Void Evolution System

"I'm not doing it."

The four were alone now. Damien had given them some space so they could calmly make their decisions.

"Wrath!" Envy exclaimed, looking at him like he was stupid.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn? All we have to do is this one thing and we can get everything we wished for. Our dreams don't have to stay dreams!"

She couldn't believe his decision. He'd said it the moment Damien left, and no matter how much she tried to convince him, he just didn't budge.

"I said I'm not doing it. I'm not letting that bastard into my brain." Wrath snarled.

He knew what the benefits were, and he knew that he was making the wrong choice.

But he just couldn't let it happen.

He didn't want Damien to have control over him.

He very clearly remembered what happened the last time he did that.

He'd been betrayed, thrown away, and forced to suffer torments that not even the worst criminals deserved.

But it was more than that.

Wrath was an emotional person. He usually acted out before he could think things through. However, he wasn't completely stupid.

He already knew that Damien didn't want them. If he did, he would've done something a lot more than this to try and get them on his side.

The way he looked at them was different.

Rather than living humans, he looked at them like experiments.

Damien wanted to see inside their minds. From Envy's explanation, it didn't seem like he did this intrusively.

However, that didn't change anything.

Damien wanted the information inside their heads. He wanted to see what was happening and why it was happening.

The idle curiosity that his actions represented was horrifying to someone like Wrath. The fact that his suffering and his memories would become food for someone else to merely satisfy their curiosity.

Wasn't he worth more than that?

He had pride too. It may have been stomped out countless times, but he didn't want to lose the smidgen of it that he still possessed.

It was the only thing keeping him sane.

Envy couldn't understand that feeling, because she'd already thrown her pride away for survival.

It wasn't like Wrath disproved of her decision, but that wasn't the one he made.

He wanted to preserve his dignity however he could, and if that meant he had to stay crippled, then so be it.

He would just rely on himself to return to his peak, and if that didn't work, then he'd accept his end knowing that he managed to maintain his integrity.

His deepest desires, the things he never let anyone see…

He just couldn't let a man like Damien get so deep into his psyche.

"Lust, what about you?" Envy asked with an exhausted sigh.

Lust glanced at her and Wrath, shaking her head.

"I'm doing it."

She didn't have many thoughts about it.

Regardless of the method, as long as she could get her power back, she'd do anything.

If selling herself to that man was the solution, then there was nothing else to be said.

Gluttony didn't say anything as usual. He was there, but even his own peers acted like he didn't exist.

After all, he was more of a mascot than an actual person.

He never spoke, and from the way his eyes never changed, it didn't seem like he ever had a single thought inside his head.

He would act on orders when he needed to, and he'd protect his comrades as well. But the motivations he held, the personality he had, anything about him other than his power was unknown to even the 4 Evils.

Gluttony was just there.

No matter what happened, he'd always be there.

That was why he still remained as part of their group.

"Wrath, is there really no way…?"

Envy wanted them all to stay together. Moreover, between her and Wrath…

Nevertheless, she didn't want Wrath to stay broken as the rest of them healed.

However…

"There isn't. I won't let it happen."

…she never had a chance from the start.

He simply wasn't going to change his stance.

Whoosh!

A slight breeze kicked up as Damien returned to the hideout.

He looked around, gauging their expressions.

"Then, two of you? Or is it three?"

Damien glanced at Gluttony.

"Just as bland as ever, eh?"

He acted strangely in their opinion, but it wasn't strange to Damien. He knew them quite well after seeing Envy's memories, after all.

In fact, among the people who were in this room, he was the only one who truly understood the things they'd been put through during the period they were tortured.

"It's just me and Gluttony. You've already read Envy's mind, so you don't need to do it again, right?" Lust said, her tone much more uncooperative than her words.

"Wrong," Damien responded.

"I need to see Envy's mind too. But it doesn't look like she has a problem with that."

Envy nodded, shaking slightly.

'As for the last one…'

Damien pretty much expected it from Wrath. That man wasn't the type to bend or break for anyone.

Even after everything Straea put him through, he stood strong like this and kept his pain inside.

It was his way of coping.

Damien couldn't judge him, for he was the same at a certain point in his life.

He absolutely knew what it was like to be at the lowest point, where one's pride was the only thing keeping one alive.

Therefore, he didn't plan to push Wrath into doing anything he didn't want to.

He respected the man's pride.

"Then, let's get it on with. I don't have much time, and I'm sure you guys don't want me sticking around too long either."

Envy and Lust.

Damien wanted to see their existences because he wanted to see how humans could change.

They were people very different from the ones he'd met. Was it because their true selves were being overshadowed by their circumstances, or had they truly changed?

Damien read Envy again to see how her interactions with her peers had changed since she returned from Ice Luan Mountain, and as he compared her memories against Lust's…

'Maybe I should change.'

He was always someone who killed first and asked questions later.

Maybe it was okay for him to start offering his enemies other routes.

Of course, that didn't mean he'd change where it counted most, but there were definitely some who could be redeemed, such as the 4 Evils.

Envy and Lust were different in many ways. The way they approached the situation they were in was different as well.

Still, they both had the same underlying sentiment.

They were done with their lives of needless evil.

It was simply too tiring.

Lust wanted to become someone for herself, so she could regain the confidence to be proud.

As for Envy, she wanted a life in the mountains, peaceful and unbothered by society.

She only wanted power for longevity and self-protection.

They would likely separate after he healed them, and they'd go on their own paths.

Lust would probably become a practitioner again, and due to the nature of her power, she'd probably commit a lot of evil deeds.

But Damien didn't care about that.

A practitioner was a practitioner. It was impossible to define them within the bounds of good and evil.

Lust did not want to become an enemy of the world anymore. Even if she did evil deeds, she would never cross the line ever again.

And that was what mattered most to Damien.

Yet, he still didn't receive the answer he wanted most.

That didn't exist in Envy or Lust. It didn't exist in Wrath, who watched Damien work from the corner with a permanent scowl on his face.

The person who Damien wanted to read the most was the one with the least presence in this room.

Gluttony.

Just what made him tick?