Asingular demonstration was all it had taken to turn Miyamoto into a figure of authority above any others. He learned quickly that this planet wasn’t actually struggling much with the regular Primas—or at least, not when it came to defending their major cities.The primary reason for this was the general lack of focus there had been on hunting down regular Primas before the Myriad Paths event, which was in part caused by their culture. As a civilization of purely beastfolk, they viewed the hunting of beasts very differently from the more humanoid races such as elves, humans, or dwarves, generally just leaving other beasts alone unless attacked. In fact, it was far more normal to work together with beasts and live side by side with them.It was comparable to how humans in the multiverse tended to prefer fighting things that didn’t look human at all. Perhaps it was instinctive or born of Records to have an innate dislike of killing those of one’s own race, and it was clearly also presen

“Assistance is not offered; it’s provided whether you want it or not,” the Fallen King said. “Your thoughts on the matter and your opinions are only factors that will lead to needless complications. So stand down and retain your lives.” He was frankly tired of dealing with all these so-called “enlightened” that kept creating problems whenever he and the Sylphian Hawk merely wanted to provide assistance in killing the Prima Guardian.The Fallen King was currently floating in front of a party led by the World Leader of this particular planet. Around fifty of their “elites” were scattered all around him, knocked out with weak soul attacks, having utterly failed to put up any fight worth mentioning. The hawk hadn’t even needed to do anything, instead clearing out every Prima in the vicinity of the Prima Vessel ahead of time.“Replacing one calamity with another is not assistance,” the human woman who wielded the title of World Leader answered.“Consider your options,” the Fallen King said

Back on Earth at Jake’s lodge, more information came in from both William and Arnold. Sylphie also sent a bit, which only made Jake more and more determined.“I told you I’m going,” Jake said in a harsh tone, refusing to hear otherwise as he prepared to storm out of his lodge and straight to Arnold’s teleporter to take him to the planet where the Fallen King and Sylphie were currently in the midst of fighting.“No, you are not,” Miranda said in an even harsher tone as she stepped in front of Jake, blocking the door.“Yes, I fucking am,” Jake said, clenching his fists. “We have no idea what’s truly going on over there, and I’ll⁠—”“That’s exactly why you’re not going,” Miranda interrupted Jake, looking him straight in the eyes. “Take just one moment to actually think for once. We have no information. All we know is that there is some kind of plot that trapped the two of them on the planet, and now, apparently, this ‘I’ creature is there… an entity we know is incredibly dangerous due to

Jake quickly nocked another arrow to release a barrage of purely stable shots, bombarding the creature he had Identified as something called the Desolate Child of Loss. It definitely wasn’t the kind of name of some “normal” race or anything like that; at least, Jake didn’t think so, but neither was it a Unique Lifeform.In truth, Jake had no idea what the fuck they were dealing with. No one seemed to, but right now, it didn’t matter. He kept attacking to buy space for Sylphie and the Fallen King, with the latter especially in need of assistance.Jake’s Protean Arrow had been created with the express intent of getting the Desolate Child of Loss away from the two of them, and was made nearly entirely of stable arcane mana. He had even tried mixing in some neurotoxins. He was fully aware that the desolation would rapidly make anything he did to the creature lose all effect, but he didn’t need it to last that long in the first place.From the looks of it, it proved to be enough as Eron, a

The interior of the lodge was silent, a wood-like mask lying on the table in the middle of the living room. The Sword Saint, Sylphie, Miranda, William, Eron, and Sandy were all inside the room, looking at the mask.Jake had been knocked unconscious for nearly three days after he returned from Earth, having entered what Eron described as a coma-like state to protect himself. He had strained his soul too much during the fight, resulting in his healing journey being set back by a little, but honestly, Jake didn’t care about that right now.They had all gathered once Jake was awake and the Sword Saint returned from saving another planet in their galaxy. It had only been appropriate to wait for him, as the old man had spent several decades with the Unique Lifeform, and while Jake couldn’t say they had been close, they hadn’t been unfriendly either.All of them were silent for a while until the expected blame game began, and everyone had only a single person they believed was at fault: them