The Oracle Paths

Jake felt his heart clench as he heard the Spartan's chilling proclamation, but before long he shot back unswervingly,

"You're lying."

Their numbers had indeed not changed. Jake counted exactly as many Aetheric and Spiritual signatures as before. However, it was one thing to detect exactly the same number of auras and quite another to see for himself who they belonged to.

The ones Jake had crushed beyond hope... He couldn't find them anywhere close by. Especially those who had been obliterated by his Eye Laser Beam, which affected both the physical and psychic planes. Even digitized, it was impossible to recover from such injuries so quickly without assistance.

But since he could sense their presence, then these Players were most likely not dead and he had indeed sacrificed his equipment for nothing. Just picturing the time, energy, and resources it would take to restore his Aether Sun Core, saber, and armor, he felt his legs wobble. His grieving face spoke volumes about his remorse.

Tragically, most of the Lost Divinities Players mistook his sad and heartbroken expression for despair. In a way, they weren't wrong. To lose so much of his fortune for nothing was indeed the height of despair for Jake.

One couldn't blame these Players bullied by Jake, for even their leader Deimos was wrong about his attitude, mistaking Jake's response for one of denial. The only one who wasn't convinced by his response was the Bubble alien Ozo, who was still inconspicuously gaining altitude.

"I'm afraid not. I repeat, you did not kill anyone." The Spartan uttered slowly with an imperceptibly mocking and provoking smile.

Alas, his unfamiliarity with Jake's character immediately backfired. Deploring the degradation of his equipment, his mood was at its gloomiest and he expressly needed an outlet. All he needed was an excuse to make one of them his scapegoat.

When Deimos decided to rebut him, he gave Jake the excuse he needed to be humiliated.

Jake's saddened look hardened, his face becoming as devilish as that of a fiend. The galactic glow in his pupils flared up again and a raspy laugh escaped his lips.

Deimos and the other leaders and officers immediately frowned at his sudden change in behavior.

'Something's wrong.'

Despite the relaxed and regal persona the Spartan exhibited, he had never relaxed his vigilance. The space was still sealed and while he chatted with Jake, an anti-magic zone had also been deployed. All that remained was to activate it. The fish had fallen into their trap and all they had to do was reel in the net.

But how could their greenhorn shenanigans escape his Myrtharian Eyes. With his high Perception no Mana or Aether fluctuation could elude him and he could even read the pages of a newspaper from over 5 kilometers away. Without a layer of heavy metal dozens of meters thick or a specific spell to obstruct his vision he could even clearly make out energy currents and other elemental particles from tens or even hundreds of kilometers away.

While they were setting up their formation, they had not been exactly subtle. With his diligent training over the past three months and his new Aetherist abilities their preparations were about as unobtrusive as a black man in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan meeting.

Suddenly, Jake turned into a blur and dashed straight to a certain devastated area covered with cracks and rubble. Jake smirked as he found the huge and still smoking rock feet embedded in the ground.

This place was no coincidence and when he realized his intention an angered expression appeared for the first time on the Spartan's face.

"Don't you dare!

With an agility and power impossible to anticipate, Deimos went from a relaxed standing position to that of a javelin thrower completing his throw. He was so fast that those nearby failed to notice the summoning of the golden spear, or how he adjusted his stance by tilting his torso and bringing his muscular arm back before swinging forward abruptly, releasing the deadly projectile with all its might in one expert motion.

Jake, who had his back to Deimos, perceived with his mental sense the golden spear before he could see or hear it. His hair standing on end, he ducked his head to the ground, narrowly dodging the projectile, but the sharp wind blowing past him and charged with an eerie energy ripped off several layers of his skin before shooting off straight ahead, disappearing into the Wilderness woods and piercing through hundreds of ancient trees.

"Phew..."

Ignoring his fright, Jake conjured his Aether Sun Core under his feet again, using it to permanently incinerate what was left of Nucnar's rocky carcass. Even after his huge granite feet were atomized, Jake did not stop his assault. Stepping into his Aether Sun Core, which was much colder and dimmer than at its peak, he pumped out what little heat and radiation was left and his Myrtharian Eyes shone like torches one more time.

At that moment, to the crowd's utter stupor, his pupils spat out a blinding laser beam again, but unlike the previous times he didn't seem to have any target. Of course, for those who knew what he was trying to do, it was a disaster.

When the anti-magic spell provided by Lost Divinities finally activated, Nucnar's Soul and Spirit Body had already been wiped out to the last particle. Even Jake doubted the Oracle's ability to heal that.

"It would appear that I did indeed kill one of you." Jake chuckled in an exceedingly prideful manner.

"You asked for it!" Deimos snarled in an icy voice as he lunged at him in a few steps, a new golden spear in hand.

Jake, who was still using his Myrtharian Eyes to track any traces of Nucnar's Soul in case he missed anything, felt a corrosive and deeply belligerent aura washing over him and he was forced to forgo his last principled check to defend himself with utmost emergency.

BANG!

Jake blocked the downward spear thrust with his right hand's claws, dazzling sparks accompanied by tearing squeaks testifying to the sheer violence of the attack. His claws took the blow with a few cracks, but the bones, tendons and ligaments of his fingers were torn apart in the process.

With a savage expression, Jake ignored his bloody hand and retaliated with a tremendous punch that struck with a loud, resounding gong against the round bronze shield under which Deimos had taken cover. The shield neither broke nor deformed, but Jake felt a shock wave as terrific as his own punch propagating through his arm and up to his shoulder.

'Damn it, is it some fucking Vibranium?!' Jake cursed inwardly as he felt the bones in his knuckles fracture. Even his Furnace Gauntlets were showing signs of cracking.

After that first exchange of blows, Jake knew he was not equipped to deal with such an opponent. He immediately summoned his Bone Crushing Snoworm's Fang, which was already damaged, and met the Spartan's next strike with it.

Crack!

The impact and resulting shockwave was at least twice as powerful as the previous attack, but what really rattled Jake was the state of his saber. Clashing against the enemy spearhead resembling a 60cm long miniature saber, an indentation an inch and a half deep and ringed with multiple cracks ruined his weapon.

Then, in one swift and expert move, Deimos bashed him in the face with his shield, forcing him to pull his head back, and the edge of his spear slid down his saber toward his wrist. As it slid, shavings from his saber were chipped off his weapon, sending a shower of sparks flying.

Jake parried, and counterattacked as best he could for the next seven or eight swings, but Deimos had an impenetrable defense. Besides his physical stats, which were unexpectedly slightly higher than his own, the real challenge was his technique and the unfathomable aggressive energy permeating his weapons and every move he made.

Without his Myrtharian vision, he would have found nothing special about his opponent, but with his extraordinary senses he had a front row seat to a very different spectacle. Each time the flow of this spooky energy resonated with the Spartan's spear, the latter would be covered with a thin halo of dark red light of uncertain effect, but each time ending in his failure and the obligation to retreat on the defensive to avoid a deadly thrust.

On the ninth exchange, sensing that his blade was about to break, Jake released the two Heat Spells and the Radiation Spell contained in his Furnace Gauntlets. Two balls of plasma almost as hot as his Aether Sun Core and a laser of the same caliber as the one that atomized Nucnar were fired at the enemy.

As if he had anticipated them all along, the Spartan deflected them back at him with his shield. Jake split the two plasma balls in half with a claw, but the laser tore a hole in his forehead, vaporizing half his skull.

Thanks to Digitization, Jake did not die, but his Spirit Body was damaged. Ignoring the paralyzing pain, he activated his Oracle Shield just in time to take the monstrous barrage of blows from his opponent.

As his brain and skull regenerated, Jake was suddenly overcome with a foreboding feeling, a chill of fear creeping up his spine. No longer passively taking the blows with his Oracle Shield, he darted back and subconsciously protected his face with his claws and gauntlets. After a tiny resistance he felt his claws break, and the spear head cut through his gauntlets, then his hands. If he had not reacted in time, his head would have been pulverized.

Appalled, Jake took off without hesitation, releasing a massive telekinetic blast that threw Deimos backward and forced him back into a defensive posture. The Spartan gave him an indifferent look, and just as Jake thought he was safe in the air, a deafening blast shattered his skeleton, his squishy octopus-like frame crashing down powerlessly in front of Deimos and causing another earthquake.

Ozo had detonated himself.