Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

60

"Granted. Even so, I have to wonder how you found yourself trapped in the first place. I admit the spell was fearsomely made, and engineered by a Solaria no less, but in that case, you should never have been so easy to trick into stepping within its bounds. The physical prison was already constructed and the spells woven into it long before you appeared. It's not as if you could have been deceived somehow into standing still long enough for the spell to be constructed around you. Everything was present and in plain view. Yet... you readily walked into the trap powerful enough to seal you, with no reservations... Interesting."

"Don't talk uselessly when you don't know a damn thing."

"But am I wrong?"

Mammon growled. The beastly noise triggered my fight-or-flight response, making me draw up and lean in toward Lust slightly. Hurt my pride, but better a bruised ego than chewed like a rawhide bone.

"Let me guess," Lust continued, utterly unperturbed. "After ambushing me with Leviathan and Ashaitan, they turned on you. Did you fight? Did they injure you so severely you had to retreat? Then perhaps you went in search of one of my Shards, knowing that I escaped death by a sliver and wanting to finish the job. In your weakened state, you overestimated yourself and landed in the trap. You were unable to escape, and you've been there ever since. How accurate is my guess?"

"You're an idiot through and through if you think I'm that weak."

"Against Ashaitan? When it comes to brute strength, we know who comes out on top." Before I could ask, Lust stroked my back with an affection caress and explained, "That would be Wrath, as I prefer to call him, but he's sensitive like Mammon. They're reluctant to be addressed by their covenant names for some reason. I can't imagine why. I think it would give Mammon some much-needed charm if he flaunted his title as the Prince of Greed."

"All you'll ever amount to is an empty title, but not me," Mammon sneered. "We're nothing alike. Go on and revel in it, but in the end, the covenant will fade, the title will fade. All you'll have is your name, Asmodeus."

"Well, that's a rather irresistible name, too. I'm not opposed."

Hm. More and more, I was starting to understand why Lust was so unpopular with the other Princes. I still sympathized with him slightly more, contract-bound to his welfare as I was, but did he provoke them like this all the time? I thought he said they used to be close. I couldn't see a single speck of that now as the air filled with Mammon's growing rage.

Thankfully, we returned to shelter right before a real fight could break out — again — and Lust ducked swiftly into the cave seconds before a deafening thunderclap shook the world. I almost fell out of his arms, jarred by the sheer force of it, but he held me steady with a quick adjustment. A fierce rushing noise filled and echoed through the cave. I didn't realize that was the sound of the pelting rain until a few seconds later when Lust set me on my feet — oh, nope, setting me on his lap yet again, huh?

No, thanks. I elbowed him in the chest and crawled off of him towards what I hoped was the wall, one hand clutching the wound-up whip and bumping along on the floor. I wasn't good enough at judging the acoustics to figure out how far away it was, but my guess was a lucky one. My head lightly bumped into a solid stone surface inches away, and I righted myself with some effort before stowing the Indra's safely in my lap.

"Sable—"

"I want space," I interrupted as I turned and sat myself against the wall. "Space. Peace. Can't we have a single discussion where neither of you get aggressive at each other. It's getting old, and all I wanted was to know what both of you can contribute to fixing the situation. Sorry that I can't do much myself, but I think it's fair to consider my getting us off the Kunlun Mountains before we got sealed as a free pass."