Chapter 288: Timmon Milthan (Patreon)

Timmon

Timmon Milthan, the second vice-leader of the Shadow Collective, was far more nervous than he had been in the last hundred million years as he watched his force’s first vice leader make a deal with three of the A rank elders of the Infernal Sea, the force under the Lady of Hellwater.

As one of the premier intelligence gathering forces in the universe, it wasn’t rare for the Shadow Collective to deal with A ranks of such power and position—after all, the Shadow Collective’s Chief elder was the Silent Shadow, ancestor and former master of the Lady of Laws—but the nature of this particular deal was one the Silent Shadow likely wouldn’t approve of. One of the eldest gods in the universe, the Silent Shadow didn’t interact with mortals much, neither Timmon or the first vice elder ever having actually met the man, but part of the rules of their force emphasized strict neutrality, and the first vice elder was breaking those rules by agreeing to support the Primordial Humans in their war against the Heavenly Spark Soul King and his United Federation of Planets.

More important to Timmon, however, the man was directly putting Timmon’s life in danger.

“Well, those negotiations sure took you long enough.”

And there she was, walking up to them without a care in the world, her long semi-translucent black and violet hair flowing in the wind and her gold eyes shining with a mirth that was anything but comforting, the Mistress of Oaths and Deception, the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s wife.

Timmon, First Elder Halar, and the three elders of the Infernal Sea—Swamp Farmer Olinia, Sea Crusher Balor, and Death’s Kiss Hephina—were sitting around a table in the Sea Crusher’s palace on the B rank world he ruled, situated on a large balcony overlooking a forested valley, and the three members of the Infernal Sea had just signed a contract with First Elder Halar, giving them the rights to control how Halar enforced the contract he’d made with Joma La’Vordi, the master of the Heavenly Spark Soul King, when she was young, all in exchange for several resources which would increase Halar’s chance of advancing to divinity during his lifetime by a full 3%.

Halar, like Timmon himself, was an old member of the messenger race, looking almost like a human with dark skin, graying hair, and large avian wings extending from out of his back, but, unlike Timmon’s green eyes and brown wings, Halar’s eyes were red and his wings were white.

All the humans, on the other hand, were quite a bit younger, all with much lighter skin and blond hair, and all with different shades of blue eyes. Swamp Farmer Olinia’s eyes were a brownish blue, the woman relatively plain looking and her outfit simple and a bit dirty; Sea Crusher Balor’s eyes were a blue like deep water, the man handsome in his somewhat formal traditional military attire; and Death’s Kiss Hephina, the scariest of the three despite how she let the Sea Crusher take the center, had grayish blue eyes which reminded Timmon of the death energy the woman wielded, her gray dress simple but fashionable.

All five of them, however, powerful A ranks all, looked nervous at the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s arrival, none of them stupid enough to believe the woman would approach them so out in the open without a plan.

Sea Crusher Balor even summoned a large warhammer into his hands, imbued it with a large amount of energy, and threw it at the woman, the weapon destroying the C rank soul lord with relative ease.

When the man’s power faded a split second later, however, and Timmon got a better look, there was no blood, no bones, and nothing to show a woman had been there at all.

“I guess you’re first then, Balor.”

All five of them turned to see the Mistress of Oaths and Deception appear from inside the palace, or at least an illusory doppelgänger of the woman, and then Timmon felt a very small spatial portal open up about a hundred meters behind the three humans and something very fast, matching the max speed Timmon himself could achieve, flew through.

The next thing he knew, the bullet entered the back of the Sea Crusher’s head, the man seemingly unable to dodge, and the A rank’s head was suddenly gone, blood and gore flying through the air to completely dye Death’s Kiss Hephina’s gray dress red.

Now, normally, this wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to kill an A rank, especially a combat focused one like the Sea Crusher, but there was something special about the bullet which had been fired. Even while blowing into the Sea Crusher’s brain and releasing explosive power, it hadn’t flown out through the man’s face, and had instead somehow changed directions while inside the Sea Crusher’s brain to travel down his neck and into his heart, where a small second explosion occurred and some kind of poison was released.

“First Elder Halar, will you agree to cancel your contract with the Alchemist of the Deep Woods?” The doppelgänger of the Mistress of Oaths and Deception teleported forward, appearing behind the Sea Crusher, and reached into the man’s mangled body, grabbing onto a large chunk of his flesh as Timon and the remaining other three A ranks all stood.

“You’ll pay for your recklessness!” Death’s Kiss fired a blast of death element energy at the doppelgänger, an attack which Timmon knew could follow karmic bonds back to the doppelgänger’s source, but the doppelgänger just smiled as the death energy destroyed her, and Timmon watched in horror as death element qi and mana oozed out of First Elder Halar’s chest, the Mistress of Oaths and Deception somehow having redirected the karmic attack of one A rank onto another.

Then another doppelgänger of the Mistress of Oaths and Deception appeared about three hundred meters out over the forest and teleported over, standing next to First Elder Halar and speaking right into the man’s ear.

“Well, Halar?” The doppelgänger smiled as she reached down and somehow put her hand through Halar’s aura, through his back, and directly into his heart. “What will you do?”

“I’ll cancel it. I’ll cancel it.”

It took only a split second for Timmon to see the woman’s trap, but by then it was already too late. Halar had broken his contract with the Alchemist of the Deep Woods as asked, an action with no inherent repercussions, but this in turn broke his contract with the Primordial Humans, causing his soul to shackle itself, and brought his power down to the level of a B rank, enabling Death Kiss’s energy to end his life.

At the same time, somehow, the souls of Death’s Kiss and the Swamp Farmer seemed to shackle themselves as well, their auras drastically decreasing in power, and Timmon belatedly realized the same thing had happened to the Sea Crusher right before his death. Then Timmon watched as the two were infected by whatever poison had been inside the bullet from the sniper shot, the poison, if Timmon’s senses could be believed, seemingly having traveled through their karmic bonds with their former A rank colleague.

Then, as a large spatial rip appeared to Timmon’s right, a divine aura of Hellwater preceding the Lady of Hellwater’s arrival, the Mistress of Oaths and Deception turned to him and smiled warmly, Timmon afraid she’d somehow manipulate the contract he’d been tricked into signing with her over a thousand years before to shackle his soul as well.

“According to the United Federation of Planet’s treaty of non-aggression with the forces under the Lady of Laws, please note I have only killed a contracted ally of the Primordial Humans who broke the terms first.” As the Lady of Hellwater fully broke through space and arrived, the doppelgänger politely half bowed to Timmon and a small crystalline orb, only about two millimeters in diameter, telekinetically flew out of the body of the Sea Crusher and into the hand Timmon unconsciously held out. “And please accept this primal energy orb as compensation for your loss.”

The doppelgänger then turned to the Lady of Hellwater, her aura and bearing much less friendly, and pointed at Death’s Kiss. “It seems you’ve managed to save one of your subordinates, aunty. Your speed is impressive.” The doppelgänger of the Mistress of Oaths and Deception smiled a predatory smile. “But can you save the family members of the B ranks you’ve already fed to my universe?”

Without the Lady of Hellwater doing anything, the doppelgänger then faded, and Timon realized it hadn’t been under active control as it spoke, running off preprogrammed directions instead.

Also, Timmon was left with an angry goddess in front of him, the energy of First Elder Halar and one of the goddess’s most powerful subordinates flowing into the small crystal he was holding in his hands as the poison from the Mistress of Oaths and Deceptions’ bullet wasn’t targeting him at all. Then, as if this alone wasn’t bad enough, the Swamp Farmer died as well, killed by the poison, and primal energy from her death started to flow into the orb.

“I had nothing to do with their deaths.”

It was all Timmon could think to say, far more terrified than he’d ever been in his long life as the goddess just glared at him, not saying a word.

“Do you want me to tell you what happened?”