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There was probably more to its abilities, but Jake got enough of an idea of what he was facing just from what he had heard so far. What he was facing would effectively be a giant elemental without many of the usual weaknesses of elementals. It would be a master at fleeing, too, according to the information Miranda had given him, so simply attacking it would not end well, even if Jake and the King somehow got it in an ambush and went all out.

The plan Jake had formed was to not fight Ell’Hakan but instead kill the Ashen Phantom Devourer by teaming up with the Fallen King. However, to do this, they needed to make sure they could actually kill the damn thing. Jake did not know how strong Ell’Hakan truly was or if he would even be able to successfully kill him, as he was an annoying bastard who relied on more than just fighting. He had an annoying gut feeling that even if he, the King, and the Sword Saint went after the orange guy together, they would fail in killing him.

This is why Jake would instead try and take out the greatest asset this other Chosen had. No matter what, successfully recruiting a Unique Lifeform into your employ wasn’t easy, and losing it would be a major hit to his fighting power.

Going back to having to actually kill the Ashen Phantom Devourer, there was one major problem. It was a creature specializing in ash and space magic. Jake had seen what Neil could do and now what Sandy was capable of, and he was completely certain he would have no way to chase down a peak D-grade Unique Lifeform using space magic, even if it was injured.

The Fallen King had also mentioned this as the biggest obstacle as, apparently, the King found himself slightly superior during their fights, primarily due to his home-field advantage. One had to remember that the King was, well, a King. He received benefits from an area he had claimed which allowed him to come out on top. Far from enough to actually get a victory and they were still nearly evenly matched. A single slip-up from one party could break the balance, or if one of them managed a breakthrough of some kind by upgrading a skill could result in either of them dying… the King the more likely to fall exactly due to this issue of the Ashen Phantom Devourer being far better at escaping.

This is where Jake came in. More accurately, his ability to be more than just a simple hunter with an arrow and bow. With his current toolkit, he had no way to kill this Ashen Phantom Devourer, and even teaming up with the King, they had no way to stop it, so this issue is what Jake would work on.

Like with the big blue mushroom once upon a time, Jake put on his thinking cap and began to theorize a solution. He needed to find a way to slow down the Unique Lifeform, but it couldn’t be something that would instantly make it want to run away.

Sleeping Night Toxin was out of the question. That poison was frankly only good against human-sized or smaller foes, and this Ashen Phantom Devourer was the opposite of small. By sheer volume, considering it was a living domain, the only creature he had met with a larger Soulshape had to be the whale. Probably the giant sand worms too, but he would not know before actually seeing his foe. Which led to another problem.

Jake did not know what he was facing. Not truly. It wasn’t like he could research his opponent either, as Unique Lifeforms had this annoying tendency to be unique. Samples were awesome when trying to make a counter to something, and getting a sample was absolutely impossible.

What he would make had to be a general poison not aimed at any particular enemy but be able to affect all Soulshapes. It had to be able to limit the mobility of this Ashen Phantom Devourer, hopefully making it unable to flee with its giant domain-like body. If not, then at least slow it down significantly.

To do this, Jake would clearly need very high-level material. He would also need a good quantity of it. As for the type? Well, hemotoxins would not work. Necrotic poison was also out of the question as his opponent was not biological. So he would need it to be an ethtoxin – soul poison – or a neurotoxin. Ethtoxin and neurotoxin often went hand in hand, as ethtoxin was more classification of many different kinds of soul poison.

Neurotoxin would definitely be good. He had also been researching it quite a lot, so he had some confidence.

As stated many times prior, Jake was not a fan of fate-talk, but… some things were just too much to be a coincidence. Jake needed a good source of natural neurotoxin, and what had he just been handed not long ago? A whole crystal container full of the stuff.

[Lifeblood of the Emperor Urchin (Ancient)] – The Lifeblood of a slain Emperor Urchin, an incredibly poisonous creature only found in areas with extremely dense water affinity. Its very blood is toxic to consume and especially toxic if directly injected. The Lifeblood is of a neurotoxin nature. Has many alchemical uses and is especially when combined with other neurotoxins or poisons with the water affinity.

By now, he was beginning to suspect there was some kind of foul play involved. Even if the Viper did not spy, had this Karroch god been watching the situation on Earth? While Jake could feel if people observed him, it was entirely possible the god had just kept an eye on everyone else.

Not that Jake would complain even if the weird beastmaster god had decided to help him out. Ell’Hakan had spent a long-ass time preparing and had his god help liberally, so it was only fair Jake also did a bit of cheating. It wasn’t even Jake cheating… just someone else giving him an unexpected hand.

It wasn’t the case either that this neurotoxin was enough and would instantly be able to accomplish his goal. The Lifeblood of the Emperor Urchin was required to be injected to work correctly, so if Jake decided to use the poison as is, he would accomplish nothing. Chances are it would just harmlessly fall through the domain of the Unique Lifeform, and the only losses the Unique Lifeform would face would be whatever ash was hit.

Jake would need to make this Lifeblood into a workable ethtoxin that did not require injection but could be directly applied to an area. One way to often do this was by making it into a mist that was passively absorbed along with atmospheric mana or having it be naturally antagonistic towards anything with a soul in the area. Both options would work in this case, but Jake was not sure making a mist would be wise. First of all, what if the Unique Lifeform, just, you know, moved out of the mist? It would also very obviously telegraph he was using poison. While Jake could try to mask it with the poison mist from Wings, he was not sure it would fool the Ashen Phantom Devourer.

So, he would have to find a subtle way to administer it while still fighting with the Ashen Phantom Devourer. A way to directly apply it to the Soulshape. As long as he administered enough, it should be adequate with his upgraded Touch of the Malefic Viper, then controlling the poison.

Before he began doing anything, Jake consumed a bit more of the poison from the large crystal, making use of the large quantity he had. He knew it would not be a poison made in a day, but luckily he had a bit of time before he reached his target… and even if he was too slow, well, he could just tell Sandy to enjoy eating some more stuff.

Heck… maybe he could even make the worm find some stuff he needed for the concoction.

Caleb leaned back in his office chair and read over the recent reports. Four hundred and twenty-four. That was the number of City Lord or other high-level leaders of cities that the Court of Shadows had eliminated over the last many weeks, only to have them replaced with leaders from the United Cities Alliance. It was… a lot. All of these cities where they had killed people were also fringe members of the Holy Church or independent cities that did not ally with anyone. Needless to say, the influence of the United Cities Alliance was growing rapidly, and they had prepared for this takeover for a long time.

A knock on the door made him look up as he raised his hand and made it swing open.

Matteo walked in and handed him a token. “Job’s done.”

“Good work as usual,” Caleb acknowledged as he took it. The soul remnants in the token confirmed the kill. The way the tokens worked was that they recorded the actual notification of a given kill, something which resonated with the Truesoul of the target. It was a truly foolproof form of authentication that nothing less than a Transcendant skill or a Bloodline could circumvent.

“How many more targets?” the most efficient assassin in the Court asked.

“Only seventeen without people already on the contract,” Caleb said with a sigh. “Four of which ended with the given assassin dying, so security in those locations will be heightened. Once done, chances are Arthur will just come with more, though.”

“Are those four close enough for me to take them all?” Matteo asked.

“No, only two of them are. I will have Nadia take one of the others and send team one to handle the last one once they return,” Caleb shook his head. He considered going himself, but he was frankly too busy these days. At least the levels were good.

Matteo nodded as he held out his hand. Caleb took out the given tokens with the information on the targets and their locations and handed them to him. The man looked them over but didn’t leave. Instead, he took a seat in another chair and looked at Caleb from across the table.

“What?” Caleb asked.

“Are you really okay with all this?” Matteo asked. “We are indirectly working against your brother no matter how we spin this. Compromising your personal values like this cannot lead to anything good.”

Caleb sighed and leaned back.

“What was the state of the last city you went to?” Caleb asked Matteo.

“It was an utter shithole,” the assassin answered without hesitation.

“Yeah, see, that is where all of this gets a bit more annoyingly complicated. The reason why these takeovers from the United City Alliance have been successful is that they are taking over from someone worse. Who would have thought that a system of governance decided solely by who was the best at killing stuff would lead to not-so-ideal City Lords?” the Judge of the Court said.

“If we were further fucking over the people of Earth just trying to survive, I would have less conflicted feelings, but as things are, I cannot say what we’re doing isn’t… good. Say what you want, but the United Cities Alliance cares about the approval of the public. They are also generally growing, and anywhere they go tends to improve for the better. I have even heard some leaders voluntarily reach out to join the United Cities Alliance and allow actual administrators from the Alliance to take over, leading to better-run cities. Who we\'re killing aren\'t pillars of the community, it is more that we are removing a few moldy support beams threatening to ruin the stability of the entire structure.”

“Doesn’t change the fact you are working against the interest of your family,” Matteo said.

“No, it doesn’t… but it does make this entire shitshow a whole lot more complicated. Also, rather than think of it as working against Jake, I would rather see it as doing him a favor, you know?” Caleb said with a slightly cheeky smile.

Matteo frowned. “How is any of this doing him a favor?”

“See, I would agree that usually making life harder for someone is a dick move, but for my brother, he tends to enjoy it. Moreover, when he returns and gets into action, I hope that a better future can come from it. He will not take this lying down.”

“What if he does not return in time? What if he does and Arthur still gets voted World Leader?” Matteo asked.

Caleb considered for a while. “I see three scenarios. The least likely is that we will simply remain. My brother leaves, and we all handy dandy hang out on Earth and use it as a branch, with Arthur being a nice ally. The second one is Arthur winning, and we leave. Even if the Court is against this, then I am willing to simply leave the Court altogether and take my family with me. Hopefully, the Order of the Malefic Viper will take us, and my gut tells me that the Malefic One would hide our family even if Jake died as a final gift to him. Finally, the most likely thing to happen if Arthur does become World Leader? This planet goes to shit, and Jake hunts him down and kills him; any kind of advantages granted by being World Leader be damned. I don’t see Valhal doing shit about it either, as while I didn’t see the contract, they are not dumb enough to not leave themselves an out and force them into a fight with the Order of the Malefic Viper.”

“Neither of those options appears particularly positive,” Matteo shook his head. “What about if the Malefic’s Chosen does return? Earth will not be the same after this, no matter what. Who will become World Leader?”

“That,” Caleb said as he tried to sound smart, “I don’t know.”

Ell’Hakan stared at the sun slowly descending towards the horizon as he focused. Soon it would be time. Taking out his trident, he made sure it was in top condition. He had made a small house in the middle of the plains outside of Haven and away from anywhere the humans lived. The reason was simple: he needed the Chosen to fight without any distractions.

The sun above bared down on him as he absorbed its light, the surrounding plains faintly glowing gold from the potent energy of the star. Everything was prepared, and he was ready for the fight. The plains were ready, and his domain was set.

Looking out the corner of his eyes, he saw one of the two servants stationed in their area make their way over. They had been placed in Haven to keep a look on things and make sure everything was going according to plan.

“My Lord,” the woman said as she stopped in front of him and kneeled. “The natives are still unable to break through the defenses created by the Verdant Witch and take control of the Pylon. I do not believe our interference is required unless the Malefic’s Chosen takes longer than anticipated to return.”

Ell’Hakan nodded. “As long as they do not manage to take control before there is less than a month to the World Congress, there shall be no worries. By then, it will be too late for the humans to claim it in time. Keep up the work and ensure things continue as they are.”

“Yes, my Lord. May I know what the intent is if the Malefic’s Chosen does not return according to predictions?” the servant asked.

“Predictions. Plural. Only a feeble plan fails if a few factors are out of place. The framework shall remain, and the objective accomplished. Have no doubt either… I believe he will make it back just in time,” Ell’Hakan simply said.

“Now go. Sunset approaches.”

The servant nodded as she rushed back towards Haven. Ell’Hakan did not look after her but instead stared at the orange glow on the clouds above and the sun slowly descending below the horizon. He sat down and marveled at the beauty of the celestial object.

Faint rays of sunlight licked his skin, and the orange glow faintly intensified. Minutes passed as the sun fully disappeared below the horizon. Staring upwards, he saw the clouds obstruct him. Gripping his trident, he raised it and felt the resonance as a beam of faint light descended. The clouds parted as the moon appeared, lighting up the blue tattoos lining his body. The plains themselves also took on a faint blue color and glowed.

Power filled him as he smiled and bowed his head towards the moon before turning and bowing towards where the sun had gone down. “Your child thanks you. Mother. Father.”