The Primal Hunter

Ell’Hakan received the report as he was on the move, and after scanning it briefly, he nodded, satisfied with the results so far. A second Prima Guardian had been slain without his personal involvement, helping speed things up and further cementing trust in the Prima Guardian Alliance. They now had two confirmed teams capable of handling Prima Guardians, though the report did state they lost two fighters, so they would need replacements before engaging the next one.

Naturally, that didn’t mean Ell’Hakan was lazing about. He was currently on his way to yet another Prima Vessel, the local World Leader and a party of fighters already waiting at it and ready for his arrival. The Prima Guardian he’d faced on his own planet had been far more difficult than any of these other ones and was something he could easily handle on his lonesome. Such personal displays of strength were always useful to the alliance, too, and he wasn’t going to complain about the improved system reward at the end of the event either.

Despite things going well so far, he was far from without worries… and the Malefic Viper’s Chosen wasn’t even the only cause of it.

This ”I” character who’d seemingly performed as well as himself and the Viper’s Chosen was still a complete mystery, and with him cut off from Yip of Yore, he couldn’t get any divine information on who it may be either. What’s more… he had his suspicions that this person or creature was no longer on its homeworld anymore. He did not need this chaotic element.

While considering this, he got another message sent to him.

He scanned the new message briefly. The Prima Guardian Alliance had managed to sneak in a group of mercenaries to the planet of this Great Bright One – a world Ell’Hakan was very much interested in due to its extremely high population and homogeneity – and that message briefly outlined that a certain Chosen had made a visit.

The mercenaries sent only knew that the Chosen had gone to meet with the elf who called himself the ”Voice of the One” and nothing more, but that in itself was already… concerning.

Ell’Hakan wasn’t just interested in the planet due to its properties, but due to this Voice of the One and his abilities. Few World Leaders had impressed him, and he’d met quite a few of them during the Prima Alliance talk, and out of everyone, the elf was the one Ell’Hakan regarded the highest. It was someone Ell’Hakan had very much wanted in his inner circle, and before this message arrived, he’d still believed it would be possible.

There was no way the mercenaries they’d gathered could take down the Prima Guardian, and Ell’Hakan believed that after their failure, the Voice of the One would be a lot more receptive to further negotiations. Ell’Hakan could respect that the elf didn’t like him and was wary, but he still believed that should he face the choice between facing annihilation at the hands of the Prima Guardian and joining hands with the Prima Guardian Alliance, the Voice of the One would make the right choice and come to Ell’Hakan for help.

However… now that didn’t seem like it would happen. Not to say this was necessarily a bad outcome. Ell’Hakan saw it very likely that this would all result in the Chosen of the Malefic Viper slaying the Voice of the One due to his personal disagreement with how the planet was ruled or because the World Leader refused to release the Prima Guardian.

If that happened, the Chosen would be forced to engage in quite the slaughter, not just slowing him down during this system event but even giving Ell’Hakan plenty of ammunition to work with and back up the story that the Chosen was a danger to the Prima Guardian Alliance and in no way someone they could even attempt to talk to.

As for the Voice of the One and the Chosen of the Malefic Viper striking some kind of deal or working together, Ell’Hakan considered the chances of that happening pretty low. Now, should it happen, that would undoubtedly end up being a little annoying, but it shouldn’t really impact things that much, right?

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”Congratulations, you are now one of the premiere owners of real estate in this entire universe,” Jake said with a smile as Kindroth claimed ownership of the Planetary Pylon, thus fully taking the planet as his own.

They were naturally within the core chamber of the planet, having teleported there using the Prima Vessel after the Guardian had died.

”One of the first things I did was abolish private land ownership and claimed that everything the light touched belonged to the Great Bright One, as one of the primary causes of discord before the system was territorial disputes,” the elven World Leader answered in a deadpan voice.

”In other words, you fully monopolized the real estate market, truly a genius business move,” Jake joked with the guy. ”I do wonder how you plan on getting out of all the bullshit you filled the populace with, though. This delusional level of belief in the Great Bright One can’t continue forever.”

”I’m well aware,” Kindroth sighed. ”And I can’t see an immediate solution either. I do have a plan in mind, though. Scrubbing the planet of the influence of the Great Bright One isn’t possible, nor something I want, as I am still a follower of my Patron, and my job is to gather faith for him, but I will begin to address the more extreme beliefs. It will be a subtle process that will take many years, at least decades if not centuries, but I hope I can bring it to a healthy level eventually. May have to push a few people off the levitator in the process, and some political figures may die as I blame them for having twisted my words and the Words of the Great Bright One, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

Jake looked at the elf for a moment before just shaking his head. When joking around and being casual, he sometimes forgot this was a man who had somehow managed to unite over a hundred billion elves by getting all of the different country leaders in the same room together and somehow walked out with every single one loyal to him. Jake sucked at politics, something that certainly couldn’t be said about Kindroth.

”Like it or not, the planet belongs to you now. At least according to the system it does, and is there really a higher authority?” Jake commented.

”Let’s just be honest with ourselves… is it really mine?” the elf raised an eyebrow. ”There is no way Ell’Hakan would ever allow our continued existence, even if I do try and improve things, and despite your words or intentions, should you win out, we will be considered under the influence of the Order merely by existing within the same galaxy as the home planet of the Malefic Viper’s Chosen.”

”What others think and the actual truth is far from always the same,” Jake shook his head. ”I truly, genuinely, have no interest in ruling the galaxy. Shit, I don’t have any interest in ruling my own damn planet. You are right that it will probably still end up being considered my territory, but there’s really nothing I can do about that. All I can say is that I have no plans of controlling what others do, as long as they don’t do anything too fucked up.” ŖãNŏВƐṣ

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”Oh, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t complaining,” Kindroth grinned. ”You know, the Great Bright One did brief me on his intensions when I was first blessed, and back then, before he or barely anyone knew about you and Ell’Hakan, the plan was to co-exist with the Holy Church, as assumptions were they would end up ruling the galaxy in the end. Based on what I heard about the Church, I’m not sure being under the thumb of the Order of the Malefic Viper is that much worse.”

”How exactly would your way of leading this planet have worked out with the Holy Church?” Jake questioned.

”By now, I hope it’s pretty clear I was spitballing most of what I did to unite the planet, with little forethought or long-term planning in the mix during those early days,” Kindroth shook his head and sighed. ”So you ask how it would work? It fucking wouldn’t, but just as I’m willing to sacrifice a few politicians, so the Bright One would also have been willing to sacrifice me by branding me a false prophet. If I got lucky, exile would have been a good outcome from that… but even if I died, it wouldn’t really have been that bad. I did what I thought I had to do to save my planet, it worked out, and if my death could secure a better future for everyone, that wouldn’t be the worst way to go. We all have to die one day; may as well make it a good death.”

”Surprisingly altruistic,” Jake said in genuine surprise. Especially because he felt like those weren’t empty words, and when he remembered that Kindroth had been willing to fight Jake even after feeling his aura… yeah, Jake believed him. He didn’t agree with the ”everyone dies one day” part, but it wasn’t something worth really discussing.

”You do strike me as the kind of person that if you had the choice between burning down your own planet or dying, you’d start throwing fireballs… or shooting burning arrows in your case, I guess,” the elf smiled. ”Anyway, let’s get out of here and back to talk to those mercenaries.”

Jake followed the elf back to the Prima Vessel to teleport back topside, looking confused at the elf. ”Why would we need to talk to them?”

”Huh, I guess no one told you… one of the reasons why we gathered a lot of mercenaries and why the mercenaries even came here was to see if a team that couldn’t help just us but several planets out there could be assembled. Think of it as a worse version of the Prima Guardian Alliance that Ell’Hakan has formed, filled with a lot more naivety and delusion,” Kindroth explained as he shook his head. ”Having seen the Prima Guardian… pretty sure if we all those mercenaries had engaged it, the lot of them would have died. Which is great for you because that means the planets all these people come from definitely need help.”

”You’re saying there’s a bunch of people openly looking for help just sitting around waiting for us to return? That’s… convenient,” Jake said, surprised.

”Almost suspiciously so,” the elf smiled. ”But, in truth, you just happened to get incredibly lucky that a plan thought up by the council happened to be highly ill-advised. Oh, and I’m more than happy to be your wingman in this scenario, giving you a glowing recommendation that you are indeed the top Prima Guardian hunter in the galaxy, nay, the universe.”

The two of them kept talking as they teleported back to the surface and headed out to return to the nearest teleportation circle.

”As I assume you’re not coming along to all these other planets, won’t it ruin your story of us being equal contributors if I head off and kill a bunch of Prima Guardians alone, proving you are full of shit?” Jake questioned.

”It’ll be fine, and let’s not act like any efforts of mine could keep your level of power hidden. Everyone, even those on this planet, will learn of you and just how capable you truly are whether I want them to or not,” Kindroth said. ”When it comes to how much they will learn and how everything is framed… I believe you said her name was Miranda? The de-facto leader of your planet? Yeah, I think I’ll go have a discussion with her. Going by how she’s managed to put up with you as the official World Leader, and your planet hasn’t been the victim of a planetary sacrificial ritual yet, she must be quite capable.”

”You’re awfully casual when it comes to insulting the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and his court witch,” Jake commented, trying to sound serious.

”First of all, I was praising her, and secondly, nothing I said was untrue,” Kindroth chuckled. ”Now, let’s pick up the pace and get back quickly. See if you can keep up.”

The cheeky bastard picked up speed, flying even faster than before as he turned his body into light form. On the way to the Prima Vessel, they had to deal with Primas a few times, so saving their resources at least a little was advised, but that wasn’t an issue on the way back. With the regular Primas also weakened due to the death of the Guardian, Kindroth wasn’t worried about the forces of the planet either. While he did recognize that they didn’t have many outstanding fighters, they did have a stupidly big army.

Jake responded to the elf’s speed in kind as he also began pushing his One Step further, the two of them shooting into the horizon. This planet, despite its far higher population, was still quite a bit smaller than Earth in size. In fact, Jake hadn’t heard of anyone with larger planets than Earth in the galaxy yet, with William also reporting that Ell’Hakan’s planet was smaller. It was honestly kind of nice because if some of them were larger, Jake could definitely need to drag Sandy along so he wouldn’t have to potentially end up running for weeks to reach the Prima Vessels, dragging along some weak World Leader.

There wasn’t much banter for the rest of the way back, as the two of them soon reached the teleportation circle where they were received by an entire goddamn army who had been awaiting the return of the Voice of the One and his ”helper,” the Chosen of the Malefic Viper.

Once more, Kindroth put on his persona as he masterfully – and swiftly – handled the crowd and allowed Jake and him to pass and return to the capital. Once back, they made a brief visit to the Council Estate to report their success and were also told that the general had already sent a message that the Primas had all gotten significantly weaker.

A bit more stupid politicking later, Jake and the Voice of the One managed to gather the mercenaries representing different planets. Very few people traveled alone like Jake had, but instead went around in parties or even small companies. Some were sent there alone, acting more like envoys or ambassadors rather than mercenaries, which was also why these mercenaries were stationed in the Council Estate in the first place – something Jake hadn’t really questioned but really should have in retrospect.

Jake and Kindroth only needed one person from each other planet, who hopefully held some level of influence back home. These people were all considered within the stronger echelon of their planets, and none of them had engaged the Prima Guardians on their worlds yet. Some of them were still struggling, though, not even able to handle the regular Primas. These mercenaries had pretty much given up on their homeworlds, believing it was doomed. They were helpless and had tried to run to this planet as an escape, perhaps only holding a faint hope deep in their heart that someone would help them.

That was awesome, right?

Because these people took no convincing or wing-manning from the Voice of the One at all. In fact, the moment they heard that all Jake cared about was hunting down Prima Guardians and how killing the Guardian would weaken all the regular Primas and even allow the native monster population to turn and fight the Primas, they were fully on board.

Jake had believed finding a bunch of planets to hunt Prima Guardians on would be difficult. However, as Kindroth said, he’d ended up seriously lucking out by going to this particular elven planet. Jake, a whole bunch of mercenaries, as well as the Voice of the One – who announced he’d been given a quest to confer with the ”Witch of Verdant Origins” – all headed toward the large metal dome allowing people to teleport to and from the planet.

The near future was really looking bright for Jake, and when all was said and done, he had a list of at least a dozen planets who were more than happy to have a hunter endorsed by the Voice of the One come to kill their Prima Guardian for them. Even those who knew he was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper were convinced by Kindroth, the elf taking advantage of the fact that most mortals really had fuck-all idea about how gods worked and just knew that Jake was some big-shot from the Order of some evil snake god… but if someone named the Voice of the One, representing a god of light said it was fine, it had to be fine, right? He was also a big-shot, after all.

One thing was for sure… due to Kindroth, Jake had a lot of Prima Guardian to kill, and Miranda had quite an interesting meeting ahead of her.

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