Jeanne looked to her right. Her comrade, and the one covering her right side was ran through with a spear. She looked to her left. There was a similar sight, but different. The new recruit whose name she could not even remember was already dead, and his killer was moving to flank her.
Finally, she looked back forward.
The Avradon Knight had recovered from her blow, and was about to begin the process of bringing down his sword in a counterattack. Under normal circumstances, she would have raised her own sword to deflect it, yet she couldn't as now there was a second knight on her left, preparing his own attack.
'Fucking bullshit'
She instinctively took a step back, evaluating the new situation. Fighting one knight was easy enough, comparatively. Two would be a tooth and nail struggle, but one she was confident in. The problem was that her right was exposed, so it was now going to be a three on one.
Under normal circumstances, Jeanne was extremely confident in her abilities. But right now, in this hell, she had been fighting for gods know how long. The best estimate she had was eight hours given that the sun was now dipping below the horizon, bathing the world in crimson light.
Jeanne could only guess that she had at least a hundred different cuts and wounds marking her body. Her armor was caved and beaten in, broken in many places. She had already long discarded her helmet, and her sword was on the verge of shattering.
Every muscle in her body was screaming in agony, and she was confident that at least a few in her left arm were torn. Something in her leg was undoubtedly broken, every step she took bathed her in agony as she felt bones scrape against each other. She didn't even want to think about what was lodged in her side, so she simply tried to ignore the pain to the best of her abilities.
Her adversaries, in comparison, seemed pristine, although that was relative. Dried mud crusted their greaves and stained their cloaks, they were still of course fighting in the same quagmire after all, but had been rotated from the rear to relieve the beleaguered first line.
As she planted her left foot in the ground, she felt the pain in her shin reach a nearly unfathomable level, but she simply groaned and ignored it.
The knight to her left thrust his sword forward. Jeanne met it with her own, pushing it to the side. Simultaneously, the knight she was previously fighting stepped forward and brought his sword down in a heavy overhead slash.
Unable to bring her sword up to meet it in time, Jeanne did the only thing she could. She willed all the strength in her body to raise her left arm up in a swinging motion. Her arm struck the sword from the side, delivering enough force to drive it of course.
However, the price Jeanne paid was steep. Her left arm was now mangled horribly, only hanging on by a few threads of tendon.
The knights halted their attack for a moment, glancing as a third, the one wielding a spear, came and stood beside them. In less than a second, they exchanged a short string of hand signals, and then moved to surround Jeanne in a semi-circle, the spear man taking the center.
During that reprieve, Jeanne glanced down at her dangling arm. In a split second, she made a decision. It's not like the arm was going to be of any use to her now, and it dangling would only encumber her movements.
She stabbed her sword into the mud, and grasped her gauntlet with her right arm. She let out a scream as she tore it, the ligaments stretching into long lines as she pulled more and more. Eventually, they snapped in a disgusting squelch, and she staggered as she held her severed arm in her hand.
Not wasting a second, she threw her arm to the side and reclaimed her sword. The bleeding was going to be a problem, but she could deal with that in a bit. The three knights were a more pressing issue, and under no circumstances was she going to die on this battlefield.
The spear man stepped forward, thrusting his weapon forward. Jeanne deflected, easily, but that was not the point of the attack. The two knights, flanking her on either side, attacked in unison.
A split second passed, and Jeanne made a decision, she ducked beneath the blade of the knight on her right, but in the process, her left side had become completely vulnerable.
'Fuck, this is going to hurt'
She turned her body, but it failed to accomplish much other than preventing a mortal wound. An unimaginable pain rushed through her body, but she didn't seem to care. There were already a thousand other things in Jeanne's body which ached and bled, so what was one more?
Given that she managed to dodge one attack and survive the other, Jeanne now had more than a precious few seconds in which the knight which had attacked from her right side was vulnerable. She gripped her sword, and thrust it upward, directly through the knight's neck. Shocked by the sudden death of his comrade, the other knight staggered for only a moment.
A moment was all that Jeanne needed. She pulled the sword from the first knight's neck and swung it around in a wide motion. It sliced open the second knight's neck like a hot knife through butter. He fell to the ground, attempting to scream out in pain. The only thing that escaped his mouth was a revolting gurgling noise.
Jeanne quickly turned, facing forward. Her eyes widened as a spear was driven directly through her own neck. Her vision became bloodied, and Jeanne felt her body grow weak, but the amount of adrenaline in her system was not going to let her die yet. She gripped her sword, and thrust it into the visor of the spear man.
He fell limp, letting go and Jeanne fell back, hitting the ground, the spear still protruding from her neck, reaching high into the air.
She turned her head, her eyes darting around the battlefield rapidly. The current situation was not ideal, but the spear had missed her spine. If there was a healer nearby, then maybe…
That's when Jeanne saw it. The battle was over. The victorious knights of Avradon were gathered in a large circle, all watching this lone Teral swordsman make her last stand, letting their comrades have the glory of killing her.
They were clearly not expecting the amputated swordsman to kill not just one but all three, an atmosphere of shock clearly overtaking them.
'Ah, that's how it is.'
Jeanne looked up, back at the sky. She felt her body grow weak and cold, her vision slowly dimming into absolute darkness.
'Bullshit, fucking bullshit'
All that she felt was rage.
'I can't fucking die here, not like this.'
And yet she did. As Avradon knights circled, coming ever closer, she closed her eyes, and they didn't open again.
*******
In the beginning, there was nothing. Seven gods stood in this nothingness, and sought change.
Thus, the eight realms came into existence, each god ruling their own, with one in which their authority was shared.
The seven gods looked upon these lifeless realms and sought to end the lifelessness.
Thus, life was born and thrived within each of the realms. Towering forests, vast oceans, expansive plains all came into being.
The seven gods looked upon the realms and sought to bring order. Each god tore away a part of themself, and they used their fragments to create mankind.
Thus, humanity came to inhabit the eight realms.
With the blessings of the gods, humanity thrived in a golden age of absolute perfection.
Eventually, the seven gods died. In their place, rose imperfection. Seven deadly sins arose, their purpose to create imperfection. Greed, Lust, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, Pride, and Wrath beset upon the land, and the golden age came to an end, and imperfection replaced the absolute law of perfection.
Thousands of years passed, and with imperfection being absolute law, nothing remained the same. Thousands of Empires, Kingdoms, Federations, and Republics rose and fell, one constantly replacing another.
The world became ever changing.
*******
There was total and absolute darkness.
Jeanne reached out her hand, attempting to orient herself, but she felt nothing other than her own body.
She could not tell what was up nor down. In fact, she couldn't even tell where she was.
The only thing she could discern was that she was moving, not that she could see where.
Time passed, how much Jeanne was not certain of. Eventually though, she saw a light, and it was with this light that she finally saw her surroundings.
She was walking, seemingly on her own and against her will, towards what appeared to be a massive wall of light.
Her eyes widened as she grasped her surroundings. Countless other people, some she knew, her former comrades, all walking to the same light. She wanted to scream out, but no noise escaped her mouth. She desperately searched through her memories, trying to discern how she got here. That's when her eyes widened. The last thing she remembered was a spear through her neck.
Jeanne finally realized it. She was dead. It was in that moment that anger seeped through every fiber of her being. Jeanne couldn't die, not yet. Under no circumstances could she pass away, not until she had fulfilled her promise.
Mustering all of her strength, she fought desperately, trying to regain control of her body. All she seemed to be capable of was causing a slight twitch in her fingers.
Unable to even move her head, her eyes darted around rapidly, searching for something, anything.
She grew closer to the wall of indescribable light. She didn't know what it was, but every instinct in her body was screaming at her, all yelling the same message to not get close to whatever it was.
The closer she drew to the light, the angrier she got. Anger at Avradon, at the war, at everything responsible for the latest shitstorm consuming the fourth realm this century.
She continued to lash out, desperately trying to regain control of her body. Slowly, more and more of her body began to respond to her. Her entire upper body now listened to her, whilst her legs seemed intent on drawing ever closer to the light.
The catastrophe which was now being called the Third Belgrana War, was entirely avoidable if even a modicum of intelligence had been used.
Jeanne began burning with hatred, and it was with that hatred that more strength returned to her.
Finally, she craned her head up and saw it, a dim glow directly above her. It was hardly noticeable, but it was there. It seemed as if just above her head, there was a barely opaque ceiling, emanating a barely noticeable light.
Acting entirely on instinct, she reached up, extending both of her arms as she tried to claw her fingers into the translucent mass.
There were too many people left in the realms that Jeanne needed to kill. Even more that she had wanted to save. But above all else, there was one that she had made a promise to. The only way she was going to let fate stop her from fulfilling that promise was if one of the Seven Deadly Sins appeared before her, aiming to stop her.
As Jeanne's fingers sank into the ceiling, her legs faltered, slowing down in their gait. Jeanne seemingly hung from the ceiling, now unsure of what to do.
Now finally having a chance to observe the ceiling, she gazed deep, trying to discern what was on the other side.
She pulled herself up and, hanging from one arm, reached the other deeper into the unknown mass. She felt nothing except the cold embrace of whatever she was hanging from, but before she withdrew her hand, she closed her fist, as if she was trying to grab a hold of a support to help her climb. To her surprise, she was able to grip onto the inside of the unknown mass. She gritted her teeth, and pulled herself up.
Jeanne climbed like a woman possessed. As she climbed higher and higher, it seemed as if the temperature of the mass increased exponentially. Eventually, it felt as if she was in boiling water, and shortly thereafter, boiling magma.
Jeanne was no stranger to pain. She had been stabbed, shot, cut, beaten, chewed, swallowed, pierced, burned, and impaled countless times throughout her life, but this, this was different.
It felt as if every single atom in her body was being immolated in the heat of a star. By all logic, it should have burned away, as any object when faced with the fury of a star, but Jeanne's body refused to accept even the smallest blemish.
All that she was left with was the pain of being burned by a star, and death was not there to grant her mercy.
She gritted her teeth. For whatever reason she wasn't burning, her body also wasn't behaving as it should have. There was seemingly no reaction, as if was seemingly lazing around. It was a blessing, in a way as she would not go into shock. Similarly, she was not receiving adrenaline to empower her.
It was as if her very soul was being immolated.
For what seemed like an eternity, she climbed.
Every time she managed to adjust herself to the pain, it seemingly only got worse.
Jeanne felt her mind grow closer and closer to breaking.
She reached her arm up again, as she had done countless times before, but instead of it being thrust into searing heat, it felt seemingly frozen.
Of course, that was in comparison to the rest of her body.
It took Jeanne only a second to realize that the mass seemingly ended where her hand was, and she desperately pulled herself up.
More and more of her body was slowly enveloped by cool air.
When she finally managed to drag her leg out of the mass, the relief she felt was nothing short of euphoric. In fact, it seemed to be even more than that.
Jeanne certainly didn't have a word to describe it, not that she was concerned with it. She sprawled out on what felt like cold stone, and it was then that the strain of the climb seemingly slammed into her.
All the energy she had vanished from within her in an instant and she recoiled in pain.
The shock had left her laying on her side, and her vision dimmed as her eyes began to slam shut. Before they did however, she was able to behold one last thing.
The clacking of heavy steps on stone echoed throughout the cavern. Before Jeanne closed her eyes, she saw two boots standing in front of her.
She lazily turned her head upwards.
A figured clad in armor was staring down at her, his face obscured.
Before even being able to comprehend the situation, her eyes closed, and Jeanne passed out.
*******
Jeanne's eyes slowly opened. As soon as they did, her lungs felt as if they were full of water, and she began to cough as if she was ridden with the plague.
Finally composing herself, she looked around. She was in a cavern, lying on the ground naked. The only source of light was a luminous device in front of her. On the other side of that light however, was a man clad in intricate yet worn armor. It seemed to bear the marks of tens of thousands of battles, whilst simultaneously remaining pristine.
The man wearing the armor was looking at her, a neutral expression on his face. After what seemed like another eternity, he finally spoke
"I have lived for a long time, but I must say I have never seen anyone manage to climb out of the Path of Death before. Congratulations on being the first, Thaneborne."
He leaned forward. That was when Jeanne saw it. The mark of Envy was on this man's pauldron.
The man sitting in front of her was the Fifth of the Seven Deadly Sins.
He was the Sin of Envy.
*******
Jeanne could only stare in silence. Her mind was racing, running through thousands of scenarios. After all she had just been through, and now she was being gazed at by one of the Seven Sins who had ended the golden age many thousands of years ago.
Seeing that he was getting no response, Envy let out a long sigh and spoke once more "Mortals, whenever I meet them there's only ever been three reactions. Some draw their weapons, foolishly seeking to avenge the gods, others simply drop to their knees and beg, but most simply freeze."
He leaned back, reaching behind the rock and grabbing a metal container "Humans are intrinsically hardwired with a flight or fight reaction, or they were. I must have missed the new evolution where they now simply freeze in the face of danger."
He extended his arm over the luminous device outstretching a white and gold canteen towards Jeanne.
Jeanne's mind began to work once more. If Envy wished to kill her, then there was nothing in the realms beside another one of the Sins that could stop him. The fact that he was seemingly offering her water indicated that for whatever reason, he didn't want her dead.
Or didn't care enough to kill her.
She took the canteen and raised it to her mouth. She drank from it, enough so that she became confused how the small canteen seemed to contain an endless amount of water. She lowered the canteen and observed it. It was embroidered with what could only be described as the divine imagery of an angel.
Seeing Jeanne's confusion, Envy spoke again. "That canteen doesn't run out of water, ever."
Jeanne looked at Envy, confused. She did not linger long though, and raised it to her mouth again. After drinking what seemed like an ocean's worth of water, she was finally satiated, and screwed the lid back on the canteen as she inspected it.
Envy, still watching, commented once more "It's a divine relic. An angel gave it to me, in my last life."
Jeanne froze for a second. Divine relics were objects created by the gods themselves, and gifted to those who served them. There were less than fifty surviving divine relics left in the world today, at least in the possession of mankind, and they all held unfathomable power. Entire nations were founded upon the strength of those who wielded them.
Not sure on whether to believe that Envy or not, specifically the fact that it was gifted to him by an angel, she believed that it was in fact a divine relic, and extended it back over the luminous device, attempting to cover her naked body.
Jeanne stuttered "Th-Thank you". Envy nodded.
That was when Jeanne noted the state of the canteen. Everything else he seemed to possess, his armor, sword, equipment, all seem weathered and worn beyond belief despite somehow remaining pristine simultaneously.
Yet the canteen was truly flawless. The only thing she could note were a few specs of dirt left on its side, dirt that was left when she was drinking from it.
Almost as if confirming it, when Envy took the canteen back, he drew a rag and carefully cleaned off the dirt, before attaching the canteen to a clasp on his belt.
Silence permeated the cavern before Envy spoke again "Mortal, what is your name?"
Jeanne struggled to force her name out of her mouth. Envy simply nodded, and spoke again "Well, Jeanne, you must be confused about some things so allow me to explain. You died. Whether or not you are aware of that, I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that you managed to escape the Path of Death."
Envy leaned forward again "It is possible, theoretically, not that I've ever seen or heard of anyone doing it. In fact, I'm willing to wager that you're the first in history."
He paused for a moment, then continued "When Valorin the Sixth God built the Path of Death, she purposefully included a flaw in its design. Actually, maybe it wasn't. Understanding the intentions of Gods is not a task for mortals, and I suppose I was still mortal when I learned of the nature of the Path."
Jeanne looked at Envy's face. He was an immortal, unkillable entity who was thousands of years old, yet he appeared as if he was in his late twenties. In fact, one could say that he was devilishly handsome.. This was betrayed by the fact that throughout the entire interaction, he wore the same, unchanging neutral expression, which seemed to almost camouflage his handsomeness, in a way.
"The aspect that Valorin included was that if somebody was determined enough, they could escape and reenter the land of mortals as a Thaneborne, somebody torn between life or death."
Envy leaned closer towards the luminous device. "Tell me Jeanne, what made you determined enough to defy death?"
Jeanne coughed, and began to blush a little in embarrassment "Uhm, it's actually nothing grand. This may sound surprising, it's just that I made a promise to my fiance and didn't want to break it." Jeanne expected that her answer wouldn't be satisfactory, not to someone like Envy.
To her shock, Envy once again leaned back and said in a neutral tone "Not that surprising. In my experience, the greatest of accomplishments are often caused by the most mundane of motivations."
Envy paused, then let out a sigh "Jeanne, do you know where we are right now?"
Jeanne answered "Uh, no, no I don't"
"We are in the depths of Noctallan. As you should know this is not a place for mortals."
Envy was indeed right. In all of the eight realms, there was hardly a place more dangerous than Noctallan.
Envy continued "What is the current mortal interpretation of Noctallan again? I lost track a few centuries ago. Wasn't it something like the gods imprisoned horrid abominations down here and hid treasure?"
Jeanne simply nodded.
Seeing this, Envy spoke once more "That is not exactly what happened, but I guess it's close enough. Noctallan is indeed a prison, but the treasure you mortals value is nothing more than scraps that were left. But more importantly, the abominations are the guards.
'What'
Jeanne shuddered. Noctallan was the graveyard of heroes. It spanned for thousands of kilometers and was many hundreds deep, yet humanity had only managed to explore no more than a kilometer in depth and seven in length. The abominations, which nations viewed as an existential threat to existence itself, were simply the guards?
Finally mustering the strength, Jeanne asked "So, what exactly did the gods imprison here?"
Envy hesitated for a moment. "That, mortals are not allowed to know that."
Jeanne, already having built up the courage to ask a question, asked another "How exactly do you know then?"
Jeanne already knew the answer. Envy was not a mortal. He was one of the current pillars of existence, but Jeanne still felt a compulsion to ask.
The answer she received, it was not what she thought it would be.
Envy shrugged "Simple, I was one of the ones who imprisoned them here. But that's besides the point. Right now, we are at the second deepest point of Noctallan."
He pointed to a tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern "That will lead you back to the Path of Death, or at least above it if we are being exact. Beyond the Path of Death, there is a tunnel that will take you to the deepest point of Noctallan, where its true prisoners lie."
He then pointed to a second tunnel, this one closer to them "This tunnel is technically the way out. I say technically because it really just leads to the rest of Noctallan, which is obviously not ideal for you."
Envy then looked back at Jeanne "I am willing to make a deal with you. I will guide you out of Noctallan, back to the surface. However, I want something in return."
Jeanne hesitated for a moment, before responding in a nervous voice "Sure, it's only fair. What exactly would you like?"
Here she was, in the depths of hell, bargaining with one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Sin of Envy no less. One could not even imagine what someone like him could want. Then again, it could be worse. A negotiation with the Sin of Greed sounded miserable.
All in all, it was still better than dying.
Envy didn't respond. He simply looked at the tunnel leading back to the rest of Noctallan. Finally, he said "I will tell you after we reach the surface." He looked down at Jeanne "Rest assured, it will be something that you can easily accommodate."
Jeanne was of course still naked, and a thought began to take root in her mind. After all, despite the fact that she wore armor nearly and was stained with mud and blood nearly every day did not change the fact that she was, by all standards, an enchanting beauty. Almost as if he was sensing it, Envy spoke again "Before you get any ideas, just know that there is only one woman that I have and will ever love. I have no intention of becoming unfaithful now, not even after thousands upon thousands of years."
Envy stood up, grabbing the luminous device from the ground "Didn't you say that you have a fiance? I am many things, but I am not a scoundrel."
Jeanne practically drowned in embarrassment. Struggling to find anything to say, Envy placed down the luminous device "Wait here. If my memory serves me correctly, the Fourth Holy Field Army installed numerous armories on the bottom floors. I'll go get you something to wear. And before you ask, the abominations won't dare approach the Path of Death, you'll be safe." He began walking towards the tunnel but before he reached it, Envy turned back and asked "What is your preferred weapon?"
With the topic finally being changed, Jeanne was able to speak again "A sword."
Envy nodded, and disappeared into the darkness.
*******
Jeanne was left alone in a sea of darkness, only a small luminous device carving an enclave of light for her.
It seemed as if so much had happened within such a short span of time. That was when she realized, her left arm was now reattached to her body. In fact, every one of her wounds was healed. Even the countless scars which she had accumulated over the years had vanished.
After the initial shock passed, she soon worked out why. It had to be something with the Path of Death. She thought for a moment, considering the different possibilities but failed to come up with an explanation.
'I could probably ask Envy. He seems to know a lot'
But then again, what was the point? Did it really matter now? That was when it truly hit Jeanne.
'Wait, he called the Sixth God Valorin. Does he know their names?'
Essentially all knowledge about the gods had been lost. Scholars weren't even sure they had names. There were also numerous other things that Envy mentioned.
'The Fourth Holy Field Army?'
There were plenty of nations and Empires which had at one point or another claimed to be Holy. But none had ever managed to breach the upper layers of Noctallan, let alone establish enough of a presence to build anything. In fact, humanity had barely even built a presence at the entrance. He also said that the nearly incomprehensible treasures left behind were their scraps?
Jeanne wanted to ask more questions of Envy, but she realized that there was something more pressing to worry about. Envy said he wanted something from her, but she didn't know what. He said that she could easily provide it too. Even at a glance, Jeanne could tell that all of his equipment, even the luminous device in front of her, were divine relics. Given the fact that he had left it without much care, she didn't believe it to be material in nature. Furthermore, he also clarified that he wasn't seeking pleasure.
Just as Jeanne began to worry that she had made a deal to sell her soul, Envy returned. He carried a large sack over his back, and an ivory scabbard encrusted with gold in his left hand.
He set down the loot in front of Jeanne and emptied the sack. Jeanne's eyes widened as she looked upon the spoils.
It was a set of perfectly white ivory armor, decorated with tasteful gold engravings and trim. In fact, it looked more akin to a piece of art than any suit of armor. Even at a glance, she could tell that it was powerful beyond comprehension.
She staggered "Is this… Is this armor a divine relic?"
Envy picked up the helmet, brushing its white and golden plume as he inspected it. "No, war gear forged by the gods was reserved for only the greatest of champions of the Holy Armies. But, granted, the Fourth Army was special. It functioned more like a shock assault army than anything else, so they received the next best thing. Equipment forged by angels."
Jeanne was nearly left speechless.
'A set of armor, forged by an angel, just like that?'
Even if it wasn't forged by a god, something as magnificent as this may as well be considered a divine relic.
However, the realization began to set in that the armor was in fact too large for someone like Jeanne. It also looked like it had been forged for a man. Jeanne eventually commented on this "Uhm, Sir Envy, I think this armor is too big for me."
"Of course it's too big for you. The angels had to outfit an entire army, so they got creative." Envy points to what looked like a black body suit. "Put that on first. It should be your size. From there, put each piece of armor on one by one. They possess a special enchantment to automatically change their size to fit the wearer."
To her surprise, Envy turned away, almost as if he was giving her the signal to start changing. So she did, standing up and stepping into the black body suit. Outside, it felt like it was made of pure steel but still behaved as if it was fabric. After she put her arms through the sleeves, a warm sensation permeated her body.
Jeanne had only just recently realized, given that she had just crawled through a star, but she was absolutely freezing. But it wasn't just the new layer of insulation. It felt as if her body was being fed warmth. Hearing her zip up the suit, Envy turned around and grabbed the two pieces of the chest plate.
Without saying a word, he took the chest section and pressed it against her torso before circling around and pressing in the back section. To her surprise, and then shock, the two pieces of armor did not fall to the floor, instead becoming almost liquid and flowing to fit her shape perfectly.
Envy commented "Just place the armor vaguely where it belongs, and the enchantment will do the rest."
He paused "Don't take offense when I say this, but you are nowhere near strong enough to wield that armor and sword to their full potential. In fact, the simplest way to put it is that they are both bringing themselves down so they can be wielded by you. So don't expect yourself to now suddenly be invulnerable to all attacks." He then handed her one of the gauntlets. "Also, don't call me Sir Envy. Envy alone works fine."
In less than a minute, Jeanne was fully equipped in an elegant suit of Golden Age battle armor. She reached down to the ground, grabbing the scabbard. Jeanne held it in her hand as she drew part of the part of the sword. As she did, both the scabbard and the sword itself reshaped into gladius sword, the exact type she preferred to wield. Even the blade was engraved with intricate imagery.
She sheathed the sword and attached scabbard to her waist, and like Envy had told her, it magically snapped to it.
Seeing that Jeanne was now ready, Envy attached the luminous device to his waist, next to where his helmet was hanging, and gestured for Jeanne to follow him.
She hesitated for a moment before finally asking "I'm sorry, but what you said about the true prisoners of Noctallan, is it really okay for you to leave them here?"
Envy looked at her, and not breaking his neutral expression, asked "Why would me leaving be a problem?"
Jeanne was taken back a bit before asking a second question "Weren't you guarding them?"
Shaking his head, Envy responded "No, not at all. I was just here to, well, I'll just say that I was visiting on business that had nothing to do with the prisoners. You clawing your way out and me being here at the same time was pure coincidence."
That answer left Jeanne a bit shaken. From what she could infer about the prisoners, they were clearly quite dreadful. So much so that despite the lack of concern from one of the most powerful entities in existence, she still felt worried. Jeanne then asked one more question, one that had been gnawing at her since she learned the true nature of Noctallan "So is that why the Path of Death is here?"
Envy gave an answer in his unchanging neutral expression "Of course. Why do you think the Gods created death? Well the answer is simple. It was to contain them."
*******
The bottom of Noctallan was nothing like Jeanne expected it to be. She had been to parts of its top layers previously, where it was a sprawling cave system. But down here, it was practically a city.
They had long since left the cavern in which Jeanne had awakened, and were now traversing through one that seemed to span for hundreds of kilometers in all directions. In fact, it had to be at least a kilometer to reach the ceiling.
Countless structures stood, filling the space in its entirety. Upon closer inspection, Jeanne realized that they were all defensive fortifications, all of them facing the cavern which they had emerged from.
Without realizing it, Jeanne muttered under her breath "The hell?"
Hearing this, Envy spoke "The Battle of Noctallan, well, battle is what we called it. It was more similar to a siege than anything else. The Fourth Holy Field Army was given the task of driving the prisoners down into the depths. The losses they suffered were horrific, even with the greatest champions of the era forming their vanguard. In the end, they succeeded, and constructed these fortifications. They were then given the withdrawal order, and relieved by the Sixth Holy Field Army which assumed the duty of holding the prisoners to the depths whilst Valorin constructed the Path of Death. Once it was completed, the Sixth Army withdrew as well."
Jeanne hesitated for a moment. "Why are you telling me this? It feels like you're teaching me some sort of forbidden knowledge."
Envy let out a long sigh. "With the end of the Golden Age, there were many travesties that befell the realms, including the loss of history. The fact that nobody remembers the determination, bravery, and sacrifice of the Holy Armies is in my opinion one of the greatest. In the face of absolute horror, they undoubtedly knew fear. Even still, they did not hesitate and they did not falter. The soldiers of the Holy Armies fulfilled their duty."
Turning back to face Jeanne, Envy continued "Make no mistake. There is much knowledge in these realms which had been forbidden and forgotten. I will do my utmost to ensure it remains that way. But regardless…" He looked around at the buildings surrounding them "Too much has been lost. Maybe it was for the better, maybe not. Who is to say?"
Envy paused, looking at an intricate mural that covered an arch in front of them. "The reason I've been telling you so much, well honestly, its a bit selfish on my part. I guess I just want people to remember the past, or at least the parts they're allowed to."
The mood was somber, yet Envy maintained his ever present neutral expression.
Jeanne asked "So then why haven't you been sharing it? I'm sure there's a lot of scholars who would love to learn from a Sin."
That was when it finally happened. A crack appeared in Envy's neutral expression, only for a split second. He answered "I have my own promise to fulfill. Until I do, everything else is just noise."
Jeanne saw it, the crack. She expected to see malice, hatred, evil, something that would indicate that the man in front of her was a Sin. Instead, what she saw was something she was all too familiar with.
Despair.
That was when Jeanne suddenly realized something. She asked "Are there no abominations down here?"
Envy continued to walk forward, uncaring. "No, some of the most dreadful beings in all existence dwell down here. The Progena Biologa took extra care when crafting the beasts that inhabit these ruins, but they tend to avoid me like the plague. As long as you stay in my vicinity, you'll be fine."
Jeanne wanted to be shocked, but she honestly couldn't. It made sense. The amount of people who had witnessed one of the Seven Deadly Sins engage in combat could be counted on two hands, and their accounts were all the same.
'Apocalyptic'
In fact, the reason so few had ever witnessed was simply due to the sheer destruction unleashed. In all cases, survivors had to be close enough to see, and thus be in the way of danger, but be stupidly lucky enough to somehow survive.
Jeanne had no doubts that the man in front of her could raze the entire city they were in if he truly wanted to.
Envy, for his part, didn't seem to have anything he wanted to say. The two of them, a woman who had defied death and one of the seven pillars of existence, walked through the dark streets of the allegedly infested city.
After what seemed like hours of walking in silence, they finally reached a wall, or what seemed like a wall. It appeared as if it was a massive gateway. Envy walked over to a small mantle, and seemingly interacted with it some way. In the next moment, the gateway lit up, blazing with light as what sounded like an air raid siren began ringing.
"The hell?" Jeanne's voice resounded, almost drowned out by the scraping of the gate and the ringing of the alarms.
Envy, still maintaining the same neutral face, told Jeanne "Relax, it's an elevator." He then gestured towards the dark city. "How do you think the Fourth got all the building materials for the fortifications down here?"
Jeanne had just assumed that they had used stone given the fact that they were already underground, but now looking again, she saw that essentially everything had been made out of a dark, lusterless steel.
She turned back and the doors had already begun opening, exposing a large maw illuminated by flashing yellow lights. Elevators were, by now, a new invention. They only appeared in the most affluent districts of major cities. Still, given the typical circles Jeanne ran in, she could brag that she had ridden them countless times. Yet this was unreasonable.
The inside was absolutely massive. It had to be at least 250 meters across, and appeared to be longer than it was wide. Colossal pallets, towering with crates upon crates of cargo, sat scattered, lacking any sense of organization.
Jeanne followed as Envy approached a console. He then grabbed it, pressed something, and the doors began to shudder closed. Before they did, the elevator started its ascent.
*******
The elevator continued on its ascent. Envy had said that it was 511 kilometers to the surface, and that it would take around ten minutes. Jeanne was not quite sure how something like that was physically possible given that both she and Envy moved around as if the platform they were on was now moving at anywhere between two and three thousand kilometers an hour upward.
Jeanne was never good with math or physics, hence her 1000 km/h margin of error, but still it was unreasonable. Yet compared to everything else she had seen and learned thus far, this elevator was probably the most mundane of it all.
Eventually though, the elevator began to slow.
There was one thing that had been gnawing at Jeanne for the last ten minutes, so she asked "If this takes us close to the surface, then how come nobody has found this elevator yet?"
Envy turned around, facing her "You have, but from what I observe, you just treated them as if they were old ruins filled with loot. The other two besides this one are also broken. I also believe that there isn't a single mortal left who knows the auth key."
*******
The room was filled with a nearly palpable sense of excitement and anticipation.
The most recent battle against the Teral Empire had ended in a decisive victory, and Avradon stood alone as the victor.
It had been a long, and brutal war, but it was finally over.
The throne room was crowded with military officers and nobility, all awaiting the arrival of the Emperor, who would officially start the celebrations.
One woman stood out among the crowd. She was not of the military, lacking a uniform, and most certainly not of the nobility, wearing a simple cloak which obscured her entire body.
In comparison to the uniforms, studded with countless medals, and the elegant suits and dresses, she stuck out like an eye sore.
The woman as a result of not only her apparent lack of fashion, but also her stunning beauty, caught many looks. She had deep, emerald green hair and flawlessly unblemished skin. Her eyes, as well as the entire upper part of her face, were hidden behind a solid, matte black half mask, carved with seven straight lines.
Four vertical, three horizontal.
However, whilst those of the noble ilk only noted her strange fashion sense, the military officers gazed at her with apprehension.
The cloak she wore ended right below her knees, and they could see her legs were encased within heavy combat boots, appearing as if they had weathered countless battles whilst somehow also remaining pristine.
The woman, for her part, seemed more than aware of all the looks being cast upon her. She did not seem to mind, leisurely sipping on a glass of vermilion red wine.
It was then that the Emperor, Rourk IV, entered the throne room. As he made his way up the dais, towards the throne, everybody in the room knelt before him.
Everyone except the woman in the drab cloak.
As Emperor Rourk finally reached the throne, he looked at her with a dispassionate stare.
A nobleman, one who was fairly close to the woman, remarked "Have you no decency?"
The woman chuckled, "Why would I ever lower my head for someone so far beneath me?"
It was as if the room froze.
The nobleman looked to a knight, dressed up in his ceremonial uniform, expecting to see him enraged, but he only saw hesitation on the knight's face.
Anyone who knew anything about fighting could tell, even at a glance, this woman, whoever she was, was strong. Unreasonably so.
Seeing that she was not going to receive a reply, she set down the glass of wine, and began walking towards the dais. "In fact, what right do you have to look down upon me from up there?"
She ascended the steps, leveling herself with the Emperor. She then turned to face the rest of the room. "Whats more, right now, the only reason that any of you are alive is because I alone am allowing it."
The woman turned back towards Rourk, a smug smile on her face "So tell me, when exactly do the festivities start.
As much as Rourk wanted to retaliate to the woman's venom, he knew he couldn't. The only reason everybody in that room was still alive was simply because she was allowing them. Furthermore, she alone was the reason they had won the war.
After all, the woman in front of him was none other than the Sin of Pride.