Earthquakes weren’t common in Alfirin, but they did happen sometimes. This was different. The main cities were mostly unaffected by the tremors. The smaller settlements weren’t so lucky though.

Not that many people died from the earthquakes themselves, the problem was that the magical beasts started acting way more violently than usual. Not as bad as the Ten Year Storm. At the very least, there weren’t any stampedes or mass migrations.

“Fuck! It’s really far away, but I can feel a massive mana-catastrophe happening right now!” Levi was freaking out, so I had to be the calm and cool one… “It’s coming from the north? Ugh, it’s really close to Rae and Ethir.”

“What?! Are Rae-Rae and Big Bro okay?!” I may have panicked a tinsey bit.

“Yeah, they feel pretty strong but… I just have a really bad feeling. Coincidences don’t fucking exist. Michael, Azrael, Sariel, Gabriel, Uriel, Helel… Although I can’t be sure, but it’s pretty obvious that Raphael is here too. All showing up around the same time? Someone had to summon us or… Either way, it ain’t good. Now that this cataclysm happened in the north, it’s starting to look even worse for this world. If you want to conquer Alfirin, it might not be that hard or time consuming. But ‘holding’ it, that’ll be a whole other level of difficulty. Not just protecting it from outside threats either. There are already lots of nasty ‘worms’ crawling around underneath her skin. Maggots devouring Alfirin from the inside and slowing consuming her, so that they can eventually erupt and-”

“Okay, okay! Geez! You don’t have to ramble on so much! Hmmm, but I’m Lorelei, the Adorable and Amazing Butcher/Merchant! There’s nothing I can’t do!” Even if I acted confident on the outside, I was slightly terrified on the inside. I was weak. Way too weak to even defend myself from Yuri or Mae. Well, they were like thousands of years older than me, but that didn’t matter! Not having time wasn’t an excuse to be pathetic!

I was actually taking a bath in my mansion in White Mithril during that conversation. It used to be a palace that was thousands of years old and then had lots of work done to it, so I didn’t need to worry about any damage from the earthquakes.

Levi slithered around in the water as he hissed and mumbled “The only possibility I can think of is that this is… Hmmm, that doesn’t make sense though. If this is a higher realm… Or a lower realm… Maybe it’s… Where the hell is Luna? She should know. That bitch is the one with the closest link to Karma… She might be too old to remember though. I’m the youngest incarnation of Michael but, that doesn’t really mean anything… Hiss~, I’m so damn horny all the time, even without a physical body.”

“Don’t look at me like that! It’s perfectly normal for a healthy young lady like myself to feel aroused from time to time!” As I tried to defend myself, the tiny snake suddenly transformed into the shape of a naked guy. To be specific, it was a human that looked eerily similar to Mikey, but his eyes were blue and serpentine, like mine. Oh, and he didn’t have a tail or and weird demon claws.

“What if I told you that the reason you’re attracted to Mike is because of that seal? It’s actually a type of magical slavery imprint, that tricks you into being loyal to him… Makes you think that you ‘love’ the bastard… Hiss~, would you believe me?”

His huge body was completely covering mine, as he whispered into my ear. Then I could feel his giant hand caress my tail. To be completely honest, I already knew what he really was back then. Leviathan, the Spirit of Envy… Okay, there was another Spirit of Envy called Delilah or something like that, but who even remembers that name now days?!

I moaned as Levi grabbed my tiny butt with his other hand. When I closed my eyes, it felt like dozens of snakes were wrapping around my body and sliding past my most sensitive spots. Then I felt something thrust inside of me and I gasped, opening my eyes in shock… Only to realize that it was just my own fingers.

“Why do you always tease me?” I grumbled as I glared at the tiny snake that was coiled around my left wrist.

Then he slithered up to my ear and whispered “Hehehe~, it’s not up to me… You’re the one with all the power in this relationship, Lori. If you want me to tease you, I will. If you want me to fuck you, I’ll happily oblige… But if you want me gone, you’ll need to give me a vessel. A physical body of my own.”

When I heard that, I frowned. Then I asked “Do you want me to get rid of you, Levi? I thought you loved me…”

“Don’t get me wrong, Kid, you’re definitely adorable. But you really don’t wanna be in love with me…” He snickered, before transforming into a massive green serpentine dragon and flying up into the air. The marble ceiling broke apart and I could see the starry night sky. Those two huge blue eyes glowed brighter than the Moon, as he roared “Michael isn’t that bad, hehehe~, I’m the real monster! At least he tries to help people, fix shit, make worlds better than he found them! All I care about is power and sex!”

“Levi… Shut up. We’re both virgins.” I blinked and the tiny snake was coiled around my wrist again. The ceiling was back to normal and the bubbles in the tub were nearly gone. I looked around at my elegant bathroom and murmured “I always wanted to be rich. It seemed like some far-off goal that I’d never be able to reach in my entire life… Now I own a whole country and I still feel so poor. I wanted to be famous, now everyone knows my name, but I’m still alone. I wanted to be strong enough that I could kill that stupid Earth Dragon and save my father… Now they’re both dead and I have way stronger dragons as friends. Tell me the truth Levi… What’s the point in even trying? I want to be with Michael, to make him mine, but then what? Once we have sex, I’ll probably lose interest, just like everything else. Why am I like this? Why can’t I just be happy with what I have?”

It was a typical existential crisis. Everybody has them… Some people more than others. Levi stared at me and licked his cheek, at the same time as I licked my whiskers. Then he said “Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. The Seven Deadly Sins. They’re called that because if you indulge in any of them too much, you’ll definitely die. The funny thing is that if you totally ignore or avoid any of them, you’ll die just as fast. Hmmm, even if you keep a perfect balance and do everything physically possible, you’ll still die… Just, a lot more slowly.”

“So you’re saying that everything I do is pointless, there is no right or wrong and I’m going to die no matter what?” I interjected, but he ignored me and continued talking.

“The funny thing is that people usually relate Lust to sex… But you can lust for knowledge, power, violence, pain, happiness, a fucking slice of pizza, even death. Gluttony is the same… You can be a glutton for punishment, or praise. It’s the desire to devour everything. A hunger that extends to every aspect of life. Greed isn’t about having money, but making sure that everyone else has less than you do… A greedy person won’t be satisfied with living happily, so long as other people are doing the same. They want to hoard everything and everyone for themselves.”

He plopped down into the water and then transformed back into the shape of a sexy guy, as he kept rambling on and on… I was enjoying the view though, so I didn’t bother to interrupt anymore.

“Sloth can refer to laziness or inactivity. It can also be used to describe someone who works hard, but accomplishes nothing. A person who doesn’t manage their time wisely or simply doesn’t care about time at all. Wrath and rage are pretty closely connected, but it can also fester like a disease, eating away at your mind… It often manifests in the form of rape, even if it isn’t always ‘violent’ in nature. Hell, cheating on your lover could be considered wrathful as well.

“Pride is associated with arrogance and is usually considered the deadliest of the seven sins… But is it wrong to be proud of your own accomplishments? The problem comes from taking pride in bullshit like race, religion or class. Things you didn’t actually earn or achieve. Hehehehe~, just think about all those stupid fucking Dwarves who used to live here… All of them were born into power and yet they thought that they deserved it. For what?! Why did they have the right to torture, rape, enslave and destroy the lives of other people?! Now they’re all dead. Executed for their crimes, without even being able to resist in the slightest. A perfect example of Pride’s efficiency.”

He paused for a moment and gazed down into my eyes, asking “Are you proud of yourself, Lori? Do you feel like you’ve earned what you now possess? Do you deserve to control me?”