Chapter 1224 – Distraction, Consolidation & Enlightenment

Jake needed a moment to process that statement. The strongest faction in the multiverse back then, yet its representative was from a race Jake didn’t even recognize. What confused Jake even more was the good chance that this person was enlightened, and Villy had a track record back then of not really liking the enlightened, yet here he was working with one.

“As long as you abide by your promises and our partnership remains mutually beneficial, there is no reason to terminate it,” the weird robot man responded.

“See, that’s why I like you guys. Easy to talk to and very straight with what you want without being caught up in any unnecessary sappiness,” the future Primordial chuckled while shaking his head.

“Now, we should probably get out of here sooner rather than later.”

“Certainly,” the robot man nodded. “The alliance has no doubt already dispatched an investigation team, and the Golden Road Emporium also won’t accept this outcome but demand reparations should we be identified as culprits.”

“Exactly,” the Viper nodded again. “I assume you have one of those things?”

The person who was apparently part of the most powerful race in the universe revealed his hand once more as the liquid metal took the shape of a nine-fingered hand holding an odd device. Without speaking any words, he tossed the device away from him, and a moment later, space cracked apart and formed what looked like a hole in reality.

“You first,” the Viper said cheekily.

“Harming you will not reap any benefits,” the man said, looking at the dragon.

“Oh, I know. Still, you first,” the Viper insisted.

Seemingly not bothering to take that fight, the robot man just nodded as he walked into the hole in space. The Viper smiled as he also stepped toward the hole, but right before he entered it, he took something out of his spatial storage and let it drop toward the desolate planet below.

With a sly smile, he followed the robot man as both disappeared to who-knows-where. Jake wasn’t sure what the Viper had dropped there at the end, only that it looked like some odd sheet of metal. He wanted to try to investigate further, but the second the Viper was through the portal, his connection to his Patron’s past self was severed, and the vision was rapidly coming to an end.

Jake began to steel himself for what would come next. The Path of the Heretic-Chosen ended, so would his system-granted mind protection that had allowed him to stay clear-headed thus far. He had managed to assimilate many of the concepts flooding his body already, but not all of them were done, and he had to entirely stabilize himself before he could safely disengage his consciousness and return to the real world.

Just one more step, and all his plans would come to fruition with a result perhaps even better than he’d initially hoped for. Of course, that one step wasn’t necessarily easy, and with a steeled mind, the vision ended, and he returned in both body and mind.

—

“You told me to wait, but where did he-“ Artemis was saying, a bit panicked after Jake had somehow disappeared from the room through means she, as a Godqueen, couldn’t fully identify.

However, just then, Jake returned. As he did, she felt a powerful flash of the Malefic Viper’s aura flood the room as it mixed with the slight presence of divinity also released by Jake’s improvements to his Meditate skill.

Artemis still had a lot of questions, but before she could ask any of them, she noticed something else.

“His soul…”

“Yep, seems like that did the job,” the Malefic Viper nodded proudly as he seemingly decided to volunteer some information to Artemis. “A pretty good approach, too, I must say. He purposefully broke my temporary repairs to get full access to the broken skill, and alongside the extreme levels of universal insight he got from taking in a shitload of concepts, he managed to use that special skill of his while focusing on Palate. During the process, he replaced the Records he’d lost when he initially broke the skill while even gaining some on top.”

“I’m still not entirely sure what Jake did, but from that brief explanation, what Jake did was unbelievably risky and could have gone wrong in so many ways,” Artemis said with exasperation.

“Oh, for sure, I’m kind of amazed it went so well, but also give credit where credit is due. Besides, this is Jake’s MO. Extreme risk for extreme rewards,” the Malefic Viper said with a slight chuckle.

“Yeah…” Artemis sighed, only able to agree with that statement. “Now let’s hope he can bring everything together and return.”

“Yep,” the Viper nodded. “Man, wouldn’t it be funny if he somehow managed to fuck something up at this-“

Artemis threw the Viper a look that made even the Primordial stop talking as he raised his hands in defense. “As I was saying, I’m sure he’ll be back shortly.”

—

Jake’s mind returned to the odd world he’d peered into using his Truesoul as a catalyst. He also vaguely got the feeling that his physical body had returned, but for now, he was far more focused on keeping his full mental faculties.

Instinctively, the first thing he did was retreat away from the massive gate that still had cracks in it. The further he retreated, the less he felt exposed to the leakage of concepts, giving him time to gather his thoughts.

Luckily, things had gone as Jake had hoped during his vision. The vast majority of the concepts flooding his mind had either been absorbed during the vision or expelled into nothingness.

He still had a lot of wayward thoughts swimming through his mind, and for some reason, he felt that he now had a far better understanding of why water was wet and why fire was hot, alongside many other minor and utterly inconsequential insights.