Halo needed to decide Dark Saint's fate for himself. Despite the subtle unease building inside him and the flickering activity in his Flaw, Coldness, the idea of someone else killing her bothered him deeply.

Either way, training couldn't wait.

He'd trailed Fade deep into Mirror Steppe territory. At first, he'd thought showing up at the safe zone would cause problems, that someone would recognize him. But nobody did. Maybe they were too young to remember, or perhaps they'd simply never laid eyes on him.

Seraph and Halo's clones stood guard at the castle while Liam recovered his strength, and the red-haired girl lay unconscious. After burning through that much energy, maybe complete exhaustion was inevitable.

Halo stood beneath a waterfall, the crushing force of water pounding relentlessly against his back. Again and again, it forced him down, yet Fade demanded he withstand ten thousand strikes.

"Just endure this, huh? You will learn a lot." He said.

Part of him wondered if this was just Fade's way of humiliating him. The legend merely slapped him across the face, chest, and shoulders, as if mocking his efforts.

He'd experienced all kinds of training regimens in his world. This was not only alien to him, but deeply humiliating. Withstanding the waterfall alone would've been manageable, but combined with the slaps?

"Explain how this helps me grow stronger. Purposes demand we kill Sinners, not stand there and take their hits."

He muttered, face twitching in annoyance. He fought to stay upright against the crushing pressure, all while enduring Fade's mockery.

Fade said nothing for a moment, but managed a few words about a minute later.

"I've been thinking… maybe it's better if we finish most of the training before we go back."

"Huh?"

Fade rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought for a moment.

"Yeah… that's the plan. We'll do most of them here and finish what's left in the castle."

That was fine with Halo. He just wished the remaining five wouldn't be so demeaning. He needed to grow stronger, and that need had nothing to do with his teammates. Honestly, he wasn't sure he measured up to them anyway.

"Fine by me…"

Fade raised a startled eyebrow.

"Really, I was expecting you to be a little hesitant. Aren't those two your friends?"

Halo gave him a lazy look.

"I asked them to be my friends, but it probably won't matter. Once this Purpose ends, we'll go our separate ways."

Fade let out a sigh and shook his head in disbelief. His slaps began growing stronger.

"Ignorant as ever, I see. Do you think Purposes are mere whims of the gods? No. There's an intention behind every one of them. That's why I proposed this bargain. The three of you are intertwined by fate… and it's not impossible our paths will cross again."

Halo's expression turned dark. He'd almost pushed the slaps from his mind, but as Fade escalated the strikes, he couldn't tune them out anymore. Despite that, he maintained his concentration.

He never truly knew how Purposes were issued, but he was certain that in the game, all of the hero's Purposes somehow always led him to rebellion against the gods.

"How are they issued?"

He muttered.

Fade gave his words a beat.

"Picture a chessboard where the gods are the ones moving the pieces. Your Only Sin is set before you even arrive, written by every deed you've ever done. From that, your god decides your worth, pawn or king. Every move, every breath, already part of a game you were born to lose."

Halo frowned.

"Oh, I get it now, we're just the gods' NPCs, right? Running around slaughtering each other's characters while they sit back and watch."

"What's an NPC?"

Halo sighed in annoyance. He couldn't believe this, his Only Sin, the God of Death doesn't even have enough players to fill a chessboard, how could such a god play such a game?

"You misunderstand. Every Purpose carries an unseen goal. Each trial isn't just a task, it's preparation for something greater. That's one truth I've learned after living through so many of them."

His strikes kept increasing.

"Never underestimate your Purposes. I chose to train you for this reason. Being given charge of the Galactic Castle itself proves that your god has significant plans for you."

Halo's smirk turned playful. Fade might know many things, but he was wrong about this. Death had already decided Halo's fate. The god would come for him and claim its ability eventually.

"You don't look like you're working on a Purpose. Why not?"

"Are you interrogating me now? Focus on your own training."

Halo had already figured it out and didn't need clarification. But he'd realized that Fade's slaps grew gentler while he spoke, only to return with full force when he went quiet. So Halo kept him talking as long as possible.

Purposes were deliberate and strategic. Like a gamer plotting their route, they always worked toward something. There might be a hot spring marked on the map, but getting there meant crossing through a volcano.

In practice, you'd have two choices: find a way to climb around the volcano without getting killed, or obtain a potion or spell granting immunity to fire.

That's precisely what Purposes were meant to accomplish, in his view. The gods had different goals for each servant, whether pawn or king, though all were equally deadly. It made sense now why some people went through several Purposes before escaping the Knight rank.

It seemed reasonable to conclude that Purposes included calculations for everything, how many Sin Fragments would likely be gained, which people would be met along the way, and even how powerful the servant could become. All variables were part of the design.

This realization spawned another question, though. If each Purpose was so carefully orchestrated, who—or what—kept the gods from destroying one another? What prevented them from accidentally creating servants powerful enough to challenge divinity itself? Some greater force had to be maintaining order.

Even as his thoughts drifted, the pain continued unabated. His legs were beginning to fail him.

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