Jake still wasn’t entirely sure how to approach Jacob and Bertram, who seemingly just stood there waiting for him, but he knew he wanted answers, one way or another.
Flying over, he landed not far from the two of them, and Bertram didn’t even try to stand in front or be defensive. Not that he needed to, as Jake had no thoughts of attacking, at least not if he wasn’t forced into it.
“So, I’ll need a really good explanation,” Jake said, not much friendliness in his voice.
“And I’ll give one,” the Augur nodded with a sigh. “Nothing that happened here played out the way I would have preferred it to, and I can’t even say the outcome was unpredictable.”
“I would say quite a few unpredictable things happened,” Jake said. “Such as, oh, I don’t know, the sudden reappearance of a False God?”
“Yes... everything related to the Desolate Child of Loss is just tragic,” the Augur said with regret in his voice. “I was drawn to him when he barely survived the clash with the Unique Lifeform and-“
“Fallen King,” Jake cut the Augur off. “Someone who died protecting the rest of us from that living calamity. A living calamity you apparently decided to scoop up and help by not only healing it but even making it stronger. So, let’s start there. Why the fuck was the Desolate Child of Loss in your possession?”
“Alright, but as I said, it isn’t simple, and there are two primary reasons. First of all, I was told to try and make the Desolate Child of Loss into an ally. You weren’t the first one who became aware of the creature. The Holy Church had sacrificed people before to know more about what they were dealing with and ultimately decided they wanted to try and use the False God if possible. But to be clear, they don’t view the Desolate Child of Loss as an actual creature but just a tool,” Jacob began. “That leads to my second reason. I’m an Augur. Even before I am a member of the Holy Church, that’s my Path. Before this Desolate Child of Loss, I had never met a creature who needed guidance more. You called him a living calamity, but he is not. He is just a creature with power he’s never learned to control and emotions he cannot comprehend. As the name implies... he is still only a child.”
Jake let Jacob talk and give his entire explanation. Sadly for Jacob, in the end, Jake definitely wasn’t satisfied.
“That answered nothing,” Jake scoffed. “Have you ever heard of the word no? I didn’t ask what others told you to do but why you did it. Oh, and no matter what, if we at all go by that second explanation that you were just valiantly trying to guide a lost child, then using that child as a soldier to fight right after doesn’t seem very Augury now, does it?”“I told you before, nothing went as I had hoped, and the internal politics of the Holy Church are incredibly complicated, so-“
“Bullshit excuses,” Jake once more scoffed. “You make it complicated by not having a fucking spine. Without even going into how fucked up it is that you wanted to help the Desolate Child in the first place, you were the one who chose to release him here today. You could have told the head priest to fuck off, but you didn’t.”
Jacob just looked at Jake, not even offering any excuses as he just looked at the ground. “Again... the situation isn’t what I hoped it would be. But please, do at least allow me to try and make you understand while we go where the Runemaiden and the False God are fighting.”
“Fine,” Jake said after a moment’s thought, having wanted to head over there anyway. “But don’t you try anything.”
“I won’t,” Jacob said as he, Jake, and Bertram headed off. The Augur was definitely not the fastest flier, but then again, Bertram was also bloody slow. Still, Carmen wasn’t fighting that far away, and Jake had a basic understanding of how the battle between the two was going, and he was definitely impressed by the sheer dominance of the Runemaiden.
Shortly after they set off in flight, Jake heard the Augur’s voice echo in his mind. “I apologize for not being entirely straightforward, but I’m not in a position to speak freely these days. Even now, I’m constantly under surveillance, and I couldn’t be sure if anyone was still listening in before.”
“No one was listening in as far as I could tell,” Jake simply said, confused about Jacob’s shift in tone. “Not that I can see why it would overly matter if anyone had. Another thought that crossed me was also... how is the Holy Church related to the birth of the Desolate Child of Loss?”
“Not at all,” Jacob quickly shot down that notion. “No one in the multiverse can purposefully create a False God. But I will not deny that we – or especially I – saw an opportunity when the Desolate Child of Loss appeared.”
“Explain,” Jake said, genuinely hoping for a bloody good explanation.
“Let me first give you a bit of a backstory on the Desolate Child of Loss. As I suspect you already found out, it was born from a freak accident ritual performed by people entirely brainwashed by Ell’Hakan. People who genuinely believed he was a god. When they were struggling, facing the onslaught of the Prima Guardian they had foolishly released, they performed this ritual to try and summon Ell’Hakan and make him descend to their planet. As newly integrated people, they didn’t even fully comprehend how gods worked, and their old religion mixed with new knowledge and delusion, leading to their ritual being somewhat a success,” the Augur began, and Jake was actually kind of curious as he had plenty of theories himself.
“What they summoned was their idea of what Ell’Hakan was supposed to be. However, their idea and reality didn’t match up at all, and what appeared was an incomplete husk. Everything they knew about Ell’Hakan had been a lie, so when the False God was born, the Records it was born with were a complete mess. The main problem was that they didn’t have a unified vision of what Ell’Hakan was, as his mass indoctrination made them all simply see him as their ideal kind of god, something that differs from person to person. In the end, nothing fit together, yet Records were born. All that power and faith gathered but crumbled instantly... only for desolation to take its place. All that remains of their original intent is that the Desolate Child of Loss believes it’s the Celestial Child. The child has exact copies of some of Ell’Hakan’s Records, which is also why he felt like you had killed his other self. That you killed Ell’Hakan, who the Desolate Child of Loss views as a fake he was born to reclaim Records from. Now whatever Records of Ell’Hakan remain were absorbed by you.”
“You’re saying that the Desolate Child of Loss wanted to kill Ell’Hakan but now wants to kill me?” Jake asked.
“Yes and no. I think the word want is incorrect here, as the Desolate Child of Loss operates nearly entirely on instinct. Most False Gods are born with some prerogative from birth. Either they are made to protect the local tribe or even the planet, or perhaps created to kill a certain enemy. But the Desolate Child of Loss has none of that. This is why I was genuine when I said I wanted to guide him if possible. He needs it more than anyone. Or, well, needed it.”
“Your actions still don’t really make any sense, at least not to me,” Jake said. “Tell me, how am I supposed to interpret this? Because from my point of view, I can’t see it as anything other than you knowingly helping a mortal enemy of mine. Even if the Holy Church ordered you to, you did it, so you have to take responsibility.”
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“I never approached the Desolate Child of Loss with the intent of having it fight you,” the Augur answered. “I told you already. The closest thing to a purpose the Desolate Child of Loss had was to reclaim whatever Records it could to make it at least somewhat whole.”
Jake took a moment as they kept flying before he realized: “You saved it because you wanted to make it fight Ell’Hakan? Seems pretty counterproductive when the same faction is both helping and trying to kill the same person.”
“Some parts of the Holy Church view the Usurper’s Bloodline as an invaluable boon that they simply must obtain, while others see the hidden dangers of doing so. As you know, I’m part of the camp that wants his Bloodline dead and gone. I have met Ell’Hakan personally, experienced his Bloodline, and seen what it can do. What he, a mere C-grade, could do with it. I don’t even want to imagine someone of a higher grade, much less a god, with such a Bloodline,” Jacob answered before continuing.
“Acting against Ell’Hakan openly wasn’t an option, though. We simply didn’t have the ability to defeat him here in this galaxy... not before the Desolate Child of Loss appeared. You can view the False God as your backup should you have failed to defeat Ell’Hakan. While the head priest believed the Desolate Child was a backup to defeat you, the Holy Mother and I always viewed it as a backup to defeat him.”
Jake really wasn’t sure how much he trusted Jacob at this point, but his words did make some sense. Something that also made a bit of sense now was why he’d asked Carmen to come along.
“But now that the Desolate Child of Loss has outlived its purpose, you decided to get rid of it,” Jake said in a rather cold tone.
“That... is not my choice,” Jacob said. “Genuinely, I believe the Desolate Child of Loss can be guided toward a proper Path. You’ve seen it today. He has improved his control tremendously in a small amount of time and given enough training and patience, he should one day be able to fully control it. If not in C-grade, his B-grade evolution may even turn the Desolate Child of Loss into something entirely different... perhaps even allowing it to lose its status as a False God.”
“You’re seriously asking me to show it mercy?” Jake asked with disbelief. “You know what? No, I’m not going to assume you are. Because we should both know that’s not gonna happen.”
“I did consider asking you to show it mercy, yes, but I know that isn’t possible,” the Augur said with a mental sigh. “It has caused too much destruction already, and if I were you, I wouldn’t trust me with such a dangerous creature either. Especially not when we will remain trapped in the galaxy for a while longer, and no one would enjoy having something closely resembling a living calamity in their backyard. Finally... you need that fragment, don’t you?”
Jacob mentioning the fragment from which the Desolate Child of Loss had been resurrected made Jake perk up a bit. “What do you know about the fragment?”
“Truthfully? Not much. All I have been able to glean is that it carries some resemblance to the Fallen King,” the Augur said.
“Are parts of his soul in there? Maybe even his Truesoul or something like that?” Jake asked with a bit of hope.
“The Truesoul? No, of course not,” Jacob answered, sounding genuinely confused. “A Truesoul cannot truly exist in two places at once within reality. Not unless they are clones or avatars. So with the Truesoul of the Unique Lifeform residing within your mask, it cannot also be within that fragment.”
Jake got quiet as he slowly sighed internally. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure what he’d hoped to hear. He already knew the Truesoul of the Fallen King still resided within the mask, but that didn’t really help much. Right now, the Truesoul in Jake’s mask felt a lot like the Truesoul of Ell’Hakan that Jacob carried around – something he would definitely need to properly claim later.
A Truesoul in itself really wasn’t worth much without all that surrounded it and made someone who they were. Records would continue to linger on a Truesoul until it returned to the system, which is how the Holy Church would resurrect Ell’Hakan, but the Records would be incomplete and shattered.
That’s why the resurrected Ell’Hakan would be nothing more than an empty shell of his former self. Chances were he wouldn’t even know who he was. The same was true for the Fallen King... while it was possible Jake could resurrect the Unique Lifeform, what would the point be if what appeared wasn’t the Fallen King that Jake knew?
He’d hoped that the Desolate Child of Loss would give him some hint, and a part of him still hoped that. Alas, only time would tell.
“I want to make something clear, by the way,” Jake said as they were soon at the battle site between the False God and Runemaiden. “After this bullshit, the Holy Church is gone from the Milky Way Galaxy. That includes you if you truly wish to stay with such a fucked up faction.”
“I expected that to be the case,” Jacob just answered, not even addressing Jake’s heavy hinting that he should bail from the Holy Church. “It was the foreseeable outcome, after all. I am not saying this to lay any blame on you, but one of the reasons the head priest and those he serve chose to side with Ell’Hakan in the first place was because they saw it as their only option. You have already continuously shown your distaste for the Holy Church before, after all. They expected to be thrown out of the Milky Way should you win in the battle of Chosen, so they chose to support the one who would at least continue to allow their presence. Seeing as they believed you would throw them out no matter what, should Ell’Hakan lose, they wouldn’t really lose anything.”
“Except for the potential death of billions by truly making me and the rest of the galaxy into a mortal enemy,” Jake countered with a scoff.
“A rounding error to the gods of the Holy Church,” the Augur agreed, sharing Jake’s disapproving tone.
They didn’t have time to say more as they finally arrived at the battlefield of Carmen and the Desolate Child of Loss. It hadn’t been that far, but, again, Jacob and Bertram were both slow as fuck, making it take a while. Not that their delay mattered much, as Carmen definitely didn’t need help. In fact, Jake was positive she would get angry should he interfere toward the end.
Truthfully, Jake didn’t have a good taste in his mouth after talking to Jacob on the way there, but seeing Carmen in action instantly put him in a better mood.
The Runemaiden was absolutely pummeling the Desolate Child of Loss, not even giving the False God any breaks between her fists slamming into its body. With every hit, her body flashed with energy, and the Desolate Child screeched in pain and anger as it tried to retaliate. From the looks of it, the False God had entirely lost any sanity and was just wildly attacking, which just made what was bound to be its final moments sadder.
About a minute more passed before Carmen evidently believed it was time to end things. Jake felt the aura on the battlefield change as the Runemaiden’s body burned with energy and her aura spiked. The golden runes on her body began to turn a shade of red as Jake saw a skill he recognized.
Carmen shot forward and punched the False God as her voice echoed throughout the skies.
“Fist of Ragnarok.”
Jake couldn’t hold back a smile as he saw the absolute destruction unleashed by what he knew was Carmen’s strongest finisher. Even as the shockwave struck him and Bertram had to step in front to defend his Augur, Jake kept smiling, looking out at the massive wave of destruction that had permanently altered the geography of the planet.
An utterly enormous cone-shaped scar of pure devastation stretched out from the battlefield for thousands of kilometers, everything within perfectly destroyed. At the starting point of the cone, Carmen lowered her glowing fist as the False God just floated there for a while, now in five pieces as its entire midsection had been blown away, only leaving parts of two arms and legs as well as the upper half of its head.
Carmen didn’t hesitate to fully finish everything as she knelt down and smashed her fists into the ground. As she did so, the parts of the False God were also forced down, and with a few whispered words, a large rune appeared beneath the broken Desolate Child of Loss.
Jake knew then that things were over as he began floating down, with Jacob and Bertram staying a good distance behind. Making sure not to disturb the Runemaiden, Jake slowly approached, curious about what she was doing.
He didn’t recognize the rune at all, which wasn’t surprising as it was an entirely different branch of magic than what he practiced, but he could still see the effect. The remaining body of the False God was slowly being dissolved and burned away, the Desolate Child of Loss ultimately dying a sad death for a creature that had been born and killed before fully realizing who and what it was...
And in Jake’s mind, just more proof of how fucked up Ell’Hakan’s Bloodline truly was.