The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1016: The Wall

Minaga was working on some ideas for the labyrinth in the next era, trying to find a balance between familiar challenges and adding just enough of a difference that it wouldn’t be too similar. He definitely had a few new great inventions to test and a lot of additional safety measures he had to work on implementing after a certain someone had dominated the floors and Challenge Dungeon both.

However, recently, even someone like him who had quite a heads available to take his mind off things found himself distracted. Seeing as wasting a few months wasn’t a big deal. He’d paused most things as he watched with interest the happenings in the first universe, spending a lot of time with the Wyrmgod, who, while interested, clearly wasn’t as into it as Minaga.

Which, let’s be honest, was really weird as the Viper was his fellow Primordial, and they were clearly on friendly terms based on what happened when Jake did Nevermore. Alas, perhaps the Wyrmgod was just trying to play it cool... at least Minaga thought this until the Wyrmgod barely blinked when Yip of Yore unleashed the Void Sphere and sealed the two within their own separate Void Dimension for the final showdown.

Before that, all the other stuff with Jake that had gone down seemed to have interested the Wyrmgod far more, but now that the finale was there, he began to turn his gaze to other matters... at which point Minaga couldn’t help but question his long-term colleague and friend.

“Hey... shouldn’t you, you know, care a little?” Minaga asked. “Your old pal is fighting the top rising star to ever reach godhood, and stuff really isn’t looking good for the Malefic Viper right now... he’s strong, yes, but...”

The Wyrmgod seemed almost surprised at the question as he thought for a moment. “How well do you know Vilas?”

“Admittedly, not very well,” Minaga shrugged. “Tended to stay out of his way most of the time. Still, neither of us really knows Yip of Yore either. In fact, what we do know makes him a lot more dangerous than others believe he is. We saw Altius beat him back then until one day, they switched places on the Leaderboards with no one finding it weird or questioning it at all... that level of reality and perception manipulation is of a Transcendent nature, yet he doesn’t have the aura of a Transcendent. He has a lot of hidden cards is what I’m saying.”

“I acknowledge Yip of Yore’s powers and prowess,” the Wyrmgod nodded. “But I also know Vilas.”

Minaga remained skeptical as he sighed. “I’m just saying that things don’t always go according to plan, not even for the Viper.”

The Wyrmgod seemed in thought for a moment before he asked. “Do you believe you could beat Yip of Yore?”

“Me as in me, or me as in many mes?” Minaga asked.

“You, as in all of you,” the Wyrmgod clarified.

“Probably? It wouldn’t be easy to kill him, and if he is the one coming after me, it will definitely be annoying, but I also don’t see any realistic scenario where he is capable of defeating me. Well, alright, he can defeat me a lot of times, but not enough times for it to matter if you get my drift,” Minaga shrugged with a cheeky smile.

“Vilas is the same,” the Wyrmgod said in a tone of certainty. “I also see no realistic scenario where Yip of Yore defeats him, for no matter how long passes, he is still the Malefic Viper.”

Sylphie looked at Jake sitting within his big magic circle, clearly super nervous. Sylphie knew why he was nervous, as Big Snake Man was fighting a bad guy, and because Uncle was nervous, she felt nervous.

Suddenly, Sylphie got a super smart idea, as she closed her eyes on focused mega hard. Valhal – the Brawny Warrior Club – had done so they knew if anyone contacted gods in other places, but they didn’t outright block it, so Sylphie thought it was fine to reach out to Big Bird and ask stuff.

It was a little bit harder than usual, but soon enough, Big Bird responded. Sylphie was only really good enough at talking to Big Bird to ask a few small things, so with that in mind, she asked the most important part first:

“Ree?” she asked ifBig Snake Man would be okay or if Uncle would be sad

“Why you asking?” her Patron and Primordial – so she knew Big Snake Man – Stormild answered in a confused tone.@@@@

“Ree...” Sylphie said, still really bad at talking to Stormild without doing a super big ritual thing to meet beak to beak.

“Oh! That! Let me check... yep, they’re inside the Void Sphere now, so no need to be all secretive, I guess,” Stormild answered, unconcerned. “Anyway, yeah, I’m sure he’s having fun.”

“Ree?” Sylphie asked, still a bit concerned as she pointed out that Yip was supposed to be strong.

“A little, I guess? But he’s fighting Vilas, and against him... yeah, nah, being strong just isn’t enough there. You need to be super strong! Because Vilas is definitely super strong.”

Sylphie heard this and calmed down instantly as she chirped a bit happily to herself. If Big Snake Man was super strong, there was no need to be nervous. Though, looking at Uncle inside his ritual thing, she did feel bad for all the poor people from the Brawny Warrior Club who would end up wasting such a big magic circle...

Seeing as the god didn’t look like he would answer, the Viper did it for him. “It’s to replace the old with the new. To rid yourself of something that has served its purpose. My dragon form... that part of myself... it had served its purpose. It’s a representation of what I was, and now I had shed those aspects of myself.”

“From the beginning, huh... I barely beat your discarded skin...” Yip of Yore muttered before he looked up, a glimpse of clarity as a faint smile appeared. “Theory one all along...”

The Viper lessened the pressure around himself as he simply nodded, not even infusing his voice anymore. “Quite so.”

“Was I even close to standing a chance?” Yip continued to ask.

“Not in the slightest,” the Viper said. For a moment, in a display of pity, he released his full aura upon the world. It faded as quickly as it had come, leaving Yip staring.

“So... there was something beyond, huh...” he muttered to himself. “The wall... did you ever...?”

“I’ve overcome it thousands of times,” the Malefic Viper merely said as he kept an eye on the changes happening to Yip of Yore. Irreversible changes the god in question also knew and recognized.

“You planned all this from the beginning, didn’t you?” Yip asked. “I was dancing in the palm of your hand all along...”

“Now you’re overestimating me; I’m not omniscient. Alright, a bit omniscient, but not in the way you're thinking,” the Malefic Viper said jokingly. “I did make some predictions, though, and you did jump in with both legs quite a few times. But to say I planned everything... not quite. I’m just good at adapting where necessary, so I understand how it can all seem predetermined in hindsight.”

“But our first meeting was planned... you wanted me to acclimate to your poison and make it part of myself,” Yip said.

The Viper didn’t deny that as he smiled. “I was merely priming you. Or, well, having you prime yourself. Also, I will admit I only had speculations regarding your Transcendence and took a bit of a gamble on that one, but it worked out quite spectacularly and proved a boon, making the process far more efficient.”

By now, the molt left by the Malefic Viper had fully merged with Yip of Yore, seeping into his soul and body. They had become one, and only Yip’s head above his neck remained his own. He and the Viper both knew it, but for all intends and purposes...

He was already dead.

What the Malefic Viper intended to do was simple enough in concept, and Yip of Yore had been correct in many aspects during his quest against the Primordial. Vilastromoz lacked Records compared to many of his fellow Primordials due to his isolation, and he still relied on his “legends of old,” as Yip had said.

The Viper realized this had to change. He needed “new” Records. Contemporary Records of progress, and of everyone in the entire multiverse, Yip was the poster boy of all this. He was the rising star, the hope of the next generation... he represented momentum incarnate.

Something the Viper dearly needed, and he could now claim.

“As I’m sure you know, I’ve always been more of an alchemist than anything else. Alchemy is, in its essence, the art of transformation. To take Records and energy and turn them from one thing into another, and in a sense, nothing is ever truly lost,” the Viper said, speaking softly. “Death may seem like a frightening thing, but fear not, for you shall not disappear. Your Records will live on through me. No... rather than mourn, be proud that you, Yip of Yore, is perhaps the finest ingredient I have ever obtained.”

The words were far from comforting to the sealed god, who hadn’t even been able to struggle in the final moments where his fate was determined.

“Granted, it took a bit of careful nurturing to get you there, and I’ve invested quite a lot of time and resources in getting you there, but in the end, it was worth it,” the Viper said as he held out his hand as a staff appeared in it. It was simple-looking, seemingly made entirely of metal with a snake head at its end.

“This would usually hurt... but I guess you don’t have any feeling remaining,” Vilastromoz said casually as he pinned the staff to the ground, and the moment he did, a magic circle appeared beneath Yip as complex magic came to light.

Yip’s eyes opened wide when he now fully realized the Viper’s plan as he spoke. “You’re... fucking lunatic, you really are the villain, huh?”

“A matter of perspective, I guess,” Vilastromoz shrugged with a smile as he reached out and placed his hand on Yip’s face, and as he kept eye contact with the god, his aura exploded with the powers of a Transcendent as he spoke the final words Yip would ever hear:

“Malefic Alchemy: Transmutation.”