Chương 142: Those Who Arrived Too Late

Zayn's words remained hanging in the ruined atrium. No one was cruel enough to call them an excuse. No one was naïve enough to mistake them for repentance either. Before them stood a man who had just admitted that he had always hated himself. A man covered in other people's blood. A Demon King who still saw himself as the useless boy they had left behind a closed door. Elias tightened his grip on his cracked sword.

"I heard you." Zayn tilted his head slightly.

"Congratulations."

"But hearing why you became like this doesn't force me to accept what you're doing." Zayn's smile did not change.

"No." The corrupted aura climbed along his scythe. It coiled around the black edge like living smoke, heavy with instincts stolen from beastmen and warped by Gluttony.

"Your sword is what forces you." Elias raised his blade.

"It forces me to do nothing."

"Really?" Zayn's gaze moved across the group one by one. Elias at the center. Jonah in front of Lena. Mira and her analysis circles. Ivara, forbidden pages already caught between her fingers. Soren almost invisible among the columns. Garron, still standing despite the armor barely holding his ribs together. Narek, slumped against the wall, still too weak to rise properly. Then his eyes returned to Elias.

"Then put it down." Elias did not move. Zayn gave a weak laugh.

"That's what I thought." He vanished. Not truly. He had simply moved too fast for ordinary human eyes. Mira saw him through her circles.

"Right side!" Jonah spun. The shield met the scythe. The impact ran through his entire body. His boots left the floor. He was thrown into the broken council table, tearing loose several planks before rolling through the corpses. Lena immediately thrust out a hand. A golden thread anchored itself into his back.

"Jonah!"

"Alive!" He tried to stand. His left arm hung uselessly. Not broken. Almost worse. Every muscle had stopped responding beneath the pressure of the dark aura. Zayn appeared in front of him.

"One." Elias struck. The heroic blade passed between the scythe and Jonah's throat. An explosion of white light pushed Zayn back two steps. Only two. Soren burst from behind him. His daggers aimed for the base of the wings. Zayn turned the scythe without looking. The shaft struck the first blade. The spectral edge crossed the second. Soren twisted in midair, narrowly avoiding losing his head, and planted one foot on Zayn's shoulder for leverage. He drove a dagger into the damaged membrane of the right wing.

Zayn did not cry out. He simply folded the wing shut. Soren found himself trapped between the black bones.

"Wrong place," Zayn murmured. Drakhar's heat ignited. The veins in the wing turned red. Soren felt his clothes catch fire. Garron hurled his chain. It wrapped around the assassin's waist.

"This time, you're thanking me!" He pulled. Soren was ripped free from the wing a fraction of a second before the flames consumed its inner surface. He rolled across the ground, shoulder burned.

"I take back everything I ever said about how slow you are." Garron grunted.

"You haven't actually said anything yet."

"I was thinking it very hard." Zayn raised his right hand. The mark of Greed opened. Garron's chain suddenly tightened toward him. The mercenary understood. He let go. The chain cut across the room and entered Zayn's palm like a serpent recalled by its master. Right of Seizure. Zayn examined the links for a moment.

"Good metal." Garron pulled a second chain from his armor.

"I always travel with replacements."

"Why?"

"Because I meet a lot of thieves." He threw the second one. Not at Zayn. At a column behind him. The chain hooked around the pillar, passed around the Demon King's torso, and locked itself. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Ivara tore out a page.

"By the oath of the one who refuses possession, let this bond remain beyond reclamation!" The page burned. The links became covered in white writing. The mark of Greed pulsed. Then rejected the chain. Zayn turned an interested look toward Ivara.

"You know my abilities."

"I know sins."

"You think that's enough?"

"No." She tore out three more pages.

"That's why I also studied kings." The sheets burned in her hands. A vast inscription formed above Zayn. HE WHO BEARS SEVEN HUNGERS CANNOT FEED THEM ALL AT ONCE. The Downfalls reacted. Wrath heated. Sloth froze his spine. Greed contracted in his hand. Gluttony weighed beneath his tongue. Envy pulsed at his collarbone. Pride burned around his neck. Lust opened above his heart. Then they collided. Zayn's body locked up. Mira understood instantly.

"She's making them compete!" Ivara gritted her teeth.

"Only for a few seconds!" Elias charged. Jonah, despite his paralyzed arm, positioned himself behind him to block any counter. Lena extended her threads to everyone still standing. Mira opened seven circles. One for each mark. Soren vanished again. Garron pulled on the chain. Narek tried to rise. His leg gave out. He slammed a fist into the ground in frustration.

"His left shoulder," he growled. Mira turned toward him.

"What?"

"When he uses the aura on his scythe, he leads with the left shoulder." Zayn looked at him. Narek held his gaze with difficulty.

"I watched you train." The Demon King did not answer. Elias reached him. His blade struck the left shoulder. Heroic light entered through the wound left by Narek's fangs. Zayn stepped back. For the first time since the battle started, truly stepped back. Jonah slammed into his flank with his shield. Garron yanked the chain the other way. Soren appeared beneath Zayn's guard and buried a dagger in his thigh. Mira closed four circles around the wings. Ivara shouted:"Now!" Lena linked their breathing.

The formation sealed around Zayn. Mira's system shuddered. [Heroic Formation: partial convergence.] [Synchronized targets: 7.] [Estimated combined impact: 236.] Zayn read the number. Then looked around at them.

"That's all?" Elias pushed harder. The blade sank a little deeper into his shoulder.

"No." His soul strength rose. [Elias Rhowan — 161 → 169.] The light became denser. Jonah roared and pushed despite his dead arm. Mira overloaded her circles. Ivara let another page burn. Lena spread all their pain into her own body. Soren twisted the dagger in Zayn's thigh. Garron planted his feet among the dead. Narek, still on the ground, focused what remained of his natural aura into the chain. A bestial will ran through the metal. Not demonic. His. The real one. [Estimated combined impact: 236 → 249.] The floor cracked beneath Zayn. One knee sank. Elias saw the opening. He lifted his sword to strike the heart. The mark of Lust opened. [Center of the World.] All their eyes were torn away from their tasks. Mira could no longer follow her circles. Garron could no longer watch his footing. Soren could no longer see the dagger in the wound. Lena could no longer monitor the healing threads. Elias could no longer see the heart he was aiming at. Only Zayn. The absolute center. The world around him became blurred.

Zayn smiled.

"A formation works because each person watches something different." His palm closed on the chain. Not with Right of Seizure. With brute force.

"Too bad." He pulled. Garron was torn off the floor and hurled into Soren. Both crashed into a column. Zayn opened his right wing. Mira's circles exploded. The wing smashed into Jonah and Elias. Jonah took the first impact. His shield shattered in two. The second struck Elias and sent him crashing through the back wall. Lena received all their injuries at once. Her threads stretched tight. Blood came from her mouth. She dropped to her knees. Mira cried her name.

But Center of the World forced her eyes to remain on Zayn. She could not even look at Lena.

"Turn that power off!" Jonah shouted. Zayn turned his face toward him.

"Why?" He pulled the dagger from his thigh.

"Didn't you come here to look at me?" He spun the scythe. The dark aura thickened.

"Then look." He struck the floor. The wave spread through the atrium. It was not an explosion of fire. It was predatory pressure. An invisible predator passing through them. Jonah collapsed to one knee. Mira dropped her scepter. Ivara lost the words of her incantation. Garron felt his wounds split open again beneath his armor. Soren drove a dagger into his own leg to stay conscious. Lena shook, unable to break her threads without letting the others die. Elias emerged from the wall. Blood ran down his face.

His sword still shone. Zayn saw him advancing.

"You still don't understand?" Elias wiped the blood from beneath his eye.

"Yes, I do." He walked through the pressure.

"You're stronger than us." One step.

"You suffered longer than us." Another.

"You were abandoned." He raised his sword.

"And you are still wrong." Zayn vanished. The scythe met the heroic blade. Light and corrupted aura burst between them. Elias was thrown back. He came again immediately. First strike. Zayn parried. Second. The scythe deflected it. Third. The white edge opened a line across Zayn's flank. Elias saw the blood. Then the wound half-closed. Not completely. The regeneration was slowing. Mira noticed despite Center of the World. She could only look at Zayn. That was exactly why she saw every detail. His uneven breathing.

The contractions around his palm. The wing membrane that was no longer regrowing. The red veins darkening. The mark of Pride flickering instead of burning steadily. Lust's power was supposed to stop them from functioning. Instead, it forced Mira to analyze a single target without interruption. She understood.

"Elias! Don't try to defeat him now!" Zayn turned his eyes slightly toward her.

"Bad strategy."

"He's collapsing!" Mira shouted.

"His powers are compensating against each other! The regeneration is using what forge-blood destroys! Pride is keeping his soul standing while Lust keeps forcing the zone!" Ivara understood.

"And each Downfall is demanding a different share of him." Mira nodded.

"He can't keep this up forever!" Zayn struck Elias in the face with the shaft of the scythe. The hero fell.

"I just fought Maelor for several days." He lifted the blade over Elias's throat.

"You really think you're going to teach me fatigue?" Jonah charged without his shield. He crashed into Zayn before the scythe came down. The two rolled across the floor. Jonah hit him with his good fist. Once. Twice. Zayn took both blows. Then caught his arm.

"Did you always hate me?" Jonah froze for a fraction of a second.

"No."

"Liar."

"I didn't know you well enough to hate you!" The truth came out in a shout. Zayn stopped moving. Jonah bared his teeth.

"You want to know what's worse? You were indifferent to me!" Zayn's gaze emptied. Jonah gritted his teeth.

"I thought your reputation was enough. That if everyone said you were weird, distant, useless, then there had to be a reason." Zayn tightened his grip. The bone in Jonah's arm cracked. Jonah screamed.

"And now?" Zayn asked.

"Now I know we were wrong!"

"Too late."

"Yes!" Jonah slammed his forehead into him. The impact split the half-mask further.

"But being late doesn't force me to let you kill everyone who's left!" Zayn threw him aside. Soren appeared. Both daggers struck at once. One went between the ribs. The other aimed at the mark of Lust. Zayn pivoted. The black blade rose. Soren saw the attack. Too late. Garron did too. He snapped out the chain. It caught Soren around the waist and yanked him backward. Not fast enough. The black blade passed. Soren's left arm came off below the elbow. For a fraction of a second, he did not understand.

The hand still holding the dagger spun in the air. Then fell to the floor. Blood sprayed. Center of the World forced Soren to keep looking at Zayn. Not at his arm. Not at the wound. At Zayn. The assassin swayed. Lena screamed. Her healing thread wrapped around the stump before she could even look at it directly. She was working blind. Guided only by transmitted pain. Garron caught Soren before he fell.

"Stay with me." Soren kept staring at Zayn. His lips had gone white.

"I'm... charging... extra for this." Garron tightened his arm around him.

"You can ask for anything you want." Zayn raised the scythe to finish the motion. Garron stepped in front of Soren. The blade stopped a few centimeters from his throat. Not because Zayn hesitated. Because Elias was blocking it with his sword. The crack in the heroic blade widened.

"We don't leave each other behind," Elias said. Zayn pushed harder.

"That's what you did to me."

"Yes." Elias's arms shook.

"Then I won't do it again." Zayn pressed harder still. The sword groaned.

"You think protecting an assassin repairs the past?"

"No."

"Then why?" Elias raised his eyes.

"Because he's here now." The words hit Zayn. The same ones he had said to Narek. Because I just found you again. His pressure weakened. A fraction. Enough. Mira drove her scepter into the ground.

"Central rupture!" Her circles stopped targeting the marks. They targeted Center of the World itself. Not to resist it. To saturate the gaze. She projected seven simultaneous images of Zayn into their minds. One for each Downfall. Lust's skill tried to force all of them to become the center at once. Contradiction. The power faltered. Ivara tore an entire page from the binding of her book. A page she had never dared touch before.

"What demands every gaze will split beneath their weight!" She burned the text. Center of the World shattered. Not destroyed. Interrupted. At last, all of them looked away. Lena looked at Soren. Her hands immediately became more precise. Jonah regained his balance. Garron backed away with the wounded assassin. Elias saw the angle of the scythe. Narek saw Zayn alone in the middle of them. Mira shouted:"Now!" The formation reassembled. Different. Incomplete. Soren could no longer fight properly.

Jonah no longer had a shield. Garron had to protect two wounded people. Lena was carrying too many pains at once. Ivara had burned one of her most precious pages. Narek could barely stand. But they had understood something. They did not need to be stronger than Zayn. They needed to force him to use everything he had. Again. And again. Until the Demon King could no longer stay standing beneath his own contradictions. Elias fell back to the center of the group.

"New formation!" Zayn wiped blood from beneath his broken mask.

"You lost an arm in under a minute." Soren, supported by Garron, lifted his one remaining dagger.

"And you lost six days of sleep." Zayn looked at him. The assassin smiled despite his pallor.

"I'd say that makes us almost even." The scythe chuckled. Zayn did too. A weak laugh. Exhausted. Sincere for one second. Then he opened his wings. Red heat reappeared beneath his skin. Elias raised his cracked blade. Mira rearranged the circles. Ivara set the remaining pages before her. Jonah clenched both fists despite his broken arm. Lena maintained the threads. Garron handed Soren off to Narek and took up his chain again. The beastman boy hooked Soren's good arm over his shoulders. Soren looked at him.

"You can stay standing?" Narek bared his fangs.

"Better than you."

"That's insulting, but fair." In front of them, Zayn raised his scythe. Elias inhaled.

"We do not need to beat him in one strike." Mira finished the thought:"We need to survive everything he became." Zayn heard them. His smile vanished.

"Then survive this." The mark of Pride burned around his neck. Space began to bend. Territory Extension searched for a target. And among everyone present, Zayn's gaze stopped on Elias.