Love stood over Will's motionless body, her chest heaving. The light blue glow around her fists faded, leaving behind the ache of exertion and the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She'd done it. She had finally, truly, beaten Lust.
A shaky breath escaped her lips—part relief, part exhaustion. She stumbled back, finding the low, crumbling wall that bordered Will's compound, and sank onto its edge. The cool stone against her palms felt real, grounding. For a single, precious moment, she let herself believe it was over.
---
But deep within the fractured prison of Will's consciousness, a storm was brewing.
Lust sat there on that fancy chair. The link to Will's vessel—her vessel—was severed. It was a feeling worse than death; it was silence. Isolation.
*Is it… dead? Is he gone?*
Panic, cold and sharp, lanced through her. With trembling, ethereal fingers, she reached for something only she could see—a pulsing, crimson emergency switch in the psychic architecture of Will's mind.
She slammed it.
A silent, psychic alarm screamed through the depths.
---
In the psychic ward—a twisted, ever-shifting lounge that reflected the minds of its inhabitants—the five other psyches were interrupted.
Pride was admiring his reflection in a wall of obsidian. Wrath was methodically shattering crystalline formations that looked suspiciously like statues of Love. Greed was counting and recounting a pile of shimmering, stolen memories. Envy watched the others with simmering resentment. Gluttony was… consuming the ambient anxiety in the room.
A blinding red light flooded the space. A siren blared, voice-less and terrifying.
***HIGH PRIORITY THREAT! HOST INTEGRITY AT RISK! HIGH PRIORITY THREAT!***
One by one, their distractions were abandoned. They snapped back to the central chamber, their forms coalescing with grim purpose.
Pride was the first to arrive, his form shimmering with contempt. He looked Lust up and down as she flickered weakly before them.
"You idiot," he sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. "Look at you. Pathetic. We gave you a chance to fight for us, to gain experience and strength, and this is how you repay our generosity? Beaten by a mere fragment?"
Wrath's form materialized next, wreathe in barely contained flames. His eyes burned with pure, undiluted fury. "A disgrace," he growled, the very air vibrating with his anger. "Who did this to you? Give me a name. I will scorch their very soul from existence."
Greed shimmered into view, a knowing, oily smirk on his face. He didn't seem surprised at all. "Well. It was only a matter of time before your… indulgences… got you into trouble you couldn't flirt your way out of."
Envy was the last to fully focus, her glare not at Lust, but at the others. "How can you all stand here squabbling over this weak little failure?" she sparked, her voice sharp as broken glass. She pointed a furious finger at a shimmering screen that had appeared in the air, showing Love catching her breath outside. "The problem isn't her failure. It's *her*. Love. She's back. And she's here for revenge."
"Ah, Lust…" Greed drawled, his eyes lighting up with a new kind of avarice. "Or should I say, *Love*? You've brought a prize right to our doorstep. Love is back."
Wrath's flames roared higher, his form becoming nearly incandescent with rage. "This time," his voice dropped to a low, world-ending snarl, "I will tear her apart. For good."
---
Back in the real world, Will's body lay still on the cracked pavement.
Then, a shudder ran through him.
A burst of multi-colored energy—crimson, black, gold, orange, and a sickly violet—erupted from his chest, swirling around him like a violent nebula.
Lust, still stunned and disconnected, could only watch.
Will's form glitched, distorted, and then *split*.
One figure became five. Each was a shimmering, semi-corporeal projection of a different aspect of him, each wielding a different elemental power.
*Pride* held a blade of pure golden light.
*Wrath*'s hands were wreathed in fire.
*Greed*'s form was armored in shifting, metallic gold.
*Envy* crackled with stolen, violet energy.
*Gluttony* seemed to absorb the very light around him.
They moved as one, a coordinated wave of destruction, and attacked the weakened, unprepared Love.
Her eyes widened. She launched herself backward, dodging a blade of light that shattered the wall where she'd just been sitting. She flipped over a whip of fire, rolled under a blast of corrosive violet energy. She moved up, down, and all around in a desperate, acrobatic dance of survival.
But she was outnumbered and exhausted. A blade of light nicked her arm. A blast of concussive force caught her in the side, sending her spinning. She couldn't evade them all.
Through it all, Greed's projection simply stood to the side, arms crossed. He watched the chaos with a calculating smirk, letting the others do the work. This wasn't his fight; it was his investment.
Just as the projection of Wrath raised a fist of molten rock to deliver a final blow, a brilliant, golden portal tore open the air beside Love.
A massive, familiar hand shot out, grabbed her by the shoulder, and yanked her through.
The portal snapped shut with a sound like a thunderclap.
The five projections halted. Their purpose gone, their energies destabilized, and they flowed back together, collapsing into the single, unconscious form of Will Evert, lying alone on the floor.
---
Inside the psychic environment, the mood was tense.
After the failed assault, Lust had finally pulled herself together, her form solidifying once more, fueled by shame and renewed anger.
Envy stepped forward, her eyes gleaming with a fierce, impatient light. "Are we done nursing our wounds? Are we done with failures?"
"Mind your tongue, Envy," Pride warned, though his tone lacked its usual conviction.
"Why? She speaks the truth," Wrath grumbled, still simmering.
A brief, sharp argument erupted amongst the six of them—a cacophony of blame, strategy, and venomous plans. They debated how to proceed, how to find a new vessel, how to finally claim a permanent foothold in the world.
And they spoke of him in hushed, wary tones. *Sloth.* The unbound variable. The one they knew was watching, and the one they could not predict.
"Enough," Greed finally said, his voice cutting through the noise. "Lust has had her fill. The terms of our agreement are clear."
Envy didn't need to be told twice. A cruel smile touched her lips. "It's my turn now." Her form shimmered with anticipation. "I'm going after the JDA—the ones Lust was too distracted to crush. I have some old debts to repay."
Greed let out a low, mocking laugh. "You're always in debt, Envy. I hope you can pay this one. And don't forget… you owe me, too. I expect a return on my investment someday."
The other psyches watched as Envy's form began to glow with a violent, violet energy. There were no cheers, only a silent, grim acknowledgment.
The mood in the chamber shifted, growing cold and sharp. Where Lust was all heat and passion, Envy was calculated, razor-edged focus. A ruthless determination charged the atmosphere.
Without another word, Envy's consciousness shot forward, diving headfirst out of the psychic ward and into the waiting, vulnerable mind of Will Evert.
The next battle was about to begin.