Chapter 1210 – The Calm Before the Lesson

“So you’ve decided to keep him in the dark?” the Primordial asked as he looked at the Viper with a smile.

“Hey, while I have some confidence in Jake’s acting skills, I’m far more confident he’ll prove himself a better actor when he doesn’t know,” Vilastromoz shrugged. “What I said wasn’t untrue either. This will be healthy for him.”

“I’m not talking only about that,” the smiling god said, tilting his head slightly.

“Oh, I know,” the Viper ignored what Eversmile was hinting at and changed the topic entirely. “I take it you haven’t made any progress either?”

“No… the traces of karma have all been severed in a fashion I haven’t quite seen before,” Eversmile shook his head. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you had been involved. Few are capable of exercising the concept of oblivion to such an extent.”

“I’m aware, but it was worth a shot nevertheless,” the Viper let out a sigh.

Eversmile had agreed to assist in trying to figure out who exactly had been behind the ambush in the void. As the premier user of karmic magic, there was no one better at tracking down people than him, but for him to even start tracking, he needed a trace.

However, it appeared that the final implosion that had destroyed the gods and avatars behind the attack had completely removed them from existence, leaving nothing behind for Eversmile to start working with.

The Malefic Viper had known this would likely be the case after even Aeon hadn’t been able to reverse time and get a proper look at the ambushers. Whatever item they had used was of immense power, and no one seemed to have the faintest clue as to who was capable of crafting something like that.

“What I can confirm is that the people your Chosen identified were indeed dead,” Eversmile continued. “Their karmic ties had been severed in a fashion that only death could cause. Their Truesouls had been extinguished and returned to the system, which begs the question of how they were still moving about.”

“We also have no fucking idea why an organization that powerful would need Jake so desperately that they’re willing to risk exposing themselves after having stayed hidden for so long,” Vilastromoz scoffed.

This was still the part that bothered him the most. Jake was talented and had some unique abilities… but he was still only a mere C-grade. No matter how powerful his Bloodline was, what he could do wasn’t capable of directly using his powers on a god. Jake could pour out every bit of his special energy in an attempt to assist a god, but it would add up to nothing more than a droplet in an ocean.

The only two scenarios the Viper could see were one where they wanted Jake to affect the evolution of some member of the younger generation, or the far worse off option, where they wanted to see if they could somehow extract Jake’s Bloodline or figure out how he did what he did.

Something that historically had proven itself not to be possible, but sometimes, people still got greedy… no matter the consequences.

“Have your investigations revealed anything?” Eversmile also asked after a little.

“Nothing substantial, but I believe the theory that they’ve made use of World Wonders and other separate realms holds water. I have a hard time seeing how else they could have stayed hidden so perfectly,” the Viper shook his head.

World Wonders remained one of the least understood things in the entire multiverse, with many of them yet to be completely explored. The Emerald Forest still had many parts that no god had been able to enter; no one had ever even seen the eye of the Vortex Pinnacle or the deepest layer of the Mycotic Depths. Especially places like the Mycotic Depths with multiple entrances were a prime hiding location, not to mention the Vortex Pinnacle, which was perhaps the best in the multiverse.

Especially when one factored in another aspect of the World Wonder… it was one of the few things in the multiverse allowing traversal between universes without fully crossing through the void.

As was seen on the Great Planet primarily controlled by the Pantheon of Life, the Vortex Pinnacle could appear in separate universes and did so by effectively bridging the void, creating a passage that could theoretically be used by gods to travel through. Usually, this wouldn’t be necessary, but if one were trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible, it could be an idea.

Without skills to hide oneself, more skilled gods could detect the ripples in the void and track someone down. Of course, all of this was still theoretical at this point, as they severely lacked information… which was part of the reason Villy had decided to “force” Jake into his recent teaching assignment.

“How confident are you that they will have someone in the audience?” Eversmile questioned. “I cannot see a world where they would take such a risk for so little gain.”

“I’m not saying it’s a sure thing, but I do find it highly probable,” Vilastromoz answered. “If they truly are as obsessed with Jake as I believe they are, they will want to confirm his current state personally. After returning to the Order, he entered isolation instantly without seeing anyone. My hope is that they believe whatever he did to summon Oras left him more strained than first thought, so they’ll need to confirm he’s still in a state to be useful.”

Eversmile slowly nodded, though he evidently remained understandably skeptical. In truth, the Viper also thought it was a bit of a Hail Mary, but at this point, he was willing to take any chance they could get, no matter how minute.

The plan was to monitor every single participant who would take part in Jake’s lesson to see if one of them acted in any way suspicious afterwards. It was a substantial undertaking and would require a lot of resources, but the Viper was more than willing.

“Vilas,” Eversmile said after they were both quiet for a little while. “Based on their actions, I truly don’t believe they intend to kill or even injure Jake. This situation isn’t comparable to-“

“We. Don’t. Know,” the Malefic Viper interrupted the other Primordial as his aura flared. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before he stood up. “Just keep a lookout. Hopefully, you’ll glean something from one of the students in his lesson.”

Eversmile sighed before just nodding. “All I’m asking is that you don’t escalate this needlessly.”

“Then let’s hope I won’t need to,” the Viper said, getting a reluctant nod in answer before Eversmile teleported away, leaving the snake god alone.

Vilastromoz stared into the empty room for several seconds as he just sat there, thinking. His attention was only grabbed when he detected Jake using his token to teleport around the Order and smiled as he saw his Chosen really putting in effort to become a… well, perhaps not great, but passable teacher.

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Jake disguising himself rarely, if ever, went well, but he still tried. As preparation for his own upcoming lesson, Jake had decided to attend some of the highest-rated classes on formations and ritual magic to hopefully learn how not to mess it up entirely when it was his turn.