Chapter 4 - The Temptation of the Eternal (Continued)

Gluttony fell to his knees, the weight of his own essence crushing him. It seemed this was a common occurrence; his mouths, once ravenous, now stood in utter silence.

He knew the true battle had never been against hunger. The fight was always against arrogance—the belief that his insatiability made him superior. Now, he found himself a prisoner of that very hunger, trapped in the web of doubt I had spun. He hadn't realized the trap until it was too late.

He raised his head, and his eyes, once burning with fury, were now consumed by a glow of agony. "I can't..." he murmured, as if the words themselves were difficult to utter, choking on them.

"Can't what?" I asked, my voice soft. "Can't resist the impossible? Or is it that you can no longer face what you've always feared—your own helplessness?"

Gluttony's gaze faltered. He wanted to resist, but something within him had already shattered. His greatest fear wasn't hunger. It was the fear that he would never control his nature. He was trapped in a cycle that enslaved him. And now, he was beginning to understand that.

"I can't live without it..." Gluttony whispered, his voice broken by frustration. He rose to his feet, his hands trembling—not with anger, but with fear. Fear of losing the one thing that gave him a false sense of control.

"You don't need to live without it," I said, my voice echoing like a promise. "But you must understand that you will never have peace if you surrender to it without restraint. True freedom lies in choosing not to be ruled by your own nature."

He seemed to absorb my words, his many mouths beginning to close one by one, as if his hunger was being filled by something he didn't understand. He wanted to believe, but he no longer knew what he wanted. He was lost, now a prisoner of his own uncertainty.

"You can be more than this, Gluttony," I continued, stepping closer to him. "True satisfaction doesn't come from endless consumption, but from choosing what to nourish within yourself. It's not about denying what you are, but about learning not to be enslaved by it."

He remained silent, his mouths closed, his expression revealing an inner conflict. For a long time, he stood there, trapped in his anguish. Something was shifting within him, but the answer was still unclear.

That emptiness, that void in his essence he so desperately tried to fill, was the key. He, who had spent his existence consuming endlessly, was beginning to realize that true fulfillment didn't lie in consumption, but in accepting the void—the absence that, contrary to what he believed, made him human. The sin wasn't just the relentless pursuit of pleasure, but the inability to find purpose in an endless cycle.

"I... I need to think," Gluttony said, his voice now weaker.

"Of course," I replied, my expression impassive. "Think, Gluttony. But know this: true freedom comes from within. Not from what you consume, but from what you choose to let go."

Sowing doubt is the same as ensuring someone clings to it.

I left him there, engulfed in his own torment, while the Hell around us remained unchanged. He was lost in his confusion, and I knew that was the only way to defeat him. Gluttony, who had spent eternity seeking satisfaction through consumption, was now beginning to face the truth I had handed him: true freedom doesn't lie in blindly following desire, but in the ability to control it.

Gluttony still needed time. In Hell, everything takes time. Every decision, every choice, has its cost, and Gluttony would have to pay his. But the doubt I had planted was more dangerous than any temptation. It would erode his essence until he was forced to make a choice.

I knew my mission was far from over, but this battle was nearly won. When he finally confronted the truth I had revealed, whatever remained of his essence would be much easier to manipulate.

I would continue walking through the depths of Hell, guiding him like a puppeteer until the moment he could no longer escape the choice I had imposed. Gluttony was lost. And now, he just needed to convince himself of that.

Satisfied, I took another step toward my goal. Each of my movements brought him closer to his fall, and each sin he faced made my victory more certain.

In the end, what remained of Gluttony would be a shadow of what he once was. And that shadow, now fragile, I could easily manipulate to my advantage.