We walked in silence, our steps echoing through the emptiness. The Sins followed me without questioning, without hesitation. They didn't need words to understand. I didn't guide them with promises, didn't feed them with illusions—they were here because they wanted to be.
Lust walked a little ahead, her eyes scanning the wreckage with an amused glint.
— It's funny — she said, not looking at anyone in particular — how they beg to be saved until the last second. As if there were something beyond this moment.
— Hope is the most addictive drug of all — commented Gluttony, licking his lips as if tasting his own theory.
— And the most useless — added Greed.
I smiled.
— Don't underestimate hope. It keeps the illusion alive. And as long as the illusion lives, the lie continues to spread.
— You want to end the lie? — asked Envy, crossing her arms.
— No — I replied. — I want them to see it for what it truly is.
Our path led us to a destroyed square, where a man was kneeling amidst the debris. He didn't seem to notice our presence. His thin fingers were plucking feathers from a dead seraph and slowly chewing them, as if they were the last food on Earth.
We stood there, watching in silence. The sound of the feathers cracking between his teeth was suffocating.
I felt Greed move a little closer, curious. Gluttony stepped forward, but I raised my hand, stopping him.
The man finally raised his gaze. His face was covered in celestial blood, his deep eyes gleaming with a feverish light.
He smiled.
— Who are you, and who do you follow?
His voice didn't tremble. There was no fear, only certainty.
I stepped closer, lowering myself to his level.
— I should be asking the same.
He blinked slowly, still smiling.
— I follow Christ and Muhammad. My name is Marco.
I looked at the remains of the dead seraph. At the chewed feathers in his teeth.
— And what kind of Christ and Muhammad do you follow?
— They are the greatest!
— Greatest in what?
— In their fullness!
The fervor in his voice was an echo of what once ruled this place.
I took a deep breath without looking away.
— Do you believe this because you've seen it, or because they told you to believe it?
Marco frowned, hesitating for the first time.
— I... I know it's true.
— How?
— Because... because it must be!
I tilted my head slightly.
— And what if it's not?
Desperation crossed his face.
— You don't understand. If it's not... then... then everything was in vain.
— It was.
He froze.
The words weighed on him like a sentence. His breath quickened. His eyes flickered.
— No...
— Yes.
The Sins were silent, watching. They didn't need to intervene. Marco was already falling apart.
He tried to laugh, but the sound came out trembling.
— You're wrong. Christ... Muhammad... they... they are the truth!
— The truth doesn't need to be swallowed like the feathers of a dead seraph.
Marco looked at his own hands, covered in golden blood.
— No...
— Yes.
He was trembling. His eyes shone with tears that never fell.
I stood up and looked at Greed.
— Kill him in the cruelest way you can. As always.
Greed smiled.
Without hesitation, he thrust his arm into Marco's throat.
The man writhed, his feet scraping against the ground. His eyes begged for mercy, but his mouth could no longer speak.
The bones broke one by one.
That faith didn't save Marco.
Since I was chained here, my mind has changed. The perception of the world fragmented and reorganized into shapes that once seemed impossible. The order I was taught to respect, the sanctity they promised to be unbreakable, the judgments they imposed on me as absolute truths... Everything proved fragile, a lie so well told that even the most skeptical believed it.
I am a mistake. A mistake that should never have existed.
And if everything is a mistake, then there is no mistake in destroying it.
Where there are saints, I will make them doubt their own holiness.
Where there are Demons, I will make them doubt their own greed.
Where there are Gods, I will make them change the course of life.
And where there is God, I will make Him destabilize His own creation.
My gaze lifted, staring down the path ahead. The sky was dead. What was once the dwelling place of the righteous was now an open-air cemetery, where angelic bodies piled up like offerings to a deity that no longer looked down. I walked among severed wings, halos stained with blood, broken spears. Nothing shone anymore. The gold and light were suffocated by rust and shadow.
And in the midst of this profane scene, one sight caught my attention.
A man, kneeling on top of a dead seraph, tearing its intestines out with his teeth, chewing like a wild animal. The sound was grotesque, a wet and disgusting crackle. He didn't care about me, nor the presence of the Sins. He just wanted to devour.
I stopped in front of him. He didn't even lift his eyes.
— Why do you commit sins?
His mouth chewed slowly. His empty eyes took time to meet mine.
— Because...
I raised my hand.
— Don't say it.
He froze. The silence between us became an overwhelming weight.
— Depraved in mind and flesh. — My voice came out cold, scratching my throat like blades. — Carnal pleasures wither your mind and rot your flesh. Every breath of pleasure is a step toward your own decomposition, every satisfied desire is another nail in the coffin of your sanity.
His eyes trembled, a spark of understanding flickering behind the animalistic hunger.
— You've felt it, haven't you? The emptiness. The insatiable need to fill yourself. But there's no filling, only a hunger that grows and grows until it consumes everything. You are a shell. A body in motion, but without a real spirit inside. And still, still, you think you're right.
He didn't answer. He kept looking at me, his chin dirty with blood, his gaze wavering between fear and confusion.
— Who are you? Who do you follow?
He blinked. His mouth opened into a dirty smile.
— I follow the two greatest.
My eyes narrowed.
— Who are they?
— I follow...
I didn't let him finish.
His words were already poisoned. I already knew which names he was going to spit out. He was one of the countless who had surrendered to false comfort, to poisoned dogma. One of those who helped destroy Heaven.
My fingers closed around his throat. He gasped, his hands automatically going to my wrists, but there was no real strength in his resistance. I felt the faint pulse under my skin, the life slowly draining away.
— You don't deserve to speak.
I tore out his tongue.
His scream was smothered by his own blood. He writhed, his eyes wide in pure horror, his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish.
I threw the tongue on the ground.
Behind me, the Sins watched in silence.
I didn't need to say anything.
The message had already been delivered.
Where there are saints, I will make them doubt their own holiness.
Where there are Demons, I will make them doubt their own greed.
Where there are Gods, I will make them change the course of life.
And where there is God, I will make Him destabilize His own creation.