Chapter 351

Jacob followed King Blade inside the landscape that he had just sketched on the ground with just a few brush strokes, with a brush that had appeared in the king’s hands. And when he was inside, he turned for a second toward the portal and examined it with the Grimoire.

What Jacob saw next froze his blood.

He was in a large room with only an opening very high above, which led a circular disc of sunlight down in a perfect vertical cylinder. Inside that light, there was a girl. She was not older than him. A young woman. She was unconscious, but her body shook and convulsed every few seconds. Whenever the convulsions brought her to touch the light around her, it burned her body, and she shook back toward the middle.

“What the—”

Jacob cut himself off and looked at King Blade.

“Gornyakov was a master. A grandmaster. A man whom even I often failed to understand. He possessed the depth of a Primordial God when it came to his esoteric knowledge. Rafnov had found a technique. A weapon. Well, a way to make the weapon, but he had never used it. Gornyakov then took Luriev’s youngest granddaughter and did this to her.”

Jacob looked at the woman and said, “What is happening?”

“Taya. Luriev’s youngest granddaughter. Once Gornyakov killed the Primordial God of Chaos, he sealed its power into her, creating a woman who would eventually become stronger than a Primordial God. It’s written in her fate.”

Jacob turns toward King Blade right after using the Grimoire on the girl — on Taya — and then said, “That girl is frozen in time.”

“That is the Primordial Spell that Gornyakov created, so that he could figure out what to do to control such power. He’s a hero. But what he did to Luriev’s granddaughter, who considered him an uncle, is—”

Jacob wasn’t listening to any of that, and just said, “She was frozen mid-transformation. She’s not even a threat right now. So this was—”

Oh my goodness.

Gornyakov had sealed the power of a Primordial God — but just its fate, the fate of a Primordial God — into that girl, who has been frozen in the same state of perpetual pain before the fate could be fully sealed into her. Like this.

“Indeed,” King Blade replied.

“This is torture,” Jacob says. “This is a monstrosity. Why did Gornyakov do this?”

“If you face Primordial Gods long enough, you start losing hope. You understand just how vast their power is, and suddenly you—”

“You what? You torture someone that you love?”

“Gornyakov needed someone whose fate, whose Karma, was intertwined enough with his own, Jacob Cloud. And Taya — he was her godfather. He had taught her everything she knew. Gornyakov and Luriev were just like brothers.”

Jacob looked back at the girl and then at King Blade. And he put his face between his hands.

“I thought that Gornyakov was the good guy. So he, my grandfather, turned the girl into a vessel for a Primordial God’s power — his fate, really. But he was also afraid of her, and wanted to ensure he would find a way to control her. And then my father wanted to what? Free her?”

“Indeed. Your father killed Gornyakov trying to pick apart the Primordial Spell that kept Taya imprisoned. But rest assured, not even an Evil God, no matter what blood they wielded, would be able to undo this Primordial Spell.”

Jacob looks at King Blade, stunned. He knows, though, that he can’t really say much now, because King Blade apparently just found out that his father is the man who tried to free this girl.

“So my father wanted to free her and thus endanger the whole world,” Jacob says slowly.

“Yes. And after killing his own father, he went a little crazy with guilt. From my understanding, he fled to your world in order to make amends, and is working as a peasant in a mine.”

Jacob, hearing that, finally understood why his father had always seemed so detached from reality. He had never given Jacob the exact feeling of being a loser, but as soon as Jacob could, he moved out, trying to make a life for himself. But now it all made sense. His father had killed his own father trying to free this girl, and had never managed to do that.

“Jacob Cloud, I bring you here because I must know where your heart truly rests. Is it in the same place your father left it? And will you try to gain control of the weapon?”

Jacob suddenly felt a weird aura fall upon him, and he immediately used the Grimoire.

[Grimoire Analysis: Truth Revelation Skill.]

[Rank: Mithril.]

[Flaws: 8.]

Jacob looked up at King Blade, and then at the suffering girl. Then he sighed.

“So, what is your reply?”

King Blade would immediately kill Jacob if he lied to him, or if he held his father’s views upon this matter. It was unfortunate what had happened to Taya, but he couldn’t allow the girl to get away.

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He saw something shine in Jacob’s eyes, and King Blade was ready to kill the young man who had just saved Zamorye. He couldn’t allow this formidable person to be out there. Someone perhaps even more dangerous than his own father, trying to free a weapon that could destroy all of Zamorye and perhaps all known planets.

“Of course,” Jacob suddenly said, patting King Blade’s back.

The spirit took a weird step forward, unbalanced, and frowned at Jacob. A sudden change of heart — it had seemed like he had been outraged at what they had been doing to Taya, but now he had done a complete 180.

“Yeah, leave the girl there, you know? Who cares. Um, I think it’s completely reasonable, what we’re doing here. Right? I mean, she’s a threat to the entire universe. What kind of person would let her out knowing such a thing? It’s crazy. Don’t even think about it.”

King Blade checked his spell, and it returned a crisp one hundred percent truth. Which was weird, because usually, when people had even just as much as a second thought, it would give a different percentage. One hundred percent truth was the level of a cultist. Of a zealot.

So was Jacob really that convinced that they should leave Taya to rot in here? What kind of monster was Jacob?

Even King Blade regretted that they had to do so, and if they asked him, it would show at best as an eighty percent — which was more than enough to certify it as truth, but at the very least enough to show that he regretted this choice, and that if offered another option, he would have certainly picked it.

“You do not feel any compassion for her? You two, despite being born so many years apart, are the same age. That could have been you.”

“And I would have deserved it, if a Primordial God’s power was sealed in me, right?” Jacob replied, and raised a thumb up. “I think that it makes sense. I get it. What else can you do? And why should I feel bad about it? You know, you did it. So what?”

King Blade was surprised, and nodded slowly.

“I suppose that the wisdom of youth once again surprises me. Perhaps it is not just art that the young ones can perform better than the old.”

“Right.” Jacob smiled. “So, shall we go back to the banquet? I think you were showing me a delightful dark beer, right?”

“Indeed,” King Blade said, sighing. “Sorry for subjecting you to this sight. It is so tragic. But fear not — only I have the spell to bring us into these chambers. It is technically impossible for anybody else to reach this place other than me.”

“Well, then there’s nothing to worry about. I just wanted to make sure that the weapon wouldn’t fall in the hands of, you know, Evil Gods or stuff like that.”

“It makes sense. You’re a very careful person, Jacob Cloud.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Jacob says with a big smile. “I am borderline paranoid.”

“That certainly didn’t come from your father. He has always been a very impulsive man. But he is banished from Zamorye. Magic older than him keeps him away. He shall never return.”

“Good,” Jacob nods. “Very good. I don’t know how strong my father is, and I certainly don’t want him, you know, butting in in a situation like this. Especially while there’s a war against a Primordial God.”

“Indeed. But now, thanks to you, we shall soon drive Apocalypse away from Zamorye.”

“Wonderful news,” Jacob smiled. “Now, shall we?”

“We shall indeed, grandson.”

“Let’s go, Grandpa,” Jacob said.

And so they went back to the banquet. Jacob partied and celebrated with everybody in Zamorye, and despite his identity as Lukyan’s child and Gornyakov’s grandchild, King Blade’s heart was finally at rest. He had tested the resolve of the young man, and it seemed like he was aligned with Zamorye. He was happy about it, because he didn’t want to have to deal with another betrayal.

Thankfully, his truth-revealing spell had shown a one hundred percent score. It meant there was absolutely no doubt on what the right thing to do was.

- - -

A Month Later

After a month, the conflict had already been completely turned around. Count Myshkin had recruited more people to create the necessary Skill Crystals for the conflict. And Jacob had also helped them make Runic Notation for all the crystals, so that everybody could easily level up their Skill to level one hundred, or as high as their talent allowed them to.

King Blade briefed the royal family on the state of the weapon, saying that Jacob Cloud was a trusted ally. He personally traveled to meet Princess Yekaterina’s parents and praised Jacob Cloud in front of them — Jacob, however, stayed back in the city to help Count Myshkin.

King Blade was overjoyed by the zealous commitment of Jacob Cloud to the battle against Primordial Gods. It was a blessing to have him on their side.

And so, after arranging everything that had to be arranged before his permanent death — as he felt his spirit starting to dissipate and his power draining away, knowing that he would be gone before the day’s end — a guard suddenly came to him.

“Did you find Jacob Cloud?” King Blade asked. He wanted to have one last drink with the boy. He couldn’t drink with his grandfather or his father, so he wanted to impart a little bit more of grandfatherly knowledge to him before leaving this world.

“Your Majesty, Jacob Cloud disappeared this morning. Nobody can find him.”

“Oh,” King Blade frowns. “Have you checked everywhere?”

“We have. We just found some palettes in his room. He didn’t seem interested in painting before, but he appears to have borrowed some from Sytin earlier today.”

“Huh, why today?” King Blade smiles. “Perhaps he wanted to paint something for me. Or me, in that style of his.”

“Well, he asked Sytin, apparently, for enchanted brushes that would work on walls. So maybe he wanted to paint a mural for you, Your Majesty.”

But hearing those words, King Blade only had a brief moment of happiness before frowning.

“What did you just say?”

“Well, apparently Sytin was asked for an enchanted brush. For a mural. For you, Your Majesty.”

“For me?”

King Blade looked down on the table where he had arranged some other beers, and then suddenly swore.

“Son of a—”

King Blade had also told Jacob that he would move the spatial location of Taya’s prison, so that not only could he not access it anymore himself, even if somehow he was brought back to life, but that she would be forever lost in the throes of space and time.

He got up and immediately took out his own brush and ordered the guard to get out. He crafted the portal to Taya’s prison, and when he arrived there, he froze.

The light that had always been there, keeping the spell alive, was gone. This was a Primordial Spell crafted by Gornyakov himself. Something that not even Lukyan had ever managed to destroy, despite trying.

And yet, as King Blade summoned globes of light to see what had happened, he saw that at the center of the room, Taya was simply gone.

In her place, there was a drawing.

There were stick figures.

And King Blade walked over to them, and looked at them, confused.

What the hell is this crap supposed to mean?

It looked like a boy and a girl, hand in hand, leaving through a large door, happy. A fat man was behind them on the ground, crying, with X’s in place of his eyes. He had what looked like a large mustache on him.

“Is that supposed to be me?” King Blade thundered.

But then he smiled, and understood why Jacob Cloud had waited for so long.

King Blade had yet to give Jacob Cloud the spell that would bring him back to his world. And that meant that despite the fact that King Blade would be gone soon, Jacob Cloud could be hunted down while he was still in Zamorye, away from the protection of that bastard lizard.

I will find you, Jacob Cloud. And you will pay for this. In the end, you’re a coward, just like your father.