Guild Wars

"You! You bastard, you are an ex-serviceman! You're using the Military Boxing style from the Army!"

The soldier in the battle armor shouted with an accusatory tone as he pointed at Misery, his rage growing as he realized that this man was likely someone who should theoretically be his comrade.

Meanwhile, Misery did not even respond to him, charging forward in the boxing stance and easily closing the distance between them. The operator of the battle armor panicked slightly as Misery had become much faster now that he was actually using a proper style.

"Stay away! Incineration Blast!" he shouted as he aimed his palm toward Misery, where the repulsor within began charging orange light.

Misery simply slapped away his hand with ease, causing the cannon-sized beam of orange light to lance through a nearby building. Misery then unleashed a solid haymaker punch toward the fellow's chin that sent him flying backward and over the edge of the building's rooftop.

Misery was about to pursue and finish off his target when he heard a scream. Sending out his Void of Perfection, he detected that the building, which had been lanced through by the operator of the battle armor, was crashing down. Within it were a mother and toddler who had been hiding inside to avoid the slaughter.

Misery took a step and flashed away from his spot, appearing in front of the mother, who was protectively covering her little child. Misery glanced down at them with a gloomy expression as a barrier formed around them, preventing the rubble from touching them as it crashed down upon the translucent dome and then spread to either side.

The woman heard the crashing sound and screamed, thinking she and her child were about to be smashed, but soon realized that she was fine. When she lifted her head, she saw the tired face of Misery, who was looking down at them with an inscrutable expression.

She then noticed the dome around them, and while shocked, she had also seen them decimating the army outside and knew that these guys were obviously superhuman in nature. Seeing that those she thought were terrorist villains had come to save her and her child, her heart was in turmoil, but her mouth was honest.

"T-Thank you…" she mumbled softly.

Misery grunted in response and cleared the rubble in front of him, intending to leave. However, the woman seemed to muster her courage and asked in a hesitant tone, "W-Why… help us?"

Misery paused and looked back at the mother and the toddler, who were looking at him with completely clueless eyes filled with childish naivety. His expression softened ever so slightly as he said wistfully,

"I wish there had been someone like me there that day."

That was all he said, but the woman seemed to understand something and lowered her head. Misery again tried to leave, but his face changed as he turned to glance at the nearby alley close to the building and saw the operator he had knocked down standing there with a crazed expression.

His entire lower jaw had been punched off, leaving him with a ghastly injury that caused the toddler to cry with fear on the spot. His eyes were bloodshot and crazed as he knew he would not survive this, so he no longer cared.

"Khak khak! You fool… you are weak… dodge if you… dare…!!" he got out through gurgling sounds, causing blood to spurt from his empty lower jaw with every word, causing him excruciating pain.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He then placed both hands forward and even opened up his chest area, where his power core was stored. Immediately, he bypassed the limiters and overdrew the power, causing his entire battle armor to glow with an orange light that focused on his two palms and his chest area.

The woman and the child were almost blinded and had to cover their faces, while Misery's expression became colder and colder. If this guy were allowed to fire, forget this building, everything within a kilometer radius behind him would be vaporized, leaving a huge ravine that would take years to fill.

With that in mind, Misery simply opened his purple tome and made a single hand sign, one that was familiar to him. A barrier then formed around the body of the crazed operator just as he was about to fire and enclosed him fully, while leaving the things within slightly visible.

As such, the trio got to see the look of understanding in the eyes of the operator at the last moment, where his panic was visible before he now unwillingly unleashed his blow. Unfortunately, the barrier Misery cast did not even shake at all as the orange light emerged within and began to rebound endlessly, growing in scale and power.

Misery was about to send the sphere elsewhere when Draco suddenly appeared and rubbed his chin. "You don't mind if I keep this, do you?"

Misery closed his tome and shrugged, searching his body for his flask. Draco opened a portal to a pocket space with frozen time and tossed the sphere within, where the sphere began to weaken as it lost Misery's power to maintain it.

Draco then glanced at the saved mother and child duo, then flicked a finger, sending them to a safe place far away from here. He then glanced at the distraught Misery, who realized he was quickly becoming sober as his flask was empty.

"You know, I can easily bring them back to life," Draco offered with a smile.

"Boss, you have to stop your bad habit of reading our minds," Misery complained as he tipped his flask over and smacked the bottom to try and get even a drop out.

Draco chuckled. "I try not to, but in that split second, your hatred spiked so strongly that I was drawn here."

Misery sighed. "I can't, boss."

This time, Draco was surprised. "Why not?"

Misery turned to look at him. "Boss, I've already seen your upbringing when you reversed time at the Lucifer Lineage, so I don't blame you for your worldviews. You have the power, so you can do anything you want."

"But I grew up with Nanna as my teacher, and she has lived from the era of the progenitors till now. She had also seen feats of space-time manipulation like what you guys do, and she warned me about the consequences such power could have."

"The natural order of the world was ruined when Lucifer and Amaterasu forcibly collected dead souls into their respective heaven or hell, whereas Gaia set the rule for death to be final. This caused a conflict with the primordials and was one of the reasons why the progenitors had to leave."

"Resurrection is even worse. The universe has its own flow of time and law of fate, so when a being perishes, their fate ends. When you resurrect a person, their fate is forcibly reignited as well, but that fate path has been occupied by something else."

Misery then spoke solemnly. "This means that someone else's fate has to be prematurely terminated for the revived fate to continue."

Misery glanced skyward. "Adelaide would hate me if I did that."

Draco remained silent. In truth, he obviously knew this, as both he, Eva, and Shuangtian possessed variable controls over the law of fate through different branches and abilities. His was from the Infinite Dragon that controlled Luck, Eva's was from her Heavenly Eye branch, which controlled the Eyes of Fate, and Shuangtian's was directly from her Law branch, where the Law of Fate was naturally a segment there.

So they knew. Outside of Boundless, the many resurrections they did in reality when they returned to their lineages had directly taken away the fates of others worldwide. Unfortunately, just like Misery said, even though they knew, they didn't care—not only because they were strong, but because callousness was their nature.

Even if Draco personally witnessed a sob story about how some unfortunate child lost their father because of someone he resurrected, he still wouldn't undo it, nor would he lose sleep over it. That was just the kind of bastard he was.

"Then what about Chel and Bria?" Draco asked, having been curious about this for a while.

"Boss, you married a succubus yourself. You shouldn't ask this, as you know it is impossible to make a succubus truly devote themselves to you just based on your sexual ability. There has to be something more," Misery responded while rubbing his forehead.

Draco did know this. Zaine had been with him twice before they officially got together, and she only did it because Mephisto ordered her to. The first time, he did not have genetic compatibility, so Zaine got nothing from it, but the second time, she seduced him and got what she wanted after Eva convinced him to make Zaine his trophy.

If Loki had been born under those circumstances, Zaine would have become a baby mama at best, and she would have definitely taken the child back to the Devil Realm at all costs to be raised and brainwashed by her clan.

Luckily, Draco, about to become a father, disregarded everything and had a heart-to-heart with Zaine, coming clean about everything and offering her a place in his family in the truest sense. This greatly touched the succubus, who surprisingly had little life experience from being locked up all day in the devil's castle due to laziness, and she rashly devoted her life to Draco.

Even in terms of virginity, Draco had been Zaine's first. Literally, Chel and Bria disdained their younger sister because she had been too lazy to feed herself, necessitating their mother, Crysta, to sustain Zaine while feeling helpless about the daughter who resembled her the most.

Compared to the average succubus, who was not only run through—but it made no difference sex-wise—and was very worldly as well as deceptive, trying to get them to fall in love was more difficult than trying to be as handsome as Kotario.

Chel and Bria were not even succubi; they were Trickster Devils and Broker Devils, respectively. One literally gained sustenance from causing people to suffer misfortune, and the other made them sell their souls for minor gains in power, which usually were not even worth it.

Do you think these two had fallen in love with the reticent Misery, who never revealed his true nature to anyone except Sublime and Kiran?

Draco sighed and walked forward to pat Misery on the shoulder. "Nicholas, you and I are the same. You'll face a terrible ending if you remain like this."

Saying this, Draco took a step and left the area, leaving a silent Misery whose head was lowered. After all, he understood what Draco was saying, as their boss was known for his ability to suppress his hatred deep down and keep the entire world ignorant of his true feelings.

Misery too had done the same. The name 'Misery' was like a cage that sealed in the old Nicholas, who was completely hidden, preventing the world from ever touching that softest spot of his heart, because he did not want to feel that pain ever again.

He had suppressed everything, especially the tears he should have shed that day, deep within, and it had been festering ever since then. He usually tried to suppress it with alcohol, debauchery, and other vices, but even he could tell that this was making things worse, much less the representative of the Seven Deadly Sins, Draco, who could see the outcome if Misery continued down this road.

But to open his heart again meant to remember that pain, to be washed over by it and to acknowledge it. He would then have to deal with it day and night until time or circumstances healed the wound and allowed him to keep living again. But after running from it for so long, it was hard to let go.

In the end, Misery could only sigh as he walked out of the rubble and slowly returned to the Purgatory Group, his back leaving a long shadow on the road.