eight tree with a little more force.
"No! I want you to use your totem on the right one. Your totem, or whatever that black creature was. You use the same powers, right?"
Ikky was still confused about a lot of things, but as of now, Ivan was the one with the answers, and questions took time, so he just did as asked.
Getting to the final tree, Ikky made a chant to summon his wraith.
"Is this the right one?" He asked as the black wraith suddenly appeared, her head looking over Ikky's shoulder at the trees.
Ivan stopped flying in circles before tossing the prophet into the tree farthest to his right as he confirmed, "This guy didn't react to any of the rest, so it's the only possible option."
At her ward's request, the wraith switched its scythe from the solid one to the second that carried the true essence of night mist, and then swung it at the tree.
Just as the tree-man and shadowy mist scythe connected to the tree, the tall lumber had its leaves flicker red before lighting up completely in crimson.
With the tree on the unconscious prophet's back withering away, Ivan nodded to Ikky— a very subtle way to congratulate the amber-eyed man for getting the assignment done without asking too many questions.
Ikky hadn't paid too much attention to the trees he made contact with during his battle with the sky-man, but that was understandable, considering he had to divert nine out of ten of his focus to survive Ivan's relentless advances.
In reality, the trees he'd made contact with, especially with the night mist, always seemed to shiver. However, this shivering, more than fear, seemed like a strange luxury the trees yearned for. It felt like the woods were masochists, yearning perversely for pain. And that was why they were rushing back to their original wooden bodies.
But why?
Sadly, Ikky's scythe could all but jolt their souls with stimulus for a few seconds, before the trees returned to their programmed task of merely eating from the environment like a plant.
"What if I stab the tree people instead?"
Ikky asked Yaga just as they both tried to guess the reason for the trees' behaviour.
Yaga hypothesised, "If the trees are really sentient, they might wake up in the bodies of the prophets, possibly taking over completely."
If Ikky jolted the probably dead Sins/ trees back alive in bodies that functioned just like their previous ones, they could essentially ressurect themselves in the bodies of the prophets.
Ah, but wouldn't the human sins regain their logical reasoning then? If so, Ikky could just make a deal with them to not come after him, their saviour, therefore resolving things with more ease on his part. He could just do this rather than walking all the way to the right trees and bringing the bodies of the prophets along as well.
"So I murdered a couple of prophets just to spare myself the work of having to walk around too much. How does that sound?" He turned to Ivan.
Ivan frowned, ready to summon his totem as he questioned whether Ikky was really planning to do what he had just said.
"I need your help with this, but if you cause these people any more harm than they are in already, I'll —"
Ikky blew a raspberry at Ivan as a tree-man jumped at him from within the red forest.
The wraith swung its scythe forward...
"I couldn't care less about these fools. But I wasn't taught to be a lazy wreck. That would make for a bad story to tell her?"
The tree the wraith stabbed, flickered red, just as a tree-man rushed to protect it from the imposters. In no time at all, it fell on its face as the tree's leaves glowed red once again.
"As evil as I might seem, I actually don't like to see people suffer." Ikky might be indifferent to people, just as they were indifferent to him. However there was a clear line that had to remain, so Ikky could separate himself from the ones he dubbed as the true monsters.
Ikky doesn't take human lives lightly, he just had the heart to decisively let go when matters were out of his hands.
He is a curse, but is still human.