Chapter 1022 - Bargain & Choice

Jake surveyed the core room a while longer to get a proper understanding of the environment. After having done so, he got to work with making a simple set of magic circles to facilitate what was to come.

Now, Jake had long considered how he could fuck with a Planetary Core, and the most obvious answer was the mythical Sin weapon he carried around. Using Eternal Hunger, Jake didn’t doubt he would be able to destroy an entire planet using his current ritual magic skills, but… he wasn’t dealing with a Planetary Core right now.

Cores were unclaimed. Natural. Seeing as they were part of the environment, they didn’t possess any innate will or intent, which made them a lot weaker to outside influence. It was like the difference between a stone wall summoned by a mage to block an attack or a natural wall of stone.

Once the Planetary Core became a Planetary Pylon, its defenses were heightened to an entirely new level. Someone like the Child of Loss wouldn’t be able to do much to a Planetary Pylon as it would passively fight back according to the will of the owner, and that wasn’t a fight any C-grade had a chance of winning.

Jake also knew that Touch of the Malefic Viper wouldn’t be enough. This isn’t to say Jake didn’t have any methods in mind. Given enough time and a complex enough ritual, Jake should be able to slowly influence the Pylon, though, once more, it wouldn’t be any fast endeavor.

Perhaps this was why Ell’Hakan hadn’t bothered much with placing defenses at the Pylon. He didn’t expect anyone to be able to cause it any harm, especially not before he would notice. As the owner, he would naturally be notified the second anyone messed with it, putting into risk any long-term ritual. The only times such rituals were useful tended to be with the World Leader missing or put out of commission, neither of which were true here.

All of this is to say that Jake had planned on just killing Ell’Hakan as his primary goal for a reason. Now, things had changed, and he now had the confidence to take on the Pylon due to a certain new skill.

As a reminder, when Jake reached level 260 in his profession, he got the skill called Chosen’s Offering of the Malefic Viper. A skill he hadn’t touched a single time ever since getting it despite its legendary rarity. The reason for this was because of the other skill he was offered alongside it… one he had now picked after reaching level 290 during his Villy roasting session above Primordial-4.

[Heretic’s Offering of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] – To infringe upon the domain of the Malefic Viper and rob the Primordial’s Records is a great achievement. Allows the alchemist to make an offer to the Malefic Viper and be granted an Offering Fragment. Based on the value of the innate Records in the offering, you will be rewarded with a better Offering Fragment. The Offering Fragment contains Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper and can help empower other sources of Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper. All offerings must surpass a certain threshold to be submittable, and to hide your heretical actions from the Malefic One, there is an internal cooldown of the skill dependent on the value of the Offering Fragment received.

It was a skill practically identical to Chosen’s Offering of the Malefic Viper, except for some changes in wording and whatnot. What the skill would do was effectively allow Jake to offer stuff to Villy and get a catalyst for alchemy in return. At least, that’s how he read it.

Jake had very purposefully not used the Chosen’s Offering skill because he assumed doing so would mean losing the ability to pick the Heretic’s Offering one. Alright, there was a risk he would cut him off from the other skill merely by picking the first one, but things had gone the way he’d hoped.

Especially after he picked the second one… and what he’d hoped for happened. The two legendary skills that were so damn alike they might as well have been one turned out to indeed be part of a greater whole. Well, Jake assumed they were, based on how they’d instantly merged with one another. This merge of skills had given Jake something he wasn’t sure how worked, but it had to be good based on the fact it was mythical. Right?

[Divine Bargain of the Malefic Viper (Mythical)] – In your eyes, to make an offering is an act of subservience you refuse to take part in. No, to you, the Malefic One is an equal you deem yourself worthy of bargaining with. Allows the Heretic-Chosen to initiate a Divine Bargain using an entity he wishes to use for negotiation, forcibly creating an equal exchange between himself and the Malefic Viper. Upon successfully performing a Divine Bargain, the Heretic-Chosen will, by default, receive a Malefic Bargaining Fragment but may be granted other benefits based on the nature of the Divine Bargain. Malefic Bargaining Fragments contains Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper and can help empower other sources of Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper. Under certain conditions, the Malefic One can actively take part in the Divine Bargaining. Laws of equivalent exchange must be upheld to a certain standard. All bargained entities must surpass a certain threshold of Records to be submittable. This skill has an internal cooldown based on the nature of the Divine Bargain performed.

Right off the bat, it was a really long skill description. Jake did like it a lot more than the previous ones, though. Divine Bargain also sounded a lot more appealing than making an offering, as it was something one did between equals. Well, as equal as a god and mortal could become.

As for the skill itself, it was indeed quite complex, but it had the same concept as the offering ones for the most part. It would allow Jake to give Villy stuff, and Villy would give him a Malefic Bargaining Shard back in return, at least most of the time. With this version, he could also get other benefits, it seemed, with neither the system nor the innate knowledge he’d been granted telling him what these other benefits were.

What the innate knowledge did let him know was how to do a Divine Bargain. More accurately, it let him know how many ways there were to do it. It also included what he could offer and do with the skill. The more he studied the innate knowledge, he also realized that the skill had some rather unbalanced features, in his humble opinion, one of which would become clear once he was done setting up his ritual in the core chamber.

He also felt as if his decision not to use the skill had been good based on the first section of the skill. At least, it would have been very weird if it spoke about not agreeing to give offerings if he had actually used the skill to ever give any. Getting stuck with just the Chosen’s Offering skill would have sucked majorly, and more likely than not, even ended up hurting Jake’s Path as a Heretic-Chosen down the line as merely possessing the skill could be viewed as an act of subservience.

Oh, also, small side note… Jake found it really funny that both Chosen’s Offering and Heretic’s Offering had actual explanations for the skill’s cooldown period. Meanwhile, with the Divine Bargain, the system just straight-up told him it had a cooldown, borderline admitting it was entirely system-imposed and nothing else. Then again, based on all his talks with Villy, the system likely had its reasons for placing such a cooldown on a skill, and he should actually be happy he couldn’t use it constantly, as doing so would have fucked him up long-term somehow.

Anyway, there was still a lot to unpack with the skill, and Jake felt like it would need quite a few uses to fully understand it. For now, he had to prepare to initiate his first Divine Bargain, which was why he needed a ritual circle.

Starting a Divine Bargain wasn’t as simple as pointing at something and going: “Villy, I’ve come to bargain!” but you had to actually set up proper conditions. The simplest way of doing this was to set up a ritual circle, but other things like having a permanent altar or something like that would also work, a bit like how Miranda had her permanent ritual site below her office in Haven.

Jake preferred to just go the ritual route, though, primarily because he was actually pretty good at rituals by now. Continuing to work on the ritual circles, he prepared to create a spherical magic circle wrapped around the Planetary Pylon to initiate everything.

Now… before, it was touched upon how a C-grade couldn’t realistically destroy a Pylon. Jake couldn’t destroy one either, but he knew instinctively he could bargain with it. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as just initiating the bargain. No, he also had to claim ownership during the bargaining process.

In other words, the ritual would set into motion Jake laying claim on the Pylon with the intent of offering it to the Malefic Viper. This would put Ell’Hakan on a timer, with Jake getting the Pylon if either too long time passed or, preferably, he killed Ell’Hakan.

As for Ell’Hakan stopping the ritual? Well… it wasn’t really Jake doing the ritual, now was it? No, it was him and the Malefic Viper taking part in the Divine Bargain. So, for Ell’Hakan, his only choice was to either make Jake flee far enough away so that the Divine Bargain would be interrupted – which would require him to force Jake off the planet, seeing as the entire planet was technically what was being bargained – or to kill Jake. Something he assumed Ell’Hakan also viewed as the best option.

Funnily enough, one of the things Jake didn’t really consider was what he could potentially get out of the Divine Bargain in the first place. Neither did he consider that it was pretty crazy for him to offer something that didn’t even belong to him as part of a bargain. What’s more, it was even something that would actively benefit him to get rid of.

Then again… it did take a special kind of mindset and arrogance to believe yourself worthy of dealing with gods as equal to be able to perform something like a Divine Bargain.

One thing that Jake had thought plenty of while ignoring all those other practical things was the facial expression Ell’Hakan would get once he noticed what Jake was up to, and as his preparations were nearing completion, he really couldn’t wait.

--

“Still no signs of him?” Ell’Hakan asked the gathered mages, all of them looking nervous. He already knew the answer to his question, but he still asked.

“None, Celestial One,” the oldest of the mages said with a bow. “We’ve scanned the skies and sent out many scouts, but we fear his stealth skills may be beyond our capabilities.”

“I see,” Ell’Hakan nodded, tapping the armrest of his throne with a finger. This entire scenario was a rather frustrating one. He wanted to just go out there and look himself, but he knew it would be too risky in case the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was just sitting in wait, like a snake hiding in its mound.

Ell’Hakan had also been actively monitoring the entire planet and even what was slightly outside of it for large ripples in space. One of the things he and his mages had discovered was that these forced teleportations to planets were far from subtle and caused quite a detectable ripple in space. Based on readings, only one teleportation had been performed in the immediate surroundings of Ell’Hakan’s homeworld, meaning they were likely only dealing with the hunter.

This monitoring of space wasn’t just to see if he would be getting reinforcements. It was as much to see if the hunter would flee after his initial attack hadn’t found its mark. Ell’Hakan knew he could teleport back to his own Prima Vessel whenever he wanted using the ring part of the system event, but that ring also wasn’t very subtle. Detection magic attuned to the Prima Guardian Alliance teleportation circles would instantly detect if he used it, but so far, nothing.

Which was why Ell’Hakan found himself so frustrated. While he could contribute somewhat, being trapped in his own palace with a war ravaging the Milky Way Galaxy didn’t help at all. He even considered if the hunter was just trying to keep him there to help his allies gain more ground in the conflict.

All he got were reports of them facing more and more problems, especially when faced with the elites of Earth. Truthfully, Ell’Hakan did envy the allies the Chosen of the Malefic Viper had gathered around him. He had, in part, gotten lucky by encountering them, but he’d also actively helped create these powerful allies, so maybe he shouldn’t be too envious. He also had to remember he would have plenty of chances to make his own allies in the near future alongside the Holy Church.

As Ell’Hakan was still considering matters while getting constant updates and giving orders to the people he’d spread across the galaxy, the gate to the throne room opened as the Augur walked in.

“Augur, I do not have the time to-“

“Make time,” the Augur said, looking Ell’Hakan directly in the eyes.

The nahoom frowned as he raised a hand. “Clear the room.”

None of his subordinates questioned him as they instantly left, with only a few of his closest generals staying. Looking at them, Ell’Hakan shook his head. “Everyone but me and the Augur.”

The generals looked surprised but still nodded as they left the room, closing the gate behind them. Doing so also activated the passive seals, hiding the conversation about to take place from everyone.

“You delayed me on purpose back there after the ritual… and if you hadn’t, I would have been back around the time the Chosen of the Malefic Viper attacked,” Ell’Hakan said, glaring at the Augur.

“Yes,” the human simply nodded.

“Why?” Ell’Hakan asked, genuinely unsure. He didn’t even know if the Augur doing so had helped or harmed him. It was entirely possible he would have gotten attacked unprepared if he had teleported back a bit earlier, but it was equally possible he had just lost a great opportunity to kill the hunter.

The Augur was silent for a moment before sighing. “My purpose is to guide people onto their most ideal Paths. For people like you and him, it’s nearly impossible for me to give any advice, but I do have some insights. Going through with the ritual was a good thing for you and will help strengthen your foundation for what’s to come… and wasting all that isn’t in the interest of me or the Holy Church.”

“Wasting it, huh…” Ell’Hakan muttered.

“You still have obligations towards the Holy Church. Ones you must fulfill,” The Augur continued. “So, allow me to give you some advice, not just from the Church, but as an Augur who wishes to guide you… leave. Leave this planet and, eventually, this galaxy. You are to be part of the Holy Church, the largest organization in the entire multiverse. Anything you lose here can be rebuilt a hundredfold elsewhere.”

Ell’Hakan looked at the Augur, reading his emotions as a wry smile appeared on his lips. “You don’t want me to fight the hunter.”

“I do not,” he shook his head.

“Even after everything, you still view him as a friend, huh?” Ell’Hakan asked, and the brief emotional ripple he got from the Augur served as confirmation. “You’re really willing to go far to save him. Then again, I would guess the Holy Church prefers a scenario where they don’t make the Malefic Viper, who’s just shown himself to not be as washed up as first believed, an enemy.”

“You misunderstand,” the Augur sighed, looking at the floor.

“I do?” Ell’Hakan raised an eyebrow. “Are you perhaps implying that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper is more powerful than I, even on my own homeworld?”

“That’s not what I’m saying either. I’m not even going to comment on that, as it’s not my place,” the Augur once more just sighed as he looked up at Ell’Hakan. “What I am saying is that you have a choice to make now. A crossroads is before you. On one path, you stay here and fight the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and whatever that might bring. The other is one where you leave with the Holy Church, putting the past behind you. One where you forget the enemies you inherited from Yip of Yore and focus solely on the future. With time, all old wounds have a chance to mend, and while I’m not saying you could ever be allies or even people who don’t hold hatred toward each other, this will be the only option where the two of you even have a chance to coexist.”

“So you want me to run?”

“I want you to choose, aware that what you do today will define your life and Path going forward,” the Augur said, his words genuine. “I won’t make the choice for you, but I will let you make an informed one and advise you that some fights aren’t worth it.”

Ell’Hakan looked down at the Augur, unsure what exactly he was playing at. Was he trying to protect the hunter? Was he genuine in his advice? Based on his emotional readings, it did appear that Augur was genuine.

“Tell me, and don’t skirt around this one… who do you think would win if we fought?”

“Neither,” the Augur answered without any hesitation. “The only loser will be the Holy Church, no matter the outcome.”

“You really are frustrating,” Ell’Hakan sighed. “But, fine. You’ve said your piece. Now leave.”

The Augur nodded. “Don’t take my word lightly. This is perhaps the most impactful choice you’ll ever make.”

Ell’Hakan waved him off, the Augur turning around and walking toward the gate leading out of the throne room. However, just before exiting, he stopped and looked back at Ell’Hakan.

“You still underestimate him… not because you are overestimating yourself or downplaying him, but because you continue to fail to grasp exactly what you’re dealing with.”

With those words, the Augur walked out of the gate, not giving Ell’Hakan a chance to respond.