As the inhabitants of Earth were terrified of the sudden Darkness that covered the whole planet for a short period of time, Makaze's move only added more fear to them, especially the strong Heroes, who were robbed of their swords.

Their weapons refused to obey them and simply flew out of their sheaths and disappeared far away.

The old man next to Lucy gazed at the countless swords with the dark blade in the center of a frown on his face. Although he was certain that such an attack can't harm him, it was still a rare thing to see a blade do this on its own.

To demonstrate such pressure and firepower without its partner and master, who is supposed to be the only one who can wield it to its maximum potential, is not something that could be seen every day.

Actually, it's the first time Sloth has seen a strange blade like this.

"You truly find the most fascinating things in the loneliest places. *sigh*"

The old man let out a long sigh as he saw the countless blades disappear as a malicious dark flame destroyed them and transformed into a mysterious speck of darkness that devoured all the light around it.

Very soon, all the swords were burned and fused into a fist-sized sphere that resembled a miniature black hole. This sphere, that was created from the accumulated essence of countless swords, rotated around dark blade until it turned into a sheath, however, due to the severe lack of this essence, the sheath was illusory and flickering as if it'll disappear in any given second.

Just as this happened, a notification popped before the old man

*The Dark Blade's Oath has taken effect. You have been marked by Makaze, evil wind.

You cannot remove the Dark Blade's Mark.

The dark blade will know your location wherever you are.

The dark blade will deal 10% more damage to you.

The Oath will not disappear until the marked individual is dead.

You will receive double the damage if you receive dark or lightning-related attacks from Makaze.

WARNING: The destruction of Makaze will not remove the mark.

WARNING: Due to the absence of Arthur MoonStar, the blade can only demonstrate 50% of its power.*

'Bloody hell!'

Sloth stood there, dumbstruck by what his eyes have just seen.

"A-an oath?"

Before the old man could comprehend why Makaze bound to an Oath and why does it actually exist, the threatening katana left its sheath and slashed down vertically toward Sloth.

Surprisingly, the environment wasn't affected nor space was broken, however, Sloth felt instinctive fear from that simple-looking slash that didn't even emit pressure or look domineering.

Despite it being such a fearsome attack, the target wasn't someone to be trifled with. He's the oldest of the Seven sins and probably the strongest.

Before this strike could hit him, time was literally stopped and the environment turned grey. Even Lucy was caught and was frozen.

The Dark blade was trapped too, however, only for a short time before lightning crackled around it and forcefully release it.

Unfortunately, the short time it was trapped was enough for a large hand to slap it down and make it roughly slam on the ground, even causing very small cracks to appear on it.

The time-stopping skill that was used by Sloth is completely different from the one the invaders used. This one was far more dangerous and it could even eradicate Sovereigns in a matter of seconds.

Despite it being strengthened by the Darkness Arthur unleashed, Makaze was still overwhelmed by Sloth's ability and was suppressed in a second.

Before the old man could breathe a sigh of relief, the blade vanished yet again only to appear half-an-inch in front of the old man's chest. If not for his fast reactions, he would have been stabbed.

As sweat poured down his forehead, the blade was flung away again, however, this turned out to be its true purpose as a weird spatial tunnel appeared in front of the flying Makaze, sending the latter to Astria before Sloth's hand could reach it.

The old man looked at the dark tattoo that appeared on his right hand. It didn't hurt him but it was too eye-catching and he felt uncomfortable just by looking at it.

"An oath, huh? A frightening one at that... I guess the other sins won't be happy about it."

***************

Back on Astria, Arthur was still bound due to the weird crystalline and diamond-like thing that is immobilizing him.

From the Joker's perspective, Arthur's only choices are to give up or cut his lower body, which will decrease his fighting ability by more than half.

To his surprise, Arthur paused for a second before his body transformed into a small black whirlpool then vanished from his sight. More accurately, he possessed the body of a variant of rats and dashed toward the Joker.

He didn't make a straight charge but zigzagged in the air while leaving a dozen afterimages that indicated how fast he is.

"A rat? A face-eater? Nonono it cannot be, they aren't this strong. Then a shapeshifter? Also a no, the feeling is too real for it to be a simple imitation."

The Joker's eyes glowed for a split second before he stretched his hand to grab the approaching rat.

Unfortunately, the rat disappeared and appeared right behind him. Its eyes flashed with a blue light and time was stopped.

In the initial position of the rat, there were three large detonators which exploded a distance from the Joker, creating a huge disturbance and cracking the space.

"Hmm let's see, time-manipulation, time freeze, elemental fusion. I can't think of a Race that is able to do all of that."

The Joker used the back of his elbow to send the rat flying only for it to be a shadow clone which dispersed upon contact. Two more shadowy figures assaulted him from both sides, this time actually damaging him for real.

The two attacks that contained enough brute force to decimate a mountain, were merely the appetizer as a small and creepy looking mouths attacked from below and a Heavenly Arrow that appeared out of thin air, came flying down at the Joker.