"As I suspected", the person said as he grasped the neck of a well-endowed female.

The voluptuous woman squirmed and shivered in terror as she tried to escape from the iron grip of the man in front of her. Despite being the same Rank, there was a large gap between their powers as he could easily overwhelm her. At first, she felt lucky to have met such devilishly handsome men.

Upon being subdued, she attempted to seduce him to no avail. In fact, just like the previous one, her attempt at seduction disgusted them to the point that if they had arousal, it instantly died.

He looked at her in disgust. How he originally died was at the hands of a seductive woman who had an appearance leagues above her while in bed. He thought that she had truly loved him but alas he died during in intercourse from a blade she gripped while he was off guard. Refusing to allow the same thing to happen, he swore celibacy which would cause many females to despair if they knew as he had an incredibly handsome appearance. Unlike the other Dukes who had wallowed in their Sin which represented their vices, he decided to ruminate and learn from his past mistakes.

"How are you so strong?", she managed to mutter as his grip threatened to collapse her throat. If he was this formidable, he should've already defeated the Diabolic One yet he had not which meant there was more to the situation than she could comprehend.

The pale-faced youth smirked in response. The dazzling visage which resulted nearly caused her to forget the situation she was in.

"Unlike you, I have transcended my Sin"

He then threw the Duchess against the wall which due to being fleshy, cushioned her impact slightly.

Taking her Sin Qualification and the Purgatory Shard, he then sneered, "Can't have an annoying Marquis stealing my present"

______________________________________________________________________________

Atlas frowned as he still desired to continue using Soul Imbuement. There were still innumerable souls which he could extract soul energy from but he could not continue doing so as he would be interrupted by the people rushing towards him. Irritated by the Demon Nobles, he could only store the souls near him.

Displeased by their disturbance, he grudgingly decided to use them to test his newfound strength. As they clearly had enmity with him and he knew he was superior at least in terms of individual strength, he would not back.

Pulling out the Crescent Messenger, he loaded an arrow. Imitating Kamui, he unleashed the lunar blast which separated into individual projectiles numbering in the thousands. Due to his lacking archery skill and aim, the trajectory was off and most of the arrows missed. It didn't matter though as due to the quantity, many Nobles were still shot and maimed by the onslaught.

Many Nobles were caught off guard and every Baron and Viscount who had been successfully shot instantly perished.

With swift and precise movements, he then began to crush the stronger Demon Nobles. As he had the strength of a Demon Duke, only those at or above the Earl Rank could contest his slaughter. Testing out an idea he had, he decided to circulate blood flow while fighting. His blows would be strengthened by his Blood Manipulation and would damage his opponent's blood vessels.

[Technique Learned: Inflammation Infliction]

With a single blow, a Count's body started to swell up like a balloon before exploding. The effects of his new technique varied as Barons would immediately explode while Earls would only receive a swollen tumor. With the excess bloodshed, he began to passively absorb the blood as he continually slaughtered one noble after another.

"If we kill him, the Diabolic One would surely reward us", a Baron croaked clearly fearing for his life and trying to entice people to stall Itsuki.

"Are you fucking stupid? He can probably kill the Diabolic One", a Count retorted.

"We'll see about that. I've asked my liege the Duke to help", the Marquis who had been fighting the monk previously declared.

As he deftly dodged Itsuki's blows, he attempted to sever Itsuki's hand. Upon contact with his wrist, the Marquis screamed in pain as his entire arm exploded.

Atlas shook his head inwardly. If his hand was disrupting blood vessels then the source would clearly be the radial artery.

The monk of great standing watched amused as Itsuki stomped on the Earls as if they were ants. Ruthless as always, he thought.

"A mere human dares to disrupt my banquet?", someone bellowed.

"A mere human? For a demon, you think really highly of humans", Atlas retorted.

If someone like him was considered the average human, then what would every other human be considered? Utter trash? Ants? Pebbles?

"YOU DARE TO TALK BACK TO A DUKE!?", the person said.

[Trial of Envy Inflicted]

Once again, his vision began to distort. The hellscape before him warped into one which instigated his past memories.

He was seated in a pitch black room and felt his hands were bound by rope and possibly even metal chains. As he wondered if the Trial had malfunctioned, an apparatus remarkably similar to a television screen flickered to life.

On the screen, he could see a younger version of himself sitting in a classroom.

So this directly targets the soul, Atlas thought. That could be the possibility as if it had targeted the body, then it would've been Itsuki's past instead of his.

The screen then turned to static. It portrayed a female with a heavenly countenance as she stared at the world below the clouds.

A voice then sounded, "Are you ready, Aurelia?" to which the beauty merely nodded.

Atlas stared completely at the screen intensely. He was completely baffled as he had no idea what the scene before him had to do with envy. Was I supposed to desire the beauty?

Before he could continue with his inferences, the screen returned to the younger version of himself.

Atlas had just scored another 100. Gleefully, he showed the test paper to his father which elicited a gentle smile from him. Ruffling his hair, the father then lifted him in the air and said, "As expected of my little genius".

He then jumped out of his father's arms and ran to play with his siblings. His beautiful older sister hugged him as if she were proud while his formal older brother acknowledged him with a nod.

At dinner, his mother had asked the maid to make his favorite meal which he munched on happily. The days swiftly went by and Atlas had grown up. In high school, he became the most sought after boy and the other male students went green with jealousy. In college, he aced every course and gained recognition in his chosen field. After graduating, he then married an extremely beautiful woman who he thought had truly loved him. Working at his family's conglomerate, he made a hefty amount which could sustain him for a few generations. Sure he might've worked overtime a bit too much but overall, life was good for him. His relations with his family remained amicable while he enjoyed his wife's cute tantrums. She occasionally went overseas for business trips but that was acceptable to him. They then had a son together who grew to become a capable man in the 2 decades which had zoomed by.

The life portrayed then suddenly became depressing. After a sudden car accident, his legs were crippled and he remained in the hospital for quite some time. During that time, no one from his family visited and that included his wife and son. His friends were mainly people he met a work so they did not visit either which made him believe the company was encountering issues which absorbed their time.

When he was finally discharged, the part of the conglomerate he worked in had been demolished so he asked for his sibling's help. They all ignored his calls and when he went up to their mansions to ask what had ruined their relationship, the security guard had actually kicked him in the leg!

Enraged at his circumstances, he didn't notice as his wife embezzled more and more money from his savings. He had only realized once his wife had left after a divorce and took more than half of his remaining assets. Feeling miserable, he sat on a park bench in the rain contemplating suicide.

As his lifeless eyes watched the droplets fall from his drenched and tattered coat, he heard a mocking chuckle. Turning to the source, he saw an enigmatic man with obsidian hair and crimson eyes.

"T-the devil!?", he stammered.

He then gritted his teeth and snarled in anger.

"So you're the reason my life is so miserable"

He then felt the person smack his face. Based on the expression the man had, he likely did not use much force but it was still enough to create a crater in the concrete.

He lifted his bleeding head and glared at the man.

"Pathetic", the man muttered after staring for a while.

"This is supposed to make me feel envious?", Atlas said before bursting into laughter.

"I HAD A GREAT LIFE UNTIL YOU CAME ALONG!", the false Atlas screamed as he felt compelled to vent his frustrations.

Grabbing his collar with both hands, he then failed to lift Atlas up but continued to rant.

"If you hadn't caused the car accident. My life would've still been great. I remember seeing you at the car accident. Now I know you were the perpetrator. You piece of shit, I will make sure you suffer.

Then life can go back to the way it was. My wife will be waiting for me at home, my son will scold me for working overtime, and my office will welcome me..."

Seeing the false Atlas delude himself, he then scoffed, "This is a great life!? Face reality, you were never loved to begin with"

Atlas then felt a shock and he found himself within the body of the fake Atlas.

That day, the entire Maverick Conglomerate ended as every single heir died while one went missing.