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.

hearing a familiar cracking sound, he dashed forward, where he was followed by the

Booom—!

move from his position and instead fixed his gaze on the demons that were in front of him. The moment their eyes locked, both of them took on more vicious

"Huek!"

"Kuak!"

and swiped in

his actions. Hein manipulated the flame psyons in the air with the flick

destroying them as he stomped on them

Bang!

"Ukh…"

side and attacked him. He was, fortunately, able to block the attack with just his

'There's so many.'

killing five demons, and ten more were at him. The

They seemed endless.

"Fuck this shit."

pounded his shield

"Huaaa!"

Boom—!

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

"Huek!

nearby demon detached, falling to the ground. As the blood continued to pool on his shield, it didn't take long before

about the cores, Hein crushed the head of the demon with his

foot smacked against a

that he had at his disposal to

like learning from Han Yufei wasn't

a result of Han

defending himself was not going to be sufficient. He needed to find ways to deal with

I think of it, this isn't nearly as bad as my time

memory of his battles with Han

bearable at first,

inhuman at this point. Hein feared him more than

some strange art, he became impossible to fight against. Not only would the training grounds be left in shambles, but the manner in which he fought left absolutely no room for Hein to take a breath

stop Han Yufei from his endless onslaught; all he could do was brace himself and wait for his stamina to run out. However, this never seemed to happen throughout their spars as Han Yufei never

quite

him that I have improved

the demons in front of

[Steel domain]

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

Hein grunted once, the shields began to grow in size with the assistance of Hein's mana, which was attached to the shield's side in the form of

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

'Down.'

in a fraction

forward and the radius around him

"Heek!"

"Hueak!"

shortly after as agonized

could feel his mana dwindling at an alarming rate. It was depleting so fast that he couldn't even process the disgust

lot more exhausting

to grit

going, he didn't see how he could survive for 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

…If that wasn't all.

Boooom—!

which he felt a powerful force blast

"Urkk!"

around Hein fell to the ground in a helpless manner as he skidded back several