Scrawny and Swole

The clouds downpoured onto a ruin of despair.

Abel roamed the empty streets of the North City, past the dead bodies that filled the region of Specialized Phase D. He should've felt the accomplishment in eliminating the Sin of Pride, Venus. But it came at what cost? The loss of a comrade. One of his very own.

Abel thought about Axel's last words.

"Kill the rest of the Sins, Forgiveness…" The memory echoed in his head.

As the Virtue of Forgiveness, it was now his responsibility to eliminate the remaining six Sins. But after witnessing the outcome of his encounter with Venus, he couldn't deny the feeling of doubt that plagued his mind. If the Sin of Pride alone was that powerful, he couldn't imagine what would come out of the rest.

As dire as the Sin situation was, the mystery behind Abel's past only overshadowed. He did now know he was and is a Virtue. But in how he came to be seemed unethical. From what he got, his memories were simply taken. Whether he agreed to it or not, he didn't know. It was a matter of giving or stealing.

The problem was that even though he now knew his past identity as the Virtue of Forgiveness, too many blanks still remained. Axel mentioned that he was a new recruit. But how was he chosen to be a Virtue? For what purpose were his memories taken away, and why was it against an order to be made aware of that? Most importantly, he still didn't even know his real name.

Being at the tournament also confused Abel. If Axel truly did come to the tournament on his own without the knowledge of the other Virtues, why would Abel himself be there too?

At that point, it was either a coincidence, or a lie.

Axel could've lied about his motive to prevent him from finding out he was a Virtue. In that case, that would mean the other Virtues could possibly be in the tournament as well.

Abel grasped at the wish of having these blanks filled in, but there was nothing to reach. His best bet at answers was now long gone, just like his memories. Axel walked the Earth no more.

A loud beep suddenly rung throughout the North City.

"25 contenders remaining. Phase 3 initiated. Maps will now be disabled for the remainder of the tournament." The voice echoed.

Abel pulled his device out to check the map. It was out of order. The screen was a fuzzy glitch.

"Raw navigation..." He continued on.

Every phase seemed to dim to half remaining each time. This worried Abel, now knowing he was amid the 25 contenders left. He was now more easily bound to encounter a Sin this Phase. The thought half-worried him, but also half-angered him. He didn't want to let his pair's death be in vain. He hoped to fulfill Axel's dying wish.

Continuing his clueless roam, Abel noticed that the city was like a pattern. It was recurring. The same visual set of buildings were seen along each new street. It were as if they'd been copied from one, and pasted into another.

High-rise towered over Abel, while hollow ground under-passed beneath. Though much larger, the skyscrapers gave Abel a narrow feeling. It was the same notion of tightness that he felt from the thin trees in Venus' world of deception. To maintain his cool, he took long deep breaths in regular intervals.

The sounds of battle that used to echo the course of the city was now replaced with Abel's timid steps. But his steps multiplied, or at least its echo did. The sound of more steps reverberated back towards Abel. Towards the corner he approached suddenly came out two individuals. Each held a weapon. They were contenders.

One noticed Abel heading their direction. He was scrawny, and carried a knife. He signified the other, a swole male, who carried an axe. Both walked towards Abel with noticeable aforethought.

"He's a perfect victim," Abel heard the scrawny one say.

"Yeah, he's alone. Looks weak too," the swole one snorted.

The both laughed menacingly as they approached, waving their weapons around.

Abel was un-vexed. He continued in their direction.

"We might be able to get some good loot off this guy," the scrawny one said.

"I'll flank," swole suggested. He ran down an opposite road, out of Abel's view.

By now, scrawny was meters away from Abel. He began a sprint forward, striking forth with a knife attack. Abel parried this upon drawing the dagger given to him by Axel. The two exchanged strikes, each connecting with one another's weapon. Metal clangs echoed throughout the sleek streets.

Caught in a parry, Abel held his ground against scrawny. But suddenly, swole came out of nowhere shoving into Abel. He got knocked aside onto the ground.

"What a weakling!" Swole snorts.

Abel quickly recovered and readied his weapon. In that moment, swole pounced towards him and swung his axe. Abel reactively ducked, and using swole's momentum in the direction he swung, Abel shoved him down face first with enough force to break his nose.

"Ough!"

Abel suddenly heard a quick patter lead up behind him. He turned around and immediately raised his weapon, blocking scrawny's attempted sneak attack.

"You bitch!" Scrawny screamed.

Scrawny forced more attacks against Abel, trying to overwhelm him. But Abel remained on the defensive, blocking and dodging each swing. Eventually, Abel memorized scrawny's attack pattern. Following the pattern, Abel read scrawny's overhead attack and struck it with enough force to knock the knife out of his hand. Now unequipped, scrawny was left wide open without a means to defend himself.

Abel decided to take advantage of this moment.

He lunged forward, slashing him across the chest. This caused scrawny to grunt in pain as he fell to the floor.

Both of Abel's attackers were now injured sitting on the ground.

"Why're you so weak?!" Swole said, holding his broken nose.

"SHUT UP!" Scrawny screamed. He grumbled curses under his heavy breathing.

Pain courses throughout the both of them. Abel simply stands there, ready to finish them off, until the swole one interrupts his thought; "Why did we agree to doing all his dirty work..."

"What do you mean why? He said he'd share some of his power if we did!" Scrawny replied.

"But if he's already that strong, why get goons to retrieve loot for him? He could probably get it himself..." Blood leaked from swole's nose.

"Ugh, he seems like such a lazy son of a bitch, that's why. He's called the Sin of Sloth for a reason," scrawny scoffed.

Abel's attention was quickly caught.

"Did you say Sin of Sloth?"

Scrawny looked up at him, giving him a dirty look. "Yeah... ? Why should you care?"

"The Sin of Sloth, is he in this tournament?"

Scrawny watched Abel suspiciously. "Why the fuck should I tell you?"

"Yeah, it's none of your business", swole jumped in.

Abel walked over to swole and stood over him, twisting the dagger around in his hand.

"Do you think you're in the position to be saying that?"

"Er—" Swole stuttered.

"How do you guys know him?" Abel asked.

"Who wouldn't? He's one of the Seven Sins," scrawny said.

"Or at least he claims to be," swole spoke up. "He's just some dude who's been rounding up other contenders to do deeds for him."

"So you're his goons? Why?" Abel asked offendedly. He was reminded of what happened after helping a Sin.

"Because the guy offered some of his power in return for loot. He wanted weapons or abilities from other contenders, or even the Specialized Phases," scrawny replied.

Power. That's all that people wanted here. Power.

Abel couldn't help but feel disgusted by the motive at hand.

"Tell me where the Sin of Sloth is," Abel commanded.

Scrawny, still holding his chest wound, laughed. "Like I said, why the fuck should I tell you—?"

Abel aggressively grabbed him by the collar and pulled him towards him. Placing the edge of his dagger at scrawny's throat, he made his proposal. "Because you might be left with a slit throat if you don't."

Scrawny froze up and struggled to speak.

"HEY! BACK OFF!" Swole shouted. He carried his axe onto his feet and rushed towards Abel.

Swole swung his axe down onto Abel, but Abel dodged immediately. His axe now stuck in the ground after striking so hard. Distracted by trying to pull his weapon out, swole didn't notice Abel coming up behind him. He wrapped his dagger right around swole's throat, slicing directly across.

"Hug—gurghgl—!!!"

Blood sprayed out, and swole held his neck in pain. He quickly collapsed to the floor, now squirming as his life drained away.

Abel now turned back towards scrawny, who watched in complete shock.

"It's either you tell me, or that happens to you," Abel spoke calmly. He felt the brutality in the actions he performed, but also felt zero empathy.

"I-I don't know…" Scrawny stuttered.

Abel began walking towards him.

"I'M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH I DON'T KNOW WHERE SLOTH IS!"

Abel paused, abruptly grabbing scrawny by the shirt again. He pulled him close and once more threatened at the throat.

"Don't lie to me."

"I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW! He sent each of us off with orders, and we've never seen him since then!" Scrawny continued to breathe heavily in fear. Abel could sense this. He dropped scrawny's collar.

"Go then."

Scrawny remains still, shocked at his unexpected liberation.

"Go before I do the same thing I did to your friend."

Scrawny's eyes widened. He quickly picked himself up and dashed from the scene, sobbing into the empty echoes of the North City.

Abel watched as he ran off, eventually disappearing into the distance. He looked back at swole, who now laid limp. He decided he'd now walk the other direction, into another street.

Walking alone, Abel comes to ask himself, "Why was I chosen to be a Virtue?"

The question still remained, and would until he found his answer.