One of the nice quality-of-life features the Prima Vessel had was the ability to teleport one to the core chamber of any given planet it was on. This was to give the World Leader easy access to the Planetary Pylon so the natives could claim it once they’d defeated the Prima Guardian.
However, if one had to get to the core chamber the traditional way, it all became quite a bit harder. Traveling all the way from the surface to the core was quite a distance, with winding paths all throughout, and while planets tended to have cave networks leading all the way from the surface, that didn’t make it easy to go there, much less find the optimal path.
This did result in the core having quite tough natural defenses, as most wouldn’t even dare try to reach it. Especially now with the local World Leader having the Vessel to teleport themselves and others down there to intercept any potential invader who was aiming at it. Finally, actually doing anything to a claimed Planetary Pylon was hard. Far harder than doing something to an unclaimed one, or if it was still only a Planetary Core.
Jake knew all these things, yet as he was considering what to do, he still decided that he would go the extreme route. With determination to end the conflict between himself and Yip’s former Chosen once and for all, Jake made some final preparations as he finally entered the planet’s atmosphere, no longer bombarding it from the outside.
Once in there, he began flying down while summoning arcane orbs in his wake which began to slowly fall toward the ground. They were all made out of stable arcane mana except for a small spark of destruction in the middle that would activate after a set period of time. He even shot some of these orbs in random directions, with the goal of having them serve as distractions from what he was actually doing, perhaps even making them think he was still on the surface.
What’s more, the orbs even benefitted from his stealth skill, making people not notice them even as they spread out throughout a large part of the planet, ready to explode once the set timer expired. Jake didn’t even aim them anywhere specific and was fine with them simply exploding in the middle of nothing, as the explosion itself should be good enough to serve as a distraction.
Still keeping an eye on any C-grades coming for him, Jake soon spotted a good place to start if he wanted to reach the core of the planet quickly. From what he knew about Ell’Hakan’s planet, it was rife with volcanic activity, and it didn’t take him long to find one of the largest volcanos on the entire planet. What’s more, from a distance, he could even see it was active.
Flying closer, he felt the presence of peak-tier D-grade elementals formed within due to the dense mana. Jake smiled when he released a quick Pulse of Perception, the result from it being pretty good.
Goes far down. Jake had never been super into physics when young, but he did know some things. One of those was that some volcanos tended to reach a lot deeper into the ground than people thought, and if he remembered correctly, some of the deepest on Earth before the system had connected magma chambers nearly halfway to the core. While he was still guessing, he had a good feeling a massive volcano like this would also reach pretty damn deep.
That’s right... Jake’s plan was to use a volcano as a highway toward the planet’s core chamber by following the magma as far down as he could.
The prior times Jake had wanted to explore deeper parts of Earth, Jake hadn’t used a strategy like this, as it was pretty damn risky. Traveling through deep water was already a risky endeavor, so it shouldn’t need to be said that going through lava was even more dangerous.
Well, technically, most of his journey would be going through magma- seeing as lava was the molten rock above ground, and magma the molten rock below the surface.
Anyhow, risky for sure. Not just because the magma would get incredibly hot and suffocating but because of the beings that lived within it, especially in the deepest layers. The hotter it got, the less viscous it would become, nearly being reminiscent of water at its most extreme. At that point, Jake would also expect there to be a lot of powerful elementals around, most of them reaching the upper tiers of C-grade.
So, as an early-tier C-grade, trying to have what would effectively be underwater combat with a bunch of elementals on their home turf would have been pretty damn dumb. However, as a late-tier C-grade, Jake didn’t believe anything could truly threaten him. From what Jake had briefly observed, the average level of monsters on Ell’Hakan’s planet was also lower than that of Earth, likely correlated with the planet also being a fair deal smaller.
All this put together gave Jake confidence to use this method, even if he had admittedly theorized a lot of his reasoning based on what he’d read and briefly spoken with others about, but in the end, the best way to confirm something was to check it out himself.
Speeding up, Jake curved and flew straight down into the volcano, covering his body in a layer of stable arcane energy just before impact. The lava was pretty damn viscous in the upper layers and far from easy to get through as Jake had to channel destructive arcane energy to forge himself a path forward.
Despite the resistance, he still kept a good pace, using his Sphere and pulses to find his way through the lava. The heat was far from able to bother someone of Jake’s level, at least not yet, and he quickly made progress as he got deeper and deeper.
It didn’t take him long to reach the deeper layer, where the heat significantly increased. Once there, he had to focus a bit more on not being burned, but he could also speed up as there was less resistance.
Of course, he also had to regulate pressure and whatnot, and honestly, it didn’t differ much from diving underwater, except for it being a fair deal hotter. Seeing through magma was also a lot harder, but Jake had enough Perception to make out his surroundings quite clearly, meaning he didn’t have to put mental pressure on himself by spamming out constant Pulses of Perception to make sure he was going the right way.
He did still release one occasionally, and with every one he sent out, he continued to be pleasantly surprised. He kept finding new connecting paths to the magma chambers he was currently in leading further down, and all of them went nearly in a straight line. After ten or so more minutes, his surroundings were also so damn hot the magma was far, far less viscous, allowing him to continue speeding up more and more.
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As he kept diving, Jake wasn’t even sure what kind of temperature his surroundings reached. It was definitely above where any metal before the system would have melted, and Jake couldn’t help but consider how far he would have been able to dive into the pre-system sun with his current body. 𐍂𝓪ƝŎВΕs̈
The current sun wasn’t an option, as it had become a lot more powerful. The heat wasn’t even toward the top of the list of dangerous shit going on with stars, after all. Either way, it was a fun thought to dive into a star... alas, Jake would need to be a fair bit stronger before he could do that.
For now, he had to be satisfied with swimming in lava many thousands of kilometers beneath the surface of a planet.
Soon enough, Jake also began to encounter his fair share of C-grade magma elementals just chilling in the environment, absorbing the mana. Jake had long stopped bothering with his stealth skill, and even if these elementals noticed him, he flew by too fast for them to do anything. Not that they wanted to do anything. In fact, in the brief moments some of them did notice him, they quickly veered away, instinctively knowing impeding his path would be dangerous.
Even as the elementals got more powerful, they kept avoiding Jake, who was still speeding up with every passing moment. His stable arcane energy once more proved its incredible power against environmental mana as Jake just kept going further and further down toward the core.
Sometimes, cruel coincidences – assuming it was a coincidence - just happened... and what went down on Ell’Hakan’s homeworld was one such cruel event. Or perhaps it was luck. No matter what, time would prove who it would benefit.
Not even five minutes after Jake dove into the volcano, the teleporter in the capital city on the planet lit up, and out walked Ell’Hakan, a serious look on his face as he didn’t hesitate to head for the throne room. As he walked, he sent messages to his generals, and by the time he got there, most of them had also arrived.
“Report,” he said immediately, frankly having little idea what was going on... but by the expressions on his follower’s faces, things weren’t good. They also all felt nervous telling him, but they nevertheless still did as ordered.
“My Lord... only a scarce few minutes ago, attacks descended upon the planet from beyond the skies. Arrows,” the general said, Ell’Hakan’s eyes opening wide. “They struck several cities, and we are yet to have a death toll, but-“
“Are the attacks still ongoing?” Ell’Hakan questioned.
“They are less frequent now, but there are still attacks spread throughout, but they seem different from those prior,” the general continued explaining. “We have fortified all defenses where relevant.”
Ell’Hakan nodded while in thought. The Chosen of the Malefic Viper had attacked far faster than he’d expected him to. What’s more, he hadn’t expected the hunter to teleport straight to his planet and begin destroying the surface. It was so odd he even doubted it was the Chosen for a second, but as he had the generals elaborate more, he became certain it was him.
The Chosen of the Malefic Viper didn’t seem like the type who cared for causing civil unrest or killing the general populace, and it didn’t take Ell’Hakan long to conclude why he had launched those attacks. Nor did it take him long to realize why he’d stopped.
He was trying to bait me out... and when I didn’t show, he slowed down. Likely to conserve resources. That means the occasional attacks hitting now are just probing shots to still try and lure me.
It was almost too obvious, but Ell’Hakan could see many fall for it. The Chosen knew Ell’Hakan gained power from his followers, so targeting them was almost likely directly attacking him. Ell’Hakan did also consider showing out in the open but stopped himself.
He was more confident than ever before, but he also knew that overconfidence was a great way to get yourself killed, and even a liogara should use its full strength when hunting a tooth-snapper... and the hunter was no mere tooth-snapper. The hunter was just that – a hunter. He’d also clearly shown his capabilities to launch attacks from orbit, and the generals informed him that many of the attacks weren’t fully visible before they struck the ground, making it evident powerful stealth skills were also at work.
It wasn’t a stretch to assume he had quite a welcome ready for Ell’Hakan. One that the nahoom would be fine with skipping, which was why he ultimately chose to stay put within the palace for now.
The capital’s barrier, alongside the extra defenses on the palace itself, would make it very unwise for the hunter to attack by breaking through those first. He was also surrounded by the generals who remained on the planet and had quite a few competent fighters on standby.
Admittedly, most were spread throughout the galaxy to maintain order during the “truce” that had just ended with the death of his former Patron. And from the following reports from his generals, they were also dealing with quite the mess themselves, as the forces of the Chosen’s planet had begun to make their move.
Ell’Hakan sighed. Things had gotten messy quickly, and the time it took to do the Usurper Ritual had a far bigger impact than he could have expected. However, chaos was also a strong anvil for one to forge themselves into something more powerful. It would be a good test for his followers, and even if they all fell, he still had his backup plan handy.
Of course, in the end, he resolved himself to the simplest solution of all. Yip of Yore had feared the multiversal consequences of pissing off large factions, but Ell’Hakan didn’t have any of those concerns.
The Holy Church would bear all burdens and consequences. Besides, this was something long coming. Ell’Hakan still remembered the emotions from the Chosen of the Malefic Viper during the Nevermore after-party, and even if he tried to hide it with his acting and the fact he couldn’t use his Bloodline during their most recent meeting, Ell’Hakan was sure. Even more now than an hour ago.
No matter how long passed, the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was determined to kill Ell’Hakan. Seeing as they couldn’t live under the same sky, the only real solution was indeed the simplest one:
To kill the hunter before he had the chance to kill Ell’Hakan, and now was a time better than any, as Ell’Hakan had never felt stronger. Plus... they were on his home turf. Now, he just had to wait because while he believed the Chosen of the Viper had a way to teleport to the planet, Ell’Hakan felt pretty damn confident he didn’t have a way back without it being detectable unless he used the Prima Vessel. A Vessel that now dwelled in the basement beneath the very throne room he was waiting in.
Jake broke through another tough stone wall, entering another long tunnel leading straight down. After flying for a bit, he spotted another shortcut as he used his Alchemical Flame to quickly burn a hole in the wall, revealing a sea of magma on the other side that began to pour out instantly.
Entering the newly created hole, Jake used the magma chamber to reach even further down, using its connected chambers to get even deeper. There were a few C-grade elementals just above level 300 in this large magma sea, but none attacked Jake as he flew by.
Breaking another wall, he entered a new magma-free cavern that seemed to stretch quite far down, letting Jake speed up even more as he few. A large rock beetle was lying in wait beneath the ground in the passageway, but all Jake did was flare his aura as he went by, making it not make a move. More likely than not, it instead hoped Jake hadn’t noticed it in hiding.
A few more caverns and tunnels later, and at the edge of his Pulse, he finally saw it. A big empty space ahead of him, and based on how far he’d traveled so far, the distance did seem right. Speeding up even more, Jake soon reached his destination, and after passing through a final tunnel, he saw the large open space in front of him.
Entering the core chamber, Jake finally stopped and calmed himself. He saw the floating Planetary Pylon right there in the middle, pulsing with power and the familiar presence of Ell’Hakan, making it evident he had claimed it.
Even as he floated there, he felt his emotions get messed with. Getting his teeth, Jake was more determined than ever as his eyes turned cold.
“Should have placed actual defenses at the core,” Jake muttered as he prepared to get to work. For a long time, he’d considered how he would go about something like this, but not this time. No, this time, he had a very good idea of what he planned... and a sweet new skill to test out in the process.