The Primal Hunter Chapter 1066: An Unfortunate Child

Jake still wasn’t entirely sure how to approach Jacob and Bertram, who seemingly just stood there waiting for him, but he knew he wanted answers, one way or another.

Flying over, he landed not far from the two of them, and Bertram didn’t even try to stand in front or be defensive. Not that he needed to, as Jake had no thoughts of attacking, at least not if he wasn’t forced into it.

“So, I’ll need a really good explanation,” Jake said, not much friendliness in his voice.

“And I’ll give one,” the Augur nodded with a sigh. “Nothing that happened here played out the way I would have preferred it to, and I can’t even say the outcome was unpredictable.”

“I would say quite a few unpredictable things happened,” Jake said. “Such as, oh, I don’t know, the sudden reappearance of a False God?”

“Yes... everything related to the Desolate Child of Loss is just tragic,” the Augur said with regret in his voice. “I was drawn to him when he barely survived the clash with the Unique Lifeform and-“

“Fallen King,” Jake cut the Augur off. “Someone who died protecting the rest of us from that living calamity. A living calamity you apparently decided to scoop up and help by not only healing it but even making it stronger. So, let’s start there. Why the fuck was the Desolate Child of Loss in your possession?”

“Alright, but as I said, it isn’t simple, and there are two primary reasons. First of all, I was told to try and make the Desolate Child of Loss into an ally. You weren’t the first one who became aware of the creature. The Holy Church had sacrificed people before to know more about what they were dealing with and ultimately decided they wanted to try and use the False God if possible. But to be clear, they don’t view the Desolate Child of Loss as an actual creature but just a tool,” Jacob began. “That leads to my second reason. I’m an Augur. Even before I am a member of the Holy Church, that’s my Path. Before this Desolate Child of Loss, I had never met a creature who needed guidance more. You called him a living calamity, but he is not. He is just a creature with power he’s never learned to control and emotions he cannot comprehend. As the name implies... he is still only a child.”

Jake let Jacob talk and give his entire explanation. Sadly for Jacob, in the end, Jake definitely wasn’t satisfied.

“I told you before, nothing went as I had hoped, and the internal politics of the Holy Church are incredibly complicated, so-“

“Bullshit excuses,” Jake once more scoffed. “You make it complicated by not having a fucking spine. Without even going into how fucked up it is that you wanted to help the Desolate Child in the first place, you were the one who chose to release him here today. You could have told the head priest to fuck off, but you didn’t.”

Jacob just looked at Jake, not even offering any excuses as he just looked at the ground. “Again... the situation isn’t what I hoped it would be. But please, do at least allow me to try and make you understand while we go where the Runemaiden and the False God are fighting.”

“Fine,” Jake said after a moment’s thought, having wanted to head over there anyway. “But don’t you try anything.”

“I won’t,” Jacob said as he, Jake, and Bertram headed off. The Augur was definitely not the fastest flier, but then again, Bertram was also bloody slow. Still, Carmen wasn’t fighting that far away, and Jake had a basic understanding of how the battle between the two was going, and he was definitely impressed by the sheer dominance of the Runemaiden.

Shortly after they set off in flight, Jake heard the Augur’s voice echo in his mind.

Jake simply said, confused about Jacob’s shift in tone.

Jacob quickly shot down that notion.

Jake said, genuinely hoping for a bloody good explanation.

the Augur began, and Jake was actually kind of curious as he had plenty of theories himself.

Jake asked.

Jake said.

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the Augur answered.

Jake took a moment as they kept flying before he realized:

Jake really wasn’t sure how much he trusted Jacob at this point, but his words did make some sense. Something that also made a bit of sense now was why he’d asked Carmen to come along.

Jake said in a rather cold tone.

Jacob said.

Jake asked with disbelief.

the Augur said with a mental sigh.

Jacob mentioning the fragment from which the Desolate Child of Loss had been resurrected made Jake perk up a bit.

the Augur said.

Jake asked with a bit of hope.

Jake got quiet as he slowly sighed internally. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure what he’d hoped to hear. He already knew the Truesoul of the Fallen King still resided within the mask, but that didn’t really help much. Right now, the Truesoul in Jake’s mask felt a lot like the Truesoul of Ell’Hakan that Jacob carried around – something he would definitely need to properly claim later.

A Truesoul in itself really wasn’t worth much without all that surrounded it and made someone who they were. Records would continue to linger on a Truesoul until it returned to the system, which is how the Holy Church would resurrect Ell’Hakan, but the Records would be incomplete and shattered.

That’s why the resurrected Ell’Hakan would be nothing more than an empty shell of his former self. Chances were he wouldn’t even know who he was. The same was true for the Fallen King... while it was possible Jake could resurrect the Unique Lifeform, what would the point be if what appeared wasn’t the Fallen King that Jake knew?

He’d hoped that the Desolate Child of Loss would give him some hint, and a part of him still hoped that. Alas, only time would tell.

Jake said as they were soon at the battle site between the False God and Runemaiden.

Jacob just answered, not even addressing Jake’s heavy hinting that he should bail from the Holy Church.

Jake countered with a scoff.

the Augur agreed, sharing Jake’s disapproving tone.

They didn’t have time to say more as they finally arrived at the battlefield of Carmen and the Desolate Child of Loss. It hadn’t been that far, but, again, Jacob and Bertram were both slow as fuck, making it take a while. Not that their delay mattered much, as Carmen definitely didn’t need help. In fact, Jake was positive she would get angry should he interfere toward the end.

Truthfully, Jake didn’t have a good taste in his mouth after talking to Jacob on the way there, but seeing Carmen in action instantly put him in a better mood.

The Runemaiden was absolutely pummeling the Desolate Child of Loss, not even giving the False God any breaks between her fists slamming into its body. With every hit, her body flashed with energy, and the Desolate Child screeched in pain and anger as it tried to retaliate. From the looks of it, the False God had entirely lost any sanity and was just wildly attacking, which just made what was bound to be its final moments sadder.

About a minute more passed before Carmen evidently believed it was time to end things. Jake felt the aura on the battlefield change as the Runemaiden’s body burned with energy and her aura spiked. The golden runes on her body began to turn a shade of red as Jake saw a skill he recognized.

Carmen shot forward and punched the False God as her voice echoed throughout the skies.

“Fist of Ragnarok.”

Jake couldn’t hold back a smile as he saw the absolute destruction unleashed by what he knew was Carmen’s strongest finisher. Even as the shockwave struck him and Bertram had to step in front to defend his Augur, Jake kept smiling, looking out at the massive wave of destruction that had permanently altered the geography of the planet.

An utterly enormous cone-shaped scar of pure devastation stretched out from the battlefield for thousands of kilometers, everything within perfectly destroyed. At the starting point of the cone, Carmen lowered her glowing fist as the False God just floated there for a while, now in five pieces as its entire midsection had been blown away, only leaving parts of two arms and legs as well as the upper half of its head.

Carmen didn’t hesitate to fully finish everything as she knelt down and smashed her fists into the ground. As she did so, the parts of the False God were also forced down, and with a few whispered words, a large rune appeared beneath the broken Desolate Child of Loss.

Jake knew then that things were over as he began floating down, with Jacob and Bertram staying a good distance behind. Making sure not to disturb the Runemaiden, Jake slowly approached, curious about what she was doing.

He didn’t recognize the rune at all, which wasn’t surprising as it was an entirely different branch of magic than what he practiced, but he could still see the effect. The remaining body of the False God was slowly being dissolved and burned away, the Desolate Child of Loss ultimately dying a sad death for a creature that had been born and killed before fully realizing who and what it was...

And in Jake’s mind, just more proof of how fucked up Ell’Hakan’s Bloodline truly was.