“I never imagined it would be this huge. It’s like the east side of town is gone.” The archer, cleric, and mage were all astounded to see a wide hole stretched for several rows and columns of buildings, having half-way destroy buildings as if reminding the citizens what happened.

Once the group reunited in Branton, Sarah, Jessica, and Eric were brought up to speed on what happened two nights prior. After relaying the last day, the four wandered around town, gathering information on the explosion as well as getting lunch.

“You okay bud?” Jessica immediately sought to comfort Brian when she learned about what happened.

“I’m fine Jess, thanks for asking.” He wasn’t lying, at least so he thought. Brian could still hear Westin utter those last words, words that made him wince in pain. Still, he didn’t dare compare his experience with his friends.

“If you ever feel the need to talk to us about it, we’ll listen. We’ve all been through this.” Eric wondered if his words were really getting through. It was easy to gauge his effectiveness with Jessica or Matthew as they were so reactive, but Brian often kept to himself and unless he made a joke, his face was stone cold stoic.

“Whether we like it or not, we’re all in this to the end now. Matthew and Adriana are going to need us, we can’t leave them to face possibly the two most dangerous sins alone.” When Sarah had returned to Lumina, she was grateful that Jessica and Eric had stabilized themselves because the elf ended up wrecked far beyond what she imagined at the time. Without their quick recovery, she would still be home.

A cuckoo-clock pierced the blanket of silence that threatened to suffocate the room, alerting the group to the paramount information that was the day.

“It’s three o’clock.” The dragoon figured stating the obvious might have defused the situation a little bit, but he wasn’t sure that ‘diffusing’ was required in the first place. “Do you guys think we could just tell the queen we got the sins? I mean, what’s the worst she’s going to do if we stop right here?”

“Simple Brian, she has us exiled for treason, if not hunted down and assassinated.” Eric’s words had him shiver harshly when he realized what he said.

“Do you really think she could send someone else to do this job?”

“Tons of people. We’re not the only warriors in Araponza, much less Lumina. She’s sent us to kill the sins because everyone thinks highly of us. It’s that high that’s saved people from rebelling against us or the queen. If we were just some random warriors off the street doing some assassination mission, we’d be in jail by now.”

Before Brian could retort or respond, the knight and rogue arrived and greeted their friends.

“Supposedly, we know where the last two sins are. At least in a general sense.”

The others titled their head at the rogue, those words not assuring them.

“What Adriana means is that Xander has been spotted in the mountains. I managed to ask Lucy where Alex could be, and she said way up in Umbro, in Elvenbur.”

“You didn’t tell her what we were doing, did you?” Eric prayed the knight had some tact.

“I had to lie to her. It was a quick visit, but that quick visit could be saving lives, or at least lots of time and energy.”

“So we’re just supposed to head out to the mountains and hope we find him? I guess we’ve been getting too lucky with finding who we’re looking for. If I could make a suggestion, let’s not split up, okay?”

Despite how hypocritical her suggestion was, no one wanted to object to Jessica’s proposal.

“Alright then, lets head out to the mountains now. It’s summer, so we got a couple more hours before the sun goes down.”

The road to the mountains was lengthy, but morbidly nostalgic. Matthew could feel vivid memories flood his sight and hearing, a recording of the time Lucy guided them to the tower. Try as he might, the knight couldn’t recall what she named it; not that it mattered, but the issue would bother the man until something came along and yanked his conscious back into the real world.

Brian and Adriana had taken the lead once the group reached the mountains, splitting up briefly to scout as far as possible. After finding nothing, they would return to their party and wait for their leader’s next instruction, reminding themselves what Jessica requested. After what must have been an hour gone and over five searches across various mile-long stretches of mountain range, both scouts noticed a figure in the distance.

Once the information was relayed, the knight took charge, fast-walking to his destination. When he began to sweat, Matt slowed down as to not expend energy though he couldn’t tell why he was perspiring. When he continued to perspire, he glanced back at his friends to see that they looked natural.

Before Matthew could get lost in his subconscious again, he was face-to-face with a familiar giant, though without his signature armor. “Hello, I am Matthew Baronia. Who are you and why are you in the Doran Mountain Range?”

“Ah, Baronia. Has it been that long that you’ve forgotten me? Am I simply forgettable? Is it my lack of armor? Or is your memory terrible? Regardless, it is me, Xanderith, Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins. I had come here to sharpen my skill and my mind, but I feared that simply breaking some rocks would do neither.”

“I wanted to be sure that it was you. Xander, after the explosion in Branton that killed over one-hundred people, Queen Vanilla of Lumina has sent us to eliminate the seven sins. You may speak, you may defend yourself, but know that you can only make this more difficult for yourself.”

The giant stared down at the messenger, his expression remaining void. “I had nothing to do with the explosion in Branton. It is not my nature to kill, I could not live if I were to murder innocents. However,” he paused to transform, “if it means battling my rival, even if it’s the last, I shall accept, though I will only fight you, Baronia.”

Turning his attention to his team, the knight shooed them away with a wave. He could sense the power emanating from the devil, knowing it was far too strong for any of the others to handle, at least directly. But there was something else, something about what he proposed, something that he…

Matthew rubbed his eyes, the sweat from his forehead breaching the dams that were his eyebrows, derailing his train of thought. Forming a suit of armor around his entire body, save his head, he readied his stance.

When the devil swung his claymore, the force was powerful enough to lift his opponent off his feet and backwards a short distance, though the knight remained standing. In retaliation, the knight charged at the towering behemoth, able to duck under his wide arc and stab him in the gut. Before Xander could return blows, the smaller swordsman retrieved his sword and sidestepped, diving under the two-handed weapon that came within inches of hair despite Matthew sandwiching himself.

Striking the earth to shove himself backward and on to his feet, the knight knew true fear when he witnessed the fearsome devil trample the earth in an attempt to rush forward and lunge, Matthew swaying and striking back.

With another blow, the beast stumbled backwards, seeming to relent. Xander saw the knight lower his guard and sent a jumping slash down onto to the knight, his weight and power baring down on his opponent’s shield and smaller body. Once he stepped back to investigate the damage, he could see his target shrug off the attack.

“You really are something, Baronia; any other opponent would have been crushed, legs, arms, or both broken. You? You act as if I were just some piece of furniture, a featherweight perhaps. This is why I made you my rival, because you’re the only one to want to and be able to push me further. It’s unfortunate our reunion is under such circumstances. I can’t let you live for Lucille and Alexandria’s fates, nor would I die beforehand and deface the lives of my fallen friends.”

With a mighty roar that echoed throughout the mountains, the devil’s terrifying power was now sickening, as if it held a physical presence that threatened to choke or flatten Matthew. Xander proceeded to slam the broad end of his weapon onto the ground, shattering it like glass. When he held the lonely hilt aloft, metal began to circulate his hand until a spear shaped itself.

“You’ve seen might, Matthew, but now you’ll see experience. My weapon can be whatever I desire, whatever I believe the situation calls for. I don’t know it will take to defeat you, but I will find out.”

Guarding from an incoming lunge, the knight watched the spear shatter on impact. Next came a massive “THUD”, followed by another, and another, Matthew just able to see a hammer flying with another force to cut down a tree the size of a mountain. As if reading his mind, Xander used an axe next, then gauntlets, a flail, and a few weapons the swordsman wasn’t aware of. Each swing he could feel himself slipping, his mana draining, his defense howling for release.

‘Is that it?’ Matthew had closed his eyes during the assault, opening them when the devil had paused. Xander was now standing them, the hilt bereft of shape again, but now on the ground and on second glance, Matt could see the large man panting.

“Baronia, it seems your defense truly is impenetrable. At least by normal means. I will use all my energy on one last attack: an explosion strong to decimate a town, much less that armor of yours.”

It was only after those words that the swordsman remembered he hadn’t covered his head. Pulling in more metal around his body, Matthew closed his eyes and braced his body for what made of been the only thing to ever break his defense. It was then he could feel the sweat pouring down again. ‘Sweat? It’s not from exhaustion, it’s not from heat, it’s from fear. Please, if there is a god or goddess out there, let my armor be sturdy.’

The knight’s concentration was rocked by a planet shaking explosion, at least that’s what it felt like to him. Having covered himself in a tent of metal, Matt couldn’t see what had occurred until he rid himself of the shell.

Once his vision was no longer obscured, he caught sight of the man, now human again. Xander was sitting on his knees, head pointed straight down. “Xander!” He ran over to the fallen sin.

“Matthew, it was an honor to fight you. I can rest easy knowing that, while I never defeated you, I gave it my all. Fret not for my death Baronia, for I thank you for giving me the only thing I ever wanted: a fair fight.”

With his final words spoken, the man collapsed on his face, Matthew bending down to find his pulse flat.

“It was an honor, Xander, one that I won’t take for granted.”