Enri leapt back, silver hair whipping like a storm, and unleashed a tidal wave of pure black "Predation".
The devouring void surged toward me, hungry, absolute, erasing everything it touched: air, light, even the concept of existence.
My sword (pitch-black, cursed, and utterly exhausted just by existing) flashed once.
A single diagonal cut.
The entire wave split cleanly in half, edges dissolving into harmless mist before they could reach me.
Enri's eyes went wide.
"…Huh?"
The remnants of her "Predation" rained down like dying ashes.
"Hey—wait! Why can you cut my "Predation"?!" she screamed, voice cracking for the first time.
"That sword should have been devoured the instant it made contact!"
I glanced at the blade in my hand and sighed, already feeling the familiar bone-deep lethargy crawling through my limbs.
"Because this thing is more annoying than your devouring fetish. Trust me, I've tried getting rid of it for two years."
The black sword hummed faintly, as if offended I'd even suggested it.
Enri snapped her fingers.
Every fragment of scattered "Predation" spiralled back toward her, condensing, compressing, growing.
In seconds a titanic sphere of pure annihilation (thirty metres across) hovered above us, blotting out the cavern's dim glow.
"Try cutting this," she sneered, triumph returning to her face.
"That tiny sword can't possibly—"
I tightened my grip.
The sword hated being swung.
Every time I used it, the curse sapped my will to fight, whispering that sleeping forever would be easier.
Right now, it was screaming at me to drop it and take a nap on the blood-soaked floor.
I swung anyway.
One smooth, flowing motion (bottom-left to top-right), like scooping water with a ladle.
A razor-thin arc of wind pressure erupted from the edge.
It wasn't wind.
It was pure murderous intent given shape, an extension of the blade's refusal to ever break or be broken.
The crescent stretched (ten meters, fifty, a hundred), until it looked like a black moon rising through the cavern.
Then it hit.
The colossal sphere of "Predation" parted like silk before a god's blade.
Both halves slid apart, crashed into opposite walls, and disintegrated into nothing.
Silence.
Enri's mouth hung open.
"…You cut…a hundred meters… with wind pressure?"
"Any length, actually," I said, rolling my shoulder.
"Tested it on a mountain-sized dragon once. Worked fine."
Enri took a shaky step back, composure shattered.
"That's not possible. "Predation" is absolute. Nothing resists it (not heroes, not sacred relics, not even the King and their best S-class heroes)."
She stared at me, pupils trembling.
Then something clicked behind her eyes.
A slow, insane grin spread across her face.
"Aha… ahahaha… of course."
She clapped her hands like a child who'd just solved the best puzzle.
"So that's it. That's why a human can cut my power."
She pointed at me, laughing through tears of joy.
It's no wonder I, gluttony couldn't find you. It didn't choose a demon, but it chose a human? "Reiji... you're "Sloth"."
The name hit the air like a death knell.
My grip on the sword tightened involuntarily.
The curse inside it purred, as if finally recognized.
Enri spread her arms wide, ecstatic.
"The Sin of Sloth (the one who refuses to act, yet cannot be moved by anything in creation).
The laziest disaster in history, carrying the blade that embodies eternal apathy itself."
She stepped forward, eyes shining with fanatic light.
"That sword isn't cursed, idiot.
It's the physical manifestation of your Sin.
It drains your will because you're literally holding a piece of your own soul (the part that wants to sleep forever)."
I glared at the black blade.
It gleamed back innocently.
Enri giggled, voice dropping to a loving whisper.
"Let me teach you, Sloth.
Let me teach you how good it feels to finally stop resisting."
Black "Predation" exploded from her body in a pillar that punched straight through the cavern ceiling, raining stone and dust.
I raised the sword (my sword, my curse,) and sighed.
"Shut up and fight, Gluttony. Call me whatever you want." I sighed, done with this talk.
"I'm already sleepy."