It was inevitable not all planets would survive this system event, especially not the planets that chose to face the event alone. On Olliandra’s planet, Jake learned that some World Leaders had truly become drunk with their measly power, believing themselves capable of things way outside their capabilities. She had just been lucky that she had only gotten too overconfident after also deciding to join the alliance.
The planet that had fallen was one that wasn’t part of the alliance, so it wasn’t even as if anyone could have saved it, even if they wanted it.
One of the first things Jake checked was the information provided by the system that gave a general overview of the planet. What he saw wasn’t very positive. According to the report, the number of enlightened people still alive was a bit less than a million. A meager number for an entire planet.
Next up, he checked something else: the possibility of teleporting there. However, as they had not been part of the alliance, they had never received or created the teleportation circle provided to those part of the alliance. They naturally also hadn’t claimed the Prima Vessel either, meaning there was no easy way to get there… at least not without the teleporter Arnold was working on.
Jake also considered for a moment what would happen on the gray-flag planet now. The Prima Guardian would have gained its second key and gone to claim the Planetary Pylon, and once that was done… Jake wasn’t entirely certain what would happen next.
If the Prima Guardian was like the two other ones he had seen, it would die by itself after some time due to the instability of its soul. When that happened, the planet would be left in the hands of the Primas. It was also a good question if they would remain Primas after the event ended. Perhaps they just wouldn’t be able to have offspring that was also considered Primas, meaning the variant would die with them, and in only a single generation, the planet would be dominated solely by beasts and monsters, many of which had Prima parents.
With the Prima Guardian claiming the Planetary Pylon, the Pylon would also be transformed back into simply being a Planetary Core. For the planet itself, this wouldn’t matter, all it did was reduce the value of the planet for any enlightened who wished to claim it. If this reversal to a normal Planetary Core happened after the Prima Guardian died, Jake wasn’t sure.
All he knew was that monsters couldn’t claim and control Planetary Pylons. At least not usually. It required a certain level of nobility title to do so, and since monsters couldn’t get nobility titles, they couldn’t claim it. Well, the King was an outlier, but he was also literally a Unique Lifeform, so him having unique circumstances shouldn’t come as a surprise.
This isn’t to say that claiming a Planetary Core wasn’t valuable to a monster. One could just look at the Ghostvine on the moon that had claimed the moon’s core that wasn’t even a real Planetary Core. The core was a wellspring of pretty much infinite energy and a top-tier natural treasure for any monster that claimed it and slowly absorbed its energies to grow. The only downside of a Planetary Core was that it was really hard to move around, and moving it would often end up ruining it.
While thinking, Jake even began to theorize part of the reason these Prima Guardians were even a thing was to make sure the Planetary Pylons were turned into Planetary Cores should the planet lose during the system event. However, even if the Pylon was turned into a core, that didn’t mean all enlightened died, right? Let’s hope the remaining survivors can survive till the planet potentially opens up or until Arnold finds success… maybe the regular Primas aren’t as aggressive toward people after the Planetary Pylon has been claimed… for their sake, I hope that’s the case, Jake thought, though he knew it was very hopeful thinking.
This was the risk one faced if they chose to take on the Prima Guardian alone. It was scary to consider that the choices of one incompetent World Leader could doom an entire civilization in such a direct way, and Jake was happy he had chosen to divvy out any such responsibilities and decision-making. Oh, and that when he did make unilateral decisions, he was at least strong enough to back up his own choices.
Then again… perhaps that is also what the now-dead World Leader of the fallen planet had believed.
Shaking his head, Jake focused on helping out where he could actually do something. He began quickly checking out planets to apply to, and shortly after, he found one that seemed worth visiting. Having actually read the descriptions, this one mentioned the World Leader’s intentions to face the Prima Guardian as soon as they believed they had gathered a powerful enough force, and they were recruiting anyone willing to join them from the galaxy. No mentions of Ell’Hakan anywhere, either.
In fact, it mentioned that it was open for debate for people to be able to stay after the event, with even offers of high-ranking positions up for grabs. All of this seemed great, and the planet seemed interesting, but one thing caught his attention more than anything else… the population.
A hundred and seventy-two billion people.
That was more than twenty times the people Earth had before the integration, with that number lower now due to the many deaths. Sure, in the future, Jake didn’t doubt their population would balloon, especially with how big Earth was now, but for a planet to have this extreme population numbers now must have meant they had a huge population before the system.
He did question why they didn’t believe they had a big enough force to face the Prima Guardian with that many to choose from, but he would probably learn why shortly if they accepted him.
Applying to the planet, Jake waited for a few minutes with nothing happening. Sighing, he began to look for other places to go instead, but just then, a notification appeared, informing him his application had been accepted. He had been a bit worried his title as World Leader would prove a problem, but luckily that wasn’t the case.
In fact, maybe it even proved to be a boon.
Using the teleporter, Jake was whisked through space across the galaxy for the third time that day. Luckily, the teleportation was always instant, as his vision only turned black for less than a second before he found himself standing on top of a large teleportation circle. Through a Pulse he immediatly released upon arrival, he saw he was within a large dome of metal, not unlike the one Arnold had made. This dome was placed in the middle of nowhere, as only pure wasteland could be seen all around.
The teleporter itself was in a room in the center of the dome. Jake also quickly noticed that this wasn’t the only one. Several teleportation circles were placed on different floors on top of one another, seemingly all linked together somehow. As he arrived, he saw three people walking toward him. All of them were elves, wearing similar white and gray robes, with the woman in the middle having a slightly more elaborate robe with two men at her side wearing simpler ones. Yep, definitely a clear sign the woman was of higher rank than the two dudes.
”Greetings, hunter. Or should I say, World Leader,” the woman said with a smile as she approached. Her way of greeting made it clear she had fuck-all idea who Jake was besides the information he’d given.
”Greetings,” Jake responded with a nod. ”I believe my application made my purpose for coming clear?”
He had added a little extra in there besides what Miranda had given him.
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”You wish to join the team that will take on the Prima Guardian. However, before that, allow me to invite you to the Council Estate, where you can receive the proper welcome of a World Leader,” the woman said. ”Do not worry. The team for the Prima Guardian is still being assembled as we are hoping more capable mercenaries will appear.”
”I assume this Council Estate houses the current leadership of this planet?” Jake asked clarifyingly.
”Certainly. Rather than rely on the judgment of a single World Leader, we have chosen to adopt a council to make more informed decisions in unison and to ensure the unity of every country,” the woman answered. ”I am sure the council will be more than happy to explain further once you arrive.”
”Not that dissimilar to my world, then. We also have a council of representatives,” Jake said, getting an approving look from the woman. Jake saw no reason not to at least make himself a bit more relatable by sharing minor details like that.
The three elves proceeded to escort Jake out of the large metal dome that Jake assumed was constructed for safety should a troublemaker arrive. Toward the outer edges of the dome, teleportation circles were set up to take people elsewhere on the planet, one of which they quickly went to and teleported to the capital city.
Now, Jake had wondered why so many planets had been medieval before… it turns out far from all of them were. Perhaps the metal dome should have been a clue, but the moment he appeared in the capital, he was overwhelmed by what he saw. He was also practically blinded.
Massive highrises filled the skyline, and every single building gave off an intense white light as if coming from a far too powerful LED. The entire city was bathed in this white light, making it look even more sterile than it already did, considering every single building was also white, amplifying the light. Everything was just white on white, with the most daring colors off-white or gray here and there. Oh, and they really loved reflective surfaces.
”Interesting architectural choices,” Jake commented as he was led unto a floating disc that would transport them to the Council Estate. Naturally, the disc was also glowing.
”Others have made similar comments,” the elven woman responded. ”We simply choose to embrace the light. There are many cultural, historical and religious reasons for this I will not bother you with, but our post-system logic is the increased appearance of young ones with the light affinity.”
”I see,” Jake nodded. That… kind of made sense. Exposing people a lot to one affinity could lead to it appearing in them, especially children. So, living in an environment filled with intense light energy would help if that was something they wanted. As for Jake, who decidedly did not have the light affinity, it was just annoying. Luckily, his high Perception allowed him to easily filter out the light enough to still see without any problems.
After flying through the high-tech planet for a while, they arrived at a massive building with several glowing spires on top of it. It was naturally the Council Estate, and Jake was led inside to meet with the council. On the way through the city, he saw millions of elves, all wearing similar clothes, and he really wanted to question what kind of society they were building but began to feel like there were a lot of… cultural issues that could pop up if he asked too many questions.
Better to just focus on the Prima Guardian. If Miranda then decided establishing positive relations with this planet was worth it afterward, so be it.
Inside the Council Estate building, Jake finally saw people who clearly weren’t from the planet. The building was large enough to have several wings, and within one of these wings, he saw about fifty people, all within different private rooms. Some of them were together in small groups, while others were alone, and all wore various equipment and were of multiple races. It was definitely the other mercenaries the planet had recruited so far to fight the Prima Guardian.
”How many mercenaries have you recruited so far?” Jake asked while they walked.
”A few hundred, with most of them out there fighting the Primas along with the armies,” the elf responded.
Jake nodded as they continued to walk in silence until they reached a large semi-circular meeting room. Within, Jake saw quite a few people already gathered, while he saw magical constructs occupying other spots. Clearly, they were waiting for his arrival, and the escorting elf motioned for Jake to enter, which he promptly did.
The room’s design was pretty interesting in that it didn’t use height to place the council members higher up than anyone visiting – a very popular design choice that even the system used during the World Congress.
Inside, Jake found himself standing before twenty-nine elves who were there in person and exactly fifty who were there only as projections, likely because they were busy elsewhere. Again, that made sense, seeing as they had a Prima invasion to deal with.
”Greetings, World Leader,” one of the elves who were there in person said. ”I am the representative of sector nineteen and shall serve as the speaker of the council for this meeting. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
”I go by Thayne; it’s a pleasure to meet you all, too,” Jake nodded in greeting as he quickly did a scan of the room and noticed something a bit odd. While he couldn’t see the levels of the projected elves, he did see the ones of the elves present, and they were all surprisingly low. Not a single one of them was even above level 230.
Perhaps this was also why no one reacted when Jake introduced himself. He had very much expected at least one of them to recognize who he was, but nope.
”This may seem a bit direct, but may I ask why another World Leader has chosen to volunteer himself to help another planet fight their Prima Guardian? Much less why he has decided to do so on his lonesome?” the representative asked Jake.
Honestly, that was a pretty legit question, as it definitely was weird for a World Leader to act like Jake did. As for how he would answer, he saw no reason to lie.
”I have already led the forces of my planet to slay the Prima Guardian and all other Primas and now seek to hunt down more Prima Guardians as per the event to increase my own reward,” Jake answered, finally getting an emotional reaction from the people there as a lot of their facial expressions warped for a moment. Some with shock, others with disbelief, and quite a few with suspicion. Again, pretty fair. So was the next question.
”Truly?” the representative asked. ”To have completed the event already on your planet is truly impressive. If almost a little unbelievable.”
Jake just looked up at the council member, not answering, prompting them to continue.
”How are you affiliated with the one who calls himself the Celestial Child?” the speaker questioned, and from the tone, Jake instantly infered these people were definitely not allied with him.
”I’m not,” Jake simply answered. ”I would also like to turn that question back on you. How is this planet related to him?”
”He attempted to have us join his course, but by the guidance of the Great Bright One, we chose to reject such propositions,” the council member and speaker answered with a bit of disdain in their voice.
Jake wanted to ask about this Great Bright One right away but chose not to do so immediately. Instead, he nodded and asked some more general questions about how the efforts against the Primas were going and about the planet in general.
What he did do was use Identify a few more times. Usually, Jake didn’t look for Blessings, as the more he tried to see with Identify, the more likely its usage was to be detected. However, this time, he made an exception and…
[Elf – lvl 214 – Minor Blessing of the Great Bright One]
[Elf – lvl 219 – Minor Blessing of the Great Bright One]
[Elf – lvl 217 – Minor Blessing of the Great Bright One]
[Elf – lvl 215 – Minor Blessing of the Great Bright One]
Clearly, a god had a great hold on this planet. But, again, Jake chose to not pry too much. Who their Patron was shouldn’t matter too much if all he wanted to do was kill the Prima Guardian.
After Jake spoke with the council a bit longer, they seemed satisfied enough, as the speaker smiled.
”If you are truly as capable as you claim, would you be willing to prove it to us? Before we take the massive risk of activating the Prima Guardian, we will need some kind of assurance,” the elf asked.
Jake nodded, seeing no reason not to reject this. ”Very well.”
”Great,” the representative smiled. ”The attendant waiting outside can take you to one of our battlefields where you can prove your prowess. If the general approves, we can proceed to engage the Prima Guardian afterward.”
”Sounds good,” Jake said, relieved that the process of convincing them seemed quite simple.
”Irrelevant to your performance, we also see opportunities for diplomatic relations with your homeworld and would love to send a delegation once things are concluded here,” the speaker continued. Jake nodded once more, feeling pretty good about how things were going. He had even managed to do some good politicking.
”I’m certain we can figure something out,” Jake responded, as he asked something he could perhaps come to regret. ”Now, if I may… could you tell me a bit about the Great Bright One you mentioned?”
”Hm? This is surprising; I would have thought you had heard the divine one, seeing as you are not related to the heretic who calls himself the Celestial Child,” the speaker responded in a casual tone, still not hiding their disdain for Ell’Hakan. ”But allow me to enlighten you about the Great Bright One, the Creator of Light and Life and maker of the system itself.”
Oh… oh, great.
Yep, this pretty much confirmed it. Jake was dealing with a delusional cult.