The interior of the lodge was silent as a wood-like mask lay 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 had 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: themselves.

”I should have been able to get back faster,” the Sword Saint said in a severe tone while frowning. ”Not until it was too late did I realize how severe the situation truly was…”

”I shouldn’t have been a fucking moron and gotten myself injured. If I only I had been a condition to properly fight, I could have been the one to buy us time,” Jake also said, feeling like he was far more responsible than the Sword Saint, who hadn’t even been there.

”Ree…” Sylphie sadly let out a small screech. She was sad and angry at herself that she hadn’t been faster or stronger. That she hadn’t heard the whispers of the wind earlier and made their escape or that she hadn’t insisted on running right away when the Desolate Child of Loss had not been overtly aggressive.

Out of everyone, she was perhaps the one who blamed herself the most, as she had been there from the beginning. They had been a team going around together, taking down Prima Guardians and saving planets, and she felt like she’d let her teammate down and left him for dead.

”And I should have had better intelligence so that all this could have been prevented,” Miranda agreed and sighed. ”But blaming ourselves won’t help anything, and while I can’t say I knew the Fallen King that well, I at least knew him well enough that he would have called us all foolish for dwelling on the past and not focusing on the future.”

Jake kind of wanted to protest but kept quiet as he could almost hear the admonishing words of the Unique Lifeform that they dared waste time sitting like this together just staring at a damn mask rather than spend their time productively.

Looking at the mask, it hadn’t changed in appearance in the slighest. Then again, it hadn’t really changed ever since Jake got it. Thinking back, wasn’t this the piece of equipment he had the longest if one didn’t count his boots and necklace that he’d upgraded several times using different items? Wasn’t the mask the only thing that had remained mostly unchanged, at least when it came to its effects?

Jake couldn’t remember anything else he still had from all the way back in the tutorial which he actively used. Maybe his cauldron and bed… but they weren’t the same as something he wore on his face all the time.

Despite its lack of changes in appearance and effect, the description of the Mask of the Fallen King had undergone some changes whenever something major happened with the Unique Lifeform he originally got it from… and this time was no different as it had once more been updated.

[Mask of the Fallen King (Unique)] – A mask containing the Records and Truesoul of the Fallen King, a mighty Unique Lifeform. The mask is made of a wood-like material unique to the lifeform it comes from and it does not obstruct vision when worn and regenerates itself from any damage taken. The Truesoul and final intent of the Unique Lifeform remains within, allowing this item to continue growing as you grow in power. Enchantments: Truesoul of the Fallen King. Passively absorbs mana in the atmosphere, increasing mana recovery rate by a large amount. Increases maximum mana by 25%.

Requirements: Soulbound

He had made it so everyone could see the description as he quite honestly didn’t care to keep it a secret, and it didn’t have much in there that he believed was worth keeping hidden in the first place, even if he knew the mask – purely as a piece of equipment – surpassed even Eternal Hunger in some areas. Anything giving percentage amplifiers was incredibly rare, after all, and he knew it was only possible because of the unique nature of the mask.

As for the actual contents of the description… Jake wasn’t exactly sure what it all truly meant. He remembered the conversation he had with the Fallen King shortly after the Unique Lifeform’s resurrection and what he’d said back then.

Not even the King knew what would happen if he died with his physical body. All they both knew was that the mask contained the Truesoul of the Unique Lifeform, and it had since the very beginning. In some ways, the mask could be viewed as the ”true” body of the Fallen King, but it wasn’t as simple as that.

The mere fact Jake had gotten experience from the Fallen King the first time around meant he truly died… and this time, he had died once more. This left some hope, as Jake saw a way to once more bring the Fallen King back to life, and he even had a healer in the room who knew more about souls and healing than any other C-grade he was aware of.

Asking him was only natural, and the healer took a while before he sighed.

”All creatures in the multiverse have souls. That’s simply a law of the world… but they tend to have more than a soul. A Soulshape. An actual physical or even metaphysical body, but no matter what, they have something that exists within reality. The Unique Lifeform known as the Fallen King had neither of these… when I healed the vessel he called his body, I noticed how foreign it was to anything else, which was a big reason why I couldn’t truly heal it. The Soulshape had been created from scratch, every part of it meticulously designed and infused with what felt like parts of the Fallen King’s Truesoul, which shouldn’t be possible according to what I know,” the healer said, speaking with a higher level of uncertainty than usual.

”What I’m saying is… the Fallen King wasn’t a creature with a soul, but a soul that made itself a creature. It’s all in reverse done through what I can only describe as methods worthy of being called unique and not anything I believe regular beings could achieve.”

”Doesn’t that mean he can be healed like he was the first time around?” Jake asked with a high level of hope as he looked at the mask, not entirely understanding what Eron had said. ”Chances are his soul is just slumbering and slowly regenerating within, and given enough time, he should be back… maybe with another item like the Soul Renewal, we could resurrect him fully.”

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Eron sighed again and continued. ”The situation was very different. I’m unaware of what led to the circumstances of the Fallen King back then, but clearly, he had prepared for his own resurrection and planted the seed for it to happen. He had transferred all the required parts of his Truesoul into the mask before his death, either on purpose or on accident… but this time, he couldn’t. He burned away all those parts.”

”But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to be able to resurrect himself given enough time. I’m sure an arrogant ass like him wouldn’t just-”

”Jake… there’s no spark,” Eron interrupted Jake with a severe look as he kept staring at the mask.

Jake opened his mouth but stopped himself as he clenched his fists. Back in the Treasure Hunt, Eron had recognized Jake’s mask was special because he sensed the faint spark burning within it. If there was none now…

Eron sensed the mood and continued talking.

”There are a lot of things we don’t know, and Unique Lifeforms are called unique for a reason. The Truesoul of the Fallen King is still sealed in the mask. Usually, when something dies, every aspect of the soul disperses except for the Truesoul which returns to the system, but the Fallen King’s Truesoul didn’t. I have never heard of someone dying without their Truesoul being reclaimed before. That’s why when truly resurrecting someone, it’s very important to act quickly, as it needs to be done before the Truesoul is reclaimed, or the resurrection will fail. Of course, there are ways to delay the Truesoul leaving, and sometimes it does linger... but not in the form of an item that can even be Soulbound,” Eron spoke, saying a lot, yet not much they didn’t already know.

”You’re saying that right now, not knowing exactly what is going on is a good thing,” the Sword Saint chimed in.

”Essentially, yes… and while I did say there is no spark, there clearly is still something in there,” the healer agreed with a nod, silence once more overtaking the lodge as Jake just kept staring at the mask. He clenched his fists and felt the pain shoot up his arms from his still weak and overburdened body.

Another bizarre thought also struck him. Before, he had never really considered it, but he would essentially be wearing the corpse of a comrade on his face. It was already a bit weird before that he was wearing the ”body” of the King, but now it had just gotten worse. Jake didn’t want to just write the King off, though. The multiverse was full of possibilities, and he did still have the mask.

Plus… the King had done something right before he knocked Jake out. Golden whisps of light had flown from the King’s mask and into Jake’s own, and nothing really explained that. Maybe it was just some final transference of energy, maybe it was a final parting gift to allow the item to keep existing, or maybe it was the Fallen King planting a small seed of faint hope… no one knew, and as the Sword Saint and Eron said, right now not knowing was a good thing.

For now, whatever hope he could find was what Jake would hold onto until he knew for certain the King had no way to ever return. Also… he had considered using his Primeval Origin abilities to see if they could help heal the King, but he truly had no idea how that would work or if it even would work. After the Palate disaster, he wasn’t just going to randomly be testing either.

If he fucked up, he could end up dispelling what hope there was by destroying the mask and sending the Truesoul back to the system. That, or perhaps he did somehow end up resurrecting a Fallen King… but not the Fallen King. Maybe he would create an entirely new Unique Lifeform sharing the same abilities as the King but without his memories and personality, and if he did that, was it truly a resurrection?

Jake didn’t believe it would be… so for now, he wouldn’t do anything stupid. In some ways, maybe his prior stupidity was a good thing in that aspect because if he hadn’t had his ”accident,” there was a good chance he would have tested his Jake Juice without much apprehension, and that could easily have ended even more disastrously than Jake merely dealing severe soul damage to himself. He already felt shitty enough over Villy suffering backlash from using his Transcendent skill, so if he had ended up effectively killing someone’s hope for resurrection, Jake wasn’t sure how he would have dealt with it.

After they all sat in silence for a while longer, Sylphie went over and picked up the mask before bringing it to Jake and putting it in his lap before looking up at him. Jake smiled and scratched her feathers as he took the mask and donned it on his face once more where it belonged.

The description said the item would continue to grow in power as Jake got more powerful… and he would be damned if he didn’t at least keep the Truesoul of the Unique Lifeform fully saturated at all times so that if he was ever brought back he couldn’t give Jake a scolding for slacking off too much. Again.

”I know this isn’t the best time to bring it up… but there is still the matter regarding the Desolate Child of Loss,” Miranda said after Jake had put on the mask, it all serving as a moment of slight catharsis.

The mood in the room instantly had a damper put on it when the creature that had caused the death of the Fallen King was mentioned. Sylphie looked angry, and Jake wasn’t happy either. He still felt weird about the creature, though.

He was used to fighting either dumb monsters with no proper sapience or intelligent opponents who knew what they were doing. The Desolate Child of Loss fell into an uncomfortable in-between. It was clearly sapient and yet not truly intelligent enough to properly comprehend why it did everything it was doing.

Jake wasn’t sure if it was even worth thinking or talking about anymore. They didn’t truly know if it was dead or alive, though, and this wasn’t a situation where not knowing was good. There was one thing that led them to even have this conversation above any other:

No kill notification.

”We can’t know if the creature survived or not,” Jake said, shaking his head. ”My intuition isn’t really giving me anything either, but my senses are a bit out of wack right now, so I’m not sure how trustworthy they are.”

Miranda nodded and looked at the metal mage who had been standing in the corner, not really part of the conversation but in the lodge because he had been part of the team that went to help the King and Sylphie and to share his insights from the trip.

”I can’t say if it’s truly dead, but what little karma I could feel before is now undetectable… again, this doesn’t mean that it’s dead, but it does at the very least mean that the creature has gotten severely weakened to a point where it isn’t conscious,” William said with a high level of certainty.

”No matter if it’s alive or dead… why did such a creature even exist?” Jake asked the karmic mage. ”It clearly hated my guts and spoke weirdly in tongues.”

”It did hate you, and its animosity toward you was extreme to a borderline impossible level, and it was clearly born already hating you… but the karmic thread wasn’t normal. It was as if the hatred wasn’t truly the creature’s but merely something it had inherited or that it had been indoctrinated into believing you were the definition of evil itself,” the mage said, frowning.

”Is Ell’Hakan involved?” Jake asked, some of his killing intent unwillingly leaking out at the mere thought of that orange fucker being part of this shit.

”Yes and no,” William said. ”This creature was connected to Ell’Hakan for sure… but I can’t really say he had any real relation to the creature. The Desolate Child of Loss’s connection to him was similar to the one it had with you. It was unnatural, and I sincerely doubt Ell’Hakan was even aware this creature existed before it began making itself known by turning planets desolate.”

”Did it also hate him?” Jake asked.

”That I couldn’t tell for sure, but it didn’t feel that way at all, and the connection it had to him was far more powerful than the one it had to you, but also far, far weirder,” William said. ”I can’t really describe it properly. The connection is there, but more from a conceptual and records perspective rather than any actual personal bond. The best way I can describe it is the connection between someone having grown up constantly hearing about someone and knowing everything about them without ever actually meeting, with the other person just someone with an unwilling fanatical mega-fan or mega-hater in your case.”

Jake listened and remained quiet as Sylphie spoke.

”Ree, ree.”

”Yeah, for sure,” Jake nodded.

Sylphie pointed out that even if Ell’Hakan wasn’t involved… someone else clearly was. Someone intelligent who had been scheming this. The planet had been a trap and the World Leader had obviously colluded with someone to teleport the Desolate Child of Loss there with impeccable timing.

Someone had caused this… and Jake would be damned if he didn’t hunt down and kill every single individual even tangentially related.

After he had some more time to recover and not be in a complete and utter shitty state, that is.