The Oracle Paths

The moment Sank-Uk's life was snuffed out in the enemy ambush, Jake and Hephais stiffened almost imperceptibly, a grim frown hardening their features.

"We fucked up." The assassin smirked sardonically as he thrust his dagger into the heart of a Shimmer attempting a backstab, not even bothering to look.

"I figured it would go down like this anyway," Jake conceded without a trace of remorse as he cleaved through another enemy with a brutal diagonal slash.

Switching effortlessly to a reverse grip, he skewered two Light Warriors lined up attempting to stab him from behind and clarified, "His soul should be resilient enough to last a while without degrading. If he's still himself by then, I might just bring him back."

He wouldn't do it for just anyone, but the 3000-man commander knew his true identity and had proven to be reliable so far.

[Keep in mind his Spirit Lumyst Aura also includes the tormented souls of his victims,] Xi promptly reminded him. [Because his Aura is linked to his soul, he can't shake off those vengeful souls waiting to be refined. Now that he has no body to anchor to, his Spirit Body is free to roam, but since he's not a Soulmancer, he probably has no clue what to do with it.

[Two scenarios could unfold if we take too long. Either the angry souls will treat him like a gourmet meal and devour him, or they'll harass his mind to the point of driving him mad. If the latter occurs, he'll become a wandering soul devoid of self-awareness like the others, driven only by the urge to consume spiritual energy to sustain his fragile existence.

[Even if neither of the first two scenarios occur, I suspect there's something in the spectral energy of the Duskwight Lands that will eventually warp his personality and erode his memories. The only real question is how long that will take.]

After a brief pondering, Jake had to admit that all three scenarios were entirely plausible. On their way to Havocspire, they had regularly encountered wandering souls, but none seemed lucid, let alone intelligent.

Statistically, just considering the recently fallen barbarians on the battlefield, there should have been a bunch of Spirit Bodies around that resembled the dead soldiers from both sides. That wasn't the case, which indeed raised suspicions.

"Unfortunately, we've got more pressing issues to deal with," Jake sighed, catching from the corner of his eye that Sank-Uk's dependent barbarians had been completely slaughtered during his short introspection.

Wasting no time, with one command from their leader, the many rows of Shimmers obstructing them and their next two targets swiftly parted like the Red Sea, creating a clear path straight to them. The murderous Vitalist and his six Pulsars had already darted inside, closing the tens of meters that separated them in a flash.

"Shit! Jake, I can't keep going," Hephais cursed, warning him that he saw no way out of the situation without upping their game.

Jake's brow twitched as well, also not seeing how to take down the Vitalist convincingly without breaking character.

'Meribelle?'

'Huff... I really can't help you! Cough... Seriously!' She exclaimed, panting nervously, making Jake realize her clash with the enemy Lifemancer had kicked off with a bang.

Apparently, he hadn't appreciated her intervention, which had cost the lives of five Pulsars. At least, that's how he explained what had just transpired. Otherwise, how could two new recruits, talented as they may be, dispatch his elites?

It was a dreamlike and intense aerial battle, involving hundreds of malevolent specters who shrieked loudly whenever white will-o'-the-wisps detonated upon contact, releasing a blinding sacred radiance. For these wraiths, it was like a splash of acid corroding their ghostly flesh in the blink of an eye. Smoke and ectoplasmic liquid oozed out of their bodies with every contact with these radiant orbs.

At first glance, their duel seemed balanced, but in reality, the Lifemancer clearly had the upper hand. To stay airborne, he rode a fearsome armored beast that looked like what you'd get if a mad scientist crossbred a triceratops with a pteranodon.

This formidable creature seemed to command a flock of fifteen similar, albeit significantly smaller, flying beasts. Together, they put Meribelle under immense pressure, forcing her to consume her psychic energy.

To minimize the damage, she had already summoned beneath her feet what looked like a fluffy black cloud streaked occasionally with arcs of purple electricity. Her new "ride" was remarkably agile and maneuverable, while making contact with it rewarded you with a lethal electric shock.

Every so often, Meribelle would pull out a tangible lightning javelin from the latter and throw it manually at targets within reach, like Zeus. Unfortunately, the female Soulmancer wasn't too skilled in this area, missing her mark two times out of three. It didn't help that her opponents were quick, with excellent reflexes.

When she did manage to hit one, two others would seize the opportunity to swoop in on her. If not, the Lifemancer himself would charge directly at her. He fought with a majestic wooden bow and, unlike Meribelle, was exceptionally skilled with it. Within a few aerial exchanges, she already had two Aura-coated arrows embedded deep in her right thigh and another more problematic one in her liver.

Just when Jake thought things were going south, he finally saw the young woman counterattack. A sinister-looking black specter that had been sneaking inconspicuously amid the bright detonations finally reached the Lifemancer after breaking through the will-o'-the-wisp firewall.

The specter, surprisingly solid, savagely slashed at the Lifemancer's chest with a claw, eviscerating him clean through while drastically lowering his body temperature to the point that ice formed on his skin. Even the natural shield provided by his Life Lumyst Aura had been instantly breached.

Once injured, the man in the white robe temporarily looked like a walking corpse, aging several decades in the blink of an eye. But just when he seemed screwed, dozens of white light tendrils erupted from his palms like hungry snakes, piercing the sated, fleeing specter at lightning speed. A moment later, it was the gluttonous specter's turn to wither away before completely evaporating.

At the same time, the Lifemancer regained his lost years, a healthy glow replacing his previous sickly pallor. In the end, Meribelle's attack had been entirely ineffective, while she remained wounded.

'I've really got my hands full right now!' She telepathically repeated, nervously noticing he wasn't responding. If he did nothing, the real Soulmancer King would have no choice but to intervene, and that would be a complete disaster.

'...'

Jake frowned with extreme discontent, noticing that the Vitalist and his crew were now only two strides away from them. Weighing the pros and cons, he finally turned towards Hephais and said,

"Kill the guy with the club; I'll handle the others."

This was his compromise. The assassin was supposed to have perished, and he could easily slip away through the shadows without raising any suspicions. The other recruits would be wary of him, but as long as one of them appeared "ordinary," he should be able to explain what had happened to their superiors if questioned.

Hephais instantly understood the implications of this order, but internally he was more than thrilled to recover his anonymity. He never shined brighter than when everyone was oblivious to his existence.

"Consider it done."

With a fluidity and speed that belied his previous pace, the assassin raised his foot for a regular sidestep, then suddenly turned into a silent blur before reappearing, arm extended, behind the muscular Vitalist who was twice his size. Having already returned the enchanted ax to its owner, his bare fist closed except for his index finger, which turned black as a bottomless abyss.

Then using it like a rapier, he pointed it beneath the giant's left shoulder blade and poked his heart at hypersonic speed, his arm shooting out the other side of the man's chest like a bullet. A web of darkness blossomed almost immediately in his punctured heart, quickly spreading throughout his body, slowing his metabolism and applying all sorts of debuffs to the warrior.

'Neat,' Jake telepathically praised, snatching for the third consecutive time the enchanted ax that the blue-blooded recruit had just retrieved with tearful eyes.

Armed with his giant cleaver and the ax, Jake then charged past the left-for-dead Vitalist and, waving his weapons leisurely, plunged into the fray. Accelerating just before collision, and displaying inhuman agility and technique, he contorted impossibly to dodge their blades. Then, with an acrobatic spin, he spread his arms and began whirling in the air, decapitating three of the five Pulsars in one swift move.

The other two managed to jerk their heads out of his blades' trajectory just in time, their blood running cold as they thought about what had just happened. Right before impact, a crushing, murderous pressure had engulfed them, submerging them in an ocean of terror and insignificance.

The only reason they had survived was that they were bringing up the rear, and their companion had absorbed the brunt of the pressure for them.

But just as Jake was about to relaxedly eliminate the remaining two Pulsars, a enormous shadow towered over his own, and the voices of Ekho and the other recruits suddenly yelled in terrified unison,

"Jake! Behind you!"