Chapter 797 – Envy VS Envy [Part 2]

Cyrinne didn’t answer.

She simply stood.

Calm.

Grounded.

And that silence said everything.

Vira lunged one last time, desperation overtaking calculation.

The two collided mid-arena and the explosion that followed tore the remaining garden structure apart.

The outer gates collapsed. The decorative balconies shattered. The last standing table near Lux finally gave up and disintegrated into fragments.

Lux leaned back in his seat, now hovering slightly above cracked stone, and used telekinesis to shield the wine bottle from flying debris.

A chunk of pillar hurtled toward him.

He flicked two fingers.

It redirected mid-air and embedded into the opposite wall instead.

The dust cleared gradually.

Cyrinne stood upright.

Vira was on one knee, though this time from impact, not control.

Neither had finished.

Neither had fallen.

They stared at each other through drifting smoke and fractured stone.

Lux took the final sip from his glass.

The wine bottle was empty.

He sighed softly.

"Should’ve brought popcorn."

A shadow fluttered overhead.

A familiar weight landed lightly on his shoulder.

Corvus.

The raven settled, feathers sleek despite the chaos. "Well," the bird muttered dryly into Lux’s ear. "You always did know how to pick dramatic meetings."

Lux glanced sideways at him. "They’re still fighting."

Corvus tilted his head. "Yeah. And it’s about to get worse."

Lux leaned back slightly, watching the two Envy heirs circle each other amidst the ruins of what used to be a manicured political garden.

Stone cracked under their feet. Broken columns lay like fallen chess pieces. The air still shimmered from overlapping authority pulses. What had started as silk and wine and smug nobles had devolved into cratered marble and unresolved childhood trauma.

Lux rested his elbow on the arm of his half-destroyed, half-levitating seat.

Corvus shifted on his shoulder, talons light but steady.

"How do you know it’s about to get worse?" Lux asked lazily, eyes never leaving the two women as they recalibrated for another collision.

Corvus clicked his beak once. "Because the artifact Cyrinne claimed isn’t just some heirloom."

Lux lifted a brow faintly.

"Oh?"

"It’s the ancient one," Corvus continued. "The one that belonged to the first Envy."

That made Lux pause internally.

Not outwardly. Outwardly, he still looked like a man who had nothing better to do than sip wine and spectate emotional implosions.

"The first," Lux repeated softly.

"For millennia," Corvus said, lowering his voice slightly, "his heirs tried to claim it. None succeeded."

Lux’s fingers tapped lightly against the empty glass.

"Well," he murmured, "with the stupid rules of Envy House, I’m not confused."

Corvus turned his head slowly toward him. "I thought you already knew about the artifact."

Lux blinked once.

"You’re the one who nudged her toward it."

Lux rolled his shoulder slightly.

"Yeah. I did."

A beat.

"But I only knew about it a bit."

He exhaled lightly.

"I knew it was legendary class. I knew it had strange rejection conditions. I knew it was locked in Envy’s vault and not accessible through Greed’s channels. That’s it."

He shrugged faintly.

"I pulled what I could from the Hell database. But it wasn’t in our archives."

Corvus gave him a long look.

"So you gambled."

Lux’s lips twitched.

"I made an informed investment."

Below them, Vira launched another burst of unstable envy-force, slamming into Cyrinne’s shield. The impact shattered what remained of a fountain, sending stone shards raining down like confetti from hell.

Lux lifted one hand slightly, telekinesis guiding a stray fragment away from his coat.

Unbothered.

Corvus sighed.

"You really didn’t know the origin?"

Lux shook his head faintly.

"Not fully."

He watched Cyrinne shift her stance, lower, grounded, controlled.

"I knew it was significant. That’s enough."

Corvus made a low noise in his throat.

"And... anything else?" Lux asked casually.

Corvus narrowed his eyes slightly.

"About?"

"Cyrinne."

The raven physically cringed.

"You don’t know anything about her," Corvus muttered, "yet you decided to help her?"

Lux’s lips curved faintly.

"Hey."

He leaned back slightly.

"I know good stock when I see it."

Corvus squinted at him.

"You mean a good woman?"

Lux rolled his eyes.

"Also men. Business partners."

A pause.

"And her."

His gaze softened for just half a second as Cyrinne absorbed another strike and countered with precise authority.

"She’s solid."

Corvus made a faint scoffing sound.

"You sound invested."

Lux exhaled quietly.

"I can’t meddle in another Sin House directly," he said calmly. "That would create unnecessary political friction."

Another explosion rocked the garden.

Vira roared, her distorted form lashing out with increasingly desperate attacks.

Lux watched the micro-expressions on Cyrinne’s face.

Focused.

Measured.

No wasted movement.

"So I did what I could."

Corvus nodded slightly.

"Make sense."

Lux swirled the last drop of wine in his empty glass.

"Now," he said evenly, "tell me what you know about her."

Corvus shifted his wings slightly before answering.

"Cyrinne came from the first wife of the current Envy Lord."

Lux’s brow lifted slightly.

"The strongest wife," Corvus added. "But it was a political marriage."

Lux hummed faintly.

Of course it was.

"Vira," Corvus continued, "came from the second wife. The current Envy Lord favored her mother."

Lux’s expression didn’t change.

"But?"

"She was seductive. Cunning. Skilled at emotional manipulation."

Lux’s internal voice went flat.

’Makes sense.’

"Vira’s mother trapped Cyrinne’s mother," Corvus continued, "and siphoned her power."

Lux’s fingers stilled on the rim of the glass.

"And the Lord allowed it?" he asked quietly.

Corvus didn’t answer immediately.

He didn’t need to.

Lux exhaled slowly.

’Yeah. That tracks.’

Based on what he remembered about the current Envy Lord...

He would.

Envy Lords didn’t correct imbalance.

They cultivated it.

"What about Cyrinne?" Lux asked.

"She was branded with servant spells," Corvus said. "Publicly."

Lux’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

"And exiled."

Below them, Cyrinne dodged another furious assault and countered with a clean pulse that sent Vira crashing through a half-standing archway.

Cyrinne didn’t chase.

She waited.

Controlled.

"And?" Lux prompted quietly.

Corvus continued.

"She came back recently."

Lux nodded once.

"I noticed."

"Vira kept her as a servant," Corvus said bluntly. "Humiliation tactic."

Lux’s gaze hardened slightly.

"Of course she did."

"But," Corvus added carefully, "Cyrinne isn’t weak."

Lux’s eyes tracked her movements again.

He already knew that.

"In exile," Corvus said, "she trained. A lot."

Lux felt a faint flicker of satisfaction in his chest.

He hated incompetence more than cruelty.