"About four hundred years ago… three hundred years before the appearance of the first corrupted beast, dungeons began appearing all over Pandora."
'All over…'
So, there were more dungeons than the Seven Vice Dungeons.
'Why did the dungeons appear in the first place? And how?'
Vale wished he could ask those questions, though maybe not even Wrath could answer them.
"The natives of this world first saw the dungeons as a boon, holding great treasures and power. Yet their opinions quickly shifted as more and more powerful dungeons began appearing, and monsters began flooding the world. Cities crumbled, and minor nations were destroyed; however, those who overcame the immediate threat and adapted gained an unimaginable power—control over Aether. Yet, as the natives got stronger, so too did the dungeons."
Vale's face tightened as he focused.
'Is that random?'
Or were the dungeons evolving alongside the natives to become a greater threat?
'...Does that even make sense?'
Wrath lifted his left hand and flipped it palm-up, letting a slight red mist form and swirl.
"Then, 200 years ago, the progenitors of the Vice Dungeons came to be, and humanity outside almost fell entirely… But the natives of Pandora had a saving grace. Seven people had been born with abilities that directly counter or nullify the Masters of Vice; these 'heroes' were known as the Seven Heroes of Virtue."
Wrath let the mist condense into a dense sphere of power, then clenched his hand with a slight grimace, exploding it and spreading a small ripple of red mist throughout the black expanse.
"That's one of the reasons why we need to work together. While they were born with a power to counteract our own, it is not all-encompassing. The seven virtues are Humility, Charity, Patience, Kindness, Chastity, Temperance, and Diligence. And each virtue directly counters a vice. Meaning, if you met Chastity—the opposite of lust—in battle, you and all affiliated with you would lose all of your power provided by Aether. But even if they're not your direct counter, you, Lust, will still be weakened if you face Charity or Diligence."
'Nullify, huh?'
'Like completely take away powers?'
How was that fair?!
Wrath leaned back in his throne and adopted a haughty posture.
"I trust you can figure out the rest on your own. What matters is that you understand my point. While you may be disadvantaged or even helpless against those three, the other four have no inherent adverse effect on you. So we, the Masters of Vice, have allied together to defend one another if our nemesis arrives."
Wrath sighed, then clenched his fist and banged it lightly on the arm of his throne.
"As much as I hate to admit it, if Patience appears before me, I may have no other option than to call on you for help, and you may do the same to me…"
'I think I get it… somewhat.'
There was still much Vale didn't know, but the pieces he had were slowly clicking together and forming an actual image in his mind.
While he didn't know much about the relationships between dungeons, and the way Wrath said Pride's title earlier, there might even be bad blood, it seemed like they had a reciprocal defense treaty in case their nemesis attacked them.
And if Vale understood correctly, it would be in his best interest to never face the three Wrath named.
'Especially not Chastity.'
"Then, the other reason we are allied… the corruption…"
Wrath looked to his left at the sleeping girl, who slowly raised her head and rested it back down, now her face turned toward Vale as she slept.
"We don't know too much about how it got here, but what we do know is that if left unchecked, Pandora will crumble, us included. Even if we survive for a bit, we will be starved of resources. As I said earlier, the beings outside are not like us; they are not immune to the corruption, except for the heroes of Virtue. So, sadly, we are best suited to driving it back."
Something seemed a little off about Wrath as he began clenching his gauntlet, causing the metal to scrape and clank together.
"Even more unfortunately, the only way we can grow stronger is by feasting on the surrounding lands and natives, so we can't even justify an alliance with them. It puts us in a tricky predicament, you see. We have to scalp the land to defend it, which pisses off the natives who see our existence as a threat synonymous with the corrupted. So we are fighting a battle on two fronts while defending one of the adversaries attacking us!"
Wrath raised his hand and slammed it down on the table with enough force that Vale was sure he'd instantly die if he were subject to it.
"It pisses me off to no end!"
Wrath began to stand up when the woman in the light blue dress finally stirred.
All she did was peek open an eye and look at Wrath, but for some reason, that got him to calm down.
Vale only caught a glimpse of the slender girl's piercing gaze, but he couldn't help but take notice of the sublime blue glow of her pupils.
Wrath slowly sat back down, and Sloth went back to sleep.
"In any case, do you accept this proposed alliance? Know that refusal means death. If you don't comply, the sixth Lust will."
Vale tensed as a chill washed over him.
'Cute bluff… that's a bluff, right? I mean, what will he say to the seventh?'
Though, from what Vale had seen so far, would Wrath even care about killing him if he were the seventh?!
Left with no other option, he slowly nodded his head up and down.
"Good," Wrath seemed to smile. "Then, allow me to enlighten you a little, my new friend…"
Wrath went on to detail what Classes, Ranks, Item Ranks, and Aether were, as well as how to raise the Rank of his dungeon, which was unlike raising the rank of a Champion or himself.
Classes ranged from the lowest, Aberrant, to the highest, Vice. Demonic ended up being the second highest, so Salome seemed to be pretty strong.
Apparently, summoning someone of her caliber was quite lucky.
Item Ranks were fairly simple, the lowest tier starting at 'N' for normal, then the highest was 'M' for Mythic. Well, there were also a few Vice-Ranked items that were above Mythic, or more so existed outside of the rankings. However, Wrath didn't go into much detail and instead told Vale to work it out on his own.
As for the Ranks of Cores, they went from the lowest, Nascent, to the highest, Empyreal. Currently, Vale and everything to do with him were all ranked Nascent, and the only way they could grow their Ranks was through the consumption of Aether.
Aether seemed to be the underlying principle for power in this world. And through killing monsters, even corrupted ones, one could absorb an Aether shard and use that shard to grow their dungeon, their Champion, or their own power.
Finally… the way to raise the dungeon's rank… Much like the 'Tutorial,' where Goblins of Lust were summoned to attack the dungeon, Vale could challenge 'Levels.' These 'Levels' would be the summoning of otherworldly creatures to attack his dungeon, and they'd get stronger the higher the Level.
As for how to increase his dungeon's rank, there were a few conditions. His core had to be saturated with Aether shards, and he needed to have challenged a certain Level… and he needed another dungeon core of the same rank to sacrifice.
Sadly, not even the Level required to beat was something privy to Vale yet, as Wrath said it was somewhat subjective, but also that Vale would know, and it would make sense when the time came.
Wrath had spent nearly fifteen minutes straight chirping by the time his fury was becoming noticeable in his every action. He kicked the ground. The power and frequency of his tapping increased. He was growing fidgety.
It seemed that while Vale had to deal with lustful impulses, Wrath had to deal with anger and unrest…
Vale had a sneaking suspicion that Wrath wasn't just being haughty when he had told him not to talk to protect him. Or more like, he knew that to be true. Wrath knew if Vale said something dumb, he'd get pissed off and maybe attack him. So, to prevent that, he warned Vale ahead of time.
'So then… what about Sloth?'
Is she contending with lazy impulses? Also…
'If I'm the fifth incarnation of Lust… which incarnations of Sloth and Wrath are they?'
That was most definitely an unwelcome question that Vale didn't dare ask the already irritated Wrath. At least Sloth seemed to possess some method of calming Wrath down.
Wrath stood up, stepped behind the throne, and started pacing back and forth.
"We meet here on the first of every month. You'll be able to return to this space via a black door that will appear within your core. To leave, you just walk off."
'Huh?'
It didn't make sense right now—not much that came out of Wrath's mouth was coherent anymore.
Wrath stopped, and the red haze that had been seeping through the cracks in his armor grew fiercer and untamed.
"Fuck! Leave! Your face is pissing me off!"
Vale didn't question it for a second and retreated from the Pink throne, backpedaling away.
"One last word of advice," Wrath called out to him. "Resisting your desires will only give them more control over you. To truly control them, embrace them, but in moderation! You can also get items to help curb your desires. On that note, run away from me if I'm not wearing my helmet!"
The red haze grew stronger, and Vale found it was getting hard to breathe, no matter how far away he got from the table.
Then, Vale took a step, and the black world was attacked and consumed by a white one. As Vale fell from one world to another, he heard Wrath's fading voice, filled with malice, call out to him.
"And don't fuck with Sloth!"