Chapter 389 Now there are only three left.
Dante carefully stood up, trying not to make any noise, so as not to disturb Lailah after all the chaos she had caused.
She was deeply asleep, a soft sigh escaping her lips as her body relaxed. He gazed at her silently.
'So he's nearby... with Sloth, I have four primordial demons dead... I'll have to redo the demon world once I take over,' Dante thought as he adjusted himself.
Dante knelt down again, placing his hand on the girl's forehead and connecting to her demonic energy while analyzing her physical integrity.
'I see…' He stood up, then turned to Siren, who was standing and watching him in silence. The atmosphere in the room felt a bit strange between the two adults present. Dante looked at Siren, and she nodded.
"It's no surprise, it's her, indeed," she said calmly, breaking the silence without speaking too loudly to avoid waking her. Not that Lailah would wake up; for Sloth, this was probably just another ordinary day. But he didn't want to disturb her now.
"She's the Sin of Sloth. Your intuition wasn't wrong. Thanks for finding her so quickly," he ran his hand through his hair, reflecting for a moment. "Now, I need to find the other two, since Lucifer is Pride."
Dante tilted his head slightly, observing her. His eyes were penetrating, but there was a calmness in the details that accompanied his words.
"Did you know this from the moment you found her?" Dante asked, his voice soft but firm. She had an intense curiosity, but also a sharp sense of what was at stake.
Siren looked out the window, where the moonlight was beginning to shine, reflecting on the polished wooden surface. "I knew something. A presence, a feeling that made me think she carried something... something to do with control, power. But Sloth, Dante?" She smiled without humor. "That was a puzzle, even for me."
Dante fell silent for a moment, considering Siren's words. He knew she wasn't easily deceived, but the connection to Sloth was deeper than it first appeared. "And how was she brought to you? How did you discover she was linked to the sin?"
Siren took a step forward, as if she were about to delve deeper into the story. She looked at Dante, who seemed to be seeking more details, not just out of curiosity, but because he needed to understand what was behind this plot.
"I have no idea how she came into my orbit," she replied, her voice more serious now. "As you requested, I was constantly observing, tracking some strange movements from other demons. When I found her, she was in a very... fragile state. She carried the aura of something that had been sleeping for a long time, as if it had been left behind."
Dante blinked, absorbing the information. "So you found her by chance, in the middle of what seemed like just another case to solve? There was no clear sign of her nature?"
Siren turned back to her, a short smile appearing. "You underestimate my perception. I knew there was something... profound about her, but until that moment, I didn't know what. And now... Now I understand. Sloth isn't just a sin, it's an essence. And she is that. She is that sin incarnate."
The silence lingered again. Siren seemed to be pondering the meaning of her words. Dante felt the need to act quickly, not letting the situation drag on longer than necessary.
"I'll find out who's behind this. Normally, demons don't show up so easily around here," he said, his voice cold and determined. "I'll track down the demon who brought Sloth to her, take control, and make her mine."
Siren looked at him with a mix of respect and slight doubt. "Do you think this will be easy? That the demon responsible isn't expecting a reaction from you?"
Dante took a step back, more relaxed now, as if he had already made up his mind. "I know how demons think. Sloth is a very powerful vice, and the one responsible knows he has control over her. But I'll teach him a lesson about who really holds the power. I've already found the line of demonic energy, I just need to follow it and kill the demon."
Dante made a gesture to Siren, as if preparing to leave. "I'm going now. It won't take long. When I return, I expect Lailah to have recovered enough. The sin of sloth will no longer be something she'll carry, not with my intervention."
Siren watched Dante carefully, saying nothing more, knowing he had his own reasons, his own methods. What was happening now was beyond her control, but she knew he was capable of doing whatever he set out to do.
Dante made a swift movement, disappearing from the room without a sound. His presence seemed to dissolve into the darkness of the night, but he was already following an invisible trail.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"He could have stayed a little longer..." Siren murmured, biting her lip. "Just because I said I wasn't ready, didn't mean you had to stop..." She continued murmuring as she gazed out the window, watching the trail of fire blazing without looking back.
Dante's sharp senses quickly picked up the energies left behind by the demon responsible for this. Every bit of energy was scattered throughout the city, as if the demon had left a mark to be followed.
As he walked through the empty streets, the air felt thick and saturated with the essence of sloth. Dante took a deep breath, feeling each step resonate with the energy he was absorbing. It was a familiar sensation, yet unfamiliar, as it was something more connected to passivity than to action. Dante simply took the fastest route, as multiple minds began searching the empire while he walked, looking for the main trail.
The demon was hiding, but Dante knew exactly how to find him. He approached an old building, abandoned for years, but now pulsing with weak energy, as if it had been recently revitalized. He paused for a moment, observing the rusted and deteriorated structure. One of the sloth traces was there, and the demon controlling it was somewhere inside.
He descended into the building's basement, where the energy seemed to concentrate even more. When he reached the bottom, he found a familiar yet distorted figure waiting for him. Explore stories at empire
"So, you finally arrived," the voice said, soft and bored, as if the demon was more interested in sleeping than confronting Dante. That indifferent tone only confirmed the sin he represented: sloth. "Come on, let me sleep or just kill me already so I can rest. I'm tired... That bitch started killing the demons, I'm gonna die anyway."
He yawned, as if Dante's presence was an inconvenience. The demon didn't seem intimidated or anxious. Dante could feel the desolation emanating from him. Sloth wasn't just in the sin he represented, but in the way he viewed the world—a world weary, apathetic, where nothing mattered, not even his own life.
Dante stood silently, observing the creature with calculated patience. "You really don't care about your own survival, do you? Even with your life about to slip away, you still don't want to fight?"
The demon chuckled softly, another yawn that seemed to mix exhaustion and contempt. "Fight? Why? Hell's in pieces, things are a mess down there. Who needs more chaos? I'm the sin of sloth, not the war guy. You think I care about demon kings or anything else? Everything's lost."
Dante wasn't shaken by the demon's lack of energy. He knew that in any conversation with a being like that, it was necessary to know how to exploit every word, every pause, like a hunter carefully setting up a trap. "Interesting... So you're saying Hell is in pieces? What happened to make everything like this? Tell me more."
The demon chuckled again, but the sound was far from joyful; it was an empty laugh, lifeless, as if mocking the very idea of caring about what was happening around him. He closed his eyes, visibly settling deeper into the darkness, trying to surrender to the stupor of sloth that dominated him.
"You're more persistent than you seem," he said, opening his eyes with visible effort. "Fine, since you're so interested... I'll tell you. Not like I have anything better to do anyway." He let out a tired sigh and leaned back further against the wall, seemingly seeking the comfort of indifference. "Astaroth, that bastard, decided to start cleaning up Hell. Not that I care, but what he did was kill four of our demon kings. And not only that... he's leaving a trail of destruction wherever he goes."
Dante furrowed his brow, absorbing the information with attention. "Astaroth... who else could it be... has she already killed Lucifer?" he asked.
"Huh? No, of course not. Lucifer's been in isolated training for a while now, seems like someone hit him so hard he lost his confidence," the demon said, yawning. "Anyway... Astaroth seems to be heading towards the World Tree while killing the demon kings."
"Ah... what a mess. She's started the plan," Dante commented. "Hey, you little piece of shit, tell me where the Sins of Wrath and Envy are."
The demon looked at him and broke into a wide grin.