The Primal Hunter

Chapter 951: A Gray Flag Chapter 951: A Gray Flag

Olliandra sat in the clock tower, contemplating the final words of the Chosen as well as the entire conversation before it. His warning at the end was also pretty clear in intent: reconsider aligning yourself with Ell’Hakan. In fact, she should reconsider if she wanted to align their planet with anyone if she could avoid it. Olliandra felt like a conflict was definitely brewing, and having seen the power of the Viper’s Chosen, she didn’t want to fight against him. On the other hand, she also didn’t dare risk making the Chosen of Yip of Yore an outright enemy. This was a conflict far beyond what she or anyone else should get involved in, and her biggest hope was that they could watch it safely from the sidelines.

She also felt embarrassed she hadn’t realized he was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper when he introduced himself. In her defense, she hadn’t gone to see the Leaderboards even after finishing Nevermore. Only the space mage and a few others had decided to check it out, primarily to see if the Celestial Child – or Ell’Hakan, as it was perhaps more proper to call him – had achieved a good placement. Seeing those Leaderboards was mostly for vanity, after all, as she had never expected to meet anyone who would appear on it outside of Ell’Hakan.

After hearing the mention of emotional manipulation, she also felt a bit more suspicious than before as she looked at the space mage. ”You have attended several meetings with Yip of Yore’s Chosen present without me… can you lend any validity to him having a Bloodline capable of swaying emotions?”

The space mage, who had long been her most trusted comrade, looked deep in thought, seriously considering her question before answering: ”The fact I cannot outright deny it frightens me. Reflecting on my own impression of the Celestial Child, I do find myself questioning my own emotions on the matter. I cannot logically place why I felt such respect and reverence toward him. He is powerful, yes, but my own emotions do feel unnatural in retrospect. I cannot say for sure if this is due to some level of manipulation or if I simply acted irrationally, but I would veer on the side of caution.”

Olliandra was a bit taken aback by the response. She had honestly expected him to say that he hadn’t noticed anything and that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was just trying to make them view Ell’Hakan more negatively due to his own personal bias. For quite a while, the mage had been a big fan of Ell’Hakan, talking about him being a great leader of the alliance and definitely the one to unite their galaxy under one banner.

However, now he looked full of doubt. Olliandra also admittedly believed Ell’Hakan would have been the one to unite them, but now she doubted that was going to happen… and if it did happen, it wouldn’t be through a peaceful expansion of the alliance and every planet choosing to align themselves with him willingly.

”What do you think our approach should be to these Chosen?” she chose to ask him.

”For now, we should address the Prima problems and claim the Planetary Core,” the space mage said. ”When it comes to the two Chosen… we are already considered part of the Celestial Child’s alliance on paper. Trying to at least probe what a relationship with the Chosen of the Malefic Viper would look like seems wise. Perhaps sending a delegation to this planet Earth could be considered. If it’s discovered and we are scrutinized by the rest of the alliance, we can always claim we did so because we were fearful of what would happen if we didn’t, or even excuse it as an attempt to gather information on a potential foe.”

”That strikes me as risky,” Olliandra responded. ”Trying to play both sides may result in us simply making both view us unfavorably. What’s more, if Ell’Hakan can truly manipulate emotions through a Bloodline, there is a big chance he can easily see through lies or deceit. I also would be cautious about trying to deceive the Viper’s Chosen and his faction… from what I heard, many talented individuals are aligned with him, some of which may discover any underhanded intentions.”

”Would it perhaps then be best to do nothing?” the space mage asked.

”No…” Olliandra shook her head. ”It’s unquestionable that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper saved our lives and our planet, while Ell’Hakan and his alliance did nothing, not even send a representative to hear us out. To not at least try to repay such a favor wouldn’t sit right with me. While it won’t be much, we will send a delegation to his planet and try to offer some token of our gratitude. If that ends up aligning us with him over Ell’Hakan… then so be it.”

think what would have happened if she hadn’t so stupidly chosen to release the Prima Guardian, which led to all this… and she genuinely couldn’t tell if this was a better outcome in the long

and Lord Thayne were both considered peak geniuses of the multiverse… she had only seen one of them shatter her

Vessel. After he’d left the clock tower, he had headed back toward the teleporter that could eventually take him back to the inter-galaxy teleporter. However, he came to learn all of that wasn’t necessary when the ring suddenly gave him some instinctive knowledge when he considered

channel energy into the item for a bit over five minutes as it slowly formed a teleportation circle beneath him

within the Prima Vessel, he startled some poor space

about what had transpired on the planet he’d totally forgotten to even get the name of. As a pleasant surprise, a teleportation circle that had seen set up right outside the Prima Vessel, connecting it to the rest of the planet. He knew they had a bunch of quick-to-set-up circles ready, but it was still good to see they had placed one

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dozens of mages running around. He even saw Sandy inside a room, and he considered going in to say hello but decided not to. Again, he’d not even been gone for a day, and they looked

his way to Miranda who was back in her office, looking just as busy as Arnold. The perfect time for Jake to stop by and drop some information on her. When he entered the building, he got a few surprised gazes, and when he knocked and entered her

assist some extremely

their own. Spoiler warning: they couldn’t. Ended

seemed pleased enough with how Jake handled things, though she did find his final comment a bit questionable, as threatening them wasn’t necessary in her eyes, though she doubted it had done much

hide his identity but should just flaunt it if he so wished. His identity as Jake Thayne, that is. When Jake expressed his surprise the World Leader hadn’t realized who he was earlier, considering the Leaderboards and all that,

or large factions. Those blessed by gods who at least bestow some level of understanding upon their subjects. However, these are in the vast, vast minority in the multiverse. From here on out, chances are the ones you meet know nearly nothing besides what they potentially learned at Nevermore or second-hand from friends. Perhaps they only have

noticed that the information they

given them to be true, but only to hide the half-truths and deceit more easily. Also, I will add that even if they haven’t been told lies by Ell’Hakan… it isn’t hard to believe that the Chosen of someone called the Malefic Viper isn’t the nicest guy and doesn’t have your best interest at heart. Let’s not pretend like The Viper is known as some altruistic being, so

because I’m not,” Jake shrugged. ”I’m hunting down Prima Guardians purely out of selfishness. Potentially saving a few planets in

people be under the illusion you truly moved with intentions

smile. ”If the choice is between killing two Prima Guardians, and

I guess,” Miranda said. ”I would also just continue to call yourself Thayne or Lord Thayne or whatever. Just avoid introducing yourself as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. Make it clear you are more than the rumors compel them to believe and that you are acting as the World Leader of Earth, not the Chosen of a Primordial. If they don’t connect the dots while you are there but only learn of your identity later… great. That will just confuse them and contradict what they’ve been fed by Ell’Hakan. If they do figure it out, do something similar to what you