Power Overwhelming

-------

”Before I say anything, there is something I’m curious about. Everyone has secrets, but yours are on a whole another level. What makes you think I have anything to present in return? You already know I’m not even close to as old as you three.” Valor questioned.

“It doesn’t have to be on the same level to fit our purposes.” Hope pointed out quickly, in an attempt to assuage the other Virtue, but was in turn placated by a gesture from Karna.

Karna’s eyes suddenly turned blood-red, and her fangs grew longer as she bared them in a wide grin. “Because I already know what your secret is. Even if most of the Vampires of this universe have forgotten, surely you didn’t think that I couldn’t recognize our ancient Lupine rivals.”

Valor’s perpetual smile turned into a slight grimace. “I suppose it was a bit too much to hope for. Well, since you already know, there’s not much to explain.”

“Could someone translate for the slow one in our group?” Envy’s words would’ve seemed self-effacing, if not for the fact that she was jokingly pointing at Hope.

“I’m a werewolf. My whole order is made up of werewolves. War Wolves to be exact.” Valor gave a curt explanation, as if that was enough to explain everything. War Wolves were a subspecies of werewolves where their more bestial forms were practically designed for battle. They didn’t turn into oversized canines, but relatively humanoid engines of destruction, muscle, claw, and fur. They could walk and run both bi-pedal and on all fours, but their hands had opposable thumbs and while they usually didn’t use weapons, they were perfectly capable. They were also almost impossible to kill without silvered or heavily enchanted weapons.

“I’m still not following.” Envy admitted.

"That's because you've only been here twice, and neither of those was likely during the time this information was relevant." Karna decided to elaborate. "And the fact that he said War Wolves is important. Have either of you run into any others of his kind while in this universe?"

“Well, I haven’t really gone out of my way to chart all the races I’ve run into. I seem to recall hearing some rumors of werewolves, but I didn’t care enough to investigate. Could’ve been werebunnies for all I know.” Envy shrugged uncaringly.

“There’s a reason for that. Our kind is hunted down and killed on sight. Well, mostly. No one is actively looking for us, but that's because they assume we're all dead and because the order to do so is very old.” Valor asserted in a rather displeased voice.

“Ok. Seems a little odd. I assume there’s a reason for such treatment?” Envy prompted.

"There is," Karna explained. "You are aware of the rule that only those of royal blood can become the heavenly emperor, yes? And that succession is strictly enforced and can only happen in very limited ways. Ever wonder why no faction tries to forcefully conduct a coup?”

“I would assume that it’s because the Host would protect the emperor?” Envy knew she was missing something obvious here, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what.

“The Host is powerful, but it’s not always controlled by the royal family. It’s also busy defending against the Scourges. The Host also has very few if any Divines among them. Do you think no one has ever, over the countless eons, managed to unify the other gods against the emperor?” Karna continued to ask questions, leading Envy towards the answer.

“The divines have a sort of reverence towards the emperor.” Hope pointed out. “All the decrees made by the emperor are treated as law.”

“The current emperor, yes, and to an even further extent with some emperors, but do you think there has never been a crappy enough Heavenly Emperor to incite a full rebellion?” The problem with hereditary power was that sometimes it produced some really shitty offspring unsuited to rule.

“Someone tried and failed for some reason.” Envy realized, turning to look at Valor. “His kind.”

“Exactly.” Valor nodded. “Our kind managed to unify the gods and the Host against an incompetent but tyrannical Emperor of the time. And the whole thing was thwarted by the royal guard. The emperor was less than pleased of course, and ever since our kind have been at the top of the "kill-on-sight" list."

“The unfortunate thing is that the ruling house has changed at least a dozen times since that emperor, and none of the emperors since then have bothered rescinding the order. It’s not that the current or the previous emperors carry a grudge, but it’s a sort of etiquette not to countermand the orders of the previous emperors without a really good reason. They try to maintain the position as sacrosanct after all, which would be a bit challenging if every emperor countermanded all the orders the previous emperors made. And with his kind believed dead, there hasn’t really been a good enough reason. That’s what you want to change, isn’t it?”

Valor nodded. “I wouldn’t be able to stomach the injustice, even if I hadn’t been born as one of the Lupine. Of course, now that I have, the whole thing has become more urgent. I’m trying to help my Order to rise to a prominent enough position that we could create a reason to change things. It’s a slow process. The hope is that we could recreate the house in the Divine Planes and affect change when we reveal ourselves. We’ve managed to climb up all the way from the Mortals Planes, but…”

“How long ago was this?” Envy asked curiously.

“At least a couple hundred emperors before the current one," Karna replied with a thoughtful look. As the emperors would’ve been immortals, that meant a fantastic amount of time even by her standards.

“Yet you seem very familiar with this.” Envy’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her old rival.

“I’ve been born here several times, as much as I try to avoid it. Before you ask, no I wasn’t around when this happened. Not my fault this time.” She scoffed in reply.

“That you know of.” Hope was quick to add in a teasing tone. “We can’t rule out that you were an inspiration for these or something.”

“You know, not all bad things are due to me.” Karna defended herself.

"Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that." Envy grinned at the chance to needle her. “So Valor and his little order of knights will get killed if the Host finds out what race he is, even if they aren’t super eager or in any rush about it. I’d say that qualifies as a secret for the purposes of this exchange. And I suppose it’s my turn, but oddly enough I don’t really have a big secret like that.”

“You could…” Karna started proposing with a hopeful expression.

“No. For the last time, I’m not giving you the secret about the pillows. And it doesn’t qualify anyway since that secret is only useful against you and will do nothing if revealed to others. Except ensure there are even more pillows for you, which I won’t allow. You are all aware of the fact that my people recently got out from under the yoke of another, larger empire, but there’s no real secret involved there. There are certain things in my past that I wouldn’t like bandied about, but that’s more because they’re private and not because them coming out would be in any way dangerous. I suppose I could reveal how the power from my Name works, but Wrath already knows, and while it’s not something I like to spread around for tactical reasons, it’s not some deep dark secret either.” Envy told the other three in a rather straightforward voice. She had lived her lives purposefully in a way that no one would be able to blackmail her. She did the blackmailing herself often enough to know how dangerous that could be. Usually against Wrath though.

The other two looked at Karna in question, as this had been her idea and she’d known about the other secrets so far. “She’s not entirely wrong. most of her secrets are just embarrassing. However, she is already tied to us for a simple reason. Guilt by association. She’s known me for eons. And I have enough secrets to sink both of us. She knows that if I go down, so does she. And I’m loath to say this, but she is the most trustworthy of all the Sins.”

“Gee, thanks.” Envy smiled unenthusiastically.

“Well, I want to know how her power works at least. You’ve referenced it a couple of times before, mentioning that she shouldn’t be underestimated in battle.” Valor said firmly. he wanted something in exchange for his secret.

“I want to hear one of her embarrassing secrets!” Hope added cheerily.

"One of both, eh? Well, let's start with my power. It's rather appropriate considering my Name, I think. I can copy the power of someone that is better than me in some way.” Envy revealed.

“That’s...huh. Not what I expected.” Valor seemed confused.

“You’re not seeing the implications yet. She can copy almost any power, from anyone at any time. So, if an immortal were to attack her while she’s rank one, she can copy that immortal’s powers and beat them with their own cultivation.” Karna explained with a small smile.

“Wait, is this copying permanent? And is it limited to just one person?” Valor was starting to realize the possible further implications.

“It is permanent, but I can’t improve on powers that I’ve copied, as they’re supposed to represent the target of my envy. Thus, I can’t just steal some immortal’s cultivation and continue from that point on as a rank 1 mortal. If I want to reach the peak, I need to copy someone at the peak or make it there due to my own effort. And it’s not just one person, but I can copy only one type of power or ability per person. There are certain other limitations as well, as some powers are very conditional or dependent on another. For instance, Wrath’s Aura powers are tied to specific bloodlines. without possessing the bloodlines, I can’t really bring out the full power of that bloodline if I copy her cultivation. That being said, she's explained to me and to others several times that when we live enough lives as a certain magical being or reach the peak as one, a bit of that being stays with us into future lives, so I could copy her phoenix bloodline power as an example and use it relatively effectively. The problem is that I have no idea how her fucking multi-bloodline Aura cultivation shit works, so I’d only be copying a small portion of her powers. I also don’t inherit the target’s skill with said power, so I have to be a little careful when it comes to turning that power on them.” Envy explained further.

“On the other hand, she has lived countless lives, so she’s pretty damn skilled in using most powers and abilities so it’s effective against most people," Karna interjected.

“You don’t seem too worried.” Valor pointed out.

“I’m just used to it.” She shrugged. That and Envy wouldn’t be able to copy her attunement to the elements if she copied her magical powers, which meant that she would still be much stronger even with access to the same amount of power. Not that it ever stopped Envy from snagging her magical cultivation, as it was just too handy to have.

“She is my most common copy target.” Envy admitted shamelessly. “It’s almost a tradition at this point for me to copy her magical cultivation at some point. She’s the best at it after all, and even if I can’t beat her with her own magic, I’m more than satisfied being the second best.” She added with a grin. “I’ll copy her power at some point after reaching immortality, which is another reason why I’m not going to bother with her Aura abilities. Another thing. I could theoretically try to copy something more abstract like a Kensei's skill with a blade, but while I could get the skill, I wouldn't get the muscle memory, reflexes, or the mindset, which goes to show that some things are too conditional to copy properly. Besides, a Kensei’s body is a perfectly honed instrument specific to their style. I wouldn’t have that. That’s not to say it would not be useful, and I’ve done it before. However, the best targets are straightforward powers and foundational things like cultivation, as well as superficial things like appearance. There is a limit on how many people I can copy, but you don’t need to be concerned about that number.” Envy downplayed her power a bit.

"It's still a horrific ability," Hope said before her eyes suddenly grew huge. "Oh my. You actually do have a secret worth keeping after all. There's something you could copy that would have rather huge implications. You could copy the bloodline of the royal family so that you could also challenge for the position of an Emperor.”

Karna secretly grinned in her mind. She had hoped someone would realize the implications. Now she wasn’t the only one that might need protection from the great houses of the Divine Plane. “Oh hey, fancy that.” She said with an exaggeratedly fake surprise.

“Son of a Karma!” Envy cursed. “You realized this long ago, didn’t you?” She looked sharply at Karna. “That’s why you weren’t worried about me revealing anything. Guilty by association my ass!”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Karna grinned. “That’s for calling me the source of all evil by the way.”

“Well, to me it seems like we’re now in the same boat. Or in this case tower.” Valor frowned. “It’s still odd to call this thing a tower when it’s clearly a ship.”

“Don’t mind it. You’ll lose.” Hope added idly, as if on auto-pilot. “I still want my juicy secret. I was promised a secret!” She focused on something else entirely.

“Fine. Fine! But no one said anything about the secret being just about me. I got my Name almost at the same time Lust did. I got it primarily due to my actions because of the almost irrational envy I felt towards Wrath and Lust, though mainly it was about Wrath. Even back then she was annoyingly competent and she’s almost incapable of not being attractive. If vanity was a Sin recognized by whatever system gives us our Name, I’m pretty sure Wrath would have that one as well.” Envy grumbled.

“She’s not entirely wrong.” Karna freely admitted. In fact, the only reason she likely didn’t have some kind of Name to that effect was because she enjoyed being born as magical beasts as well. Now, if most of those beasts also happened to be majestic, that wasn’t really her fault. She was also often self-deprecating, which didn’t fit with vanity, so there was that as well.

“As it just so happens, Lust was also re-born into that universe, and you can’t really earn a name like Lust if you don’t have what it takes appearance-wise. This was one of my earliest lives, so I wasn’t able to keep up with the two. So naturally I envied what they had. I’m also not afraid to admit that I was attracted to them both as well, so I also envied them in another way. I went rather far in my envy, much farther than anyone should. I mean, I was special, right? I was able to be reborn. Surely it was for a reason. No one else was as important as I was. So why were these two uppity upstarts getting in my way? Well, one of the plans I hatched to get at them resulted in the event that earned Lust her Name. What most people don’t know, is that Wrath was right there with her. If Lust hadn’t earned the Name, I’m pretty sure Wrath would’ve. Assuming someone can have two Sins as their Name, I’m not sure honestly.” Envy pondered.

"Yeah, that one really got out of hand, didn't it? Of course, the real difference between me and Lust is that I got my fill, while she found herself at that moment, and continued in her subsequent lives." Karna admitted.

“That’s the embarrassing part for them. Now the embarrassing part for me. I envied them even for that. Perhaps especially for that. I envied them for the pleasure and fun they got out of it. I envied how it didn’t seem to affect them mentally, or politically. The plan was meant to ruin them, but it only made them stronger. I envied that I wasn’t part of it. I also envied the fact that it wasn’t me that…well, you get the gist. That, more than anything, drove me to the final acts that finally earned me the Name. It’s funny what happens when you machinate a civil war between all the gods of a particular universe.” Envy shook her head partly in shame, and partly because she’d left that part of her behind already. They all had. All three Sins had changed greatly since then, though it was hard to say how much Lust had truly changed.

“I’m not sure if funny is the correct word, but I suppose the end result was not as bad as one might assume.” Karna shrugged, not minding that Envy’s story had turned into airing her laundry as well. “Well, we can discuss further later, but for now, we have something else to do. We have two reincarnators to interrogate, and you’ll get to see them die, one way or another.