Herald of death

"You have until the last grain of sand to choose a participant," the lord says. The arena melts as it turns its hourglass, returning to a flat stone platform dotted by corpses and blood.

'If I am right, this entire thing is a ploy to kill as many as it can,' Ethan thinks. 'Giving them a shard of hope in winning the game to avoid being attacked by everybody at once. But in that case, wouldn't it be easier for it to play a single round with each eight member groups?'

This time, a man moves out of a room on his own. Unless it escaped Ethan, this game is based on chance, if not entirely rigged. Did he find a pattern in the loots? Or does he think he could start closer by moving in first?

Ivy begins to shake again. Each game sees the chance of being chosen rising, but in the end, everyone would get to play. Mikko leans forward, his gaze lost to the void. He looks absent, taken by the stress and fear.

Derek opens a system window – his status, it seems. His jaw hangs slightly as he sees Grant's side status still appearing along his. His surprise turns back to a neutral face. Does he not know if party statuses vanish upon a member's death? Or did he just decide to not share the information with Ivy, in fear that she may choose to get to purgatory in search for Grant?

Ethan's gaze moves to the lord. A crooked smile on its canine maw, he glances from one room to the next. Ethan's knuckles grow white as he clenches his fists. That's the smile of those who destroy others for their own satisfaction – the kind of predator that enjoys their victims' suffering.

The sand finishes its downfall. The furies fly off to the rooms, and Tisiphone lands in theirs. She looks at Ivy, her gaze birthing a shiver that travels up Ivy's spine.

Derek moves to Ivy's left, placing himself between her and the fury. Does he plan to win twice to save them both? Seeing his intentions, Tisiphone eyes move away from her.

"Eth—" Tisiphone begins. Ethan's heart ignites. He bursts forward, the stone cracking beneath his feet. Her head falls from her body, rolling on the floor with metallic echoes. Mid-summon, Phantom Reaver sliced through her armor, leaving a glowing cut around her neck.

Ivy gasps, her gaze shifting from Ethan to the lord.

Mikko's eyes widen. He inhales sharply, crawling away from the severed head that rolls to his feet.

"What is this?! Sins in my domain?!" the lord bellows. It hammers its bench. The lord's gaze locks on Ethan, its eyes filling with fire. The sight of burning eyes takes Ethan aback. Her corpse turns to dust, leaving her armor behind.

"Are you going to condemn me? After all, I just killed that monster only because I didn't want her to say my name," Ethan boasts. He enters the bridge, tapping the blade on his shoulder. "Or can't you because I don't regret it."

"What do you mean?" Derek asks. He moves forward, only stopping as he sees Ethan's hand motioning for him to stay back.

"I think they only hold as much power as we allow them to," Ethan says. "You enumerated Grant's sins before sentencing him. But when it came to Fabio, you only mentioned gluttony. We know he felt guilty about it because he prayed for forgiveness after I told them it could be a trap. But I know he, a married man, spent the night with several guests you planted. And yet, even if he partook in a threesome in your house, you didn't condemn his lust."

The lord fury grows; it grabs its marble bench, its grip cracking it. "You are the worst sinner that walked the halls of my castle! Thousands lie dead in the dirt because of you!"

"And yet I feel no guilt for any of the monsters I killed, especially not in my wrath. That's why your game kills some participants and judges others. The initiative and cards aren't random. In truth, many of the people here could pass your judgment," Ethan retorts. He's now convinced that the lord cannot condemn him, but he cannot be certain for Russ. He clenches his jaw, searching for something that will guarantee him all the lord's attention. "The system seems to have a thing for people achieving unattained feats. I wonder if anyone ever killed you."

The lord places a hand over where his heart should be. Their ability to nullify predator's sight stops Ethan from asserting their biology and weaknesses. Moreover, the lord teleported before, and even if it takes a few seconds, Ethan will have to strike fast the moment he reaches it.

'Prescience,' Ethan thinks. He glances at the rooms and sees that no one is following his example. Good. They would be a nuisance on this soon-to-be battlefield.

The two remaining furies break into a charge. Alecto kicks the ground, leaping above Ethan to land behind him and flank him with her sister.

"Martial echo," Ethan thinks, visualizing Zhiznezhret at the same time. Glowing mist emerges from his back, forming into a specter of himself. Its blade grows into a great sword, in time to block Alecto's blade as Ethan parries Megaera.

The furies recoil, the strengths they met unyielding. Alecto swings at the ghost, but it vanishes as Ethan cancels his summon. His blade pierces through the disappearing mist, behind Alecto's swing, and pierces her stomach.

Megaera screams and slashes at Ethan's side, but he hurls her sister by the flat of his blade, striking her in the chest. The impact throws Megaera backward, Alecto following as she slides off the sword. Their armors scrape against the stone ground until they grind to a halt.

The lord raises a hand, its palm spread. Bathing the arena in light, a spear springs from its palm, haunting-green and whistling. It embeds into the ground where Ethan was, decaying the stone it pierces.

'Strengthening.' Ethan bursts forward, slashing at Megaera as she stands up. She doesn't react in time, the blade sectioning her torso into halves. In the prolonging of his attack, Ethan coats his blade in fire and leaps on the lord's bench, aiming his flames at its neck.

The lord opposes his hand to the searing wave, summoning a circular shield in its path. The flames split on its surface, hitting the ground and ceiling in bright bursts.

Ethan kicks the bench to fly into the lord's shield and chains a horizontal slash. Phantom Reaver cuts through the shield as if breaking thin glass. The blade strikes the lord's hand, slicing four of his enormous fingers.

The lord hurls its other hands at Ethan; they burst with roaring green fire, spreading death Ether on their path to catch Ethan. Thorny vines sprout from the bench, catching and locking the approaching hands in place. Ivy gasps as her spell drains her Ether, the thorns growing into the lord's flesh.

The fingerless hand strikes Ethan in the chest, but he catches it and twists to propel himself onto the lord's shoulder. Ethan breathes in deep, directing ambient Ether into his Strengthening and tensing for a beheading strike.

"I condemn –" the lord begins. Ethan swings prematurely, his blade and flames stopped by the lord's flesh. He forces his way through, the edge cutting slowly. "– you to purgatory for the wrath you bore when attacking your master," the lord says, its voice filling with pain.

Light escapes the room Ethan came from. He turns his head in time to see Russ' form disappearing into it. He yelps in Ethan's mind, scared. In an instant, he vanishes with the light. Yet the terrified yelps endure, distorted and sharper than they should be.

Ethan's life force rushes into his Ether as his sight tunnels towards the lord. But a thought crosses Ethan's mind; he fell in the lord's trap, his anger and wrath a danger to him. It is not guilt but an admission of the wrongness of his emotions. As instantaneous and ephemeral as his thought was, it suffices. "I condemn you to purgatory for your untamed wrath, you primitive, violent, inhuman beast."

Light engulfs Ethan, but in his last moment in this place, he swings with all his might. His flames, turned blue by his life force, melt the lord's skin as if it were ice. Ethan fails to see the result, but he knows that his attack landed, his hands feeling the failure of the lord's flesh and the toughness of its spine.

"You leveled up. Melee Weapon (Long Sword) leveled up (x3). You completed your third trial of the Labyrinth of Death, the Judge."