Chapter 429 Two Sides of Justice
The Holy Order Plane. The Goetic Order Plane. The Abyss Plane.
These three planes, which can be considered to be powerful in their own, had a complicated relations.h.i.+p with each other.
The Holy Order Plane, which was created by the Holy Monarch himself, was a Plane that held the powers of the Seven Virtues. On their own, this plane had conquered its neighboring planes, making its strength already apparent.
But this strength was quickly regulated at the appearance of the Goetic Order Plane and the Abyss Plane.
The Goetic Order Plane, which was created by the beings who were expelled from the Holy Order Plane, was able to quickly a.s.similate power until became powerful enough to resist the entirety of the Holy Order Plane by itself.
At this point in time, even when the residents of the Goetic Order Plane does not use the power of the virtues anymore, their unique "Soul Manifestation" ability allows them to hold their own ground.
The Abyss Plane on the other hand, was a plane that was created from the manifestation of all the emotions and desires in the whole Multiverse.(Read Interlude: Asteria"s typcical day as a student part 12 for more details.) This kind of appearance allowed the Abyss Monsters of the Abyss Plane to have their own unique power, which is based on the Seven Deadly Sins.
At the moment that the Abyss Plane appeared, a delicate balance was immediately formed between the three Planes.
The powers that existed between these three planes developed a relations.h.i.+p that was similar to "rock-paper-scissors", and these brought the planes into a stalemate.
If the conditions were right, the Seven Heavenly Virtues can be suppressed by the Seven Deadly Sins. The same thing goes for the Seven Deadly Sins too, as it can be suppressed by Soul Manifestation. The Soul Manifestation on the other hand will sometimes be suppressed by the Seven Virtues, as Soul Manifestation was derived from the Seven Virtues themselves.
In shorter terms:
Seven Sins beats Seven Virtues.
Seven Virtues beats Soul Manifestation.
Soul Manifestation beats Seven Sins.
This relations.h.i.+p allowed the three planes to co-exist with each other, although this co-existence was always filled with tension and wariness.
This in turn forced the three planes to find ways to fight each other in creative ways.
One of these "creative ways" was the establishment of the Envoy System, something which Alex and Delia were part of.
Due to the secrecy that the three planes harbored about the Envoy System, not much was known about it. However, everyone who encounters an Envoy like Alex or Delia is sure of one thing.
Envoys are h.e.l.la powerful, and they are just broken as f**k.
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u003cFIST OF TEMPERANCE!u003e
As she saw that her opponent was slowly getting affected by the radiant light from her body, Delia did not waste any more time as she quickly activated her power as a Holy Order Envoy.
A ma.s.sive fist, which was the size of a building, quickly manifested right above Delia. This fist had a golden sheen on it, which made the fist look smooth and admirable.
But the aura released by this fist made anyone who saw it whimper, as it made them feel suddenly timid and weak.
At the appearance of this fist, the humanoid monster, which was cowered by Delia already, continued to let out a shriek as it burrowed itself deeper on the ground.
The creature"s black lotus had already disappeared at this point, as the fist had dissipated it already. As for the creature"s body, multiple lesions and scars began to appear on its skin as time pa.s.sed by, making it apparent that it was taking more and more damage from Delia.
"If you are an Abyss Monster that has the power of Gluttony, then my u003cFIST OF TEMPERANCEu003e will be ineffective. But you are not an Abyss Monster. You are just a monster who is gluttonous, which makes you the perfect target of this attack!" Delia declared in a lofty tone as the fist above her began to descend.
"Rumble…"
The whole earth shuddered as the fist got closer and closer to the humanoid creature, showcasing the power that was contained inside it. Nothing appeared to have the capability to stop this fist, which just made the humanoid creature cry out.
"Ah Miss Delia, surely you won"t be cruel to kill me this way…" The creature, whose whole body had already been melted beyond recognition, croaked out as it tried to crawl its body away from Delia.
Its st.u.r.dy arms and tentacles allowed the creature to drag its body across the ground, but it was not enough to move the creature away on time.
"You should just stop what you are doing, monster. My u003cFIST OF TEMPERANCEu003e had already locked on you, so there will be no more escape for you, no matter what you do." Delia said in an indifferent tone as she watched the creature"s attempt to move.
Seeing that the creature did not give her an answer, Delia began to grit her teeth before giving the creature a mocking smile.
"You"re still trying to escape? I said that it"s already useless. Monster, just allow my u003cFIST OF TEMPERANCEu003e to pound you with the weight of everything that you consumed. Surely, for a gluttonous monster like you, getting squished by the weight of everything that you ate will be a delightful experience for you…."
"No!!!! This time around, the creature was able to give a reply to Delia, although what is said is a clear showing of the monster"s insistence to live.
This appeared to have made Delia delighted, as she began cackling as the fist continued its descent.
"You sinful creature! Now that you are about to face your doom, you actually want to plead for your life? Hah, how hypocritical! Seeing you like this just makes me sick! Hmph, instead of acting like this, why don"t you just be happy? At least I am the one who gets to kill you. Who knows, maybe your sins will be forgotten in your next life. Well, that is if you still have a life to live next…"
At this point, the fist was already a few inches away from the monster. Just a little more push by the fist will allow it to crush its target. Just a little more, and the gluttonous monster will be no more.
But before Delia could see this glorious scene, a sudden change happened in the battle, which completely wiped out the expected outcome.
"Halt, Miss Delia. What you are doing is not justice!" A black orb, which radiated the aura of death and coldness, suddenly manifested right in front of the golden fist.
"Glubo!" At the moment that this...o...b..appeared, the golden fist, which was already on its way to crush the humanoid creature, started to visibly slow down, until it reached a complete stop.
At this point, the black orb showed cracks and holes in its body, as if the act of stopping the fist had damaged it. But the orb was able to hold on, and it was able to completely stop the fist from killing the humanoid creature.
"…"
This scene naturally infuriated Delia, who was not happy with what she had just seen.
She quickly stared at the one who manifested this black orb, with her giving this person her death stare.
The creator of the black orb, who appeared to be a handsome man in the peak of his age, only shrugged under Delia"s stare, as if he was not afraid of Delia at all.
"Hm? Don"t give me that look, Miss Delia. You are clearly in the wrong here. I just told you that what you are doing here is not justice, so I have no choice but to stop you." The handsome man said as he began to descend to the ground.
He landed right beside the humanoid creature, whose body was almost disintegrated at this point. Only the creature"s head has remained, and even this part was also close to being destroyed too.
"Sir Xote, this had been hard for you. You can now leave the rest to me." The handsome man said as he picked up the humanoid creature with his bare hands. He then placed the creature inside his pocket, giving the creature no chance to speak to him.
After doing this, the handsome man looked back at Delia, who was now giving him an extremely look of disgust.
"You say that what I am doing is not justice? Then what about you? Do you call that justice?" Delia said in an even tone as she pointed her spear at the handsome man"s pocket. "That monster that you just saved is a sinful being who had consumed and tortured a lot of innocent woman. Do you think that allowing it to live is Justice? Hmph, your act of saving him is not justice! You just allowed it to kill more women in the future!"
In face of this clearly "correct" argument from Delia, the handsome man only shook his head with a disappointed expression on his face. It was as if he was disappointed by Delia"s words, and he made this disappointment more apparent with the next words that he said.
"Miss Delia, justice is not something that is black and white. If you want to understand what real justice is, you must look at it from both sides. What you are doing now is just looking at it from the "white side". This… this makes you blinder compared to a blind person." The handsome man said in a sorrowful tone, as if he was lamenting about Delia alerady. "This… this makes me sad for you. You are a promising woman with a bright future, and yet you allowed a heretic place like the Holy Order Plane to corrupt you. Disappointing, this is disappointing."
"Says the person who had been brainwashed by Emperor Litch himself." Delia barked in reply as she gave the handsome man a mocking laughter. "Your one of his Generals, right? Hmph, people like you are the ones that I pity the most! You are under the control of a maniac, and you still follow him zealously? Heh, comparing you to a slave will just be wrong, as a slave clearly has a better life than you!"
"I am not just a General, Miss Delia. I am General Glaivewood, one of Emperor Litch"s trusted aides. I am not just a small fry that you can ignore." The handsome man, who called himself as General Glaivewood, replied as he shook his head. "Sigh…. I only went here because I want to punish you for harming my comrade. But now that you insulted the Emperor, you left me with no choice but to kill you for justice."
"Kill me for justice? Hohoho, go and try that to me then." Delia replied without any tension in her tone. She kept her Ethereal Spear above her as she gave the general a challenging stare. "Let"s see if you can do something to kill me."
After she said these words, two figures appeared behind Delia, with each figure appearing exactly like her. These two figures also held the same weapons as Delia, and they were both exuding an aura and power similar to hers.
"So, what are you waiting for? Come and attack me already!" The original Delia said as her triplicates brandished their powers. "I know that aside from you and that creature, there are still other Generals that are here in this world. Heh, you think I did not notice it? Hmph, there"s no need for you to act so high and mighty. If you are here to kill me, then just attack me! Since you have more allies with you, then what do you have to fear?"