I've retcon Envy being held by an enchanted cart to her having the ribbon around her neck, previous chapters have been changed

Exposition chapter.

Had a busy week, this chapter is still unedited. Please point out any discrepancies, if I missed anything or did not explain properly in the comment section. I can add it when I edit the chapter.

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Chapter 10 - A Lazy Day

Yui awoke to Miyu's hair tickling her nose. She tried to return to sleep but the tickling sensation kept coming back, reluctantly, she got up. In the dark bedroom, she could faintly make out Miyu sleeping peacefully with her hand under her oversized T-shirt rubbing her tummy. Outside the window, the sky was just beginning to brighten, it would be another hour before they needed to wake up. Not wanting to awake Miyu, she slowly shimmied off the bed.

The mansion was quiet at this time. Sofi, the demon maid, should be in her servant room on the first floor, Yui had no intention of disturbing her. Instead, she headed for the basement, Vili owed her an explanation of what happened yesterday. All she managed to gather was after Envy sneak-attacked her, Miyu went berserk and caused a lot of destruction. Feeu and Eisst had tried to heal her before they were caught up in Miyu's outburst.

Why could Envy strike her when she was leashed by the ribbon? Why was Vili so intent on keeping the incident a secret, she seemed to know what happened to Miyu and was frightened, what the heck happened with Miyu's berserk? Hopefully, Vili was in a talking mood, but in case she wasn't, Yui took a detour to the kitchen to retrieve a secret weapon.

Yui entered the basement to find it dimly lit by the light spilling out from the cell right at the back. The basement was split into two, a small area for storage while the rest was taken up by the dungeon she build with Vili's directions. The six-cell prison was magic-proof, draining the mana of any who stayed within much like what her ribbon does.

She walked past equally well-furbished cells. Each had a bedroom set complete with tables and chairs, a couch, a king-size bed, ample walking room, and several leather shackles hanging on the walls and from the ceiling. Not royal standards by any means but at least her girls would not experience much inconvenience when they were here, well, as much inconvenience as being imprisoned would be.

In the final cell with its anti-magic formation off, besides the usual furniture sat what looked like a 2-person-large throbbing embryonic sac. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling and suspended within, a girl that Yui had never seen before.

The girl floated naked and asleep in the transparent sac. Slender without many curves, neither breast nor ass, but she still possessed a quiet beauty. Her unblemished sickly white skin that did not see much sun, perpetual gloomy frown even though she was unconscious, two long black braided hair, and angular face that spotted a beauty mark on the corner of her left lower lip. The only piece missing from the perfect picture were a pair of round glasses and she would undoubtably be the flower of the library, a distant and untouchable flower sitting on the library's window sill.

(Fukawa Touko from Danganronpa)

"Who's this?" Yui asked Vili, who had definitely heard Yui entering. But Vili did not reply, instead, maintained her lying buddha pose on the bed. She kept a constant flow of tangerines with her free paw, the remains of her conquest neatly stacked on the floor into piles of tangerine peels. 

Two can play in this game. Yui thought, proceeding to sit at the table and pour out a cup of her secret weapon. Vili did not react but Yui had time and she used it by studying the magic technique Vili used to create whatever that sac was. Multiple lines of arcane runes flashed in and out of existence across the membrane of the sac, it was more complex than anything Yui had ever seen, a magic formation weaved by a master.

As a fledgling in the craft of formation, she did not feel any waste in spending her time on this work. In fact, she almost forgot what she was there for, lost in the marvelous construction. Back on track, she took a sip and sighed in contentment, "This orange juice is so good."

Vili turned her head but stopped her paw from reaching over. Yui placed her secret weapon on the table, a carton of orange juice, 100% organic orange. She took a look at the carton and said in the fakest voice, "Oh no... The juice is almost expired, I should throw it away." 

It instantly disappeared from her hand and appeared in Vili's protective clutch. "You should not waste food in the presence of this great one."

"So the great Vili does speak," Yui smiled. "Why did the great Vili suddenly go mute?"

"I was scammed!" Vili exclaimed as she looked at the expiration date.

"What's new?"

Vili grumbled, "I could have just asked Dryad to make me a tangerine orchard, but I wasted my reward on getting you to do it."

"And what would you have gotten if you still have that reward?" Yui asked, quite interested to know what her Etativi wanted besides tangerine.

"Hmm... Maybe... I'll... no no no... those fluffles... yes... hehehe..." Vili mumbled many dangerous things to herself. "Cough. Anyways, that's Envy." 

Yui followed along, not wanting to poke into Vili's dark machinations, instead choosing to observe the totally different Envy. "I figured it was either her or you kidnapped some girl for your experiments. But why's her Witch Avatar so different from her real body? The most I've seen is Eisst-chan's short hair turning blue and growing a ponytail."

"When one becomes a Witch or Magical Girl for the first time, she creates an Avatar that she desires. Just like your exposed Witch Outfit, even though you didn't want to admit it. If someone truly desires to be different from their real body, there's no reason their Avatar can't accommodate." Vili explained, humming as she poured the juice into a shallow saucer. "Besides, this girl is the Witch of Envy, go figure."

"Ah... She had acted so aggressively when I touched her, abnormally aggressive and I've dealt with Feeu." Yui compared the voluptuous blonde Envy in her memory to the plain Envy before her and mused over their past interactions. "To the real Envy who despises her looks, that unobtainable shining beauty was her ideal. What she coveted but could never achieve. And what she finally received when she became a Witch. When I defiled her body, I was defiling Envy's existence... My initial assumption was correct, the die had already been cast, and the only path was forward."

"A girl who does not understand her own value and envies what others have. Pushed by whatever standard she used to measure her worth, she forgoes everything else to obtain her prize." Vili remarked while lapping her juice, "A common story."

Yui contemplated for a moment before grinning, "I know how to tame her now. But something bothers me, how was she able to get out of the ribbon?"

"Envy mana is known to be very versatile. She used Earth magic, didn't she? When have you seen a Witch use an elemental attack? Elemental magic primarily lies on the positive mana spectrum. Everything from here is guesswork, but I believe her special ability is copying, an extremely annoying ability." Vili speculated. "She copied her Earth magic from a strong Magical Girl she fought, she also copied the draining ability of your ribbon, draining her mana right back from the ribbon."

Nodding along, Yui asked, "Not stealing?"

"No, stealing deprives the original of its ability, but your ribbon still works," Vili replied.

"If she is able to copy anything, she'll be able to copy the anti-magic formation and use its anti-magic to nullify it. That's annoying." Yui said.

"Very. But that's your problem, if you need some help, I'll be willing to. For a small fee, of course. Hehehe." Vili laughed, still lapping up her orange juice. "One more thing. She should have a limit to the number of copied abilities she's able to retain but don't get complacent with her. Unlike stolen abilities, copied abilities are usually weaker than the original, but there are also times when they can surpass the original. You have been warned."

"I see, I do like the challenge," Yui was undeterred. "How long will she be inside?"

"A week."

"Eh. You healed me in minutes, why does it take so long? She looks fine." Yui asked. 

"Because the plot demands it, SNEEZE... Because unlike you, she's been thoroughly destroyed by WRATH." Vili sighed. "If you're an egg, all that happened was your shell being broken, some albumen spilt out and the yoke exposed. For this one, she has been smashed into a campfire, shell, and dirt and all scrambled together, left forgotten for many hours. She looks fine on the outside, because that's the base frame I extracted from her soul, everything else is still a mess."

"Mi-chan did that?" Yui gulped.

"..." Vili paused, "No, not Miyu."

“I think you owe me an explanation,” Yui said.

Vili took a big swig from the carton before sighing, “... I suppose you should know a little since you’re involved. What I’m about to tell you is secret. You can't even tell Miyu. Besides, she won't remember the time when she lost control and it’s for the best. Am I clear?” Yui nodded. "Good, what do you want to know?"

“What happened to Miyu? Why did you silence Feeu and Eisst with your contract magic?”

“Sit down and prepare for an info dump,” Vili took another swig.

“Miyu became what we call an Incarnate, a manifestation of a single emotion. Each and every Incarnate is a superweapon, only to be used at the most critical juncture, much like your earthly nukes.” Even someone as calm as Yui flinched at that reference. “Yes, an Incarnate is that deadly, possibly world-ending, if not properly handled. That is why I didn’t allow your girls to speak of what happened. Think of the amount of trouble that would come our way. Some might want to use Miyu for themselves, others want to eradicate her. I think that answers both of your questions."

Yui grabbed the orange juice from Vili and took a gulp, with much protesting, before asking, “What is an Incarnate? How did Miyu become one? And why are they so dangerous?”

Vili teleported the juice back into her embrace. Shaking it, the sad sloshing of less than a quarter left a slight quiver in her voice when she explained. “Let’s start with the basics. Take yourself as an example, as a Witch of Lust, if you feel lust you generate lust mana that you could use. More lust means more lust mana, simple. I’m sure you know what happens when you have an excess of lust mana, it overcomes you with lustful urges that you must soothe. When you become ultra horny you’d look for your girlies to vent, and return back to yourself all happy and glossy. And when you do not vent, you'll reach your maximum mana capacity, unable to contain that amount of mana, you'll literally explode.”

“So an Incarnate is a walking mana bomb?”

“If only,” Vili snorted. “The question those past Etativi asked was how to exceed the limit without taking half the country with them. After multiple tests, they stumbled upon the answer. As long as the emotion is intense enough, it would be able to remain together. And so, unlike a bomb, an Incarnate is a bottomless vessel of mana, its intense emotion allows it to maintain cohesion.

"Along with that discovery, another attribute of an Incarnate was found. When it vented its emotion, it also generated more of its respective mana. A self-perpetuating cycle of infinite mana. No sanity, no reasoning, only the singular desire to act on its emotion. 

"It could be Wrath, Hate, Lust, it could even be a positive emotion like Joy or Hope. Whatever the emotion is, just know that it spread. Those unlucky enough to approach an Incarnate would soon be consumed by it, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of emotion emitted until they become a thrall to it. If the thrall is caught early, they can still be saved but left too long and they become a second Incarnate. Are you starting to see the danger? An unstoppable force with unlimited mana with a desire and ability to spread. And if that isn’t scary enough, if you do somehow manage to kill it, all of its stored mana is released in an instant, a mana nuke.”

“And Miyu became that?”

“I would put Miyu somewhere between a Thrall and an Incarnate, she possessed all the powers of an Incarnate but maintained some level of will, not only that she was able to return to normal. That's the most unusual part." Vili lectured. It would be funny to see a cat slurping up orange juice and lecturing if the topic was not so important. “We’ve actually never used a sentient creature as the base of an Incarnate before. Firstly, the different conflicting emotions in any being makes it difficult to hold together its form when it reaches its maximum mana capacity. And secondly, on the off chance, someone is able to become an Incarnate and wield its infinite mana freely without being restrained by its instinct."

“So how did you make them?”

“We’ve extracted the raw emotion of the specific Incarnate we want. With that emotion, we create a blank demon with no will and inject all that emotion inside. Because it is purely a single emotion, it is able to maintain itself and move past its limit to become an Incarnate.

"Theoretically, all Witches and Magical Girls can become Incarnate of their respective emotions, under the right circumstances. But the Metermi realised that and added multiple fail-safes to prevent it from happening. When we, Etativi, copied their contract structure to make our Witches, we kept in those precautions. Surprisingly, we aren’t too keen on self-destruction.”

“Then why is Miyu able to become one?”

“Yui, you’re a smart girl, can’t you imagine why?” Vili levitated the carton up to get the last drops of orange juice into her mouth.

Yui asked, her voice totally emotionless, “Is it that bastard contractor of hers?”

“Most likely. A disposable trump card when things get dire.”

“I’ll kill him.”

“Good, I'll help. That fluffling fluffle deserves a slow painful death for endangering all of us. Thankfully, I can narrow down my list of suspects. Only a young Etativi would pull this kind of stunt, those older would know the danger of an Incarnate. We had an incident before, the trail of destruction it left was enough to scare both Etativi and Metermi into signing a pact not to deploy Incarnates against each other. Second, that fluffle must be accomplished at contract magic to be able to alter the fail-safes. Add a snobby personality, and we’ve narrowed it down to one. Gam Fl’t Gem¹ GFG lol .”

 

 

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