A relatively simple system event about killing a big boss had become a lot more complicated because Ell’Hakan was an asshole who just had to try and ruin a good thing.
However, ultimately, the goal of this event hadn’t changed, and Jake wouldn’t act any differently than he had already planned. The goal was still to kill Earth’s Prima Guardian as quickly as possible, and then once their planet was safely secured, make contact with this Prima Guardian Alliance and offer them assistance. True, while there may now be extra benefits, Jake still wanted to do it because he wanted to fight more bosses.
Less than a day after William’s visit, it had been time to set off from Haven toward where Jacob augured the Prima Guardian would arrive. The Sandy Express was already waiting and ready to go as everyone arrived. It wasn’t just the strike team that would go with Sandy, but a few hundred people, as it also included many of the elites from Earth who would secure the perimeter. Many of these elites had traveled to Haven specifically to ride the Sandy Express rather than take the still-in-progress Teleportation Tram. The amenities within the giant space worm were also just far better.
Jake did smile at how quite a few were apprehensive about allowing a giant worm blessed by someone called the Boundless Hydra to effectively consume them. They did change their minds quickly once they were inside, though.
While recovering back at the Order, Sandy had some help to rebuild many of their stomachs, and knowing about the upcoming Prima Guardian event ensured that there were good living areas in one of the larger stomachs. Jake truly had no idea how big Sandy’s internal world was by now, but making several massive halls filled with tables, a bar, private rooms with beds, and several forms of entertainment clearly wasn’t a problem.
The strike team, as Jake kept calling the people who would fight the Prima Guardian, had their own private hall, where they all gathered. It was all the people Jake had expected to see, and it was also good to reunite with three out of his Nevemore party members.
Carmen, Eron, Caleb, the Sword Saint, Fallen King, Sylphie, Casper, Maria, Vesperia, and Arnold were naturally part of this strike team, the members being entirely the expected ones. Alright, maybe Arnold was a bit of a surprise, as Jake could totally have seen the guy choosing to stay at home to control everything behind a screen, but he had wanted to go in person. Even if he could exert the majority of his power from afar, it was probably still best for him to be as close as possible.
Someone who did choose to stay on the backlines was Miranda. She could have been part of the strike team if she wanted, especially with some setup time, but she would rather set up a domain a bit away to ensure no regular Primas could get past and run rampant. Which was totally fair, and in truth, Jake wasn’t even sure how much she could have helped.
To note, most of the large factions had already gone to where the Prima Guardian would arrive a good while ago to set up with large groups. More accurately, they had set up a good distance away and spread out to try and cover so no monsters could sneak by and cause trouble.
During the travel, the thing with William and Ell’Hakan was naturally something Jake shared with the others of the strike team, though Jake did leave out some details, such as everything about this mysterious third party hiring the metal mage to go. Partly because it was a legitimate possibility that one of the factions these people belonged to had been responsible.Jake wasn’t saying any of them were trying to fool Jake, as he knew that many divine factions very much acted on a need-to-know basis, making it entirely possible Valhal, the Risen, Dao Sect, or any other faction was involved without the person belonging to that faction knowing about it.
Still, despite Jake’s suspicion that someone’s faction could get involved, that didn’t make him hold back from having a good time while he chilled with everyone, as they quickly realized that all that stuff about strategizing wouldn’t take days… not even an hour.
It could quite easily be summarized, as the Sword Saint put it:
“Without knowing exactly how we can or want to optimally engage the Prima Guardian, nor if there will be some change to the environment or we will have to face it inside of this meteorite it will allegedly arrive in, making any concrete plans make little sense. I also believe we all know how to handle ourselves and not get in the way of others, and through the Golden Marks of the Fallen King, we should be able to quickly communicate and adapt. Nevertheless, I believe the best strategy – assuming the Prima Guardian isn’t far stronger than we believe - is that we hold nothing back but strike with the best we have right away once everyone is ready. Oh, and let’s have Jake have the first attack. This Prima Guardian will definitely be peak C-grade or at least very close, making him the one with the most powerful opening attack,” the old man said.
No one disagreed with that assessment, and besides such a basic plan, everyone would just have to act according to their roles and play to their strengths. Carmen would try and draw attention, being the most durable of them all, while Eron would act as their only dedicated healer while naturally also being virtually invincible. Everyone else also had their own fighting styles, and honestly…
The team that would take on the Prima Guardian was just insane. They had all the same people who did the Monarch of Blood way back in the day, with the addition of Arnold, Fallen King, Sylphie – as she wasn’t strong enough then – and Vesperia. All of them were peak figures who could easily have been the supremely strongest of their own planets if they were elsewhere.
No… they could have been the strongest of their entire galaxies.
With all the super-serious strategy stuff over, they just all chilled and talked, and one of the centers of attention was definitely the complete “newcomer” to their group, who only Jake really knew: Vesperia.
Jake couldn’t fault their curiosity… and he also got telepathic heads-ups from half the group that their factions had told them to try and get closer to the True Royal. Jake wanted to warn Vesperia that this was the case, but honestly, she definitely already knew and had it handled as she spoke politely while making sure never to reveal anything that wasn’t pertinent to the upcoming Prima Guardian fight.
Vesperia, being such a center of attention, naturally also spilled over to other people showing interest in Jake… with two of them being a bit harder to deal with than the others.
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“You really are just out there popping out kids like a stupid couple trying to save their failing marriage,” Carmen commented as she looked at Vesperia, expertly dealing with Casper, who was definitely trying to pry some confidential information out as a representative of the Risen.
“He sure is living the single-father life,” Caleb said in complete agreement with a big grin on his face. “You know, he hasn’t even brought back the True Royal and giant cosmic space worm to meet their grandparents yet?”
“Maybe he’s just trying to prove he can make it without familial support?” Carmen said. “The mothers also seem out of the picture, huh?”
“I would have you know Mystie is still very much around,” Jake commented.
“Oh yeah, wasn’t she already with a partner when you got involved? Are you an adulterer?” Caleb said in a fake disappointed voice.
“I’m the uncle,” Jake argued. “Godfather and good friend of the family at most.”
“How about the two other mothers?” Carmen looked at Jake with a raised eyebrow as she leaned over to Caleb and whispered: “He’s probably saying they came from eggs or something like an excuse.”
“Only one of them came from an egg,” Jake sighed. “Sandy was already a whole worm before I came around, so you can’t tease me about being the dad there.”
Caleb looked at Jake with a serious expression. “Adopting does make them your child and you as morally and legally responsible as if they are biologically yours.”
“Yeah, Jake, don’t turn into a deadbeat,” Carmen grinned.
“This conversation is making me want to beat something to death,” Jake muttered.
“Hey, if you want any more kids, I’m sure Gwyndyr would more than happily have you visit,” Maria said, having walked over. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you would have a hard time finding any factions who aren’t interested in inviting the Harbinger of Primeval Origins… cool title, by the way.”
“Yeah, where does that even come from?” Carmen questioned. “I had people in Nevermore City refer to you with the same title. Like, I get what it means, but how come everyone agreed on this title?”
“Based on what the Malefic Viper said, it’s something to do with Records or something,” Jake shook his head. “Quite a few gods can apparently glean Records of the multiverse with the system giving stuff names they adopt and use. It kind of makes sense when you consider that I was offered a pretty damn good profession called Harbinger of Primeval Origins.”
“When you say offered, do you mean you didn’t pick it?” Caleb raised an eyebrow.
“I had one I wanted more,” Jake just shrugged. Yeah, he really shouldn’t ever mention the name of his actual profession, and he was very happy no one seemed to realize what it was either. Perhaps gods simply couldn’t detect he was also a heretic, as part of being a heretic was innate resistance to gods detecting you.
“Fair enough,” his brother didn’t try to pry further. “Also, it’s pretty funny seeing you share your intent to screw over Ell’Hakan and help other planets, as I was also informed by the higher-ups that they want us to assist a few planets from that Prima Guardian Alliance thing. We aren’t the only branch of the Court of Shadows in our Milky Way, and as the only Judge, I am viewed as responsible for them.”
“Valhal is a bit the same,” Carmen commented. “In the sense we have a presence on two more planets in the Milky Way, that is. Both of them are going to face their Prima Guardian alone without all that alliance bullshit, though.”
“That’s what I would expect of Valhal, but do remember that the Court is not a crazy war cult but a murderous assassination cult,” Maria said with a smile. “I don’t have any special orders from Gwyndyr or my crazy flame-obsessed mercenary cult, so I guess I’ll just go wherever. Actually, probably just gonna do what Miranda asks of me.”
The three of them continued talking a bit before more people joined them to discuss the plans for this whole Alliance business, helped along by Vesperia walking over.
“If I may,” Vesperia said, looking at Jake. “If this Ell’Hakan has already managed to claim another planet before we have a chance to step in, what are our plans?”
“First of all, I think getting access to a planet at all will require the permission of the World Leader. That would just make sense. So, chances are we wouldn’t even be able to help, at least not for now, if they don’t allow us to travel there,” Jake said. “Secondly, I’m not sure how I feel about you taking over an entire planet filled with enlightened species.”
Vesperia smiled. “Sire read my intentions that easily?”
“It makes sense,” Jake shrugged. If there was a planet that was relatively weak, he understood why Vesperia would consider taking it over. She wanted somewhere to start a new hive, and she couldn’t place a proper one on Earth. Such hives tended to monopolize all the resources on a planet if allowed to grow freely, and Vesperia wanted somewhere she could have a Hive Queen go full throttle without clashing with Jake or people he knew.
“So, what if a planet that we have both access to and has the right circumstances?” Vesperia followed up.
“I’m not going to tell you what you can and can’t do if it doesn’t involve me,” Jake just said.
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew Vesperia would one day take over a whole bunch of planets as she grew. It was simply her Path to expand and, in many ways, also her responsibility. She hadn’t stated it outright, but Jake knew she felt like she had to create a strong foothold in the ninety-third universe for the Endless Empire.
As the only True Royal capable of being there, she was indisputably the highest-ranked ectognamorph of the entire universe. Jake could understand why she felt a need to do well, and part of doing well meant taking over a few planets plentiful with resources. These planets tended to naturally also have other life, enlightened races included, and their fates wouldn’t be pleasant, as they were viewed as nothing more but a vector of growth.
Either way, Vesperia seemed happy enough with his answer, as they gladly changed the subject that no one within the giant space worm seemed particularly comfortable with. Besides the Fallen King, that is. The Unique Lifeform honestly wasn’t really engaging with a lot of people and only talking with the Sword Saint and Sylphie.
He did speak up a bit when he infused them all with Golden Marks to allow communication and location-tracking on all of them. It was really handy soul magic, for sure.
Like this, the hours of travel quickly passed within the giant space worm, and soon enough, they reached their destination.
“Alright, we’ve reached our final stop, everyone out! Sandy’s voice echoed as, all at once, they were forcibly expelled from within the worm’s stomach. “Sorry, wanted to be nicer about it, but this place feels super weird and wrong and I want out of here sooner rather than later.”
Jake, who had landed on the sand dunes, looked at the worm with understanding. “Yeah… I also feel something. This is definitely the right spot. Do get out of here; we don’t wanna risk the Prima Guardian doing some weird shit to you.”
“No need to tell me twice!” Sandy said as the worm shimmered and flew away at breakneck speed.
“Do you think the worm will go too far away?” Carmen asked. “Kind of assumed that was also our ride home.”
“Eh, one thing at a time; let’s kill the boss before considering our transportation home,” Jake shook his head.
Not far away from them, Jake also spotted Jacob and Bertram standing there. He and the rest of the strike team wanted over, as all the others who had arrived alongside them spread out to do their own pre-planned tasks.
“Soon,” Jacob said when Jake got close. “It’ll be right around there.”
Jacob pointed to an inconspicuous area, but Jake didn’t doubt his words. And not just because he was an Augur, but because of what Jake both saw and felt himself. A Pulse of Perception also confirmed the area was odd.
He barely spotted any life anywhere. Outside of the many humans and other races who had arrived, that is. All the wildlife had abandoned the area, even those very deep underground. Jake also didn’t believe this was simply due to the many humans in the area.
Minutes ticked by, as the time grew ever-nearer, until finally… a system notification.
Time grows near, and the Prima Guardian shall arrive on Earth within 1 hour (59:59). All denizens of Earth innately feel where this danger shall appear from.
And just as the system said, they all knew where the boss would touch down, and yep.
It was right in front of them.