Chương 324: Desire Taking Control
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"Hello, it's finally nice to meet you. My name is Quinn West, but you might better know me as. . . . Greed."
Quinn stared at the copy of himself glowing in a yellow hue. He couldn't take his eyes off the person in front of him. The other personifications, when they appeared in front of him, were all dressed in a simple black shirt and black pants. But not the one in front of him. Greed. . . wore [Quinn's] favorite suit, looking how Quinn would want himself to look.
"I know I look good, but come on, you're making me shy," said Greed with a smile.
Quinn's eyes darkened. He slowly got up and faced the figure in front of him. "Where is Lust?" he asked. "Bring him out. I have a couple words for him."
"Ah, that won't be possible, unfortunately. Lust is, let's just say. . . busy."
"I don't care what or where he is. Switch out with him. . . . I just want to talk to him."
Greed laughed, "We both know that's not true; he really did mess things out there."
Quinn gritted his teeth, and the soulscape trembled for a moment. Greed turned his eyes around the space, a plain expression flashing over his face for a split second before he went back to smiling.
"Don't you act like you had nothing to do with it," Quinn said, clenching his fists. "I heard what he said— that he didn't want to do, that you made him do it." An aura of magic started to leak out of Quinn as he glared at Greed. "So. . . tell me what you have to say for yourself."
"Of course, Lust didn't want to do it," said Greed, matter-of-factly. "Why would that ball of lechery want to tell Daphne. If not for me, he would've taken decision making the situation much-much problematic than now."
Greed's attitude was started to get on Quinn's nerves. His life had taken a turn for the worst in the past couple of days, and this was, without doubt, the worst part of even that time.
"I did tell him to talk to Daphne," Greed continued, "but how would've I known that he would do in front of Ivy. Everything was going great— he headed to a quiet place, called her there— but then he got distracted by Ivy. If not for all his blood going through his lower body, he would've diverted the situation or postponed it, but that idiot didn't. . . what a mess."
"Why would you ask him to do that in the first place?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Greed smiled. "Because I love Daphne."
Quinn froze. For a second, all his anger and steam fizzled out, to be replaced with a stunned vacuum. The words didn't come to his mind, much less his tongue, and all he could for a moment was stare.
". . . You don't love Daphne. I love her. The only reason you only feel that way— if you're not lying, that is— is because you were born with me as the base."
Greed shrugged, seemingly not bothered by Quinn's jab. "And I can't do anything about. I was born as I was. The only thing I can do is to take what I have and work with it, and well, if there isn't something I lack— I will just take. . . get it," he said with a pleasant smile. "I was born with the love for Daphne— all of us were born with that. I couldn't sit and see her being kept in the dark while you and the others fought with each other. I asked Lust if he could do me a solid, and he being the good bloke he was, agreed with me."
"? Was. . . the good bloke he 'was' ?"
Greed's eyes slowly opened as he went, "oops~," as if he had been caught doing something naughty.
"You know how I said that Lust was busy. . . yeah, about that, he isn't busy— he just doesn't exist anymore." A wide, elongated thin-lipped smile stretched on Greed's face that looked the same as Quinn's.
"H-He doesn't exist anymore?"
"Yup, I gave him one simple job; he couldn't even do that properly," Greed shook his head with a sigh. "So, after I ate Gluttony, I decided that I don't really need Lust, so I popped him in as well. Quite exquisite both of them."
Quinn felt a blockage in his throat. He tried to speak but felt like someone had laid inside that stopped the words from coming out. He stared at Greed with an incredulous gaze.
"You ate Gluttony?"
"Ironic, isn't it? I ate the glutton. Well, while I say I ate both of them, it was more like absorbing all of their essences, but who cares about the semantics."
Quinn felt a headache come over him. He asked Greed how it was possible.
"Oh, it's possible, alright," said Greed, "I won't go into detail about our composition— I mean, why would I? But it's not just me; any of us could've done that. No one did it because it would've been a problem as any attempt to subsume another would've brought about retaliation from the others, and that would've turned out badly for the perpetrator.
How was I able to do it, you ask? Quite easily, actually. With only three of us remaining, the threat had decreased significantly. Neither Lust nor Glutton was strong enough to oppose me even if they teamed up— I'm a strong boy, after all. I saw the need to buff myself up a little, so I did what I saw as necessary."
"What you say as necessary. For what?"
"To take over, what else would it be. The initial aim of ever Sin was to take over the body and become the driver. . . the only driver. That, of course, wouldn't have been possible with seven of us, so we decided to take turns being in charge. Pride went first; I guess that was to be expected. We expected that you'd retaliate" — his nose scrunched up — "but the strength of your retaliation was something we underestimated. When you started to pick them off, we got worried, especially Envy. . . phew, you straight up stabbed him.
But then you off-ed Snape, and things started to look good for the final three— and very-very good for me."
Greed straightened out his suit jacket and continued, "Now, I would love to talk to you more— well, not really— but I have to go handle the situation outside while I can still get something out of it." There was an excited grin on his face as he said that.
"You are not going anywhere," said Quinn with a grave voice. "You all ruined my life; I'm going to fix it up before you wreck it beyond repair."
Half a dozen golden blades crackled into the soulscape, all of their razor-edged tips pointed at Greed. They vibrated, creating a terrible sound that seemed like it wanted to rip the fabric of reality itself.
Greed stared at those blades with calm eyes. He looked down towards Quinn, titled his head, and smiled. Quinn's eyes narrowed. He waved his hand down, and the blades whistled towards Greed, who didn't move— he apparently didn't need to move as the blades suddenly shattered before they could even sniff the air around Greed.
The two matched eyes. Greed shook his head and turned away.
Quinn raised his hand again. A dozen blades again appeared in the space and whistled towards their target again. Greed paused, and the moment he stopped, the blades shattered like glass.
"I'm going to forgive that," said Greed. He turned his head sideways, lazily looking at Quinn. "However, punishment is in order. . . no one gets in my way of getting what I want."
Golden chains burst from the formless ground of the soulscape. Before Quinn could even react, the chains looped around his arms and legs. He was ruthlessly yanked down to the floor— forced to kiss the floor.
"Be a good boy, and I will make your stay short stay in here as comfortable as I can," Greed's voice echoed in Quinn's ears as he struggled to get up just to make the chains coil around tighter, tensing him closer to the ground.
Quinn thrashed around before he started losing strength and could only down on the ground helplessly. He tried to focus his attention outside in the real world, but his nerves almost popped when he couldn't peer outside like he usually could.
Greed had blocked him out.
And just when Quinn thought he was truly alone ever since losing control, he heard.
"I was not expecting this."
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". . . Hey," said Quinn softly to the girl in his arms, who had stopped struggling maybe because she couldn't escape or perhaps she had just gotten tired. He slowly let her go, hoping that she wouldn't run away.
Daphne didn't run away. She stood there without moving, her head resting against his chest.
"Would you give me a chance, please," he said.
Daphne's response didn't come for a while. Quinn waited for it patiently, his ears picking up the crunching of grass behind him.
"What do you want to speak?" Daphne said softly.
"Give me a chance to explain, and I promise to not give any excuses."
Daphne's head left Quinn's chest. She looked up at him with her blue, which had turned red on the corners. She stepped away from him but showed no indication that she wanted to go away.
Quinn took that as a positive and stepped aside so that he could face both Ivy and Daphne.
Ivy nervously looked at Daphne and Quinn; there was a smudge of envy in her eyes at the sight of Quinn paying so much care and attention to Daphne. She had seen it many times throughout the year; had wondered what it felt like. She had tried to move past her feelings without much success.
"Why did you kiss her?" Daphne opened up the conversation without beating around the bust.
Quinn glanced to the side briefly.
Daphne picked on that slight movement. She turned to Ivy with narrowed eyes, "You kissed him first, didn't you," her tone made Ivy's eyes crinkle a little. "When did this happen?" she asked.
"The very end of the last year," said Quinn. He sighed, "She found one of my secrets earlier in the year, a promise was made, and we found ourselves alone. . . she surprised me with a kiss. . . and I ended up kissing her back."
"A secret?" Daphne's gaze turned graver.
Quinn nodded. "There are places in Hogwarts that only I know of. I have been exploring them for years." He looked at Ivy, "She by chance found me entering one and followed after me. I ended up sending her away, but not without promising to give her a tour when I was done. It was during the tour when it happened."
Daphne immediately asked more about the 'secret.' Quinn ended up sharing with both the girls about the Cursed Vaults— leaving out the particulars.
Daphne glanced at Ivy, giving her a slight glare. The fact that Ivy knew something about Quinn that she herself didn't know clearly didn't sit well with her.
"Why did you kiss her back?" Daphne asked, her stern eyes turned softer and vulnerable as she asked, "Do you. . . are you. . . " The rest she couldn't speak.
Quinn nodded after a pause.
Daphne closed her eyes while Ivy's green sparkled like emeralds.
"Do you even like me anymore?" asked Daphne, her fist clenched tight.
"Yes, I do!" said Quinn with a bit more power, "I beg you, please don't doubt that."
While Daphne didn't look any better, Ivy's enthusiasm did dim slightly.
"Leave us," Daphne said— no ordered Quinn. "I want to talk to her alone. I have to see whose fault this was."
Quinn contemplated if he should interject, but seeing Daphne, he refrained and silently nodded before turning to walk away.
"Do not use magic in any way to listen on us," Daphne sounded out, her voice warning and threatening at the same time. "Remove what you just cast."
Quinn halted in his steps. He snapped his fingers to remove the spell that Daphne had clearly found out by guessing. Even with the current circumstances, if there was one thing not to be doubted, it was— Daphne Greengrass knew Quinn West.
Quinn walked away to a distance out of earshot. He closed his eyes and waited, hoping the result would be what he was expecting.
If not, then he would just need to get it another way.
No one was going to stop him from getting what he wanted.
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Quinn West - MC - Greed is. . . good.
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