Wyatt massaged his temples. He was wearing a new outfit that some heroes called goth punk. It was an oversized t-shirt, a cloak that had collars that were bigger than his ears, black painted ear jewelry, and an egregious amount of straps. To say that it did not mix well with his cream colored fur riddled with stripes and his black eyes was an understatement. No amount of black makeup and fur extensions would hide this.

He was distressed with a different reason however. Some of his and Dennis’ spies reported the birth of a new lord of mortal sin and a hero. The hero could easily be pinpointed and they could probably offer resources or mentorship wherever he popped up, but no. What brought him this migraine was the lord of mortal sin, a potential demon god that was usually impossible to detect or pinpoint. Sure heroes were usually good, but could become tyrants if left unchecked.

So far no unexplained deaths or environmental phenomena popped up indicating the emergence of one, so that rules out Wrath and Envy as the new one, though he cant say for certain.

Wrath from the destruction it normally entails from the usual suspects of secret organizations or corrupt oppressive systems that birth it, or maybe wrath to themselves this time. It could happen, after all it happened before. Usually they could have them defect to their side, which is why he usually maintains friendly relations with this particular demon god. He and Dennis practically helped the new one ascend and establish a colony in hell after the whole Demon God wars.

Envy was a tad bit more sorrowful. The individual usually lacks appreciation for their state. I mean who can blame them when parasitic systems pop up a dime a dozen. He remembers the mass killings that ensued when various theologic denominations found out the location of the last one. Many died and many more became soulless individuals that gave up, losing the hope that usually comes with Envy. This time, he’s going to help this one.

“Is it so bad to want more in life”

He shook his head trying to forget the memory.

Avarice would be a bit trickier. New powers usually pop up making a name for themselves and gathering important individuals. This one usually has a regressor type ability that allows them to change the future or a respawn one that makes them stockpile power. It’s very dangerous since it is usually unknown if the individual is a hero or a lord of mortal sin in disguise. They usually bite of more than they could handle and inevitably make a cascade of calamities that make it so that submission to them would be the most prudent option for survival.

The last one basically caused the necessity of the ice wall that Dennis made to protect most life. It also doesn’t help that most of history basically forgot due to numerous info hazards the last one made.

Lust was a particularly intriguing one. Normally when one thinks of lust, it would be in regards to charisma or sexual attraction. But this is a carefully crafted lie. This sin was attached to one simple thing, obsession. Whether it be power, love, fame, revenge, or some other thing, the person would normally tunnel vision and go to great lengths to accomplish it, often through self-destructive means. Many beings would meet their end to the chaos that lust would usually make, and many more would be influenced by it. The last one was a ruler that worked with avarice to cement their name throughout history. How funny that they were betrayed by the very person dangling the carrot from the very stick that they put all their attention to. Now the soul of that person isn’t even in the samsara cycle anymore, it’s just gone.

Gluttony was in their hands, effectively making it dangerous to deal with. They couldn’t dispose of it properly, even after all the years they spent. It was in Dennis’ hands and they needed something that could hold it.

Fortunately Korilstadt, the nexus of most heroes and otherworlders contacted them. They knew of a way to dispose of the system by feeding it to the location itself. It was brilliant in his eyes, since it was effectively a hole that overlapped to all dimensions and would buffer and dilute anything that is subjected to it. It was a project that was years in the making, so they needed to find someone that could deliver it and ensure it’s safe transport. Both of them were supposed to go there before, but they couldn’t afford to leave the border for even a second.

That was until Judith came in. With her and Dennis, they could effectively transport it. Making it look like a covert arms deal, but in actuality be a God disposal project. He couldn’t draw too much attention to this however, so no armed battalions or armies. So, Judith and Dennis, the only ones that could probably wipe the place out of the map, be the envoys. A bit of an overkill, but no amount of risk is acceptable for such a thing.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

That leaves, Pride and Sloth as the main lords that would have emerged.

Sloth would be catastrophic if it wasn’t dealt with in an early manner. The thing about sloth is not the person itself, but the ability that they possess. Sloth could slowly spread a field that makes things slow. That might not seem much, but it would gradually get slower and slower to the point that time stops and reverses. It would create a massive area, light years across, that would flicker on and off effectively making a time loop. That wasn’t the bad part however, as it ONLY affected physical things. Soul memory, contracts, and various other things like systems would not be affected. It was honestly a bitch to deal with, so they had to get to this one fast if that was the case.

Pride however was a mixed bag. On one hand, they usually had lofty ideals that both Dennis and Wyatt could go behind, if they could establish communication. Pride had abilities that was usually impossible to deal with. From negating all harm, to forcibly imposing their will upon the world.

They could ask the Arcana for help, but it’s been years since they made contact. The bad blood between them only worsened over time. Unfortunately, they seemed to evade him and Dennis’ watch for a while now. Members were constantly changing every hundred years or so, which makes observation even harder.

This did not bode well for them. They still remembered the time they stole the system from the gluttony lord in the last cycle, effectively preventing the God of Gluttony from selecting an heir. Now it was starving. Gluttony starving, Ha, now that brightens up his mood considerably.

He shifted the files and reports he received from multiple agents residing in different factions. The sooner he could deal with the potential war, the sooner they could funnel all their focus into fixing Charles and freeing La Hire. After that, they could probably make sure that the frozen wall wouldn’t even be needed anymore.

*Sigh* He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he turned a corner.

He was now in one of the chamber entrances made from the plants they got from the Godess of life, nicknamed Godplant Camo by yours truly. He hates to say it, but the stuff was excellent stuff. They could now work without being seen by entities they really, really needed to stay hidden from. Whatever price Dennis paid for something like this was probably steep, not to mention getting the price a LOT lighter due to his adjacency to the Godess Stacy. Had it been anyone else, they probably couldn’t pay it even if it took them a million lifetimes.

He flicked open the door with a force of his will and saw the figure of Judith and Dennis hunched forming a jar. One of the hundreds of Jars that were spread across the walls. Had he not known what they were, he’d assumed the place was a hive hatchery for one of the insect kin colonies.

“Yo!” Wyatt said as he strolled towards the two, lazily flicking through the files he brought with him.

“What up W man!” Judith said as she finished firing the jar.

“Hey Wyatt!” Dennis said as he formed another jar out of death clay, mud taken from an afterlife and soaked in the waters of the underworld.

They were forming a bunch of soul eating jars, Xing zhen hu, one of the weapons utilized in the wars of the past. The jar could hold one soul at a time, and would switch the soul with another if it was made to contain a second one. In the past it was used to effectively let a nation of qi wielding humans replace their dying bodies with the long lived bodies of the elves. It used to be heavily outlawed, until history simply forgot they existed.

There was a reason why it didn’t replace the use of phylacteries however, as it came with the terrible cost of never letting the soul go to the afterlife. The humans who used it and their victims were now souls that slowly degraded, slowly going insane as time went by. Some even fused with eachother in a desperate bid to survive. It did not end well for any of them.

Now that they had Judith back, they could make more of these just in case the worst of the worst could happen. And with Dennis’ new divine lich ability, they didn’t need to fear dispersing their souls into the aether.

“Is that the last of it?”

“Yeah, only a few hundred more and we could bury it in one of the towers. Judith here’s the next one.”

“On it!”

This went on as days passed and the place seemed to transform into a bunker filled with ceramic jars. Wyatt took his time beside them as they talked and planned things that might come to pass maybe years from now. He missed these types of interactions. He missed Judith and her insane slurry speeches, he missed Charles and his natural fervor, he missed La Hire and his nonsense spouting habits, and he missed seeing Dennis smile as he talked over and over again about contrivances that Wyatt couldn’t bring himself to care. He smiled at the scene of his two friends making plans and dotting maps. He saw Dennis smile and it made him blush, still focusing his eyes on his bestfriend.

“So what do you say Wyatt? Is the plan good enough?” The sentence broke Wyatt’s haze and he straightened his back. Judith rolled her eyes and smirked at the scene.

Damned drunk, always the sharp one. Wyatt shook his head. If only Dennis felt the same.

“Yeah, I think it could work.”

“So it’s settled.”

They all nodded

“It’s gonna be a long night.”