Enigma of Sin

Kayn sat in silent thought for about an hour before he finally came to a decision. But it wasn't him deciding on accepting the Virtue of Kindness or not. He decided to try to contact 'that' person, and if he received a positive response, then he would have his answer for Clementia.

Focusing his mind and soul towards the small ornament placed upon his ear which has been silent for over two years, he tried to poke and prod the thing in order to spark some kind of connection.

After focusing a large amount of mana into the ear piece and delving his mind into it, he finally achieved his goal.

"Huh? You figured out how to call me first, and it actually worked? Color me impressed kid. I saw that you made some interesting moves on Earth. They were pushing my limits, but I'll allow it for now. As long as you don't destroy the world for no reason, it should be fine. Now, I'm quite busy, why did you call me?" The other side sounded quite annoyed at being interrupted doing whatever they were doing.

"I'll make it short then. You should know that I don't need your help anymore to control Wrath and the curse it brings down on me and the people around me, so I want to restructure our deal." Kayn spoke with confidence as he definitely had the upper hand by revealing this.

On the other side of the conversation, a man narrowed his eyes, "I'm listening. Speak."

"As you were able to tell from the last time you tried to talk to me, I was beginning to gain control over Wrath slowly and now I believe I'm in full control as I finally discovered the reason why. Which I'm guessing either you don't realize, or you do know but didn't tell me." Kayn started explaining things, but slowly.

"Spit it out kid, what do you want to continue helping me?"

"That's quite simple actually, I want you to negate the curse that comes along with any Virtues that I absorb as well as any Sins until I can collect their opposing aspect. You can do that I assume?" Laying out his new requirements made Kayn a bit nervous, but he didn't think that the other side would decline something like that.

The silence was finally broken after a few minutes when he finally answered, "I don't like it that you're taking Virtues now too as I was unaware my daughter had given them up at all, but now I see where that brat got his idea from. Fine, let's change up the deal a bit as I need to place down a few stipulations."

"Okay, what do you have in mind?" Kayn asked as he was making good progress in this conversation.

"First, you will continue hunting and absorbing the rest of the Sins as you originally promised. However, rather than placing them into an item as before, you will take each aspect directly into your soul. The same goes for the Virtues you find, but I will not direct you towards them after I find them now that I am aware they were spread around.

"Second, I will negate any curses but I will also restrict the power of each Sin or Virtue until you have the corresponding opposite to relegate things yourself. This means that while you will hold a new Virtue or Sin, you won't be able to utilize its uniqueness until you can also incorporate the opposing nature into your soul.

"However, I will remain true to my word and allow you any one use of a Sin or Virtue you collect before you can control them yourself. 

"This will cause a bit of pain for you, but I'll be honest, the Sin you want is Sloth. I cannot tell you why, but you need it to accomplish your goal. However, from my initial scan of the universe just now, you won't be able to get Diligence for quite a while. At least not before you need to use Sloth."

Kayn immediately grabbed his head that was screaming with pain after he was told that. Apparently being told that Sloth was the Sin he needed was knowledge he shouldn't know and was accompanied by burden fit for the gain.

After waiting a few minutes for Kayn's pain to subside so that he could listen properly, the entity continued.

"Sorry about that. But I needed to drive home my point and I'm establishing that you need me as much as I need you. We can work on a plan consisting of mutual benefits. On top of this, I'm essentially helping you pave your path to the top, only below me. I won't say why because you would explode, just know that I'm taking a risk allowing you to become so strong.

"But this brings me to my next requirement. If you're going to become stronger, I might as well go all in helping you. As you should know, the world you're currently on, Earth, is under my jurisdiction. I want you to absorb the mana from every remnant piece left behind before you leave. Not only will this help you significantly, but it keeps my little experiment mana free.

"If you don't do this, I will not uphold my side of the deal by negating your curses. You can consider this requirement as the payment for adding in the Virtues. It takes a significant amount of my power for each curse I'm actively negating until you can do so yourself, so it's a fair trade. What do you say?"

Kayn thought about it for a minute, but decided that it wasn't so bad if he could get what he desired by having all of his curses negated until he could control the power himself. The only issue was that he didn't know how many more temples or inheritances were left on Earth nor how long that would take him.

He still didn't have a way to get home though, but he thought after a few more temples and some study he would be able to figure something out. Stuck between having more knowledge and power, and the time he was away from Lara and Kinzie, he decided to get some kind of reliable timetable before saying yes or no.

"How many more temples are there that I need to visit and where are they located?"

"Hmm there are four in Southern Europe, three in Northern Europe, one in Russia, seven in China, two in India, five in Northern Africa, two in Japan, one in the Korean peninsula, six in South America, and three in North America, with one more located in the oceans of the Hawaiian Islands. Those are the approximate locations of the last 35 land or sea temples.

"There are two others which are more difficult to access though. One is in the center of the earth, so I recommend visiting that one after the others, and the last is somewhere in the space surrounding the planet.

"I cannot tell you where as even I don't know the exact location, you'll have to search for it. I'll tell you now that it is the one you've been looking for, but you don't have the power to access it yet, so save it for last."

Kayn sighed, 37 temples in total was a lot. Assuming he could absorb them as quickly as was able to recently due what Odin did to him, it would still take him over a year to finish, more likely than not. He really didn't want to spend another year here, but from the sound of it, he would need to in order to figure out how to get back home.

Why this entity couldn't just send him back if this was his world didn't make much sense to him, but he guessed there were some restrictions placed even on the proclaimed 'owner' of a world.

He knew the location of 22 of the temples listed, but had little to no knowledge about a few of them, such as the ones located in China. He also didn't like that he had little choice in what he should actually do to achieve his goals, but things had to happen for a reason, at least he believed so.

"Fine, I agree with your requirements. I will hunt the Sins on your instruction and find the Virtues myself as well as taking all of the mana from Earth to leave it a manaless planet. In return, you will negate curses until I obtain the corresponding Sin or Virtue and can do it on my own."

"Good! Try contacting me the same way you did this time once you find a Virtue or Sin so that I can prepare." The entity seemed happy as Kayn agreed to his demands.

"Now." Kayn answered immediately.

"Now? What? Which one?"

"Kindness, but I definitely need its effects negated to achieve my goals. I refuse to show mercy to those who have harmed me or my family." 

"Interesting, how did I not know that one of them was on Earth. One moment...ah I see, she's not actually there, she is going to use an authority to try to transfer it to you. Huh, now that I'm looking Odin used his authority recently too, I'm guessing that also had to do with you.

"Unfortunately, this individual's authority isn't enough to do what she wants. I'll make an exception this time, but know I won't help you out every time unless there is something else that I want you to do. Mutual benefits, that's how this relationship will work.

"Also, I won't be able to fully negate the fact that you want to be kind and merciful to others. It's just part of the aspect, especially once it is part of your soul. You will be able to do what you wish, but there will be something in the back of your mind telling you otherwise on occasion, so do be aware of that.

"Good luck, and be sure not to leave before you complete your side of the deal. Try not to contact me again until you're about to make contact with your next aspect. Until next time young enigma."

'Enigma?' Kayn thought to himself after he was called it. However, he focused back on his current circumstances and spoke out loud, "I'll accept the Virtue of Kindness from you."

"Very well child, close your eyes and don't fight it." Clementia's soft voice replied back to him.

Kayn closed his eyes and it suddenly felt as if two warm hands were enveloping his face and then a soft sensation was pressed on his forehead. He immediately began to relax and feel at peace, but then the pain started and he instinctively tried to raise his defenses, but quickly restrained himself from doing so.

As the process continued, Kayn heard Clementia's whisper once more, "I will do my best to keep the others out until you have Kindness incorporated into your soul properly, but I will be gone when you wake up. Good luck child, I wish you only the best in your future endeavors, for you have a challenging road ahead."

After he heard these words, Kayn drifted off into the most comfortable and relaxing sleep he had in years.