Morvathos materialized atop the tallest building in Los Angeles, the wind brushing against his face. He set his foot firmly, hair dangling freely in the night air. From this height, he surveyed the city below, committing the view to memory.
The moment he stepped onto Earth, he took flight, scanning for appropriate sinners. Soon, he had spotted those two.
The woman's sins were minor, hovering between virtuous and sinner—Tier 0, neither fully virtuous nor truly sinful. The man, however, was a sinner of Tier 1, approaching Tier 2.
Using his Eyes of Death, Morvathos read the man's karma. He shook his head, barely concealing his exasperation. This man was a serial rapist. The reason? Rejection.
His first girlfriend had cheated on him because his "ding-dong" had been insufficient to impress her. Pride wounded, he sought validation through heinous acts—drugging and assaulting women who trusted him.
"Heh~ what a loser."
Morvathos couldn't help but laugh. Calm and composed now, the earlier playfulness had subsided. His excitement dulled, replaced by the indifferent, controlled expression of his true self.
His heart… it beat slower than a human's. Even in excitement, its rhythm remained near normal for his race. One beat per minute was usual; yet in that moment, it sped to thirty beats per minute.
'A miracle indeed.'
His human memory and lingering personality had borrowed some humanity for him. He had no choice but to credit it. Although he hated to admit it, Abrosis played some part in it too.
If not for his incompetence, he wouldn't have felt this anger, this emotional surge. He might have become just like the other Thanari—indifferent, impartial.
Morvathos closed his eyes and the Authority Seal provided him the vision of Pit of Karma and Punishment
One soul that withered under his gaze smiled faintly. The result was apparent: three Karmic Coins had already generated.
Sinners produced far more coins than reincarnating virtuous people, because sins carried denser karmic weight.
Virtues, in contrast, generally translated into luck or prosperity in the next life, yielding little.
Morvathos marveled at the process. When the man died, a small pulsing orb of purple and black aura hovered above his body for a few seconds before ascending and disappearing, as if swallowed by space.
Then, like a thousand others, it waited in the karmic meter—the yin-yang symbol at the center of Morvathos's throne room—until it was sent to the Pit of Karma and Punishment to refine the sin contained within.
Now, Morvathos considered his next target. The optimal prey were those who had committed the seven primordial sins.
In modern times, five of these sins were rare; only Lust and Greed remained common. Lust and Greed manifested as infidelity, adultery, or greed that harmed others. These would be his primary focus.
"Alright. Let's find those sinners."
He leaned forward, his form dissolving into black mist with shadowy borders, gliding silently over the city in search of sin.
His first targets were cheaters—the most primal manifestation of primordial Lust. Betraying one's partner, to whom they had vowed faithfulness, was a monumental sin.
Adultery didn't generate that much sin compared to infidelity. Infidelity generated massive karmic fallout because it was mix of betrayal of promises and adultery, making such souls invaluable.
That said, he could not hunt every cheater indiscriminately, he won't go after the people that commitsuicide adultery. People can do the whatever they want with their body if that body is not committed to someone.
There was a limit to how many unnatural, untimely deaths he could cause.
Seven or eight in one area would destabilize the local fate strings, and chaos would erupt—a scenario Morvathos had no desire to unleash. He would harvest enough souls to generate sufficient Karmic Coins for a visit to the Underworld.
There, he would pursue solo hunts of Netherbeasts, his methodical precision unimpeded.
Besides, Morvathos didn't plan to stay in Los Angeles for very long. He wished to go to Japan, where he had been born, lived, and died in his previous life.
He wanted to visit his parents' grave. The thought of them brought a small smile to his lips. The memory surfaced briefly, then his focus returned to the task at hand.
He had found his optimal targets: a man and a woman, indulging without a care in the world.
Activating his Eyes of Death, he read their karma. Unsurprisingly, they were cheaters—no apparent reason other than their lives were too stable.
Morvathos passed through the glass. Just as the woman was about to reach climax, he interrupted,
"Its fun cheating on your spouses, isn't it?"
The man and woman froze, their faces contorted in shock. They had been lost in their indulgence, unaware of the danger approaching. Morvathos extended his right hand; scythe materialized.
He spun it slowly as he walked forward, hands in pockets. Both recoiled, but their attention remained on the displeasure, blind to the gravity of the situation.
The man scrambled to his feet, cursing Morvathos, and fumbled to pull out his phone, dialing the hotel staff—but it didn't connect.
Morvathos had activated Dome of Death. Another racial ability that blocked any sound from inside to leak but sound from outside can come in. That was on Morvathos's own inability.
The man had thought of him as some intruder that came to demand money or something.
Morvathos ignored the man and approached the woman. From what he read, her husband was stable, kind—far more worthy than she seemed to appreciate. The woman trembled like a leaf. Morvathos sighed inwardly.
"Hey, Why did you cheat on your husband? He was stable. What was your reason? I never understand you cheaters. Why do you guys cheat on such good spouses?"
The woman's eyes widened. She clutched the blanket around her. Her mind cleared in an instant. Taking a deep breath, she looked Morvathos in the eye and said with determination,
"I don't know who you are and I don't have to answer you. But I will because it few moments the security will come and beat you up."
She said with such Conviction that made Morvathos raise his eye brow in amusement.
"Listen carefully. It's not that he was bad… he was too stable. Life had become dull. I wanted to feel alive."
"Is that so?"
Morvathos murmured, voice low and foreboding.
"Then let me send you to a place where there won't be a single moment you will feel dead!"
He raised his scythe and swung it down.
A red line appeared across the woman's neck before dissolving. Through his comprehension of soul-laws, Morvathos pinpointed the spiritual node of her soul and cut it. Using his understanding of death-laws, he erased any remnant connection between the soul and body.
The woman quivered and slumped back. She died without ever realizing how. Her eyes and mouth were wide open.
"W-What..? Wait... Wait!!"
The man, still clutching his phone, stared in horror.
"Ignorance is bliss and arrogance is sin which people only realise when they are too deep in the abyss."
Morvathos appeared before him in an instant. The same procedure followed: a red line traced his neck and vanished. He slumped back, his face frozen in terror.
"Man~ that was a fine line. But does it make sense though? I just said what fir perfectly together... whatever doesn't matter."
Morvathos chuckled as he felt like a poet for a second with how good the rhyme sounded.
Both souls hovered over their bodies before ascending, then were absorbed into the karmic medium. They appeared in the karmic meter and were sent to the Pit of Karma and Punishment.
Morvathos smiled. He had expected complications—the first harvest often was difficult—but thanks to his race, allied with death and soul, the process had been seamless.
He spun his scythe and stored it in his Authority Seal. Passing through the glass, he dissolved into a vortex of black mist and vanished, leaving to seek his next target.