Explosions of destructive arcane energy rocked the entire holy city and destroyed hundreds of structures immediately while forcing the fighters from the Holy Church out in the open, killing a few of the weakest ones in the process.
Dozens of attacks arrived at his location, but Jake was too fast and moved close to the ground as he got away. Flying into the air would only make him more of a target, and while he wasn’t afraid of the attacks launched by the groups of Holy Church elites, they were still capable of harming him if he decided to just take everything head-on.
Moving quickly, Jake soon teleported to appear close to the many light mages still trying to channel the huge ritual in the sky. On his way, eighteen monk-like fighters appeared as they put their hands together in prayer, a magic circle activating behind each of them.
Together, the circles linked and formed a construct of pure light energy wielding a simple halberd and heavy armor, the entire thing not even having a head. This was one of Jake’s first times seeing one of the Holy Church’s proper combination formations – albeit a pretty low-level one as he knew the juicy versions could have way more take part- and he gladly met it in battle.
A barrage of arrows exploded upon the golden construct, and to Jake’s surprise, it held on and even protected the eighteen people within. Still, Jake quickly identified a weakness and loosed another arrow that penetrated into the construct and through the skull of a monk.
The instant she died, the balance of the formation was thrown off, and every member of it threw up blood and fell to the ground unconscious, also showing Jake the massive downsides of using a formation like this.
Others tried to get in Jake’s way, but they were too late as Jake finally disrupted the large ritual in the sky for good. He summoned a barrage of explosive arcane orbs and bombarded the entire area while keeping another large construct of light at bay using his bow.
Even after the ritual in the sky broke apart and faded away, the fervor of the Holy Church fighters didn’t diminish in the slightest. Quite the opposite, they seemed to fight even harder than before, and with their sheer numbers and high ratio of healers and other support types, Jake knew this wouldn’t be a quick endeavor.
They didn’t really have any way to harm Jake either, though. At least nothing that could realistically manage to land. Sure, if he stayed still for a few minutes and allowed them to channel some large ritual, they could definitely do some damage, but what moron would do that?
No, his victory seemed only a matter of time... which made Jake question why Jacob had said he should keep Carmen on standby. The Augur had a solid idea of how strong Jake was, right? But he clearly had his reasons, and Jacob didn’t tend to be the type of person to speak empty words.Releasing a Pulse, Jake noticed that the elites around the head priest and Jacob had regrouped, Bertram also with them. They were clearly up to something, and from the Pulses Jake released, Jacob and the head priest guy were... arguing?
--
“He will die,” Jacob said with certainty in his voice as he stood opposite the head priest. “I will not throw a young one with a promising future to his own death like that. His Path has only barely begun, and you’re asking me to cut it short before I can give him proper guidance.”
“It’s a monster, nothing more, nothing less. One not tolerated according to the edicts of the Holy Church,” the head priest said in between desperately trying to keep track of how the warriors were doing against the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. Needless to say, they weren’t doing very well.
“A young monster yet to even fully learn who and what it is,” Jacob said in a harsh tone. “If given proper time and guidance, I believe-“
“It doesn’t matter what you believe!” the head priest yelled, not caring much about showing respect to the Augur anymore. “Unleash it. Now.”
“Even if I did agree, unleashing him will cause untold destruction. All our fighters will also be caught in the crossfire even if it proves a success,” Jacob continued, unbothered by the priest’s attitude. “Also, the honored Lodestar Matron ordered us to apprehend the Chosen, not kill him. We both know that he is not someone capable of merely apprehending anything. And, again, this assumes the Malefic One’s Chosen doesn’t merely slay him.”
“It’s your pet, if it dies, who cares? And if it wins, it’s your job to stop it from killing the Chosen,” the head priest shrugged. “Though I don’t feel that the higher-ups would be that upset should the Chosen of the Malefic One meet an unfortunate end.”
“This will only escalate matters,” Jacob sighed.
“Are you done?” the head priest said before finally taking out his trump card. In his hand, a small token flashed into existence as he made eye contact with Jacob. “This is a direct order in accordance with the divine edict bestowed upon me. Release the creature to fight the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. Now.”
Jacob looked at the man only for a single second more before sighing even louder than before. “Whatever happens next is your sole responsibility. One I doubt you will be able to bear.”
The head priest just scoffed as Jacob knelt down and murmured some words as a small ritual circle appeared... and in the middle of it, a small box sat, looking oddly monochrome as if all color had been sucked out of it.
Jake didn’t have much time to bother with anyone else as he was busy single-handedly methodically dismantling the entire elite army of the Holy Church. He flew and teleported around from group to group, taking down a few here and there, relying on small hit-and-run attacks.
Was this the most efficient way to go about this situation? No, no not really. But it was a very safe way to do it. Moreover, Jake had yet to truly push himself in any way.
In fact, he hadn’t even touched his boosting skill yet and kept away from using any skills that consumed a lot of resources. As mentioned, Jake didn’t see a way for the Holy Church to harm him in a fight, but that didn’t mean it was impossible for them to ultimately defeat him. They had a lot of healers and other support classes, which resulted in a lot of barriers and skills making Jake’s attacks weaker, and whenever he didn’t kill someone outright, they would quickly be healed back up, only to attack him shortly after.
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It was a boring and defensive fighting style, but definitely the best after their grand ritual failed. They knew they couldn’t win through sheer power, so instead, they aimed to tire him out – a true and tested strategy from the many wars of the multiverse. Even someone like Jake would eventually get tired.
What the Holy Church didn’t know was that Jake’s resource pools were not exactly ordinary. One could even go as far as to call them anomalous. This resulted in him having far more leeway, but that wasn’t to say he couldn't eventually get tired out anyway. And it wasn’t just about using resources, as Jake could keep those up with potions or pacing himself for the most part.
Constantly being drained of resources led to a sense of exhaustion not shown on the status sheet. The same was true for mental exhaustion. There were many times Jake had wrung himself dry despite still having plenty of mana and stamina after he had done something incredibly intensive. This exhaustion was also why it didn’t work, keeping the same fighters constantly going during big wars by having them repeatedly topped up in resources by support classes. Eventually, they would need proper rest.
Jake was the same. Given enough time and enough bodies thrown at him, his efficiency would fall, and he would weaken until, eventually, he would barely be able to exert his energies. Of course, such a thing didn’t happen fast, and as long as Jake held back on using boosting skills, he wasn’t pressured for time.
He did have a confession, though. Seeing as this was his first battle after meeting the First Sage and his first time exerting himself after having his soul and Sagacity upgraded, he couldn’t help but indulge a little.
That’s why he used far more magic than usual and moved around far more than he had to. He was refamiliarizing himself with his body and despite it not being explicitly stated, Jake felt his increased energy control as he moved about.
Jake would liken it to having increased his mind-muscle connection - something he remembered a guy at the gym always talking about being super important. It was as if he was more connected to his own body than usual, and he could feel the energy move more smoothly. It wasn’t just limited to his body either. Whenever he exerted control over his immediate area and used mana, he also felt a stronger connection.
Did this make Jake a lot stronger? No, no, it didn’t really have any big effect outside of allowing Jake to summon a couple more mana bolts at once without feeling a mental strain. However, it did make Jake feel as if he had a better understanding of what he was doing, and given enough time, this would definitely lead to gains as he would have an easier time improving.
Even now, he subtly improved some things here and there at the expense of the Holy Church fighters. By now, he had killed a few hundred, but he couldn’t even tell the difference, in fact, it was as if he only experienced more and more pressure the longer time went on.
He also kept a constant look at Jacob’s location, and when he saw him place down a formation, Jake felt a slight tinge of worry from his intuition. This made him change target and shoot a Powershot at his old boss, only to find it blocked by Bertram, who’d slammed his shield down and summoned a large barrier all around the building they had moved to after Jake collapsed the other one.
The adventurer party with the head priest also stayed inside this barrier, with the party putting down some kind of formation for themselves. Jake clearly saw they were up to something, but after a few more attacks on the barrier summoned by Bertram, Jake gave up.
Truthfully, he wasn’t confident he could break the barrier made by the Augur’s Guardian, at least not without going all-out. Bertram was someone focused entirely on defending Jacob, and he certainly had the skills to do so.
Jake wasn’t that upset about it, though... because he kind of wanted to see what they were up to. Besides, he had a lot of other playmates to deal with before whatever the Holy Church was cooking up to face him could manifest.
Iludar merely stared at the elf who stood there with his sole method of escape in hand. He was unable to fully comprehend everything that was going on. All he did know was that Kindroth had betrayed him... which didn’t make any sense.
He worked for the Holy Church. Iludar knew he worked for the Holy Church. He had been a double agent, feeding them information during the entire war between the Viper and Yip of Yore. True, he hadn’t given much useful information, and in retrospect, knowing the Viper had wanted the battle to happen, a lot of what he’d given could even be viewed as him helping out the Primordial, but in some areas, he had definitely harmed Earth.
A thought entered Iludar’s head then. Was Kindroth also trying to flee? Did he want to use Iludar’s escape token himself? Even if he did so, wouldn’t he just be waiting for the Holy Church to one day hunt him down for his betrayal? Even if he didn’t flee, he had betrayed the Church now.
There was simply no way the meeting between the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and the Holy Church would end with a peaceful resolution. Iludar didn’t believe that for even a second. That being the case, the bad blood between the Church and Haven would be extreme afterward.
Kindroth would have nowhere to turn. As an agent of the Church, he would be hunted down by the forces of the Malefic One’s Chosen, and having seemingly betrayed the Church now... he had nowhere left to turn.
Yet, despite Iludar feeling so certain about his thoughts, Kindroth didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he focused powerful light energy in his hand, making the escape token break apart without activating, resulting in neither of them having any way to escape.
The world seemed to almost stand still for Iludar as he considered his choices. All around him, his elite fighters were putting up a valiant struggle, and they were not getting entirely crushed yet, but he knew they didn’t stand a chance. The metal mage Iludar only had sparse information on was going on an absolute rampage, the True Royal and her army were an unstoppable force, and the witch evidently was far from as suppressed as they’d hoped. All of this not mentioning the army of elite fighters the Chosen of the Boundless Hydra had brought along.
Iludar could fight... but he knew it was meaningless. So, he did the one thing he believed he could do in this situation.
“Disengage from combat, gather at my location... and surrender,” he spoke through the psychic link he’d established with every single fighter. At the same time, he threw down his staff and raised his hands as he yelled:
“We surrender!” his voice echoed throughout the valley. He was full of regret, but there truly was no other choice. “We surrender unconditionally! Everyone, lay down your arms!”
This was his final hope, and all his loyal followers dutifully followed his command. To his relief, the attackers also stopped when their opponents surrendered and disengaged from combat. He knew many of his soldiers likely had doubts even as they threw down their weapons, but they did so nevertheless.
King Iludar knew when he had lost. He had gambled on the wrong Chosen and the wrong Primordial faction. His own failure in leadership had led to this situation, and while he could blame the evident mental manipulation of Ell’Hakan for having led him down this path, Iludar respected himself enough to take responsibility.
As the fighting stopped, he floated down to the ground and sat down on his knees, hands placed on his lap. The entire battlefield had become eerily silent incredibly quickly as Iludar bowed forward and placed his head on the ground in a bow toward the person he’d come there that day to kill. He knew he was being audacious, but he still spoke.
“I plead with you... please show mercy upon those foolish enough to have followed this sorry excuse for a leader.”