Jake still had a lot of questions regarding the Viper’s plan, and even if the snake god didn’t want to share the ending, there were plenty of potential problems in the middle of this act. Primarily was what would happen to everyone else around Jake.
It wasn’t hard for Jake to lean into the plan alone, but if he did, others were bound to get involved. Miranda was blessed by the Witches of the Verdant Lagoon and has shown no indications of being a heretic herself, so she obviously wouldn’t continue to back Jake if he betrayed the Viper, right?
Also, what about all the other people who were backing Jake precisely because he had the backing of the Viper? What about the galactic conflict that was going on? Was the plan to just flop over and let Ell’Hakan win? Because while he did feel like he owed the Viper a favor, he wasn’t willing to do something like that, which would end up hurting those close to him.
So, naturally, he asked the Primordial, who shared his thoughts:
”You are correct; that is a conundrum. You also need to consider all the people who came to Earth because you are my Chosen. For you to – at least in their minds – suddenly turn your back on your Patron can’t be a good look and will cause a lot of internal discord. But I have considered it, which is where I’ll have to ask you something that is a bit of a gamble, but the best solution in my mind: tell them the truth. At least a version of the truth.”
Jake was back to frowning. ”Elaborate.”
”Inform them everything you’re doing is part of the Malefic Viper’s schemes and that you are working together to deceive Ell’Hakan, Yip of Yore, and Valhal. At the same time, tell the opposite to Valhal and Ell’Hakan. However, and this is the important part, only show evidence of your claim to one side. Ell’Hakan and his people will be cautious, but the moment you turn on your aura of a heretic all such doubt should instantly vanish. From there, just stay away from your allies. Ell’Hakan will no doubt spread the word you have turned full heretic, but with information and travel still restricted for the most part, everything will be over by the time those on Earth can be convinced you turned heretic,” the Viper continued, as things were definitely getting complicated again with this plan.
”Alright… alright, I think we can do that,” Jake said after thinking a bit. ”I just want to make sure I don’t cause too much trouble or confusion during this time.”
”Believe in the people you have around you. You’ve assembled a good team of supporters, and if nothing else, the swordsman, witch, and others can handle matters for you. You also have a True Royal on your side; remember that. As long as she stays on Earth, no one dares try anything there. People are already making a lot of enemies in these times, no need to piss off the Endless Empire on top of everything else,” the Viper semi-joked.
”Speaking of huge factions… what the fuck are we doing about the Holy Church?” Jake asked, bringing up another thing he had been worried about. ”I assume all the other factions, such as the Court of Shadows, will sit on the sidelines and not get involved, but the Church is very obviously making their move. As things are, I can’t reasonable not do something to defend the allies I made to face Ell’Hakan and the Church… will me defending them be a problem?” ”Firstly, the neutral factions shall remain neutral, so don’t worry about them. As for the Holy Church, they are kind of a package deal with Ell’Hakan in this, so if you want to stop the attacks of one, you have to stop both, and at the same time, if you stop one, the other should follow suit. However, rather than fight, have you considered going the route of diplomacy?”
”Not sure they are interested in peace with Earth,” Jake muttered, taking into consideration all they had been doing over the last day or so to destabilize the Milky Way Galaxy and gain ground. What they were doing right now was the opposite of diplomacy.
”With Earth? Probably not. So don’t negotiate as Earth. Remember what the plan is, you’re about to abandon the Order of the Malefic Viper and join Valhal. It isn’t premature to leverage them a bit, now is it? With Valhal at your side, force through a truce where each party keeps their territories for now, both sides backing off until the conflict between Yip of Yore and I is resolved. Ell’Hakan certainly has faith in his Patron’s victory, so this will only benefit him as he will only grow stronger during this process. Plus, it will only make him look good that he successfully helped bring you to the side of Valhal; at least, I’m sure he will take partial credit. Meanwhile the Holy Church is certain to also want this truce. This will only put a pause on the war, sure, but if all things go well, you will get your chance to end it instantly once I’ve had my fill of Yip of Yore. At that point, you should also be able to limit losses as the enemy won’t be in a good state.”
”Minor problem there. Are you sure the people from Valhal will just be fine with all this? Sounds like I’m actually screwing them over quite a bit, using them to pressure the Holy Church when it’s all based on a lie. Could cause them some trouble, couldn’t it?” Jake questioned.
”Nah, it’s fine, don’t think too much about it. The Holy Church wants a truce and to limit fighting right now. They’ll be on board and even push for it if you propose it first, trust me. You also shouldn’t concern yourself about anything with Valhal. They won’t complain either,” the Viper said with a lot of confidence.
Jake couldn’t help but ask when he heard how sure the Viper was: ”Say… I get that Valhal is kind of in on the plan to some extent, but do you also have the Holy Church in-the-know or what? Because they sure aren’t acting like they are.”
”No, they are not. But they are led by the Holy Mother, a fellow Primordial I have known for way too long. I know how they operate. They definitely have their own reasons for taking part in this conflict, and it shouldn’t be anything that negatively interferes with this little scheme,” Villy said, remaining as confident as before.
A few more seconds passed as Jake was thinking, looking for more questions and concerns he may have. One did spring to mind:
”What do you expect me to tell the others here on Earth? Not the random World Leaders and the people in the alliance, but people like the Sword Saint, Carmen, Sylphie, Miranda, and so on. They’re going to be confused as fuck even if I do tell them the truth, especially if they know I had the aura of a heretic. I haven’t exactly shared that I’m a Heretic-Chosen with anyone,” Jake said, not a fan of that part of this entire thing. The only people he wasn’t really worried about were his parents as they quite frankly didn’t care about all this and were more considered part of the Court than Jake’s faction, so they shouldn’t be a problem. But the others could prove problematic.
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”Honestly? I’ll leave that to you. All I will ask is to not make them get directly involved with anything like the negotations. Keep them on Earth. Maybe even use that as a bargaining chip during negotiations. Promise to have all your strongest assets remain on Earth until the matter is concluded. As for your concerns of them looking at you weirdly after all this is done… well, pretty sure they already look at you like the little freak you are, but I already planned on informing everyone I was behind you faking to be a heretic. It really shouldn’t be a problem if your friends don’t bring on the trouble,” Villy explained.
”I can’t make any promises that they don’t have their own intentions,” Jake muttered. ”And I’m not going to put myself in a situation where I might end up fighting friends to sell a lie.”
”If all things go well, you won’t have to fight anyone besides Ell’Hakan, and even that will be entirely your prerogative,” the Viper assured Jake. ”I’m sure that if you’ve built any rapport, they will trust you over the rumors that are spreading. Finally, many of them are blessed by Primordials, and they really should be considered neutral parties and not part of your faction in the first place. You seemingly joining hands with Valhal shouldn’t really change their relationship with you, either. They are your comrades because you are fellow Earthlings or have some other personal bond, not because you are the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. Nothing in my plan requires you to insinuate you will give up control of Earth. In fact, it can even be sold that you are forging a stronger alliance through Valhal than you had with the Order if they have their own smaller factions to convince. Either way, as I said, trust them to handle things on their end as long as you inform them of the basics of the plan. I’m not claiming everything will end perfectly, but I do believe the end result will be satisfactory.”
”Right,” Jake nodded slowly. ”Not gonna lie, all of this is still kind of vague, and there are a lot of elements I’m not clear on if will work out, so let’s try to be a bit more tangible. What exactly do you want me to do once I leave here?”
”Talk to those you fully trust and no one else. I’ll leave who you inform to your discretion. Follow their advice to carry out the plan, and have them handle most things here on Earth. But before that, spend the next day or so with the Runemaiden, preferably away from everyone else and without them knowing what you’re up to, while, of course, making sure Ell’Hakan’s spies know where you are. After that, go out alone and make the announcement you are acting like you ally with Valhal to get one over Yip of Yore to the people on Earth. Shortly after, leave the planet to the one Valhal currently controls. The Runemaiden will know which one. Once there, simply follow the plan and act like you are done with my shit and want to jump ship. The Runemaiden is the person with the highest level of authority in your galaxy, so with her, there should be no pushback in getting what you want, and it’s not like anyone would question the guy that Valdemar tried to personally recruit at Nevermore. Especially not after you showed off that you have taken inspiration from his Path as a fighter. With them, negotiate peace, and from there, the initial time pressure should be eliminated, and things calm down until they escalate on my end,” Villy said, really laying it out in an easy-to-understand fashion. 𝙍
Jake leaned his head back, looking toward the ceiling of the room he had isolated himself in as he considered everything. In truth, Jake kind of wanted to just reject all this, go to Arnold, and ask him to teleport himself and anyone who wants to join him straight to Ell’Hakan’s homeworld to try and kill the Chosen.
However, he knew he couldn’t fuck up the Viper’s plans and be selfish. Also, he didn’t even know if his ambush would work. Shit, he didn’t even know if Ell’Hakan was on his homeworld in the first place. So, rather than voice these thoughts, he wondered out loud when he could finally make his own move and end all this. ”How long do you reckon this will all take?”
”Now, that is a question I cannot confidently give an answer to. Ultimately, it isn’t my decision when Yip of Yore decides it’s time to directly attack me, but I believe your actions can speed it up. Also, I have a hard time imagining he will not take advantage the second you seemingly turn into a full heretic, and it will definitely happen before your universe fully opens up once more, as when that happens, the ninety-third universe will once more attract a lot of attention that he is right now very much enjoying. But be aware it will be a while. He is still building momentum with the war against the Order, and he is slowly encircling us and building his base of allies. Gods haven’t even gotten involved yet, but when they do, you know we are truly in the endgame,” the Viper responded. ”But, if you need me to guess on a timeline… things should be over within the next few months. I can’t see it go above half a year.”
”I honestly imagined it would take away fucking longer,” Jake frowned. ”Don’t wars between huge divine factions and gods usually last a long-ass time?”
”They do, but Yip of Yore is not looking to have an actual war but a display of power. Plus, think of the audience. Won’t they get bored if things drag out too much and there isn’t enough action? You can only drag out narrative escalation for so long before people just get tired of it and just want to see the resolution already. We aren’t quite there yet, and Yip of Yore still has more attention to grap and power to gather, but his momentum is rapidly approaching the crescendo.”
”So, to summarize all this shit… I will make people on Earth think I’m going along with your plans while convincing Ell’Hakan and his goons of the opposite, travel with Carmen to the neutral Valhal planet, and use Valhal as a way to establish a temporary truce, showing me and Ell’Hakan are negotiating in good faith. Then, I will stay there for a while while shit escalates on your end until I will unleash my heretic aura, dealing you another blow and hopefully starting the final confrontation. Assuming you handle things on your end, Ell’Hakan will more likely than not find himself scrambling, his alliance crumbling, and I will take this opportunity to isolate and kill him before he has a chance to muster a proper response. I got all this right?” Jake asked, trying to catch the essence of the plan, ignoring all the minor details and adding on a bit of personal interpretation at the end, as there was no way this was gonna end without Jake taking his shot at Ell’Hakan.
“Yeah, that seems to sum it up pretty nicely,” the Viper agreed.
“You are fully aware something, no, several things in this entire scheme will go horribly wrong, and shit is bound to hit the fan, right?” Jake asked. “Too many damn factors to just expect everything to go according to plan.”
“Nothing ever goes fully according to plan, which is why the best plans are those that aren’t overly strict and can be adapted on-the-fly. Usually, that is. This one is a bit more robust, though, as we don’t truly rely on actually tricking Yip of Yore in every aspect. Even if he was fully aware of this entire conversation, he would still lean into our lie, as it would only benefit him to do so,” Villy said. “Ell’Hakan, maybe not, but I’m sure you can handle that guy while I handle divine business. They have a lot of gaps in knowledge, and the absurdity of your state as a Heretic-Chosen is something no one could have accounted for, so we do have some big advantages.”
“I guess,” Jake shrugged. “As long as you beat Yip of Yore, everything should be fine.”
“Yeah, so let’s hope I didn’t accidentally miscalculate and make him too strong.”
“… I thought you said I shouldn’t worry, and you got him handled?” Jake muttered, concerned.
“You’re the one who brought up nothing ever going according to plan first.”
“Well, yeah, but-“
“So you would have been the one to jinx me and would have to live with the knowledge you were the primary cause of the downfall of a Primordial,” Villy continued, clearly teasing him… though Jake still couldn’t help but be worried.
Yip of Yore was powerful, and now, the Viper was seemingly trying to make him as powerful as he possibly could. Jake wasn’t sure why, even if he had some theories, but no matter, there had to be a reason why Yip had the confidence to go for a Primordial in the first place, right?
Yeah… things should be fine. Jake just had to focus on his own side of things and not worry about the Viper. Not like the things Jake had to do would be easy, and he seriously hoped the others back at the Prima Vessel would be able to help him sell all the bullshit he was about to peddle.