Pride

After looking at the pale white piece of bone that he removed from his body for a few seconds, Ethan observed his surroundings with his eyes of mystery prying.

Guards and curious people were coming in this direction, seemingly wanting to verify what kind of commotion was happening on this side of the ship, they would get here in just a few minutes.

He then looked below himself and phased through the walls into the room below. Using his powers as a Marauder, he quickly found all the valuable items the Wraith from before had.

They were: 9000 pounds in banknotes, a shriveled tree branch with dark patterns all around it, and a strange collar that seemed to shine with a dark light.

Ethan divined the danger of taking these things and soon realized the branch and collar would pose a terrible threat to his life were he to take them away.

Soon enough, he picked up the 9000 pounds and burned the branch and collar with his cursed fire.

Phasing through the ceiling once again, Ethan looked at the forming Beyonder characteristic and recited with a dark tone, "Swift melodies weave, time's grip shall cease,

Congregation dances, hastened by harmonious peace.

Notes like whispers, hearts take flight,

In rhythm's embrace, hours turn to light."

With the beautiful melody, the forming characteristic seemed to be hastened in its process, and as Ethan kept repeating the same chanting again and again, it soon formed.

He quickly picked up the crystal marble that seemed to reflect all light and prepared to immediately leave this part of the ship.

Ethan observed the soon-to-be crowd of people and quickly left the area through his use of the light body of an Assassin and wind creation from a Trickmaster.

When Ethan returned to his room, he directly went to his suitcase that stored the Devil characteristic. He picked up the bloody-dark mass of flesh from the suitcase, and quickly brought it to his mouth. 'I need to have the powers of a Psychiatrist as soon as possible, or else I might be discovered by the ship's staff.'

As the dark mass of flesh entered his mouth, Ethan used the powers of Gluttony to make it become a part of him. However, the sight that greeted his eyes when he ate the characteristic surprised him.

…

He once again found himself standing in a dark plain filled with corrupted monsters and demonic creatures. The sky was black and the environment seemed filthy. It was a world of chaos, corruption, and madness.

Ethan's first thought was that someone was trying to possess him again, however, he soon noticed that he kept his control over all his current sins and powers.

'This place… Why am I here again?' Ethan looked around him and couldn't find anything that reminded him of the real world, he was stuck in this place.

He started walking through the plains. The monsters all around him seemed afraid of his presence, like a predator that suddenly appeared in front of them.

They lowered their bodies in absolute subservience and gnawed each others' flesh for the mere opportunity of kneeling on the ground. Observing this scene, Ethan felt a strange sense of pride about the whole situation.

He didn't understand where the pride and arrogance came from, but he felt like a true god at that moment, his actions were idolized, his form respected, and he was the true controller of all these creatures, the true controller of this world.

Walking through the plains, all entities Ethan found bowed to him, some even committed suicide and offered themselves as sacrifices. And after walking for an infinitely long, and infinitely short time, Ethan finally realized what was happening.

'These are the imprints of the characteristic. This is the world they all existed in a long time ago.' Above the dark plains, there stood a hanging figure, his whole goat-horned figure held by uncountably many chains.

This was the Devil form of the man Ethan killed before, Lyken Beria. With nothing but a thought from him, Ethan noticed all the monsters around him throwing themselves to the ground, some lying on top of each other, all to form a gigantic stair made of demonic creatures.

Ethan climbed the staircase with slow and steady steps, his calm demeanor in complete contrast with the rest of the world filled with madness.

Atop the huge staircase, Ethan stood in front of the chained figure hanging from the sky. He observed the chains that seemed to come from a realm completely different from this one and looked at the Devil constrained by them.

"I knew using the Abyss to remove the Beyonder characteristic from the target's living body would bring unpredictable consequences. But I didn't realize it would be like this." The chains came from the Abyss and the figure that they held floating above the dark plains was the Devil imprint of Lyken Beria, as the human one had long been lost.

The Devil imprint in front of him seemed to be incredibly afraid of him, it looked at Ethan with eyes filled with horror, like it was standing in front of its worst nightmare come true.

Ethan slowly lifted his hand as he saw the imprint flinch, the many chains around him constraining even more.

With his right arm lifted in front of the trembling Devil, Ethan touched the chain that locked it in place. "Wrath wouldn't have been enough to break this connection apart."

He closed his hand as one of the chains broke apart instantly, the constrained Devil seemed to feel an insufferable pain as it tried its best to escape the chains.

"However," More chains started breaking apart one by one with Ethan's words.

*Crack *Crack *Shatter

All the infinitely many chains broke apart, and the connection the Abyss had with this world filled with madness was finally broken apart.

The Devil imprint that now stood on top of the stair made from bodies looked at Ethan with incomprehensible fear. It lowered its huge body to the absolute limits, even breaking some bones in the process.

"I now have Pride."

…

Pride: The sin of eternal supremacy. It has Authority over Supremacy, and the power to make itself the most supreme existence at all times. Its power is currently limited to Sequence 6, as it is unable to access its true Authority over (#&%#()$*#)*)*)(&$¨#(&$¨(#$(#&%$(&#%$)*#*

Ethan opened his dark-green eyes and found himself standing on the floor of his booked room, just like before.

He looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary like everything from before was just a dream. However, he knew that nothing from before was a dream.

*CRACK

Ethan's form suddenly expanded with hundreds of different pale-white bones bursting all around him. His figure now stood at 2.5 meters tall (8 feet 2 inches). With an exoskeleton made from sturdy bones with a metallic sheen, huge horns were growing out of his head like a crown. This was his Devil form, something only a Sequence 6 Devil could have.

As he felt the extreme power he could bring out in this form, Ethan pointed his bone claw at the open windows that gave to the sea outside.

*Swish

From his extended finger, a huge dark-green fireball with hints of blue materialized, flying outside at breakneck speeds. It flew for hundreds of meters before exploding in a show of flames, turning a huge part of the water into steam in very little time.

This was his version of Sulfur Fireball, but containing a major part of his cursed fire instead.

Ethan analyzed his current form and powers: he had received one unique new power, the common powers of all Devils, and all the previous ones had been majorly enhanced.

The new power was called Demonic Lineage. It gave him the ability to create other Devils through his blood. The way it worked was very simple: as long as someone accepted to receive his blood, they could get up to three of his Beyonder powers and become a part of his lineage, allowing them to share information from long distances and be connected to Ethan himself.

"The individuals affected by this power will be corrupted with a distorted desire to serve the primogenitor of the lineage, but they won't lose their rationality or sense of self."

The powers that all Devils received were related to mind attacks when one burned their horns as a price; multiple fire spells using cursed, Sulfur Fire; The Language of Foulness that had many different uses depending on the situation; and Devil Transformation which he just used.

The enhancements to his previous powers were also very clear: Bone control now allowed him to make all his bones as hard as metal, grow different limbs from bones, and fire bone knives instead of just bullets;

Flames of Hatred could now be planted in objects with greater spirituality to explode later, its temperature levels increased by huge margins, the cursing effect could only be cured by Sequence 5 purifying powers, and they could now be controlled to a higher degree and farther away from his body;

All curses received huge boons: The Curse of Insanity could now create nightmarish illusions to lead a person insane; The Curse of Malediction could now make Sequence 6 Beyonders sick without the need for a medium; The Curse of Misfortune could make even a Lucky One suffer terrible calamities; The Curse of Interference could disrupt the divination of demigods good at it; The Curse of Death didn't need a lengthy ritual to be used against Sequence 8 and below anymore, just focusing it on a target of that level would work; The Curse of Bloodlines could now affect people that weren't connected just by blood, but also very strong emotions; The Curse of Siphoning could now be used against demigods, it would take a long time for it to work on them.

Feeling his great power, Ethan was certain he could kill most Sequence 5s without much preparation. As he got used to his current form, Ethan quickly picked the Psychiatrist's characteristic and ate it directly.

The many memories of Dr. Morgan he killed before started appearing in his mind, many secrets about the Psychology Alchemists being revealed, but nothing major per se.

Ethan soon understood all the powers of a Psychiatrist and relaxed a little, as even if someone came to question him, he could 'Cue' them into ignoring the matter.

With this, he stored the Psychiatrist characteristic he just expelled into the sealed jar inside his suitcase once more. Walking out of the room, Ethan conjured some of his flames to evaporate the blood that gushed all around his front door from the zombie woman he killed.

He then reverted to his human form and clothed himself with a new black tailcoat suit.

Looking outside at the sea, Ethan was finally able to see a big landmass forming on the horizon, "City of Generosity, Bayam."

End of Arc One - Sinner