There are six types of Totems a Totem-wielder can possess: the Weapon type Totem, Instrument type, Beast type, Living type, Concept type and finally, the Sanctum type Totem.
But what exactly differentiates a Totem, regardless of type from a Virtue? They both give supernatural abilities to their users after all.
Ikky listened closely to the red head prophet,
"Virtues are said to be the divine manifestation of a person's habits, while Totems are divine gifts earned from staying true to those habits. But how are they actually different in practice? Well, a more obvious reason is that Virtues have Vices, while Totems have Absoluteness.
Vices are drawbacks which even though some Virtuous virtues have less of, still have them. While a Totem's Absoluteness means that they cannot be destroyed, and that certain effects produced by Totems cannot be nullified or hindered —"
"What?!" Ikky exclaimed. "What if a person's abilities is just like I don't know, a... uh an arrow that kills in a single hit, will they bring even... Ordainers down?"
Despite the way it was phrased, that was a good question. Absoluteness made sure that the potent effect of a Totem affects everything within the range it should. This means a Totem that affects the state of certain living beings will always affect those living beings no matter the strength they possessed to resist, while the Totem that affects the state of inanimate objects will affect all inanimate objects, regardless of any hierarchy. It was an absurd thought. If this is so, then the threat levels of Prophets would depend less on hierarchies and more on how lucky they had gotten with their gifted Totem.
Ivan answered, "First, all we know about Ordainer Prophets are their definition to impose outcomes rather than foresee, unlike the rest of the hierarchies. So those rules might not apply to them. However, it's still uncertain since there hasn't even been one single documented Ordainer throughout history. But yes, that imaginary arrow of yours could kill anybody if that effect is granted Absoluteness.
Usually though, you'd be hard pressed to find a Totem that isn't bound to only things within the range of a specific concept. And not every effect of a Totem has Absoluteness."
Sansa's Totem of beauty works only on those capable of perceiving the concept of beauty, while Equinox's 'exorcism' only works on those that have committed objective evil.
Līfwin cannot exorcise any of the regular humans in the Lokas, since their bodies are constantly cleansed into a state of being sinless, the sins washed into the Realm of Augury. Then again, Līfwin himself would not choose to exorcise regular humans even if there was no such restriction.
"So, is there just no way to counter an unfair Totem?" Ivan took the liberty to ask himself that, since Ikky still seemed to be pondering on the absurd information he'd just learnt.
"Well, if you must know, a Totem's Absoluteness can in fact be countered by another Totem that has opposing effects, or a Virtuous virtue that has an opposing ideology. Except, for as long as a Virtuous virtue cancels out an effect of a Totem, that Virtue becomes unusable in any other way."
Suddenly, Ivan's voice switched to a lower tone with more clarity while he informed, "Absoluteness is an immensely powerful asset to a Prophet— An asset, even more so because a Virtue can also be imbued with a Totem's absoluteness."
The Seer's amber eyes glistened at the thought of what was to come. Ivan did not withhold any secrets.
"... This brings us back to the original question..."
What is an Ideal Virtue?
———
Camille sighed, feeling the 'butterflies' leave his chest. He had gotten rid of the feelings of love imposed on him by Sansa's Totem. But as a cost, his Virtuous Virtue: Bloodstained Key was rendered useless. This was quite the positive mark for the Seers, as this Virtue was what had given Camille his signature Virtuous name: Where The Monsters Sleep.
'Relax, main man. He might be a Believer, but my Totem says his own methods will turn around to bite him! Hehe.' That was Tenoch's attempt to calm himself down.
"Pfft. 'Main man'. Yeah right. Anyone who's seen Ohtli knows that you're not him!" His Augur spirit laughed maniacally.
'I'm not even gonna start with you, Itzpapalotl. Just pass my message to Sansa's spirit.'
She scowled, "Stop calling me that!"
Tenoch suddenly sunk into the earth, but for some reason, he was also above the earth, still standing with the intent to attack.
'You spirits and your made up names. If you wanna take inspiration from some actual myths, do it well, Itzpapalotl.'
"Nggghhhn!!!" Papalot's face flared with an angry orange color, her white vine-like hair clinging to her burning head as they spread out. "I'm not telling that temptress anything! You... You piece of shit!"
'Pfft! Couldn't even think of a proper insult. Calm down spirit, otherwise you'll burn whatever little brain matter that's still in your head to cinders.'
Papalot growled and pulled on her hair in frustration, her flame body flaring up into one of a giant creature that looked like it could swallow the prophet whole.
But Tenoch was not afraid. She had shown him scarier forms before. He simply tapped on the white snake branch he had just jumped out of, signaling for her to sit with him.
'If you don't wanna go, you could at least help me devour this guy.'
Papalot ended up not passing on Tenoch's message, nor sit with him. Luckily, Sansa had a more mature Augur spirit, albeit a little haughty.
Beneath the tree, 'Tenoch' summoned a rope-like weapon from the talisman on his wristband, dashing right at the Believer, much to the blue eyed man's surprise.
A beast Totem wielder, charging directly at Camille Chevreuse? Perhaps these Seers didn't know what they were doing after all.
The rope on Tenoch's hand whipped forward at the swing of his arm, slithering right towards the Believer as if it had a mind of its own. However, the charm suddenly vanished from Tenoch's hands, reappearing at Camille's feet. The man then stretched his palm forward, his hand grasping the Seer's head and squeezing it.
Tenoch and Sansa watched with their mouths open as 'Tenoch's head' was popped open like a juicy watermelon.
'No... No way... Tell Tenoch I'm not doing any of that close combat stuff anymore.' Sansa said to her Augur spirit, seeing why Hippolytus had been so adamant about not getting close to Camille. But what other options did they have when he could instantly make their distance advantage invalid with a snap.
"Are you crazy?!" Sansa exclaimed even though she knew that 'Tenoch' was a fake, looking at the clone now melting into orange fluid. The acidic goo sizzled and let out a poisonous air as it sunk slowly into the ground.
Camille quickly took off his gloves and summoned a clean pair. "Come on now. If you're half as good as you're making yourselves out to be, avoiding simple attacks like that should come easy."
Another Tenoch fell out of one of the frozen snakes' mouth, asking, "What business do you have with Hippolytus? Because quite frankly, I don't have any reason to fight you."
Camille rose a brow at the question, "Are you not friends with that man?"
"Tch!" Tenoch scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous! We just met a few days ago, and now I'm supposed to be fighting his battle? Tell me what you want, and let's get this over with."
Camille squinted, then looked right up at the snake tree.
If he wasn't planning on fighting, then why summon his Totem? Camille wasn't born yesterday. Tenoch could have started with saying he didn't want conflict rather than lead with an explosive clone of himself.
'Heh! As if! If the main man gets out of this with the Title piece of a Believer, he's sure to score a good favor from the High clans! I might even get a great catalyst! There's no perfect time than now!' Tenoch cackled to himself, hidden on top of the snake tree.
"Fine then." Camille shrugged. "Release the Prophet to me without any problems and I will be on my way. I might even chip in a catalyst myself if you make haste."
"You really—"
Tenoch was about to speak when a large ball of fire suddenly erupted beside him. Papalot emerged like a giant from within the inferno, roaring at the arrogant Believer, "You know what, pest! We'll take both the catalyst and the Prophet!"
Tenoch clicked his tongue in displeasure, forcing a clone to burst out of the ground beneath Camille to strike him. But the Believer simply took a step forward, pulverizing it.
"What are you doing, Itzpapalotl!" Tenoch directed his frustration at the spirit, seeing as his surprise attack had failed. But the spirit couldn't care less. She turned to him and grabbed his relatively smaller hand before forcing it on the tree with an order, "Fight!"
The many snake branches suddenly opened their maws wide, human shaped 'fruits' appearing and hanging by their necks from dangling tongues.
Camille looked up at the ominous tree, squeezing tightly on Sansa's neck and popping her like a goo-filled balloon.
"A fake." But that was to be expected. On the plus side, the effects of her Totem had completely disappeared, freeing up his Virtue. Camille's clothes and shoes slowly began to tear from the acidic goo. However, all it took to change his clothes was a tap on his ear. "Tsk. That outfit was starting to grow on me too."
"Then it's a good thing I ripped it off!" The first ten Tenoch's whipped their spiky rope charms at him. Rather than strike him however, the ropes fell into ten gaps in space that had appeared right in front of the Believer. The ropes became taut as a blue tentacled creature from within the rifts pulled the clones forward like out-of-control kites.
With the Virtue, Privilege of the Resplendent, Camille teleported the clones onto each other, then proceeded to spray himself with a perfume bottle.
The clones groaned from the sudden collision with each other. And they had barely even hit the ground when a gigantic claw appeared out of thin air to slap them far into the forest.
The clones ahead watched as the paw continued to stretch forward, the full body of a six-legged wolf appearing out of thin air.
This beast was not the typical wild beast. It had a misshapen and bulky body of incredibly dark fur, and its six eyes were as bright as the stars.
"Hmm?" Camille was surprised to see the Calamity spirit, Chien Sanguinaire appear here.
"Didn't I leave you with Izel?" He placed his hand on the wolf's rough fur, the mighty beast flinching at his touch.
"Be still. I never expected you to take her on anyway. When we're done, I'll restore the things she's taken." Camille said without a care in the world about the small army that had now surrounded him.
While he was distracted, a dozen more clones struck from behind the Believer, but were met with a sharp crescent wind shooting out of a void in space, and dividing everything in its path in two. From that torn space itself came a serpent with fleshy wings on its head, each as wide as four meters; and grey scales that blew out white flames from beneath as it hissed.
The snake flapped its wings, sending a flurry of smaller blades of wind to cut apart its foes before flying into the air, swiping its blade-shaped tail and killing a few more clones at once.
"Crap!" Tenoch grunted. "How is this guy's Virtue matching my Totem!"
Even though nothing in the known Realms and Lokas could not destroy his Totem, nor any object can avoid decay from the exploding clones, clearly Absoluteness does not accommodate for the disparity in hierarchical strength.
However, Tenoch was just getting started. There were more clones beneath the earth, stronger than the rest— their capabilities improving drastically each time Camille makes a move.