Jake continued his slaughter, killing hundreds of powerful C-grade fighters. These were individuals who had been branded as elite and were always received respectfully whenever they traveled.
Yet, in front of Jake, they were but lambs to the slaughter. The difference between an elite and someone standing at the pinnacle of their grade was an incomprehensible gap that they simply had no way of crossing, even with all their fancy formations and rituals.
They were also faced with potentially the worst opponent possible. The only way they had a chance to win was to pull off some big ritual or deploy something else Jake wasn’t ready to face. It was to take advantage of the large battlefield and the fact Jake had to keep track of so many foes at once.
In front of anyone else, they might have found a few openings, but Jake wasn’t that easily surprised. He tracked the entire battlefield at once and was aware of everything happening everywhere. Teleporting around, he perfectly snuffed out anything that even had the slightest potential to become a threat should it be left alone – besides whatever Jacob was doing, that is.
He didn’t end up having to wait long, either. Jake saw that within the defensive bubble, the party had laid down some formation which Jake assumed to be for teleporting away. The head priest walked into it, but not before Jake quickly confirmed he had a Mark on him.
Jake had expected the others to follow, but only the regular priests who followed the head priest went through the teleporter. The party, as well as Jacob and Bertram, stayed behind even as the teleportation formation faded away, and from Jake’s mark, he felt the head priest had gone to the capital city where Jake had originally arrived on the planet.
With them gone, Jake also noticed the box Jacob was doing some ritual with. He assumed it to be some artifact or something, as he knew the Church loved pulling out one-time artifacts, and he still remembered the Holy Sword Bertram had used on the Monarch of Blood back in the Treasure Hunt, so maybe it was something like that again. However, when he looked at it more closely, the way everything around it appeared slightly distorted was familiar.
He realized what the box was right as Bertram let the party of elites from the Holy Church charge out of the barrier he’d placed down. Jacob and Bertram both stayed as the barrier faded away entirely... and all around them, all color began fading from the world.
For a brief moment, the fighting stopped as Jake teleported to the air and looked down at what was happening. He saw the fading of color spread as the box finally opened... revealing a fragment within that Jake instantly recognized.
Part of the Fallen King, Jake thought, right as a powerful aura exploded onto the scene. Above the fragment, a body began appearing, bones first before flesh grew on in a grotesque scene.As the creature fully formed, Jake immediately recognized what it was as a subtle sense of danger crept into his mind. Without any hesitation, he activated the device he’d received from Arnold, informing him to send Carmen over. He likely should have done so the moment negotiations had broken down, but better late than never.
He also didn’t hesitate to attack. Nocking an arrow, he released a Powershot down toward the creature, hoping to hit it before it could fully form, but Bertram got in the way, taking the hit before getting blasted back through half a dozen buildings and into the plains beyond the city.
Before Jake could even launch another attack... the creature had fully assembled its body. The Desolate Child of Loss had fully regenerated itself and was back.
What had appeared looked different than Jake remembered, though. Rather than looking like a skeleton, barely with any flesh sticking to it, the creature seemed fuller now. It had more flesh than before, with there even being some muscles in there from the looks of it. It was still unhealthily thin, but now it actually looked like a creature that could be alive.
However, compared to its physical growth, the creature hadn’t grown that much in levels.
[Desolate Child of Loss – lvl 310]
It had been level 306 when Jake encountered the Desolate Child of Loss the first time, but now it had grown. It was a funny coincidence that for their second meeting, Jake was now the one level 306, the gap having significantly narrowed after all the levels Jake had gotten.
Jake did feel that it had grown stronger, though. Strong enough to register as a threat. He also saw something else that made him frown. Its passive aura of desolation spread out from its body, yet Jacob stood within this aura, completely untouched. It wasn’t that he somehow defended himself from the desolation either; he just wasn’t affected.
“I’m sorry,” Jacob said, his voice low but still loud enough for Jake to hear. From the look on the Augur’s face, he seemed legitimately upset, which just perplexed Jake as he had so many questions. Why was the Desolate Child of Loss with Jacob? Why had he seemingly helped it heal?
And why wasn’t it attacking him but instead looking at him with confusion.
“Why sorry?” the False God asked, seemingly having not even noticed Jake yet as it only focused on Jacob.
Jacob didn’t answer but just looked past the Desolate Child of Loss. The False God took a little before it followed his gaze and saw Jake floating in the air. The moment it laid eyes on Jake, its entire demeanor changed in an instant.
“YOU! Slayer! Enemy!” the creature screeched, its aura exploding outwards as Jacob stumbled back, still unaffected but with a sad look on his face. One that Jake didn’t really have much time to study.
The False God didn’t hesitate even a moment before it went for the kill. In an instant, it flew into the air, pure desolation spreading everywhere as Jake also reacted by making more distance.
Yet even as he did so, he couldn’t escape the domain of desolation passively released by the False God. It had grown even larger than before, and if Jake wanted to fight, he was pretty much forced to remain inside of it.
I can’t hold back too much anymore , Jake also told himself as he made the tough decision of activating Arcane Awakening at the safe 30% boost, increasing his consumption of resources directly but not straining himself too much. The boost was needed, too, as the Desolate Child of Loss was effectively constantly in its fully powered state.
With his bow in hand, Jake attacked the Desolate Child of Loss as the creature took out a simplistic spear of bone. Scales also immediately covered his body to fight off the desolation as Jake attacked.
His arrow tore through the desolation, losing energy during flight, but it should be powerful enough. The last time Jake fought the creature, it barely reacted to any attacks or defended itself. However, this time around, it did one better and actively dodged Jake’s arrow.
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It’s smarter? Jake questioned internally, feeling like this was going to get really annoying. However, he was far from deterred. Even if the Desolate Child of Loss had grown in both power and ability, Jake also wasn’t the same as he had been during their last encounter. He was stronger now, but what’s more, he wasn’t suffering from a desolation-caused soul injury.
Following up his prior attack, Jake released another arrow, but this time around, it curved slightly in the middle of its flight, much to the surprise of the Desolate Child of Loss, who, while having certainly grown smarter, was still not a talented fighter.
The arrow struck the False God in the shoulder and made the creature tumble slightly while in mid-flight, giving Jake’s follow-up attacks a chance to land. It wasn’t just a single follow-up arrow either, as Jake activated his newly gained Timeless Focus of the Apex Hunter and rapidly shot out half a dozen arrows that struck the Desolate Child of Loss one after another in quick succession, sending it spinning toward the ground as Jake just kept shooting even after the rapid-fire effect ended. Again, he had to pace himself as he knew the False God was not something easily harmed, much less killed.
However, despite Jake feeling confident, he had kind of neglected one thing... the pure fanaticism of the Holy Church. A logical person would retreat away from the False God with power matching a Unique Lifeform that was constantly releasing a field of death, but the Holy Church members had never been logical.
All the healers and other support classes defended themselves and others from the desolation as they joined the Desolate Child of Loss in their assault. What’s more, Jake noticed that the effect of the desolation wasn't as strong on these members of the Holy Church, which once more made him theorize that the False God was actively trying to avoid attacking them.
Not affecting Jacob could have been a fluke, but combined with the Desolate Child of Loss’ increased intelligence and the fact these Holy Church members were also experiencing a lesser effect, Jake could only conclude one thing:
The Desolate Child of Loss was learning to control its power over desolation. If it learned to fully control desolation and perhaps even gained full Authority... combined with its passive domain... yeah, that could get really bad, really fast.
Luckily, the False God evidently wasn’t there yet as all it did was scream loudly as all the rubble around it disintegrated when it stood back up. Once more, the creature shot into the air, but this time, Jake didn’t have leeway to outright attack it because he also had to deal with the remaining Holy Church members who attacked him.
From their attacks, Jake also confirmed the creature’s control over the desolation domain remained severely limited as the spells flying toward him were significantly weakened by the desolation. Not as much as Jake would have liked, but from the magic deployed by the priests, he began to suspect holy magic was quite effective against desolation.
What it wasn’t very effective against was destructive arcane mana as Jake blanketed the sky in explosions to give himself space and time to keep the Desolate Child of Loss at bay. He wanted to avoid an outright melee with it, as the closer he got, the stronger the desolation grew, and so far, the False God hadn’t shown any ranged attacks of note yet.
The members of the Holy Church clearly noticed Jake’s strategy and moved to work against him. Powerful barriers began impeding his path, slowing him down and allowing the False God to get closer, and a few of his arrows aimed at the creature were even body-blocked by Holy Church members willing to risk – or at times outright giving – their lives just to inconvenience Jake.
Annoyingly, their strategy worked as soon Jake was forced to come face to face with the Desolate Child of Loss. It sped up when it got moderately close, appearing right in front of him with its simplistic spear.
Jake responded by pulling out Eternal Hunger while using the other hand to cast arcane magic. He dodged and deflected the spear of the Desolate Child of Loss a few times, finding himself roughly equally matched in both power and speed.
This clearly didn’t sit well with the Desolate Child of Loss as it once more screamed in anger. Its aura exploded as it did so, the pressure from the desolation domain growing in intensity and bearing down on Jake as the False God grew even faster and stronger before, almost as if its anger was fueling its power.
He still wasn’t entirely clear why the Desolate Child of Loss was this angry at him, but quite frankly, he didn’t care to find out as Jake responded by also getting a bit more serious himself. Activating Pride of the Malefic Viper, his immediate surroundings suddenly began to show faint signs of dark green and the purple gleam of Jake’s arcane affinity as he reclaimed the domain as his own.
The mana consumption from Pride proved quite immense, but Jake had a massive pool able to tide him over for now as he pressed forward. The Desolate Child of Loss was surprised at Jake partly freeing himself from the domain, making the creature unable to respond as Jake cut it several times across the chest before stabbing it in the neck.
A pulse of arcane energy flooded through Eternal Hunger and exploded the weapon, sending the False God flying back with its head nearly entirely cut off, but as expected, this barely slowed down the creature as it rapidly regenerated. Still, it was a minor victory, instantly made not that sweet as Jake got hit by a blast of light magic in the side, singeing a few of his scales off.
Stabilizing, Jake wisely used this regeneration time to once more create distance while also addressing some of the more annoying Holy Church members. He was targeting the barrier casters first and foremost, which did prove rather tricky as his opponents had clearly expected this to be Jake’s response.
He managed to kill a few dozen Holy Church members before the Desolate Child of Loss was upon him once more. He switched to half-melee again as he kept casting magic and dodging his attackers, finding the entire situation rather tricky, if still manageable for now... that “for now” proving to indeed be a very short-lived statement.
The elite party of five that had been with the head priest suddenly appeared, having teleported behind Jake after preparing who-knows-what somewhere else on the battlefield. Jake had neglected them, which proved to be a mistake as they now seemed quite different from before.
All five of them were enveloped in holy light, forming a powerful construct that far surpassed any of the ones Jake had faced prior. This construct looked a bit like the halberd-wielding ones from before, but this one had a head and far more intricate armor. What’s more, it was clearly far more powerful. While the holy light made it a bit hard to see, Jake did notice how all five now wore the exact same armor and visible pendant, making him guess they were using items to fully sustain and unleash this skill.
The person in the middle was seemingly capable of controlling the construct, which also proved a boon, as the warrior charged straight at Jake, leaving him with a False God in the front and a super-construct attacking from the back.
Gritting his teeth, Jake knew he had to take things up a notch as he pushed his boosting skill further than before, pushing his body and now truly putting him on a timer. Blocking the Desolate Child of Loss using his katar, Jake faced the construct as he tried to block it using a set of arcane barriers but found himself sorely lacking.
The halberd sliced through all his barriers, and while Jake did dodge taking a major hit, first blood was still drawn as he received a nasty cut on his chest. Before he had any time to rest, the construct attacked again, and combined with several ranged attacks from all directions along with an angry Desolate Child of Loss, Jake found himself under pressure.
It was mainly the construct that took him by surprise. Jake tried to block it a few more times but found it far stronger than it had any right to be. It didn’t make any sense... at least not until Jake saw the state of the party who were using it.
Suicidal fucking bastards, Jake cursed internally as he noticed how golden veins were forming all over the elite party’s bodies, the armor they wore having seemingly merged with their skin. They were using the fucked up Martyr magic of the Holy Church, much to Jake’s annoyance.
Still, he continued holding on as he was repeatedly pushed back while trying to focus on buying time and taking down the many Holy Church elites to give himself some more space. Over a dozen lesser constructs had also taken to the air by now, and while individually they weren’t that dangerous, combined with everything, it was a struggle.
Not to say Jake was on the losing end quite yet. With Pride and his boosting skill pushed further, Jake managed to consistently avoid taking damage while dealing plenty to his enemies, primarily through destructive arcane magic or the occasional arrow taking down an opponent in one shot.
Things were tricky, though, and Jake found himself in dangerous situations more than he would have liked. He sought further and further up in the sky to give himself more space to dodge, and staying constantly on the move allowed him to stay away from some of the many constructs chasing him.
The elite party construct kept up, though, and so did the Desolate Child as he battled those two primarily. As they got further and further up, they encountered a few wayward monsters and natural phenomena, such as thunderstorms and whatnot, which was perhaps why no one took notice of the approaching blip far above them that was rapidly growing in size.