Jake understood that in the grand context of the multiverse, his caring about Chris could be viewed as genuinely weird. He and the builder had never been that close, and Jake had really only known him at a surface level before he died. Sure, Jake had held a good impression of the young man for standing up to Abby and Donald way back then, but that was it.So far, in this war between Jake and Ell’Hakan, millions had died—and that tally rose even higher if one counted the conflict between Villy and Yip. Either way, there’d been far more casualties than Jake even knew about. Many of those were people Jake had seen or known before, though still not closely. Yet he’d never felt anything particular when they died. That was likely why Ell’Hakan was so confused. In his view, Chris had just been a worker that Jake employed to make a monument for him. He had no way of knowing Jake and Chris had formed any kind of personal relationship, as the only people who knew how the two had met were Mirand

Jake had to react quickly to the attacks arriving both from above and right in front of him. Rather than try to retreat as Ell’Hakan would probably expect, Jake dove toward the trident that was stabbing for his chest, narrowly avoiding it while getting out of the way of the sunbeam.This put him in an awkward position, allowing Ell’Hakan to unleash an inferno blast straight to his front. He went tumbling back from the impact, his clothes now even more burnt than before. Right as he stabilized himself, the next attack arrived from the sun above: yet another powerful beam. He barely had time to react while also dealing with the hyper-offensive Ell’Hakan, leaving him with yet more burns.With the sun having reached its zenith, the momentum of battle had changed entirely. Jake found himself constantly on the defensive as he tried to slowly acclimate to the extreme heat, barely holding off Ell’Hakan’s constant assault. The fire spells that had once been only a little dangerous had been emp

From the very beginning, the Paths walked by Yip of Yore and his Chosen had been flawed. The flaw wasn’t extreme, and it wasn’t something that made them necessarily bad Paths, but it was a flaw nonetheless. One there truly didn’t appear to be any workaround for.Their Paths both fundamentally revolved around lies. Making themselves appear as something they truly weren’t, gaining recognition and faith from others based on the false truth they represented. In many ways, Ell’Hakan’s Path was more complete than Yip of Yore’s, as the actual truth behind Ell’Hakan’s grand lie was far less well-known, and his Bloodline made convincing others of his truths far easier.However, no matter how many people Ell’Hakan or Yip of Yore convinced of a lie, there would always be at least one person who knew the truth. One person who weakened the entire foundation of their Paths, as their Records of knowing reality couldn’t help but influence their skills. This person was naturally the one in the center

Explosions and cutting waves of crescent moonlight reshaped the landscape as Jake and Ell’Hakan battled across the planet’s surface, tearing everything up in their path. Most of it was sand, but there were also plenty of massive, rocky plains for them to destroy. Jake constantly redirected Ell’Hakan’s blows away from himself and into the environment, the nahoom not caring in the slightest and continuing to release his rain of starlight shards.Courtesy of the Void Sphere, none of their destruction was reflected in the real world, nor did they encounter any other living beings as they continued fighting, the battle having taken on its own tempo. Ell’Hakan had slightly powered up once more despite his state seemingly worsening, allowing him to constantly put pressure on Jake.Not that Jake was losing out much. The battle stayed surprisingly equal for a while, with Jake constantly retreating and forcing Ell’Hakan to give chase so Jake couldn’t pull out his bow, as while Ell’Hakan had a s

The dark skies above were roaring with power, the faith energy of Ell’Hakan having all gathered into one point. A pressure powerful enough to calm the planet briefly washed over it right after Ell’Hakan spoke and formed the eclipse.Gone was the scorching heat of the sun and the stillness of the moonlight. In their place was an all-new kind of concept that seemed to align with both the sun and the moon, yet surpassed both.For a very brief moment, Jake thought back to the tutorial when he’d used the corrupted shard on the King of the Forest and created an explosion resembling an eclipse. Back then, it had been born from two opposing and unstable energies forcibly mixing... and in truth, this wasn’t much different.The sun was a bringer of warmth and life. Meanwhile, the moon represented a harbinger of cold nights and the stillness of death. Mixing these two wasn’t meant to happen, as they opposed one another... but it could be done, which was when he recalled another memory of someone