The mountain had become a beacon, sending smoke billowing into the sky.
The flames had died down, but the acrid stench wafting from the ashes remained. Every time I kicked off the ground and cut through the air, the smoky smell struck the tip of my nose sharply enough to sting.
The place where disaster had passed had long since become a ruin.
There were no exceptions. The undergrowth, the trees, the buildings, even the countless lives that had once inhabited this place.
The land, where not a single thing had retained its shape, evoked an almost unreal sensation. It felt as though I were trapped in a nightmare of desolate scenery, and that was probably why the occasional practitioners I passed stood there staring blankly, their minds gone numb.
It was a sight this horrific. Even so, I could spare little attention for the tragedy.
I had something else on my mind.
‘Why can’t I see them?’
No matter how much I looked around, there was no sign of them. Normally, hundreds of monsters should already have been attacking the living, yet the entire area was oppressively silent.
As though the flames had burned away every last bit of motion.
I was thinking of the ‘Faceless Monsters.’
The limbs wielded by ‘Greed,’ one of the Seven Deadly Sins—slaves who had lost their souls and…