A lot could go wrong in a very short amount of time. Especially when there were so many factors at play and different people and factions with their own agendas running around trying to get the best out of the situation they possibly could.

To further complicate things, add on top of that people who thought they were allies suddenly no longer in agreement. Oh yeah, and to really fuck things up, have not only the ninty-third universe be in quite a state of change and turmoil, but have other places in the multiverse also reaching a boiling point.

Jake, after being told by Lillian to hurry, rushed to the office in Haven as quickly as he could and found the entire place scrambling. People were flying back and forth, and through his Sphere, he saw quite a few familiar faces being hard at work doing… something.

He didn’t spot Miranda anywhere, though, so he quickly headed inside and straight for Miranda’s office, where Lillian was yelling at two guys. They left quickly, and Jake took the opportunity to sneak inside. He revealed himself from stealth, with Lillian not even showing the slightest surprise at his sudden appearance.

“Good, you’re here, let’s go,” Lillian said, immediately going past Jake. “We’re heading to the Prima Vessel.”

Jake wanted to ask what was going on but followed for now as he reached out telepathically, talking as they walked.

“What’s happening?”

“A lot,” Lillian briefly answered before elaborating. “The moment the final Prima Guardian was slain, we barely had time to take it in before the attacks arrived. The Prima Vessels remain active even now, meaning the teleporters like the one Arnold made are still fully functional. What’s more, the regular teleportation circles for the Prima Guardian Alliance also still work and likely will continue to work until the event is fully over for the entire universe. We had halfway expected this, as the system clearly wants to facilitate diplomatic relations during this period, and allowing cultural intermingling is only expected… but we didn’t expect them to be used like this.”

“Who’s attacking? Ell’Hakan?” Jake asked, the two of them already heading to the teleporter in Haven to take them to the Prima Vessel.

“He’s certainly involved, but no, not directly… we neglected to consider a lot of things, including what would happen with the planets that had fallen to the Prima Guardians. The assumption was that they would be taken over by the local beasts, which did prove correct, but we didn’t expect them to immediately launch attacks once able, partly because we didn’t think they would be able to, seeing as they didn’t join the alliance,” Lillian said, the two of them having reached the teleporter as they kept speaking telepathically.

“How did they teleport when-“

“We’re not entirely sure, but we know they were allowed in by local beasts and monsters or at least allies of them,” Lillian cut him off as she activated the teleporter, making the two of them reach the other side of the planet in a flash. “Monsters usually don’t work together due to their nature, especially not different species… but in this instance, they have a uniting force: the alliance created by Yip of Yore. Most of the random gods we didn’t know much of have sided with Yip, or perhaps they had always sided with him… the result is the same.”

Jake tried to wrap his head around everything she was saying. He knew that Yip of Yore had a lot of gods on his side, sure. However, it didn’t sound like this was in any way within expectations just going by the otherwise cool and collected Lillian being this stressed out.

“Do we have any idea of how many gods are involved?” Jake asked. They had estimated at least a few hundred had to be involved and helping Ell’Hakan. However, if it was over a thousand, it could perhaps prove troublesome, but it shouldn’t-

“Thousands… way more than anyone could have predicted. The Holy Church is also far more involved than I first believed and seemingly ordered their followers to fully go along with Ell’Hakan’s plans,” Lillian answered, flying forward with her moonlight magic, Jake following her and easily keeping pace, the Prima Vessel right in front of them.

Inside, he spotted the expected characters. The Sword Saint, Miranda, Vesperia, Caleb, Sky Whale, Carmen, Kindroth, Casper, and several others who had also been in the lodge meeting had gathered, though absent were all the random World Leaders Jake had seen before.

Arnold, William, and Sandy were also inside the vessel but in the room with the teleporter, doing something. Jake wanted to ask Lillian about what but had more pressing questions. ṝ

“What in the actual fuck happened?” Jake asked, not even bothering with telepathy anymore as they reached the entrance to the Prima Vessel. “I know I was absent, but… alright, what’s the damage? What’s the nature of these attacks?”

“A lot of them are political, with people creating riots and what can only be called attempts at civil war. However, the biggest problem is the interference of the gods… they’re recruiting everywhere. Giving Blessings left and right to anyone who will do their bidding, including those who have any authority over the teleporters. Quite a few World Leaders have also even been tempted, with others switching sides. This is just talking about the enlightened, with the beasts and monsters a far bigger problem. We knew that the Holy Church didn’t consist solely of enlightened, but we didn’t expect them to have this many monsters hidden as part of their factions, too, just lying in wait.”

She proceeded to elaborate as they walked with hurried steps through the Prima Vessel, getting him fully up to speed about what had happened. As she said, two kinds of attacks had been launched instantly, one using the teleportation network established by the event and the other from internal conflicts on the planets. The primary instigators of this were the gods who supported Ell’Hakan, including many affiliated with the Holy Church.

Many of these individuals had apparently been prepared for what was to happen when it came to internal conflicts. Others were instantly informed as divine messages were sent from the gods the second communication was back on the menu.

Adding on top of that, the gods had begun spreading their faith and granting Blessings left and right. Usually, getting a Blessing from a god wasn’t easy at all, and getting a high-level Blessing required you to be an already extraordinary figure. However, now they were being offered with no more requirements than loyalty and being useful… with the most useful those who could operate the alliance teleporters.

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Two fucking days… that was how long Jake couldn’t be contacted, and shit had well truly hit the fan as Lillian had said, and he wasn’t even sure where to start. He was confused about one thing, though, and turned to Lillian as they fast approached the control room where Miranda and the others were already actively discussing.

“This all seems so damn fast,” Jake said, now within earshot of the people in the control room. “Where did they get the guts to act this brazen? Aren’t they afraid of how we’ll retaliate?”

“They don’t appear to be, and I believe It’s strongly due to what’s happening in the rest of the multiverse… more accurately, in the first universe,” Miranda answered as she turned and looked at Jake with a grave look as he and Lillian had arrived at the open doors to the control room.

“Elaborate,” Jake said, returning her serious look.

“Right as communication was reestablished, I made contact with my Patrons, and they were in a panic,” Miranda said, looking Jake in the eyes. She looked as if she really didn’t want to say the next part, but took a deep breath and did so as she knew there really wasn’t a choice.

“I don’t know how or from where, but it was leaked that the Malefic Viper had forcefully interfered in something in the ninety-third universe using a Transcendent Skill and had suffered a backlash from doing so, leaving him injured… Yip of Yore took advantage immediately. I’m still very unclear on the exact situation, but as I said, my Patrons are in a panic, and things aren’t looking good as Yip and his allies have gone on the offensive, and the Order is in shambles.”

The others in the room also had severe looks on their faces as Miranda spoke. A pit had opened in Jake’s stomach as he heard this, guilt washing over him, and he clenched his fists hard.

“Jake… I know the Malefic One has some plans, but he couldn’t have planned for what happened a few months ago, and… this doesn’t feel controlled at all. I don’t think this is something the Viper intended or is part of his schemes, and you really need to talk to him if possible.”

A single drop of blood fell from Jake’s right fist as his nails dug into his skin, but he didn’t react and just turned around quickly, not even having to say that he was on his way to contact the Viper… assuming he was able to.

--

Momentum.

Many factors played a role in a fight, but perhaps the most important was momentum. To have the other party move to the beat of your drum and dictate the flow of combat was essential to come out victorious and overpowering your opponent. Jake had won many battles throughout his life, not because he was stronger than his foe, but because he was able to claim momentum and never lose it, making the other party fail to fully display their power as he simply never gave them the opening to do so.

Control over momentum was one of the reasons why Valdemar was viewed as a near-unbeatable machine. He was able to forcefully break through your momentum and reclaim it with a single swipe of his axe and shift his gear in an instant if the battle required it. However, it wasn’t only in a fight momentum held so much importance.

In wars, it was arguably even more important. Having momentum meant you had high morale, motivated fighters, and belief in victory. For the longest time, there hadn’t been any true conflict between the Malefic Viper and Yip of Yore. Everything had just been a proverbial dick-measuring contest or a proxy battle using their Chosen. Things hadn’t truly escalated as Yip had continued to build himself up until he believed it was time to strike and begin their actual battle. He was waiting for a moment where striking would allow him to instantly claim momentum and set the pace of the conflict… and such an opportunity had been handed to him on a silver platter.

The Malefic Viper, a Primordial who hadn’t proven himself for a long time and was someone only surviving on his reputation, had gone and gotten himself injured. When one spoke about gods getting injured, one never really considered physical injury, as such things could easily be healed.

Such couldn’t be said about injuries to the soul. Soul injuries could take extremely long to heal for gods, and sometimes, the god couldn’t recover fully at all. In lower grades, one could recover from nearly everything simply with time and the system helping out, but that wasn’t the case for gods. Time tended to do very little, and expensive items and other such things were required for recovery.

Of course, seeing as the Malefic Viper was an alchemist, it was expected he had methods to speed up his recovery, but no one believed even he could heal instantly, especially not when he had presumably directly interfered with another universe with his Transcendent Skill during a system event. That’s why Yip of Yore hadn’t hesitated and pushed forward his plans as he made his move the moment he learned of it.

Starting a fight with your enemy already on the back foot was the best way to instantly claim momentum, especially for someone like Yip of Yore, who benefitted from concepts such as momentum far more than anyone else. The narrative escalation directly empowered him, and as he built to the grand finale, he would only grow stronger and stronger until it was finally time to face his fated enemy.

But before that, he had to keep building his legend while undermining belief in the Primordial.

Ever since the Malefic Viper had returned, his Order had begun to once more expand, but now these expansions proved to be nothing more than easy targets for Yip and his minions. Gods didn’t even have to get involved, as branches in several universes were attacked before they even stood a chance at mustering a proper response.

Territories claimed by the Order were taken and promptly returned to the factions the Order of the Malefic Viper had claimed them from when they established their branches, assuming there were any survivors yet to reclaim the land, that is. Yip of Yore swept through like a hero, purging the presence of the Malefic One wherever he went.

The Order naturally responded as battles broke out that made the conflict in the Milky Way Galaxy look like children playing in comparison. S-grades died in the thousands as none had yet to deploy gods directly, but things were heavily escalating as the multiverse looked on.

Everyone waited. Waited for the Malefic One to make himself known and crush the conflict as the Primordial he was, yet as the days passed… nothing. No response at all from the Viper himself, and when it was leaked that the Lord Protector had taken charge of dealing with the conflict, doubt only grew.

Yip of Yore happily jumped on this, proclaiming the Viper was afraid of facing him. With every passing day, his words only appeared more and more like the truth, as it was clear the Order was on the back foot. They simply didn’t have the numbers Yip of Yore had been able to muster, and many of the gods part of the newer generations were excited at the prospect of going after the old guard of the multiverse.

It wasn’t even a secret that many gods were unsatisfied with the status quo of the multiverse. The largest factions were all established in the first few eras, with no new ones ever growing to even be worthy comparisons. They saw Yip of Yore and what he was doing as an opportunity to change this, and not just because it would make them feel better, but to set a precedent.

Records worked in mysterious ways, and if Yip of Yore managed to truly prove himself a being capable of standing up to the ancient gods, he would also prove it was possible for the new gods to catch up and rival the ancients. A real chance for a new peak faction to appear in the multiverse, not ruled by a god who ascended in the first couple of eras.

Of course, many still doubted Yip of Yore, but with every passing day, belief in him grew. Especially when no other faction stepped in to interfere. Perhaps because they feared Valhal would also step in if they got involved, but the result was that all the peak factions of the multiverse were nothing but passive observers of everything going on.

At least they were passive in ninety-two of the universes… but the same couldn’t be said about the ninety-third, where they were far keener to get directly involved, especially the Holy Church and Valhal.

Not many focused on this new universe, though, as all eyes were on the two gods who were bound to face one another sooner rather than later, and all were waiting for when the Malefic Viper would finally respond… and if said response would be enough to turn the momentum in his favor, or only continue to build Yip of Yore’s.