"I've been thinking… I believe we need to get rid of the body and hide it somewhere."

Seraph's words poured out in a breathless rush. Halo leaned back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest. Liam sat beside him.

They let her speak. After four days of thinking, she'd obviously worked through everything already.

"We don't know why Crawlers are after Fade of Bridle's body exactly but we know it makes them stronger somehow. We need to hide it somewhere…"

"Where exactly?" Liam responded.

"Rascal Land…"

Halo stared at them in silence as they chatted.

They had no idea when Rascal Land would meet its end, but it was bound to happen eventually. It seemed like a great idea to hide the body there so it could be destroyed alongside the land.

This had Halo thinking. How exactly was that land going to end?

"Sinners unlike humans evolve into the embodiment of their Flaws."

Seraphim said, her eyes gently darting at everyone's faces with measured warmth.

"Once a Forgotten Sinner, they are hardly seen or remembered. Even by their own servant, Beast and Demonic Sinners alike, who spend their lives protecting them…"

Halo heard everything even though he never uttered a word himself.

Once Sinners reached Forgotten rank, they simply… disappeared. No one knew where they went. Some theories said eternal slumber. Others claimed they lived so luxuriously they had no reason to emerge. Some believed they'd ascended to another realm to cultivate their power.

But regardless of the theory, after a century they emerged as Absolute Sinners. Every Sinner's Purpose revolved around protecting a Land for that exact moment.

No one knew where Forgotten Sinners disappeared to. But they always returned after a century, vastly more powerful. Strong enough that even Lost Lords struggled to defeat them.

Each land had only one Forgotten Sinner. So if multiple Demonic Sinners reached that rank in the same territory, there could only be one outcome: they'd fight to the death.

Some claimed to have encountered or even killed Forgotten Sinners, but with no proof, their stories were quickly dismissed.

Two things were universally accepted, though.

Absolute Sinners were monstrously strong, and somewhere in the Unknown, the world's final, mysterious region, there might be people powerful enough to kill even them.

No one who'd entered the Unknown had ever come back. Still, everyone assumed warriors there could defeat even Absolute Sinners. Pure speculation, really, no one actually knew what was up there. Perhaps they were rumors born from fear.

Absolute Sinners lived for just a decade, becoming the embodiment of their Flaw before finally destroying their land. They devoured everything: the air, the soil, every last trace.

The power was staggering, theoretically, they could consume the entire world. But the system had a fail-safe: once an Absolute Sinner devoured their land, they failed their Purpose. The gods compelled them to suicide, and from their corpses, a new land was born, shaped by their Flaw.

This was the life cycle of Sinners. No different from livestock. And yet they persisted for years, fought to protect everything, all to end with their own forced deaths.

"This is what they mean when they say lands went through cycles…"

Liam turned to Seraph with a saddened look.

"So they name the lands after every cycle?"

"No, Liam… every land has been using the same name since the world's creation."

Halo had questions, but the words wouldn't come, not until someone accidentally answered them first. His muscles seized up, constricting, choking off any expression before it could emerge.

"A land becomes a safe land when it is occupied before new Sinners could occupy it for their Purpose or when all the Sinners were slain. It usually starts with three Sinners, just like Knights and their Purposes."

Back then, pushing through his coldness had taken effort, but it was possible. Now, with something else stirring inside him, he felt chained in the depths of some dark pit.

"So this is what we must wait for, huh? Does that mean it will take a decade?"

He finally managed to speak.

Months? He couldn't last that long. Dark Saint was still trapped in that tree, one of the most dangerous people in this part of the Voiceless region, waiting for him to free her. And despite her reputation, he couldn't let anyone else reach her first.

He had to make her his clone. Free her, yes, but more importantly: learn about the hero she'd known, her classmate. Learn about Death, the god empowering him. A year was too long. Hell, even months were too long.

Seraphim turned to Halo.

"I doubt that would be it… this is a prestigious place for the gods, and I doubt they will let us stay here for that long. I think the Absolute Sinner is only a few weeks or months away from ending Rascal Land."

Liam's expression darkened.

"Aren't we taking this too lightly? I mean the system said until 'Rascal Land meets its end', if the name never changes then how can we say for sure the land has met its end."

Seraph met Liam's anxious nature with a cheerful expression.

"If that were the case, then we would have to stay here until the world ends. All that matters to the gods is that everything stays intact during the cycling. That's all, Liam."

Liam sighed and responded positively.

"Can we leave now? We just have to hide the corpse so well that the Sinners can't get to it. But we need to make sure to avoid the Sinners on Rascal Land too."

The moment the words left Seraphim, Halo abruptly rose to his feet.

"Let's go then."

Liam joined in, but Seraph remained seated for a moment, staring calmly at Halo before she finally spoke.

"Can I speak to you after everything, Halo?"

Halo turned to her, confused, but nodded in understanding. Seraph had never spoken to him like this before. The intensity in her eyes told him this was serious.

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