Wrath Reincarnated

Alternate Ending

Just to be clear, since this is the first section you're probably reading, that the Original Ending was tightly plotted and, in my opinion, didn't have loose ends. This Alternate Ending was a rough trajectory of an early endpoint with a completely different identity of Death, and had hella loose ends. (I just don't want you to read this and get discouraged about reading the Original Ending.)

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Alright, this one is short and sweet, and it doesn't have any other sections. It was intended to end at Vol 3 — Greed with admittedly a lot of loose ends that I would have had to work out before writing it. Like Cy and Envy's entire character arcs straight-up gone loose ends (but they get resolved in the OG ending below). I would have worked something out for them and Lust and Greed, but only focused on how to end Jules' story for this alternate ending.

Basically, there are two very important moments in Vol 1 — Envy that let me branch off this alternate ending. One is in the first chapter ([P] Ch 1), and the second is in the final chapter (Ch 100 2/2). We will talk about those, but I'll also mention I kept some moments in Vol 2 — Lust open-ended for him as well, when he was being super shady about the Riftwatch Outpost Shrine, where Jules collected the second piece of The Sound of Fury by defeating Rukia inside of it. Anyway, back to the first volume:

In Kaizen's prologue, just before he uses his ultimate move on Death, and immediately before Wrath tempts him to Integrate, Kaizen mentions two people: his Master, and Ren. For clarity's sake, Kaizen's master was his previous incarnation of Wrath, and his name is Solomon (really keeping that Biblical vibe going). On the other hand, Ren remains a complete unknown in this alternate ending, but we'll get to him in the OG version. Then at the end of their fight, Kaizen figures out who Death is because Death was able to wield The Sound of Fury, and he talks about the ultimate betrayal which drives the entire story forward.

At the end of Volume 1, Kaizen and Wrath's conversation is the finale to the book. Wrath asks Kaizen how Jules will take Kaizen's inevitable betrayal. Then Wrath asks what decision Kaizen had to regarding—something, but Kaizen interrupted before the reader could hear his full question. Kaizen says "I will allow him to take The Sound of Fury from us," to which Death replied, "And let Death claim you?" to which Kaizen does not offer a reply.

These two anchor points are relevant to both Ending versions, just FYI.

So in the alternate ending, this is all taken literally. And in this version, Solomon became Kaizen's Death, and Kaizen becomes Jules' Death. The main loose end here is that … who tf was Wrath's Death? For the most part, Vol 3 — Greed in this version would have followed along with the original ending's Vol 3, except for this ending where Jules defeats Kaizen / Kaizen sacrifices himself and the curse ends.

Boring and predictable, right? There also wasn't really space for all the Sins and Virtues to come in and the Four Horsemen here without a fourth book, so let's just move on to the original vision below…

Original Ending

OK, here goes nothing. Baring it all for you to see.

You already know the main storylines, but let's recap the main characters' goals:
Jules seeks a route to prevent the Apocalypse, so he can live a normal life.
Kaizen seeks an end to the Rebirth Cycle, so he can reunite with his friends.
Wrath seeks vengeance against Death, so he can end his infinite torture.
Cy wants to become an Alter, so he can rid the world of poverty and democratize knowledge.
The Four Horsemen seek to enact the Apocalypse, for reasons currently unknown.

(1) The Rebirth Arc

In this arc, Jules' identity is revealed to both himself and the world as Wrath. He rises from obscurity to infamy alongside his fox Familiar, Rukia, and his friends Cy, Katarina (Envy), Seraphina (Lust), and Jafar (Greed). As he gathers the three pieces of Wrath's weapon, The Sound of Fury, with his mentor Kaizen's help, Jules gains insight into the origins of The Apocalypse. He and some of his friends train under a strange and unknown Alter, The Painter, and run into many more Alters, including the notorious Iron Maiden. Patience, Jules' Virtue counterpart and nemesis, works alongside Wrath in the shadows to push Jules to unlock his Seal…

Volume 1 — Envy

There is a long summary of this volume between Chapters 100 and 101, but here's another one.

Kaizen (the previous version of Wrath), alongside his friends Envy, Lust, and Greed, and his Familiar Rukia, battle against the other Sins and The Four Horsemen to stop the Apocalypse. They fail, and Death kills them all. Kaizen sees a slight crack in War's loyalty, and takes note of it for later. Kaizen knows Death's identity and doesn't share it with anyone. He eventually takes what is called Wrath's Deal, who no prior incarnation of Wrath has ever taken, and Wrath shows him everything.

After an eternity, Kaizen meets Jules as the next Rebirth Cycle begins in a new world with new customs and systems of magic. He meets Jules' parents, Evelyn and Liam, and is shocked for some reason by Liam's identity. Kaizen and Rukia are separated from Jules when cultists attack. Kaizen becomes trapped in Patience's domain for breaking a rule of the game, and is sentenced to isolation within Patience. Rukia leaves a cultist alive by accident.

When Jules is 16, a Shrine pops up in his hometown. His best friend and soon-to-be-adopted-brother Cy investigate it when they shouldn't have. Cy learns of Jules' identity as a Sin, and so does his teacher, Isolda. That night, Jules dreams the first step of The Nightmare. The next day, all hell breaks loose, and Jules reveals to everyone in Coralhaven that he is a Sin after Wrath possesses him and goes on a rampage in search of the Shrine (and his weapon, The Sound of Fury). On the bright side, he is reunited with Rukia. They eventually escape with some slight help from Isolda, who appears to have brainwashed Jules' father, Liam. Jules, Rukia, and Cy escape Coralhaven with some unexpected aid from The Alter Pirate, Davy Jones.

They end up beached on a shore outside of Aquilantis, where Katarina (Kat / Envy) and Whiskers find them. Tensions are high, but they agree to help each other. That night, after meeting Envy, Jules unlocks the next vision of The Nightmare that involves Kat. They eventually meet resistance in Aquilantis, but a strange Alter, The Painter, saves them, just as Jules is reunited with Kaizen. The Painter offers to train them, though he mainly seems interested in only Jules and Kat, but Cy finds a way to earn a spot in the training as well. They train for nearly two years with The Painter.

During that time, they advance heavily in their skills, and Jules is able to remove Kaizen from his imprisonment in one of Patience's stones. This comes at the cost of Patience learning Jules' whereabouts as he is interrogating Jules' mother and father. Patience, working for the Iron Maidens, travels to Aquilantis and alerts Pastor Zeke of Wrath's location, and they plan to attack him. Maddie Redwood (Diligence) is also in this meeting, though she and Patience do not know each other's identities.

While training to release Kaizen, Wrath almost overtakes Jules' body. An odd, old friend of Envy's—The Blind Beggar—saves Jules (and actually runs into Patience the next morning when Patience arrives in Aquilantis). The next morning, The Painter seems in a foul mood and ends their training prematurely, saying they are ready for a final exam for this tier of training. Jules and co. think it's because Jules has a new mentor, Kaizen, but they are actually mistaken …

Anyway, Cy passes The Painter's test and saves Jules and Envy from unending death, and they pack up to leave after The Painter disappears on the spot. He gives them an assignment to go capture Vessels from Shrine across Coralith—one each. They set out to do so, but…

Are attacked by the Iron Maiden henchmen as soon as they leave. Cy suspects that his assailant is a new friend of his, Selene, who he initially met when auditioning for a slot to train with The Painter.

Eventually they escape, but not without sounding an alarm to the whole world where they are. Luckily, Envy's identity is safe at this point. They travel to Siren's Cove first, where they run into Maddie. Cy captures this Shrine single-handedly, but they reach a stalemate with Maddie, who ends up with the Vessel. Jules and co. flee Siren's Cove, but learn that Maddie is an Arcanic, though they aren't sure if she's a Sin or Virtue.

After a lot of infighting, Jules forces everyone's hands, and their next Shrine destination becomes Coralhaven, Jules' and Cy's hometown. Now aware that Jules must wield The Sound of Fury, he's determined to stop the Apocalypse as well. Cy learns a small bit of information about his lineage from his orphanage-home mother, Patty, but not until after torturing her. He searches for their teacher, Isolda, with Kat, and learns that someone has taken her place in jail. She recognizes him, so he leaves her in prison. The next day, Liam finds them, and they are attacked by the Iron Maiden henchmen again. Kat kills her opponent, Liam disables another, and Cy spares Selene's life when he finally bests her. Liam and Zeke, having an old blood feud, square off. Despite their mutual hatred, Liam and Zeke exchange their suspicions over Patience's identity as an Arcanic. Liam leads the fight, but Zeke threatens his family, so Cy steps in. He is absolutely man-handled by Zeke, and ultimately put to sleep (alongside Kat) by Selene, who regained consciousness. They are taken to the city gallows, where Kat is decapitated in front of Cy. Cy begs for his life to Selene, who doesn't budge. Just before he dies, an evil savior arrives …

The day before, Jules meets up with his parents and learns he has a sister, Azura. He learns what tragedy befell his parents after his escape two years prior, and he and his mother, Evelyn, still don't see eye-to-eye, so he leaves still full of spite in search of the Shrine. Liam stops him to tell him about Patience, though Liam doesn't know his full identity. Unaware that this would be the last time he saw his father again, he shortly learns from a monument to Jules' first attack on Coralhaven, declaring his father as a traitor, that his father's first initial is A.

Jules proceeds to the Shrine, where he loses his Sinful powers and fights a Warg and Leshen. The entire time, Wrath himself tempts Jules to integrate with him, to which Jules refuses. Jules defeats the Leshen and brandishes the first piece of The Sound, but is ultimately unable to defeat the Warg alone. Furthermore, Wrath reveals to Jules the situation his friends are in, and that they need help. Jules makes a deal with Wrath—to Integrate in exchange of saving his friends lives.

Wrath possesses Jules, halts the Warg, and he Jules and Wrath leave the Shrine as one. Wrath approaches the gallows and says he's come to kill him—though this is actually vague. Wrath fights Zeke and all the other Iron Maidens and military units present, and ultimately decimates the entire town of Coralhaven.

Envy, unable to die, tells Cy to run, and he does so. He runs into Selene again, and loses to her this time. She stabs him in the heart with an Enchanted Dagger that will only kill him if he removes it. She then lays him in a jail cell—a loophole of fulfilling her duty of bringing him to justice—and disappears. After a while, Kat and Whiskers find Cy and take him back to their ship and await Jules.

Jules awakes after the chaos as himself, with Rukia and Kaizen beside him. They are vague on what happened, and Jules rushes home to see if his family is safe. Azura and Liam are nowhere to be seen. Jules tries to save his mother, but she ultimately dies, but asks him for forgiveness before she does. She tells Jules to look into their family history, to learn why Liam abandoned his Tideshaper ancestry, but to steer away from the Tideshapers at the same time. Jules carries his mother back to the ship, and they set sail for Lighthouse Cove and the next Shrine.

After a short while, Cy enters that Shrine alone and endures a challenging trial on the sins of his life, while Jules and Kat argue. Kat finally gets Jules to snap out of his funk and at least try to move forward, while she contemplates whether or not she will continue with Jules and Cy. She decides to help Cy, alone and without Whiskers, and enters the Shrine. The Shrine's Djinn gives Cy the opportunity to make a sacrifice to gain his Vessel, since he seems so keen on sacrificing others to further his own goals, with the insinuation that Cy will sacrifice Kat to gain her powers. He decides to sacrifice himself instead, specifically his heart. In a loophole with the Enchanted Dagger Selene placed in his heart and the power of this Djinn's Vessel, called Tensa, Cy is healed, and both he and Envy leave the Shrine together. Later on, Cy will understand that his Vessel Tensa doesn't heal, but reverses the sacrifices one has made without undoing whatever it is they sacrificed something for.

Kaizen convinces Jules that it's time to learn Integration with him, and they work on putting Kaizen into the wooden shaft of The Sound. Immediately after they succeed, Maddie/Diligence shows up, searching for answers more so than blood. She challenges him to a duel, and he beats her easily enough, while simultaneously proving to her that he can control himself enough to not kill her. She reveals she is Arcanic, and that Zeke must be taken out, so they hatch a plan to siege him in Marina Veridia.

After Maddie leaves, Jules and co. train and plan and enjoy a shit-faced drunked birthday celebration, and they all Unlock their Systems for having reached 18 (and Cy waited a year, since he is 19 at this point and a year older than them).

Meanwhile, Patience meets with Zeke again, and discovers that the Iron Maiden is working on necromancy with two of the henchmen that attacked Jules and co. (Ragnar and Felix). They argue more, and Patience eventually hands Zeke a black box from The Iron Maiden Herself. Unknown to Patience, it holds a fragment of a Vessel known as The Black Sacrament.

A few days later, their assault on Marina Veridia begins. Davy Jones proves to be the madman he's labeled as, and causes chaos to achieve his own goals. Jules and co get split up after a fake fight with Maddie and her crew (Thorn, August, and John), and the zombie-fied Ragnar and Felix show up with a still-living Selene. Selene and Cy square off, while Felix chases Kat into her Shrine and Jules handles Ragnar.

Kat learns the identities of a lot of Vessels that will show up later, and has a creeping suspicion that her old acquaintance, The Blind Beggar, owns some of these Vessels himself. Whiskers sacrifices himself more than a few times for Kat here. She eventually defeats Felix after they leave the Shrine.

Selen and Cy square off on a cliffside, and they continuously fall down plateau after plateau until they hit rock bottom. Cy finds a way to defeat Ragnar, who split off from Jules at this point, with his Vessel Tensa. Davy Jones shows up when it's just Cy and Selene again, and brings his Kraken with him. Cy has the idea that Selene has a Binding Vow that forces her to act the way she does, and he gets another idea on how to remove it with Tensa, and does so. And boy is she pissed. Anyway, the Kraken eats em. Cy figures out—with the help of Davy Jones—that Selene's armor is a Vessel itself, and so was her Enchanted Dagger, which he's been stabbed with multiple times. Her armor Vessel creates copycats of an object (and was actually hinted at in Kat's Shrine, wink wink), and in the belly of the beast, Cy uses them all to kill the Kraken and break free. Selene is utterly defeated in mind and body, and Davy Jones jokes that he is Cy's next opponent, but when the full moon completely vanishes from the sky, Davy Jones disappears and Cy carries Selene up there.

Jules and Zeke talk until they are interrupted by Maddie and crew. Unsatisfied with what Jules has uncovered, Maddie takes the safer bet and fights Jules. Jules fights the pirates and Zeke, ultimately Integrating with Rukia and Kaizen before Wrath withholds his powers, desperate to make a deal because Death is afoot. Zeke eventually takes communion in the form of The Black Sacrament, and sells his soul for collective power as a Judas Priest. Just before Jules dies, Wrath freezes time and gives Jules one more chance to "Integrate with Wrath." Jules listens as an idea forms in his mind. Eventually, he finds the loophole and Integrates with Kaizen, who is Wrath, and his powers are restored.

Jules faces Zeke, who initiates the Soul Sacrifice, killing thousands of people around, including Thorn Redwood. Maddie loses her mind, and Kat has to bring her back from madness. Cy arrives with an unconscious Selene and joins the fray. Jules is able to defeat Zeke, and using his Seal, rids Zeke of all his Wrath and returns him to a human from his ghoul form. Everyone tells Jules to kill him, but Jules wants to find out as much information as he can about The Iron Maiden, The Black Sacrament, and Death as possible first—but stricken by her own wrath and grief, Maddie decapitates Zeke and closes that door forever.

The following day, Jules reveals that Commander Krakenbane gave Jules and his friends immunity for a time, as they saved the day. He also gives him a lead on Lust in Shinsora. Jules and co. pay their respects to Thorn with Maddie and learn that she is the 6th Virtue, Diligence. They make amends and agree to help each other in the future. She takes one fragment of the broken Black Sacrament, as well as Jules and Davy Jones. Cy seeks out Jones before they leave, asking him questions about Selene, Isolda, becoming an Alter, and the Magi. The Alter replies in such a way that sparks a curious theory in Cy's mind, but he holds off on saying anything about it for now. Selene joins Jones' crew, and they go their separate ways. Jules and co set off for Shinsora, unaware that one of Charlotte's spider eyes was already left behind for Zeke in their cabin.

It is revealed that Patience meets with Wrath, and that they have been plotting together for some time. Patience is tasked with helping Jules open his Seal, so that Patience can gain his ultimate goal. Shortly after, Kaizen and Wrath meet up again as old friends and conspire how to end the Cycle with Jules.

Volume 2 — Lust

Patience communes with Wrath and The Iron Maiden on next steps. Wrath pushes Patience to help Jules meet Lust and Greed, while Patience tries to align Wrath's demands, his desire for immortality, and a way to prevent The Iron Maiden from executing him on the spot. He agrees to deliver her Lust, and she lets him go. Patience travels to Lustris Haven in northern Coralith and meets with an Alter and the arrogant son of an influential and rich Guild that basically controls Coralith's military and trade. They agree to help him in exchange for information, and the Cat-of-Ninetails sends someone to escort Patience to Jafar. Jafar arrives in The Verdant Domain and meets up with an former ally, current rival and possible enemy, Jafar. Patience hires Jafar to capture Lust, though keeps her identity a secret from him, and lies that she is colluding with The Elementalists, who the Nomads have been at war with for centuries.

Jules and co. arrive in Shinsora and eventually run into Seraphina (Lust), who is in some trouble of her own. Shortly after, the city is sacked by The Iron Maidens. Patience himself arrives to take Lust hostage, and Jafar lurks in the shadows.

To sum it up fast: Cy gets some quests to go to The Library from some Alters. He also gets a Space Rune and botches teleportation a few times.

Kat/Envy gets knocked out and goes through visions of someone else's life. She and Cy train with The Nomad while Jules goes to his Shrine.

Patience tortures Lust to get info, and Jafar joins them. It's revealed that Jafar is Greed, and The Iron Maiden shows up to torture Lust. They go to Riftwatch Outpost (where Jules, Kat, and Cy are) to fight them.

Jules fights Rukia in his second Shrine for the Sound of Fury and wins. Then he joins the fight against Patience, Jafar, a possessed Lust, and The Iron Maiden.

Jules ultimately defeats The Iron Maiden by Integrating with Wrath, though she isn't dead. Patience loses an arm. Wrath goes on a rampage and tries to kill them all, and Cy Teleports them all away from each other.

Kat and Lust are stranded alone, without Familiars. Cy lands near The Library with Whiskers. Jules, Jafar, and The Nomad land somewhere, and The Nomad finally defeats a Wrath-possessed Jules at great cost. They have no Familiars either. The rest of the Familiars (Rukia, Raven, and now Raccoon—plus Kaizen) are taken back to the Tree of Wishes. Patience kicks The Iron Maiden's head and discovers she's still alive, and that she was actually a puppet to someone else. Kaizen and Wrath meet again.

Volume 3 — Greed

Jules, Jafar, and The Nomad find themselves stranded somewhere in Obsidia, and tensions are still high. Jafar fills Jules in on how Wrath went on a berserking rampage at Riftwatch Outpost, and tried to kill them all. Somehow they ended up here, wherever the hell here is, and The Nomad almost died fighting Wrath, but ultimately subdued him. The Nomad's mask fell off during the fight, but Jules can't bear to look at him until he puts it back on, out of shame of almost killing the Alter while possessed by Wrath. Jules realizes that Cy must have Teleported them all away, and The Nomad asserts that they are in southwestern Obsidia, and they can see Mount Fury off in the distance. Jules and Jafar are both left without their Familiars, Rukia and Raccoon. Jules says he's headed to Mount Fury with or without them. He feels uneasy without both Kaizen and Rukia, but at least he has his Level 2 Sound of Fury with him. The Nomad says he will catch up, and after an argument with Greed, convinces Jafar to go with Jules.

Lust and Envy, without their Familiars as well, find themselves near Sahara's Rest. They obviously bicker a lot about fighting to the death while Lust was under The Iron Maiden's control. Envy blames Lust for everything that happened, and Lust doesn't defend herself, as she feels very responsible herself, though she won't admit it to Lust. Envy assumes they are in Obsidia on account of the desert, and says she's going to Mount Fury to meet up with Jules, as that's likely his next Shrine to complete The Sound of Fury. She leaves Lust behind, but Lust follows her anyway.

Cy and Whiskers find themselves near the border of Zephyria and Obsidia. (Originally Cy was supposed to be by himself but I felt like he needed a good foil, and Whiskers is definitely that). Cy spots Solstice Keep's massive, towering spire—The Library—and knows where he must go next.

Jules quickly finds out that he can't access Mount Fury directly—he must go into Obsidian Citadel, the capital city of Obsidia, and trek the dangerous journey to its peak. He and Jafar disguise themselves in Obsidian Spire, to the southwest of Mount Fury and Obsidian Citadel still, and head for Obsidian Citadel. When Jafar still won't let go of why he thinks Envy truly is an Elementalist spy, he digs into his backstory and childhood, training with The Nomad. After The Nomad had rescued a young Jafar from The Iron Maiden's torture, the Alter trained the boy personally for nearly a decade in hiding. Jafar was allowed to leave, but The Nomad rarely did. The Nomad spoke about a prophecy he'd discovered (which coincide with Kat's dreams from Vol 2) about "his kind" would be betrayed by one of their own, and, back to present day, Jafar just can't shake how that's not Envy, as she apparently has both Elementalist and Nomadic blood from her parents.

Cy, and a reluctant Whiskers, infiltrate Solstice Keep, and eventually The Library. He meets an extremely, extremely, extremely odd fellow at an inn who sits next to him. He literally just sits and smiles at Cy. Whiskers hides inside Cy's cloak. Cy asks him a few questions, but without receiving a response, Cy decides to leave the creep behind. In a moment of dramatic irony, after Cy and Whiskers have left the bar/inn, the weird man finally delivers a slow, threatening response to the empty seat beside him. Something along the lines of "The Solstice Keep High Priest is a Virtue," which Cy completely misses.

Envy arrives at Sahara's rest and runs into a group of Iron Maiden Hunters. They spot her immediately and chase her, and Lust finally saves her, having followed her secretly in the shadows. They escape to Crimson Mirage, but the Hunters left behind have already notified every town around them that Envy and Lust are both on the loose. They are immediately caught in Crimson Mirage and held prisoner by the Iron Maidens and Mirage Guard. A feast is held by the political leader of Crimson Mirage, and an odd chef with pink hair and violet eyes enters the room and eyes the girls suspiciously. Lust and Envy are held on display. They are forced to serve as poison-testers to the feast, and after they show no signs of death or ailment, the feast begins. People belittle and abuse Lust and Envy, who are strung up high like a chandelier in the center of the feast, for quite some time, before the first guest drops to the ground and writhes around in pain. More guests follow, and even the leader of Crimson Mirage. The torturous poison takes hold on Lust and Envy, who both die while hanging from the ceiling. The last thing they see is the chef striding in, waltzing around the bodies, and kicking some to the ground. She flashes an evil smile at Envy before the world fades to black.

Cy has some fun interactions with The Scholars, scattered all around Solstice Keep (sorry, never got this far to develop these specific scenes), until he finally infiltrates The Library. He begins looking for the tomes he's supposed to find when an alarm goes off in the spire's peak.

Jules makes it to Obsidian Citadel with Jafar, and The Nomad is still nowhere in sight. Obsidia is extremely militant, so there are soldiers and guards everywhere. Real Fire Nation vibes. They try to discreetly access the path to Mount Fury, but of course it is heavily guarded, and in fact, a duel is taking place right before them. The heir Prince of Obsidia fights against the Obsidian Army's head general's son, and Jules realizes their skill levels are far beyond his and Cy's, even though the young men are around their age. Jafar makes a comment like, "Meh. I could probably take them both at the same time." The general's son wins, though he obviously doesn't strike down the prince (political immunity and all). But Jules finds an odd trace of fear in the general son's eyes when he almost kills the prince by accident, and a similar fear in the prince's eyes on that strike—though it doesn't seem like he feared death at that moment. The guards that intercepted Jules and Jafar bring them to the prince and say they tried to access Mount Fury. Jules can tell the general's son identifies him right away, but waits to see what the prince will do first. The Prince demands a private audience with just the four of them, as he seems to recognize Jules immediately, but is suspicious of Jafar, so he keeps the general's son as presumably back up. When the guards refuse, the prince strikes one down, and the rest obey, reluctantly. Jules asks what this is, and the Prince says it's a fight to the death. Win, and access the Shrine. Lose, and he will turn Jules into The Iron Maiden Herself.

Cy scrambles as the alarms ring. He fights Scholar after Scholar, desperately trying to find whatever it is he's looking for—which is unclear from all three sources that led him here (recall these were all Alters: The Painter, Musashi, and The Nomad, all in Volume 2). He is running low and Ryoku, and Whiskers hasn't been of much use, when the odd character from the inn appears, grinning like a complete idiot. Cy confronts the man and demands to know who he is, as he gives him an extremely bad feeling. Whiskers convinces Cy to run away, and yet again, when they're gone, the man answers the question by saying something like "Interesting cat," as he didn't notice Whiskers before. Cy eventually runs into a dead end, and the stranger slowly approaches. Scholars arrive in line behind the odd man, and Cy comes to grips with certain death—he's just too low on Ryoku—but the odd man smashes all the Scholars to death in a flash. Cy hears something scraping around the corner in the hallway. It sounds like violet claws ripping into stone. His heart pounds. He fears for his life at his new ally, and whatever new monstrosity awaits. A furry head slowly pokes out from around the corner. It looks at Whiskers, and a slow smile cracks across its demented face. "Holy fuck," Cy says. "You're Sloth."

Envy wakes up to the pink-haired chick wickedly smiling over her. Envy's back on the ground among the dead bodies. "Welcome back to the living," the girl/chef says. Envy demands who she is, and Lust wakes up as well. The chef responds that she is their long-lost sister, and Envy freaks out for a moment as she realizes that it's a complete possibility that she is Lust's sister, since she's just discovering her true family lineage. The chef helps them to their feet, and Envy and Lust are anything but grateful, as this chick is full-blown psychopathic in every facet of the word. The chef helps them escape Crimson Mirage, and Envy gains enough courage to finally confront her statement about being sisters. The chef just winks and sticks her tongue out at them—and they see the Seal for "4" engraved on her tongue.

We rejoin Jules and Jafar en media res, as their fight has broken out with the Prince of Obsidia and the general's son. It's a bloodbath but locally contained so no one else interferes. The general's son starts beating Jafar's ass, Jules makes a comment like "What happened to you taking them both on at once?" which lights a fuel under Jafar's ass. He goes all in and blasts the general's son away, then intercepts the prince from Jules (which pisses Jules off and wounds his pride a bit), and Jafar takes them both on at once. Just now, Rukia (and Kaizen with her), Raven, Raccoon, and arrive, and boy is Rukia bloodthirsty. She's shaking uncontrollably with teeth bared. She wants to join the fight, but Kaizen holds her back, reminding her that she needs enter the Shrine with Jules—but she darts out and rips out the prince's throat. He falls to the ground gargling blood, and even Jafar stops the fight as the general's son runs over to his prince. He holds him in his arm and freaks out, and loses his cool into a rage. He charges Rukia, but Jafar intercepts the attack. Jafar pushes the man back and goes to strike a killing blow—but is stopped by another sword from a new combatant. Greed's Seal lights up with his eyes, and he utters one word. "Kazuma." (The Alter that leads The Elementalists, Jafar's sworn enemies, and the arch-rival to The Nomad.)

Cy assumes that Sloth thinks Cy himself is a Sin, because Whiskers is with him, and uses that to his advantage. He tells him he has to find something but keeps it vague. Sloth nods his head and walks away, motioning Cy to follow him. His Familiar, also named Sloth because why the fuck not, has been growing her smile this entire time in slow motion, but Sloth picks her up and carries her away. Cy and Whiskers follow, and Sloth eventually leads them to a door Cy had passed earlier but couldn't figure a way to access. Sloth pulls his pants down to reveal the Seal of "6" tattooed on his ass, and presses it against the door, opening it. You've gotta be fucking kidding me, both Cy and Whiskers think. Just then, another man enters the frame, and he has a Seal himself on his forehead of "4." Cy realizes it is the Solstice Keep's High Priest, and The Librarian: The Holy Virtue Temperance. He forbids them from entering, but Cy runs in and tells Sloth to fend their mortal enemy off, still playing into I'm-a-Sin fantasy they got going on. The battle erupts behind him and Whiskers, and Cy walks into none other than the Hall of the Alters (Solstice Keep is the HQ of The Scholars, and thus the Alters, a smaller faction of The Scholars). As carnage continues behind, he walks up to a table with three glowing lights. Under each light is a name. Along the table are other names etched in, without any other lights shining above them. Cy reads the unlit names and recognizes famous Alters throughout the ages, and some names he doesn't recognize. He becomes extremely confused when he reads the three lighted names—Clementine, UNKNOWN, and Magnus Tharlsson—two of which he instantly recognizes, another which he does not. And one of them, Magnus Tharlsson, has been dead for centuries.

Gluttony reveals herself to Lust and Envy after some back-and-forth, and they try to ditch her instantly, but she refuses to let them leave her sight. (These scenes weren't well developed yet.) Eventually, they convince her to follow them to Mount Fury, and they set out through a secret passage that Gluttony knows about, through the mountains themselves.

Jafar is filled with bloodthirst when his (and his master's) mortal enemy, Kazuma, wields a sword before him. Rukia continues to defile the Prince of Obsidia's body, but starts gnawing at his chest plate, trying to rip it off. The general's son takes advantage of the chaos and swoops in on Rukia—and Jules makes his choice of who to help. He strikes at the general's son, but Kazuma blocks that strike as well—and Rukia removes the chest plate. Brilliant golden light erupts from the Prince, and he begins to Regenerate while Jules stares at the Seal of "6" tattooed on his chest. The general's son strikes again, and Jules finds it odd that he's not shocked. Kaizen advises that Jules leave them all for the Shrine, and he naturally detests, claiming Jafar can't handle all of these guys at once. "Go," Jafar orders. He says that he and Raccoon are more than enough to deal with these three. "I agree—You should go, Jules," Kazuma says, to everyone's shock. Kazuma creates a force field around the Prince—or Pride, as Rukia has now called him as a slur—and the general's son, to remove them from the fight. "This one must survive the long night ahead." Everyone assumes he's talking about Pride, though unsure why. Kazuma also tells Jules a shortcut to the Shrine. Jafar and Raccoon engage with Kazuma, and Jules leaves with Rukia, Kaizen, and Raven.

Cy goes over all the names again, and goes over all of the known, current Alters again—Davy Jones, The Cat-of-Ninetails, The Nomad, Kazuma, The Iron Maiden, The Dreamer, and Clementine, who's been MIA since before The Fateful Night (when the Sins and Virtues were born)—and all the unknown Alters he'd met—The Painter and likely The Blind Beggar. Only one of their name's was lit at this altar (lol)—Clementine. He had no idea who UNKNOWN was, and it was common fact in every history book that Magnus Tharlsson had died a century ago. He didn't know what to make of this, but he suspects that this was the reason The Alters had sent him here. He turns around, still confused, and stopped. There's only three Alters… I need to get to Jules now. Cy grabs Whiskers, comes out to a bloodied Temperance on his last leg, and a Regenerating Sloth, about to deal the final blow. "Not now," Cy commands him. "We need to convene with Wrath immediately." Very, very, very slowly, Sloth responds "I know where the Zephyrs are." (Also in this room, Cy needs to find the Etherealist item — FIRST TOME or whatever for Arc 2).

Jules arrives at the Shrine entrance, encased entirely in fire on a giant pool of lava/magma. Side by side, he, Rukia, and Kaizen approach it together. Jules takes a deep breath. Kaizen looks focused, but stoic. Rukia pants with a smile. Jules addresses Kaizen. "Are you Death?" Jules asks Kaizen. Kaizen chuckles. "You're about to find out," and Kaizen enters the Shrine. Rukia hops up onto Jules' shoulder, and he follows his master inside. Sorry, didn't fully develop this scene either, so just the recap: Jules and Rukia Integrate and fight Kaizen, possessed by Wrath, and wielding the full Sound of Fury. Jules tries every possible combination of Integration available to him (besides Wrath and Kaizen), until it dawns on him that he Integrated into the Sound…so why couldn't the Sound Integrate into him? He goes for it — and nothing happens. He still wields a rusty blade in his hand. Fuck. But then he looks up at Kaizen/Wrath, and realizes that he's weaponless, and Jules had successfully Integrated with the real Sound of Fury, and he annihilates them. Wrath says job well done, I'll see you on the other side, and vanishes. Jules finally confronts a weak Kaizen and demands an answer to his question: Are you Death? Kaizen is fading away. "You haven't fully assembled the Sound yet, kid. I don't have to answer that question. You know what you have to do." —Kaizen. "Yeah, I know I have to open my Seal." "But I'll give you an answer, kiddo—No. I am not Death. Wrath is never Death. But… I'm afraid I won't be coming with you back to the other side." Jules freaks out, he was wrong. He was wrong! And now Kaizen is abandoning him again!? "Ah, cheer up, Jules. I'm just screwing with you." And Kaizen holds up the Sound's sheath, the third and final piece of the Sound. Jules takes it, and the three of them leave the Shrine together, but not before Jules has another vision. This time he sees a young man at a war table, much younger than the rest, but respected, honored, even feared by the rest—but when it comes time to call for war, he holds his tongue…

Envy, Lust, and Gluttony arrive at the bottom of Mount Fury, just in time to see Jules entering the Shrine with Rukia and Kaizen, but too late to do anything about it. Envy cries, worried Jules will never come back. She falls to her knees. Lust helps her, and then Gluttony tries to take the role of caretaker sister, and she and Lust bicker. Whiskers speaks in Envy's mind just at that moment, saying that he and Cy and—someone she really doesn't want to meet—are landing a zephyr at the top of Mount Fury. Just then, a stranger emerges from another path in the darkness, howling with laughter. Envy can't tell who it is at first, but then realizes the man is missing an arm.

Jafar lies on his back. He's probably missing limbs, but he's so numb he can't even tell anymore. Kazuma walks away, but Jafar Regenerates again and rises—"One more time!" he demands. Kazuma turns and snidely remarks "It'll be just like the previous fourteen times." A zephyr streaks by overhead, infuriating Jafar even more. He hates Zephyrs.

Jules emerges from the Shrine, and is met by Envy, Lust, a strange woman, and Patience. Envy conveys to Jules that this is Gluttony, and that Whiskers and Cy have just arrived with crucial information on the surface, and that they need to abandon Gluttony and patience immediately. Jules informs her and Lust on what's going on above, and orders them to take Gluttony when them, away from him and Patience. Finally she listens, and Jules and Patience engage in a fight. Patience tries to temp Jules into opening his Seal. He says it'll give him enough power to save everyone on top, and defeat everyone he despises. Unlimited power. Jules knows it's a lie, but with some truth behind it. Wrath tempts him to do the same. Jules doesn't want to start the Apocalypse, and refuses. He and Patience duke it out, Jules overpowers him, but Pat just won't give in. Cy says they have a serious problem up here — Musashi is annihilating them all. Wrath finally weaves his way into Jules, who begins to trust him for the first time, understanding that Death is not a part of Wrath or his incarnations, and that Wrath truly wants to stop the Cycle with Jules (in combo with Kaizen talking to him). Pat, unaware of this, and now fully abandoned by Wrath (who has achieved his goal), puts all his power into one more strike, to make Jules open his Seal to defend himself. Jules, unaware that he fell into Pat's trap, opens his Seal (with the Rune Anya gave him in the Whispering Pines) to gain enough power to defend his friends—to use the full power of The Sound of Fury. A bright pillar of light bursts out from Jules, and the volcano of Mount Fury begins to erupt. Pat goes in for one final strike, his final plan to take Jules' and Wrath's power—and Jules decapitates him with the fully-realized Sound of Fury. Pat's head rolls off to the side, and Jules makes a run for the surface.

Jules gets up there and realizes that Kazuma is already gone, that Cy hadn't really called out to him—he'd been tricked by someone, and not even Kaizen or Wrath know who did it, and Jules swore it was Cy. They take off in the zephyr, but not before some infighting breaks out, where Gluttony demands to have that power Jules just unlocked. Envy defeats Gluttony, and Jules takes on Sloth. Jafar had been utterly defeated at this point by Kazuma. Eventually, Jules and co leave Gluttony and Sloth behind with Pride and the general's son—who are still protected by Kazuma's impenetrable shield.

As they fly away, Cy reveals that there are only three Alters in the world. Envy gets pissed and says so what, get over your obsession, but Jules and Cy look at Kaizen. "Three Alters, eh?" Jules mocks. Kaizen smiles, as Jules has fulfilled his promise to assemble the Sound. "That's right, kiddo," Kaizen says. "They are the Three Magi."

Down below, in the rumbling Mount Fury, arms drag a body back to its head and reconnect. Patience's eyes open wide. The pain didn't matter to him now—he'd succeeded in achieving his goal—the curse bestowed upon the Virtues who fail to keep their counterpart Sin from opening their Seal—immortality as a punishment to watch the world burn. But Patience had very different ideas, indeed.

ARC ENDING. By the end of Arc 1—and this is spoilers readers wouldn't have known at this point—we have met all of the Sins, Magi, and the Four Horsemen, and the Beast and the Harlot. We have not met all of the Virtues (of which I believe we've just met 3—Patience, Diligence, and now Temperance. And Charity is true-dead, for real for real). Also, the main events (starting when the group leaves The Painter's hideout in Aquilantis) of Vols 1 —3 take place over just 2-3 months. The Arcanics are all still 18 at the Battle of Mount Fury.

NOTE: The remaining arcs were never broken down into volumes by plotting—I just had plotted out the beats of each arc—so I'll just give the plot and spoilers of each arc as they would have appeared.

(2) The 7 Seals Arc

Volume 4 — Gluttony | Volume 5 — Pride | Volume 6 — Sloth

GENERAL ARC PLOT — All of the Seven Deadly Sins gathered together at Mount Fury and witnessed the aftermath of Jules unlocking his Seal, and each and every one was tempted by the power it provided Wrath. So Jules sets out to stop the remaining Sins from unSealing their … uh … Seals, and initiating the Apocalypse, which he himself started. As Jules begins to trust Kaizen and Wrath more, his primary focus shifts from stopping Wrath's vengeance to stopping the Apocalypse.

In this Arc, Kaizen quickly introduces The Triad, which serves as the Godhead above even the Four Horsemen. The Triad is composed of Fate, Destiny, and Chaos. It's hinted that the Horsemen answer to The Triad. Naturally, Triad insinuating 3, Cy insists that the Magi are the Triad, and they must pursue the Magi/Triad. Jules disagrees and thinks they need to prevent the other Sins from opening their Seals. Envy/Kat wants to leave the group and find out more about her parents and Pop's background story. Lust/Sera(phina) wants to free her family who is still in captivity by the Iron Maidens after their assault on her hometown of Shinsora (beginning of Vol 2). Greed/Jafar has a singular focus: Kazuma. Everyone is torn in their own direction.

They are assaulted by Obsidian artillery from below while they escape Mount Fury/Obsidian Citadel, and while they bicker about all of their conflicting goals. Ultimately, no compromise is met, and they decide to get to safety and disband yet again, but this time on their own accord.

Envy, Lust, and Greed set out all on their own, but at least accompanied by their Familiars, as well as Cy, who will travel alone back to the Ethereal Rift to return the FIRST TOME. Jules has to make a choice, as he has no clear direction on where to go like the others. It tears him up not to pick Kat/Envy, but she at least has Whiskers (and seems set on doing this alone), so he decides to travel to the Ethereal Rift with Cy, hoping that, with Cy's apparent luck, this trip will be tied to the Magi and Apocalypse somehow. Everyone does agree, however, to meet at the Arcane Divide near the Tree of Wishes when they have accomplished their goals.

Envy returns to the desert. She runs into The Nomad, who helps her find her next two Shrines to uncover the events that led to Pop becoming her father, and she learns how The Nomad is involved in finding the scattered Prophecies that led to the last War of the Waste, and the foretelling of The Fateful Night by The Iron Maiden Herself. Envy interrogates The Nomad about how he's not really an Alter, which he consistently assures her that he sure as fuck is (and demonstrates his insane power). The two Shrines upgrade Envy's eye Vessel and its powers, and just like Jules, she must unlock her Seal at the third Shrine to learn about the night she was born—So Envy unlocks her Seal. It's revealed that the man she scryed through in her dreams in Vol 2 was, in fact, her birth father. He was a double agent, spying on the Nomads for the Elementalists, and a former right-hand man of Kazuma. Her mother was a Nomad and part of his cover, so both bloodlines course through Kat's veins. She also discovers the reason The Nomad has taken such an interest in her: On the night she was born, The Nomad and Pop infiltrated Kat's parents house, demanding that they turn Kat over to them, that she was one of the Fallen (Sins). The parents refused, and Pop exposed to everyone Kat's father's betrayal. Kat's father begins to say something about The Nomad, but the Alter annihilates him on the spot, and accidentally kills Kat's mother in the process. A still-nameless baby Envy cries, and Pop takes her in his arms and gives her the name Katarina Waverunner, keeping her birth family's surname in honor of Kat's mother. Pop says he won't kill her, that he can save her (possibly in love with Kat's mother), and The Nomad says the goal was never to kill, but to take them under his wing and mold them into saviors, not Sins. The Nomad leaves Kat in Pop's care, and says he has to leave to find "three more tonight." Pop is terrified of taking care of Kat alone, and The Nomad says don't worry, I'll always be watching. He takes off his mask and reveals blinded eyes. Kat makes the connection that The Nomad is The Blind Beggar. Later on in this Arc, Kat makes the obvious connection that one of the "three more" was Jafar/Greed, and then realizes that The Nomad/Blind Beggar is the man who tried to save Sloth and was blinded. She is unsure who the third Sin would be.

Lust gets a lead on Musashi, who has since been labeled as an outlaw and in collusion with the Raventrees hiding Lust's identity. She eventually finds him, and he leads her back to a Shrine under her parent's former castle in Shinsora. It is Lust's only Shrine, and to capture her Vessel, she must unlock her Seal, like the others. Musashi convinces her to do so, as it's the only way he and her can rescue her family. So Lust opens her Seal. She and Musashi infiltrate a prison where her family is held, and they rescue them, but along the way, her grandmother dies. Odessa (Lust's grandmother) leaves Lust with a cryptic message before she dies, that Lust interprets as "Seek out Krakenbane," the Coralithian General who gave Jules a tip on finding Lust. Lust leaves her family in Musashi's care and heads there, only to discover along the way that her brother stowed away aboard with her. They eventually find Magnus Krakenbane, who seems delighted, but completely unsurprised to see them.

Jafar attacks Elementalist camp after Elementalist camp to root Kazuma out of hiding. He no longer cares about the political and militant ramifications of his actions—and how it will affect the Nomads at large—and is single focused. Besides, he believes The Iron Maiden to be defeated, and no longer has as much of a reason to hide. His campaign steers him toward the Elemental Wastes, where Kazuma finally shows up, alone. They fight and fight and fight and fight and every time, Greed is utterly defeated. Angry at Kazuma for generations of slaughter and now mocking him, Greed doesn't let up as he Levels Up insanely fast. Finally, he strikes Kazuma's cheek with one of his seven Vessels. Kazuma smiles and applauds him, then raises a Shrine right before Jafar's eyes. Kazuma says the only way Jafar will ever defeat him is to enter the Shrine and unlock his Seal. Jafar doesn't hesitate, and ultimately captures the Shrine and opens his Seal. He doesn't gain a Vessel, but his seven Vessels merge into one (a bit ironic for Greed, no?), and he fights Kazuma once again. He has Kazuma on the ropes, but the Alter begins laughing. He tells Jafar that he's finally strong enough to face the battle to come and that he's proud of Jafar, then completely obliterates Jafar. When Jafar finally Regenerates back to a human form, he notices Kazuma is gone, and he's been played for a fool.

Back to the time of the Battle of Mount Fury, and when Jules and co split up, Jules falls asleep while traveling with Cy, Rukia, and Kaizen. He has met the remaining Sins, and goes through the entire Nightmare sequence. Envy at the docks, wishing for a better life. Lust on the palisade, longing for her political and social power. Greed selling him the Sound of Fury, wanting ever more power of force. Gluttony slaying man after man on a drawbridge, ever thirsty for more blood. Pride, of having sacked the city and commandeered command over it, exuding military power over the masses. Then of Sloth, sitting on his throne, unsure of what adventure comes next, or if any taller mountains to climb exist anymore. Finally, Jules sees the Sound of Fury twisting on a thin thread above Sloth's head. The thread frays and will drop straight down on him soon. Jules runs to catch it before it slays Sloth, but he is intercepted by guards, and Sloth, the king, order he be thrown in prison. Jules escapes the prison and runs back into the throne room to save Sloth—to find out that Sloth has killed everyone in there—Kat, Sera, Jafar, Gluttony, Pride, even Rukia. And then Sloth is slain by a dark figure behind him, and the figure emerges: just a white skull covered in a ghoulish black cloak. Jules summons the Sound of Fury to his hands and attacks the ghost, but the ghost—Death—halts the blade with a bare and bony hand. "NOT YET" Wrath says from the background, and the Nightmare fades away…

Jules wakes up screaming, and Cy is happy that he's finally awake, because he's been asleep for days, and that they are approaching the Ethereal Rift (they kept the Zephyr because Cy's a G). The four of them (Jules, Cy, Kaizen, Rukia) talk about his nightmare, and Rukia mentions that she remembers some of that story somehow, and Kaizen finds this curious because Rukia has never retained her memories in previous Cycles. Jules also notices that she has grown considerably while he slept, and is like the size of a large husky now, compared to her fox kit frame of old. They finally arrive at the Ethereal Rift, which is completely abandoned, and Cy begins to feel overwhelmed and off, like he did in Shinsora. Eventually they return the FIRST TOME to the Ethereal Rift and … nothing happens (trust me, something happens immediately) to Cy. But immediately after, Jules' Seal lights up and sears him with pain. Far off in the distance of the North, they see a column of light approach the heavens. Kaizen assures them that someone has unlocked a Seal. They wait around for a few days and train, as Cy tries to approach 3rd Rank but is stuck in the 2nd Rank woes, while also waiting for something in Cy to change. Cy also reads dozens of books he stole from The Library during this time, in an attempt to weed out the identities of the Alters and the Magi. Rukia and Cy spend a lot of time together, which Jules finds endearing. Another light goes up in this time, and when the third one goes up (Envy, Lust, then Greed's), Jules says they can't wait any longer and have to stop the other three. Disillusioned again, Cy ultimately agrees.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Jules and Cy meet up with the others near the Tree of Wishes. Envy, Lust, and Greed are all much stronger now, but everyone is emotionally worse off for their adventures. Just as they greet each other and get into their failed escapades, a light emerges to the north. And then another.

Six of the Seven Seals have now been unlocked.

ARC ENDING — Only Sloth's Seal remains Sealed (as Kaizen notes is always the case, the lazy bastard). The group is stronger, but no closer to uncovering the secrets of the Apocalypse and Wrath.

(3) The Magi Arc

Volume 7 — Kindness (Ha! Bet you thought it'd be Wrath), Volume 8 — Chastity, Volume 9 — Charity

GENERAL ARC PLOT — Arcanic Factions have formed as the Nations are all vying for war to stop the Prophetic Apocalypse from coming. The three Magi are identified, and they begin to make their selections… Jules and co learn about Wrath's human life story. Cy reaches 3rd Rank.

We start off with the perspectives of Anya (from Whispering Pines), Lucien Viktoria (Lustris Haven—Patience met him at beginning of Vol 2 with the Cat-of-Ninetails), and the general's son from Obsidia (fought with Pride in the Battle of Mount Fury—I never got to his name, so we will call him GSP (shoutout to UFC fans) because he is the General's Son and friends with Pride). They show how each of these three nations is preparing for war against the Arcanics, and possibly each other, depending on how alliances go. There are rumors and misinformation spread among the nations, and how each one is responsible and possibly aiding and abetting the Sins in unlocking their Seals. Trust dwindles. Each scene ends with a strange, unannounced visitor approaching them.

Jules and co visit the Tree of Wishes to see it is utterly destroyed. Jafar makes a snide remark and takes no blame for destroying it. The team finally relays their separate adventures, and something bugs Cy about the others' stories, though he can't figure out what it is just yet. The Teleportal next to the Tree of Wishes opens up as a Shrine. Shrine's normally have a purple veil, but this one is a black vortex that leads inside. Everyone freezes, and Wrath emerges from The Sound of Fury in corporeal form. Kaizen materializes and stops Wrath from rampaging, and Jules becomes confused and distrusts Wrath once again. They all join in to warding off Wrath, but they are clearly no match for him. Jules says he's not even close to the same level as Kaizen possessed by Wrath in the Mount Fury Shrine. Rukia finally intervenes, and it's the only person who can convince Wrath to halt. She orders him to stand down, and Wrath obeys. She tells him she will let him know when the time is come, and to respect their pact until then. Wrath explodes in flames and fury, but doesn't fight her (or them). He warns her only one time "DO NOT DARE BETRAY ME, TOO, RUKIA, OR YOU WILL JOIN DEATH." In a blazing trail of fire, Wrath escapes into Salvatica.

Fuck, Jules thinks to himself.

Anyway, the Teleportal/Shrine sucks em all in anyway, and they enter a time-traveling escapade, where they begin to see the Cycle unfold from the bottom up. They see Wrath and Death in their original world, and Kaizen asks Jules if he can see "them," which confuses Jules. Kaizen reveals he can see his friends (Envy, Lust, Greed) in the story unfolding, but Jules can't see his own. They travel through time and space, each version of Wrath and Death getting faster and blurrier, until they arrive at Kaizen's life, which ultimately ends in the prologue scenes, where Kaizen loses to Death. Everyone is confused at the end of it, and they are dumped back into Salvatica. As it turns out, everyone saw completely different visions.

Jules asks Kaizen why he never told him about his friend Ren (recall Kaizen mentioned this name in the opening chapter "Master, Ren, this one's for you"), and Kaizen said he was like Cy to him, but Death killed him young, and he didn't know how to tell Jules about it, as the Cycle often repeat themselves. Jules now worries for Cy's life, and that he's getting too close to everything.

Cy goes on about how he learned what the Magi are—They are the selectors of The Four Horsemen. Kaizen explains a little lore to everyone and fills them in on the phases of the Apocalypse: The Sins open their Seals, The Magi make their selections for the Horsemen, and the Horsemen choose the Beast and the Harlot, and then Death takes his mantle to initiate the Rebirth Cycle.

Cy makes the obvious connection — the Magi are Alters, but there are only three of them, and they must choose Famine, Conquest, and War. But Cy wants to become an Alter still, which could make him a Magi, and he could withhold ever choosing Death, thus stopping the Apocalypse.

"Ren said the same thing," Kaizen whispers. Jules turns on Cy's ambitions and says he can't pursue his goal anymore, that it'd be better if he never became an Alter under that logic. Cy protests that someone else could become one instead of him, someone who claims to be an Alter but isn't—like The Painter—and that they'd be way closer to that achievement than him, so it needs to be full focus on Cy becoming an Alter.

Kaizen brings up to Cy that he needs to find the Time Rune then, or else he will die, and The Painter will never raise him to the Alter.

Cy leaves to find the Time Rune. He also learns more about the Triad from books regarding the Prophecies. He learns that each face of the Triad is worshipped/revered by each Magi. Cy eventually reaches 3rd Rank. Shortly after this, the Cat-of-Ninetails (an alleged Alter) tries to assassinate Cy.

Lust's family disowns her so they can reintegrate into society, claiming they were under her spell as hostages their whole life.

Envy searches for The Blind Beggar while traveling with Cy and Jules.

Jafar trains night and day to slay Kazuma.

The Arc ends with those strangers approaching Anya, Lucien, and GSP at the beginning of the arc, with those scenes having actually taken place at the end of this arc, out of chronological order.

Clementine (the only Alter who is recognized in the world AND noted in The Library), who's been MIA for decades, approaches Anya, and asks her if the world is fair, if she would like to spread the blight put upon her people (The Etherealists) to the world at large, to face justice at their own hands. Anya goes into how its a cruel Fate her people have been dealt, and that if Fate should curse her oppressors, too, then she welcomes the idea. (So Anya and Clementine become followers of the Fate face of the Triad).

The Cat-of-Ninetails approaches Lucien Viktoria and asks if he'd like to emerge from the world war victorious, and in a seat of power even above his father. Lucien says that right, that seat of power, has always been his Destiny. (So The Cat-of-Ninetails and Lucien become followers of the Destiny face of the Triad.)

Kazuma approaches GSP and asks if he wants to fight. He says of course. (It is not directly implied here—on purpose—that Kazuma and GSP become followers of Chaos, the only remaining Triad.)

ARC ENDING — Wrath, having been released when Jules fully assembled The Sound of Fury, leaves Jules' and Kaizen's side for his final gamble to defeat Death. Sloth has yet to open his Seal (lazy bastard). The 3 Magi have made their selections.

(4) The Sorcerus Arc

Volume 10 — Temperance | Volume 11 — Humility | Volume 12 — Diligence

GENERAL ARC PLOT — Jules seeks out Wrath to finally subdue and control him. The Triad's Prophecy is revealed, along with the identity of Death. Sloth closes in on his Shrine to unlock his Seal.

Cy, having just survived against The Cat-of-Ninetails, dives deeper into Magi, Alter, and Triad lore. He thinks about why Envy, Lust, and Greed's stories from the 7 Seals Arc (when Envy met with The Nomad and discovered he was The Blind Beggar; when Lust met with Musashi; and when Greed fought Kazuma) bothered him so much. He thinks about how he and some of the others met with The Painter at Elder-Tree Enclave, but how he spotted The Cat-of-Ninetails overhead when they Teleported over it. He thinks about Isolda and her relationship with The Painter, and how Clementine hadn't been seen before The Prophecies came to light. He thought about Magnus Tharlsson, long thought dead. Of how The Nomad claimed he had a fourth Sin to find. But when he stopped to think about Selene for the first time in a while, the pieces all fell into place. She was terrified at Davy Jones, which shouldn't shock anyone, but more so than normal. And Jones was furious when Cy removed Selene's Binding Vow back in Marina Veridia, and quickly took her into his crew, and Cy never saw her again. Isolda had vanished from jail and replaced herself easily enough, and The Painter had literally given the means to disguise themselves in Eldertree Enclave. And the fact that Selene was a highly trained Assassin. Combine that with The Nomad being The Blind Beggar, it finally clicked.

The Alters all had multiple identities—they were all real, but there were only three of them. He fit them into a few different categories:

Clementine was Clementine. Duh. And judging by gender, she could also be The Iron Maiden, who came to power right after Clementine left, and The Dreamer, who entered her permanent sleep around the same time.

The Painter was probably Davy Jones and The Cat-of-Ninetails. He was likely Isolda. The Painter said he saw them fight in Marina Veridia, and Cy thought he meant that literally. Davy Jones took Selene back as a hostage immediately after losing her, and Cy let him. And that's why The Painter knew where she was, as well. He'd been taunting Cy with this information on purpose—but why?

The Nomad was The Blind Beggar for sure, and probably Musashi and … no, that can't be right. Kazuma?? But The Nomad had said he had three more Sins to collect. Sloth had to be one, explaining his eyesight. And Envy, Lust, and Greed rounded it out. But why would he be both Kazuma and The Nomad, sworn enemies!?

But anyway, that puts Magnus Tharlsson as either The Painter or The Nomad…

"That sounds insane," —Envy, Lust, Greed (who is especially pissed off at the insinuation of his master betraying him).

"You messed up one thing," Jules said. "We were all born at the same time, so if The Nomad was there for Kat's birth, he couldn't have been there for Sloth's—and besides, that guard wasn't blinded for another two years or so."

"And Kazuma and The Nomad have been seen fighting, together, with multiple witnesses over," Jafar said.

Cy chewed his lip for a while, lost in thought, his giant scheme falling apart before his eyes…Though something felt right about it, he pocketed it for later.

Cy seeks out The Painter for more answers to this puzzle. Highly interested in this outcome, Envy, Lust, and Greed accompany him.

Anyway, back to Jules' story, he goes in search of Wrath, just with Rukia and Kaizen. He eventually finds him after a LONG-ass time, and they fight. It's head-on, with Wrath trying to possess Jules' body so he can take out Death before the Rebirth Cycle begins. Rukia argues with him, but Wrath has lost all of patience. Jules Integrates with Rukia and Kaizen and begins to gain an edge, so Wrath reveals his final card: The Triad's Prophecy. It reveals the identity of Death to Jules, sending him into a rage, thinking that Wrath is lying to him. Rukia tries to warn them all that are trending on shaky ground, and that Wrath needs to abide by her rules—a slip of Rukia's that Jules and Kaizen both catch. The fight halts as they demand answers from her, but Wrath seems unfazed by the revelation, so he strikes Jules and inflicts a (truly) mortal wound. Wrath begins to take hold of Jules' body and mind, but he fights back as best he can. Ultimately, he taps into his own wrath, and goes full force against Wrath, annihilating him. In the process, he gives everything he has left and passes out. In the jail cell of his Nightmares, Jules finds Kaizen, Wrath, and Rukia waiting for him. Wrath tells Jules he is fully submitted to him now, and that Jule's wrath hasn't surpassed his own, but is on level with it now. He offers him Wrath's Deal, which is to show Jules the origin of the Endless Cycle. Kaizen offers no advice. Rukia rejects the notion, saying it will end poorly for them all. Unable to take his mind away from Death's identity, Jules appears to want to accept the deal and eventually yells "LET ME IN! Let me in on the secrets!" Rukia demands he use the Unlock Rune on her so she can go on her own mission, to try and undo the damage these impatient fools are trying to unleash. Jules obeys, and takes Wrath's Deal. Wrath opens the door and walks through, Kaizen follows. Jules says "I thought I was supposed to let you in." "NO, JULES TIDESHAPER. THOSE WERE YOUR OWN WORDS, ECHOING INTO THE PAST…" Jules walks through the jail cell door, but turns back to see Rukia, who is already gone. Jules sees it all flash before his eyes. At the end, he vows to kill Death.

Cy finds The Painter, who says he'll answer all of his questions when he's trained as an Alter. Cy says he can't wait that long, and The Painter says it'll only take a few weeks. Cy laughs in his face, but The Painter asks him to remove the paper from his pocket. To Cy's surprise, the Time Rune has been on him for who knows how long. The Painter commands him to use it, and Cy does, and they begin their LONG training in a time-loop-like setting. Cy emerges as an Alter, and he takes the name of Sorcerus.

The Painter assures each and every one of them that cy hit the nail on the head with his prophecy, that each of the Magi are the Alters he identified, with the correct identities. He shifts to Davy Jones, and then to Isolda and the Cat-of-Ninetails. Jafar's blood boils, and Envy and Lust are left confused. But Cy sees a problem. "You changed between them… but you didn't make them all appear at once. How could Kazuma and The Nomad be in the same place at once?" The Painter's smile breaks out wide, mischievous and borderline evil. He takes the Time Rune from Cy's hand. "This is how. My master hid it long ago. Clementine nor I have ever found it… until now."

The Painter asks Cyrus what name he would like to take up now. Cy says Sorcerus has always spoken to him, and thus Cy becomes Sorcerus. He asks The Painter what's next, and just like that, The Painter disappears again.

Jules approaches them from the woods. The group are excited to see him alive, as they didn't know if he'd survive against Wrath this final time, and they can't wait to tell him the news about the Magi and Cyrus' ascent to an Alter. But Jules bears a look of sorrow. He looks at Envy, then at Cy. He draws The Sound of Fury, covered in black flames like his eyes are now, and attacks Cy without warning, chopping him in half at the waist.

Everyone screams, asking what he's doing, assuming he's been possessed by Wrath, and of course Jules answers: "I came here to kill Death."

Just then, a light erupts far off in the distance. Sloth has opened his Seal.

** Fun notes: Up until this point, Cy has beaten death numerous times. Also, each volume name that correlated to a Sin's name (1-6) were intended to show Cy's slow descent into darkness, modeling the corresponding sin in each volume. Also, in the volumes I did write, the Sins' names are always written as the word and not their name, like Envy and never Kat or Katarina. Fun fact

Death's Identity — Yup, it's always been Cy. Read on to find out why! (Also, the Alters have always been Magi and had multiple identities)

ARC ENDING — Jules achieves Full Integration and control over Wrath, but he has learned Death's true identity. Cy has ascended the Alter and takes the name Sorcerus. Rukia leaves Jules in search of her own mission. In anger for his betrayal, Jules banishes Kaizen to Purgatory.

(5) The Four Horsemen Arc

Volume 13 — Famine | Volume 14 — Conquest | Volume 15 — War

GENERAL ARC PLOT — Jules, now truly alone except for The Sound of Fury, finally pursues his family lineage. Sorcerus prepares for the Four Horsemen to take their mantle, while Salvatica preps for war.

Rukia's memories mess with her while she's out on her own because Jules is witnessing what really happened to Wrath when he was a human. She's still unaware of the specifics, but knows she's somehow responsible for the Cycles themselves. And she knows her next stop: Find Liam and Azura, who obviously survived the Decimation of Coralhaven because I never showed them die (heh heh). She eventually finds them, and Azura has aged more than she should have, and Liam is extremely hostile toward Rukia, because he now fears his own son, Jules.

We return to Anya, Lucien, and GSP, at exactly present time of the fight between Jules and Cy, but pretty far into the future of when we last left them with simple offers. They each see the final column of light emerge in the distance. The Iron Maiden tells Anya it is time; The Cat-of-Ninetails tells Lucien it is time; and The Nomad, Musashi, and Kazuma arrive to tell GSP that it is time. Anya becomes Famine, Lucien becomes Conquest, and GSP becomes War. Each asks, "What's next?"

Still alive, Cy is in shock, half of his body missing. He demands to know why Jules attacked him, why he betrayed him, that he'd just become an Alter. Jules assures the others he's seen the Final Prophecy, and that Cy becomes Death. He summons Kaizen forward and forces him to tell the others, about what really happened to his best friend, Ren. Kaizen confirms it. Jules banishes Kaizen on the spot, to stay in their shared jail cell in Purgatory. (now he's without Rukia and Kaizen, just Wrath—and his friends. For now) Cy coughs and chokes on his own blood. He can't believe it. It's not true. He'd never betray Jules like that…but Jules betrayed him. He's filled with sorrow, longing, confusion, betrayal, hatred. He uses a Heal Script and reassembles himself.

Jules and Cy go at it for the first time. Each is significantly stronger than before, but Jules has to Integrate with Wrath to go toe-to-toe with Cy. Together, they push to kill Cyrus and end the Cycle here and now. Jules glows in black flames, while cy glows in white and gold radiant light. The fight goes on, and they plead with each other for the other to stop fighting, though Jules of course wishes to kill Cy in the end, while Cy wants them to figure things out. Eventually, Cy snaps and starts fighting for real. With his 4th Rank, he has an enormous amount of Ryoku to pull from. He bests Jules here and now, though he is mortally wounded, and at this point, he's unsure if Envy and the others will attack him as well. He steals The Sound of Fury and abandons Tensa to have an upper edge on them. Jules gets back up to fight, and Cy chops his head off, then stabs him in the heart at his Seal. Jules' body lies on the ground, with not signs of Regeneration taking place.

Envy and the others take it as Cy—as Death—having killed Jules, which they witnessed Death as capable of in Kaizen's prologue visions. They act fast to take Cy out, who's now low on Ryoku from his fight with Jules. Having used the Time Rune thousands of times during his endless training with The Painter, he uses it once more and disappears with The Sound.

Envy uses Cy's abandoned Vessel Tensa to put Jules back together again, and Jules comes back to life. They rest in silence until they finally talk about it, and next plans. Jules wants to forge ahead on his own, but the others refuse to leave his side. Everyone is conflicted on killing Cy—now Sorcerus—except Jules.

Jules decides to pursue his family lineage. Envy wants to come with him, but he rejects her, and when she admits her love for him, he rejects that too, ashamed that he sacrificed his humanity to kill his best friend—his brother. Thus Jules truly sets off alone.

Kat runs away in search of The Blind Beggar, to confront him on killing her parents, as she's fueled with rage and resentment herself now.

Lust seeks out her family to protect them in the coming Apocalypse, even though they have betrayed her trust as well.

Jafar seeks out The Nomad in any shape or form, furious at his ultimate betrayal.

Rukia informs Liam that Jules has set out to kill Cy, much to Liam's surprise, and that she has left Jules' side, and will be aiding Cy from this point on. She claims that Cy will be in dire need of Azura in the coming years, and that she must be trained properly in that time.

Famine spreads throughout Salvatica, and war breaks out between the nations as they seek to conquer each other. (In the Horsemen's POVs).

Jules travels to the Serene Archipelago in search of both family lines. He meets his grandfather, who is shocked to learn Jules' name, as he should have been named after his grandfather. Jules learns there's a repeating pattern on two names in his paternal side of the family for first-born men, which alternates each generation. Liam's first name is Adam, and that means that Jules' name was supposed to be… (find out in the final arc!)

Kat meets Pop again and confronts him about her birth. He says there is a strong reason that The Nomad never told him, so he leads her to The Blind Beggar so they can both find out. Just as he is about to tell his side of the story, The Painter arrives. The Blind Beggar whispers something into Pop's ear that Kat can't hear. Kat learns that The Blind Beggar/The Nomad was The Painter's master and teacher, and that The Painter is really Magnus Tharlsson, who used his Alter powers to survive for hundreds of years. Kat determines that The Blind Beggar must be older, and is the mysterious 3rd Alter that Cy could never identify. They fight to the death, with The Painter reigning victorious over The Blind Beggar, who dies. Famine, the First Horseman, walks into frame with Gluttony to fight Envy. Left on a cliffhanger.

Meanwhile, Lust fights Musashi to the death in a rite of passage—if she wins, she gets to assume control over the Shinsorai, Sin or not—and bring her family back into high standing. She ultimately loses to him, though he gives her a public honor of a bow as a worthy foe. This puts her family in even further shame for losing a death match without dying, and they join the war efforts of The Verdant Domain, who align against the Sins. Conquest, the Second Horseman, arrives, having already taken control of Shinsora after the Sack in Vol 2, to fight Lust. Sloth joins in late. Left on cliffhanger.

Greed finds Kazuma and fights against him. The Nomadic clans join in and are annihilated, leaving only Greed as a survivor, wrought with guilt and betrayal. Kazuma admits he is indeed The Nomad—and even transforms to fight Jafar as The Nomad—and when the time is right, Jafar will understand the subterfuge. But for now, he isn't worth his time. War, the Third Horseman, enters the frame with Pride and fights Jafar, who ultimately loses to a non-Alter human. Left on cliffhanger.

We never see Cyrus/Sorcerus again in this Arc, and so his whereabouts remain unknown.

Jules gains a Space Rune from his grandfather, and they train in the Tideshapers' dark magic lineage for a time. Jules senses Envy and his other friends in trouble with the Horsemen at the same time, and he chooses to save Envy, naturally. He Teleports to Kat and rescues her, Whiskers, and Pop from Famine, Gluttony, and The Painter with just Tensa and the new dark magic he learned. They escape to temporary safety, where Pop lays dying from mortal wounds sustained in that fight. He tells Katarina that she needs to leave the room so he can relay a message for Jules and only Jules. Reluctantly and teary eyed, she does. Pop repeats to Jules what The Blind Beggar just told him. Jules keeps this secret for many years, but he acts on it immediately. Jules tells Kat to remain by Pop's side in his final moments, and he goes to rescue both Jafar/Greed and Sera/Lust and brings them back, only to find Kat alone, as Pop has finally passed.

ARC ENDING — Jules is betrayed by his father. Sorcerus steals The Sound of Fury and Rukia from Jules. Unable to kill him, Sorcerus leaves Jules behind, but also abandons his Vessel, Tensa, which Jules takes up as his own. Sorcerus finds the Time Rune, and goes back in time to set up Salvatica for the Apocalypse so he can Rebirth the world he wants to create.

(6) The Apocalypse Arc

Volume 16 — Death | Volume 17 — The Harlot | Volume 18 — The Number of the Beast

GENERAL ARC PLOT — Jules and his dwindling allies fight the agents of the Apocalypse as Salvatica's nations break out into war. Sorcerus seeks the mantle of Death to initiate the Rebirth Cycle.

The Apocalypse has begun! Envy, Lust, and Greed were gobsmacked by the first Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Famine, Conquest, and War. Gluttony, Pride, and (possibly) Sloth have joined forces with the Horsemen to end the world.

Just as another recap: Jules' only contact with his Wrath ancestry is now Wrath himself. The Sound of Fury was stolen by Sorcerus, Rukia abandoned Jules, and Jules himself banished Kaizen for his ultimate betrayal.

Jules rejoins his allies—Envy, Lust, and Greed—and they lay low while war and disease and massacres spread throughout Salvatica. During this time, they try to befriend other powerful people, and have a few encounters with the other three Sins (Gluttony, Pride, and Sloth), but mostly stay clear of the Three Horsemen, however Jules and Jafar have a run-in with War. He continues to annihilate them both with his divine powers, but doesn't take them prisoner. Jafar figures War just wants them to become stronger so he can keep fighting, while Jules thinks that War isn't so sure that War agrees with the Apocalypse. The events of this paragraph take place for over years, as millions starve and are killed at war. The nations of Salvatica appear stalemated, but refuse to give in to each other, or even make alliances. Sorcerus never appears during this time. Jules and co become legends, myths, notorious, and are slandered through the news (especially that fuck BS Snelliott)—and really, they become guerilla fighters.

Jules has joined forces with most of the Virtues (all immortal because their corresponding Sin has opened their Seal) by this point (especially Temperance, who has a grudge against Sorcerus and Sloth). But they obviously don't have the power of Patience, and they discover years after the fact there exists an Arcanic who is not their age. No one is sure who she is, but they are certain that she's an Arcanic, as she can't die. But a few of Wrath's Rebellion (as they're called, just like Kaizen's allies) fail a mission when this mysterious Arcanic arrives. She defeats them all then disappears.

We flashback to Rukia over the years as she trains Azura over the years, who grows at an abnormal rate, but is still young. She definitely has some features that match the mysterious Arcanic above… Liam has become a shell of his former self, and trains Azura as well in the dark magics of the Tideshaper clan he hails from. He treats this child of his more like a tool, an instrument of precision, to defeating Jules and the Sins, vs how he treated Jules growing up with love and an open heart. They have stayed in hiding this entire time. Rukia has withheld all of the Prophecies info from Liam and Azura. They do see a lot of action as the wars knock on their steps a few time, but Liam figures it is because of Jules/Wrath and kind of brainwashes Azura to feel the same. Liam begins to imply to Azura that Cyrus is her true brother, and that Jules is just false hope, and Azura starts to believe him.

We now flashback to Selene—who shows herself for the first time since Vol 1—and Davy Jones, waging war in the Coralithian Sea against The Verdant Domain that Conquest has not yet conquered. She has several new Binding Vows on her, and it's implied that Magnus Tharlsson (who as a refresher is Magnus Tharlsson the Alter, and also The Painter, Davy Jones, and the Cat-of-Ninetails) keeps her as a prisoner, though we don't know why yet. Anyway, Selene is having a rough go of it, but she feels this is the Destiny that she deserves. Oh, and she got a baby bump.

Lust allows herself to be 'captured' by her family, who turn her in to remain in good graces with Conquest, who currently rules over their city-state of Shinsora. She tries to get them back on her side, and they agree to a coup. There's some heist storyline in here, where she has to collect Musashi's long-lost dai-katana Vessel or something.

Jafar searches for Kazuma once again. The others think he's crazy because The Blind Beggar died, and they were one-and-the-same person, but he claims he can still feel his presence. Greed does eventually find Kazuma with War. They want to talk, but Greed still wants to kill Kazuma even more than ending the Apocalypse, and they fight.

On a solo mission, Envy runs into the Cat-of-Ninetails, who reverts back into The Painter to taunt her that she killed her mentor. They duke it out, Kat assuming that whatever The Blind Beggar told Pop would free him of guilt—that there was some bigger picture—so Kat doesn't go the killshot route, but the mortal wound route so she can interrogate him. Ultimately, Kat defeats her former teacher. Her victory is cut short when Sorcerus makes his grand return (at the midpoint) and Silences The Painter before he can reveal anything—and then Sorcerus cuts The Painter down, killing him for good. He takes Envy prisoner, and when she says Jules was the one who attacked her and they can talk this through, he sees through her lies and tells her he's been watching everything from a distance this entire time—that he's watched the past few centuries unfold to see how things play out.

While the others are out, Jules grows impatient, and even Wrath tells him so, but Jules seeks out Famine to fight her. The fight is massive, yada yada, and he humbles the fuck out of her, but he can't kill her because he's forbidden. Not like Shonen-Jump MC can't kill anyone forbidden (because we already crossed that line with Jules), but because Sins are literally forbidden to kill a Horseman by their face of the Triad. So no matter how hard Jules tries to slice her apart, Fate intervenes and bad luck strikes Jules. And this only makes Famine hate Jules more, but he leaves, victorious but empty-handed, so to speak.

Jules also approaches Conquest and defeats him, but Destiny has other plans, and Conquest escapes with only missing an arm (flashback to Kaizen's Conquest).

Jules reunites with War while Jafar and Kazuma go at it. Jules is surprised to see War eating popcorn on the sidelines, just watching. They strike up a conversation, and Jules feels him out, wondering if he can count on War to help him stop Sorcerus. War offers a completely ambiguous answer. (If you recall from Kaizen's prologue, it seemed like War was going to be an ally of Wrath…). Anyway, Jules gets to watch Jafar finally beat Kazuma, and Jafar deals a mortal wound. Jules worries that his greatest rival, Jafar/Greed, has surpassed him in power again, and wonders how this next bit will play out for both of them. As Kazuma bleeds out—and War continues to snack from the grandstands—Jules approaches and plunges Tensa (Cy's former Vessel) into Kazuma, healing him. Jafar strikes Jules without hesitation, and they duke it out. Ultimately, Jules breaks through to Jafar, and they agree to a ceasefire to hear Kazuma out, because Jules says the Magus is not finished with his mission yet. Kazuma says that he has had the Time Rune for longer than anyone can remember, and he found a way to exist in multiple places at once. Jafar thinks he's lying, but War points out it's true, as when he became a Horseman, The Nomad, Kazuma, and Musashi all approached him at once. Kazuma says that he lives each life exactly once, and when he reaches the end of that thread, he starts over in a new life, but with all his powers. Jafar confronts him on being a double agent, forcing the Elementalists and The Nomads into war for centuries. Kazuma admits it was evil, but a necessary one, and he admits that Kazuma is his first run through, and he never had any idea of the other versions of himself until he met The Nomad on the plains when they settled the 16th (or was it 15th? I can't remember) War of the Wastes. Musashi was his second life, The Nomad was his third, and he suspected that he had more after that… Jafar and Jules look at each other, but neither tells Kazuma about The Blind Beggar, and how he ultimately died a while back. Jafar tells Kazuma that Kazuma is dead—that he killed him in combat—and now he'd better hurry back to work as Musashi, because he has a little girl to protect (implying Sera, because Greed and Lust are a thing). Kazuma smiles and replies, "Oh, I've got more than one." (implying Envy as well). Jafar begins to tell him what he knows about Sera's early life, but Kazuma cuts him short and tells him that The Nomad revealed to both Kazuma and Musashi, before they convened to meet with War, about everything they needed to know to start off their next life. Kazuma prepares his Time Rune to start over as Musashi, but before he leaves, he tells Jules and Jafar that he is truly an Alter, that he attained the legendary 4th Rank, but that The Nomad had surpassed even that and achieved 5th Rank. And then he disappeared. Jafar and Jules stare at each other at the implications, that The Painter must be 5th Rank to have beaten The Blind Beggar, who surely was the last life. Then, War tosses his popcorn aside and tells them that The Triad won't allow them to leave without some form of punishment. He slices them both to smithereens. When they Regenerate, War is also gone.

Sorcerus and Envy, as his hostage, return to the Tree of Wishes. Sorcerus can't bear to look at it for some reason, and he seems extra agitated with Envy here. He goes to the Teleportal/Shrine that had whisked them all away once, and raises his hand. The circling void of the Shrine's veil shimmers and pulls out toward him, and finally the Shrine's Vessel pulls through as well. Envy looks up in terror as Sorcerus holds a massive scythe in his hands, and she remembers the story Jules had told of Kaizen's ultimate failure.

Sorcerus and Envy, as his hostage, stalk through a dense forest until they discover Rukia and Liam, and then for the first time, Sorcerus and Envy meet Azura. Envy begs for help from Rukia, who only looks away with downcast eyes. Liam introduces Cyrus as Azura's brother. Envy is beside herself. Sorcerus corrects Liam that he has a new name since he ascended the Alter. Without any further niceties, Sorcerus says that he has need for them, and he Teleports them all away. They arrive on Davy Jones' Flying Dutchman, where Selene lies dead among dozens of other men—their Binding Vows have all been etched in black. Rukia tries to steer Azura's eyes away from the massacre, but she is highly interested and wants to see, as she's never been around people besides her father. Envy is disgusted. Sorcerus addresses Rukia first, and asks (but really tells) her if she knows what happens next. Rukia confirms that she knows exactly how this will play out. Sorcerus asks if she still wishes to remain with him, and she confirms that as well. Sorcerus forms his hands in the same position Zeke did in Vol 1 to initiate the Black Sacrament, and makes a short speech, mostly for Envy to hear. He says that The Triad, just like the Three Magi, are only the beginning, and when fully assembled as one, can be seen as a fourth entity itself. Famine, Conquest, and War can only lead to Death. Fate, Destiny, and Chaos all serve another master of the universe. He says how he will deconstruct this unjust world and create a newer one in his image—that as The Fourth Magi, he will initiate himself as the Fourth Horseman Death and serve his master, Entropy. And just like that, Cyrus—no, Sorcerus—truly becomes Death. His skins flails away in front of them all, and his black robes shift to black mist that clings to his skeleton. "The final pieces of the Apocalypse has assembled as one," Death says. Envy cries out that Cy is mistaken, and Death slaps her for using that old name. Envy claims he doesn't have The Beast (of the Apocalypse), nor does he have the Harlot. Death looks to Azura and Rukia, and then he looks to Selene's corpse. Envy freaks out, that Rukia will be the Beast, and that Azura will be force to be the… But with one hand, Death raises Selene up from the Dead. "She (Selene) will serve as the Harlot. And my sister …" Death looks at Azura. Envy sees the life drain from Liam, sees all hope flee from his eyes. "...Shall serve as The Beast."

Wrath visits Kaizen for the first time in years. Kaizen welcomes him in like an old friend, as always. Wrath informs Kaizen that the Rebirth Cycle will begin, that everything they've worked hard for is about to come to light. Wrath doubts it will be enough this time, because Rukia has never betrayed him. Kaizen stands up with a smile, holding his version of The Sound of Fury. Kaizen responds: "Our sister's done no such thing, kiddo (and he grins at Wrath for calling him that). Fortunately for us, the shame of betrayal only belongs to Cain and Abel."

ARC ENDING — Jules defeats the remaining Magi and the Four Horsemen and the Beast & the Harlot, but Sorcerus has earned the mantle of Death, and initiates the Rebirth Cycle.

(7) The Cain & Abel Arc

Volume 19 — Cain & Abel | Volume 20 — Patience | Volume 21 — Wrath

GENERAL ARC PLOT — We learn the story of Wrath and Death. Jules and Death face off in the final showdown.

The first volume in this arc dove completely into the full backstory of Wrath and Death—whose real names are Cain and Abel, though it is intentionally never made clear who is who, and the book would have labeled each of them as 'Wrath' or 'Death.' Wrath follows his brother Death through poverty to eventually ruling a kingdom, and it follows through the progression of the Nightmare sequence. Between the stages of Pride and Sloth, Death crafts a blade by himself, at the height of his power and ambition. He names it The Sound of Fury, which he claims is a sound always present in his mind that he can never shake, no matter how hard he tries, when he gets restless and needs to challenge himself. They've gained friends along the way to this point, who are reminiscent of Envy, Lust, and Greed. They also have a sister, Rukia (according to some texts, Azura is the actual name of Cain's twin sister, which is why I chose it for Jules' sister), who watches her brother, Death, rise to power and eventually madness. Death uses The Sound of Fury to conquer even more nations, and he grows depressed as his control spreads, but no surrounding nations or continents offer any real challenge to him. Secretly, away from Wrath, Death decides to hang the sword above his head in his throne room above his head by a thin string to try to silence the sound of fury within his own mind. From Death's perspective, we see the Sloth vision of the Nightmare sequence play out. Wrath returns from a successful campaign to report to Death. Wrath enters the throne room and is immediately hostile. The sound of fury rings in Death's ears immediately, and from his intuition of years on the battlefield, recognizes Wrath's immediate bloodlust. He calls the guards to take Wrath away from him before Wrath has a chance to kill him. Wrath fights off guards and twenty of them have to hold him back. Chaos breaks out, and by the time Wrath has left the throne room, everyone else in it is dead—Envy, Lust, Greed, and his sister, Rukia. Wrath had killed them all.

Death leaves him in prison for days before visiting him, seeking an apology from his own brother for killing their family and friends, and for trying to usurp his power. Wrath always asserts the same insane accusations: that Death killed them all, and he was responsible for the world he'd created, where people starved and were subjugated to slavery amidst war, and rampant death. Death grew tired of the banal accusations, and returned more and more infrequently to visit Wrath, seeking the same apology. No matter how Death tried, Wrath would always place the blame on him. The visits spread from days to weeks to months to years, until one time Death arrived, and Wrath had died, likely some time long ago… Death felt no pity for the man. He felt nothing. He had died inside long ago, on that last night that Wrath had returned.

…Back to Jules!

Jules and Jafar reunite with Lust and the Virtues. The nation's wars are at a head, and they all have a run-in with the mysterious young Arcanic (confirming that it's not Azura) and—lo and behold—Clementine. She confirms that The Iron Maiden was just a puppet of The Dreamer (an Alter and alias of Clementine's) because, unlike the other Magi, Clementine wouldn't risk dying on a battlefield somewhere. They engage in a fight and discover that the mysterious Arcanic is a resurrected Charity, and the reason she is so young is because when Greed opened his Seal, her immortality kicked in, but she resumed around 18 years younger than the rest. Clementine figured this would happen after she fought with Patience (as The Iron Maiden and thus couldn't die) after Jules opened his Seal—and she killed Patience a few times before he ultimately defeated The Iron Maiden for good. Clementine was disappointed to learn that Patience wasn't here, and it actually makes her think twice about fighting them, because she despises the Sins but worships the Virtues, except for Patience. Jules points out how batshit crazy it is to worship the Virtues but push the agenda of the Sins' main purpose, the Apocalypse. Clementine just smiles and says spews some shit about following Fate wherever it may lead. At last Jules recognizes the Apocalypse for what it is: a distraction. For what, he's unsure, but he's certain it's tied to Cy and Death. Jules orders that they take Charity hostage and kill Clementine. Just before Greed and Lust finish Clementine off, the last of the Sins arrive—Gluttony, Pride, and Sloth—as well as Famine, Conquest, and War.

A massive melee ensues. Sometime during the fight, all of the Seals light up and everyone freezes, except the Three Horsemen. Pillars of light open up from the sky, and the Horsemen travel upward first.

We flash to Sorcerus/Cyrus/Death and Envy, along with The Beast and the Harlot. Plus Liam and Rukia are there. After he becomes Death, he turns to face Rukia again. He claims he senses hope in her that Wrath will prevail. She also confirms this, and claims that Jules has plenty of time to grow stronger than Death, that Death still has one more obstacle to face. Death appears to smile, and lightly chides her betrayal of him. Rukia's eyes turn blue—as she regains her true memories again like in Vol 2—and asserts she isn't choosing sides, that she's hoping for the inevitable outcome here in this endless cycle, and she believes this will be the final one. Death agrees, obviously for a different reason. "Besides," Rukia says. "You haven't achieved the Final Rank. Jules has more time." Death reveals where Sorcerus was for the past few years, and it wasn't in hiding. By luck or instinct, even Death isn't sure, Sorcerus sent himself back in time just before he met to train with The Painter for the final time. He found a young Cyrus sleeping through the night, just outside of their meeting place. He could have written down the Time Rune from memory, and placed it in Cyrus' pocket. But where would be the fun in that? So he traveled back even further, and further, and further. He had roamed the lands of Salvatica for hundreds of years, just like The Painter before him. And everywhere he went, he searched for the Time Rune. Hundreds. Of years. Tormenting him every step he took was the memory of his best friend—his own brother—slaying him without a word of explanation. It drove him mad many times over, from which he had to recover on his own. Until one day, he found it. Not the Time Rune, but the Truth Rune. He activated it, and he saw Death's visions for the first time. How Wrath betrayed him, how he'd killed all of their family and friends, and he knew that Jules would do the same, that Wrath would always do the same. He pushed his skills to the limits for decades, grinding away at the strongest foes available, but he never found that damn Time Rune. That is … until he finally surpassed the glitch in the System. In Salvatica, once you reach Level 100, nothing changes beyond that. That is, until you reach Level 1,000 in a Skill, which you would never even went up unless you hit that threshold. So here young Sorcerus was, trapped in a torment worse than what even Wrath had endured, continuously using the Time Rune to renew the effects of age on his body—but never his mind. The magic didn't go that deep, couldn't ease that pain. But he kept pushing, desperate to find that original Time Rune. And in that time, Sorcerus validated his views on the rotten world: that it should be dismantled and rebuilt into a utopia that he'd create in all his wisdom. So he kept searching. Centuries later, he found a rare book that provided the answer. And ironically enough, it was written by The Painter's publishing house. Yes, Sorcerus had returned to roughly modern times, though before The Fateful Night. In that book, his teacher asserted that Runes didn't come from nature, that they weren't discovered, but rather they were created by a human who embodied the idea of the Rune. And by this time, I (I guess we're in dialogue now?) had already recognized I was the Fourth Magi, that I would assign Death, and I would choose myself. That it was me, and that it was always me. But here and now, in that moment, I realized time only truly matters when life inhabits it, and that it is heavily marked by Death, on either side of life. And thus, I was the Time Rune. I'd left traces of it behind everywhere for others (such as Kazuma) to pick up if they could only see it. So I returned to that night before I met with The Painter. I saw two versions of my younger self, both naive in their own ways. When young Sorcerus left young Cyrus, I slipped in and left behind the Rune for my former self. And then I returned to you, Envy, so that even you, the one who loves him the most, can see Jules for what he truly is.

After a long-ass monologue, Death initiates the Rebirth Cycle, and the five of them (Death, Liam, Rukia, Azura, and Envy—no Whiskers) travel in a beam of light to the heavens. They find the Altar of the Gods and a globe of Earth and its two moons set inside, like Kaizen did long ago.

Back to Jules and co, the Horsemen have been 'abducted' by Death in these same pillars of light, and so the Sins and Virtues are all left fighting with one another. Eventually both sides suffer great casualties, and Jules orders a retreat. While they are retreating, Jules realizes he's going to need Kaizen to return to him for his wisdom, and he summons him back from Purgatory, when all the Arcanics are all sucked up as well by pillars of light.

They arrive in Celestia (which is supposed to be like heaven, whereas Kaizen has been locked in Purgatory and Wrath is subjected to hell) and see the Horsemen have taken their thrones in the Throne Room.

Death begins the Rebirth Cycle and starts sucking the soul out of Earth's globe. Jules and co move to stop him, but Famine orders the other Sins to stop them from approaching, so another fight ensues without recovery.

While Death goes to work, Kaizen warns Jules that he's about to experience the greatest betrayal of all—and Jules looks up to see his father Liam, the fear of god in his eyes, and his grown sister Azura next to him with Rukia. Rukia Integrates with Azura and becomes the Beast of the Apocalypse. Jules can't believe his eyes, and then he flashes back to his visions of Kaizen's loss at the end of his journey, and how he'd slain The Beast. Kaizen asserts he didn't know that his Beast was his own long lost sister, but he found out after Wrath showed him the truth when he took Wrath's Deal. The Beast joins an unDead Selene, and even though the Apocalyptic squad is outnumbered, they begin to overpower Wrath's Rebellion.

Jules gives an immediate order to Greed and Lust to free Envy, and they take on Famine and Conquest to do so, and War claims he'll step in for a real challenge. Jules refuses to fight Azura and Rukia and continuously runs to other battles, but they don't let up on him and chase him down. He fights with them for a time, and Death nears the end of the Rebirth Cycle.

Greed and Lust best Famine but can't overpower Conquest, but now that's it's 2-on-1 vs 2-v-2, Lust is able to free Envy, and she joins the fold. Jules switches to fighting Selene, and orders his three friends to fight The Beast, but to not kill her. The Virtues struggle to defeat the Sins.

Jules integrates with Kaizen and they finally release Selene from her involuntary imprisonment with the help of Cy's old Vessel, Tensa, and she dies. Envy, Lust, and Greed pin down The Beast, but the other Sins annihilate the Virtues. Jules has no choice but to face his sister and Rukia as The Beast now—and after that he has Conquest and War before Death. Jules fights alongside Kaizen, and Wrath sits on the sidelines, biding his time for Death. Kaizen and Jules eventually use Tensa on The Beast, and Rukia is ejected. Wrath notes that this is the first time that his protege hasn't killed The Beast and leans in. Jules and Rukia reconnect minds, and he understands that this was her long-game plan all along, because she needed Cy to see something to end the Cycle. She yells at Jules to Integrate with her, and Death halts the Rebirth Cycle and raises his scythe.

He's pissed. He thought Rukia had chosen him over Jules. He's betrayed all over again. He bolts down there and with his new scythe Vessel, The Grim Reaper, he kills both Rukia and Azura in one fell swoop. Liam loses his mind. Jules can't believe it. Azura reaches for her real brother, Jules. And Rukia smiles at Jules as she takes her last breaths. She tells him that ball's in Jules' court now, and she wished they could have played one last time.

Jules snaps, and he strikes at Death with the Sound, Integrated with Kaizen still—but Conquest intercepts the blow. Jules and Conquest spar for a while, and Jules looks to War. War sighs and nods back, then stands up slowly. He gobsmacks Conquest from behind, and their battle begins, leaving Jules and Death alone at last. Jules senses Kaizen's sorrow for losing Rukia, and they tap into their shared rage and wrath. Greed yells at Jules to Integrate with Wrath, and Jules listens this time and calls on his old nemesis for help.

And Wrath refuses, but opens up an emotional channel with Jules, and he feels Wrath's emotions about losing Rukia. So Jules and Kaizen forge on alone, but can't break Death's stance. They battle and Death toys with them, tormenting them both equally. He moves to kill Greed first, which enrages War further (as War feels a certain camaraderie with Jafar). Lust attacks Death out of spite, and Death kills her as well. Then he moves on to Kat. She locks eyes with Jules one final time and dies. Enraged by fury, Death murders the remaining Sins for being of no further use to him, and starts in on the Virtues as well.

Jules has lost all hope. Wrath is still useless. But Kaizen perseveres. He reminds Jules of the story of Cain and Abel that he shared with him. Jules had always assumed that Wrath was Cain, and that he'd killed everyone in that throne room. And Kaizen, knowing the true story, tells it to Jules, that Cain was Death, and Wrath was Abel. Cain went mad that night when he thought his brother had betrayed him, and he murdered everyone else that could have done to him what he thought Abel did. And he never admitted to himself that he was at fault and placed the blame on Abel. Jules saw how that played out here and now with him and Cy, and wondered why it always had to end like this.

And then Wrath snapped back. He tells Jules the story of the last conversation he had with his sister, Rukia, and how they both thought their brother was going insane. Wrath didn't think that Cain would ever return to himself again, and that he should be removed from power. Rukia promised their brother was still inside somewhere, and that she'd bet Abel anything that she could prove it. Words in the old world were binding, and Cain and Abel had become extremely formidable, but they never knew the extent to which that promise would go—But Wrath promised it would never happen, and Rukia requested of Abel that he give Cain as many chances as he could. And that's where the curse originated.

Jules comes to the realization that Cy had sacrificed himself to build the world he'd always wished he'd live in, and an idea struck him. He strapped Tensa on his back, and then Integrated with Wrath, and all the versions of Wrath before Kaizen. and fully unleashed the full potential of the Sound of Fury, and they attacked Death one final time. Death assumed control of his own weapon, just as Jules thought he would, and let Death pierce him in the heart. Jules smiled at him and pierced Tensa through Death's heart—or where it should be. Jules looked around at the carnage, at all the people that Death had killed today and over the years. Death blamed Jules for it all, he was relentless in his judgment. But Jules just smiled and said that he forgave him, that he forgave Cy, that he forgave his brother. And that now both of his siblings were rooting for him from the grave, and it was up to him to determine how the next world looked.

Death is enraged. He doesn't want forgiveness, he wants Jules to fight him to the death, to prove that all Jules ever wanted was to kill Death and prevent his dreams from coming true. But he looks around at the carnage and has you know a big psycho villain episode.

But of course, by the end, he goes through all the logic of the events and finds out that he was in the wrong the entire time, and then he unleashes the Time Rune to its fullest extent—instead of going back in time, where two or more of him could exist at the same time, he completes the Rebirth Cycle beside a dead Jules, and dead everyone, and instead of creating a new world, he rewinds his current one, until the deaths of everyone around him has been undone.

Selene's ghost hover over her dead body, as she was dead before, but oddly enough, so does Rukia's.

In his final moments, Death abandons both The Sound of Fury and The Grim Reaper and takes back Tensa. He raises it upside down as Selene and Rukia come to his side. Death physically separates from Cyrus, and hovers over him like a specter. Cy apologizes to Jules for what he's done, and he unleashes his Vessel's power, and sacrifices himself. Selene goes with Cy quietly into the void, but Rukia remains to speak with Jules.

She tells him that she knew that Jules could do it. Then she looks into Jules, at Wrath and Kaizen, and lets them know that she knew she was right all along. Jules asks why she's a ghost, and she says she's not coming back this time. When Jules asks why and begs her to stay, she answers that she's spent enough time with her brother Abel, and now it's time to visit with Cain. But she also tells Jules not to worry, because she's still alive and well inside his sister, Azura, who like everyone else has been brought back from the grave.

They say their last farewells, and then Rukia takes a bow at the ghastly figure of Death that remains creepily haunting over everyone. Wrath separates from Jules and goes to meet Death. A massive iron wrought gate, burning red, erupts before them. Wrath and Death shake hands, then wrap their arms around each other's shoulders. Death asks for forgiveness and yada yada, and asks where they're going. Wrath says Death is coming with him to hell, to pay for their endless transgressions through the ages and worlds.

All the Arcanics lose their immortality power and return to Salvatica. Jules and Kat eventually get married, and probably have a little fox farm side business. Sera and Jafar get married, and being the embodiments of Greed and Lust, have a shit ton of children. Patience is never heard of again (I did forget to add in that Jules trains with Patience after he visits his grandfather).

Jules reunites with his father and sister, and reveals that he knows his father's real name is Adam (and his mom's name is Evelyn, ya know…) and asks why he wasn't named Abel like his father, to which Liam has some dad-quip response, but avoids the questions. Jules says some things are better left unturned, and Liam acknowledges the real message of Jules words, meaning he will never ask them about their lives the past few years, or Liam's decisions to side with Cy. Liam becomes a grandfather, and he couldn't be happier—and Kat couldn't be more annoyed.

As for the Cain and Abel saga, I had fun naming the fourth chapter of this series Chapter Four, which is a song by Avenged Sevenfold that is about Genesis Chapter Four, which is the story of Cain and Abel, and it's the chapter where I actually introduced Jules and Cy to everyone.

SERIES ENDING — Lust and Greed marry and give birth to an insane number of kids, who all become Shinsorai. Rukia and Cyrus are reincarnated as Salvatica's moons and always watch over their brother, Jules. Under Jules' request, he and Kat were all marked as KIA in the Battle of the Heavens. He and Kat marry and live a quiet life, raising foxes on a farm in Coralith and have one child.

So what was it that The Blind Beggar said to Pop, that Pop told Jules??? Well, it was open-ended to go multiple directions, and I had two main ones in mind:

1) The simple version: The Blind Beggar told Pop that he and War were double agents, ready to rip the Apocalypse down.

2) The most fucked up version I thought of was that The Blind Beggar said "Farewell, Grandfather," to Pop. In this route, Kat would die in childbirth so her son never got to meet her. Jules trained him to send him off to the slaughter, but his son wanted to, needed to do it to meet his mother, Kat, and spend a significant amount of time with her. So they used the Time Rune to send him back, and since both his parents were Arcanic, he became immortal himself. In this same version, Cy's biological family lineage was the Magnus family (who give their first name as a sign of their lineage: Magnus Tharlsson and Magnus Krakenbane), and when he figures this out, he names his son Magnus Tharlsson and sends him back in time as a baby, who then becomes The Painter. And then I thought wouldn't it be fucked up if Jafar/Greed and Sera/Lust had a daughter that trained hard and became a Shinsorai, and when it was time for The Blind Beggar to go back in time, she joined him…but went to a different century altogether—and her name was Clementine. So she had to torture both of her parents as The Iron Madien… But this caused two problems, 1) the 'I'm my own grandpa' with Cy and The Painter, and 2) the main one: since The Painter and The Blind Beggar would be cousins (since Cy and Jules are 'brothers'), then it would be similar to Cain and Abel and possibly restrike the whole Cycle again, and specifically with Clementine as their other 'cousin,' who would serve as a Rukia figure. Which idk, coulda been cool, too, because at its core, Wrath Reincarnated was a story about breaking the cycle. The cycle of trauma. The cycle of addiction. The cycle of vengeance. And how no matter what, even if you manage to break that cycle, it will continue on elsewhere…

Anyway, my notes are a cluster in and of themselves, and I know there were some missing pieces, but I hope this satisfies! Thanks for reading,

— gaidjinn

THE END