The JDA transport craft hovered like a silent, metal vulture over the dusty savanna-transformed outskirts of Babi. Inside, the atmosphere was tense. Biondh's gaze was locked on the heat signature glowing with an intense purple aura on her screen—a beacon in the otherwise cool landscape. It was stationary, right in the center of Prey's Curios & Collectibles.
"He's not running," Ose noted, his voice a low rumble. He leaned against the bulkhead, spinning his staff idly. The flat, circular prisms on each end caught the light, gleaming dully.
"It's a trap. Or arrogance," Biondh replied, her voice cold. "Either way, we spring it. Folly, status."
Folly's hands were already moving. A sleek, metallic drawing canvas was unfolded on her lap, a stylus that glowed with soft blue energy in her hand. Her eyes were closed, but she was 'seeing' the area below through the ship's sensors. With quick, precise strokes, she began sketching the outline of the building, the dusty street, the alleyways. "Perimeter mapped, Maestress. No visible hostiles outside. The energy signature is… contained, but potent."
"Move in," Biondh commanded.
---
Inside the shop, Envy's head snapped up. The faint, almost imperceptible hum of the advanced engines was a sound she knew all too well. A cruel smile touched Will's lips. "They're here. Right on schedule."
Prey looked up from his ledger, his face pale. "The JDA? Already?"
"We have no time," Envy hissed, her purple aura flaring with impatience. "Now, Prey! Release them! All of them! Every psyche you have stocked!"
Before Prey could respond, the air was torn apart by a magnified voice from the hovering craft, crisp and authoritative. It echoed through the thin, dry air.
"We know you're in there, in Babi, Will Evert! Or should we say, the Seven Deadly Sins of Man… Envy!" It was the unmistakable voice of Mistress Biondh, cold and sharp as a razor. "You are surrounded. Surrender the vessel peacefully."
Prey's eyes widened. The directness, the certainty in her voice, shook him. With trembling hands, he reached under his desk and slammed a hidden button.
A series of clicks and whirs echoed through the shop. The shelves lining the walls shuddered. The hundreds of voodoo plush dolls began to vibrate, their stitched seams straining. Then, one by one, they burst open. Not with a bang, but with a sickening *rip* of fabric and a psychic wail that was felt more than heard.
From each torn doll, a form of twisted energy erupted. These were the stray psyches—misshapen, half-formed entities of pure fear, regret, and rage. They were the dregs, the weaklings Prey had captured, but in numbers, they were a terrifying wave. They poured out of the shop, a torrent of spectral misery, flooding into the street.
The side hatch of the JDA craft hissed open. Two figures dropped to the ground, landing in crouches that kicked up dust.
The stray psyches, sensing fresh life, surged towards the soldiers. Those closest to the ship, their forms flickering and weak—near their expiration date—let out distorted, hungry cries. Their voices were a cacophony of fragmented thoughts: "Humans!", "Supplements!", "Extra food!", "Life! Give us life!"
They lunged.
Folly was already moving. She didn't flinch. Her stylus flew across the canvas. She had imprinted the image of the first charging stray—a blob-like entity of pure sorrow. On her canvas, she quickly sketched a large, heavy box around the drawing of the creature. As she completed the line, a translucent, blue-energy crate materialized in the air above the real stray and slammed down, pinning it to the ground where it dissipated with a faint shriek.
Ose moved with a deliberate, unhurried grace that belied his muscular frame. A stray made of sharp, angry angles leapt at him. Ose didn't dodge. He simply brought his staff up. The circular prism at the end glowed with a dull, greenish light—the color of stagnation, of Sloth. As the stray touched the glowing end, it didn't explode; it simply *unraveled*. Its energy dissolved into nothingness with a sigh, extinguished as if it had never existed. He moved forward, each swing of his staff methodical and efficient, leaving empty silence in its wake.
They were a perfect team. Folly, the long-range prodigy, created obstacles and traps from her drawings, manipulating the battlefield from a distance. She sketched a wall, and a shimmering energy barrier appeared, funneling the strays towards Ose. She drew a pit, and the ground momentarily became a trap.
Ose was the anchor. He was a slow, steady, and inevitable force. His staff was the ultimate nullifier. Where Folly contained, Ose erased. He didn't break a sweat, his movements economical and precise, extinguishing psyches with the bored efficiency of a man putting out small, annoying fires.
From the cockpit of the craft, Biondh watched the display. Her two cadets were handling the strays with practiced ease. But her eyes were fixed on the door of the shop. The purple aura was moving.
The door burst open.
Envy stood there, framed in the doorway, Will's body radiating a violent, majestic purple light. Prey cowered behind her, a mere shadow.
"Biondh!" Envy's voice boomed, using Will's vocal cords to project her fury. "You interrupt a private transaction!"
"The transaction is over, Envy," Biondh's voice replied from the ship's speakers. "Release the boy."
Envy laughed, a harsh, unnatural sound. "This boy is mine. And this city will be my testament! Prey! The special stock! Now!"
Prey, emboldened by Envy's presence, hurled a single, black-feathered doll into the street. This one didn't just rip open; it exploded.
And from it emerged not a weak stray, but something larger, more defined, and infinitely more dangerous. The real fight was about to begin.
The black-feathered doll hit the dusty ground and did not simply tear open. It detonated with a silent, psychic shockwave that made the very air waver. From the point of impact, a figure uncoiled, rising to a height that dwarfed the surrounding buildings. This was no mindless stray. This was a being of pure, concentrated malice, its form a shifting, shadowy silhouette that constantly flickered with images of coveted objects and scorned faces. A low, possessive growl rumbled through the street, making the dust tremble.
Envy stepped forward, a triumphant, cruel smile on Will's face. The majestic purple aura around her flared, connecting her to the monstrous entity like an umbilical cord of power.
"Biondh!" she roared, her voice echoing. "Your best students are about to become utterly useless! You sent children to fight a god!"
Folly's stylus froze mid-stroke. The entity on the battlefield was too complex, its energy too chaotic to imprint quickly onto her canvas. Ose tightened his grip on his staff, his usual lazy demeanor replaced by focused tension. This was different.
"What is that?" Folly shouted over the growing psychic din.
"A fragment," Envy boasted, relishing their fear. "A duplicate of *me*, nurtured in the dark while I was imprisoned. A perfect copy from a former possession."
As she spoke, a flashback tore through the minds of everyone present, a psychic echo unleashed by the fragment's birth.
---
**The Flashback**
The scene was a cold, damp prison cell. In the JDA, . A young man, thin and sharp-eyed, huddled on a cot. His name was Leot.
His entire life had been defined by one thing: wanting what others had. That deep, gnawing resentment was a beacon.*
*Envy, then just a free-floating consciousness, found him. She didn't force her way in; she seduced him.They were a perfect match. She whispered in his mind, amplifying his every jealous thought, making him feel powerful in his bitterness. They were in perfect sync. Leot's first and dominant emotion had always been envy, and she was its embodiment.*
*For a time, they were a team. He carried out petty acts of vengeance, and she fed on the resulting emotional chaos. But Envy needed more. She needed a permanent anchor, a masterpiece of spite.*
*The night she decided to claim him fully, she made him look in a cracked piece of mirror. "Look at you," she whispered into his soul. "Mortal. Fading. I will exist long after your bones are dust."*
*A profound, final jealousy seized Leot—jealous of *her*, of her immortality, of the power she represented. It was the purest envy he had ever felt. And in that exact moment, as that emotion crested, Envy turned on him. She didn't just leave; she consumed his life force, ensuring his very last feeling was the very sin she represented. Jealousy. In that death, a fragment of her own essence, imbued with that ultimate envious death, was born and preserved. A seed of her power.*
---
The flashback ended as suddenly as it began.
The monstrous fragment on the street let out a roar that was the sound of a thousand unsatisfied desires. It was Envy's ultimate weapon, born from a perfect, envious death. It was not just a stray; it was a piece of her history, her power, given independent, destructive life.
It fixed its hollow eyes on Folly and Ose. Envy had been right. This was not an enemy they could easily contain or extinguish. This was a part of a Greater Psyche.
The real battle for Babi had just begun.