Chapter 1203 – A Long-awaited Conversation

“So, remember kids, nothing happened on the way here, and it was a smooth trip,” the Malefic Viper said to Jake and the other C-grades. “Of course, as mortals, the void still takes a toll, so you may be a little out of it for a few days, but that’s just totally normal void-related nausea. We clear?”

Jake and his fellow C-grades nodded, making the Primordial smile and nod before turning to Artemis. “You go ahead and finish the trip, then.”

Artemis nodded as she went to join Jake and the others. “As the Malefic One said, we’ll teleport as if we were indeed just arriving at the Order straight from the Pantheon of Life. Our appearance will be relatively brief, but it will be a somewhat public teleportation circle that will allow witnesses to see we’ve arrived.”

“Ree?” Sylphie asked.

“No, don’t purposefully aim to draw attention,” Artemis shut down the hawk’s idea. “As I said, we’ll only appear briefly, after which we’ll split up and deal with our individual ordeals. Dina and I shall head to meet with other officials from the Order. Jake will go deal with a personal matter, while the swordsman shall take you and the Golden Forest King elsewhere until Jake reaches out.”

The part about the Sword Saint effectively being the ward of the two monsters for a little while was something they’d agreed upon earlier. All three of them planned on returning to Earth, so it was just easier for them to hang out until Jake had time.

With a plan set, the Primordial bid them goodbye before Artemis took them all to a teleportation circle that wasn’t actually that far away. Seeing as the Malefic Viper controlled all the formations within his Order, he’d easily been able to teleport them about without anyone noticing, but it was clear several gods detected when Artemis initiated the teleport to the circle within the Order’s territory.

Instantly, as the six of them appeared on the large teleportation circle, Jake felt the attention of several gods upon them. The circle had been cleared out in advance, expectant of their arrival, meaning there weren’t that many people around.

The teleportation platform was placed slightly elevated, just up a few steps. Below the steps, several officials wearing cloaks bearing the motif of the Order waited, having likely been there for some time, considering the substantial travel delays.

When they saw movement, all of them sprang into action and hurried up the platform, where they greeted Jake and the others. Artemis gave them all a look before teleporting away to meet with other deities, as a Godqueen naturally wouldn’t deal with lowly mortal officials.

That was for poor Dina to handle.

She was swarmed, news of her appointment having naturally reached the Order long ago. A few people also tried to talk to Jake and the other three, but they quickly backed off once it was clear they had no interest, allowing them to escape the area safely fairly quickly.

Jake, Sylphie, the Sword Saint, and the Forest King headed toward another nearby teleportation hub where they would split up once more. The three of them planned on going shopping to bring high-tier materials back to Earth to help others on their Path.

Sylphie naturally wanted to help out her parents and the Sword Saint, his clan. As for the King… we’ll he’d decided to expand his method of ruling to also include the carrot a little, intending to bring natural treasures to show that following him could also result in good things happening.

As for Jake, he’d already confirmed the person he wanted to have a talk with was back at his residence. Unsurprisingly, considering she lived there within her large tower that Jake admittedly did want to see the interior of.

“Good luck,” the Sword Saint said before they split up at the teleportation hub. “No matter how you choose to handle things, I hope it will result in the most happiness created for all.”

“Let’s hope things do end well,” Jake sighed, ignoring the slightly confused look from Sylphie as he really didn’t want to explain to her the complicated relationship he was hoping to finally unravel and properly define.

The King seemed to know but didn’t seem to care much. Jake didn’t even know how much the Unique Lifeform knew about himself and Artemis, as he had lived with them in the Pantheon of Life for a good while and had seen them interact several times, even if Artemis did make sure to turn their more intimate moments private.

He had a feeling that even if the Unique Lifeform knew the details, he wouldn’t bother mentioning it or even care in the slightest what Jake was up to romantically. At most, if he truly did know, he’d only bother to bring it up to get in a dig at Jake during their usual bickering.

The others all soon departed, leaving just Jake remaining. With his token in hand, he teleported back to his residence within the Order of the Malefic Viper. Appearing in a place that had been his home as much as Haven since the system arrived, Jake instantly noticed that the place was spotless and that, obviously, someone had tidied things up. Jake tended to be pretty good at remembering how things looked, and he was very sure that the rug had been moved slightly, and the coffee table hadn’t been in the exact same place last time as it was now.

Very few people had free access to Jake’s residence, so Jake had a good idea who had stopped by once in a while. Releasing a Pulse of Perception, Jake felt it sweep throughout the subspace, including Meira’s tower. He didn’t even need to look inside to know she was there.

Sighing, Jake prepared himself as he went toward the front door to go see her, but before he could even reach it, movement entered the range of his sphere. At a pretty respectable speed, he saw Meira flying over, landing just outside the door he was about to open.

He hesitated for a moment before just deciding to rip off the band-aid and get things over with. Meira, who was just about to knock on the door, looked surprised as Jake opened it, her hand halfway raised as the door swung open.

Looking at Meira, Jake wouldn’t say she’d physically changed a lot since the last time he saw her. The only real difference was that she had obviously become more comfortable wearing fancier clothes, as evidenced by the rather ornate white dress she wore. Then again, perhaps she’d just accepted that as the Chosen of Duskleaf, it was only normal for her to wear proper equipment, and proper equipment tended to also look quite nice, especially the sort made for casters where there was less consideration for form over function.

However, that wasn’t to say the elf hadn’t changed. She had decades of development behind her since they last met, and Jake instantly noticed. Her entire demeanor had shifted, no longer conveying the impression of someone defenseless and lacking confidence. Instead, she gave off a comfortable feeling while still radiating competence, and even a little dependability. Compared to the Meira Jake had first met, he wouldn’t even have been confident considering them as the same person, even if they looked identical.

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Meira’s level had also soared, having successfully stepped into late-tier C-grade.

[High Elf – lvl 308]

As he evaluated her, he noticed her gaze doing the same. He had naturally hidden his mask, but besides that, Jake was wearing his normal equipment as he still sucked at putting any anything more casual when in safe areas.

Breaking the silence, Jake was the first to speak as he smiled. “Hey Meira, it’s been a while. From your perspective more than mine, I’d imagine.”

Meira looked at him and smiled awkwardly in return. “It really has been, and I’m glad to see Lord Thayne has comfortably returned to the Order of the Malefic One.”

Her tone was the usual respectful one, but it seemed slightly less inherently subservient than before. Jake guessed Duskleaf had spent a lot of time helping Meira not to automatically regard herself as lesser than the opposing party whenever speaking with others.