Alice's grip on the Fragment tightened again at the voice. Bonnibel tensed, staring at the pulsing violet light with alarm.

  "What the hell is that?" Bonnibel hissed.

  But Perihelion's eyes had widened as well, filled with something almost like… recognition.

  "...Impossible...I know this aura...it's...the Seven Deadly Sins...!”

  Alice and Bonnibel's heads whipped around to Perihelion.

  "What?" Bonnibel said flatly. "You mean... the actual Seven Deadly Sins? Like, from the legends?"

  Perihelion's eyes still hadn't left the violet light.

  "Yes," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "It can only be the real ones..."

  The light was growing bigger.

  Alice's heart was racing. "The… the real Sins? But… they're just myths! Legends!”

  "No," Perihelion said, still staring at the light. "They're not myths. They're... very, very real."

  Bonnibel and Alice exchanged nervous glances.

  "But if the Sins are real…" Alice said, voice hushed. "Then… which one is it?"

  The light was nearly at ground level now.

  Perihelion was silent for a moment.

  "I think…" she said slowly. "I think it's Greed.”

  "Myths don't make the earth tremble," Perihelion said quietly, still staring.

  "And legends don’t speak."

  The violet glow pulsed stronger, thrumming now in time with a slow, deep heartbeat.

  Then came the voice again, calm, ancient… almost amused:

  “Myths? Legends?”

  It chuckled, a sound like stone breaking.

  “Child… we were here before your world had names for sin.”

  A long silence fell.

  Then—

  BOOM.

  The ground heaved, and from the fissure rose a towering figure, cloaked in tattered shadows, face hidden beneath a hood shaped like broken horns.

  Its presence crushed the air itself.

  Bonnibel stumbled back, voice strained: “...That’s not possible.”

  Alice gripped her weapon harder. “Perihelion… what is that thing?”

  Perihelion finally looked at her and there was no mockery this time. Only fear.

  “That,” she whispered…

  “Is Pride.”

  Pride slowly lifted its head.

  From beneath the horned hood, no face could be seen; only a swirling void, like eyes made of collapsing stars.

  It raised one hand, long-fingered and gaunt, and pointed straight at Perihelion.

  “You remember us,” it rumbled. “Good.”

  Its voice dropped lower.

  “But you should not have woken us.”

  The air turned icy, the very light dimming as Pride’s presence pressed down like a collapsing sky.

  Perihelion didn’t move, but her breath came just a little faster.

  "I didn't wake you," she said, voice steady despite the dread threading through it. "The rupture did. Denjiki’s fear… his retreat into forgotten laws—he tore something in the fabric."

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  A low hum vibrated from beneath Pride’s hood—amusement, cold and sharp.

  “He ran,” it said. “And in doing so… stepped on old seals.”

  Another beat of silence…before…

  CRACK!

  From another fissure nearby, red energy flared upward like blood from a wound.

  A second voice rose, harsh and ravenous:

  "FINALLY... FREEDOM."

  Bonnibel spun toward the new threat. “Oh come on—not two of them!”

  Alice tightened her grip on the Fragment. “Three?”

  Perihelion closed her eyes briefly, then opened them with grim clarity.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “There were seven.

  “And now… they’re all coming.”

  Bonnibel's eyes widened, looking from Pride to the red light.

  "You mean… all the Sins?" she hissed, disbelief coloring her tone.

  Perihelion didn't answer, eyes flickering anxiously between Pride and the red glow.

  The light was growing larger, taking on a vaguely human-like form… laughing now, voice raw, ragged:

  "We're finally free…

  To claim the prey that's long overdue! Whatever will you do now that the Seven Heavenly Virtues are sealed and not present to protect you?!"

  Alice’s grip tightened on the Fragment, her voice sharp. “The Virtues… sealed?”

  Perihelion’s expression darkened, something pained flickering behind her eyes.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Before I awoke in this world… they were taken. Bound by chains older than time itself.”

  Bonnibel gritted her teeth. “So we’re dealing with unleashed Sins and no counterbalance? That's like lighting dynamite in a powder room!”

  Above them, Pride tilted its head slightly.

  “Clever metaphor,” it mused, voice dripping with mockery. “But you still don’t understand.”

  It raised both hands slowly, and from the cracks of the earth, six more pulses erupted—each one a different corrupt hue:

  - A sickly green that hissed with jealousy

  - An oily orange that pulsed like gluttony

  - Black tendrils writhing in slow lust

  - Murky gray waves of endless sloth

  - And deep crimson claws sharpening from wrath

  One final pulse, an icy blue whisper, coiled through the air last.

  Envy... Gluttony... Lust... Sloth... Wrath...

  And now…

  Greed emerged as gold-slick fingers clawed from stone.

  The last voice slithered out:

  "We don't just want freedom..."

  Then all seven voices spoke as one:

  "We want to RECLAIM what was stolen."

  The ground split further, the ruins crumbling as each Sin began to take form around them…

  Alice looked at Perihelion, fear edging her tone:

  “We’re not ready for this…”

  Perihelion met her gaze, and for once…

  Her calm cracked.

  “No,” she said softly.

  “We’re not.”

  Then Bonnibel clenched her staff, jaw set hard. "Well, we don't have a choice now, do we?"

  Perihelion turned to the twins, Alice clutching the Fragment, Bonnibel with fire in her eyes.

  And slowly… she nodded.

  “No,” she said again, this time stronger. “We’re not ready.”

  She stepped forward, placing herself between them and the rising Sins.

  “But they don’t know that.”

  A faint silver glow began to ripple around Perihelion, like starlight caught in glass.

  The air stilled once more.

  Then…

  "Run."

  Her voice cracked like thunder through time itself:

  “RUN AND DO NOT LOOK BACK!”

  And with a surge of blinding light…

  She pushed them. Not with hands, but with moments.

  One heartbeat: they were standing beside her.

  The next: they were yards away, stumbling as space itself bent under Perihelion’s will.

  Pride roared, a sound that split mountains. “YOU CANNOT OUTRUN ETERNITY!”

  But Perihelion stood firm… facing all seven Sins alone…

  Her voice calm as dying stars:

  “I’m not trying to.”

  Pride's words crackled through the air like a challenge. "Bold," it rumbled, taking a step forward. There was a dangerous gleam in its starless eyes.

  Perihelion didn't move. "Brave," she replied coolly.

  Gluttony, still half-formed, spat a curse in a language older than words. "Foolish."

  Perihelion's eyes glimmered. "Desperate."

  Wrath rumbled like a coming storm. "Hopeless.”

  But still, Perihelion didn't flinch. "Determined," she said, voice firm.

  There was a beat of tense silence. Then a low chuckle. Pride tilted its head, the motion making it seem almost amused.

  "You think you can stand against us?”

  "I know I can’t," Perihelion said.

  A flicker of surprise passed through the Sins.

  She lifted her chin, silver light weaving through her hair like threads of fate.

  “But I don’t have to win.”

  Her voice dropped.

  “I only have to last long enough… for them to escape.”

  Pride took another step. “They will not get far.”

  Perihelion smiled while shaking her head.

  “No,” she agreed. “But they’ll get farther than you expect.”

  The sky above cracked like glass.

  The Sins all looked up, surprised.

  A low murmur went through the air, a collective sound of shock, disbelief... recognition.

  Pride's eyes flicked to the sky.

  "Oh no…”

  A faint silver glow hovered just above, as if struggling against an invisible barrier.

  Perihelion grinned. Cold, triumphant.

  "Oh yes," she murmured, a touch of grim satisfaction in her voice.

  "The Veil is thin," she said. "And they felt your awakening."

  Pride’s form tensed, its void-like eyes narrowing.

  “Impossible,” it hissed. “They are sealed—bound beyond time!”

  But the silver glow pulsed stronger.

  And from it, three distant chimes rang out across the sky… faint… yet unshakable.

  Like bells tolling through eternity.

  Perihelion closed her eyes.

  “No,” she whispered. “You were never meant to rise while they still echo.”

  Above, the cracks in the sky widened just a fraction more. And for one fleeting second…

  A glimmer of white wings passed behind the light.

  Then vanished.

  Pride staggered back. One step, then another, as if struck by an unseen force.

  “No…” it growled, voice trembling with fury and something deeper.

  Fear.

  Perihelion opened her eyes, glowing like stars reborn:

  “They may not be here yet…”

  Her voice rose: not loud, but absolute…

  “But they’re coming.”