Jake didn’t envy Miranda and Kindroth, who both had to convince a bunch of World Leaders that they would get crushed by superior forces, forcing them to submit to someone no matter what they did, and of the options available to them, Earth was the better choice.
Many World Leaders who didn’t actively engage with divine factions still didn’t fully understand the influence gods had on the new world and the sheer power these massive factions held. Especially not those who hadn’t gone to Nevermore themselves. They simply couldn’t imagine just how powerful a creature that could crush galaxies in the palm of their hands truly was. Even Jake had a hard time imagining it, and he had seen and experienced a vision of an S-grade Valdemar and Villy battle, where the mere shockwaves from their clashes could have destroyed planets if it had happened in a space not suited for their fight.
Miranda seemed to realize that trying to sell them on beings capable of blowing up their planets with a flick wasn’t realistic, so she would go with something far easier to imagine: sheer, overwhelming numbers. In the Milky Way right now, after dealing with the event, planets had only a few billion inhabitants in most cases, with many falling below a billion and others going far beyond that. With time, most inhabited planets would balloon to hundreds of billions, if not trillions, due to increased space from them all growing in size with the integration and the longer lifespans of everyone. That is unless some kind of population control was established, as the Records of planets could be diluted if there were too many born and living there, but it rarely tended to be a problem.
Anyway, the point was that everyone could see population numbers trending upward, especially should the galaxy enter a peaceful period. So, If a single planet could have that many people... how many could an entire galaxy have?
How about a galaxy cluster?
A supercluster?
The number of inhabited planets was an unimaginable number in every universe... and there were ninety-two other universes out there, some larger and some smaller than the ninety-third. People couldn’t imagine the sheer scale of the multiverse, but they could understand the basic concept that a faction spanning ninety-two – working on the ninety-third - universes had to have quite the army.
And soon, the ninety-third universe would begin to open up. These forces would be able to enter their universe, and no matter how much a planet tried or how good they thought they were, there was just no way they stood a shadow of a chance.
As Miranda had said, perhaps things would have been different if they had been in another galaxy. There were many instances where no one necessarily claimed a planet, even if they were aware of it, but just let the natives be if they were considered too weak to bother with or too resistant to recruitment. However, due to the sheer Records of the Milky Way, nothing would be left untouched, and everyone had to pick a side at one point or another.
The entire meeting ended up taking way too many hours for Jake’s liking as they went through topic after topic. After everyone seemed to understand that a side had to be picked, discussions around mutual defense were instantly raised, alongside skepticism that the Order of the Malefic Viper that backed Jake would truly stand against the Holy Church and Ell’Hakan.
Anyway, this was the reason Jake had to be in the meeting. Miranda’s foresight of what people would say was always scary, and she had gone as far as coach Jake on a little speech should this topic be brought up, as he taught the ones lacking multiversal common knowledge another basic lesson.
”I’m not going to argue against the Holy Church having far superior numbers. Neither am I going to deny that the Holy Church and Ell’Hakan have far more planets than we do under their influence. If you compared the standing army each could represent, they would definitely outclass us three-to-one if not even worse... but so what?” Jake began as he stood up. Energy began to gather in his surroundings as an arrow of arcane mana appeared, and Jake reached out and grasped it.
”A single one of these arrows could easily kill a thousand of their so-called army.”
Nine more arrows appeared. ”Ten thousand.”
Followed by that also getting increased tenfold.
”A hundred thousand dead... do you need me to go to a million?” Jake asked as he allowed his aura to spread, as his arcane mana bathed the room. He saw the uncomfortable faces of the World Leaders, and he let his mana linger for a moment before retracting it and continuing.
The fact Jake was making sure to have his own large faction and World Leaders under his banner could also easily be interpreted as a negotiation tactic and a way for him to increase his value should he end up joining Valhal or another faction. That, and it was only natural for a powerful leader to increase his own influence.
Jake wasn’t sure Ell’Hakan would read that far into it, but Miranda seemed pretty sure he would, so Jake just trusted her and went along with her plan. Hopefully, it all worked out, and the guy didn’t suspect that Jake and company were considering switching gears... assuming the others were on board, and he could talk to Villy soon and ensure he wouldn’t mess up anything for the god.
With everyone else gone, Jake took a deep breath as they all knew he had been planning something.
”Am I the only one who’s tired of all this?” Jake asked the room. ”All this scheming behind closed doors and deceit to hide our true thoughts and feelings.”
”What are you getting at?” the Sword Saint asked, getting straight to the point.
Jake took a moment as he looked at the floor before sighing.
”I realize have been way too fucking passive regarding Yip’s Chosen. From our very first meeting, Ell’Hakan has always been the one issuing the challenges and the one planning out our encounters. Sure, I got one over him at Nevermore, but the second we were back here, it felt like I was caught in his tempo once more,” Jake began, having had plenty of time to reflect on the conflict.
”For a good while, I wondered why I hadn’t even tried to be more proactive, but recently I realized... I just didn’t really want to deal with him. He’s not the kind of opponent I enjoy fighting. I think the reason why he sees me as an enemy is stupid in the first place, and he can’t just be normal and try to kill me like a normal person but has to spin all his stupid stories rather than just show up in front of me,” Jake continued in an annoyed tone.
”His Path is dumb, and he is a pain to deal with... but I now know I really don’t have a choice if I want to deal with him or not. He’s going to keep being an annoying asshole until I put an arrow in his forehead. Without him, this Desolate Child of Loss wouldn’t have existed. Without him, Earth wouldn’t have been invaded... and without him, I wouldn’t have to attend a bunch of fucking boring meetings discussing how to deal with his schemes. So, the reason I called this meeting is to make a proposal to stop scheming. To find an opening and exploit it to go straight for the jugular. All his tricks, all his deceit, all of it will disappear with his death.”
Miranda looked at Jake with uncertainty. ”This is quite the radical shift in approach... and with the Holy Church now openly backing him, things are even more complicated, and-”
”Then stop making them complicated,” Jake said. ”Killing an enemy isn’t a complicated concept. Killing those who seek to defend your enemy isn’t a complex concept either.”
The Verdant Witch fell silent for a bit as the Sword Saint spoke. ”I’ll be honest... I’m surprised it took you this long. I half-expected having to convince you not to instantly use the cross-galaxy teleporter to invade Ell’Hakan’s homeworld.”
”So you’re opposed to taking more proactive actions?” Jake asked the old man.
”I’m not saying that,” the swordsman smiled. ”I’m just saying that you can’t go at it too simple-mindedly. You will need some form of planning to get to Ell’Hakan, and you need to ensure his support network is dismantled or, at the very least, disrupted before you attack. Finally, have you considered perhaps the most important question...”
The Sword Saint leaned forward and looked Jake in the eyes.
”What if you’re not capable of killing him?”