Both Alsop and Axel had risen from the depths of Death itself with their minds eager to see some further success. For such a desire to be fulfilled, one thing was direly needed. Envy. Had Maxwell captured the sin? Deep in the heart of a forest, Envy's attention certainly had been caught, as he was fighting ruthlessly against Maxwell, but his hands were free. All around him, the peak of Caspian Cull's body came out to help him in combat - the varying magnitude of the spirits of a Spirit Knight. It was strange for Envy to fight this way. So strange, Maxwell had faltered woefully from tree to tree in the thick forest. His flying manoeuvres were passionate at heart but lacked any real solidarity. At one moment he wanted to channel his powers straight towards Envy, ignoring the spirits of Caspian Cull, but his eyes could not keep off them because they did not focus on him. Instead, they darted towards little Elsa Marielle with punishing intent. These varying attacks kept the Guardian of Wind at bay, his breaths becoming broad and his face feverish.

"Envy! Why are you attacking the girl!?" He yelled out.

"It is the only way for me to flee! Besides, she betrayed me, her saviour!" Envy called out.

"Just stop attacking her already! She's a defenceless little girl!" Maxwell shouted.

"At this point, it does not matter anymore. I just do not want to go with you to that cursed Bournington!" Wailed out Envy.

"Huh? What is at Bournington?" Asked Maxwell.

"Danger. So, I must depart. Goodbye, my formidable foe." Said Envy.

Flying towards him with blinding light, the spirits of Caspian Cull soon came raining down upon Maxwell erratically. They came from all sides, each carrying a varying degree of power behind their attacks. With one purple spirit, Envy commanded a small surplus of lightning to channel down onto Maxwell. With another green spirit, Maxwell's feet stood locked to the ground as the roots of a tree came rising upwards. Flight was impossible. Struggle made Maxwell's situation worse, for when he fought with pure strength to get through, his skin began to receive a lashing of fire from a small, red spirit that had worked with the other spirits to deal damage.

Eclipsing his eyes, Maxwell soon saw a single light shatter the intensity of the spirits far away, back towards their master. With Axel lingering behind out of breath, Alsop had jumped towards Maxwell's aid with his sword channelling a blinding light. Inside the handle, Alsop's spirit gifted to him by Caspian Cull came into focus. Strangely, Alsop had barely struck anything with his sword to get the spirits surrounding Maxwell to move. It was as if the spirit in Alsop's blade was something they had to avoid - a leech, a virus, a disease. Regardless, it provided Alsop with enough time to release Maxwell from the roots which lashed his feet to the ground, but the damage was done. Maxwell's feet had taken a crushing blow and standing was a painful endeavour for him.

There was no time to tend to the swollen nature of Maxwell's feet, for Envy still had the desire to flee rooted into his mind. So, Alsop stood tall and ready to fight, much to the bitter annoyance of Axel, who had already come to know the challenge it was to take down Envy before. With a frustrated sigh, Axel looked to his partner with concern, but his worries were not reciprocated by the right person. Instead, Envy had caught onto the fact that Axel was angry that Alsop had taken up the chance to battle him, and this was enough for him to begin a diversion.

As Alsop ran towards Envy furiously, his heart set on attacking the menacing sin, he had failed to cover his friend. Much like his strategy to eliminate any fight from Maxwell, Envy used the spirits of Caspian Cull to barrage them into the struggling Axel Astrix. Axel had defended and defended for his life, shielding with uttermost intensity behind each stroke of his earth magic. Yet, it was here Alsop noticed the things which faltered their way of fighting. His eyes froze onto Axel as he stood still, taking a thunderous punch from Envy's able hand. Alsop dropped miserably to the ground as he witnessed his friend, his companion, his shield dropped to the ground too with overwhelmed desperation.

"I'm sorry...Axel...we can't fight together because I'm always running forwards...I'm too stupid...too weak to be your sword...!"

Alsop had wandered into his thoughts until a sudden beat bounced through every bone of his body. Beating, bouncing, booming, all around his breathless body. Darkness surrounded him as the blows from Envy outside deafened until finally, Alsop realised where exactly he was. The breaths of a terrified soul were all that could be heard in the echoey realms of Alsop Dusseldorf's divine power, but it was not the owner of this power who had become terrified. Just ahead of his eyes, Alsop caught sight of a petrified figure, his sight so shocking it made Alsop feel sick to the stomach. A dark and pungent smell lingered off the beast before him and its eyes pulsed with a devilish red. As if they were his devout followers, a set of pulsating lights came around the harrowing figure until they had reached a state where they could protect him.

But what were they to protect their master from?

Alsop Dusseldorf.

Alsop had taken a strange transformation. His eyes turned into seas of black retribution, dripping the embers of a fire that raged on within his vicious heart. His hands clutched a blade so confidently and willingly, it looked as if it were the scythe of the Grim Reaper. His teeth gave off a gnawing grin, in which every tooth twinkled in the darkness with a gleam that reflected the panic on the man's face before him. His lips were drier than usual, with the airs around the two being so fiery yet chilly in a single moment. Finally, Alsop's hair flew upwards with a chilling reproach rattling it - a black fire burning profusely from it.

All of this had been for one goal. Envy. The mortified man before Alsop. Yet, Alsop was not the one who fully transfixed Envy into absolute terror. A chilling screech echoed through the realm of darkness, through the skin of Envy and Alsop, through the cold bloodstreams of the two.

"Kill him. Kill them all."

The voice even startled Alsop for a moment, but his eyes soon settled on what was in front of him. A guiding path of light had come into essence for his sword to follow through with. With ease, he glided his blade through, until he finally realised what he had done. Envy himself had no clue at first. Alsop had shattered each of the spirits of Caspian Cull with a single slash of his blade, all in a matter of milliseconds. Alas, with this, Envy whimpered. It shocked Alsop so much so, that he stopped for a single second. But again, a frosty voice scowled into the realm of his divine power, calling for one thing above all.

"Kill him. Kill them all."

Wickedly, Alsop smirked.

"Yes. My goal, my desire. I'll kill you, I'll kill all of the Seven Deadly Sins!" He yelled out as he gave a thunderous plunge into Envy's heart with his illuminating blade.

Alsop fell to the ground, much like his foe across his sight. Death had met the door for one of them. Yet, it was not for Alsop. From outside, Maxwell held Alsop tightly, his eyes in awe but his hands firm with disapproval. His reaction was nowhere near as intense as the astonished eyes of Axel were. He stumbled backwards in devastation and disillusion as his hands covered both his awestruck mouth and his exasperated eyes.

"Alsop...oh Alsop..." He wailed out with vomit. "This is why, why we can't work together...jumping ahead as always...I will never keep up with you...not anymore...!" He cried out.

"Alsop Dusseldorf. Why? Why did you have to bloody kill him!?" Maxwell exclaimed.

"I'm - I'm sorry..." Muttered out Alsop wearily.

"Envy...is dead then...?" Axel pondered, regaining himself.

"I don't know." Maxwell replied simply. "But Caspian Cull is dead, at the hands of Alsop. He will likely be persecuted for it." He sighed deeply.

"No way! He didn't even -!"

"We need to reach Bournington." Maxwell quickly interjected Axel's concerns.

Urgency struck the two as they lifted up the hazy Alsop and the deceased body of Caspian Cull, and just beside the two walked Elsa. The group had quietly crept across the paths to Bournington as a glistening light began blinding them in the distance. With the rain having stopped, only the chilling cools of the night had caused them problems as they persevered. The grander issue soon silenced their eyes though. The sparkle that tingled in their heroic eyes had been indefinitely burned away. They had reached the outer slums of Bournington.

Bright and bold, a fire had been engulfing the biggest building of the capital, the Royal Guard - the first sight of atrocity that garnered their attention. With tears coming from the immense sense of fear compelling him, Axel had begun sweating as a bathing heat submerged across the whole city - a golden glimmer cast across the streets that were once cold. From a distance, a crying call for help had been heard crawling across the scorched streets as the moaning of perilous souls had cried out in pain and anguish. But most significantly, was the relaxed, reserved figure to have condoned such evil. High above the Royal Guard, they had been resting with an abominable smile towards their anarchy below them.

"We - we - we have to help!" Maxwell finally stuttered out a breath, a word, something, anything.

He had boldly begun running towards the madness with his struggling feet propelling his fury. His eyes lost the heavenly blue they had been bejewelled with, as they now had a fiery stain to them. Fire, fire, fire. It fuelled in the pit of his stomach an unbearable rotation of anxiety that he pushed through with because his eyes could only focus on the chaotic mess that was ahead of them. A city resting on charred civilians and harvested homes. Suddenly though, a strong, vivid fragrance of vulgar, fermented smoke had flustered the group with a fight for fresh air. They had started coughing uncontrollably in repulsive obsession. And the effects of this furthered horrifically, when Axel collapsed to the ground in a dreary sleep, his hands slipping the body of Caspian Cull. Was this sleep of fatigue, or death? Maxwell, Elsa and the dreary Alsop could only ponder their own fates with shared worry, but to their avail, something had quickly gathered their attention.

Rustling about a narrow treeline, a heroic figure had come to their aid. A figure that had tried to speak out to them hastily. It was hidden well within the darkness of the night, but the general aura about the being could only be considered good as they had invited the three survivors away from the gas with a lack of hostility.

"Are you trying to get caught!? What are you doing? Hurry up and get here now!" They had demanded.

"I - I can't breathe!" Maxwell coughed out in pain.

"Max! Bring whoever stands and come now! There is no time to spare for anyone else, we'll get them later." The friend had begun shouting intensely.

The circumstances could not be any worse for Maxwell, and so he had decided to seek the figure for help. He had managed to drag Alsop along with him and Elsa on his back, but as they ran through the deep wilderness of Bournington and its weakly established Western Woods, their eyes became riddled with guilt as they stared back at the others they had left behind. They had been following the figure frantically, with the three of them struggling to keep up with the fearless friend that had offered them help through the woods.

"Slow down!" Maxwell breathlessly shouted. "Who are you? Why are you saving us?" He asked.

"Max," the figure turned, "it's me. Fred." He said.

"Frederick...? Oh, Fred! What has happened here?" Maxwell asked with a small smile of relief, he had kept some sense of sanity within him.

"I'll explain later, we must move. We must get to safety. The three of you should have fallen asleep in that fog. You're both very lucky." Frederick said.

"My powers likely forced the winds away from me and Elsa here. For Alsop," Maxwell turned to him. "I think that wind shield you took may have just saved your life." He said.

"Hmm? Wind shield? Ahhh, probably..." Alsop began to fall drearily into Maxwell's arms.

"Alsop? Alsop! Alsop!" Maxwell exclaimed, his eyes starting to flush with water.

"Hurry Max! Bring him and the girl with your strength, we need to hurry, my friend!" Frederick had only placed a brief eye on the minor setback.

"This is too much for me Fred! Where are we going?" Maxwell screamed impatiently.

"The remainder of Bournington, what is left of it all." Claimed Frederick.

"I need to think about what I've seen Fred! I need to think, please!" Exclaimed Maxwell.

"There isn't much longer my friend, hold in there. Please." Said Frederick, his eyes set on a distant safe haven.

As he ran with uttermost haste, Maxwell painfully pushed forwards with Elsa against his back and Alsop within his hands. Yet, for Alsop, his mind was elsewhere as his eyes slowly drifted off into sleep, his body finally accepting the consequences of his battle against Envy. But where did he fall upon? All around him, a dream was created, which he had never before felt. It was as if he had been between the touches of actuality and the afterlife. What touched him most was the frosty palms of a familiar face. Her eyes burned with fiery warmth and passion, but to his disappointment, Alsop found no physical comfort from the touch of his wife, Mary Dusseldorf. But why was she here within his dream? Alsop could not speak. His lips inhaled and exhaled. Mary could speak. Her lips only pushed to speak, for they had no energy, no breaths behind them.

"Alsop? What happened to your dream? Our dream?" Her words hit Alsop like an icicle. "Don't look behind, darling." She said.

Immediate with his disobedience, Alsop turned to see a leeching sensation which had crawled all across his back. There came a sense of disgust in his heart which he could not embrace. His eyes came to fully view the murky mess that was behind him this whole time. Darkness. Whatever the maleficent manifestation was, it mauled against his body. Until finally, he used an ounce of his final strength to propel himself far away. Into the hands of his wife he wished to go, but against the pale white floor, he fell. His head had taken a large knock, and blissfully he fell into a deeper haze.

"Ah, of course. My dream wasn't to kill the Seven Deadly Sins. It was to become legendary. To bring back Mary. Those are my desires. What was I thinking just now?"

His thoughts ceased as his body accepted his sleepy state, falling well within a dream. He had fought a victorious battle and now taken a well-earned rest. Yet, his enemy had not taken rest of any sorts. Far, far away, Envy rose from the murky sea of bodies in the village of Bournehill where he found himself standing tall. A new body, fresh from the piles of bodies, Envy had not ceased to exist. In fact, he moved on. Just like his body moved on, so did his malicious desires. Well within the vicious, feminine face which he stood defeated with, Envy vengefully rattled out a single name.

"Alsop Dusseldorf."