The Primal Hunter

Chapter 985: Intelligence Work Miranda hadn’t stopped her investigation into what had happened to the Fallen King and Sylphie even after the situation had seemingly been resolved. She refused to believe there weren’t more traitors on Earth, perhaps even some high up in the system. A few more administrative staff were identified over the next few weeks who had all been incredibly suspicious. Some weren’t even immigrants from other planets but natives of Earth.

Arthur took the lead in many of these investigations, as the vast majority of these people were from his prior base of supporters. The United Cities Alliance had been formed by the people who opposed the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and, in general, people who wanted to preserve Earth as it was before the system. In other words, they didn’t want any immigrants or non-humans anywhere, and rather than live with beasts in a semi-synergistic society, they would rather see them all killed. They simply refused to see them as the sapient creatures they were now.

The push of the World Council to not only allow immigrants and freed slaves to settle on Earth but even beasts to live among humans had naturally ruffled some feathers, and the recent return of the Risen had only made things even worse. While they had done much to address these people, it was hard to do anything toward people merely harboring negative thoughts or acting in the shadows.

No one wanted a society where you could get in trouble for thinking the wrong thing either, so they’d ended up with a lot of people carrying resentment and a lot of bigotry toward anyone who wasn’t a human while naturally also hating other humans who didn’t share their beliefs.

This was a problem Miranda, Arthur, the Fallen King, and the Sky Whale had discussed extensively, with the shared sentiment that nothing but time could fix these issues. The old generation had to die off and be replaced with more progressive people who weren’t used to a world before the system but what the multiverse had now become.

Anyway, insidious actors had found plenty of people to take advantage of, and many jumped at the opportunity to seemingly do meaningful damage to Jake and his allies, who were ”actively destroying the planet.”

These insidious actors naturally included allies of Ell’Hakan. Quite a lot of them, in fact. However, when looking into them, Miranda and Arthur were perplexed at some of the things they found, and with the assistance of William, they discovered everything wasn’t as simple as they looked. Rather than finding one group… they found two.

One was the agents of Ell’Hakan, who had seemingly gone into sleeper mode for the last pretty long period, likely doing nothing more than reporting things to the other Chosen while not taking any actions. A few had even gone as far as to spread rumors about what had happened actually when Ell’Hakan invaded the planet so long ago, how it had all been a misunderstanding caused due to the Order of the Malefic Viper, and some even claimed it had been a good thing as it ”opened the eyes” of the Viper’s Chosen to what his Patron truly was.

None of them did anything overtly harmful to Earth and weren’t really threats at this moment.

This all seemed to track with Ell’Hakan’s recent official stance where he no longer ran any negative propaganda campaigns toward Jake. Instead, he didn’t seem to say much about Jake at all, and what was said was neutral at worst. Truly, it did seem like he was trying to spin a tale of Jake and Ell’Hakan being enemies due to their respective Patrons and having no personal animosity toward each other… meaning that should Jake ”break free” from the Malefic Viper, they would have no reason to oppose one another. Should he join Valhal, perhaps they would even be allies.

When it came to these people who loyally served Ell’Hakan and acted according to his will, Miranda just kept an eye on them and took notes. Taking any actions would ruin their own plans. Also, keeping an eye on them while not doing anything would instead help Jake’s cause, as she was sure the people she sent weren’t all competent enough to not be discovered, and the fact that Earth’s intelligence network knew and didn’t act against his agents would certainly get back to Ell’Hakan, only further strengthening his delusion that Jake had softened his stance toward his fellow Chosen.

As for the second group, also made up of Ell’Hakan supporters, they were quite a bit… different. These people seemingly were no longer actually in contact with the other Chosen but acted entirely on their own and had made their own small groups and plans, entirely – and purposefully – separate from the true followers of Ell’Hakan.

Of course, ironically, these people believed they were the ”true” followers. As for their exact beliefs… Miranda couldn’t figure them out, and it soon became clear it wasn’t because she was shit at her job but because they truly didn’t have any collective belief outside of thinking that Ell’Hakan was some kind of godlike being and that Jake and the Viper were evil incarnate. They had a flimsy cohesion at best, and all the true fanatics were immigrants who Miranda suspected had also been immigrants on the planets they had arrived on Earth from.

These fanatics had then found allies among the natives of Earth, making wild promises that Ell’Hakan would save them all from the evil snake cult, eradicate all the beasts and monsters, and return the planet to its rightful owners: humanity. Truly, it was all bullshit and didn’t even track with what Ell’Hakan would actually do… but it was good enough to convince the desperate morons who let anger and fear of the foreign rule them over logic.

into the complexities of the delusions at play, and there was a good reason she called them fanatics. They acted illogical and with intense emotions to the level it was irrational, making her form quite a few theories she had no proof of but would certainly keep in mind. The predominant one was that Ell’Hakan had perhaps wanted to create followers with absolute loyalty and it had gone wrong somehow, and yes, the vast majority of her theories included Ell’Hakan having done something

source, he had proven himself honest in all matters so far. Her view of William was a bit odd, as she naturally didn’t know him from back in the Tutorial. She had never really interacted with him or even heard about him until he came and began to actively help around Haven, which did make it hard for her to see why she had to be so damn suspicious of him all the time. Because right now,

afterward, again due to Eversmile. Casper and Jacob had also confirmed pretty much everything Jake had told her, making it clear she had to be wary even if he had supposedly changed. Caution was

They ended up not really

reading their stories on

you estimate there are out there?” Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow. ”Of these real fanatics,

impossible to tell, at least for me,” William shook his head. ”I can see the karmic connections people have and even glean some insight here and there, but I wouldn’t call it an exact science, and we would

influenced by Ell’Hakan? Those with a direct connection to the Chosen?” Miranda asked, these people being the

but we still need individual investigations,” William said after thinking a bit. ”Many high-level diplomats or World Leaders who were part of the Prima Guardian Alliance met Ell’Hakan at one point

that the karma mage was right. Kindroth – also known as the Voice of the One – was still a weird figure. By now, Miranda was pretty sure he had his own

the other World Leaders and used that to try and out any dissidents. Plus, he was really good at what he did, which, more than anything, was being a conman. He even made people who usually only liked humans like him. If he had been a political opponent, Miranda would have found him frightening and she was happy he

useful and competent, he still wasn’t as effective as William,

Bloodline wasn’t possible. At least William couldn’t do anything there, as he couldn’t use his skills

went two ways, one side could have a far more powerful bond based on individual perception or

with Ell’Hakan help your efforts? Even if you are only observing him from afar,” Miranda asked

William said as he looked at the floor and hesitated before elaborating at least a little. ”Meeting Ell’Hakan would simply be too

own. “I already don’t trust most of my emotions. They still feel foreign at times, and I’m uncertain what influence of Eversmile still lingers. I’m such a fucking mess

Miranda just said with a smile. “Having met him myself, I can’t fault

a very good point… he wasn’t suited to confront Ell’Hakan or even be in his presence, and Miranda should have known so, given his history. He had a track record of being used and manipulated, so it was only understandable he had developed some level of trauma towards someone who

it worked. How could she be? If she felt like she hadn’t been influenced, that could

an almost meditative state, not allowing them to affect him. His mind was like a serene pond

Meanwhile, Arnold was Arnold.

to the cellar beneath her office. Well, rather than a cellar, it was more like a large cavern she had Hank help construct a long time back, also making use of the coffins from the Treasure Hunt and many other natural treasures

take a look into and a few who had to meet unfortunate ends, and quite honestly, it was easier for them to simply disappear, consumed by the swamps of the Verdant Lagoon, rather than make a big show of killing them. Plus, this meant they didn’t have corpses