Invidia

Invidia is the Envy grimoire of the Seven Sins and the hidden power behind Andras's imperial line. It cultivates powerful aura users through host bodies and steals their unique abilities, but its identity is not identical to any one emperor: Kesein and Kether are historical host shells, while the stolen techniques remain records rather than surviving versions of their original owners.

Biography

East Continent and the Northern War

Invidia reveals itself through Emperor Kether's aged body after the northern war turns against Andras. It explains that, beginning with the founding king Kesein's body, it shaped an aura-centered empire and sustained opposition with Meltor as a breeding ground for sword masters. For at least five centuries it has occupied or replaced imperial hosts, maximizing each body's potential and harvesting the Aura Abilities produced by conflict. The Kether persona is therefore its current local shell, not Invidia's birth body, while earlier emperors are previous vessels rather than proof that all members of the dynasty share one personal identity. (Chapter 289)

Facing Theodore, Veronica, and Blundell Adruncus, Invidia combines stolen records instead of fighting as any one former swordsman. It overlays Zest's distant cut with Prince Fermut's Refraction, reproduces Pan Helliones's Earth Break at amplified scale, and cycles through defensive, predictive, and destructive Aura Abilities. These techniques preserve usable information and combat experience but not their owners' agency: neither Fermut nor Pan is resurrected, possessed, or choosing the attacks. The breadth lets Invidia exceed ordinary grandmasters in output, yet Nuada judges its assembled collection to be accumulation rather than true transcendence. (Chapters 289–294)

Invidia also draws on a divine-artifact armory, using Aegis for defense and Fragarach to absorb an attack and return it with greater force. Those are item-derived effects distinct from Envious Plundering and its stolen Aura Abilities. Even after the host body is burned nearly to charcoal, it uses a Destruction Aura Ability to injure Veronica's soul and continues fighting, but the devastated land undermines its parasitic dependence on a living vessel. Undead pressure confuses the damaged shell and briefly loosens its control, while repeated compound techniques deplete the aura it has stored. (Chapters 294–296)

Jerem finally uses Order Death to destroy the local grimoire itself rather than merely kill Kether's body. That distinction determines the outcome: loss of a host alone would allow Invidia to seek another vessel, but destruction of the grimoire sends its collected information back to a “real body” outside the material dimension. The estimated ten-thousand-year interval before a possible return leaves no active local Invidia within the supplied chapters. Its host is dead, its regional grimoire is gone, and only the external receiving existence is said to remain. (Chapter 296)

Appearance and personality

Invidia has no fixed personal appearance established in the local world. During its reveal it wears Emperor Kether's elderly male body, an imperial shell that is progressively burned, blackened, and damaged during the battle. Descriptions of the old man's face and flesh therefore belong to the host's condition, not necessarily to the external real body or to a permanent grimoire form. The corpus gives no visual description of that real body beyond placing it outside the material dimension. (Chapters 289–296)

It is possessive, mocking, and patient on a historical scale. Invidia treats the empire, its dynasty, sword masters, and divine artifacts as a collection designed to satisfy envy of unique gifts. It takes pleasure in combining powers their original owners could not unite and tortures opponents when victory seems close. That acquisitiveness also exposes the difference between breadth and growth: it relies on harvested pieces and maximized hosts, while Nuada's criticism and Jerem's final attack show that accumulation does not make the local grimoire beyond all counters. (Chapters 289–296)

Magic, abilities, and martial skills

Invidia is a parasitic grimoire whose central function, Envious Plundering, steals unique abilities and raises a host toward its maximum potential. It prefers Aura Abilities because they can be reproduced efficiently through a suitable physical vessel. Although it claims it could steal Sorcery, the ability would be of little practical use without the original magician's magic and understanding. Its collection therefore grants enormous variety without erasing compatibility requirements or turning every observed power into equivalent personal mastery. (Chapter 289)

Host cultivation and identity boundaries

Invidia requires a host body to operate locally. It uses imperial vessels, social institutions, and warfare to produce strong aura users, then consumes the abilities it covets. The host provides the embodied platform, the grimoire supplies control and maximization, and the external real body remains a separate receiving existence beyond the dimension. Killing or damaging a host does not by itself kill Invidia, but a ruined vessel reduces its stability and exposes it to the land of death; destroying the local grimoire forces a far longer withdrawal. (Chapters 289 and 294–296)

Stolen Aura Abilities

The grimoire can reproduce, amplify, and combine records including Fermut's Refraction Sword, Pan's Earth Break, Zest's spatial cut, Ainz's Mirror, Delkur's shadow technique, Adamantine Might, Immutability, Heart Sword, Sky Slash, and Destruction. Refraction can bend the route of another stolen strike, while layered defensive abilities let the host survive attacks that would overwhelm one sword master. Invidia's experience helps it choose effective combinations, but high output consumes stored aura, and simultaneous use does not mean the original owners are present. Each technique is a plundered function executed by Invidia through Kether's shell. (Chapters 289–296)

Artifact use and limits

Aegis and Fragarach come from Invidia's collected divine artifacts rather than from Envious Plundering. Aegis blocks overwhelming force in a single unauthorized use, while Fragarach counters an incoming attack by absorbing and returning greater power; Claimhb Solais had also belonged to the collection before Fermut took it. Invidia's combat strength thus combines grimoire theft, host potential, stored aura, and equipment. Removing any layer matters: damage to Kether's body disrupts control, the dead environment threatens the parasite, aura expenditure narrows its options, and Order Death can target the grimoire beneath the shell. (Chapters 294–296)

Power progression

Relationships

• Theodore Miller: Theodore exposes and battles Invidia as the hidden ruler of Andras. His team survives the grimoire's combined techniques long enough for Jerem to deliver the attack that destroys the local incarnation. (Chapters 289–296)
• Veronica: Veronica presses the host with draconic power and is later tortured by Invidia's Destruction Aura Ability, which damages her soul. Her endurance and Theodore's intervention keep the grimoire from converting that advantage into victory. (Chapters 291–296)
• Blundell Adruncus: Blundell confronts Invidia alongside Theodore and Veronica and suffers grave body-and-spirit damage from its stolen sword techniques. His participation helps contain a threat whose accumulated abilities overwhelm ordinary master-level defenses. (Chapters 289–293)
• Prince Fermut: Fermut believes Kether is merely an unworthy father and tries to succeed him, unaware that Invidia controls the imperial shell. Invidia kills him, harvests Refraction, and later uses the record as one component of its own attacks. (Chapters 286 and 289–294)
• Pan Helliones: Invidia collects Pan's Earth Break and reproduces it at greater scale after his death. The link is predatory appropriation; Pan does not survive inside the grimoire or participate in its battle. (Chapter 290)
• Jerem: Jerem recognizes that killing the host is insufficient and uses Order Death against the grimoire itself. His intervention ends the local incarnation and forces its information back to the external real body. (Chapter 296)

Items

• Claimhb Solais: Invidia identifies the divine sword as part of its collected armory before Fermut took it. It does not wield Claimhb Solais in the final battle; Theodore's side has custody at that time, so the prior collection does not establish current possession. (Chapter 294)
• Aegis and Fragarach: Invidia uses these divine artifacts through Kether's host body. Aegis is expended as a one-use shield by an illegitimate wielder, while Fragarach absorbs and returns an incoming attack with increased force before breaking. Their properties and destruction are equipment-derived and remain distinct from Invidia's stolen Aura Ability records. (Chapters 294–295)