The World Is Mine For The Taking

It was honestly impressive that, even after losing, Satania still looked like she was ready to bite someone without a second thought. She reminded me of an untamed beast that simply couldn’t accept defeat, as though losing wasn’t even a possibility inside her mind. Instead of acting like the battle was already over, she carried herself as if this was only the beginning, and sooner or later she would somehow turn everything around in her favor.

She must have genuinely believed that she could still win whenever she wanted, regardless of how badly things had already gone for her.

"I’ll come back for you..." she growled like a feral beast, glaring at me with enough murderous intent to make anyone else take a step back. "I’ll chew your bones and eat your flesh until there’s nothing left!"

Without really thinking about it, I punched her square in the face.

The impact made her head snap sharply to the side, and blood immediately started pouring from her nose as she let out a muffled grunt of pain.

Honestly, I had absolutely no idea why I did that in the first place.

My body simply moved before my brain even had the chance to question it.

Part of me figured I just wanted to break Satania’s pride more than anything else.

That stubborn look in her eyes was honestly starting to get on my nerves.

So I punched her again without giving it another thought.

This time, the force behind the blow was enough to send her entire body crashing onto her back against the ground with a heavy thud.

Before she could recover, I climbed on top of her and started pummeling her over and over again without giving her even the slightest chance to fight back.

"Ak! Kuh...! Nnn...! Ahhh!"

She couldn’t even force herself back onto her feet anymore after taking those repeated blows.

Watching that unfold was honestly pretty funny in a strange sort of way.

The people of this continent feared her more than almost anyone else alive. They talked about her like she was an unstoppable calamity, someone whose name alone was enough to make entire armies hesitate before going into battle.

Yet now, that same terrifying Satania, the Sin of Wrath, had been reduced to nothing more than someone lying helplessly beneath me while getting beaten over and over again.

The contrast between those two images was almost ridiculous.

"I didn’t think you’d amount to only this much, Satania. I have to say, I’m honestly disappointed."

Although, disappointment probably wasn’t the right word to describe how I actually felt.

Reality was much simpler than that.

She simply wasn’t on my level from the very beginning.

She hadn’t been on my level even when all six of them fought me together.

Even then, none of them could touch me no matter how hard they tried.

Throughout that entire battle, I had been practically unstoppable from beginning to end.

Fighting them almost felt like I was picking a fight with children who had somehow wandered onto the battlefield by mistake.

They couldn’t even leave so much as a scratch on me, which was honestly a little pathetic considering they were supposed to be the Seven Deadly Sins.

"I don’t understand," I said while quietly looking down at her battered face. "I don’t think even Lilith would’ve been defeated by the likes of you."

"Haa... W-What...?" she muttered weakly through her bloodied face, struggling to catch her breath between every word.

Even after everything that had happened, there was still pride burning deep inside her eyes.

She had already been beaten senseless, yet that stubborn fire inside her refused to disappear completely.

Honestly, I almost had to admire that much determination.

Almost.

"Well, now that I think about it," I continued, "maybe Lilith never took any of you seriously in the first place."

I carefully watched her expression for even the smallest change.

"In fact, I think she used all of you to accomplish exactly what she wanted from the very beginning."

"What...?" Satania shouted through gritted teeth. "What are you talking about? I killed Lilith! That’s the exact opposite of what she wanted! I killed her to stop her from doing exactly that! I killed her so she couldn’t destroy the entire world!"

"You’re wrong," I replied calmly, never once raising my voice. "Now that I’ve fought you myself, I finally understand what really happened."

I slowly shook my head while keeping my eyes locked on hers.

"There is simply no way the seven... or six of you rather could have defeated Lilith."

Satania glared at me with nothing but pure rage burning inside her.

Even though she was pinned beneath me and covered in blood from head to toe, the fury inside her hadn’t faded in the slightest.

If anything, it only seemed to burn even hotter than before.

"Shut the fuck up!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "You don’t get to say that! You don’t understand a damn thing!"

"But I do," I answered without any hesitation. "I understand it completely now after fighting all of you myself."

I looked straight into her eyes without breaking eye contact for even a second.

"If Lilith had actually fought all of you seriously, none of you would’ve stood even the slightest chance against her."

I paused for a brief moment before continuing with the thought that had been forming in my mind.

"You’ve already realized that yourself, haven’t you?"

She gritted her teeth so hard that I honestly thought they might crack from the pressure alone.

Deep down, I had a feeling she already knew the answer herself.

Somewhere inside her, she must have wondered whether Lilith had truly fought with everything she had or whether she had simply been holding back the entire time.

Unfortunately for her, Lilith was already dead, and that answer had disappeared along with her.

Nobody alive could ask Lilith that question anymore.

Nobody alive could ever receive that answer either.

More than that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lilith had planned her own death from the very beginning.

She wasn’t the kind of person who would simply allow herself to be killed unless doing so served a purpose far greater than anyone else could understand.

It was entirely possible that she had willingly died so that fragments could eventually be born into this world.

That possibility sounded ridiculous at first, but the more I thought about it, the more believable it became.

Everything that had already happened, and everything that was about to happen after this, could have been moving exactly according to her plan all along.

That thought alone was enough to send a chill through my mind despite everything else happening around me.

"Right now," I quietly told her while meeting her furious gaze, "more than anyone else, you’ve already fallen right into her trap."