'...You can't even blame your misfortune anymore.'

Didn't he reduce his misfortune enough to have a few peaceful days? Why did that happen then?

But once again, he wasn't the only one who had fallen to this entity. Jin, Daniel, Emeralda, and all the others had died, despite having a good amount of fortune.

He couldn't blame his misfortune for everything any more.

All the people in this town had different kinds and amounts of luck. Yet they all fell to the same inevitable end.

'You hate this, don't you?'

'After everything you have done up to this moment, you'll die because of a random chance.'

'After earning the chance to live the life you wanted, the chance to satisfy your greed, a random encounter is about to end everything!'

Dante gritted his teeth in anger, glaring directly at the dark entity.

"But, there is hope."

'But, there is hope.'

Dante's eyes suddenly widened upon hearing the dark figure saying his thoughts before he himself could think of them.

'C-can he see the future now?'

"Hehehe..." The dark figure laughed softly: "Although I can 'see' a glimpse of the darkness that awaits me, that's not how I knew his thoughts."

Dante narrowed his eyes, noticing that the dark entity referred to the thoughts as 'his' instead of 'your'.

"Oh, you can't 'see' this simple truth?" The dark figure seemed to smile as he continued: "Kid, these aren't your thoughts."

"...!"

Before Dante could understand anything, his right arm, the arm that had the centipede, became visible again.

"HAHAHAHA!"

The dark entity suddenly appeared in front of Dante. He grabbed Dante's arm with a claw of darkness, then his hidden eyes seemed to stare at the Centipede's eyes.

"Sin of Greed."

"Oh, my dear old friend, GREED!"

"I can't even call this fate, as you seem to be Fateless now. Shall I call this a lucky encounter? How exactly did you end up in this pathetic state? A relic? Seriously?"

"...."

Dante stared at the dark entity with a puzzled expression, almost forgetting his despair and fear. Nothing the dark entity said seemed logical.

How could those thoughts not be his? And what was his problem with the Centipede?

'And did he just call it Sin of Greed?!'

Dante frowned: 'He noticed that it was related to the Greed bloodline?'

The dark figure suddenly turned his head toward Dante: "This wasn't your thought either. He isn't related to the Greed bloodline."

"Wha—"

"HAHAHAHA!" The dark entity laughed: "Boy, this pathetic creature on your arm is the source of the Greed bloodline, one of the seven demon ancestors, Sin of Greed himself!"

Dante's heartbeats accelerated: 'He's definitely lying.'

"Again—that wasn't your thought." The dark entity shook his head: "If you let him get through your mind, then it's only a matter of time before he possesses your body. I wouldn't have let that slide if I were you."

Dante's face drained of all color. He instantly remembered the centipede's attempt to possess his body before failing.

'Was it still trying to possess my body the entire time?'

'No, it can't be true.'

'But why would that entity lie?'

'The real question is, why wouldn't he lie?'

'Even the World Runes had said that the Centipede had failed.'

'Isn't the name of that relic hidden from even the World Runes? Could the World Runes be trusted blindly at this point?'

'How could that Centipede be living without spirit or luck? Even if it was in the form of a relic, it should have had a Wheel of Luck and Spirit value if it was still alive and conscious.'

Dante's thoughts turned into chaos, unable to confirm which thoughts were his anymore.

All the thoughts had his voice, and all the thoughts seemed logical. Some of them proved that the entity could be lying, and the other ones confirmed that he was telling the truth.

"Look at me and use your abilities, boy." The dark entity laughed: "Tell me, can you 'see' my luck or Spirit value?"

'Oh…'

The dark entity didn't have any of them.

"What about now?"

Suddenly, the dark entity's Wheel of Luck appeared for a brief moment before disappearing.

He could prevent Dante from "seeing" the Wheel of Luck. If he could do that, then what about the Sin of Greed himself?

All the demons descended from seven original ancestors, taking the names of the Seven Deadly Sins. The sins weren't just the bloodline names, but also the origins of these bloodlines.

No book mentioned where the original Sins came from, but they all confirmed that they existed.

How powerful would such beings be?

'Dante, listen to me if you want to survive this.'

All of a sudden, Dante's voice echoed in his mind. But this time, it wasn't trying to hide the fact that it wasn't truly his.

'You damn—'

'There is no time for that.' Sin of Greed cut Dante's thoughts off: 'This entity can erase you with all the regression marks, I know that so well. But I can save you if you just lend me your body for a brief moment.'

As Sin of Greed said that, Dante suddenly felt his consciousness fading, as though something was invading his mind.

Immediately, Dante resisted it, retaining his clarity.

The dark entity took a step back, leaving Dante's arm. Suddenly, a throne of darkness materialized, which he casually sat on: "Hehe, don't mind me, continue your discussion. By the way, if you accept, it won't be a 'brief' moment."

'I know you don't trust me, but you have no other choice.'

'If you just loosen your mind for a moment, everything will be over by the next time you blink.'

Dante gritted his teeth: 'You think that I'm stupid? I would rather die than let you take my body! I have died several times before, and one more is nothing!'

Dante forgot the despair and fear instantly. For him, the problem of that centipede only brought him anger.

'And what after that, huh?' Greed yelled: 'Nothing! Just a meaningless death. I give you the choice to be useful for once in your miserable life. For once, you won't be causing harm for those around you by your very existence. For once, you won't be the reason behind someone's death. For once, you'll be saving people instead of taking advantage of their agony.'

'I'll go back in time, saving all the people who have died here. I'll solve the problem of your misfortune, saving all those who would have been unlucky enough to meet you. Tell me, are you satisfied with your life so far? Everyone around you either died or wished they had, so are you willing to waste this chance to save some of them instead of dying meaninglessly?'

"I…"

Dante fell into silence for a long moment before shaking his head: 'But I fixed that problem! That was something from the past, as I now understand it. As long as I don't stay with someone for so long, and as long as I keep observing their luck, I'll ensure that what happened in the past won't be repeated.'

"Yes, tell him!" On the dark throne, the dark entity cheered.

'You are truly naive.' Sin of Greed chuckled: 'You think that simply not being with them for so long would fix the problem?'

Dante clenched his fist: 'You think you understand my own misfortune better than me? You have to try something else for your scam!'

For a brief moment, no voice echoed through Dante's head. When he thought that the Centipede gave up, the voice echoed again:

'Hehehe, you think I don't understand your misfortune?'

'It's like dragging someone with you into the abyss. The more you stay with them, the deeper the effect, which means the effect always exists even if it isn't strong yet. Every small amount of misfortune you leak into someone is deadly.'

Suddenly, the image of the barbarian woman appeared in Dante's mind.

'The mother who was willing to do anything for her lovely son, even discarding her empathy. When you tossed that coin, it wasn't pure chance, because your misfortune was leading the odds into her death... But she deserved it, right? So let's see someone else.'

The next moment, the image of two kids appeared in his mind.

'The homeless kids who wanted a knife to hunt a beast to feed themselves, rejecting the idea of stealing food like the adults. Despite their harsh reality, they kept their innocence and survived for so long…'

'Unfortunately, they died later... Do you remember when they died?'

Dante's teeth shook violently: "No—"

'Yes! The same day they met you, huh? You gave them a very small amount of your misfortune, very small that you thought it was nothing. But that small amount shattered the balance that was keeping the weak, fragile children alive. Even your small act of kindness by giving them food instead of a knife was enough to kill them.'

'But you can't be blamed, because no matter what you did, they'd have died regardless because misfortune doesn't care whether you gave them some food or a knife.'

Dante gritted his teeth, forcefully stopping them from shaking: 'This doesn't make any sense. It was only a minute, and their Wheels showed that I barely did anything to their fortune.'

'Barely? You are underestimating the effect of misfortune. If they had a 5% chance of dying earlier, then you had turned it into 5.000000001%. This small increase might or might not be the cause of their death, because that's how unpredictable luck works. By the end of the day, you might or might not have been the one who killed them.'

Before Dante could defend himself, another image appeared. He saw two knights and several villagers in an inn.

'Unlike the weak children, these holy knights and adults were strong and a bit experienced. A small amount of misfortune wasn't enough to kill them, so you had to spend an entire night with them!'

'Out of nowhere, an attack destroyed the inn. Some people survived, so the baron and his knights finished most of them off. One of the holy knights, Selena, had survived. Unfortunately for her, you of all people decided to carry her on your back, exposing her to your misfortune. After a few minutes, she died even though you were protecting her with your own body.'

'Maybe her death was less unlucky than staying alive as you guessed, but the small bad luck is still a bad luck. It's like comparing a knife stab to a spear stab—the spear is worse, but the knife is still harmful.'

'Isn't this enough to show you that you are partially—even if not entirely responsible—one of the reasons behind all that?'

"...."

Dante couldn't find anything to defend himself. He was silent in the darkness, only the amused dark entity being visible to his limited sight.

He felt his mind getting invaded again, but he resisted it like the last time. What he hadn't noticed was that the resistance was weaker than before.

Just then, the image of a short, blonde girl appeared in his mind.

She was Elizabeth.

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