Chapter 388 (2): Lust Incarnate
Hestia’s vision blurred. She hadn’t exhausted too much energy, but her head was ringing, making her see everything as doubles.
The demon projection leaping into the air even tripled in her eyes. She shook her head, trying to disperse the extra images... and became even more nauseous.
Bam!!
The demon landed with both feet, hopping up and down in the crater. To reduce the surface area, he jumped on one foot!
A bigger size came with both disadvantages and advantages. At this moment, for example, his every stomp put Hestia further into the ground, making her lie prone in the black sludge, sinking further and further into the footprint. While the damage wasn’t particularly serious, the experience was humiliating.
Derrida’s eyes widened. He couldn’t bear to look, truly. “She’s got a terrible temper,” he murmured. “If this goes on, one of them won’t be walking out alive. I’ve tried to mediate. I’m not to blame if something goes wrong.”
He clutched his lance and put more protective power into reinforcing his vitality field. The clearest difference Wayne could sense was the land of clouds becoming more concrete.
Since a force always came with an equal counterforce, Hestia’s face hurt even more.
Being defeated by a fellow angel wasn’t humiliating, but being pinned down and overpowered by a demon, and with a foot at that, left Hestia seething with rage. The golden patterns on her helmet shimmered violently.
The land rumbled as a light beam shot into the sky. The scorching energy was unstoppable like a volcanic eruption, sending the demon god flying backward. One of his legs had been erased by the white light, including the internal energy and the external chains of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Wayne made a soft sound of surprise, looking up at the two-winged angel hovering in the air.
The metallic angel, wielding a sacred lance, radiated an authoritative holy intent. Her two wings unfurled, each of the rows of feathers pointed upward, propping up the projection of an Eye of Judgment.
Wayne had seen this move before. Hesione had used it on demons to tremendous effect.
The integration of Hesione and Mona was so incredibly difficult that if the tragic story was told, angels would weep, and demons would burst out laughing. Perhaps that was why their Eye of Judgment fell completely short compared to Hesione’s former glory.
When Hesione was cursing Wayne out, though, she had made it clear that the Eye of Judgment was incredibly powerful, so he must not meet it head-on. Just use the stigma she had stamped on him to offset part of the impact.
After that, she added that she wasn’t worried about Wayne. She just needed him to be alive so that he could draw the demons’ attention while she waited for the optimal moment to move.
“Wayne, you can’t just claim not to be a demon, and neither can I. The Eye of Judgment will prove it!” Hestia clenched her teeth. The use of the Eye of Judgment was clearly partly motivated by personal grudges.
“Cut the crap. It’s just an eye. As if you’re the only one who has it. You’re gonna be Lust incarnate, I swear!” The demon projection slowly stood up, his erased leg regenerated.
“Bastard...”
Two rays of light shot out from the golden patterns on the sacred helmet of the metal angel, scanning the sinful projection of the demon and locating Wayne amid the darkness.
You’re not hiding from me.
Hestia flapped her wings, streaking through the sky in a flash and tearing the space open with the tip of her lance. Cutting through the chains of the Seven Deadly Sins, she beat her wings again to accelerate into the demon projection’s body of pure darkness.
Between one blink and the next, she came face to face with Wayne. The black and white figures clashed, their weapons crossing and their afterimages elongating. In the short span of time, they had already exchanged moves over a hundred times.
Their formidable energy rippled outward. The darkness failed to overwhelm Hestia and instead yielded to the blinding Golden Law, leaving a large empty space. From a distance, it looked as if a timer had been placed in the demon’s chest, flickering nonstop.
Countless golden lances interwove with the black sword aura. Amid the overwhelming radiance, Hestia locked onto Wayne with her Eye of Judgment.
Actually, Wayne hadn’t even moved away.
The moment he was targeted, he became immobilized. His supernatural senses sounded a warning after a prolonged period of dormancy.
Danger!
Wayne switched back into his human form and bit into the tip of his tongue. A flash of white light followed, a stigma that looked like a scale emerging on his tongue.
A cross formed in the sky with contracting light and shadow. The projection of a golden eye radiated a brilliant light, the powerful rays piercing through the black-winged demon’s chest and dispersing the Seven Deadly Sins. The attack knocked out Wayne’s demon disguise, making him revert to his human form.
At the same time, a stabbing pain hit his heart, scorching his thoughts and leaving him with nowhere to run. He was immobilized, as if he had been put on a cross.
The pain faded as quickly as it came. The danger passed almost instantaneously.
“Huh???”
Hestia stared blankly. She didn’t understand how Wayne had ignored the judgment of the eye as if it were nothing. Actually, he hadn’t ignored it. She clearly saw that when he was hit, golden light had bloomed in his mouth, where his tongue was. He did have a stigma. Because he had clamped his mouth tightly shut, though, she couldn’t see it.
He wasn’t a demon pretending to be an angel, but an actual angel.
How absurd. The demon act didn’t seem like an act!
Confirming that Wayne wasn’t a demon but a reincarnated angel like her, and that his true identity in Heaven might outrank hers, Hestia lost most of her anger. The projected Eye of Judgment faded away behind her.
She hovered in the air with her sacred lance, shaking her head with her eyes closed. “You’re an angel rather than a demon. I’ve misspoken.”
“What, are you admitting defeat?”
“...”
Hearing his voice made her chest hurt. She said icily, “That’s not it. There’s just no point in continuing the fight. You’ve proven yourself.”
“Why, thank you.”
Wayne weighed the incomplete Philosopher’s Stone in his hand. The attack from the Eye of Judgment had left the information inside the stone jumbled. He couldn’t put on his demon disguise before he sorted it out.
He would tolerate anything but losses. He had to get back at her.
“Since you’ve admitted defeat,” he scoffed. “You’ll be Lust incarnate going forward, as per our bet.”
“Impossible!” Hestia lost her temper. “I haven’t admitted defeat. I just don’t think it’s necessary to keep fighting. If you insist on continuing, we’ll fight to the death.”
“Anyone could talk. You’ve just used your ultimate move,” Wayne said derisively. “You put your pants on and walk out after having your fun, leaving me dissatisfied. Do you think you’ll be allowed to do that? I’ll get even today!”
Tension escalated again. They could not maintain peace for more than a few words. Wayne was using sign language already. Before another fight could break out, Derrida spoke up in their heads.
“Allow me to say a few words, please.”
“Usually, I’m the mediator,” Wayne huffed. If he were Derrida, he would be mediating to the benefit of one of them or pouring fuel on the fire.
As Wayne expected, Derrida said rationally, “Both of you are reincarnated angels. Even if you keep fighting and determine a victor, it’ll only benefit the demons. In my opinion, it’s better to call it a draw.”
“Please resolve your conflict with a handshake so that we can all fight demons together, saving the human world from its doom while spreading the glorious name of Heaven. Won’t that be ideal?”
“As for the bet, it’s simple. Since you’ve essentially both won in a deuce, Wayne will go on to call Hestia Lust incarnate, while Hestia will call Wayne demon.”
“What do you think?”
I knew you were the secretly evil type!
Wayne rolled his eyes. “I think not. I still haven’t used my ultimate move. Not only do I play demons convincingly, but I also play an angel convincingly. It’s just an Eye of Judgment. Do you think I don’t have one?”
“If you have one, it’ll mean that you’ve already awakened,” Hestia shot back. “Derrida, stop fanning the fire, or I’ll beat you up, too.”
“Fine, if you’re dissatisfied with both being the winners, I also have an idea for two losers.”
“Which is?” Hestia asked with a frown.
“With both of you being losers, Hestia will admit that she is Lust incarnate, and Wayne will admit that he is a demon.”
How’s that any different from the win-win scenario?!
Hestia seethed, clutching the Sacred Lance of Heaven to put a few holes into Derrida.
“Tsk, tsk. As if that guy would have anything nice to say,” Wayne said sarcastically. “So that’s an awakened, reincarnated angel. Your intelligence leaves something to be desired, Wayne thinks to himself. He’s a righteous man who values the greater good, so he won’t say something that’ll compromise unity. Therefore, he refrains from speaking his mind.”
“Bastard! You, and you! I’m going to duel both of you!”
***
The situation dissolved into chaos. Thanks to Derrida’s intervention, the fight didn’t continue.
The process hadn’t been pointless, though. Hestia now believed that Wayne was a reincarnated angel with more impressive achievements under his belt. The Pope was right. The demons Wayne had banished weren’t acting. They had come to the human world with great ambitions, only to get caught and beaten up by Wayne, either meeting their death just like that or fleeing back to Hell as pathetic losers.
Wayne’s demon investors would agree. Yes, they were the true laughingstock of Hell.
Although Hestia now believed him and admired his feats greatly, she despised him just as much. After the fight, the angels became even less unified.
Derrida’s vitality field dispersed. The five humanoid beings returned to the chapel’s backyard—it wasn’t a figurative speech. The five of them only appeared human when none of them was actually human.
Wayne walked with his secretaries trailing after him, huffing, “Lust incarnate, you destroyed my Philosopher’s Stone and made it impossible for me to infiltrate the enemy’s ranks as a fellow demon. How are you going to make it up to me?!”
“Demon, who are you calling Lust?!”
“Whoever responds to the name.”
Wayne huffed, putting his mended stone into his personal storage. “All this time, I’ve been infiltrating our enemy’s base as a demon, sacrificing my needs for the sake of collecting evidence. In doing so, I managed to foil many of the demons’ plots, stopping them from opening the Gate of Hell and fighting the rampant illegal border crossings...”
Blah... blah... blah...
“But now, the Philosopher’s Stone has been damaged. Who knows how long it’ll take to repair it? Without the stone, I’ve become less of a threat to Hell. Without the stone, the demons will make a comeback, and the Gate of Hell will open.”
“I understand now, Lust incarnate. You did it to support the demons. You’re the spy that Hell planted in Heaven!”
“Bastard, I’m going to kill you!” Hestia was so furious that she was losing her mind.
“Alright, alright. Mr. Demon, please stop for a moment. We’re all in the same boat.” Derrida continued to mediate. After placating Wayne, he said to Hestia, “Lust incarnate, you too. You were in the wrong for damaging his Philosopher’s Stone. Why don’t you just let him say a few words? Once he’s vented his anger, the account will be settled.”
“You’re a bastard, too!” Hestia’s chest ached—in both sides. She growled, “Use your vitality field. I’m challenging you to a duel.”
“What does that have to do with me?” The mediator felt wronged.
“Of course there’s something to do with you. She can’t deal with Wayne, but she can deal with you!”
Wayne rattled off. He had always been good at stirring up shit—no, at mediating.
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