Fairy Tale: With Sin Of Pride

In this world, strength is everything.

No one understands this better than Van Helsing, a demon hunter who treads the thin line between life and death daily.

So when Rhodes offered him a chance to gain power, he couldn't deny that he was tempted. But he still felt shackled by his beliefs. After all, he worshipped the God of Glory, a true god with divine power beyond imagining. As a servant of the church, turning his back on this god would mark him an apostate. The punishment was merciless—when he died, his soul would be nailed to the wall of blasphemy in the Kingdom of Death, eternally denied reincarnation.

The cost was unbearable.

The only loophole? Finding a new god to serve. But in the vast sky, only evil gods accept those who have turned away from the God of Glory. That, or Rhodes himself would need to ascend to true godhood.

Yet that was no small feat.

To become a true god, a demigod not only needs to master the rules of the universe but also gather faith and followers. But in the Shinra Empire, nearly all belief systems have been crushed by existing gods. Even in remote lands, believers are so scarce they barely support a demigod's ascent. Many have spent their entire lives stuck on this step, unable to advance without bending the knee to a stronger deity.

Rhodes, though strong, seemed far from reaching that level.

"Maybe I should visit the Forest of Tranquility…" Van Helsing murmured as he watched Rhodes' figure fade into the distance.

Three days later, Rhodes hadn't encountered anything unusual, though luck seemed to elude him. The two abilities he gained from recent sign-ins were fairly mundane.

---

[Discipline: Faith] - Denying or abandoning your faith will cause a searing pain in your eyes.

[Discipline: Patience] - The less patience you show, the greater your suffering.

"Not exactly game-changers," Rhodes grumbled. "C'mon, give me something good this time!"

He whispered, "Sign in!"

---

[Ding! Sign-in successful!]

[Reward obtained: Seven Deadly Sins - Wrath (Blood of the Demon God)]

[Blood of the Demon God: The potent bloodline of the Demon God King, imbued with dark power beyond imagination.]

---

"The Demon God King…"

As the dark energy swelled within him, Rhodes could feel his body surging with new, raw power. In the world of the Seven Deadly Sins, besides humans, four other races ruled: the reclusive elves, the mighty giants who could shake the earth, the angelic goddesses with wings and holy light, and the demon gods. Each with unique powers, the goddesses wielded light to purify, while the demons possessed a vile magic and unyielding bodies, surviving so long as a single heart remained unscathed.

At the peak stood the Demon King, lord over the "Ten Commandments," his elite warriors.

And now, that ancient power coursed through Rhodes.

Having inherited this bloodline, Rhodes' body felt transformed; he even seemed to have developed several hearts. Not that it'd do much good—at his level, if someone could kill him once, they could kill him a thousand times. But the dark magic, oh, that was something.

Boom!

The dark magic condensed, forming a sinister pattern on his forehead as pure power crackled through him, his strength climbing to heights he'd never imagined.

---

Inside the carriage, Yulia's face paled. She watched in horror as Rhodes' aura twisted, black energy pouring off him in waves that reeked of destruction. His eyes gleamed with a hunger to annihilate everything in his path.

"Is he a sorcerer? Or… something even darker?" Yulia murmured, horrified.

Anne, sitting in the corner, could barely keep her composure as Rhodes' presence grew even more menacing. He seemed like a different person altogether—a predator that could erase her existence with a single thought. Was he hiding this terrifying power all along?

But Rhodes wasn't paying attention to them. The demon blood inside him pulsed fiercely, its power more overwhelming than he had anticipated. It felt as though his body could barely contain it, like a vessel brimming with godly might, threatening to spill over at any second.

The demonic markings on his body grew alive, climbing up his skin in dark, twisting patterns. His aura swelled, crossing a boundary he hadn't touched before. Suddenly, he reached out, gathering the Demon God's power in his hand, compressing it until a pitch-black spear formed.

With a breath, he unfurled a pair of wings, dark and ominous.

---

With a flap, he rocketed through the sky, streaking like a meteor. The speed was dizzying, creating shockwaves that rolled behind him.

From his vantage point thousands of meters above, Rhodes looked down upon the earth, godlike in his stance. He raised the Demon God's spear, aiming it at a towering mountain below, and threw.

No sound. Just a blast of dark energy spreading like a black tide. Everything it touched withered, the mountain reduced to rubble. Even the ground eroded, leaving a kilometer-wide crater.

In that instant, the blood of the Demon God fully awakened, entering the final stage.

Dark power wove around him like a cloak, taking on the form of a sleek, black trench coat that clung to his frame. His eyes were now a void of pure black, devoid of emotion. A sun-like mark burned between his brows, and a pair of wide, dark-golden wings unfurled behind him.

Demon blood and sunlight mingled, exuding an aura that could erase anything in its path.

"So… this is the power of the Demon King," Rhodes whispered. His tone was icy, his words laced with a pure, almost divine arrogance. All beings in his sight were nothing but ants.

"A god? Just a slightly stronger ant," he muttered, summoning a ball of demonic fire in his hand. As it blazed to life, it warped the very space around it, dissolving reality with ease. In this state, he wasn't just a demigod—he held a primal god-like authority, similar to the Titans of old.

Suddenly, silver chains erupted from the void, winding around him, yanking him upward with an unstoppable force.

"Am I surpassing the world's limits?" Rhodes furrowed his brow. His power had escalated so dramatically that even the world itself began to reject him, unable to contain his existence.

"I can't leave now," he murmured, suppressing the blood's boiling urge to destroy.

Gradually, he willed the demonic power back into submission. The markings faded, his aura softened, and the bloodline receded, leaving Rhodes standing there, back in his human state.

---

"That demonic form was… something else." Rhodes frowned, already processing the experience.

The Demon God's blood had three awakening stages. The initial stage gave him the Demon God's mark on his forehead, boosting his power by about 20%. The advanced stage deepened the markings, spreading them across his body and enhancing his strength by 100%, allowing him to form demonic wings and weapons.

But the final stage was the most fearsome. A black coat enveloped him, sealing away all emotion and leaving only cold logic and brutal divinity. In that state, his strength doubled yet again, placing him on a plane that rivaled the gods.

In that form, anything he deemed hostile would be obliterated.

"Perhaps," Rhodes thought to himself, "if I were at the peak of noon's power, even a god's avatar wouldn't stand a chance."