Next, with Jerec's team back, that was enough. Whether Darth Malthael killed Sariss when the time came or something else happened, as long as they could control Sariss's life and death, Blackhole would almost certainly waver.
Finally, they needed to prepare another variable—Hydra.
All the intelligence Darth Malthael had given Hydra was genuine, without even a trace of falsehood. The location of the Valtaullu Rift, the location of the God of Destruction's temple—everything was real. Only then could they hook a sufficiently large fish.
Afterward, they would use the little legacy remaining within the God of Destruction's temple, together with Lucien Drai's Force Robot statue, to create enough trouble for Blackhole and the others. If they could not even get past the Force Robot, then the fish was not big enough. In that case, neither Darth Malthael nor the Judgment Priestess and the others would appear. Letting Jerec gain a small benefit to take back and report would be enough.
After all, where there was a first time, there would be a second. Once they had tasted the sweetness of the first, a larger target would surely emerge the second time. Besides, the God of Destruction's Relics were sitting right here. They were not going anywhere.
Yet this time, they had not merely hooked a big fish—they had hooked an unexpectedly colossal one!
Not only had Blackhole come, but Darth Sidious had even deployed Jan Drodga, a proxy with an almost perfect degree of soul synchronization.
Jan Drodga had appeared during the Modell Sector Campaign. At that time, under Darth Sidious's control, he had fought Darth Malthael head-on. Both sides had been badly injured in that clash, so Darth Sidious had not used the puppet Jan Drodga again for a long time afterward.
Darth Malthael had also ordered the Military