The Enemy Within

I apprehensively lick my lips after the videos played on the laptop conclude. Taking a swig from a bottle of water that The Voice provided, my mind whirls with the possibilities why Fate would go about so brazenly advertising its conflict with The Voice. Was this an attempt to recruit more cultists? A play at garnering public sympathy perhaps? Or simply just a declaration of war to both The Voice and I?

The Voice picks up the discussion once more, "To answer your question as to what Master Chance is, she is the descendant of that rather dashing demon man you saw in the first video. As the video states, the "Princess", or Fate as we know her, kept three men who doubled as both her lovers and leg breakers. Their respective descendants still bear Fate's blessing on their souls and in times of peril, can call upon Fate's power to assist them accordingly."

I blurt out, "You mean the plot of that visual novel is actually true? Fate was an otome heroine who cultivated a harem?"

The Voice rasps discontentedly, "In broad outline, yes. Fate can be considered as this world's first Heroine and she recruited her band of simpletons in an effort to destroy me. Fate and her Heroes were an out of context problem that I was not prepared to face, and they came very close to succeeding, forcing me into hiding for a time. Nevertheless, once I researched the metaphysics behind the creation of Heroes as well as Heroines and developed appropriate countermeasures, I turned the tables on them."

Now this is getting interesting. "So Heroes weren't something that you originally came up with? How did Fate work out the process then? Was she a genius of some sort?" I ask.

A disdainful snort comes from The Voice, "Fate simply got lucky. She discovered the detritus of a precursor civilization that possessed the knowledge of the ascension process. With that she and her lovers became the equivalent of demigods, wounding me gravely and ruling with iron fists while I recovered in seclusion."

"Precursor civilization?" I repeat, completely taken by surprise. I wasn't expected that as part of The Voice's answer.

"I do not know much about them." The Voice replies indifferently, "I never bothered with contacting them and they were destroyed by this world's tectonic movements in due course. Though in hindsight, I should have taken a greater interest in them. Their works have certainly managed to spring a rude surprise on me and even up to this day, the impact of their civilization can still be felt."

"The codex. You're talking about the codex." I remark, the pieces fitting together in my mind. If the codex came from the people who had worked out how to produce Heroes, no wonder The Voice had freaked out so badly about it. The Voice grunts in agreement with my statement.

"Then why aren't we seeing mass produced Heroes being churned out by Fate?" I ask, "After all, she knows the process of how they are made."

The Voice rumbles with satisfaction, "Oh, Fate would dearly love to do something to that effect. After all, that is why she started building a harem in the first place. A giant extended family of gods, all under her thumb through ties of blood. Her dominance would be assured under such circumstances."

The Voice takes a breath, continuing, "Unfortunately for her, one of the first breakthroughs I accomplished was managing to manipulate unborn children in the womb. All of this world's children have a kill switch installed by me during the period of their gestation. Once they begin to develop undesirable metaphysical traits, the kill switch will be set off and the child will suffer massive organ failure. While this method has been largely successful, in the eternal metaphysical arms race between us, Fate managed to develop a work around of sorts."

Damn, killing children just because they might be a threat to you. That's cold Voice. I am also beginning to have my suspicions about a certain scene the anime was showing involving you.

The Voice, unaware of my internal monologue continues its explanation, "Fate's solution was to develop the souls of this world's natives even further, allowing her to further evolve spirit cores. As I cannot detect or interact with a spirit core outside of my places of power thanks to Fate's dominance over souls, Fate opted to try concealing her blessing within the spirit cores of what would eventually become the Incarnates. The core would keep the blessing dormant until such time it determines that the Incarnate's soul is strong enough to override the kill switch. At that point, the blessing will be unlocked for the Incarnate's use as well as rendering the Incarnate highly susceptible to Fate's influence."

"Are you saying that there are multiple Incarnates running around at this moment?" I exclaim. No way. If that was true, I was in big trouble. That second ad about the sequel to the Visual Novel might be a coded message from Fate telling the Incarnates to hunt me down.

"Yes." The Voice deadpans, before laughing at my groan of distress, "Hear me out first before panicking. Fate and myself possess equal power, so in theory, Fate's plan would allow her to foil my kill switch. However, this plan requires Fate to concentrate the blessing into a single vessel for that vessel to have any chance of disregarding my countermeasure. Splitting her blessing into multiple Incarnates would dilute its effect, ensuring that my kill switch would end them all without exception."

"So, what you're saying as that there are multiple incarnates in existence, but only one descended from each lover?" I respond hopefully.

"Correct." The Voice affirms, "Three Incarnates per generation. That is all Fate can manage. You have already faced one, the Incarnate of Prince Enma, and survived. Fate is no doubt feeling very disappointed at the moment."

"But I got the feeling that Chance was just there at the lab when I arrived." I muse, "I didn't get the impression that she was a Fate cultist or anything like that."

"That is because Master Chance, in the strict sense, is not a lackey of Fate." The Voice comments, She is not part of that cult Fate has set up. Nor is she working with them. However, thanks to the strong connection she possesses with Fate, she is inspired to be at the right places at the right times. She is guided by her gut feeling to meet with the right people to shepherd events along Fate's prescribed path. She also feels instinctive hostility against Fate's enemies. Until the blessing is activated, her spirit core also has no obvious differences with a standard core. These traits make the Incarnates as a whole, not just Master Chance, extraordinarily dangerous opponents. You must never let your guard down, Transmigrator."

No shit. After hearing The Voice's description of how Incarnates operate, I understand why it wanted to have this conversation in a secure location. Without an actual real world connection to Fate's cult, Incarnates could operate freely without The Voice getting wise to them. As long as their spirit cores remained in stealth mode, Incarnates were also indistinguishable from a vanilla mage. Literally anyone could be an Incarnate. They were the perfect spies and assassins.

I had originally intended to lobby The Voice to get me a better hideout, but after digesting this news, being surrounded by concrete and metal never felt so reassuring.

But there is a feeling of unease I just cannot shake. Fate has the ability to evolve a soul. Or more precisely, the knowledge of how to do something like that. Part of the "enhancements" an Incarnate is granted is a tighter connection to Fate. That was probably why Chance became the Hero's instructor. Fate wanted to keep an eye on him. Maybe influence the Hero into derailing his own destiny.

Only three Incarnates per generation, but that is not due to defective methodology on Fate's part, but because it was a power issue. Incarnates needed to get a big boost to be able to survive activating their blessings.

But what if there was no need to grant the blessing? What if Fate just wanted a spy?

"Hey, your kill switch, it only activates once a blessing is detected right? No other circumstances count?" I ask, my heart in my mouth.

"Of course." The Voice rumbles, "I am not a monster Transmigrator. If the natives are not in league against me, they have nothing to fear."

Right. Only blessings will trigger the kill switch.

"Next question." I press on, "The Heroines will only activate their enhancements once they have met the Hero right?"

"Yes. I believe I have told you this before." The Voice answers, "What are you getting at Transmigator?"

My heart sinks at The Voice's response. If my guess is correct, The Voice's entire plan had been compromised right from the start.

"Pull out the file on Magic Police Girl." I tell The Voice urgently. The Voice wordlessly complies and the relevant documents fill the laptop's screen.

Flicking through the documents, I finally find the one I am looking for. A medical report on Magic Police Girl, confirming that the treatments her father subjected her to increased her spirit core growth.

Before she ever met the Hero.

"We have a problem." I announce.