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6 years and 3 months since my rebirth - February 20th 1507

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"So... what's the plan?"

Violet's question hit me in the head harder than the mana sword that came flying towards my face, pushing me back slightly. In my training, I had forgotten to reveal to her how we were going to handle the Velika situation, despite it literally being the date that I told her to meet us on.

We were once again training in the alleyway - the only difference from 5 days ago being that instead of training together, I was training while Violet was spectating from the sidelines. Three mana dummies of the weakest Cardinal King, being the Cardinal King of Sloth - Milrit, pushed forward, attempting to overwhelm me. Of course, I wasn't so easy to push back. I focused and jumped up, slashing through one's neck, before leaping off of it and kicking the other two, sending them stumbling backwards. I managed to land on my feet, crouching slightly to reduce the impact.

I glanced over to Violet. "Yeah, sorry for not explaining. So, basically-"

Violet sighed a little, but failed to wipe a small smile from her face. "Typical Flame Face."

"-what we're gonna do is quite simple. We're gonna... let her join." I ignored her taunt, as it was completely normal at this point, and I didn't really have the patience to bicker at the moment. Nor any real want to, as I was surprisingly okay with letting it go, seeing it more as a term of endearment.

"Wait... you're just gonna let her join?!"

"Well, yeah."

I blocked a strike from one of the mana dummies, while I had to leap back slightly to avoid the other one swiping at my feet.

She sighed, before facepalming. "You do realize that this is Velika the Cardinal of Lust we're talking about, right?! Back when she was one of the seven Cardinal Kings, she was completely untrustworthy! What makes you think she's changed?!"

"I don't. In fact, I'm practically 100% sure that she hasn't changed."

Violet's features twisted into a face of incredulity. "W- Well... What?!"

"We don't have any other option."

At that, she seemed even more confused. "What do you mean 'no other option'?! We do! We can beat her if we assemble all of the Virtues!"

"No, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm thinking more long-term. Think properly for a second, what will Retribution think if we manage to kill a Cardinal?"

After thinking over the question, her face morphed into bitter understanding. "They'll realize how much of a threat we truly are, and send an even stronger Cardinal - one we wouldn't be able to defeat. Shit. How didn't I think of that?"

"It's alright, Wonder Girl. We can't all be as smart as me." I liked using that nickname to taunt her, as it always seemed to remind her that, while she was a prodigy, she still wasn't as good as me. It was a way to taunt her without making her feel too bad about herself.

"So, I understand that we can't kill her, but we still can't just let her join! She'll sacrifice us without a second thought if it means saving her own skin!"

"You're right. That is a big issue. But it's one we can deal with."

Her understanding devolved once again into confusion. "How? How do you deal with such a big flaw?"

"You just work around it." I hopped out of the way of one of the mana dummies' blades, before managing to maneuver myself around them and stabbing one straight through it's back. "She will betray the side that she believes will lose. Which means currently she believes we will eventually beat Retribution. All we have to do is keep her believing that."

Violet's hand went to her chin, thinking everything over slightly. Eventually, a small smirk adorned her lips. "Okay, then. That shouldn't be too difficult considering we are going to beat them."

I glanced over in her direction, a smile pulling the sides of my mouth up. "Exactly." As soon as that word left my mouth, I let out my full speed and within a second was back in front of the dummy. The only difference being that now, my opponent was missing it's head.

The mana dummy cracked and exploded the way they all do when defeated, marking the end of this portion of training. I looked over to Violet while dabbing my forehead with a sweat rag. "I need you to gather all of the Virtues for the meeting. We don't want to kill her, but we never know what the situation will call for."

Violet jumped up from her sitting position, dusting off her legs. She then shouted out loud, "Ksam fo eht Derettahs!"

It's a spell I taught her, she then taught it to the other Virtues, they then taught it to the Eyes, and they then taught it to the Witnesses. It allows a person to near instantly transition from whatever they're wearing into their Shattered Veil outfits - even if it's not on them. Unfortunately, a person who doesn't understand mana as well as I do, which is literally everyone other than me, has to speak the incantation out loud, otherwise it's too complicated. This is because the spell is a mix of both the highest level creation and summoning magic, which is impossible for a regular person to achieve due to the fact that creation and summoning magic are opposites, so nobody other than me has ever been able to have such a deep understanding of both.

"It'll probably take around an hour. Wait. And don't move." A skeptical glint entered her eyes, as she stared me down.

"What makes you think that I'll move?"

"Well, talking to a Cardinal just seems like something that you'd stupidly attempt alone. It's just kinda your style."

A sigh left my lips, but even I couldn't deny it. "Fine, I guess you're right. But don't worry, I'll be right here."

And just like that, she disappeared before my very eyes. Or rather, it would appear she disappeared to any normal person, but since I'm 10 Star while she's 7 Star, I was able to trace her actions. She truly has gotten incredibly strong in such a short time. I'm really impressed.

I sat down by some discarded crates in the alley, concealing my child body. Thinking about it, the Virtues and I should probably have a way of contacting each other in desperate situations. Some kind of device that can allow us to signal each other. I released some mana particles and began fooling around with them, trying to form any functional contact device with creation magic. Originally, I had thought about some kind of external device, but quickly realizing that idea's impracticality, I shifted to a ring or wristband of some kind that you can always wear. In fact, if I work this properly, I could even incorporate the 'Ksam fo eht Derettahs' spell into the ring/wristband, so people wouldn't have to say it out loud, and the device could do the work for them.

In my past life, I was obsessed with the idea of power - of being the absolute, unrivaled strongest. In order to achieve that dream, I worked hard on my mana and sword skills. I had always had a fascination with mana, but it would probably surprise a lot of people to know that the thing that fascinated me second most wasn't actually the sword - that was third. The thing that fascinated me most out of everything other than mana was crafting, blacksmithing and anything that falls under that kind of umbrella. I absolutely loved the creativity and freedom it provided. And not just that, I was damn good at it.

After around 10 minutes, I had the first basic bare-bones prototype. A sleek black ring that allowed it's wearer to contact other people with the ring. Of course, I had to create two in order to test it, so that brought the time up to 20 minutes. It worked by putting a single mana particle into the ring, allowing it to reach out and contact the other ring, which also had my mana. Due to the fact that it was a mana signal, it should theoretically have infinite range, meaning if I can just create 8 of these - one for each of the Virtues and I - then we can all contact each other from anywhere. You don't even have to say the message out loud, the mana particle can pick up your thoughts, so as long as the ring is on you, you can contact the others.

The sun began to dip below the horizon, coating the sky in a golden hue, just as I finished all 8 of them. No longer prototypes. The design wasn't much different - in fact, the only difference was that now the rings each had a thin purple line going through the middle of them. I just thought that the purple and black combination suited Shattered Veil's preestablished style a bit more. I equipped my ring first, although it didn't really mean much, as it was still unusable without the others. Unfortunately, I haven't actually met any of the Virtues other than Violet (which is a given, considering she's pretty much my right-hand man), Jade, and Marcus. I've just been extremely focused on my training, and I trust the others to recruit strong and trustworthy allies. So, I didn't exactly know which size ring to make them, but luckily there's a spell that can make the size change depending on the person's hand. Which is also good because it means that I won't have to make more as we grow.

I also managed to incorporate the changing spell into the rings, meaning they'll no longer have to shout out loud 'Ksam fo eht Derettahs'. Which is a relief, because I can only imagine that it'd be difficult to say discretely and could give our members' identities away - on top of that, it's also probably pretty embarrassing, as well.

I rested the rings on the wooden crate next to me, before pulling myself up. It'd been about an hour since Violet left to collect the others, meaning they were going to arrive any second. I had to change into the Observer. The clothes began to form around my regular clothes - which was nothing more than a white shirt and grey trousers. A purple hood with light purple horns adorned my head, a single prominent yellow eye that burrowed it's way into any who viewed it's souls sewed in the middle, a purple mask with light purple designs covered my mouth and nose, a short purple cloak that reached down to the bottom of my back rested on my neck, tied with a light purple flower bloom design at the front, light purple belts stretched over my chest, and purple trousers appeared around my legs.

It may have been a while since I last wore the outfit, but it still fit me perfectly due to being enchanted with the same spell I had put onto the rings. It felt... good. It felt good being in this suit after so long. I wasn't exactly sure why - I had only worn it a few times, so it's not like I could've formed much of an emotional attachment to it. It just felt like... I was finally... me.

Well, not much time for sentimentality. I had to prepare - this would be some of the Virtues first impressions of me, after all. And on top of that, we had a meeting with a demon soon enough. I wasn't exactly sure which time she expected to meet at, but if I had to guess, it'd be once the sun's set, so that she doesn't have to waste mana on a disguise spell.

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

...

Shit. I didn't get much time to prepare. Violet and the other Virtues were already behind me.

"You're here." I shouted out, before turning around. "Took ya long enough."

"Well, I did say it'd probably be an hour, didn't I?" Violet responded, standing at the front of the group. They were all dressed in their Shattered Veil outfits. The alleyway in front of me practically purely consisted of different shades of purple and black.

All of a sudden, something flew straight into my chest. No, not something - someone. And they were hugging me. I had a feeling who this would be.

"Been a while, Jade. Or, uh, Love."

"It's okay, you can call me Jade for now." She muffled into my chest.

I guess I should explain the whole 'Love' thing. Basically, Violet came to the smart decision that all of the Virtues should have codenames so they don't get found out. But Jade thought that since they were getting codenames, they should use them to even further make us the exact opposite of Retribution by giving each Virtue a codename that contrasts with the Cardinals names. But as the leader, I got to make the final decision of what the names would be, and so I just listed any words I thought of that would be used to describe something as 'good'.

And so now we have; Peace (Violet), Love (Jade), Trust (Marcus), Hope (Don't know), Joy (Don't know), Luck (Don't know), and Calm (Don't know).

Eventually, she lessened the embrace and returned to the others. She had always been the one other than Violet to be the most clingy to me. It may not seem like it, but I only last saw her around a month before that. But she acted like it had been a lifetime. With Marcus it had been about 2 months, as he had been doing a lot.

"Been a little while, boss." He shouted over to me. I couldn't see through his mask, but I could tell he was smiling. I guess they all missed me, huh? Well, I don't blame them, I am extremely loveable.

"If you consider 2 months to be 'a while', then I guess so."

"2 months?! Is that really it?!"

I gave a nod in his direction, and he seemed slightly dumbfounded. Sometimes I forget that everyone of these people are actually kids, unlike Violet and I. They're all extremely mature.

"Alright," I continued. "I believe I haven't met some of you. If you could be so kind as to introduce yourselves?"

Violet, Jade and Marcus made their way behind me, as the other four stepped forward. Up first was a boy maybe a year older than I. From what I could tell, he appeared to have light green hair, and a 3 Star mana pool, which was quite impressive.

"My name is Oliver Graystone, but I believe you'll be more comfortable with my alias of Luck, my liege." He spoke, while getting onto one knee, bowing his head, and holding his hand to his heart.

Woah... bit too formal.

Marcus quickly shuffled forward and whispered into my ear, "I know that you specifically asked that new recruits will simply see you as a leader and not a god or king... But, Violet and Jade didn't seem to get the message, as they always told any new recruits, be it a Virtue, Eye, or even Witness, that you were this godly figure who they should hold in higher regard than the 3 Gods themselves."

Ah, that answers it. To be honest, I half expected this from Jade. But Violet? Really? I know that she does care for me, and that while she tries to hide it, she's also extremely protective, but this is a bit far. Oh, well. Not much I can do about it now, I guess.

Other than the formality, the guy seems good enough to be a Virtue. Although, one thing does slightly concern me. And that's his physical prowess. He has the Mage crest, which is fine, it just makes the user a bit worse with the sword. I guess that's why Violet gave the 'Luck' name to him, as if he managed to draw her attention, it would be for both physical and mana prowess, which means he must get quite lucky in physical fights quite often.

"Alright. It's nice to meet you, Luck. I'm rather content with your skill so far as a 3 Star mana pool, so I believe you'll make a fine Virtue. Just to let you know, you have the potential to be Infinite Star one day, so keep training."

"Y- Yes, sir!"

He quickly scurried to the back of the line, before the next person stepped forward. A girl with blonde hair, who if I had to guess was actually the oldest out of all of us, at maybe 9 years.

"Good evening, my liege. My name was gifted to me by Love, as I used to have none. I am Eve, but please refer to me as Joy."

Hm, impressive indeed. 4 Star mana pool at 9. Even more so if she was someone from the Blacklight District without a name. She appears to be a Sword-Spell crest. If I had to guess, she manages to stay positive in tough situations, which is why she was given the title of 'Joy'. But I don't really have much to base that off of.

"Nice to meet you, Joy. You are quite extraordinary, keep it up. You most certainly have the potential of an Infinite Star."

"Th- Thank you, greatness."

Greatness? Really?

She quickly hurried to the back again. Stepping forward this time was a boy with dark black hair, who appeared to be around my age.

"Greetings, magnificent one. I am Raylis Ther, with the alias of Calm."

Hm... He appears to be around the same level as the Oliver guy, or whatever his name was. The Luck guy. And despite being at the same level, he seems to be, again, my age, while Luck seems to be around a year older than I. He could be quite the good Virtue. Once again, he's a Sword-Spell crest.

"Greetings, Calm. You have more than enough potential to be Infinite Star in the future. Keep at it."

"Thank you, greatness."

Next and last, a girl with curly orange hair walked forward. And instantly, I knew that she was the best of the new Virtues. She was my age, and nearly 5 Star. If you focused on Aura alone, you could confuse her with either Jade or Marcus, and this is with no training. Of course, I don't think she'd be able to reach Violet levels. But she's definitely on the same level as Jade and Marcus, that's for sure.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, I guess. I'm Arilene Lachigh, or Hope."

Wait... Lachigh?! If I had any water in my mouth, I would've done a spit take.

"Hm.. You are quite impressive. Infinite Star potential. I assume this is the Lachigh noble house?" I asked.

"Yes, boss." Marcus responded.

I was wondering why Marcus hadn't been the one to recruit any of the previous Virtues. I should've guessed that he would've only gone for people of unbelievably high potential.

"Of course, it is..." I muttered under my breath.

Her being the daughter of a noble makes everything a lot more complicated. If we get discovered, we're now facing judgement from not just the regular law, but also a noble house. If nobles still hold as much power as in my past life, then they'd be able to kill a few broke kids from the Blacklight District without facing any repercussions. Of course, it's not like they could actually could kill us, but still.

"I don't mean to be rude, but are you really our leader? I thought this was a serious organization." She continued, eying me up and down.

"Alright, listen. I know I don't look like much, but I'm 10 Star. And also Peace and I managed to found this organization at the age of 4, so just listen to us, and you'll be fine."

I began to turn around to talk with Violet, Jade and Marcus, when she shouted out, "Bullshit! There's no way that you're 10 Star!"

My patience was wearing thin. This is the second reason that I didn't like the idea of a noble child being in Shattered Veil - they're all so full of themselves.

Just as I was about to defend myself, Violet did it for me. "Listen, Hope, this isn't a fight you want to start. As much as I love making fun of him, he's our leader. And not just that, he's a goddamn strong one. I can say one thing with absolute certainty; even if everyone here teamed up, we wouldn't be able to beat him."

This seemed to paint a smile across Jade and Marcus' faces, as the other three new Virtues - Oliver, Eve, and Raylis - stared at me with awe. Arilene, the noble child, seemed to grow slightly more angry. "No... No way! No one his age could be that strong!"

Violet's patience also seemed to be running thin, as she looked at me and we had a silent conversation with our eyes.

'Use your Aura!' she silently screamed at me.

'I don't know... Last time I used it, it turned 4 fully grown 8 Star men into people wishing for death, rolling around on the ground... It seems like it's a bit much for the kid...'

'It'll be fine! Just use, like, 5%.'

'Fine... I guess I can try.' I gave in.

Turning around, I walked over to the noble slightly, hoping I'd be able to intimidate her with my height, as in my past life I was quite tall at 6'4. But I forgot that I was a child, and we were actually the same height. It seemed that I'd have to use my Aura. Oh, well. Don't blame me if you go crazy.

"Alright, I'll prove my strength here and now. I'll unleash 5% of my Aura."

I could practically hear Violet smiling from behind me, while Jade and Marcus shuffled backwards and blocked their faces with their hands. Oliver, Eve and Raylis seemed intrigued, but must've seen Jade and Marcus' reactions, as they also backed up slightly. Arilene walked closer to me, "Go on. Your Aura can't be much. In fact, I'm surprised that you even know what Aura is."

That's it. I unleashed exactly 5% of my Aura. The windows in the area surrounding us were all blown out, shattering. The ground beneath my feet cracked. The other three new Virtues were blown back slightly, and began freaking out from the mental pressure. Violet was the only one who seemed mostly unaffected, as she was the only one even slightly close to me in Star level, leaning against the wall, her smile growing by the second. Jade and Marcus had prepared, using their hands and a mana forcefield to block the effects, so they were mostly okay as well. The once proud and condescending noble child in front of me, fell to her knees, and began screaming from the mental pressure.

"AAARRRR!"

I quickly hid my Aura once again, deciding that was enough time to leave an impression. Oliver and Raylis began calming down, Eve comforting them. Marcus and Jade dispelled their barriers, and put their hands back down. Violet, once again, didn't change much.

I crouched down to Arilene's level, as she began to calm down slightly, barely recovering from the mental pressure. "Now that you have seen my Aura, I hope that you'll stop questioning the leadership of Shattered Veil."

I only noticed it now, but whenever I talk to anyone other than Violet, and sometimes Jade and Marcus, I always seem to adopt a much more refined vocabulary. I must just have a natural instinct to want to impress those around me.

She picked her head up, looking at me with a slight scowl, but not saying anything. I sighed and stood up. "Listen, if you're going to keep this behavior up, I could always just wipe your memory of our organization, and kick you out. It would be a shame, as you do have a lot of potential. But I need the Virtues to be people I feel I can trust, and I can't trust you right now."

Her features seemed to soften slightly, before her face reddened and she seemed to push a part of her pride away. "Fine. I guess I can follow you. You don't seem to be too incompetent of a leader."

Yes! Progress!

"Alright, 'not too incompetent', I can live with that. Now, stand up, we have a meeting any second now."

She helped herself stand, before questioning. "Meeting? What meeting?"

I looked over to Violet, silently asking 'Did you not tell them?!'

She just gave me a 'Not-my-problem' face.

I cursed her in my mind, before turning back around and facing the new members. "So, I assume you know what Shattered Veil's main goal is, correct?"

"Yes, sir!" Shouted Oliver.

"I- It is to put an end to Retribution, your greatness!" Finished Eve.

"Correct. Well, Peace was supposed to tell you this," I eyed Violet one more time. "But she didn't, so I will. Five days ago, we had an encounter with one of the Cardinals - to be more specific the Cardinal of Lust, Velika."

Everyone, including Arilene, Jade and Marcus, looked at the two of us in awe.

"She asked us whether she could join Shattered Veil. Of course, I needed time to think it over, so I asked her to meet again today. Vi- Peace and I alone are not strong enough to beat her yet, and so we have called upon all of you to aid us in case something goes wrong. But you are prohibited from attacking, unless she attacks first. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir!" The other three new Virtues said in unison.

Realizing that she hadn't responded, I eyed down Arilene, until she finally caved. "Fine, I guess."

I turned back around, and realized that I hadn't actually given them the rings that I created. Turning to the crate, I was going to hand them out, when I noticed something. They were all missing. Only one person would know of this spot and be powerful enough to actually steal them without me noticing.

"Everyone, behind me!" I shouted out to the others.

Not knowing why, but trusting my judgement, Violet, Jade and Marcus quickly sped behind me.

I faced down the alley in the direction that I could feel the most mana circulating in. "You're earlier than I expected,"

After a few seconds, a blur fell gracefully from the roof of one of the buildings. Once the figure stopped moving, it was clear who they were. Pinkish red hair, sharp features, a curvaceous yet somehow intimidating physique, and lastly twisted black and red horns.

"Velika."