The forest was quiet and deathly still. It was as if the very world itself was afraid to move. There was malice in the air, so thick that every beast of the woods could feel it, like a predator breathing down their necks. This feeling was brought about due to a single individual who stood amongst all this life and wished to end it.

  The black scales common to his kind swallowed the evening light; its warm glow disappearing into that darkness like it was being devoured ravenously. Horns sprouted from his head and twisted back on themselves, running parallel with his jaw. Emerald eyes leered at the world around him, comparing it to pits he had to crawl up from, risking his life just so he could perform this simple act that every human gets to experience by being born. A low rumbling growl persisted as he stared.

  A moment later, a series of footsteps approached. Three humans clad in dark robes entered his presence. The stink of stale blood, sulfur, decay clinging to their bodies. These scents were familiar, and nauseatingly common throughout most of the circles.

  “My lord Envy, we have news.”

  Envy did not deign to respond to them immediately as he continued to stare out into the wilderness. When he did speak, his voice flowed like toxins from a serpent’s fangs.

  “Why do you deserve this?” The men looked between themselves, wondering how to respond, but the question was rhetorical. “God gave you all of this, made it with such love and attention for his favorite little creations. Why does he give this to you so freely? Are we not also his creations? Yet we are born into hell, doomed to suffer alongside the dregs of humanity for the sins of our forebearers who desired naught but freedom from his stifling rule. It’s always his plan, his grand scheme, his pawns in a game only he can play. I was born choking on air thick enough to grasp while every breath up here flows like a pure river. Is that your plan too!?”

  Envy shouted at the sky, leaving the three men to shuffle around anxiously. The one in the middle tried to speak again. “My lord, we have-”

  His voice was silenced when Envy spun around, fist lashing out and colliding with his head, shattering his skull in a spray of blood. The other two flinched but didn’t dare run or speak.

  “You do not deserve this! I do! I’ve suffered, I’ve fought, I’ve survived! Why should you be gifted with all this luxury when most of you just piss all over it! It should be MINE!” He delivered a swift kick to the corpse, sending it flailing a few feet away before landing on the ground again.

  Envy gnashed his teeth for a few more seconds before closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. Once his emotions were in a controlled state again, he addressed the remaining two.

  “What news do you bring?”

  “W-We have found Lord Greed and confirmed that he is d-dead.”

  Envy turned with surprise, and a bit of anger, on his face. “What?! How is that possible? As we are now, he would never be killed by mere humans. What happened?!”

  The two men took a step back in fear. “Th-That’s the other problem. We managed to get in contact with one of our informants from the city, and the plan that Lord Greed was attempting to enact has fallen apart. There was another of your kind there, my lord, and they reportedly interfered, and likely were responsible for the death of Lord Greed.”

  “Another of us? What do they look like?”

  “Much like you, but their horns curve backward, and their eyes are red.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Wrath...” Envy mumbled to himself, recognizing the description.

  Why didn’t he confirm with us that he had survived the summoning ritual? More importantly, why is he seemingly working with humans in the open? Did that idiot Greed do something to piss him off that much? Wrath was always one to act on impulse before everything else, but this doesn't make sense even for him.

  There were too many unknowns, too much that Envy could not even guess at. What was worse was that Wrath’s actions were now starting to affect the morale of those enthralled by him. He could see the will in their eyes start to falter at the news that one of their masters had fallen.

  “My lord, what will happen now? We have lost our hold in that city, can we still-”

  “Worry not your wretched little minds,” Envy interrupted before that dangerous line of thought could continue. “The promises we’ve made, the bargains that have been struck, they will all still come about. Greed acted on his own and crossed someone stronger than him. We are legion, meant to sweep across the world as a tidal wave, taking and consuming all that we desire. A single drop of water cannot break a wall, but we will pour forth from the deepest pits time and time again.”

  For as long as you fools keep calling to us, with your overflowing desires, then we will come to claim it all.

  He could see the reassurance in their faces at his promise. They have all they could ever need, yet they want more; to stand above their fellows and feel superior even as the world burns around them. And burn it shall, for they do not deserve it. He will let them indulge in their wants, but then he will take it from them and drag them down to the pits of hell itself where they will finally see what it is like to exist as he has.

  The two messengers left him alone, secure in the knowledge that their deals would be upheld. Envy glanced at the man he had struck down. His desire had already been granted, as shallow as it was. Jealousy over a rival that Envy dispatched for him. That made him fair game to dispose of whenever he saw fit, and that just so happened to be today. There was no end to humans like him.

  Greed and Envy had done good work together over the last decade, tempting numerous individuals into their claws, but now Envy was on his own, and with Wrath doing unknowable things, Envy was starting to feel frustration. He placed his foot onto the corpse’s back and grabbed the man’s arm. Pulling like one might do to separate the limb of a roasted chicken, he tore away the arm. The tantalizing scent of blood filled the air, and Envy indulged in a bit of a snack to ease his frustrations.

  The taste of the flesh was pleasant on his tongue as he savored the bites, but his little snack was drawing attention. From the brush and amidst the trees they crawled out, dozens of them drawn by the scent of blood yet not daring to challenge Envy on what they considered to be his meal. Those pale bodies, distorted by unnatural means after everything that could be considered human was carved out. Husks, as the common name for them was, were simply souls dragged up from the depths of hell, broken, reduced to little better than animals, and made subservient to their betters. They make useful foot soldiers.

  The dozens of black-eyed husks were sniffing after the corpse like a bunch of vultures. Envy wasn’t that hungry right now, so he grabbed the body and casually tossed it toward the group. They shrieked as the feral beasts shoved, pushed, and climbed one another before reaching the body and tearing it apart in a bloody display as a few fought over any severed limbs.

  Envy lost interest in them soon after that as he continued to chew idly on the arm he claimed, thinking about the information he was brought. Everything was unraveling, their carefully laid plans being undone by the surprise survival of Wrath. He wished that more of them made it through, but the fact that even three of them did was a statistical anomaly.

  The success rate of that ritual was exceedingly low. Breaking out of hell was, obviously, an extremely difficult task that carried risks, most of which meant death, either abrupt, or slow if you’re unlucky. That wasn’t even to mention the difficulty of getting information about how to conduct the ritual into the bumbling hands of humans. Honestly, they were lucky to get even a single successful crossing in a century, and there was no guarantee that the ‘lucky’ individual would survive long enough to accomplish anything.

  He bit down harder and crunched through the bone. This was the most progress he had heard of in over a millennium, and the idea of it all crumbling at such a critical juncture made his blood boil. Nothing was more important than this. It was early, much too early, but if Wrath wasn’t working toward the grand plan anymore or acting so wild that he was putting it in jeopardy, then maybe an acceleration of events was required.