Desolate Child of Loss

The Desolate Child of Loss was born from a freak accidental ritual performed by a people entirely brainwashed by Ell’Hakan to believe he was a god. When pushed to the brink of destruction in the onslaught of the Prima Guardian they had foolishly released, they attempted to forcibly summon Ell’Hakan. Newly integrated, they didn’t fully comprehend how gods worked in the multiverse, but their old religion mixed with new knowledge and delusion, leading to their ritual being somewhat successful.

The main problem was the lack of unified vision of what Ell’Hakan was. They summoned their ideal kind of god, differing from person to person. Even with conflicting ideas, records were born. But what appeared was an incomplete husk. All that power and faith gathered but crumbled instantly, only for desolation to take its place. Rooted in a lie, a False God was born, its records a complete mess.

All that remained of the summoners' original intent is the Desolate Child of Loss' belief that it is the Celestial Child. With exact copies of some of Ell’Hakan’s Records, it also feels like Jake killed its other self, the one that the Desolate Child of Loss views as a fake and from whom he was born to reclaim Records.

Only a little taller than the average human and utterly emaciated, the Desolate Child looked almost like a skeleton with skin attached in several places. It was impossible to determine if it was male, female, or anything in between, or if it had ever even been a true living being in the first place. The Fallen King thought it looked like the undead, except it didn't emanate death energy and even the undead would die when exposed to desolation.

The creature appeared fuller with more flesh than before and even some muscle. It was still unhealthily thin, but now actually looked like a creature that could be alive.

The first attempt to destroy the Desolate Child comes during the attempted rescue of Sylphie and the Fallen King. The duo were ambushed and rerouted into the path of the Desolate Child by a fanatic follower of the alliance between Ell'Hakan and the Holy Church. Although they initially try to fight, they quickly realize that their skills and abilities are nullified by the fields of desolation. Through his own intuition combined with their Union Oath, Jake is able to intuit that something is wrong. Working with Haven leadership, they eventually identify that Sylphie and the Fallen King are in danger. Additionally, using karmic magic, William is able to identify the Desolate Child as the source of the danger. Despite everyone being vulnerable to desolation and having no viable plan to counter it, a rescue team of Jake, William, and Eron heads out, transported by Sandy.

Despite their best efforts, the group are fairly ineffective against the Desolate Child, save for Jake's Primal Gaze. However, already suffering from soul damage, Jake is in no shape to wage a prolonged battle dependent on soul attacks. Ultimately, the Fallen King chooses to sacrifice himself so that the others can escape, insisting it is his duty as a King. Using his gold magic, he appears to destroy the False God with his dying attack, but the calamity's death is heavily implied to be temporary, a conclusion that is eventually confirmed by the Malefic Viper.

In the aftermath of Jake's triumph over Ell'Hakan, he moves to confront the Holy Church over interfering with his hunt by collecting the true soul of Ell'Hakan which Jake intended to return to the System. When Jake refuses to compromise on his demands, the Lodestar Matron orders that Jake be apprehended. The head priest on the planet orders Jacob to release the Desolate Child to hinder Jake's ability to fight the Church's combatants. However, the priest is unaware that Jacob and Bertram had already discreetly warned Jake that he should bring Carmen with him to the confrontation, a subtle warning that the False God would be involved. According to both the Malefic Viper and Valdemar, runemaidens are a hard counter to the magic that fuels False Gods.

With Jake having accepted the advice, Carmen is on hand. With Carmen able to counter its desolation based attacks, the Desolate Child attempts to run, but finds itself trapped within her Sacred Battlefield. Despite its disturbingly childlike confusion to being attacked, Carmen knows calamities cannot be allowed to live. She ultimately defeats the False God, then performs the ritual to dedicate her victory to Valhal.^[1]

• The Holy Church is nominally against False Gods, calling their very existence blasphemous. The deployment of a False God against Jake during his fight with the Holy Church further shows how much factional in-fighting the Church was experiencing in the 93rd Universe.^[2]
• According to Jacob, the various factions of the Holy Church had different objectives for the desolate Child. Some wanted to recruit it as a powerful allies. Others felt it could serve as a powerful counter to Ell'Hakan if the Nahoom ever grew too far out of control. Jacob personally felt that it could be guided to a new Path, perhaps even evolving out of the status of False God.^[1]