Viken

Viken is an ancient legendary sorcerer who survives the fall of the Magic Empire by infiltrating the Saint Truth, taking the identity of Pope Benedict III, and mastering a flawed path from legendary magic to demigod power. Known as the King of Calamities, he treats cities, faiths, and other legendary beings as materials for experiments in control and immortality. His schemes connect the special rites that awaken primeval devils, the secrets of Mountain Paradise, and the South Church's greatest divine powers. He is ultimately opposed by Lucien Evans, whose arcana-based account of magic exposes the false foundation beneath Viken's attempt to become a true god. (Chapters 254–255, 631–649, and 790–823)

Biography

The King of Calamities and the betrayal in the Realm of Gates

Viken's historical reputation is established long before his survival is revealed. He ruled territory in what later became Brianna and was remembered as an exceptionally cruel legendary archmage. In one recorded experiment he sealed a city of twenty thousand people, cut off its food, and let starvation and desperation drive its inhabitants to kill and consume one another. His legendary class and nickname, King of Calamities, describe the disasters he deliberately inflicted on life and society. A book bearing his name presents a seemingly absurd summoning ritual in which participants expose pain and repressed feelings; the procedure later proves to be a real means of guiding primeval devils into vulnerable minds rather than the library joke it first appears to be. (Chapters 254–255, 641, and 647)

Viken joins Maskelyne, McLeod, and other legendary sorcerers on an expedition into the World of Souls after their group discovers Thanos's hidden laboratory and the Chamber of Immortality. He is among those most excited by the prospect of true immortality. After the party begins experiments based on Thanos's work, Viken proposes deleting their private records and relying on the common files, a precaution that also gives him room to manipulate what the others know. Their created “medium” becomes a terrifying monster; Viken claims to be frightened and disappears before the remaining expedition members are captured or transformed. The later evidence establishes that his flight is not cowardice but betrayal: he has used Thanos's devil-transformation methods to bind the monster and turn the other legendary sorcerers into instruments of a larger plan. (Chapters 631 and 641)

The monster complicates Viken's identity without becoming the same continuing person. It eventually takes the name “Monster Viken,” appears as a gloomy gray-haired old man, and works against its creator while remaining constrained by Viken's commands. It preserves clues, guides Maskelyne and later Lucien toward the truth, and allies with the Angel King because removing Pope Viken would loosen its restraints. The corpus therefore presents two entities using the name: the original Viken who escapes and becomes pope, and the created monster who retains an imposed connection to him. Their power rises and falls through that connection, but their goals and agency diverge. (Chapters 641 and 646)

Becoming the pope and ruling through faith

After leaving the Realm of Gates, Viken penetrates the Saint Truth and eventually appears as Benedict III. By taking control of the Church's accumulated faith and Mountain Paradise, he becomes a demigod and poses as the earthly embodiment of the God of Truth. The supplied chapters do not provide a complete step-by-step account of how the ancient sorcerer assumed this papal identity, and the truth is exposed through investigation rather than public confession. What is established is that the pope is Viken, that his platinum staff commands Mountain Paradise's power, and that the institution's believers unknowingly supply the force behind his divine authority. (Chapters 641–649 and 734)

Viken's rule depends as much on administration and psychology as on overwhelming force. After the Church's losses in Holm, he stabilizes remaining territories, protects useful defectors, and adapts Church propaganda to the age of radio. He edits a conversation with Douglas so that uncertainty about gravity sounds like surrender to a supreme being, hoping to break arcanists' confidence without having to defeat the Congress in battle. When Douglas's clarification and Lucien's work reverse that attempt, Viken does not cling to the failed story. He raises Lucien on the Cleansing List, deploys legendary agents, and studies new arcana closely enough to recognize how rapidly it can alter the balance of power. (Chapters 567–578)

His restraint is strategic rather than merciful. Viken can project into willing or compromised vessels and communicate through them, but long-distance control has conditions and does not make every target available to him. He also knows that using God's Arrival exposes him to other demigods while consuming power that cannot immediately be restored. As Benedict III, he may appear calm and pastoral while arranging an ambush, withdrawing when Alterna, Maltimus, or the Congress could exploit the cost of an attack. That patience allows him to preserve the South Church after major defeats and conceal the full relationship between himself, Mountain Paradise, and Monster Viken for years. (Chapters 567–578, 641–649, 734, and 763)

Spreading rival paths and hunting Lucien's advancement

Once the Congress learns his identity, Viken makes competition itself into a weapon. He secretly circulates methods for becoming a demigod or transforming through primeval devils among carefully chosen legendary powers. The recipients' greed produces conflict, possession, and unstable attempts while forcing the Congress, the Dark Congress, hell, and the churches to watch one another. The same summoning principles corrupt elves through a ritual disguised as a dance. Viken gains whether a candidate succeeds, fails, or attacks a rival, because every attempt disperses attention and creates pressure against the coalition that might otherwise unite against him. (Chapters 681, 687, 741–768)

Viken nonetheless remains a sorcerer in his appetite for hidden mechanisms. Through a projection carried by Doris, he admits that the world's missing planets and endless ocean trouble him; demigod power is unsafe if the nature of the world remains unknown. He lets Lucien and the Congress investigate some mysteries because their answers may benefit him, even while treating them as mortal enemies. This combination of curiosity and appropriation distinguishes him from a merely devotional pope: he exploits faith, but he still expects knowledge to decide whether a transformation will endure. (Chapter 763)

That fear sharpens when Viken concludes that Lucien is gathering the materials needed for demigod advancement. He analyzes years of exchange records, identifies most of the necessary components, and correctly infers that Lucien may possess the missing method for combining faith and negative feelings. Viken then traces the gathering of faith to the World of Souls and attacks at the exact moment the ritual has begun but not stabilized. His repeated Light of Judgment breaks prepared defenses, while an arrangement with Maltimus is meant to occupy Alterna. The ambush fails because Lucien's ritual is a decoy designed to make Viken reveal himself and expend his position; the coalition survives, and Viken is forced back without preventing the larger challenge to his rule. (Chapters 790–794)

The failed true god and final destruction

Realizing that rival demigods and new arcana will eventually overtake him, Viken attempts to cross the boundary above demigods. In the Holy City he draws together the projection of Mountain Paradise and the primeval hell, balancing sacred faith against accumulated pain, hatred, greed, and other negative feelings. The transformation places him in a domain connected to the whole material world, lets believers everywhere feed the ritual, and makes ordinary people act out the primeval devils within them. He accepts the suffering and disorder because a true god would stand beyond every existing coalition. Alterna, Maltimus, Douglas, Fernando, Hathaway, and Vicente attack, but Mountain Paradise and the primeval hell continuously rebuild his defenses as long as their resources remain. (Chapters 812–818)

Viken reaches tremendous power but not a stable higher existence. Lucien reveals that the observer-based theory fed to him was a deliberate falsehood and presents a mathematical account in which a soul's high-dimensional nature cannot be reached by accumulating unrelated souls. The explanation makes Viken's chosen route self-contradictory: the masses of faith and feeling increase both the apparent equations and the unknowns, while successful fusion would remove the very undead quality on which his return depends. The feedback of a theory closer to the world's nature breaks Viken's boundary between gods and mortals and disperses much of his stored support. (Chapters 819–821)

Even after the failed transformation, Viken retains the force of a true god and can cast God's Arrival without its former delay. He assumes power alone will settle the battle, but Lucien now understands the attack's connection to the high-dimensional soul and repeatedly evades it. Every attempt spends faith and negative feeling that Viken himself has devastated and can no longer replenish. Wounded by Lucien and the assembled demigods, Viken tries to flee, then abandons his identity and collapses back into overlapping remnants of primeval hell and Mountain Paradise for a final self-destructive strike. Lucien draws that state into his cognitive world and destroys it through contact with an overwhelming darkness. Later chapters date the new calendar from the year of Viken's demise, confirming that the original Viken does not return within the supplied corpus. (Chapters 821–823 and 827)

Appearance and personality

As Benedict III, Viken appears as a gentle, peaceful gray-haired old man, often associated with a sacred crown and a platinum staff. His papal demeanor is controlled and reassuring; he discusses attacks in the same casual tone as an ordinary meal and can offer nobles or clerics apparently benevolent guidance. Strain reveals the body beneath the office: after major exertion his face pales, his hands tremble, and his hair and eyes appear older and dirtier. During his final transformation, his body shifts between real and illusionary states while sacred light and corrupt darkness gather on either side. (Chapters 567, 734, 791, and 812–823)

Viken is brutal, patient, intellectually curious, and profoundly instrumental in his treatment of others. He can sacrifice a city to test a spell, convert fellow legendary sorcerers into servants, and use generations of worshippers as fuel. Unlike an impulsive destroyer, he calculates political reactions, preserves useful enemies, studies threatening theories, and retreats when a cost outweighs the immediate gain. His confidence ultimately rests on controlling more power and more souls than anyone else. When Lucien demonstrates that such accumulation cannot supply the missing understanding, Viken's composure gives way to fury, desperation, and an attempt to take his enemy with him. (Chapters 254, 631–649, 734, 790, and 819–823)

Magic, abilities, and skills

Viken's powers combine ancient legendary sorcery, astrology, projection, primeval-devil rites, faith, Mountain Paradise, and the divine system of the South Church. He is already an ancient legendary archmage in the earliest historical evidence and is later explicitly confirmed as a demigod under the identity Benedict III. The progression record therefore uses confirmation chapters for these concealed states and separately records the unstable transformations attempted at the end of his life. (Chapters 254, 631–649, 734, and 812–823)

Calamity rites and primeval devils

Viken's special summoning ritual looks ridiculous because its movements and confessions are not conventional spell components. They stimulate buried pain, abhorrence, greed, or other negative feelings until the participant sincerely aligns with the corresponding primeval devil, allowing that devil's projection or seed to emerge through the mind. The method can be hidden in cultural practices such as the Dance of Revenge, and Viken spreads related transformations to legendary candidates as a way to create conflict and collect experimental results. The rite requires an existing emotional opening; it guides and intensifies what is repressed rather than summoning an ordinary creature into an empty vessel. (Chapters 254–255, 641, 681, and 687)

His earliest demigod path uses the power of feelings to transform his status toward the primeval devils, then combines that state with faith and spatial energy. This grants access to a condition partly outside the ordinary world and makes negative emotion a power source. It also creates severe weaknesses: the method is probabilistic, risks loss of self to the primeval hell, and cannot by itself reveal the nature of the soul. Monster Viken is a consequence of related experiments and a lasting counterweight to the original, demonstrating that entities produced by the method can retain agency and resist imperfect restraints. (Chapters 631–646, 687, and 790)

Projection, possession, and hidden identities

Viken can send projections through prepared or cooperative vessels, communicate through distant bodies, and exploit identities within the Church. A projection speaks through Doris while her own voice remains distinct, and evidence around Francois shows that willingness or prior compromise matters to sustained possession over distance. Viken also casts away his own negative feelings through the uncanny connection to Monster Viken, helping Benedict III maintain papal calm. These abilities enable espionage and continuity, but they are not unrestricted mind control: hostile powerful targets, divine protections, distance, and the Silver Moon's influence can interfere. (Chapters 578, 646, 763, and 790)

Mountain Paradise and divine power

Through the papacy, the platinum staff, and his demigod status, Viken can project Mountain Paradise and command its angels and holy spirits. Light of Judgment condenses that sacred power into a rapid, penetrating attack; at the World of Souls ritual he casts it repeatedly by drawing directly on faith, piercing Storm Barrier after the first defense is consumed. Blessed Realm creates a domain that purges chaos and evil, while God's Guard separates its user into a harder-to-reach state. His connection also supports observation of faith's flow, letting him locate major gatherings and time attacks against rituals. (Chapters 734 and 790–794)

God's Arrival is his supreme attack. Before the final transformation, it locks onto the target's soul, freezes or distorts time around the strike, prevents ordinary resurrection, and demands a long recovery or a suitably prepared papal body. Its cost makes Viken vulnerable to other demigods, so he normally treats it as a strategic resource rather than routine force. After fusing Mountain Paradise and the primeval hell, he becomes the source of the attack and casts it repeatedly without chanting or the former cooldown. That apparent improvement remains limited by understanding and fuel: Lucien can step away from the soul connection once he comprehends the mechanism, and every missed attack consumes power Viken can no longer restore. (Chapters 734, 791–794, and 821–822)

Failed true-god state

In his last ritual, Viken balances sacred faith and negative feelings so that Mountain Paradise prevents assimilation by primeval hell while primeval hell prevents his dissolution into Mountain Paradise. The result places him in a high, world-spanning domain, gives him chantless divine powers, and lets defensive kingdoms reform after attacks from several demigods. He briefly possesses the offensive force attributed to a true god and can connect his influence to distant populations. (Chapters 812–818)

The state is unstable in both theory and resources. It aggregates unrelated souls rather than reaching the essence of Viken's own soul, and its defenses depend on a replenishable supply of believers and negative feelings. Lucien's explanation breaks the boundary maintained by the false model; Viken is left with immense power but no corresponding knowledge of how to aim, preserve, or renew it. His final regression into overlapping hell and paradise can approach Lucien's cognitive-world state and threaten mutual destruction, but it abandons Viken's identity and exposes him to the mechanism that destroys him. (Chapters 819–823)

Strategy, astrology, and institutional control

Viken retains the habits of a distinguished ancient sorcerer. He uses his Host Star of Destiny and demigod perception to detect threats, studies arcana reports and material records, distinguishes a genuine ritual pattern from background research, and adapts plans when evidence changes. As pope he directs the Church's cardinals, propaganda, intelligence, and Cleansing List while accounting for the interests of rival demigods. His principal limitation is that strategy is repeatedly bent toward appropriation: he expects to seize the result of others' discoveries or compensate for an unknown mechanism with more power, a habit that proves fatal when knowledge itself determines control. (Chapters 567–578, 734, 763, and 790–823)

Power progression

Relationships

• Lucien Evans: Viken first treats Lucien as a rising threat and potential source of useful discoveries, then as the only rival who might reach a higher state before him. His attempts to discredit, kill, and ambush Lucien culminate in the final confrontation where Lucien's theory dismantles Viken's transformation.
• Monster Viken: The monster is born from the Realm of Gates experiments, bears Viken's name, and remains linked to his power, but it is a separate agent. Viken restrains and uses it; the monster preserves evidence and recruits allies to bring about his fall.
• Thanos: Viken builds his demigod path from Thanos's research, betrays the expedition that uncovers it, and uses the older sorcerer's work to seize Mountain Paradise. His later modifications increase accessible power without solving the path's central theoretical flaw.
• Alterna: The Silver Moon is one of the few powers capable of punishing Viken after God's Arrival or disrupting his great rituals. Their mutual vigilance limits his freedom to act openly and brings Alterna into both the World of Souls ambush and the final battle.
• Maltimus: Viken and the Lord of Hell cooperate when their interests align, particularly to prevent Lucien's apparent advancement, but each expects betrayal. Maltimus joins the final effort to stop Viken because a true god would threaten every existing demigod and the primeval hell itself.
• Douglas: Viken tries to weaponize Douglas's scientific uncertainty against the Congress. Douglas's recovery from that deception and later demigod power place him among the principal forces that attack Viken's final transformation.