In the end, Jake’s trip to the Holy Church’s planet didn’t conclude as he’d expected. He had fully assumed it would result in Jake and his faction having an all-out war with the stubborn Church, and he was genuinely relieved it hadn’t gone that far, as it would just have been so damn pointless.
That was also why Jake cut Jacob some slack in this entire scenario. He was still annoyed at his old boss, but it was hard being angry at someone who genuinely just wanted to do what he thought was best for others. With how utterly fucked up the internal politics of the Holy Church were, his life definitely couldn’t be easy either, and honestly... things had kind of turned out pretty okay. And Jake had to give Jacob at least some credit for the ending turning out acceptable despite how fucked the middle had been.
The Holy Church would retreat from the Milky Way Galaxy peacefully. All their elites were slain, and Jake even came out of it looking merciful and reasonable after having not gone all out despite finding himself ambushed by a corrupt head priest and False God.
Miranda would definitely also be happy with the result, and even Carmen had gotten some benefits from killing such a powerful False God, and, despite how much she countered it, it was still a massive feat. All in all, Jake returned to Earth pretty satisfied, even doing so through the capital’s teleportation circle in full view of every random Holy Church citizen watching.
Jacob naturally ensured the set dressing was proper, making it evident that Jake was the winning party and that even if the Holy Church had lost, they still maintained some of their dignity. More than that, though, it was all to show everyone that the Holy Church and Chosen of the Malefic Viper could still be diplomatic despite everything.
Returning to Earth, Jake couldn’t help but let out a massive sigh as he looked at Carmen, who had returned with him. “Could you imagine having to navigate that much political bullshit all the time?”
“Pretty sure I would end up beating a few people to death within a week,” Carmen fully concurred. “But... I guess it’s kind of necessary at times? Even Valdemar and Valhal have Gudrun, and every single large faction has a bunch of political folk walking around. Shit, you have Miranda, and I got Sven and Bobby, who are pretty good at handling all the scheming and politicking.”
“True,” Jake nodded with a sigh as he considered it a bit more. “But having a faction that’s good at politics doesn’t really matter if you aren’t powerful enough. You need that power as a base requirement to even be allowed at the big boy table.”
“You also need power to have a figurehead,” Carmen pointed out. “The average person doesn’t really respect those so-called political masterminds. It’s too damn abstract compared to someone truly powerful, and when shit really goes down, it’s the one holding the biggest stick who shows up to solve everything. Barely anyone respects and fears the Malefic Viper for being a good schemer and a really smart guy... they remember him for wiping out a tenth of a universe. Everyone, even a child, can understand why the Viper is worthy of his notoriety when they see the wasteland he created that still persists to this day.”
“Maybe it’s a lot simpler than we think. People simply don’t respect political masterminds because no one respects politicians,” Jake grinned.“They totally do!” Carmen countered, acting offended. “They trust the good and honest kind.”
Jake and Carmen locked eyes before both laughing at the notion, Jake shaking his head. “Yeah, sure, because those unicorns tend to really climb that hierarchical ladder. Shit, even Jacob, who has a Path all about just helping people, has to do at least some scheming to have any influence. If he didn’t, he would just be used and manipulated by others... something I feel like he kind of still is half the time.”
“Some things don’t change no matter what,” Carmen agreed. “It’s so dumb. We have fucking dragons now, and people still care about how someone holds a goddamn teacup or if they remember to use the right titles to call others.”
“It is what it is,” Jake sighed again as the two of them teleported one more time, returning to Haven.
Jacob had stayed back with the Holy Church to properly solidify his newfound leadership position while also fully selling the story that the head priest was a traitor and all that other bullshit. He likely wouldn’t even be meeting Miranda, but instead, they would communicate using magic to hammer out all the details surrounding the Holy Church’s total retreat.
Upon reaching Haven, Carmen went back to Jake’s lodge while Jake headed off to meet Miranda. However, to his surprise, he didn’t find her back in her office, and after asking around, he learned she was at Haven’s prison.
Jake didn’t know Haven had a prison.
In his defense, it was definitely a new addition, and while Jake could scan everything using Pulse of Perception, that didn’t mean he fully understood the function of every building. Moreover, the prison wasn’t actually in Haven but a good distance away, likely in case any problems arose there.
While Jake was at Miranda’s office, he used one of Arnold’s walkie-talkies and got in contact with her. She gave him a super brief explanation of the reason she was at the prison and that King Iludar had launched an ambush while Jake was on the Holy Church’s planet. At first, he was a bit worried but was quickly informed the situation had been entirely under control from the beginning and that it had effectively been a trap, the hunter being the hunted from the get-go.
She didn’t elaborate more but just told him to meet her at the prison for them to talk. Jake agreed and headed out, and after a few minutes of flying and using One Step later, he reached the prison. The entire thing just looked like a large cube slapped down in the middle of nothing. It only had one entrance, and at it, Lillian stood waiting for his arrival.
Jake landed while still looking at the cube, wondering where the hell it had even come from. Lillian noticed his gaze and shook her head. “Arnold made it.”
“Arnold?” Jake questioned. “When did he have time to make a damn prison? Why did he make a prison?”
“He calls it a containment cube, and from his explanation, it was originally done in case he needed to trap living entities for testing purposes. Apparently, analyzing Sandy’s natural abilities inspired him, and he hopes to find other creatures he can take inspiration from,” Lillian answered.
“That somehow makes a lot of sense,” Jake muttered, not even bothering to figure out when he’d even found time to build the over a hundred meters tall and wide cube. “Why is it used as a prison now, though?”
“Because he has yet to need it himself, and Miranda offered to rent it in return for providing him with extra funds,” Lillian answered, the reason once again pretty logical.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Walking into and through the prison cube, Jake found the insides very basic. Everything was made of metal, and several formations were engraved into the structure everywhere. He also spotted several spider-like drones crawling around, maintaining and even engraving new runes here and there, giving Jake his answer to how Arnold had found time to construct the cube anyway.
He hadn’t... he had just reached a level by now where he could have his creations create more stuff. Scary implications with that one, but oh well.
With his sphere, he could already see Miranda in a room talking with some guy in what looked like a barebones meeting room where she’d brought all the furniture herself. Nearly the entire cube was filled with pretty small “cells” created with thick metal walls on every side beside the front, which Jake suspected to be some kind of glass.
The way to keep prisoners, well, imprisoned, was the classic method Jake had read about before. Formations were placed in every cell that drained the stamina and mana of those within, making them incredibly weak. It wasn’t pleasant, but it also wasn’t the worst.
One huge advantage compared to regular prisons in the old world was the existence of the meditate skill. The First Sage had really done the multiverse’s prison population a solid with that one, as it allowed them to have time pass seamlessly.
Jake didn’t really spend more time analyzing the prison besides that, but he did notice Lillian purposefully leading him through where many of the prisoners were held. On the way, she explained they were some of the elites brought by Iludar, and it didn’t require one to be a political mastermind to understand that Lillian wanted them to all know that Jake was now also there.
Entering the barebones meeting room with Miranda in it, he found her sitting across from an elf Jake didn’t recognize, but by the look the guy gave him, Jake assumed it had been one of Iludar’s soldiers.
“Ah, Lord Thayne, It’s good to see you back,” Miranda said with a smile. “How did your meeting with the Holy Church go?”
Jake instantly understood the assignment as he shrugged. “Slightly better than expected. Things did get a bit out of hand when a traitor amongst them summoned the False God that had destroyed several planets during the event alongside a few thousand of his elites. It took a bit to get the situation back under control, but after they were dead, I managed to reach a satisfactory agreement with the Church. They have officially surrendered unconditionally, and I expect you to handle the details.”
“I see,” Miranda smiled, her facial expression not changing at all besides that. “Mr. Jiulpoar, if you would excuse us for a moment, I will need to briefly discuss this with Lord Thayne.”
The man just nodded, looking deeply in thought as he was led away, now having even more to think about after knowing that even the Holy Church had been fully defeated. Iludar and his men attacked because Jake was gone from Earth, so they clearly knew he had gone to meet the Holy Church so just the mere fact he was back and seemingly unharmed for the most part had to mean things had gone his way.
Once the guy was out of the room, Miranda sighed and leaned back. “Just to make sure, did you exaggerate?”
“Nope, not at all,” Jake said, summoning his own chair. “I did lie, though. About the traitor part, that is.”
Jake proceeded to explain what had gone down on the Holy Church’s planet, gladly making use of the soundproofing of the meeting room. Miranda was surprised at quite a few points but didn’t seem overly shocked when Jake explained what had happened after the fight and the explanation Jacob had cooked up to explain everything.
“I didn’t expect them to have the Desolate Child of Loss... but in some ways, it puts my mind at ease knowing they did. Now we at least know for sure the False God is dead and gone and not some unknown potential threat that could reappear at an inopportune time,” Miranda said after thinking a bit. “I’m also glad to hear you found the fragment of the Fallen King... hopefully it can lead to something.”
“Thoughts on Jacob and what he said?
“I’m not surprised. Say, did the Augur not mention Kindroth at all?” Miranda asked, looking a bit perplexed.
“No?” Jake asked, confused. “Should he have?”
“I would say he should,” Miranda sighed. “He has been working with Jacob all along. To clarify, he isn’t part of the Holy Church, and the Great Bright One isn’t part of the Holy Pantheon either, but they are close allies of the Church. I’m still trying to figure out how exactly we’re going to deal with Kindroth. Still, it’s unquestionable he’s helped us out during this entire system event. He was also the one who tipped me off about Iludar’s ambush and helped set it up to eliminate this hidden threat.”
“Great, just great... I did always think there was something pretty shady about him, so I can’t say I’m overly surprised. I am a bit disappointed, though,” Jake sighed. He had heard that the Great Bright One had positive relations with the Church before, but he hadn’t expected them to outright work together behind the scenes. “What are your current thoughts on handling him and his planet?”
“Before this, I didn’t really have any set plans, but now... I feel like the best approach would be to not do anything but just continue as normal,” Miranda said. “Even with the Holy Church gone from the galaxy, we will no doubt have to deal with them again in the future. Especially with them apparently having quite a presence in the closest galaxy. While we can try to entirely isolate ourselves from them, I don’t see that as realistic, and my guess is that both the Augur and Kindroth also realize this. At least, I suspect that’s part of the reason they chose to work together in this fashion, to have a backup should the Holy Church be thrown out of the galaxy.”
While Jake wasn’t the fastest at political stuff, he did realize what Miranda was getting at pretty quickly. “Kindroth and his planet can function as a compromise. As they’re not actually part of the Church, having them here doesn’t violate their effective ban from the galaxy, yet at the same time, it allows the Church to retain some connection the the Milky Way. We do need to make sure the benefits aren’t all one-sided, though.”
“Leave that to me,” Miranda said with a proud smile that Jake had seen through what she was thinking. “But one headache at a time. For now, I need to deal with all the elite soldiers left by Iludar.”
“What’s the current plan?” Jake asked.
Miranda sighed and leaned forward. “Right now, they have nothing. Iludar is dead, the Holy Church has surrendered, and they have no allies left besides each other. What’s more, Iludar even tried to just leave them all behind to save his own skin. While I’m not saying they will be a big boon or anything to have on our side, I do believe there are some benefits to expanding our fighting force. Successfully integrating them will also reinforce your actions today that even if we are a faction led by the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, we can still be reasonable and merciful.”
“If you think they can be successfully assimilated, go for it,” Jake shrugged, not really having a big opinion. She had been the one getting ambushed, not him.
“I do, but it’ll take some convincing, and I will have every person vetted individually, hence why we’re keeping them here for now. Hopefully, we’ll be done within a few days,” Miranda said. “Could end up being a little longer, though. The negotiations with the Holy Church may drag things out more than I would like. By the way, did the Augur mention anything about how they plan to compensate us?”
“Compensate?” Jake asked before realizing. “Oh... yeah, I didn’t think about that at all.”
“It’s only right to expect some kind of war compensation from a defeated force. Especially when that defeated force is the largest faction in the entire multiverse, and with so much attention on the Milky Way, they need to come out of this looking as good as possible... so I reckon I can get quite a bit out of them,” Miranda said, truly looking in that moment like the evil witch from the Order of the Malefic Viper so many believed she was.
“And that’s why I said you would handle all the details,” Jake gave her a thumbs-up.
The two of them were quiet for a while before Miranda smiled. “It’s finally all over, huh? Only a few loose ends left to tie up.”
“For now, at least,” Jake nodded. “But there’s still a lot to do. We need to stabilize the galaxy as much as possible before the system event ends and the universe opens up more than it currently is. I also suspect it will be more open than it was before the event began... likely even allowing some of those from across the multiverse to come here.”
Miranda nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I’ll make sure we’ll be as ready as we can. You also do your part. Keep being the big scary Chosen of the Malefic Viper that no one dares mess with.”
“I’ll do my best,” Jake grinned before getting up. “I guess I’ll get to just that. See you, and good luck.”
“Take care,” Miranda nodded as Jake headed out of prison and back toward the lodge... where he instantly spotted two of the few people in the multiverse who dared mess with him. Both of them committing a horrendous crime.
Because not only had Carmen stolen more of Jake’s bananas... she had even gone as far as to rope Sylphie into being her partner in crime.