”But it’s actually just pure mana?” Carmen asked, still not entirely believing Jake’s claims. ”Definitely didn’t feel like mana.”

”Pure arcane mana,” Jake corrected her. ”The stable variant, that is.”

”Hm, the stabby ones did feel borderline identical to the exploding ones… though the exploding ones maybe felt a bit more aggressive in nature?” she pondered aloud.

”They are definitely more aggressive, hence why they wanna explode,” Jake smiled teasingly as he turned his head and looked at Carmen, who was lying with her hands behind her pillow, staring at the ceiling.

The two of them were currently at Carmen’s place in Nevermore City, inside one of the private residences available only to top members. As someone who had been able to attend the get-together for those who did well on the Leaderboards, Carmen was naturally viewed as a top member. Then again, even if she had done horribly, the mere fact she was a Runemaiden of Valdemar was already enough to get her this designation.

Their duel in the arena had gone on for a few more minutes, but ultimately, there was little progress on either side. Jake could do some minor damage here and there, but Carmen was self-healing quite well. At the same time, Carmen couldn’t land any good hits on Jake. Finding a winner would have required them to keep going until one of them ran out of resources, and while Jake didn’t doubt the crowd would have enjoyed that, Jake and Carmen couldn’t be bothered.

Without any skills, their resources would have lasted for hours, and who really had the time for that? Sure, they could have switched over to using skills, but the arena spar wasn’t a real fight, and if Jake was being honest, he didn’t want to reveal his skills in front of a crowd.

After their fight, they had naturally both been a bit worked up and decided to go to Carmen’s place to ”compare notes” and ”reflect on their battle.” Which was definitely what they did. Definitely. Why else would they now both be lying naked in the bed?

”Maybe I should also work on getting an arcane affinity,” Carmen muttered. ”Then again, the only two people I know with one are you and Eron… well, besides the gods and stuff.”

”It isn’t like arcane affinities are necessarily better either,” Jake shrugged. ”They just seem like that because the affinity naturally fits the person who made it extremely well. Look at Sylphie; she just has the ”basic” wind affinity, and I sure as hell wouldn’t call that weak.”

”Pretty sure she has more than just basic wind. I heard something about Sylphs being a thing, and I’m pretty sure she’s related to those,” Carmen pointed out.

”Still just wind affinity,” Jake shook his head as he sat up. ”Maybe empowered a bit and of a certain flavor, but it’s still wind magic.”

”Hm, I guess you’re right,” Carmen relented as she looked deep in thought.

”Honestly, I’m more curious as to how exactly your level of durability even makes sense,” Jake said as he leaned over and poked her arm. ”Feels and looks like soft human skin, but it felt like striking metal whenever I hit it.”

Carmen didn’t even comment on his pokes as she also sat up. ”I guess it’s a mix between reacting to what is considered attacks and not attacks mixed with… what did you call it again? System-fuckery? Yeah, that thing.”

”Huh. Well, thank fuck for system-fuckery, then. I assume this is also why you can move normally despite your durability and tough skin? I would assume it to be less flexible by default.”

”Probably,” Carmen semi-agreed as she opened and closed a fist. ”It’s pretty sweet, though. I used to be really careful when fighting, and I had to make sure not to take any hits… now, I can take quite a beating without much struggle while giving plenty more back.”

”That actually got me thinking… this Runemaiden stuff also empowered your internals, right?” Jake asked curiously.

”Yep, it’s all-around,” she said with a grin. ”Though some parts are more affected than others. My bones and skin more than anything else. So, pro-tip: if you ever need to kill another Runemaiden, aim for the eyes. That’s probably our biggest weakness.”

”Thanks for the tip, but I was more thinking: how nerfed were you in our little spar? I remember you using a lot of boosting skills that took a heavy load on your body, and these must be a fuckload more powerful now, right?”

”You bet my boosting skills are a fuckload better now,” Carmen grinned. ”But I’m not gonna act like I would have had an advantage with boosting skills. Sure, mine may have been better than yours, but I’m not confident they would have allowed me to land anything decisive. Besides, you would also have way stronger offenses if that happened, and while I’m tough, I’m not invincible. Using boosting skills too much also negatively affects my durability; I learned that the hard way quite a few times in Nevermore.”

”I see, I see,” Jake nodded. ”Say, is it okay for you to be sharing details about Runemaidens like this?”

”Who cares? Valdemar sure as fuck doesn’t strike me as the sort of guy who would,” Carmen shrugged unbothered before turning a bit more serious. ”He does seriously want you to join Valhal, by the way. Gudrun is also entirely on board, and after your Leaderboards placement, I doubt anyone would dare protest.”

”I know he’s interested,” Jake just smiled, not really touching on the subject further. Even if he trusted Carmen, he wouldn’t share with her details about how his relationship with the Malefic Viper truly was. The fewer knew about his status as a Heretic-Chosen, the better.

”Personally… I don’t really think you should join,” Carmen said after a few seconds.

”Hm?” Jake exclaimed, surprised.

”Think about it. If you join, you’ll likely be made the Chosen of Valdemar, or at least someone with a higher position than me, which will make things really fucking awkward. Moreover… I wouldn’t want the competition,” she said, smiling during the last part.

”You’re aiming to become Valdemar’s Chosen?” Jake asked.

”Sure as fuck giving it a shot. I need to if I want to even try and keep up with all of you other damn monsters… seriously, why the fuck are so many of the strongest people in this generation from Earth?”

”Not a clue,” Jake smiled, shaking his head, at least happy to know others shared those feelings.

”It’s just weird,” Carmen sighed.

The two of them didn’t say more as they were silent for a while. After a bit, Jake took out the disc he had been handed by the Demon Prince, having decided to read it over. Carmen saw him take it out, Jake having already explained to her earlier he planned on spending a few days in the Valhal compound, partly to study this disc.

Seemingly not wanting to disturb him, Carmen got dressed and went out into the courtyard of her personal residence to do some training. Jake got curious and decided to see how she was training before he fully immersed his mind in the disc.

He saw her take up a position in the middle of a small open area as she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. Then, her eyes shot open as she punched forward, followed by several more strikes into thin air. She barely moved faster than a regular pre-system human as she boxed with a seemingly invisible opponent, and she even dodged and weaved in between unseen blows. After about a minute, Jake realized something. The way she moved, dodged, struck… was similar to their spar. Not in that it was the general moves, but the entire flow was recognizable.

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She’s shadowboxing a version of me? Jake questioned as he looked at her practice a bit longer. Even from within the building, he could feel the odd energy surrounding Carmen and her intense and unbroken focus as she was entirely immersed in her imagined fight. Some pretty powerful concepts were also at play, and Jake even felt some faint energy come out of the ground beneath her. With a second inspection, he noticed that the huge magic circle spanning the entirety of Valhal’s compound faintly responded, a small part of it active, seemingly facilitating and assisting in training like this.

It really is a peak faction for fighting fanatics, huh, Jake thought with a light smile. With things like this and the archery range, maybe Jake should just see if he could join Valhal as an honorary member. Or, at the very least, blackmail Villy into giving him cool stuff like the archery range.

He really wanted an archery range.

Jake looked on only a bit more before he decided it was time to focus on his own matters. Delving into the disc, Jake began to study the proposed ritual by the Demon Prince, and his first impression was that it felt… kind of familiar? It definitely had many conceptual aspects in common with some of the rituals Jake had done before. There was also a lot of new to it, though, and it was a more complex ritual than anything Jake had ever done before. Besides maybe the one that helped birth Vesperia, however, that ritual had been one that required several stages and whatnot, while this ritual would be a one-and-done.

He also saw that he would not be doing this ritual alone. Several C-grade demons would assist him, but Jake would be the main maestro. The conductor who controlled everything. It was a bit similar to the ritual he had done with Mystie and Hawkie to help hatch Sylphie. This one would require the other helpers to do quite a bit more than Hawkie and Jake had to back then, but everything would be up to the discretion of Jake.

In fact, Jake was pretty quickly beginning to understand why the Demon Prince had asked him. This ritual was not one created to be performed by a C-grade, especially not a mid-tier C-grade. Moreover, based on Jake’s analysis, the person performing the ritual had to be within only a dozen or so levels of the Demon Prince, or it simply wouldn’t work due to the disparity in quality. While each grade was a massive jump, each level within every grade was also a small step, and having someone atop the staircase try to do this ritual wouldn’t lead to any good results for the demon.

Coupled with the extreme requirements of the ritual master – the one in charge of the ritual – Jake could see how it would be difficult to find someone qualified. It was also easy to see, especially when the Demon Prince also factored in Jake’s identity as the Harbinger of Primeval Origins, that Jake seemed like perhaps the best choice in the multiverse. And while the process of creating creatures like Vesperia was a lot simpler than most probably expected, it still wasn’t easy.

With all of this in mind, one ultimate question remained: did Jake have confidence in pulling off this proposed ritual?

Well, he would give it at least a fifty-fifty. It was definitely harder than anything he had ever done before, but Jake had also grown a lot stronger since he last did any major rituals, outside of the one with the Twinhead Ogre, but that was more fucking up an existing ritual circle.

Over these last fifty years, he had definitely progressed a lot when it came to ritualism. In addition, he specialized in Soul Ritualism, which this ritual definitely fell under. From his analysis, the primary bottleneck with this ritual also wasn’t pure skill or the knowledge of the ritual master but as much the insane minimum requirement of control and stats. There was a lot of powerful energy to keep track of at once, and some of this energy would be related to the Cerulean Devil. Most wouldn’t even dare try and touch anything related to a god… but Jake didn’t really care overly much.

One annoying thing did become clear, though.

I’ll need to throw in some Jake Juice as a binding agent of sorts, he noted to himself. Not a lot of it, just enough to nudge things to merge together. Maybe other alchemists or ritual experts could find some way to make them merge without this method, but Jake sure as hell didn’t know any. With what he was reading from the disc provided by the Demon Prince, the demons sure didn’t have any set plans either but would ”leave the merging process entirely up the Chosen’s discretion.”

A nice way of asking him to please figure out how to do it.

He already had a rough idea what kind of approach he wanted to take after just checking over all the information once, but he still had to fully familiarize himself with the role of every one of his would-be assistants and get a comprehensive understanding of everything that would go down. At least one good enough so that he could handle everything that went wrong on the fly by following his instincts.

Jake did also have to consider the-

”Damn, you’re deep, you’ve been at it for hours,” Carmen’s voice interrupted Jake’s train of thought as he opened his eyes and stared into Carmen’s that were right in front of his face.

”I’m focused,” Jake smiled as he didn’t move. ”And for the record, I did see you coming.”

”Sure as hell didn’t react.”

”Why would I?” Jake kept smiling.

”Out of politeness?” Carmen shot back, leaning slightly closer. ”Maybe I wanted something?”

”And what may you want?”

Carmen smiled deeply as she leaned in and whispered in his ear: ”I want you to touch me… with Touch of the Malefic Viper.”

Jake’s smile faded as the mood quickly died, and Carmen leaned back with a big grin on her face. ”More specifically, I want to see if you can get through my defenses.”

”I see you’ve upped your game when it comes to mental attacks,” Jake said as he pushed her off the bed with a small push.

She landed easily on her feet, still grinning. ”Or maybe the target was just too susceptible to this particular kind of attack. Now, are you up for it?”

”Alright, but it isn’t my fault if I melt a limb off,” Jake sighed as he also finally got off the bed and got dressed.

”Eh, I can always get a new one,” Carmen shrugged. ”By the way, have you learned to pop out new limbs yet? I nearly could before my Runemaiden Ritual, but my body is a bit harder to heal now, mainly because of how damn resistant it is to pretty much all kinds of energies.”

”I think I’m pretty close if I use a healing potion,” Jake answered. ”Though I tend to avoid losing limbs in the first place. Also, can we talk about how little sense it makes that healing a damn hole in my chest seems easier than a severed hand? I know why it works like that with the Soulshape and all, but still, it’s weird, right?”

”Weird for sure, and no one else seems to think so,” Carmen sighed as the two of them walked outside into the small courtyard.

”Truly indoctrinated by the power of system-fuckery,” Jake joined her in sighing. ”Now, are you ready to have your arm melted off? I have been meaning to test my newly improved skills with acids using Touch, and this seems like a prime opportunity.”

”Give it your worst,” Carmen said as they both sat down with their legs crossed as she stretched out her arm.

Jake put both hands around her forearm as he looked at her. ”Ready?”

”Already told you,” she said unbothered.

”Here we go then,” Jake said as he activated the skill.

Runes lit up all over Carmen’s body as he did so, and he felt the sheer resistance as his hands began to glow dark green. A crackling sound echoed throughout the courtyard as he saw Carmen grimace, the runes shining brighter and brighter by the second as Jake kept pouring in the energy, her skin turning a shade darker.

Jake felt the resistance grow but after an assuring look from Carmen, he kept going. Her arm was definitely slowly getting affected as the runes absorbed more and more of the deadly energy, but Jake just kept pushing on harder and harder. He kept going for nearly half a minute until suddenly, Jake felt all the resistance disappear as all the runes in her arm fractured.

”Oh shi-” Carmen tried to exclaim but never got further as something that should perhaps have been predicable happened.

Her entire arm exploded, launching Jake and Carmen away from each other, splattering blood all over both of them. Jake even had to react at the very last moment by using Eternal Shadow as bone fragments flew for him, each of them giving off an intense sense of danger as he felt like each of them could have pierced pretty damn deep.

As the dust settled, Jake saw Carmen stand back up, missing her left arm at her shoulder, with cracks forming from her shoulder down her upper body. A bit of poison had even leaked in, but he felt it quickly be consumed as only the runes on her body had been destroyed.

”You okay?” Jake asked as he himself was uninjured after he had his Eternal Shadow take the brunt of the explosion.

”I’m all right,” Carmen said, grinning as she looked at her missing left arm. ”Get it? All right.”

”That joke was bad, and you should feel bad,” Jake said, as he nevertheless failed to hold himself back from smiling. ”Did you at least learn something useful?”

”Not to let people with glowing hands touch me for too long at a time,” Carmen said as she took out a health potion and consumed it as she looked at her right arm. ”Wanna try again? I kinda wanna see if I can actively resist it…”

Jake looked at her for a moment incredulously before just shrugging. ”Sure, you even got two legs, and I have plenty of mana to spare.”

”Glad to see we’re on the same page,” Carmen smiled, seeming almost excited at the prospect.