_Chapter Begins_
Ancient rock columns sprawled upward for dozens of meters, and a ceiling made of rough and uneven wood made for an otherworldly sight. Inside the main room of the castle, there were massive wooden shelves that were filled to the brim with all kinds of books. On the opposite side of the book section, there was a massive anvil that was surrounded by a sea of forgotten weapons, some finished and some only halfway done. Topping off the room was a long purple carpet that began at the entrance and stretched all the way to the back end of the room. A throne made of magical crystal shards stood there, but its owner was nowhere to be seen.
Though despite its original owner not being there, the throne was still occupied by someone… or something. This being could only be seen by two specific people, and as fate would have it, those two specific people had just entered the room.
William's arm rose, and his palms, which were once clenched, now relaxed and opened. The purple circle that was placed in the middle of his hand glowed with a pale violet light. On the receiving end of his arm was the calm and collected Elsa, who sat on the throne of the previous Pillar of Envy with no fear present on her face. In fact, she went as far as to smile.
While the demonic blonde woman found his threat comedy gold, his sister was not feeling as humorous at this moment. Jane used her whole body to yank William's arm down, then she forcefully pulled him close for a quick talk.
Of course, due to his enhanced strength, William could have easily ignored Jane's attempts at pulling him down. But he didn't, since he knew that her reason for pulling him down was valid considering what he was doing.
"William, have you gone mad or something?!"
William wanted to reply to that question, but he wasn't allowed to because his sister had more to say.
"Do you remember what I told you back in the room about how I ended up outside of that cave? I know that I didn't explain it in detail, but I thought that you would have come to the same conclusion as me. William, this girl can control our—"
Jane's words were cut off as two fingers clenched her lips shut. A small sigh escaped William's mouth as he did this.
"First of all, yes, I have gone mad. That's kind of the point of Hell as a whole. Secondly, yeah, I know Elsa's capabilities, and more so than you do, so please just let me do the talking right now."
With this, William slowly let go of Jane's lips and looked back at the blonde girl that was watching them from the throne with an amused expression on her face.
When he blinked, she suddenly disappeared and then reappeared just a few steps away from him. Of course, this didn't frighten him much, as he was pretty familiar with this type of intimidation tactic due to a certain being called Adam.
Looking her in the eye, William raised his arm once more and pointed it straight at her face again.
"So, shall we get to talking?"
A light chuckle escaped Elsa's mouth, and she pointed a finger at herself.
"I am an illusion, don't you remember? Why threaten something that you can't hurt?"
She didn't get an answer, as William didn't feel the need to give one. If Elsa could read their thoughts, then there was no need to explain anything to her. Right now, what he needed was the truth.
"Elsa, why did you leave me when I was fighting the wooden abomination?"
Surprisingly enough, she didn't parry his question.
"Well, I didn't want you to be left alone with the angel. So I went and got some backup to occupy her, and I even managed to get your sister to you. Wasn't that so nice of me?"
William's eyes widened slightly, and his arm lowered just a little.
"So you knew that the Angel of Kindness was coming… why didn't you warn me?"
Elsa clapped her hands together and gave a simple answer:
"Because I wanted you to meet her. It was necessary for your growth."
With this statement, William's already half-dropped guard dropped completely. His arm lowered to his hip, and his eyes were as wide as they could be.
"M-my growth, as in my growth in power? But how does meeting the angel help me with that?"
She chuckled.
"The steps. Didn't the angel mention them to you? There are four of them, and you are currently jumping between one and two."
As William stood frozen by what he was hearing, Jane, who stood behind him, glanced between the two in a daze. Despite being hesitant due to Elsa, she still decided to speak out.
"W-William… I am really trying to keep up with the conversation, but I can't pretend that I know what you guys are talking about right now. Who is this angel that you both keep mentioning?"
Before he could reply, Elsa decided to take matters into her own hands.
"William, it seems that your sister is a little confused, and honestly… I can't blame her. You haven't done a very good job at keeping her updated on the situation. Anyway, can you grab your sister's hand? I know that it is a strange request, but trust me when I say that it will save us a lot of time."
As much as he wanted to deny this request, William really had no choice. Elsa could do anything to them. She had absolute control over their minds. In fact, it was a miracle that she still hadn't forced them to do something that they didn't want to do.
Throwing a cold glare toward the blue-eyed girl, William then turned to Jane and quickly grabbed her hand, and as soon as he did this… Jane immediately froze and her eyes opened wide. In mere seconds, her skin became deathly pale.
Almost instantly, William turned around, his arm up and ready to use his ability on Elsa.
"Calm down. If I wanted to kill you, I could have done it a long time ago, and you know it."
Despite her statement making sense, William didn't really care about sense at this current moment.
"What did you do to her?!"
She let out a sigh and pointed a finger at her own head.
"I needed you both to hold hands so that there was a connection between you two. I used this connection to transfer some of your memories to her mind. This way, we can skip trying to explain everything to her with words. She's in shock right now, but don't worry, she'll come back in a couple of minutes."
Again, her statement made sense. But William still pointed his arm at her. No matter how much her explanations made sense, he would not drop his guard near her ever again.
Though this explanation did calm him down a little. At least his sister would be okay.
"Okay then… continue. Tell me what these steps are exactly."
Elsa shrugged indifferently as if nothing serious had happened. She continued her explanation in an upbeat tone that made William want to rip her throat open.
"The steps are the level of connection between you and the sin inside you. Each step brings you and the sin closer together, thus making you stronger. The first step is—"
William waved a hand, signaling her to stop for a moment.
"Wait a second, what do you mean getting closer to my sin? I thought that this thing was already fused with my soul."
She slowly waved her head from left to right.
"Well, you thought wrong. The sin is inhabiting your soul, not fused with it. You aren't even close to being in that type of relationship with your sin."
At this moment, William did not really know how to feel. On one hand, he was very happy that the sin was not fused with his soul, but on the other hand was the fact that the only way to get stronger would be to get closer to his sin.
While these mixed feelings floated inside his head, Elsa continued explaining the steps.
"So, the first step is physical connection. This step is reached when a sin first invades someone's soul. The effects don't show themselves immediately, but after some time, the user of the sin will notice a massive boon to all of their physical traits. Strength, speed, and the regeneration of the body are all boosted to unnatural levels. This step is the setup to the relationship between sin and user. It's only a physical one, which limits the amount of power that the sin can grant."
William listened very closely. Though he didn't want to interrupt Elsa right now, there was a question that needed to be answered.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I have a question."
She gave a polite smile.
"Go ahead."
A sigh left his lips, and he looked past Elsa to the throne that was made of reflective crystal shards.
"When I first got attacked by the wooden abomination, I only managed to escape using a certain ability that I called 'reflection travel.' If the first step is only meant to boost physical traits, then how did the sin grant me an ability? Or are abilities also connected to physical traits?"
At William's question, she took a pause, which was a rare sight to see. But in the end, she did have an answer.
"Well, sins aren't completely blocked off by the rules of the steps. They can somewhat bypass the rules, though not by a large degree. But a sin doing something like this is a very rare occurrence. It would only happen if the sin was very fond of their user and saw a long-term future with them."
With each word she spoke, William's face contorted more and more. It was a valid reaction to being told that a sin was "fond" of him.
Meanwhile, Elsa continued, seemingly not bothered by his reaction.
"After the physical step, then there is the second step, which is the connection of the mind. This step is reached when the user gives their mind over to the sin, meaning that the user will act according to that sin's personality traits. To give you an example, someone who has reached the second step of bondness with the sin of wrath will be enraged and aggressive almost all of the time. This step, when reached, gives the user a wide array of different abilities that match both the personality of the sin and the user."
Before William could ask a question, a sudden thump made him turn around in an instant.
Elsa glanced over, her smile being replaced by a small frown.
"I did not expect her to take it so badly. You really did a good job at shielding her from Hell, huh?"
Jane lay on the ground, knocked out cold. Her trance had finally ended; however, it seemed that experiencing some of William's memories had not been very pleasant.
William immediately slid over to his sister and knelt beside her. His arm was still pointed at Elsa, and after making sure that Jane was okay, a glare followed his arm.
"Elsa, when you said that you transferred 'some' of my memories to her, what memories were those specifically?"
She chuckled and shrugged.
"Most of the time that you spent here in Hell, of course. But don't worry, I didn't show her any of the memories from before you got sent here."
William's teeth clenched, and he looked down at his unconscious sister, unable to stop blinking. Over a dozen different deaths to the wooden abomination—that was what had caused her to fall unconscious like this. No amount of comforting her would heal the wounds that would be left on her mind. And who was to blame…
"Elsa, after you tell me everything that I want to know, our partnership is done. We will go on different paths, and I don't want to see your face ever again, you understand?!"
He expected a retort, but all he got was a polite smile and nod.
"Sure. We can do that."
But then, her once polite smile turned slightly twisted, and her blue eyes gleamed with disturbing joy.
"I wonder though… how will you escape Fate without my help?"
A long silence enveloped the room after the statement, and William's eyes widened like never before.
Fate was real.
_Chapter Ends_