The Author's POV

'Is he sharper than I let out, or is he just stupid?"

Suriol pondered to himself as he gazed at the human standing not so far from him. In the previous few moments, right when he was morphing his body, he sensed a slight murderous intent coming from the human.

He thought that he would attack him.

If there was a time when he was most vulnerable, it would indeed be during his transformation, so Suriol found it surprising that he didn't attack him.

'Did he sense something?'

In truth, the human would have most likely suffered severe injuries or even died had he chosen to attack.

The fact that he didn't do anything had in itself saved his life.

Suriol was not so dimwitted as to allow the human to take advantage of such a glaring weakness in his defenses.

He was obviously prepared.

'This new body isn't too bad…'

Suriol shifted his attention toward his new body.

He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists before raising his head to look at the human who was staring back at him with a look filled with surprise.

The grin that was already on his face grew wider.

"This is the existence you envy?"

He asked while moving around in this new body of his.

Suriol was a member of the Envy clan. A Duke ranked one at that. What made the clan of envy the strongest of the other clans was the unique power a certain part of their members had.

Evny, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Greed, Wrath, and Sloth; Each clan represented a sin, and with it, they were born with an innate power that was only unique to their clan, and that perfectly matched their sin.

In Suriol's case, his power was that of someone who, by looking through the memories of their adversary, could flawlessly imitate the person that their adversary envied.

In this case, it was the form that he had just copied.

It took a total of ten seconds for Suriol to get used to the new body, and when he did, he felt everything become clear as information started to flood his mind.

They were a bit scattered as there seemed to be something wrong with the person's memories, but they were enough for Suriol to absorb and assimilate with himself.

"…He is indeed a person worth envying."

He extended his hand, at which point a sword composed of tangible demonic energy materialized.

Suriol slowly assumed his position as he locked eyes with the human standing opposite him.

"Let us see the power of the human that you envy, shall we?"

Click—!

***

"Fuck off!"

Hein let out a resounding roar as his shield collided with a nearby demon, knocking the demon to the ground with a loud crash.

The next thing that he did was stomp on the demon's head with his foot.

Crack.

forward, where

Booom—!

on the demons that were in front of him. The moment their eyes locked, both of them took on more vicious

"Huek!"

"Kuak!"

extended his hand and swiped in a

pileup on the ground of several severed heads due to the result of his actions. Hein manipulated the flame psyons in the air with the flick of his finger, and as a result, the demons'

as he stomped on them with his

Bang!

"Ukh…"

as a demon appeared from his right side and attacked

'There's so many.'

second after killing five demons, and ten more were at

They seemed endless.

"Fuck this shit."

pounded his shield

"Huaaa!"

Boom—!

and a powerful shockwave propagated outward, forcing the demons that were around him to spread apart. Hein took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself in that split second by pressing his foot against the ground and propelling his body in the direction of the

"Huek!

single break, he twisted his body and the head of a nearby demon detached, falling to the ground. As the blood continued to

the cores, Hein crushed the head

whip, his foot smacked against a demon's neck, sending it

foot, shield, head…Hein used everything that he had

from Han Yufei wasn't

a result of Han Yufei teaching him martial

to be sufficient. He needed to find ways to deal with his opponent, which was

nearly as bad as my time with Han

involuntarily at the memory of

at first, but

this point. Hein feared him more

fight against. Not only would the training grounds be left in shambles, but

himself and wait for his stamina to run out. However, this never seemed to

was quite simply, a

to him

bitterly smiled and took a deep breath. Eying the demons in front of him, his eyes sharpened and

[Steel domain]

and it wasn't long before the shield split into five

began hovering around him, and while Hein grunted once, the shields began to grow in size with the assistance of Hein's mana, which

long before he had five hovering shields, centered by a part of his

'Down.'

and the shields bowed with their apexes facing outward. All of this transpired in a fraction of a second, and with a twist of his hands,

hand forward and the radius around him

"Heek!"

"Hueak!"

after

limbs flying everywhere around Hein. However, he didn't have time to care about this as he could feel his mana dwindling at an alarming rate.

lot more exhausting than I

to grit his

more than twenty minutes. It sounded like a lot of time, but in reality, it was practically nothing in comparison to a war that would probably last

…If that wasn't all.

Boooom—!

by an expected explosion, during which he felt a powerful force blast

"Urkk!"

ground in a