Power Overwhelming

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As Karna approached what remained of Inferno, she called out to Arjuna. “Could you arrange some privacy for us? I have to do something that I don’t want others to see.”

Despite the slightly ominous request, her father didn’t hesitate even for a second before erecting a dome of shadow energy around them. The attack by Zuellni had thrown everything and everyone in chaos, including their allies, and most spells would be disrupted by the residual effects of the cannon, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The dome not only blocked visibility but also prevented any magical scrying. He chose to remain inside the dome himself though.

Karna actually had three ways of dealing with the souls of reincarnators permanently, though she only had access to one method at the moment. Once you knew how it was done, it was not impossible to theorize other methods. The first method would require extensive preparations, while the second one would require her to reach the rank of an immortal to utilize. Usually souls could not be harmed, or even imprisoned for long. Even less so in the case of reincarnators, as they tended to have stronger and larger souls than others, but there were very few ways you could interact even in the case of a normal mortal without anything special about them.

Thankfully, she had a relatively simple method available to her thanks to possessing the Name Reaper. Some of the unique True Names came with certain benefits, and this one wasn’t an exception, though the benefit was extremely limited use. An outline of a long, thin, and slightly curved sword suddenly appeared in her hand, and it seemed the insides of the weapon were filled with grey ash and smoke. The shape of the weapon didn’t really matter though, as it was the materialization of the True Name. The weapon had no effect on anything physical, and to have any effect on souls required the connection between a body and the soul to already be frayed.

To Arjuna, the weapon didn’t even look like a sword. He wouldn’t have been able to explain what it looked like exactly, as he could barely even see it. What he did feel was a sudden and heavy case of nausea. Whatever his daughter was holding felt very wrong. Something that shouldn’t exist. Just the mere presence of the object made him want to empty the contents of his stomach, and it caused cold shivers to run down his spine. Whatever it was, it was giving him the creeps, and he dearly hoped his daughter would never call it out again, wherever it had come from.

Luckily for Arjuna, he didn’t have to experience those feelings for long, as Karna swiped the blade through the remains of Inferno. The blade left no wound, and to Arjuna’s eyes had no effect. Except for one. Where once the mangled and almost completely destroyed body had still clung to life, now it was most definitely dead. Where once it had been the body of a powerful individual housing the soul and spirit of a rank nine being, now it was just a pile of charred and distorted flesh and bone. And once Karna had finished the swing, the weapon she was holding disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

While this method was easy, it was in many ways less effective than the other two. It wouldn't work on everyone either. If someone had a soul even remotely as powerful as she did, then the weapon would not work. And while she had effectively eliminated the soul, someone could theoretically take the pieces and put them back together before the remains dissipated completely. That had come back to haunt her once. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do on such short notice, and it was doubtful anyone with enough power and skill cared enough about Inferno to go through the trouble. It would require someone with the skills of a Head Judge of the River of Souls anyway.

“Now we can go. In fact, we really should. We drew a lot of attention earlier, and we don’t want to stick around for the Weijin Empire to come asking questions. Zuellni, bring all the remaining Yuki-Onnas on board right away. I don’t care if they’re finished gathering their things or not. We’re leaving now.” She ordered.

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Seconds before Inferno met his end, Mayumi had been talking to the members of her new tribe, trying to rush them along. They were almost done, fortunately. In mid-sentence, she collapsed on the floor as if all strength had left her body, and she was swallowed up by a tsunami of emotions. She felt wrongness. She felt afraid. She felt like some kind of taboo had just been broken. Most importantly, she felt the presence of something she could only describe as a predator, and she was the prey. She was also assaulted by a wave of feelings that also manifested physically, including anxiety, terror, pain, pressure, and she had trouble breathing.

All she could do was to clap her hands on her ears in an instinctual effort to shield her mind from the onslaught, as she also screamed as hard as her lungs managed, trying to find a release valve for all the emotions. The onslaught didn’t last for long, but she never wanted to experience it again as she lay panting and hoarse on the ground. The moment had felt like it had lasted for much longer, but she knew it had only been a few seconds.

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Prince Tethrine and the person he had been negotiating with both collapsed in the middle of diplomatic negotiations. They had been debating the fate of a particularly lucrative world that had come along as the result of the Expansion, and the others involved in the negotiations stared in shock as both the leader of a large empire and an immortal Emissary collapsed in the middle of heated debate. The emperor clutched his head and screamed as he collapsed on the floor, while Tethrine lay slumped on the table as he managed to avoid displaying his own distress more heavily out of habit.

While all the other feelings vanished soon after, the feeling that there was now a predator out for him remained. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but he had a strong fear of death suddenly. For the first time in several lifetimes, he was actually afraid of dying. Somehow, he knew that someone could kill him permanently and that someone was in this universe. And that, more than anything made him afraid. There were very few things that could make someone like him truly afraid, but now he was borderline panicking and having trouble breathing.

"W-we'll…postpone these negotiations for now." He managed to say, and everyone involved seemed to agree. They were already preparing to draw out weapons, and a pause in the negotiations was the perfect opportunity to de-escalate. Not that he cared. He would not be returning to these negotiations. He'd already received a silent message recalling him back to the Divine Planes, and he was likely not the only one. Even if he had not received the message, he would've still returned. He didn't even care that he was running away.

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Kurnous Asuryan clutched at his chest like he was having a heart attack. It wasn't all that far from the truth either. He'd felt this feeling once before, and he knew what it meant. A reincarnator had died. And not in the usual way everyone died. The reincarnator in question had died a final death, having their soul destroyed. He had managed to resist most of the effects of what had happened, partially because he'd encountered it before.

Last time he had taken his own life to escape. It was better to default on the current life and start over than risk having your soul destroyed. For a moment, he seriously considered doing so again, but he decided against it. Despite the fear coursing through his core, he knew that it was not required. Not yet anyway. He’d grown wiser and more experienced since the last time. He’d learned from other, older reincarnators. He’d heard about the Reaper.

The Reaper didn’t kill indiscriminately. Even that being would be punished if they used their power willy-nilly. And the universe currently had more reincarnators than ever. The odds of the Reaper turning their ire towards him was…manageable. He was a high-profile Divinity though. He would have to keep a lower profile from now on. In fact, maybe he needed a proxy to act through? Now that he thought about it, with so many reincarnators being born in this universe, some of them extremely old and powerful, wasn't it almost inevitable that the Reaper would also be here? He would need to be careful.

He activated a message talisman. “Send an urgent recall to everyone on the red list. They are to return to the Divine Planes as soon as possible, no matter what they are doing.” If the Reaper wanted someone to reap, let it be someone aside from his assets.

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Not everyone made the same choice as Kurnous. In a single day, many reincarnators lost their lives. All of them died by their own hand, or at the hand of someone they knew. The instinctual fear drove the reincarnators to take the easy way out. They knew something odd was going on in this universe, but they decided the potential rewards of finding out what that something was did not outweigh the risk of dying permanently.

Those that didn’t take their own life, all knew that things had changed. Where before, the air in the universe had been charged and expectant, now it became extremely serious and careful. The older and more experienced reincarnators had experienced this before and knew what it meant. Some of them had even run into the Reaper before. Some of them cursed their bad luck, while others grinned in expectation. Some had good memories of the Reaper, having befriended her, or at least fostered an association. They knew they had a potential ally in her. Someone who had the ability to even lead them. They also knew trying to find her was likely to backfire, but the Reaper would not stay hidden forever. It wasn’t in her nature. Not if she chose to reveal herself in this way already.

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“What’s the problem?” Karna asked with a bit of frustration.

“Apparently you yanked some of the senior members of the tribe just as they were trying to break the seals on their most sacred artifacts. They managed to take the container along, but it seems it can’t be opened anywhere other than their main hall.” Mayumi explained.

“Shouldn’t they be happy to just be alive and free?” Tsumi asked, not at all pleased with how the Yuki-Onnas had chosen to hide things, and now didn’t seem very grateful despite the rescue.

“They are, but this particular set of artifacts is vital for setting up their new home. It’s the source of the tribe’s power.” Mayumi tried to mediate.

"Show me the container," Karna stated gruffly while gesturing with her hand towards the egg-shaped pod the tribe's elders were cradling. The elders didn't seem too eager to oblige. "Look, we're not going back. We barely got away before the Weijin airships locked the place down. You can either deal with it or let us have a look. Zuellni and I are both good at analyzing such things."

The elders whispered among themselves before finally proffering the container. Karna waved her hand in a careless gesture, and the container floated to a basin-shaped indentation in the wall, before the entire basin was filled with light. With Zuellni's assistance, she started deciphering the protective seals. "Hmm, whoever sealed this did a good job." She had to admit.

“Reporting, the sealing doesn’t require the presence of the unlocking formation that they have…had in their main hall. It does make it easier though. The seal can be unlocked by a replacement, but it will take some time to synthesize a proper replacement. Or we could try brute-forcing it.” Zuellni finally told the Yuki-Onnas that were waiting for results. It had taken almost twenty minutes to finish the analysis and Karna had already left to guide the ship. The spirit didn’t really care about anyone other than her master but felt obliged to provide answers due to Karna’s instructions.

"How long?" The oldest, entirely white-haired but still youthful-looking, Yuki-Onna asked. "Without force that is."

“I’d say a couple of months if I have to do the analysis by myself. A few weeks if master spends her entire time helping with the analysis.” Zuellni estimated with a bored voice. She wouldn’t dedicate her entire capacity to the job, and neither would Karna. If they did, they could probably do it in less than a week.

The elders negotiated with each other for a while, before the same one stepped up to reply once again. it was clear they weren't used to being treated with so little respect before, though considering the number of powerful individuals on board, the attitude was understandable. "That is acceptable. Where are we headed?"

"You gave us a list of potential relocation sites, and we are approaching the closest one," Zuellni replied.

“So we’re going to be spending at least two weeks on board, yes?” The Yuki-Onna confirmed.

“What? No. Of course not. We’ll be there in three to four days.” Zuellni was shocked at how slow most vessels in this universe were, but they weren’t glorious towers like theirs, so it was excusable.

In the meantime, Karna was getting a detailed report on the fight. "All in all, we have a few people injured, but we didn't lose anyone. The fight didn't last long enough for that. Your…weapon also threw everyone into such disarray that we managed a clean retreat. It also helped that we had the advantage in the battle even before that. We did however piss off one of the major clans of the Weijin Empire, so I'd say they're going to be cranky about it for the foreseeable future." Ashanti finished recounting the details.

“Practical downsides?” Karna cut to the core of the issue.

“Well, considering this group of allies won’t stick around for much longer, we’ll have to keep an eye open against any hostile action by the Weijin. I doubt the Empire will take any official action, but considering the scene you made, I wouldn’t be surprised if others besides the devils felt slighted or challenged. If we run into any of their forces while we’re dealing with the Expansion, we’ll more than likely have to deal with them as enemies. The devils might also send some assassins after us, and your tower in particular. While you personally didn’t draw all that much attention, your tower did. And seeing how unique it is, it won’t be too difficult to track.”

“Track maybe not. Catch and destroy? Well, that’s going to be much harder.” Karna waved the concern away. She was more worried about other reincarnators catching wind of her location. Now that she’d revealed herself, it was likely that her True Name as the Reaper was no longer concealed. It had already been questionable if her Name as Wrath was still hidden. While she could ask Mayumi to try to find out, the young Yuki-Onna honestly wasn’t a good test as her skill with finding out True Names was quite low.

Karna tapped her chin in thought before turning towards her father. "Once we get our passengers settled, I'll probably have to go out to take advantage of the Expansion to stay out of sight for a while. On the plus side, I'll be able to bring back any spoils I find."

Arjuna's smile was a little strained. "I suspected things would end up like this. That doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but we expected it. Do swing by to give Duskclaw a hug before you leave though. Otherwise, I'll have to suffer the consequences."

Zuellni popped out right next to Karna. “Oh right, master. There was an immortal that wanted to talk to you back at the Magocracy. I assumed she was just curious about the tower, so I dismissed her, but we might run into her again when we go back.”

“What kind of immortal?” Karna asked a bit suspicious.

“A Golden Immortal named Araleth. She seemed relatively well-behaved once I explained the situation.” Zuellni didn’t seem to mind the possible ramifications of slighting such a powerful being.

“You forgot to relay the message of a Golden Immortal until now?” Ashanti couldn’t help but admire the guts of the little spirit.

"Such beings may seem powerful, but in the large scheme of things, they do not matter," Zuellni stated with conviction.

"I like your tower spirit," Ashanti said to Karna with a smile.

Zuellni was diplomatic enough not to openly scoff at the faint praise. “Master, considering the time it takes to return everyone home and to open the Yuki-Onna’s little toybox, it’s going to take months before we get home. I doubt the immortal will stick around for that long.”

“Assuming she didn’t have something important to talk about.” Karna pointed out. “Seeing as we’ll need to stick around with the youkai for a while, we might return the others first. We should also probably see what this Araleth wanted.” She decided.