Vale stood in front of the inky door, with Nine by his side, who would watch over his body. Mias was also next to Vale, studying the black door and feeling at the miasmic edges with his gloved hands.

Vale didn't entirely understand what the guy was doing, but after spending five days with him, Vale had learned to let him do his thing.

The timer eventually ticked down to zero, and the door opened on its own.

Mias stepped back and marveled at the sight.

"Fascinating…"

Vale gulped as he looked into the nothingness, then took a step forward and let the darkness consume him.

A moment later… his senses returned, and he found himself in the black void. He began his march toward the table far off in the distance. But as he got closer… something felt off.

The moment he drew close enough to make out the finer details, he learned why he had an off feeling. Sloth was sitting up with her eyes open, staring at him as he approached.

Even worse for Vale, he was currently alone. Only Sloth sat at the round table, and no one else seemed to be approaching from any direction.

'I wonder if…'

'I'm probably just first.'

Vale mulled over the endless possibilities for the reasoning, but continued to put one foot in front of the other until he reached the pink throne. When he did, he stared back at Sloth, who met his gaze and continued to follow his movements.

The small girl started making odd twitching movements, unbefitting her nature…

Soon, a tingly cold started itching Vale's skin, but he knew who this cold belonged to, and he was glad to feel it.

Wrath was drawing closer and closer from off in the distance, but Sloth had yet to take her eyes off of Vale.

Desperate to ease the awkward situation, Vale did the terrifying deed of addressing Sloth.

"Can I… help you?"

A moment later, Vale's vision was blocked by a man decked out in gothic metal armor who winced:

"Shit!"

Vale's eyes widened in surprise as metal creaked and Wrath groaned. Then, all of a sudden, Sloth's head fell to the table, and she went to sleep.

Vale stared up at Wrath's back and craned his head around at the sleeping Sloth.

"What the…"

Wrath shrugged as he eased up and walked to his seat.

"That happens from time to time, just ignore it. But be careful if she's fully awake like that again. Fifty-fifty chance your head will roll. Also, your fault for talking to her, dumbass."

'Ignore it? She just tried to kill me!'

Vale shook a little and looked down at the nonexistent ground.

Wrath sighed, then spoke up as he sat in his throne:

"From what I know, Envy and Greed will most likely not be joining us because they're busy preparing for battle. But they live. In fact, their fight most likely hasn't begun yet. Also, Gluttony hasn't appeared in the world yet."

Wrath's gaze danced, the red eyes bounding around the space, before settling on Vale.

"Let's take this time to get to know each other… seeing as you survived two months. You're not worthless trash like the last Lusts. First, how is your battle going?"

Vale, a little intimidated, swallowed his fears as he replied:

"I-uh… I won. I repelled the attack and then captured the Dungeon Core. Even killed the Master first to preserve the core, as you said. Gained a considerable amount of Aether, too."

Wrath seemed a little taken aback.

"It seemed you weren't lying when you said you didn't need help… With your confidence, I didn't doubt you'd succeed. But within a month's timeframe is great work."

Vale thought about his next words carefully, then said:

"Thank you…"

Vale took repeated, draining breaths, then managed to add on:

"How about you? How uh… how has finding Gluttony gone? And, uh, fighting the seed outbreak in the south."

The red aura flickered, but it didn't flare as Vale feared. Instead, Wrath responded in a calm, even tone:

"A certain someone has been stirring up some trouble, making my tasks at hand very difficult. Though all the trouble he's caused has also provided me with an outlet… You're lucky your dungeon is on the other side of the world, else you'd probably be dead with what's going on. In fact, I feel bad for whoever becomes Gluttony…"

'Why is this Wrath guy… so nice! How the hell is he wrathful?!'

"...I may not be able to stop myself from crushing their skull instead of helping them."

'Oh…'

'Well.'

No defending that one. But for the most part, Wrath was relatively nice… As nice as a person who was in some serious need of anger management classes could be.

"That's um… Well, I hope all goes well."

The red aura flickering in Wrath's eyes slightly intensified.

"Are you saying I need Hope?"

Vale leaned back and desperately held back his fear as he quickly replied:

"Not at all! I was saying that crush your enemies without mercy… yeah."

Wrath sighed, then said:

"Ah. I see. How candid. Just say that next time."

'This… this is getting awkward.'

Though awkward, it was more desirable than having to fear for his life. But it's not like his life was something he had the choice of holding next to two powerful beings. One of whom'd tried to murder him moments earlier.

Speaking of Sloth…

She seemed to be having a nightmare of sorts as she slowly rolled her head back and forth, her eyes twitching from time to time.

As much as Vale was scared to death of the blue girl…

'I really hope she's not having a bad dream. That doesn't sound like a good sign when an oracle has a nightmare.'

That sounded quite dreadful, actually. Because what could scare that terrifying being!

Wrath eventually broke the awkward silence.

"Do you have anything else to report?"

Vale looked around before he added:

"I summoned another Demon Class Champion."

Wrath remained silent for a moment as he kept his gaze locked on Vale.

"Is that so…"

Then, he added calmly:

"Seriosuly! What the fuck is with that luck?! I've been here for over a century and haven't summoned a single Demon Class, and your ass has two! I might just go over there to kill them! Their existence is pissing me off! I'm with Envy now!"

Yeah… calm. Definitely calmly.

Vale shuddered, then eventually managed to add:

"Ah ha… yeah. I'm lucky."

'Tch.'

Vale didn't see himself as lucky in life at all. But he wasn't going to refute anything this terrifying bastard said until he had the strength to survive his ire. Plus, Wrath had saved his life earlier, so…

'I'll just let him say what he wants.'

It's not like Vale was Pride. He was Lust, and Lust only cared for one thing.

Wrath sighed, then said:

"Whatever. Your luck will catch up with you. Just don't die when it does, you're quite promising."

Vale feigned a smile.

"Thanks for the kind words."

Wrath's glare intensified, his mind growing unstable each second that passed.

"But do stop thanking me… sycophants piss me off. And what pisses me off doesn't tend to stay alive for too long."

Vale shuddered.

"Ah, yeah… I'll keep that in mind."

Another half minute followed in utter silence, making Vale want to get up and sprint out of there. But he knew better than to leave until Wrath told him it was okay.

After all, Wrath didn't appear to be the type to waste time; there was definitely a reason he was waiting around despite being left with the one person he couldn't have a purposeful discussion with.

Vale was a little scared for his life, but more afraid that this awkward tension would last any longer, and once again broke the silence.

"Wrath…"

The man in the metal helmet started tapping the arm of his throne.

"Yes?"

Vale gulped as he now knew what that habit signified. Waning patience…

"When I first met you… one of the first things you said was you didn't know what world I came from. Forgive my impertinence, but could you expand on what you meant? How many worlds are there?"

Wrath clenched his fist and scraped the nails of his gauntlet against the arm of his throne.

"Seriously, stop sucking up to me unless you want to start sucking on your own blood…"

Wrath clenched his fist so hard that Vale thought the shingles might start popping off.

"But to answer your question… As far as I know, there are six worlds, but I only know the names of five. Pride and Greed are from a world called Earth. Sloth is from a place called Axioneth, but I know next to nothing about that place, so don't ask. Envy is in quite a unique predicament as she is a native of Pandora. The previous Envy and Gluttony were from a world called Terra. And I am from a world called Kaldora. As for the sixth… we assume it to be the home of the scourge. We simply call it Below."

As Vale stared at the man in the gothic metal armor, he couldn't help but wonder how much he knew. And…

'Kaldora…?'

'I wonder if…'

"Th—"

Vale smiled and was about to say a word of thanks, but caught himself.

"I see, how interesting… I am from Terra, if you were wondering."

Wrath leaned back and let out a slight laugh.

"You think I care?"

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