-----

Another spell splashed against the barrier holding back the furious defenders on the other side. “We come in peace? Really?” Envy asked with an amused tone before throwing a blind blast of Qi back to keep the other side honest.

“Hey, it’s a classic for a reason.” Karna defended herself with a small grin. “Besides, I wasn’t the one who threatened their princess.”

“We all know that it was inevitable. The logic of karma dictates that of course, our target would be, what with the royals present and everything." Hope said defensively this time. "I wasn't the one that went after the wrong princess."

“How was I supposed to know there were two princesses being treated in the same hospital?” Valor argued, the mixed smile of amusement and consternation never leaving his face. “And I only did it after someone already killed several of their guards.”

“What? Don’t try to pin this on me!” Envy exclaimed in clear outrage, of which only 90% was faked. “Was I just supposed to let them arrest us?”

“I think we can all agree this is Hope’s fault.” Karna declared firmly. “She’s the one that opened a portal into a hospital room filled with royals.”

“Hey, you were not against my portal idea. The problem with opening blind portals is that they’re blind!” Hope protested. “I think we can all agree that what happened is only because of bad luck, which means karma, and I’m not the one with the Name Karma, am I? So, bad Karma! Bad!”

“I have good karma too.” Karna pointed out. “And you opened that portal so quick that we didn’t have time to suggest alternatives.”

“I blame Valor. On pure principle.” Envy laughed as another spell hit the barrier.

“You really aren’t taking this with the seriousness it requires.” Valor said, trying to hide his own amusement while taking a quick peek beyond the corner, getting several spells sent his way as a greeting.

“I mean, it’s a bit hard to take it seriously when there’s only a single rank 8 among them, and he’s not exactly the most dangerous individual we’ve seen.” Envy pointed out. Apparently, most of the powerful individuals nearby had been sent along with the reinforcements to relieve the world besieged by demons. “I know it’s not good to underestimate our enemies, but any one of us could kill everyone in this hospital without breaking a sweat. The only reason we haven’t is because we don’t want to. And because it’s more fun this way.”

“It’s all fun and games until the Emissary shows up.” Valor countered.

“Except we all heard their failed attempt to contact him. Or her. They went along with the reinforcements and the Host as well, and they’re not coming back for what they assume to be a shitty assassination attempt by a rival empire.” Hope waved the concern away. They’d overheard the royal family’s magical communications. The problem with such communications without proper equipment was that anyone with enough skill could intercept messages if they knew to expect them.

“So really, we’re just killing time until Zuellni can locate the other princess. Because of course she’d still end up being a royal despite our initial mistake.” Karna nodded in agreement.

“And the only reason I haven’t found her already is because they keep moving her, and because this place doesn’t have a proper surveillance system, magical or otherwise.” Zuellni protested grumpily. “And your little game of cat and mouse isn’t making this easier.” It was surprisingly difficult to locate someone when the tower was located a safe distance away from the planet, which meant any scans Zuellni did had a lag to them due to the distance.

Another small explosion rocked the hospital. “You know, they’re doing more damage to this place than we have. Also, I won’t be able to keep this barrier up forever. They might not be as powerful as any of us, but they’re not complete idiots. They've already figured out that they need to use barrier-breaking spells.” Valor grumbled.

“You could always switch with Wrath again. She’s the expert in Qhaysh. Barriers are kinda her thing.” Envy supplied helpfully.

“Not the point, but thanks.” Valor retorted sarcastically.

“Got her!” Zuellni suddenly called out. “She’s directly below you, eight floors down. A group of four going for a secure room.”

"Oh! Another portal coming up!" Hope announced, and before anyone could stop her, she'd already created another hole in space. They were staring right at three guards escorting a female Nautolan wearing a gown meant for patients. “That her?” Hope asked a little unsure. The previous royals had been Sea Elves.

"That's her," Zuellni confirmed. She didn’t bother explaining the genealogy and harem structure of the royals when two words sufficed.

"Great," Hope said happily, and they quickly jumped through the portal, allowing it to close behind them. She waved her hand in front of her, and the three guards fell to the ground, asleep.

“What do you want?” The light-blue-skinned Nautolan hissed at them with narrowed eyes. She was putting on a brave front, but the fact that she was only around rank 7 didn’t really help. Something they could all easily sense.

Nautolans were an odd species. They all had large black eyes and thick skin meant to deal with the pressure deep underwater. They had two hands and feet, although they had webbed skin between their toes and fingers. Instead of hair, which would've been impractical underwater, they had a mess of quite thick tentacles on top of their large, slightly fishlike heads. One of the things odd about them was the presence of both gills and a normal respiratory system, allowing them to live both on land and water, though they usually preferred deep oceans.

“We are here for you. You know why. You’ve been warned multiple times, and yet you persist in drawing power directly from the elemental plane of water.” Karna declared with a cold voice.

“Is this what the whole thing is about? The spirits finally found a lapdog to do their dirty work, huh? Well, I’m not scared so easily. I may be injured, but you really should’ve considered things before attacking someone who controls the power of water under an ocean!” The woman screeched with a shrill voice and they could sense a great deal of power, for her rank, gathering around her. “Did you know that the average humanoid body is mostly made up of water?” She made a quick gesture towards them, reaching for the blood inside their bodies.

Karna’s eyes turned blood red, her canines grew longer, and a rune seemingly made of blood floated in front of her, suddenly shattering the power that had tried to attack them earlier. “Why, yes. I do know that very well.” Karna grinned, showing off her fangs. “However, I think you have something confused. Just because you have basically an endless supply of power at your disposal, that doesn’t mean you’re good at using it.”

With a gesture, she flicked another bloody rune that hit the Nautolan on her forehead causing her to fall to the ground and scream in pain as the rune seared itself into her flesh. “Ooh, I love it when you get all angry and vengeful on someone.” Envy purred, before getting a bit more serious. “Well. Within limits. We wouldn’t want you getting all Wrathy on us.”

“What does the rune do?” Hope asked curiously. She’d never seen a relatively powerful mage taken out so easily and effectively. Yes, they were all stronger than the woman, but with the support of the elemental plane they should’ve at least had a fight on their hands. Apparently, Wrath had come prepared, despite their initial bumbling.

“It causes the victim’s own blood to attack their magical pathways, making casting spells pretty much impossible, unless you know how to counter it. Oh, and pain. Lots of pain. Sadly, only works on those that practice either blood magic or Thaumaturgy. Normally a person's blood is protected by instinctual defenses. That's how you usually resist what she tried to do to you. However, once you start using your own blood to power magic, that protection dissipates, as otherwise, you couldn't use it yourself either. A little known fact: the best counter to a blood mage is a better and stronger Thaumaturgy expert.” Karna explained.

“Glad this farce is finally over. Can we go now? The people chasing us will be here any minute.” Valor tried to push things along.

"Just a moment," Karna muttered before casting another spell to cut any magical ties the Nautolan had to this place that could be used to track her with scrying spells. "Now we can go. Zuellni, if you would please."

The group, along with their new prisoner, was whisked away by the tower’s teleportation system. Now that they weren’t trying to hide anymore, and now that Hope wasn’t being teleport-happy, they could make a hasty exit that way.

------

Karna gathered the group to the meeting room on her tower. “Ok. There’s something we need to discuss.”

“I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that you took the two prisoners instead of just killing them like you talked about?” Valor asked, showing once again that he wasn’t stupid.

“That’s part of it, yes, but only a part. What happens to those two is a rather large secret concerning me, and before I can reveal something like that, we have some other matters we need to discuss.” Karna didn’t bother denying his conjecture. “We’re all approaching a point where if we want to continue working together, we’re going to be revealing secrets we’d rather keep hidden.”

“You’re building towards a proposal of some sort. A more permanent type of alliance, perhaps?” Hope realized. She had seen this coming a long time ago. It was actually one of the reasons she’d allied herself with Wrath in the first place, as she had similar plans.

Instead of answering directly, Karna approached the matter from another direction. “Have all of you been reborn in this universe before?”

“I have. Twice.” Envy confirmed easily. “Been a while though.”

“Once.” Valor nodded more carefully.

Hope simply nodded with a small smile, which prompted Karna to continue. “Well, then you’re probably aware that even with the standards of this universe, there’s way too many of our kind being born here. And it’s not a coincidence that so many Sins and Virtues were born so close to each other. The four of us didn’t come together just because of karma, although that played a part. I’m also quite certain that we’ll find at least Pride, Lust, and Gluttony here as well. It’s hard to say for sure if Sloth or the other Virtues are here, but I would not be surprised. There must be a reason behind all this. I’m sure you’ve felt it as well.”

The others murmured in agreement. “It seems like this universe is gearing up for something big.” Hope pointed out thoughtfully.

“I’ve felt that as well. I’m not sure what it’s about, but we wouldn’t all be here, and so close in age otherwise. It’s not entirely uncommon for several Sins to be reborn into the same universe, as it seems we’re strangely drawn to each other, but rarely are we born so close in age.” Envy confirmed.

Valor waved his hand a bit unsurely. “I’ll have to defer to your expertise when it comes to things like that. I’ve known this for a while, and you three keep confirming it with every interaction we have, but I’m obviously not even close to as old as you three are. However, I can say that this whole thing does have a very artificial air about it.”

“Right. And if you’ve reached immortality in this universe before, you’ll know that the power and politics of the Divine Plane should not be underestimated. Which brings me to my main point. We could all benefit from having firm allies at our back. Allies that we can trust, even without keeping a constant eye on each other.” Karna suggested.

“And coincidentally, the sort of allies we would need to be to share the kind of secret you mentioned earlier.” Hope pointed out, bringing them back around.

“Yes. It also happens that we’re relatively close when it comes to reaching the point of Ascension. We could even do it together.” Karna added. She was the lowest rank among them, and even she was at the 8th rank.

“I would’ve laughed at those words a few years ago, when we first met, but you’ve already proven that you can catch up. However, there’s a slight problem. You three know each other well. Or at least the two of you know Wrath well enough to trust her to an extent. I do not share that with you. The kind of trust you’re suggesting requires powerful bonds. Bonds that only build over time over shared goals, shared battles, shared losses, shared joys, shared heartache. Something that requires years if not decades to build at least, and even more for our kind. I'm sensing that this alliance you're suggesting is more immediate. I'm not saying you're not worth such an alliance. I'm simply saying that we do not have that kind of trust between us yet." Valor explained his concerns. He knew the three others would make for powerful allies, but would their interests align enough for them to work together in the long term?

“A fair point. But there is a quicker way to build trust. No, I don’t mean magical oaths. No offense, but I'm skilled enough at magic that I could wiggle out of any oath we’d make.” Karna allayed the fear that had obviously been reflected on Valor’s face.

“And you have Gem.” Envy pointed out.

“Gem?” Valor asked. He’d seen the spirit before but didn’t know what the spirit had to do with this.

“I might reveal that later. Funnily enough, that’s maybe a part of what I’m talking about. What I mean by forced trust is potential mutual destruction. Not in the way that if one of us dies then all will, that’s just plain stupid, and once again I could get out of it. No, I mean revealing secrets to each other that would be detrimental enough that it would ensure that we’ll keep each other’s secrets. And also, forcefully getting to know some of those secrets in a situation where lying is impossible. Shared secrets are a great way to force trust.” Karna explained.

“Uh, hate to rain on your parade, but I happen to know that Gem can help you lie, even to someone stronger than you.” Envy revealed.

"That is true, however, once I share what I have in mind, I have no doubt that you'll agree that I may have even more to lose than you, and it's not something one would lie about," Karna revealed a bit of her cards. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep all her secrets for long. And if this would be her last life, she wouldn't have to. If revealing them bought her allies she could trust, then it was a small price to pay. And she already knew she could trust Envy and Hope. To an extent at least. Valor was the potential wild card.

“If we’re going to do this, then there are some questions that need answers. We’ve been dancing around certain issues for a while now.” Valor pointed out. “And if we do want to build this alliance, then those issues need to be dealt with.”

“Such as?” Karna asked, knowing mostly what he was talking about. She just wanted him to voice his concerns.

“Well, you three know a lot more about each other. I need to find out at least some of that past. That especially pertains to the shared past between Hope and you Wrath, though I’d like to know about Envy and you as well. It also seems that some of you have gathered quite a few Names. It would help a lot if you shared them.” Valor mentioned the few things that bothered him the most. He had a longer list, but those were the most important.

"That's…somewhat impossible," Karna said hesitantly.

“That’s not a great sign…” Valor lifted an eyebrow.

“Ah, I think you misunderstand me. When you get as old as me, you tend to gather a lot of Names. Some of them you gain together as the requirements to get them overlap. I literally have so many Names that I don’t remember all of them. That said, the secret I was going to share actually has to do with my Names, so sharing the ones you should be aware of is on my agenda.” Karna hurried to explain.

“That’s…alright. I’ll buy it for now.” Valor himself only had a handful of Names, and only two unique ones. That said, he could imagine someone much older having a lot more.

“I suppose I could share our story. It’s not exactly a huge secret even if I’m not fond of talking about it.” Hope agreed, albeit a bit hesitantly. “Unlike Wrath here, I don’t have a vast array of Names to share. You actually already know the most important ones. Witch of Chaos, The Illusionist, and Hope.”

“I’m not entirely what kind of secret I could share though…” Envy hesitated a bit. “Wrath already knows nearly all of it. I suppose I could…”

“Share the method of creating such awesome pillows!” Karna interrupted her eagerly.

“No! Never! That’s my one and only hold over you. That information will go to the grave with me!” Envy refused firmly.