Chapter 259 Challenge Of ‘Authority’

Incarnation of Greed.

Avatar of Greed: Partial Activation.

***KAABOOOMMMM!!!!

A loud explosion rang out, sending out shockwaves that spread out over close to a kilometre, with a blood-red gigantic arm-shaped construct rising up out of the clouds of dust and dirt.

In its hand was a gigantic great sword that looked exactly like Mammonas, a sword that was instantly coated in demonic energy and swung down with the flat a second later.

However, its swing was intercepted by another gigantic energy-constructed arm, one that was holding an enlarged replica of a Pride's Vanitas.

Once again, another explosion rang out, with shockwaves spreading out for kilometres, carving the ground, uprooting trees, and shattering rocks to pieces, even reaching as far as Evan and Terence's battleground, even though it was more than a good five kilometres away.

By the time that the dust had cleared up, Pride and Greed were standing at the bottom of a large crater that was a bit over a kilometre wide and dozens of metres deep.

Each of their right arms was encased within the large gigantic energy limb constructs that clashed weapons.

Just like Greed, Pride had not hesitated to use her Incarnation's partial activation the moment she sensed his skill's activation.

Nevertheless, the expression on her face was strange despite having blocked Greed's sudden attacks.

Even though they were each releasing attacks that would have definitely taken the other down for the count, if not being outright fatal, Pride didn't look annoyed or anything of the sort, in fact, she had a calm expression on her face, only occasionally showing slight surprise.

However, right now, she had an expression of displeasure all over her face.

Pride narrowed her eyes and spoke in a cold voice, calling out to Greed, not with the name of the mortal sin he represented, but with his 'True Name', at least the part of it she knew.

"Avaritia Nadarus Gathon.

Are you challenging me?"

Greed felt a chill down his spine when he heard Pride's cold voice, however, he shook off his instinctive fear and laughed out loud before saying.

"What else does it look like, sister?"

The high demon ran a hand through his hair, before grinning evilly as he spoke.

"You do realise I've always wanted your 'position', right sister?"

What Greed was speaking about, was something that happened more than a millennia ago, when the seven deadly sins had just turned thirty and were forming their special unit comprised of only them.

Pride had automatically assumed herself as the leader but Greed and Envy had other thoughts about that.

The two had challenged Pride to a duel for the position of 'Leader' and had the shit beaten out of them.

Their battle was one that left dozens of cities in the demon world destroyed in their wake, as the then Epic-level demons used the full power of their incarnation skills to challenge their eldest 'sibling', however, they still lost.

After defeating them, Pride made a statement to the other six.

"If you still dare to covet my position, then you can challenge me for it using your full power as Incarnations.

You'd still lose anyway, though.

But besides such a scenario, using your incarnation skills against each other is not allowed. Of course, this applies to me too."

The latter part was more of a 'command', one that the sins had followed to this day.

So, the fact that Greed used his incarnation skill against Pride, even if only a partial activation, was a challenge to her 'authority'.

Even though they were not sure of their current status in the demon world, they were eventually going to go back and regain all the authority that they possessed a thousand years ago.

So, Pride assumed that Greed simply wanted to take this chance to be the leader for when that time came

He could not be blamed though, the 'Authority' and 'Influence' of the leader of the 'Seven Deadly Sins' was one that could be said to only be a step below that of the Demon King.

There was a reason why the previous Demon King's retainers were scared that they might attempt to usurp the throne, after all.

What's more, was that the group's leader was in control of an astronomical amount of military power.

Each of the Seven Sins had a 'Sin Legion', that served their respective sins.

These legions that had mid-rank demons as their weakest members only took orders from the 'Deadly Sin' of their corresponding legion, and had even disobeyed the Demon King's orders to mobilize on more than one occasion.

Greed could not command Envy's legion, Envy could not command Lust's legion, and so on.

However, Pride alone, had the authority to command the legions of all seven sins, with her commands taking precedence over that of the Legion's leader.

So, if Greed ordered his legion to mobilize, Envy, Lust, or the rest could not order them otherwise, except for Pride. She alone, could override Greed's command with her 'authority'.

"You know I've always wanted your 'authority' and you just had to weaken yourself and make things easier for me.

Remember when you said we can challenge you for your position?

That offer is still up, right?"

The moment Pride heard Greed's words, her eyes widened slightly and she instantly understood what his real goal was.

'He doesn't actually want to challenge me; he's just trying to bait me into using my power.

...

Very well then, I'd humour you, little brother.'

With those thoughts, she deactivated her incarnation series skill with a sigh, causing the gigantic arm of energy to fade into pieces of light.

'Sorry about this, Amy.

And as for Evan, he can handle himself.'

She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, much to Greed's momentary confusion.

'Why is sh-?!'

His question was answered when Pride opened her eyes once more, this time, with her deep blood-red pupils glowing ominously.

The high demon instantly took a step back, deactivating his incarnation skill's partial activation due to it making it hard for him to jump back.

In response to Greed's sudden movement, Pride only tilted her head to the side and spoke.

"Did I give you permission to back away?

Get over here."

Greed's vision suddenly turned hazy, and upon blinking momentarily, he opened his eyes to find himself standing a metre in front of Pride when he was clearly more than a dozen away just a second ago.

Before his brain could even begin to think of possible reasons why, Pride's foot slammed into the side of his head, sending him flying into the air.

**BAMMM!!!!

The high demon slammed into the wall of the crater that was close to five hundred metres away, creating another smaller human-shaped crater in the wall.

Opening his eyes, he saw Pride take a step towards him, vanishing the moment her feet touched the ground and reappearing about five metres away from his position.

His eyes hadn't finished widening in shock when she casually clenched her fist and pulled her arm backwards, before punching forward.

**CRACCKKK!!

The 'space' in between the two of them began to shatter like glass, with Greed forcing his body out of the crater and jumping away, a second before the shattering reached his position.

"Hahahahahaha!!!"

Despite the current situation, Greed had a maniacal smile on his face as he laughed out loud.

"I should have expected that you were going to unseal it without hesitation, you aren't one to dawdle around after all!"

"Indeed, you should have."

Pride replied to his words as he held up her hand and made a grabbing gesture, with Greed's body suddenly floating up to the air like his shirt was being grabbed by something.

She then pulled her arm towards herself and Greed found his body flying towards Pride. He clenched his fist and infused it with demonic energy before punching out but his punch never hit its mark.

The moment his fist got within Pride's range, his entire arm, along with his clothes, turned into a cloud of red smoke and was blown away in the wind.

Pride then grabbed him by his neck and shook her head, before raising her other hand and tapping the space in between them.

Greed didn't understand what happened next as his cognitive features were temporarily impaired.

By the time he regained his bearings, Pride's foot was on top of his chest and his arm was back to normal.

The high demon was staring at him silently while replying to the young hero she was contracted to in her mind.

"...

As expected of you, elder sister.

You are still the same elder sister that I-!"

"You're noisy."

Pride cut Greed's statement short with just two words, and the high demon did not speak anymore, not because he willingly stopped talking, but because his mouth simply wasn't there anymore.

She then crouched down and held Greed's face with her hand before speaking.

"No matter how hard you try, it's simply impossible for you to defeat me.

So, give up that dream of yours, Little brother."

After saying her piece, Pride got to her feet and looked around for her sword, finding it stabbed into the ground a few metres away.

Walking to it, she snapped her fingers in the air and the glow in her eyes faded. Her body staggered in weakness momentarily, but she held herself up with the force of will and moved towards her weapon.

Meanwhile, Greed, whose mouth had returned to his face, looked at the back of his sister in silence for almost a minute before asking a question.

"Sister, that day a thousand years ago.

Why didn't you resist?"