The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1005: Countless Considerations Waiting always sucked, but sadly, Jake couldn’t really do anything but wait at this point. He had no agency to decide when the next arc of this conflict would begin but simply had to sit back and wait for a message from Ell’Hakan before he and Valhal would make their grand denouncement of the Malefic Viper.

At least he had a few things to keep himself occupied, and the first he did after the truce announcement went out was to follow Bobby to inspect the ritual they had been preparing for Jake. It was a ritual Jake hoped he would never have to use but had been made anyway to sell their story. Professionally speaking, Jake did have to admit he was curious to see a circle capable of helping him become a Usurper.

From the vibes he got from Bobby, Jake also suspected that the guy low-key wanted the Viper to die. Jake wasn’t entirely sure how much Bobby and likely a few other top people from Valhal knew about what he and Villy planned, but they did have some idea that the Viper had a plan of some sort, and they also kind of knew Jake was working with the Viper… but he also sensed some suspicion from Bobby that Jake was more than willing to become a Usurper should it come down to it.

Jake was a heretic no two ways about it. If he didn’t at least have heretical intent, how could he even consider a ritual to help him become a Usurper? No, this was something they knew for sure, and it had been confirmed several times. Yet he also seemed fine with working with the Viper, making it all very confusing in their eyes. All his heretic antics could always be excused away later by the Viper and Jake as some kind of trickery, maybe even using the Transcendence of Villy as the cause of Jake being able to leak the aura of a heretic.

From Jake’s point of view, he saw no reason to elaborate on matters to anyone quite yet. He liked the ambiguity spawned from them having no real details and would hopefully coast on that until everything was resolved. It wasn’t as if he planned on talking a lot with other people while staying at Valhal for the foreseeable future but would instead spend most of his time just doing alchemy with the excuse of preparing himself for the Usurper ritual.

While at Valhal, Carmen would be his primary contact person, and she luckily didn’t ask that many questions, in part because she genuinely didn’t seem to care much about what Jake was planning, though she had voiced that Jake joining Valhal for real would be neat. Her lack of interest was refreshing, though, and her disconnected approach to all the scheming was likely also why she saw the frankly quite obvious signs that Ell’Hakan could also be planning to walk the Usurper route, making her valuable to discuss matters with.

Anyway, seeing the huge ritual prepared by Valhal for Jake to become a Usurper was quite something. It was once more constructed atop a mountain, with it clearly being no secret they had made it, meaning its existence had definitely leaked. The ritual circle itself was over a hundred meters wide, with complex runes and scripts everywhere, making Jake wonder how long they had been working on it. Bobby seemed vague on the topic, while Carmen legitimately didn’t know, and it was definitely a bit suspicious.

The magic circle wasn’t done, though, and they needed some help from Jake to finish it, something he gladly helped do. He had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to focus for the first few days while at Valhal, considering he knew a lot of shit had to be going on in the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy and the multiverse as a whole, but spending his time analyzing the ritual helped put his mind off things.

Over the next couple of days, Jake studied the circle, talked to some people who’d helped make it, and read some books about this particular brand of magic. It wasn’t based on the same methodologies as rituals by the Order of the Malefic Viper, but honestly, even if it had been, it wouldn’t have helped Jake much.

Because one of the first things he learned was that no one truly understood what they had made. Hundreds of people had helped make the magic circle, each in charge of their own small areas. Everything was based on divine guidance and could be compared to them just tracing the lines and copying stuff down. Rather than solve some advanced math equation, they just copied from the blackboard, not knowing what the hell all the weird symbols meant.

Jake tried to understand the circle, but after those few days, he learned it was simply impossible for someone of his level to comprehend it. It was one designed by gods, with theories far beyond mortal understanding. Sure, mortals could still copy down the written formula, but that didn’t mean they had the slightest idea how to solve it by themselves. Probably made sense that a god was behind the circle, as it was made to usurp the Path of a deity.

be able to operate this magic circle by himself. If it did come down to using it, the one actually activating the magic circle would be a god from Valhal – likely Gudrun, based on what Jake had been told. This did require a certain level of trust, as she could probably fuck over Jake if she so desired, but he wasn’t worried. Firstly because he never planned on using the circle in the first place, and secondly, because what would she possibly gain from fucking

into it. To make it into one attuned to himself and his Path, as well as the Path that he planned on usurping. This did end up taking a few more days, and just before a full week had passed since Jake arrived on the planet, the entire magic circle was completed and ready to go should it ever be necessary. Jake walked down the mountain, knowing he would be up there the day the final confrontation between Villy and Yip took place, with the hopes that

soon met up with Carmen and Bobby. After getting the two of them

“So… what’s been happening?”

these weird purple berries, which have a spicy taste that really compliments most fatty foods,” Carmen answered

noteworthy news,” Jake commented in a dry

while Jake knew she did care

openly fucked in the rest of the multiverse while your alliance is getting subtly fucked in the Milky Way Galaxy, though things have improved recently. In other words, everything is kind of going as expected, perhaps even a bit better than we thought. From what I do know, our core is holding strong, and that Kindroth pal of yours has been doing some solid work spreading a new

stolen; if detected on Amazon,

asked, not having expected Miranda to bring the elf into the scheming

However, seeing as Yip of Yore also has the Holy Church with him, he seems like a far safer bet because if Yip falls, he’s still gonna have them. In other words, they believe there are more potential outcomes where you come out looking weaker. This Kindroth – or Voice of the One, as many also call him – is the source of another narrative. He’s been really leaning into the fact you are now working with Valhal and he’s actively leveraging our power and history. And while Yip of Yore, the Holy Church, and many other factions have great reputations, none of them can

Valhal and all, and it was only natural to talk up your own faction and to have bought into the propaganda that your faction was the best faction. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t some element of truth to what he

in the sense that they didn’t really have any enemies. Even other factions who claimed to be neutral tended to have some who called them enemies, or they had allies who made others view them unfavorably. Even a faction like the Patheon of Life, led by Yggdrasil, had its fair share of enemies, including a less-than-stellar relationship

you up on having a fight – something no faction in the multiverse had confidence in winning. In the same vein, Valhal didn’t recognize any faction as their allies either. They were far too focused on individuals to designate entire factions as allies but would instead have “friends of Valhal” amongst all kinds of factions spread throughout the multiverse. They didn’t care what faction these people came from, just

Viper fall. No longer would Jake be in a weak position, but potentially one even stronger than the one he had as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. The Holy Church would be apprehensive about the Milky Way Galaxy, and even the daring Yip of Yore would take a step back. While the up-and-coming god believed he could slay the Malefic Viper, he didn’t seem to be under any illusion he

up properly, they would gladly send in armies to retake it in case other factions had claimed it, all using the excuse of reclaiming Jake’s homeworld – at least

several probable scenarios, making many of those who were wavering calm down. Bobby wouldn’t go as far as to

for the Malefic Viper and his faction as a whole. Especially when Bobby described how gods had now gotten involved in the conflict. For gods to die in conflicts was relatively rare, but it certainly did happen. As for a war of gods, that had only happened very scarcely throughout the history of the multiverse. More often than not, when gods got involved in a huge conflict, they fought through duels, ambushes, plots to isolate certain gods, and pretty much any other approach that didn’t include just throwing gods at one another on a huge battlefield.