Chapter 85 - Midlight Village#5

A FEW MINUTES EARLIER:-

MORPHEUS' POV:-

"PLEASE HELP US!!!" A green-haired Elf girl comes shouting to us, or more precisely, she is shouting for help from Zwain. She looks at Zwain with an expression that shows urgency and her eyes full of desperation. She catches her breath and starts speaking with some difficulty.

"...Belphegor…is-" as soon as I heard those words, I enhanced my senses to see the situation in the direction where she came running from. Seeing that she is telling the truth, I look at Zwain, who is also looking in the same direction,

"Zwain. Go," I command him. I guess, this trip will be more interesting than I thought.

Zwain vanishes from here. That girl looks at me for a moment before running back to where she came from. Looking at her leaving hurriedly, a smile forms on my face.

"She prioritises her friends over herself, huh? I wonder whether she's brave or just naive given her situation. Maybe it's both," I speak as I look at my party, who are looking at me for further command.

"Leraye, handle the situation. If need be, you can even kill anyone who disturbs Zwain's battle. Icelos and Phantasos help the children where you can and stay away from enemies whom you can't handle. Lucy, you cover for them and Kaneto for Lucy. I won't make a move in this one unless it's extremely necessary. From here on out, I will only take part if it becomes something you guys can't handle. Not only in this situation but also in future situations," I speak as I give them instructions regarding what to do next. They look at me and nod before we all move in the same direction.

BACK TO PRESENT:

I observe everyone's position on the battlefield. Looking at the Devil, I felt…bored. He was like those mad scientists who will do anything for research, even losing their somewhat limited humanity, if that's what it costs. This might make things a bit deviated from the initial plans. To simply speak, rather than killing him after taking his information, now I need to kill him as brutally as possible. Why? Because the number of atrocities he committed are more than the amount of breath I have taken in both my lives. If that wasn't enough then, he enjoyed torturing people every time he killed them.

How do I know it? To put it simply, the records I had collected on the Sin Devil, Belphegor, and his body language match. Plus, the mana of death and blood is dense around him, meaning he has freshly killed a dozen people right now. Although the chief proof is what he was going to commit if Zwain hadn't interfered.

I observe the boy, who looks shocked as he observes me, the green-haired Elf girl with another girl lying unconscious but conscious like state. My eyes then darted to Zwain, Leraye, and finally Belphegor. From his expression and his actions from a few moments before, he fears Leraye.

"You can call me Morpheus. I guess it wouldn't be right to kill someone without letting him know who killed him. Isn't it right Sin Devil of Sloth, Belphegor?" I speak with a wintery smile as I look at him. His expression gets confused as he observes me more carefully, but no matter what he tries, he can't seem to see what this is all about.

"Well, I know I said that I will not interfere in this, but…I am having slight difficulty in controlling my anger after meeting you here face to face. So, just for this once I will take things in my hands, because if you die by someone else's hands, I will be the one regretting it since it won't be enough to atone for your sins."

His expression is searching for answers as he looks at me before turning at Leraye, who is looking at the situation with great interest. Belphegor then turns around and runs in the opposite direction.

-Time Stop-

I see him moving even now. He is moving, albeit slowly, very slowly. 

'So someone at this limit of speed exists, huh? Though I never checked the fastest speed of other Kings.' I think as I observe him, slowly trying to escape. Right now, I might be exactly 10 times slower than the speed of light, so taking that into consideration, if he moves 100 times faster, he will cross the first threshold of light. 

'So much for the name of Sloth.' I shake my head as I take a small breath.

I then walk in the direction he is trying to run in and move in front of him. His eyes slowly register my existence in front of him and his expression slowly gets shocked as his eyes are getting wider.

I then kick him as hard as I can. This crushed my leg completely, but since I turned my pain sensitivity off, I didn't feel any pain. Before it becomes an irreversible damage, I enhanced my healing to heal it back completely. I see him flying back at a high speed.

'Since it has come to this, let's try that move, shall we?' A smile forms on my face as I channel my circuits' power one notch up. I didn't need it before so I kept it at a minimum, but now that there is finally a chance to use it, let's test it out, shall we?

'[Enhance Senses Max speed]' My speed turns the max possible right now along with the only working senses, like touch and taste. Since I am much faster than sound and light, I can't see or hear anything. 

'[Blessing of the Pixies: Mana Eyes]' Using the blessing I got from Aria, I can see all the mana present around me. 

'[Recreate: Perfect Illusion]' Since all I can see is mana around me, I recreated everything around me. Well, to be accurate, my mind is creating an illusionary image of everything around me rather than me being able to see anything. It's like looking in a mirror to see everything rather than looking directly, but much more complex.

I notice everything frozen around me. It's not much different from before except, some threads were spread around everyone including me. Are these the 'Threads of Fate' about which I learnt about in the book of Magic and Aura? I look around to see that Corey and Zwain have 2 Golden Threads of Fate each connected to them. Kaneto has 7 of them, while Lucy has 3. Turning around, I look at Leraye, only to be dumbfounded. He didn't have any Golden Threads of Fate, but had hundreds of silver and hundreds of black threads connected to him.

Belphegor has a single Golden Thread of Fate, along with hundreds of different other Threads of Fate, especially green, black and red. Those three are the most numbered.

'Is there no one normal here?' I can't help but think like that since I heard that Golden Threads are the most rare Destiny Threads. I know nothing about Silver Threads, though. Lucifer is really special, I guess.

My eyes then darted to Chase. He did not have any Golden Threads. I would have called him normal if only his Threads weren't unusually twisted and connected. In theory, each and every thread should differ from the other one, but his were…connected at almost each and every point I could see. It's as if they were trying to join at once.

'I wonder what that could mean.'

My eyes then turn to the three kids behind Corey and Chase. The unconscious girl did not have any threads connected to her. If I am not wrong, then that means that she is bound to die now.

'Must be Belphegor. I wonder if I can do something about it.' The other girl had a few oliver coloured threads…

'Another thing I don't know about…Well, at least it is better than that other kid who was almost crying there,' as I look at that kid I can't help but shake my head at another absurdity I saw. He…has purple threads and not one, but thousands of purple threads connected to him.

'Just what could they mean and how the f*ck someone has that many Threads at once? Well, it doesn't matter…hmmm, wait, how many Threads do I…?????...What? Not one? Wow!! Just Wow? I am not connected by any Destiny or Fate or anything at all? Is that what it means? Haha! Well…Is it really that? Naah! It must be that the one who can see other's Thread can't see his own. Yup, that makes more sense…In any case, back to torturing the enemy. First, I need to stop him, yup, let's do it…'

I moved forward to the position where I had kicked him. I need him to be in front of the other kids to show him what he shouldn't have done. Taking out my dagger, I point it in his head as I channel my mana into him. 

'All I need to do is to make his body think that it can't move. That should do it. It worked with Zwain, so it shall work with him too. If the body believes that it can't move, no matter what magic you apply, you can't do anything about it. Unless you have someone like Dark to cover for you at least.' thinking that I force mana into his body from the leaks present in his mana channels. Gaining entry into his subconscious, I twitch its meninges and create an idea of 'non mobility' in it.

After some time passed…

'Now, that completes the work.'

-Time Start-

I see him stopped into motion just where he should be. The kids behind me are shocked at our sudden change of position,

'Well, for them it must have all happened in an instant, as for Belphegor…I believe it must be a really fresh experience. His 'excited' eyes tell it all.'

"I know it must confuse you from here onwards, to what have you done to deserve the wrath of someone whom you have never even met before.. So let me tell you a story to explain it, as I torture you slowly and comfortability."