Cain woke to darkness.

Not the kind found in caves or the absence of light at night, but something absolute. No ground beneath his feet, no air to breathe, no sky overhead. Just a blackness so deep it swallowed the concept of distance itself.

For a moment, he thought he was dead.

He lifted his hands. They glowed faintly, painted by a light that had no source, just enough to make out his own skin. The glow stretched a little farther, brushing faint outlines in the nothingness.

A table.

It sat about twenty paces away, three chairs arranged around it as though waiting for a meeting. Two on one side. One on the other.

Cain's eyes found the man seated alone.

Gaius.

The white-haired trickster looked the same as always: hair slicked back, sharp eyes glinting with cunning, that crooked smile of his suggesting he knew a hundred secrets he might or might not share.

But there was no ease in the way he sat now. His shoulders were tight, arms resting on the table but not relaxed. He looked like a man holding a bad hand of cards and waiting for the moment someone called his bluff.

Cain started walking toward them. His boots made no sound. Each step felt like it only existed for the second it landed, then vanished into the void's hungry silence.

As he drew closer, Cain saw why Gaius seemed so unsettled.

The second chair on Gaius' side was occupied.

By a child.

He was small, barefoot, hair dark and messy. A loose shirt draped over his thin frame. He leaned forward, elbows on the table, head tilted downward, as though thinking over some great puzzle.

Cain stopped a few feet away, frowning. He glanced toward Gaius, silently asking for answers.

The man with the crooked smile only shook his head once. Wordless.

Cain turned back just as the boy lifted his head.

Dark eyes met Cain's, sharp as broken glass.

The child glared at him, a steady, measuring look that felt far too old for the face it wore. Like a predator deciding whether to eat what stood before it.

Then the boy dipped his head slightly and spoke in a low, two-toned voice that carried both youth and something far deeper beneath it.

"Thanks for the food."

Cain froze.

He knew that voice.

Recognition crashed into him with the weight of a hammer.

Gluttony.

His skill.

The very thing that had grown stronger with every kill, every victory. The power he had relied on again and again.

And now it sat across from him, speaking, wearing a body of its own.

That should have been impossible.

Skills did not think. Skills did not talk. Skills did not sit at tables in worlds like this one.

Cain pulled out the empty chair across from the boy and sat slowly, eyes never leaving the child's face.

Gaius remained silent, though Cain saw the tension in his jaw.

"You are my skill," Cain said at last.

The child nodded once.

"Skills do not talk," Cain pressed.

A faint smile touched the boy's lips. "They do not. Yet here I am."

Cain turned toward Gaius, looking for an explanation. The man shook his head again, slower this time, eyes narrowing.

"This… this should not be possible," Gaius said. "Skills are tools. Not… this."

The boy leaned forward slightly, small hands folding atop the table. "You fed me well," he said. "Enough for me to wake properly. Enough to speak."

Cain's mind turned over memories of battle, the way Gluttony had surged inside him when he pushed too far. He had assumed it was only power. He had never imagined this.

"And if I stop feeding you?" Cain asked carefully.

The boy's dark eyes sharpened. "You will not."

The words carried no threat. Just certainty.

Gaius muttered under his breath, "The world has no name for this. A skill gaining sentience… I have never heard of such a thing."

Cain ignored him, his gaze locked on the boy. "What do you want?"

"More."

The word rolled out softly, but it carried weight.

"More power. More blood. More everything. Feed me, and I will give you strength beyond what you imagine. Starve me, and we both wither."

Cain felt his fingers curl slowly against the tabletop. "And if I refuse?"

The boy smiled faintly, cold and knowing. "Then you will learn what hunger truly is. The kind that eats you back."

The silence that followed pressed against Cain's ears.

He stared at the child across from him, the thing that should have been a mindless skill but now spoke with will and thought.

He had begun to question if he should allow his skill to grow. What if it decided to consume him after it grew strong enough? The thought was more than a little unnerving.

The boy leaned back in his chair, his expression unreadable. "Sit. Wait. The others will be here soon."

Cain frowned at that. "Others?"

Dark eyes glimmered faintly across the table. "The rest of us," the boy said softly. "The ones who share my nature."

Cain's fingers tightened against the wood. "You mean there are more of you?"

The child gave a single, slow nod. "The Sin Series. I am the first to wake. The others will follow."

Cain felt something cold settle beneath his ribs. He thought again of the power Gluttony had given him so far, how much stronger he had grown because of it, and for the first time that strength felt like a chain instead of a gift.

The idea of more of these things stirring inside him made his chest tighten. He knew nothing about them. Not what they wanted. Not what they could do. Not even if they would obey him once they awoke.

If Gluttony had gained a will of its own, then so would the others.

The boy watched him in silence, eyes sharp as knives. It felt like he could sense every flicker of doubt crossing Cain's mind, every calculation he made about risk and power and control.

Cain looked down at his hands, faintly glowing in the blackness. He thought about what would happen if these Sins grew too strong, if they decided they did not need him anymore. The thought left a sour taste in his mouth.

"Why tell me this now?" he asked quietly.

"Because it is time," Gluttony said simply. "You have fed me well and the others are not yet whole. Calling the meeting now will only give us advantages."

The smile on the boys face was almost predatory in nature as he then added

"We can take advantage of that to grow stronger~!"

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