'Am I going to die? Again?'

Halo lay crumpled on the ground, wooden shards driven through him like crude nails. His hair hung in stiff, lifeless clumps, scorched and matted, no longer hair so much as rot.

His face was the worst of it. The skin had been burned away in uneven layers, peeled and curled back, exposing raw muscle and pale bone beneath.

One cheek sagged, barely attached, trembling with each shallow breath. Blood crusted over his eyes, seeping from sockets that twitched blindly, as if they still tried to see.

The wind brushed his ruined face, cold and sharp, and the exposed flesh screamed in response. His heart thrashed against his ribs, uselessly fast, while his body refused to obey.

A thin, broken sound escaped his throat, half a sob and half a whimper, as tears slid down where skin no longer existed.

It was sudden, and Halo hardly saw much, but he remembered it too well.

They were steering clear of a land whose gravity forced everything flat against the ground, though its Sinners walked normally. Light stepped onto it first. The next second, he was against the ground.

When he finally got out, it was obvious they should avoid this place entirely. But then again, with Halo involved, trouble was inevitable.

The adjacent territory brought something sinister. One second, the moon's light penetrated to the ground's depths, the next, heavy clouds consumed everything, as if the land had manifested its own skies.

Panic hit them like a breaking wave. They had only moments to decide. Jihriel, Hazard, and Brave acted immediately, pushing everyone toward the gravity land, but Halo and his clones wouldn't go.

A massive lightning strike hit the land, vaporizing everything into piles of debris. "Lightning" was too small a word for it… a single bolt had destroyed everything across a landmass stretching tens of miles.

Halo should have been obliterated, but Dark Saint invoked Black Mirror, her True Ability.

Though Kysa and Light were left completely spent from deflecting the attack, Halo only sustained bleeding eyes, muscle weakness, partial blindness, and wooden fragments lodged in his flesh.

Not something that could kill him… he'd survived worse.

He used Sin Fragments to replenish his clones' energy.

Seconds later, another bronze screen popped up. He couldn't see what it displayed or understand his options, but he figured it must be helpful, his clones were powered up now.

When he made his selection, his face started peeling off. Actually peeling.

He lay now at the bottom of the pit that the lightning strike had gouged out.

Light, Kysa, and Saint crouched over him, desperately working to keep him alive, while the rest of the crew fought off Sinners under gravity that threatened to pulverize their very souls.

"It wasn't the Absolute Sinner. Honestly, you were completely fine when I saved you."

Saint said with a trembling tone.

She clamped her hands on Halo's shoulders, squeezing hard enough to nearly fracture them.

"This can't be considered an action, can it?"

Saint frantically considered whether she could modify her True Ability to heal him. Kysa watched impassively, unmoved. This was nothing compared to what she'd seen. Light continued jabbing at Halo's exposed face, apparently waiting for a flinch.

Yet Halo believed only a miracle could save him now. White, their goddess of miracles, was trapped elsewhere among the crew. So he occupied his fading thoughts with questions about what had befallen this land.

It was an Absolute Sinner…

But what were Absolute Sinners really?

A force of nature?

Every land concealed a Forgotten Sinner. No one had seen one, despite the rumors, there was never any proof.

Still, it was understood that most Sinners served one purpose: protecting a Forgotten Sinner until its hundredth year, when it would evolve into an Absolute Sinner.

Destruction of this magnitude obliterated the land and created it anew. That was what most Sinners existed for. It was their honor.

Halo had faced an Absolute Sinner once before. This was the second. The first had transformed into cold incarnate, becoming one with the air and freezing the entire land solid.

The cold was so absolute that anyone setting foot there, even years later, would freeze on contact. Now he'd seen another, one that wielded catastrophic lightning.

It was swift and blinding. Simply looking at it had made his eyes bleed. Could anyone hope to defeat something like that?

How could air or overwhelming lightning be fought? Parry them?

He needed to survive if he was going to save Delilah. So he started creating mental scenarios where he defeated an Absolute Sinner. Absurd, yes, but it made him laugh, and that laughter kept him clinging to life.

When Light, Saint, and Kysa saw him laugh, they could only exchange confused glances. His insanity was evident.

Meanwhile, on the gravity land…

Jihriel stood alone against the Sinners. Brownish and grotesque, they were hunched low with compressed torsos, splayed feet, and iron-dense bodies that appeared immovable.

Jihriel crouched low, stance wide and predatory. He moved slowly, each step weighted. But when a Sinner attacked, he erupted in a single burst of motion, all his power focused into one devastating strike. Few Sinners lived through it.

Everything about his technique was bracing and redirecting force. Though the gravity made it look like he was supporting a mountain on his shoulders, he didn't break a sweat. It might as well have been a casual workout.

After what felt like forever, the crew finally pulled free from the gravity's grip. Jihriel appeared moments later, fighting his way backward with the same measured control.

They were all exhausted but still rushed toward Halo.

"Is he okay?"

Jihriel asked. By all rights, he should have been exhausted, but he led the way ahead of everyone.

"No! This came out of nowhere. And now… he's just laughing through those jagged teeth. I think he's losing it."

Theories flew around about what had happened to Halo's face. The more he heard them discuss it, the clearer the truth became, and he desperately wished it wasn't what he thought.

Tough had taken something from him. Maybe Tough had been in danger, and the system used this as payment to save him. But until he laid eyes on Tough, he couldn't know for sure.

At this point, his only hope was that the searing pain would subside and that once healed, his skin and hair would grow back normally.

"Halo… I can help. I don't know what happened, but Delilah wouldn't want to see you like this."

While White talked, Light found his opening for more torture. He pulled at the wooden fragments lodged in Halo's body, carefully worsening each injury before removal. Halo's cries of pain made him giggle with delight.

"Brace yourself, Halo…"

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