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 character or habit, while Totems are divine gifts earned from staying true to those habits. But how are they actually different in practice? Well, a more obvious difference is that Virtues come with Vices, while Totems are blessed with the Absolute Edict.
Vices are drawbacks which even though some Virtuous virtues have less of, still have them. The Absolute Edict on the other hand establishes the law that Totems cannot be destroyed under any circumstance, and that effects blessed by these Edicts cannot be nullified or hindered —"
"What?!" Ikky exclaimed. "What if a person's totem 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.
The Absolute Edict 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 things will always affect them no matter the strength they possessed to resist and 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, "That's uh... I don't really know how to answer that, honestly. I mean, on one hand, Ordainer Prophets are supposed to be nigh-omnipotent beings capable of imposing 'outcomes' on reality, and on the other hand, the Absolute Edict is... well, Absolute. But, if we're betting on one, I'd say the Edict wins. Unless, you know of any Ordainer that's being hiding from the rest of the Realms and Lokahs since the begining of time we could ask?"
Ikky looked at Ivan like the man had just made a terrible joke.
Ivan chuckled, continuing, "Yeah. Let's get this fire going first, so the one-hit-arrow guy doesn't sneak up on us in the dark."
On the matter of the Absolute Edict, not every ability of a Totem is blessed with it, and the 'Absoluteness' really just affects a particular category of things. For example, Sansa's Totem works only on those capable of perceiving the concept of beauty, while Equinox's 'exorcism' only works on those that have committed objective evil without repentance.
What this means is that, albeit being enforced by the Absolute Edict, 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.
"Come on, Ikky. I know you have more paper talisman in that charm of yours. Let me have just one more?"
Equinox squinted suspiciously, "Nah. The charm only opens up when it hears a useful fact. You have all the talisman you need, Ivan, and the means to use it."
The Sullivan sighed loudly.
———
Camille hummed in delight, feeling the 'butterflies' leave his chest. Somehow, he had managed to suppress the feelings of love imposed on him by Sansa's Totem.
The woman watched the glint of love and admiration towards her suddenly vanish from the blue eyes of the lone prophet. But as she realised the implications of what happened, and what she had just accomplished, the expression on her face turned into one of resolution.
"Sansa?" Tenoch turned to her with a nod, the two establishing a mutual deduction.
'He may be a Believer, but we each all have the same number of Virtues and Totem. And now, he has one less Virtue, while our numbers and abilities remain the same. Heh, is this what you meant by we can take him, you farseeing son of a man? And if Sansa's Totem can take away his Virtue, then the main man can also...'
With a path to victory unfolding in his thoughts, Tenoch's grin stretched from ear to ear, when his own Augur spirit decided to make fun of him. "Pfft. 'Main man'. Yeah right. Anyone who's seen Ohtli knows that you're not him, but a pathetic wannabe!" She 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 plastic talisman fixed onto 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 agape as 'Tenoch's head' was burst 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 of his fingers.
"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 battles? 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. Or had he suddenly changed his mind?
'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 that pretty-faced 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 a typical wild beast. It had a misshapen and bulky body covered in incredibly dark fur; and its six eyes were as bright as the stars in the midnight sky.
"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 your flesh and your little pets." Camille said without a care in the world about the small army that had now surrounded him.
While he was seemingly 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!"
Clearly the Absolute Edict of his Totem does not accommodate for the disparity in hierarchical strength. In the first place anyway, Bloodstained Key was no ordinary Virtue. Sansa had confirmed it.
However, Tenoch was just getting started. There were more clones beneath the earth, stronger than the rest— their capabilities improving drastically with every casualty.