Volume 1: Path - [Envy Arc]
Chapter 54: Sinners
Zelus walked out of the castle with all the corpses behind him; every single being in this household had been completely killed, including small organisms.
He walked onto the street; he didn't see the disgust on anybody's faces and didn't even have fear because they did not know what had happened in the castle.
They gave a good morning greeting and smile, which felt new to him, but also seeing a family group together made him envious because he now has no family. So, he started his massacre; he killed every living being in the whole city. The city is not that big, but it is not that small either; it is around 100 kilometers.
Zelus gained the strength of the Deacon, which is rank 3 peak stage, and also gained his mind element along with his own shadow element.
Right now, Zelus can't compete against rank 4 at all, and he is sensing four rank 4 awakeners coming to this place. His senses extend over 100 kilometers, and senses depend on the amount of mental strength one has; a mental strength of a rank 5 can expand their senses to over 10 cities within 100 kilometers.
That is what Zelus knows from the deacon's memories when he stole all of his things. Every rank has a huge gap. A rank 1 peak can't fight a rank 2 initial, and there are too many reasons as to why that is.
The reason is that the gap between powers is huge; a rank 1 peak stage needs to cross three requirements to cross to the rank 2 initial stage, and the requirements are the problems. The requirements are first, one needs to fill their core to full capacity; second, one needs to reach the resonance stage in elemental. And the elemental is the main one here; the resonance stage can cause huge power gaps.
As for how Zelus could overpower Deacon in the first place, it was because Deacon's Leym energy was depleted, and even with that, he may have lost. However, Zelus's emotion of envy helped him overcome that when he awakened as a shadow.
Zelus immediately turned into a shadow as he used all his Leym energy from the core to run away from this place. The reason he could have rank 3 is because when stealing the deacon's things, he stole the attainment the deacon had with his own element, and also the core. Since he stole the attainment, harnessing the core is an easy problem for him.
Zelus ran away, and he doesn't know if they found him or not because he pulled back his senses to himself, because they can sense him if they find his senses.
After that, his mental strength ran out, and before he fell on the ground, he saw a broken house with one side of the roof, and he immediately went inside, saw no one, and fell on the ground. His stamina was so consumed that he became so skinny that bones could be seen, and a small wound.
And this is the place where Caelus first came into the memories of Zelus, but right now, due to mixing himself with Zelus, he is not going out of the memories.
As the memories started to continue forward...
The next day, Zelus was feeling hungry, and when he went to the river, he saw his face; it was handsome, and he did not want to lose this face, so he covered his face using his own shadow.
'This is my face; yes, this is my face. This face should only be seen by me; nobody can see it.'
Just then a rustle came, as from the bushes a boy of age 16 years came forward; he has tousled, dark hair falling slightly over his face and sharp features with a defined jawline and a straight nose. His expression is calm yet distant, carrying an inherent sense of superiority. His golden eyes burn with an intensity that feels unshakable.
"So, you are here?" The boy's voice sounded, and the voice was cold.
Zelus felt shock; he couldn't see the rank of the person in front of him and couldn't even sense his presence.
"Now that I found y—" Before the golden-eyed boy could even finish his sentence, Zelus attacked him with his mind element, but the attack did not even get released and got blocked.
"What?" Zelus was quite shocked about it, and then he heard something from the boy.
"Ah, you're trying to use those stolen mind powers; such a pity those won't work on me," the boy said with an expressionless face.
He looked at Zelus and said, "Why don't you join me? I will help you get revenge on who you want to kill."
"Shut up, I don't need anyone. I will kill you." Since his mind powers were not working, he used his shadow powers; he teleported to the shadow of the boy and brought out a shadow sword the same shape as the one Deacon has used. And was about to pierce, his whole body froze as he saw the boy turn his head back and look at him with his golden eyes; it felt as if he were giving him orders to stop his activity.
"I already said you can't do anything to me. Why don't you try and listen for once? Kids these days are so annoying." The 16-year-old boy said as he clutched the neck of Zelus and threw him out of the shadow of his.
"Now, then, I will give you ten seconds... no, five seconds is good. Yeah, five seconds before that you have to make a decision; if you don't, I am going to have to kill you."
"One"
Zelus didn't speak for one second, but he felt his hand move on its own, and it hugged his neck. "Aghh."
"Two"
Zelus's right hand tightened the grip on his neck.
"Three"
Zelus was struggling, but he was trying to open his mouth as if trying to say something.
"Four."
Zelus used all his energy in his core to send the answer through the mind element as "Yes," but was blocked by the boy.
"Ah, now that I think about it, if I squeeze your neck this tight, you can't speak your words; you should have said that earlier. Well, what do you want to say?"
"I agree... huh... huh... I will join your group." Zelus gritted as he said it; his facial expression cannot be seen since he has a mask on his face.
Zelus had to agree to the boy's words because he was weak and couldn't do anything; he was very weak in front of this person.
"That is a good choice you have made. Now I will introduce myself. My name is Michael. I am the Pride, the head of the organization named Sinners."
"Sinners, why are we sinners? We didn't do anything wrong though."
"We are called Sinners because the world labeled people like you and me as one," Michael said to Zelus.
"What do you mean? Like, I didn't even go outside of the castle I lived in till now; how can I be a sinner?"
"If you are not one, then how did you get the powers you have now?"
"Ahh, I remember now. I awakened due to envious emotions in my mind, and those people from the Church of the Open Hand said I will become a demon that will threaten the future. But I didn't become a demon till now, though." Zelus said with confusion in his mind, Even with the memories of the Deacon and other priests and family members, he still didn't show any signs of becoming a demon.
"That is because you still haven't unlocked it. My demon is Pride, and yours is Envy since you have awakened due to the emotion of envy. If you think about it carefully, your awakening proceeded with the three requirements. I saw your entire ritual process. From what I analyzed, your ritual's first requirement is to have rank 5 level mental strength; the second is to only keep envy emotions in your mind; and the third is to fuse with envy, causing a full awakening. And from what I experienced, awakening through emotions mainly can have a high chance of awakening a demon, but your case is weird."
"Huh?"
"Because you were born as a demon, that is the reason for your face to be like that; it's like you were cursed by someone."
"What? I am going to kill the bastard who cursed me..." Zelus muttered as he gritted his teeth.
"But fret not; it is a good thing for you, since a demon is the only race that can kill gods and angels." Michael said with a smirk on his face.
"I don't know who put a curse on me, but I am going to kill him and also thank him for the opportunity I got right now." Zelus vowed to do that.
"Alright then, let's go; we have to pick other members for our group too."
"What, are we the only two members in the group?"
"Yeah, isn't that enough for now? You alone can become a mass destruction, and with me, we can annihilate an entire nation easily."
As they both talked, they both walked away into the jungle to their next destination.
[End Of Chapter 53]