The Primal Hunter

Chapter 994: Exactly What He Wants Viridia stepped through space as a verdant aura followed in her wake, consuming the corpse of a slain S-grade who’d come for her life. Raising her hand, a magical seal filled the empty cosmos as a gateway to the Lagoon opened, sending out tendrils to attack the two S-grades, battling her guardians and putting them under immense pressure. Her two opponents both reacted as one of them raised a sword and sent a web of crescent blades her way, severing the tendrils before they had the chance to do any harm.

However, as the cut-up tendrils fell, the pieces all transformed into female figures that shot toward the same sword-wielding warrior from before. His eyes opened wide as once more his blade flashed, all remnants of Viridia’s magic fully dispelled with his follow-up attack.

She had achieved her goal, though, and her two guardians had managed to team up on the second S-grade, injuring him heavily. The sword-wielding S-grade saw his comrade in trouble and, considering the two of them were also running low on resources after having battled for nearly a full day, made a decision.

Pointing his sword to the distant stars above, silver light erupted as his weapon seemed to grow in size. A thousand swords fanned out and bloomed from his raised blade, the aura of a man recognized as a true swordmaster spreading as space itself was cut and broken in several places. Viridia responded as she held out what looked like a doll resembling a toad. Crushing it in her palm, a mirage of a giant creature appeared behind her, opening its mouth as a wave of very much real acid was released, seeking to corrode the swordmaster.

”I will have to take my leave, Lady of the Verdant Lagoon,” the swordmaster said with a bow as his blades met her beam of acid, the two attacks nullifying one another. ”I hope you have time to realize the errors of your way before it’s too late… and if not, let our next meeting be the last.”

Her two guardians tried to attack the swordmaster, but he easily fended them off and created an opening as he and his comrade made their escape, teleporting after making some distance and getting out of the spatial seal created by one of her guardians.

Viridia frowned as she saw the Chosen of one of the Godqueens supporting Yip of Yore leave and clenched her fists in frustration at failing to take down someone so many levels below herself… but she knew it hadn’t really been an option in the first place. Even if she had been stronger, someone of his status was bound to have plenty of trump cards hidden to, at the very least, keep his life.

”Hall Master, the enemy is retreating from this and the neighboring galaxy, regrouping here,” one of her guardians promptly informed her as he summoned an elaborate map using mana, only making Viridia sigh more.

The moment they had any kind of advantage, Yip of Yore had his forces retreat, never giving the Order any chance to land a proper blow. She wanted to give the order to chase but was fully aware that wouldn’t end well for them, so she focused on what she could do.

”Any news of Aisorok?” she asked, inquiring if anything had been uncovered related to the missing newly appointed Hall Master.

”Nothing as of now. He remains missing, but things point to their ambush succeeding,” the guardian responded.

”How about the Bloodwing Duchess?”

”She got back in contact, having successfully escaped, but suffered significant injuries as she had to use a dangerous skill,” the guardian shook his head. ”She estimates full recovery should take her around a century, faster if she has access to high-quality blood.”

”Providing that shouldn’t prove too difficult,” Viridia spoke, waving her hand as a portal appeared. ”We’re heading to the next battlefield immediately. Recover on the way.”

”Yes, Hall Master,” both responded in unison as they took to the next area.

For the Hall Master herself to be this involved in the conflict may seem weird to many, but Viridia truly didn’t have a choice. There weren’t that many S-grades officially part of the Order in the first place, and as the highest-ranked mortal, Viridia felt a responsibility to step up. In part, she did this to show that the Order was fighting back with full force, and so far, she had single-handedly slain over forty S-grades of varying power.

This number barely registered in the statistics of how many had fallen on both sides thus far, which made Viridia very worried. They were outnumbered, and not by a little, even when one considered the people deployed by the Hidden Ones supporting the Order from the shadows. Their faction had never been a large one in the first place, and while each of their S-grades tended to be stronger than the enemy’s, the gap wasn’t that large.

were destroyed. A few had their leaders manage to muster a defense, beating back the enemy and evacuating, while others stupidly tried to hold their ground, but the result was clear on all fronts… they had to retreat or die, taking down as many enemies in the

Viper had actively expanded into most other universes, and now, in only a few months, they had been pushed back out of all but three, with that number rapidly dwindling to only

while strengthening their foothold in the first universe. No matter what, they couldn’t lose any ground on Primordial-4, and so far, Yip’s forces hadn’t even tried. The fact they

moved the pieces on the chessboard, but neither player had decided to get up and punch the other party yet. No one

would they want to escalate? Everyone knew that the second a god acted directly, it would turn the conflict into something entirely different than what it was now. Even the gods who had been in other Halls

Valhal. The neutral factions expectedly stayed out of everything, and while some did believe many were just

would use it as an excuse to get involved. It was very well-known that whenever the Risen got into a big conflict, the Holy Church always found some excuse to also get involved, and vice-versa. There were no indications any of these

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had to be made there. While the Holy Church had allied with the Chosen of Yip and Yore, and the two factions supported one another in the ninety-third universe, there was no alliance or relationship of any kind outside of that

in, Viridia knew an escalation did have to happen at some point. The problem was that none at the Order of the Malefic Viper knew what their Patron wanted them to do. The Lord Protector had taken charge and directed the mortal forces of the Order, as he had done so many times before, but this time wasn’t the same

him. He was the Malefic One. A Primordial. The Patron of the Order she had dedicated her life to, and even in this period of conflict, she didn’t waver in her faith once. She would trust the Viper until he

see that as an option. She simply couldn’t imagine a world where a Primordial fell, much less the Malefic One… and she

could get in contact with the Malefic Viper, but one

the teleporter nearby. There, he’d quickly found an empty room in one of the temporary buildings, sealed it using his arcane mana,

lot of plans and intricate scheming, but as Miranda said, he couldn’t have

around in his head, he felt the bridge between universes form as he made contact with the Malefic Viper. Jake also felt that the ritual was barely needed anymore, meaning that he could communicate like he had before all this went down. It could be compared to a phone line

Viper’s gaze back upon him, and before Jake could speak, the Viper’s voice echoed in

mess…

place. He sounded relaxed and unbothered, making Jake confused as he answered. ”You’re stressing me out. What the hell is happening on

It’s just the kind of thing that happens when gods compete; mortals get caught in the crossfire. You shouldn’t worry overly much about it. It’s not like any of your C-grade friends will get involved. As for how I’m

you?” Jake kept asking, concerned. ”You used your Transcendent Skill to help me during the

I did indeed have to pay for having done so. Transcendent Skills also all require a price to be paid upon usage, especially when the

in this situation where they

”Will you be alright?”

too young and weak to be worrying about me, and clearly, you’ve shown plenty of propensity to make yourself not alright on several occasions, so maybe

first time the response of the Viper

talk about that later. Hm, I also feel something else different… wait, what happened to that Unique

King and everything related to the Desolate Child of Loss and what he’d learned, though he did get the feeling the god had guessed a lot related to the Desolate Child from when he healed Jake. Villy was quiet for a bit after Jake was done talking, as he seemed