1108 Confronting The Sin Of Sloth
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Maria saw the erging form of Sloth, an entity that seed to actually have no shape at all, her entire surroundings were just Sloth. The walls of flesh, the eyes, the tentacles, the arms with sharp clawed hands. They slowly moved towards her soul, attempting to grasp it and destroy it.
As she was exposed to this view, Maria felt slightly… Sleepy, even though her body was already with their eyes closed and seemingly sleeping, her very inner consciousness, her soul itself, was slowly being affected as well.
And she could tell that if she fell asleep within a dream, it would be completely over for her. As powerful as she was, if Sloth could simply rip apart her consciousness and never wake her up, she might as well be dead!
"Hah, this is a bit more complicated than I had originally thought…" Maria smiled, looking around her surroundings.
"Nobody can escape … I am sloth… everyone must always rest; everyone must always sleep. And when they do, I am there... I am part of every single living being…! Exhaustion is a primordial force that drives all living beings to rest, no matter what!" the Sin continued talking. "Your dreams… I shall feast on them! Your motivation… it shall be mine to eat! Anything you could ever accomplish… I'm going to shatter it!"
The Sin of Sloth was a peculiar one, often looked down by Warlocks as one of the weakest because it caused their wielders to always sleep. The other Sins wouldn't give such drawbacks, and instead granted trendous power easily as long as they did certain things.
However, the danger of Sloth didn't completely lay within the vessel but what it could do, slowly, the vessel would continue to grow powerful the more they slept and develop dream and nightmare related abilities.
Arachne had yet to fully obtain these powers, but she already had so Skills related to them. Eventually, the Calamity of Sloth would spread an endless Dream Fog that would make everyone that touches it or gets closer fall asleep, and have their souls and minds sucked into an endless Dream of Nightmares.
And obviously, their bodies would eventually die and rot, it was almost like a one-hit KO ability, it just took so ti to properly form, years sotis, but it was powerful enough to destroy entire worlds once fully matured.
And Maria right now was trapped within such a thing, inside a Nightmare Realm, her newly created physical and living body was now asleep and would slowly die if her soul didn't return to it beforehand!
"Your soul… is now mine! You foolish woman… KAHAHAHA! Your delicious soul… I SHALL SLOWLY DIGEST IT!"
Because this was a Nightmare Realm, she could not easily rely on her equipnt, nor weapons, she couldn't summon anything physical here, nor even ask for the aid of friends.
The only thing she could rely on was her Soul, but in a Nightmare Realm where souls were slowly devoured by Sloth… Could she truly win?
Maria saw her own Soul slowly beginning to dissolve, the darkness and the claws of Sloth tearing through it, and she wasn't even able to fight back.
Her consciousness was slowly fading away, her soul was being eaten… It was as if the laws that Maria had ever worked with didn't even work in this Realm.
It was rather ironic how confident she was, to end up falling into the stomach of her foe right away…
This quickly made Maria understand how weak she was compared to the true horrors of the Tower, and how strong she had to grow in the future.
If she survived this…
"So this is your true power, I can't even move?" laughed Maria. "You truly are a ridiculous thing… Are all Sins like this?"
"Only I have this level of power over dreams and nightmares! The mont you decided to beco my new vessel, I had already decided to devour your soul! Nobody can decide who I take as a vessel… Arachne is mine, MINEEEE!"
Sloth laughed as his countless appendages continued tearing through Maria, her body was torn to shreds, nothing left but a pond of black miasmic sli, which was slowly being digested by the nightmares.
Maria felt like her mind was slowly fading away, unable to do a single thing!
Were all her struggles in vain?
She tried so hard to save Arachne, only to die so hopelessly, without even being able to do a single thing.
The void, her divinities, nothing responded.
It was an absolute Realm where only Sloth dominated everything.
The Sins were powers beyond Divinities, direct creations of the mighty Archdemons, rulers of the Minus Floors of the Tower.
Despite all her efforts, Maria was not strong enough to overco a Sin on its purest, most ancient form yet.
It simply didn't work
"This is the end, foolish mortal!"
Countless jaws rushed towards whatever was left of her consciousness, devouring her completely.
CRUNCH! "Mama…"
Arachne was still sowhat awake, in this state, as the nightmare realm engulfed her endlessly on its seas of darkness.
She saw her mother be devoured without any way to fight back, a terrifying sight.
"No… Mama…!"
"SILENCE! You're only mine, Arachne. I won't let anybody separate you from … We will be together… we will continue sleeping… forever and ever, sharing dreams, eating souls… why wouldn't you like that, instead of ddling with those pathetic mortals?!"
"But…"
Arachne's eyes started crying, as she tried to reach whatever fragnts were left of Maria.
But it was too late, the jaws devoured every single bit left behind, digested by the Nightmares.
Crack, crack…!
"Arachne… Ngh… I'm leaving the rest to you…"
CRASH!
Her soul was shattered and eaten!
"I know you… can do it…"
Maria, soone that had devoured two Gods, was completely and utterly hopeless against the Sin of Sloth.
She had truly died.
Her last whisper was the only thing Arachne heard before eternal silence.
"No… Mama…! NOOOO!"
Arachne's scream reverberated through the Nightmare Realm, shaking it to the core. Sloth started to struggle, suddenly feeling a certain pressure pushing him back.
"W-What is this?! Arachne! You dare defy ?!" After everything… After everything I've done for you?!"
The enormous and endless body of Sloth, which expanded all across the Nightmare Realm started shaking.
But it was only that.
Naturally, a vessel had no power over their parasitic Sin.
"SILENCE, YOU FILHTY VESSEL!"
With a furious roar, Sloth's entire powers suppressed Arachne, endless shadows and nightmares started devouring Arachne's consciousness as well.
"I have no use for you if you're going to do this to ! You traitor… I'll destroy your mind, and then you will beco a perfect body for … WE WILL BE FOREVER TOGETHER, ARACHNE!"
"No…! STOP…! NOOO!"
Arachne kept crying, as the darkness started entering every inch of her body, filling her consciousness with endless obscurity.
The mories she had built, her own sense of self, everything was being threatened, slowly about to be devoured.
"Mama…"
As Arachne kept crying, about to succumb to her fate.
Sothing happened.
A bright, golden light appeared amidst the darkness, clearing Arachne's mind completely.
FLASH!
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