The heat dispersed as the sun was severed in two. The world flashed as it exploded, blanketing the entire plains in flames that washed over the old swordsman. His stance held firm as all the fire soon enough stopped.
Clouds above were parted as if a giant blade had cut them open. Miyamoto lowered his blade as his body wrinkled again, and his black hair turned gray, with most of it falling off. At least the burned-off eyebrows and what little hair he did have before getting it burned off had returned.
“A Transcendent…”
The rain had already stopped falling, and the sun above dimmed. The Sword Saint frowned and squinted as he saw the form of Ell’Hakan be revealed. A part of his thigh and his entire left arm had been severed, but his stance remained strong.
Miyamoto had hoped to do more.
Ell’Hakan regarded his injuries as flames licked the wounds. The sun was no longer red, but gentle flames still descended as Miyamoto saw them heal the enemy Chosen. The Sword Saint considered his next move. To have a single Glimpse was something he could do without any significant backlash, but more than that would lead to consequences. To fully use Springtime Advent was also an option, but one he would naturally prefer to do without.
Just as he considered all this, his opponent dismissed his trident and floated down, and landed on the ground.
“You called it a glimpse,” Ell’Hakan spoke. “Which must mean that should you truly call upon it…”
The alien sighed. “You asked for my assessment. It appears you entirely fell outside of any I could have possibly had before we fought, but now that we have clashed, I believe I understand. You are truly just an old swordsman, in all its purity and all its power. I thank you, but continuing this battle would be detrimental to both of us, wouldn’t it?”
Miyamoto did not disagree. “You, too, asked for my assessment. While you are powerful, you seem to walk different Paths. Writing a story and trying to form a legend is not something one can force but something that is born from truly monumental events. You can try but never guarantee success. No strategy or plan will ever work perfectly… but I have a feeling you already knew this.”Ell’Hakan smiled. “Several minutes ago, I already got the message that the Ashen Phantom Devourer has fallen. If your primary objective was to delay me, then I will wholeheartedly admit defeat. Several miscalculations were made, the biggest of which being the Malefic’s Chosen’s speed at getting back and, perhaps more importantly, your existence. I heard the natives of this world call you the Sword Saint. An earned name.”
The old man simply nodded in recognition, seeing no need to speak anymore.
“Considering all this, I must say my goodbyes and bow out. Once more, I thank you, this was an enlightening encounter. However, I will leave you with a warning. While you may not see it happening now, the Order of the Malefic Viper is a faction to be wary of. The Malefic’s Chosen may strike you as a person worth trusting, but I felt his instability. He would not make a good leader, and I find it highly probable that other forces will simply make use of him until those with actual power in the Order steps up and takes over. So decide. Either give this planet to the Order of the Malefic Viper or find a way to push them off it entirely,” Ell’Hakan said.
Miyamoto frowned, not due to the words but what was lacking. He felt no emotional manipulation at all, and while it was possible he could just not detect it, he didn’t feel that was the case.
“Another miscalculation you have is in regards to Jake Thayne. I do agree he is not a good leader, and I do not see that changing. Leading is simply not his Path, but you view him as solely chaotic. I see more than that. You are not the only one who has clashed with him and made an assessment, and it is my turn to apologize now. I trust my own assessment far more than yours, young man,” the Sword Saint answered.
“Fair enough. I hope, for your sake, your choice turns out for the best. If not, then I am sure countless factions in the multiverse would gladly offer you a position. Perhaps my biggest miscalculation was to focus so much on the Malefic’s Chosen and not those who had chosen to gather around him,” Ell’Hakan said.
“Now, I had more I wanted to do and say, but staying here only puts me further at risk. It would be silly for me to stay only to figure out the Malefic’s Chosen somehow had a teleportation circle set up or something akin to that, leaving me to face a battle between two monsters. So may we meet again, Sword Saint. It truly was a pleasure,” the nahoom spoke.
The house had been broken during the fight, but it appeared that a teleportation circle had still been protected beneath the rubble. Ell’Hakan turned into flames and appeared atop it, and Miyamoto made no attempt to stop him as he teleported away, the circle exploding in his wake.
A minute or so passed as a figure of blood condensed beside the Sword Saint. Iskar, the former Monarch of Blood, looked at Miyamoto and spoke. “He left? I should have figured after that servant woman decided to end herself.”
Miyamoto nodded. He took out a token and crushed it as he waited for Ms. Wells to contact him. He reckoned by the time he did so, Ell’Hakan would already be far gone from Earth.
Perhaps for the better. Because Ell’Hakan was not the only one who had made major miscalculations.
Jake was about to leave towards where he had seen the nahoom as he remembered something even more important.
“Wait, where is the loot?” Jake asked the King.
The King just looked at Jake. “It is mine. I can make far better use of it, and this entire scenario only took place because of you. Killing the Ashen Phantom Devourer means a victory for you against an enemy Chosen, while it does little for me. Therefore, is it not only reasonable that I, at the very least, get the tangible bounty?”
“You could have just said you ninja-looted it. No reason to try and justify yourself. This is why I don’t do group hunting, by the way,” Jake said with quite a bit of snark as he unfolded his wings and took to the sky towards where he had seen the little observer.
He was still waiting for word from the Sword Saint on how his confrontation with Ell’Hakan had gone. Jake was not afraid of the old man dying in the slightest, but there was the risk of him overextending himself using his Transcendence. Ell’Hakan dying was not even a potential outcome in his mind.
Flying over, Jake detected a presence there. One far more powerful than what he would expect of some nahoom scout or observer. One that also felt oddly familiar, though he could not place where he had felt it before.
As Jake got closer, he saw a surprising sight. A nahoom was lying on the ground, clearly unconscious, while someone in a suit of armor stood by him. On a second inspection, the suit of armor was more like that of a golem or something with no openings anywhere.
That was when Jake recognized him. More accurately, he recognized the armor. He recognized the feelings of smashing that armor into the ground, bending and tearing it apart as the person inside of it was made into a mushy soup of flesh, blood, and bones. Jake Identified him as he flew closer and landed a dozen or so meters away.
[Human – lvl 199]
He had to dig into his memory a little to recall the name. Thinking about it, this was only their third-ever time meeting, and Jake reckoned it would go the same way as every other encounter. Maybe… because he didn’t feel anything from the other party. Not a single shred of hostility or bloodlust. Due to the armor, Jake could not actually see the person himself, so it was hard to really say anything quite yet.
Hence Jake opened with the most relevant question.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
And a relevant question that was. Because what the hell was he doing there? Why had he knocked out the nahoom? Why had he clearly just been standing back and not trying to interfere with the fight? Based on his track record, trying to strike Jake mid-fight would totally be something he would do, so why hadn’t he?
The young man didn’t answer, making Jake consider if maybe he had read it wrong and he had just left the armor there, but his senses told him that there was a human inside of it. Jake then considered if he should just rip it open and see for himself but the young man finally spoke.
“…confront…” he said in a meek voice that Jake could barely hear even with his Perception. He did pick up that one word, though.
“To confront me?” Jake asked. “Well, what are you waiting for then. I am right here. Shit, shouldn’t I be the one confronting you? Did you just come here to get your skull bashed in again, or what? Make some goddamn sense.”
He did really consider just attacking, but he held himself back. The situation was just too weird. William was strong. A level 199 human, a talented mage based on all Jake had heard, and he had briefly faced Caleb and come out on top. Yet, even so, he had done nothing ever since returning to Earth besides that one time he decided messing with Jake’s family was a good idea. He had missed every single World Congress despite clearly having a Pylon. He hadn’t even taken part in the Treasure Hunt or the Myriad Paths event, which once more made no fucking sense.
Finally, the biggest reason was the psychologist lady that Jake had spoken with at the end of the first World Congress. He still remembered their consersation vividly due to how weird it had been. She had been almost apologetic about what William had done. It was not outright said that he was a changed psycho back then, but it was heavily insinuated he was, at the very least, not as bad as before.
Oh, and the fact that she explicitly stated that William’s experience in the Tutorial had given him PTSD, something Jake honestly had a hard time seeing. To suffer from something like that was far less common due to the system, and it wasn’t like it was just something that naturally happened due to death. Jacob had died once, Bertram had died dozens of times as far as Jake had heard, and even the King had been killed by Jake once.
Moreover, it was the kind of thing that would disappear with time usually. Sure, there could still be remnants, but this felt way too extreme.
Yet, as he saw the mute armor in front of him, it was hard to deny. Also, if he did suffer from PTSD and was afraid of Jake, seeing the fight he just had with the Ashen Phantom Devourer probably hadn’t helped the matter.
“I…” William stammered, making Jake shake his head.
“Take off that damn armor already. It didn’t help you last time, and trust me when I say it won’t this time either.”
To his surprise, the young man obliged. The armor seemed to turn liquid as a young human was revealed, looking very much the same as the first time Jake saw him in the Tutorial. Visually, that is. The aura he gave off was far removed from the one he had back then. Far more muted and meek.
Jake did not talk but just stood there staring at the kid. William didn’t even look up but just stared at the ground. While Jake had deactivated Arcane Awakening and was currently suffering from a period of weakness, he also knew he could activate it right away if need be.
Not that he thought he needed to. William was about as scary as a wet noodle the way he currently was.
“…orry…” Jake once more heard a meek voice say.
“Do you want me to go closer, or do you want to speak up?” Jake asked.
“Sorry,” the young man repeated, still staring at the ground.
“Sorry is such an easy word, isn’t it?” Jake scoffed. “What are you sorry for? Come on, say it out loud.”
Did Jake know he was being a dick? Yes, yes, he did. Did Jake care that he was being a dick towards William? No, no, he did not.
William had only ever been an annoyance at best to Jake. At worst, he had been the person Jake had perhaps ever hated the most. Yet, as Jake stood before him like this, he just felt weird about it. If someone had asked him earlier that day what Jake would do if he met William, Jake would have first asked who William was again and then proceeded to clarify that he would replay their last meeting by curb-stomping him.
“The Tutorial…” William began. “Your parents… brother… Reika… Sultan… the Church… Ell’Hakan… City Alliance… everything.”
Jake was about to say something after the first three but stopped. Reika, Sultan, Church? Had he even helped Ell’Hakan somehow? Did he work for the United Cities Alliance now? Rather than just get an apology, Jake felt like he got a bunch of questions.
Realizing things were a bit more complicated, Jake wanted to get to the bottom of it. But before all that, one more question still needed to be answered.
“You never properly answered: why are you here? What are you hoping to accomplish?” Jake asked.
William hesitated but finally answered. “I… am stuck.”
“I am going to assume you don’t mean literally stuck as you seem to be able to move perfectly well, so how are you stuck?” Jake asked sarcastically.
“Evolution quest,” William muttered. “Can’t find my Path.”
Jake listened and quickly got it. Considering how much he had talked to the Viper and how much he had heard from lessons and others, he did get the general gist of people being stuck and unable to advance. Having a mental block was a very common obstacle of progress. That William had Jake as a mental block that he needed to overcome was surprising, but it probably shouldn’t be.
“And you hoped that confronting me like this can help with that,” Jake explained for the kid. “Which begs the question, what do you want from me? To see if you could beat me? See if I would kill you? Well, congratulations, you are wrong on all fronts.”
William finally seemed to stir a little as Jake kept going. “Quite frankly, I don’t care about you. The only times your existence has even crossed my mind was when you annoyed me. Today I had to remind myself who you even were. You mean nothing to me and are nothing more than a bad memory at this point. So if you want a clean break or whatever, it is entirely one-sided, as I broke away from you long ago. But now that you have shown up in front of me, you got me curious. Tell me what you have been up to all this time and why the hell you thought it was a good idea to keep fucking with the guy who already killed you once.”
Did Jake know by now that William was scared shitless of him? Well, yeah, of course.
Did he actually care and had a desire to help William overcome this fear?
Fuck no.
He just wanted to know how big of a mess the moron had made.