In a crevice of darkness, the coughing sounds of a throat scratched by blood and globules of flesh resounded. The Rat had escaped once more, as they always did. This sort of life was common to them, and it only came naturally.
However, in the end, they knew that it would all be worth it. No matter how many setbacks, for a humiliated creature like them, it was only inevitable that they would come out on top.
What Hero didn't have to make sacrifices to rise to the peak?
It didn't matter how much they suffered—the end result would always be the same.
But it was at that moment that the eyes of the Rat flashed open.
"Impossible."
The voice was gruff but carried the slightest hint of a squeak. That latter squeak wasn't natural, likely the result of the Rat not having spoken in so many years.
They flipped a palm and looked at fluttering Runes of some sort. There, in the depths of the complexity that was beyond the current Sylas' imagination, there was a light that had blinked out.
The Rat stared at it for a very long time as the other lights crawled through the Rune. It seemed as though they couldn't believe what they were seeing at all.
It truly was impossible—more impossible than they could put into words.
Even an Enlightened Will wouldn't be enough to break their Quasi Greed Seed. The real menace to the Seed was that it was formed from a piece of their own Greed Seed—a True Greed Seed—something those little Madness Disciples in training couldn't fathom.
There was only one other True Madness Disciple, and it happened to be the one other Sin that Sylas hadn't sensed—or rather, he mistakenly believed that he had sensed it when he hadn't.
Wrath.
Sylas had never truly felt his own Wrath. Instead, it had bled into his Envy almost immediately. The Wrath he had felt wasn't really his own, but instead that of the All-Seeing Eye. It wasn't real Wrath.
That was the only person in this entire universe that the Rat deemed worth taking seriously. But right now, this boy…
"How did you do it?"
The Rat's gaze seemed to grow more eerie, a dense bloodlust radiating from him. Their Greed was manifesting in waves, causing what little life remained in the area to wilt beneath their desires.
"I really want to… break your skull open and see what's inside…"
The Rat slowly licked their lips, a Hunger welling up deep inside them as well.
**
"District Head Mospheral!"
A figure rushed into a familiar Thryskai's office. Ulrik's father sat there in silence, staring off into space.
His reaction seemed appropriate for a man who knew by now that he had long since lost his son. It was just that he had no idea how Ulrik had died.
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