Seven Deadly Sins

Rise Of The Seven Heavenly Virtues

Chapter 2: Shocking Reveal

Sagramore was standing outside of the Tavern he was just in. Cai walked out with the owner, who seemed to be a 50-year-old man with glasses. After handing over compensation for the damages Sagramore had caused, he bowed to the man, who nodded.

"I apologize for the trouble," Cai said

The owner shook his head. "Water under the bridge, my friend; thank you for the repair money and taking care of those ruffians." He responded. Cai nodded and prepared to take his leave.

"Sir, please wait!"

Cai turned his head to see the young man they saved approaching him. "Can I help you?" Cai asked.

"I'm sorry to bother you. But you said that you and your friend were going to take on the monster, right?" He asked.

Sagramore raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms, walking towards them. "Yeah, but why does that matter to you?"

The man looked at him and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you see, I've been training to take down that monster. I want to-"

"Sorry, no can do," Sagramore said, cutting him off.

The man was not happy about this as he watched Sagramore walk away. Cai sighed at how blunt his partner could be.

Cai put a hand on his shoulder, which made him look at Cai. "I'm sorry about my boss. He doesn't know how to hear people out when he's focused on the mission. Please don't hold it against him." Cai explained.

"What's your name?" He asked the man.

"It's Hojo. Akitoki Hojo, sir." He responded rather slowly. Cai could see that Hojo was very upset and deeply thought over the situation. Cai couldn't let this stand.

"You say you've been training, but what have you learned?" Cai asked.

"My sensory abilities, sir, I have a keen sense of smell. So I'm able to track the monster." He explained.

Cai raised an eyebrow. "What about your combat abilities?" He asked.

Hojo started getting nervous as he knew Cai was on to something. "I-I haven't gotten to that yet, unfortunately." He chuckled.

That answer made Cai sigh and look at Sagramore, still walking away. "Come with me." He ordered the young man.

Hojo nodded and followed Cai towards Sagramore. "Boss." He called out.

"Don't you boss me; I know what you're about to say." Sagramore quickly replied.

A grin eased upon Cai's face. "Oh? And just what am I going to say, Sagramore?" He asked.

Sagramore gave him a slightly annoyed look as he turned to look at Cai. "You're gonna tell me to bring the kid. He'll be in the way. I wanna finish this quickly and get out of here."

Hojo raised an eyebrow. "Um, I'm confused here. Aren't I older than you? You look no more-"

"We're going to need him," Cai said, cutting off Hojo and saving his life. He felt Sagramore wouldn't take kindly to being called a kid.

"No, we won't." Sagramore quickly retorted as he walked away again.

"Oh? So you're saying you know where the monster will be?" Cai asked.

Sagramore stopped in his tracks as Cai asked that. Sagramore scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously.

"That's what I thought. Hojo here can track the monster by its scent." Cai pointed to Hojo, who closed his eyes and waved his hand nervously while smiling.

Sagramore sighed, knowing Cai wouldn't advise this if it weren't necessary. "Waiting for it to come here would not be smart, seeing as we don't know what it can do," Cai added.

"I get it. I get it. So Hojo, would you please lead the way?" Sagramore asked.

Hojo smiled and nodded. "Thank you, sir; I won't let you down." Sagramore waved off the gratitude and followed the boy as he started to lead the way.

As he walked towards Cai, who was looking at him, he gave him an annoyed look. "He's your responsibility so that you know." He said frankly.

Cai smiled at him and nodded, knowing his friend was serious. He followed him as Hojo started to sniff around. With no delay, Hojo found the monster's scent and made his way forward.

"If you can smell it, it must be nearby, right?" Sagramore asked.

Hojo shook his head as he continued to look to move forward, not trying to lose focus. "The scent isn't powerful right now, and usually, it's not close for me. We have quite a ways to go before we finally reach it." He responded.

"Great…" Sagramore groaned.

This moment made Cai smile as he knew Sagramore was getting aggravated. "Patience does a lot of justice, boss." He said in a teasing voice.

"Oh, shut it, Cai." Sagramore quickly responded.

An Hour Later

The three men were making their way through the woods. Cai looked around as they made their way more profound into the woods. He knew Hojo had said it wasn't close, but he didn't think it would be this far. There wasn't much talking happening because everyone was doing what they could to find the beast. Cai looked around at the trees seeing birds flying off the branches. They looked distressed by something, but he was sure they weren't the cause.

They had made it a long way in the time they had left. Hojo then stopped in front of what looked like a cave. "Is this where the monster resides?" Cai asked.

Hojo nodded as he looked at the cave. The smell coming from it was powerful. Sagramore smirked and started walking toward the entrance as he stretched out his right arm in a circular motion. "Careful, boss, we don't know what it's capable of," Cai warned him.

"Ah, don't worry so much, Cai. I'm just gonna kick this monsters a-"

Before Sagramore could finish his sentence, he was cut off as a vast claw crashed into him and sent him crashing through two trees and then a large boulder.

"MR. SAGRAMORE!" Hojo called out as the sudden attack happened so fast. Cai's eyes widened as he saw what was standing before him. Standing before him was a massive beast pressing down on Sagramore, lying in the rocks after the attack.

The monster stood 10 feet tall with arms reaching nearly the ground with claws like large needles on each hand. It had shaggy mangled hair, a deer skull head with sunk-in glowing eyes, and an insatiable hunger for humans. Finally, the monster let out a roar. The roar was a high-pitched scream with a robotic tone mixed in.

"I'm guessing that's the monster. It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen." Cai said.

"We need to help Mr. Sagramore," Hojo suggested.

Cai crossed his arms and smiled. "Oh, you don't need to worry about him."

As he said this, Hojo raised an eyebrow. Then, confused as to why Cai wasn't worried, he looked over to see the monster launch backward for a moment before catching its ground and releasing a mighty howl.

The dust cleared and showed Sagramore patting his shoulder without a scratch on him. "Well, that wasn't very nice." He said with a smile on his face.

"He's… He's alright!" Hojo exclaimed in a surprised tone.

Cai smiled and nodded as he crossed his arms. "He's not the leader of the Virtues for nothing. He won't be defeated that easily." Cai stated.

As he said this, the monster pressed off the ground and charged at Sagramore. However, the charge did not faze Sagramore as he set out to match the beast. Instead, he dashed forward and kicked the beast in the head, making it stumble backward for a moment. But this did not stop the monster's intentions.

The monster quickly grabbed Sagramore's body and tossed him to the ground, creating dust particles to form. Then, without delay, the beast moved its head forward and tried to bite down on Sagramore.

But this wouldn't happen as Sagramore kicked the monster into the air. Having succeeded in his counterattack, Sagramore pressed off the ground and followed it. Once above the beast, Sagramore backhanded the monster hard and sent it flying toward the ground.

The monster hit the ground and left a small crater with smoke and debris flying everywhere. As he charged downward toward the beast, Sagramore felt the monster's claw. It hit Sagramore so hard that it sent him flying into a boulder.

Hojo was utterly shocked and worried as he looked at Cai. But to his surprise, Cai was still not moving and didn't seem to have any plans to do so. So the beast let out a mighty howl before noticing Sagramore starting to get up.

"Okay, that one hurt. This thing seems to be getting stronger as it fights." Sagramore said as he paused for a moment, noticing that the monster didn't seem to have any scratch on it.

"Get…Get AWAAAYY….b-boss…"

The beast speaking stuck out to Cai immediately. More importantly, hearing the monster call Sagramore boss. But only the Virtues would call him that. "Could it be?" He said to himself.

"Mr. Cai. Do you know something?" Hojo asked.

Cai gritted his teeth, unsure, but he needed to see if his hunch was correct. "Boss. Please don't kill it. Keep it busy!" Cai exclaimed.

Sagramore smirked and gave him a thumbs up. "Awesome! I get to have fun."

The monster rushed at Sagramore, who jumped over it immediately and kicked it in the back of the head. The beast let out another mighty howl as it was not letting up its assault.

"Hojo, stand behind me," Cai ordered. Hojo nodded and did as instructed as Cai held his left hand and showed his pointer finger. A small white light sphere would appear at the tip of his finger, and he would begin writing incantations with the light; it was as if he was writing upon the air.

It was then that Cai started to speak out about his incantations.

"Put it to rest with a peaceful slumber.

Even the angriest of foes cannot deny this rest.

You have walked on a restless path and deserve peace.

As water runs high from low, I grant thee nourishment

Grant thee peaceful dreams.

Show me eternal, ultimate beauty, indestructible, unassailable.

I reject understanding; I seek perfection.

Life is beautiful!

Life gathers, undulating, reeking, displaying the horror of its procreation.

I will not accept it; I will not understand it.

I long for rest.

I long for a beautiful world of dreams.

I long for a world where creatures can rest.

SLUMBER"

As he cast the magic, a ring of light formed around the monster's head as he dashed at Sagramore once more before stopping it dead in its tracks. The beast had lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Seeing that the battle was over for the moment, Sagramore took a deep breath and walked over to Cai, who was inspecting the monster.

"Is… Is it dead?" Hojo asked.

Cai shook his head. "No, I just put him to sleep. I used my magic ability to slumber. It allows me to put anyone I hit with it to sleep. They will stay asleep as long as I keep the magic going, but I will get exhausted if I keep it going for too long." He explained.

"Cai's magic abilities come from his incantations. If he's able to get the entire thing done, he's able to perform powerful magic. He can do it much faster if he had-" Sagamore's words were cut short as the monster's body started to move.

The monster's body started to shrink. It got smaller and smaller and began to turn into a bipedal form. Finally, the body morphed and shaped itself into a human, which took Cai and Sagramore by surprise.

The person lying on the was a man who looked to be in his twenties, standing at six foot one inch. He looked to have a toned figure. His hair was a deep purple lavender halfway down his back. He had carefully straight-cut bangs that hung over the eyes. His skin was white, a bit pale, with no visible markings. The man was shirtless, but he still seemed to have his pants on, so the transformation didn't seem to destroy them.

The transformation left Cai and Sagramore dumbfounded. They couldn't believe they were seeing this correctly. Just the sight of who was lying before them kept them speechless.

"R-Roo?" Sagramore said in disbelief.

"How could this be? I don't remember him ever having this ability." Cai stated.

"Um. guys, are you familiar with this man?" Hojo asked.

Sagramore gritted his teeth in frustration as he gently picked up Roo's head and held him. "He's our trusted comrade and a dear friend to us. He's the Virtue of Chastity." His voice sounded like it was about to crack as his body shook. Nevertheless, he held Roo tight and pulled him in for a gentle hug, showing that he was apprehensive about him.

Later That Day

The evening had rolled around, and the group had brought Roo to an inn they resided. Roo was lying on Sagramore's bed, with Sagramore sitting in front of the bed on a chair.

"He's still asleep even though you stopped the magic," Hojo said as he stood by a window, watching the man sleep peacefully.

"He probably hasn't slept in days," Cai answered, standing behind Sagramore.

Sagramore was looking at Roo with a hurt expression on his face. "I could have killed him. If you hadn't said anything, I could have taken his life. And I didn't notice it was him."

Cai sighed, sat on the bed across them, and relaxed his body for a moment. "Don't beat yourself up about it. I only figured something was off because he called you boss." Cai said.

"So what are you guys going to do? There's still the problem of him killing people. How do you guys know he won't do it again when he wakes up? I'm already risking my neck by not telling anyone that he's the monster." Hojo stated.

"We're grateful to you for that. Thank you, Hojo. As for him, we'll have to talk to him when he wakes up. I'll use my binding magic to keep him from doing anything while we question him." Cai explained.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door. Everyone turned towards the door, wondering who it could be. Cai stood up and walked towards the door, and opened it. His eyes widened as he saw who was standing in the hall. The short silver and lavender hair with amber eyes were a giveaway to who was in front of him.

"G-Gustaf?" He asked in shock.

"Master Cai. It's been a while." He responded with a warm smile. Standing beside him was another surprise, noticing the short pink hair on the man beside him.

"Gilthunder, you're here as well. What brings you both out here?" Cai asked.

Gilthunder cleared his throat and took a step forward as Gustaf stepped aside. "We're here for you two." He said as he looked at Sagramore, who turned his head towards them, showing an annoyed look on his face.

"We need to talk to you guys about the Seven Deadly Sins. You have orders from Dreyfus and Hendrickson." He said. Sagramore gritted his teeth and looked back at Roo once more. Cai's face turned serious as he knew the situation was difficult if they had come out to look for them. A whole new adventure was about to begin for the Virtues.

A/N I'm glad to say I'm back. It's been so long due to my wedding but I will be doing my chapters again to all the stories that i have ongoing. Thank you so much for reading and again sorry for the long wait!