The Oracle Paths

Just seconds earlier, on the western front of Havocspire.

Jake had just used his Original Spell: Morphic Grasp to seize all the surrounding Life Threads and Souls. Over 2,000 life cords completely under his control. All he had to do was give them a slight tug to wrench them from their former vessels, and that's exactly what he'd done.

For him, wiping out an entire regiment of Light Warriors along with its Lifemancer had been almost effortless. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

As the encircling enemies were pulverized to dust and swept away by the rainy wind, an insatiable desire suddenly gripped his will when he felt all that pure vital and spiritual energy in his grasp. His instincts screamed that this was the perfect nourishment he needed to enhance his various Aspects.

Like a ravenous fledgling, his weak Lumyst Aura also flared up, instinctively begging him to offer it the fresh souls as sustenance. The pull it exerted on them, although still weak, was terrifying enough to siphon any wandering soul within a 10-kilometer radius due to its host's mental influence.

Had Hephais not intervened to seal the area, these spiritual disturbances would've undoubtedly caught attention.

Simultaneously, without even actively starting to devour anything, the slight spectral aura that draped him in a nonexistent halo suddenly began to grow in brightness and density without Jake's say-so.

Any wandering soul nearby was in its crosshairs but fortunately limited only to the souls of the living for some enigmatic reason. It was also smart enough to avoid Sank-Uk's.

The kicker was that at this exact moment, Jake's own instincts—be they Starfeyrves, Digestor, or whatever they were—had overridden his self-awareness, and he couldn't give a damn.

Right now, he was just hungry. Very hungry.

Without hesitating and ignoring the "tantrum" thrown by his equally ravenous Lumyst Aura, Jake opened his mouth wide, and with an inhale that surpassed any vacuum, he slurped up all the captured Life Threads and Souls in his hand like a forkful of spaghetti. Like a pup angling for some scraps, his young Aura also took the chance to swipe a good third of the trapped souls before they entered his mouth.

In the blink of an eye, both Jake's fluctuations and his Lumyst Aura intensified, although for the former it remained negligible. Comparatively, his spectral aura had at least multiplied its quality tenfold. Still, the stat boost it granted its host remained negligible as well.

[Aura of Lumyst: Enemies Killed: 2389, Souls Harvested: 7966. Stat boosts: 0.31864%]

Though, objectively speaking, a stat boost of 0.3% applied to Jake was already a enormous figure in context compared to that of the average Fifth-Ordeal Player or native.

But after this appetizer, Jake was far from satisfied. Moreover, his Life Threads still jutted out from his mouth, the ones they were attached to preventing him from concluding his meal with satisfaction.

'More!'

In his cosmic eyes, burning with half-rational desire, a sort of big bang ferociously lit up the ocean of darkness within, its new radiance making his appearance even more ominous and unfathomable.

His True Will of Grabbing momentarily merged with his True Will of Growth, True Will of Killing, his hunger, and other less commendable instincts. Both hands once again clenched all the protruding Life Threads tightly.

Then, as if it were the most natural thing to do, his Soul Power erupted, his biceps, and all his other muscles tripled in size, and without further preamble, Jake resumed pulling with deliberate slowness.

Hephais' pupils abruptly dilated as he keenly monitored his boss's fluctuations, sensing a sudden expansion in the ominous aura emanating from him. Without hesitation, he spent tens of billions of Aether Points to manually activate an Oracle Shield, bypassing the Aether Network.

The other recruits were unaware to the invisible dome now covering them, unable to detect the Aether, but it undoubtedly saved their lives. Meribelle, who could sense a bit more, was already damp with fear, not even reacting when the Egaean pulled her by the collar into his protective sphere.

"Don't move until I say so if you value your lives," Hephais declared without elaboration. "He's doing something big."

Jake's movements, pulling the seemingly never-ending Life Threads fading into the fog towards his maw, might seem deliberately slow, but only for those able to perceive time at his scale. To others, it was horrifyingly fast.

The alternating pulling movement of each arm, followed by their repositioning along these Life Threads, was so quick that they became more of a blur and buzz than a dragonfly's wingbeat. The gusts generated by their movements were so violent that even the rain dared not touch him, forming a vacuum cocoon around him.

Distances in the Aetherdream were not as absolute as in reality, but nonetheless, within a split second, Jake devoured several hundred kilometers of Life Threads. Over two hundred thousand Light Warriors had already been decimated.

In the following second, the sturdier Lifemancers and Light Warriors began to put up fierce resistance, even desperately coordinating their forces against an unprecedented existential threat.

Despite this sudden obstinacy, the speed at which Jake devoured the Life Link network hardly faltered. Fueled by all the energy he and his Lumyst Aura had consumed, he began pulling even harder.

Another 230,000 Lifemancers and Light Warriors disintegrated three seconds later. Moreover, many Lifemancers had linked their souls and consciousness to their Lifeforce to aid their mental regeneration, one of their few weak points.

The influx of enemy souls willingly following their Life Threads back to the source of the phenomenon became a feast for Jake and his Lumyst Aura. Now, the spectral aura film covering Jake's skin was real and real enough to be visible to any native of this world.

New recruits like Ekho were obviously stunned, but even those with higher perspectives like Meribelle were also mesmerized with disbelief, their clothes soaked in cold sweat. Such growth shouldn't be allowed by creation!

Casting an anxious sidelong glance at one of the recruits, thinking she'd go unnoticed, she couldn't help but think with a devouring sense of helplessness,

'These foreigners are way too dangerous. If they get their hands on the Soulmancer King, it'll be the end of this world. Have we made an unforgivable mistake?'

"Relax," Hephais said, arms crossed, without looking at her. "Jake is an anomaly even among us. There may be those stronger than him somewhere on Twyluxia, but that's only temporary. In the end, he is an unstoppable force that we must adjust to. But, if it comforts you, he's not evil. Not yet…"

"Were you reading my mind?" Meribelle anxiously asked, realizing their secret might have already been uncovered.

"Just a guess," the assassin shrugged, before suddenly straightening up, his eyes widening with high expectations, "Ah, there it is. The decisive clash is finally about to begin."

Meribelle, who had a slew of other questions to ask, shifted her gaze back to Jake and froze. He was now gritting his teeth, sweat pouring down his face. His muscles were so taut and his veins so engorged they looked like they might burst.

As for his facial expression, it had never been more feral, with veins throbbing on his forehead and long, pointed, crystalline fangs protruding from his curled lips.

While Meribelle was looking away, a stunning pair of wings—blue and intricate with psychedelic patterns resembling an alien butterfly—had unfurled behind him, shimmering like the northern lights. His previously embryonic spectral aura had now compacted into a dark blue, emitting a grim, destructive energy best kept at a distance.

"S-scary!"

What kind of opponent was he up against to be struggling so much? A Corebearer? A Radiant Lord? Stronger? Hephais' Oracle Shield blocked her from getting a clear read. But one of the recruits present had a different opinion.

'Such power... It's the Celestial. Let's see how you fare against him,' it thought, with childlike fascination.

[Jake, as expected, you've reeled in the big fish. The biggest.] Xi congratulated him in a tone resembling a fishing tournament referee.

'No shit? Fuck, it was smooth sailing until now, and suddenly, I'm struggling not to puke up all my lifeforce,' Jake internally complained, regaining some level of clarity.

The tug-of-war battle had been short but intense, and was about to reach its climax. It wasn't that Jake didn't want to continue; he was almost out of Soul Power.

Soul Power, the purest energy his Soul could harness through his various True Wills, was also the hardest to regenerate. Compared to most Players, he was doing alright with his Grade 10+ Energy Spirit and Soul, but that was sadly insufficient for an opponent of this caliber when his own powers were heavily nerfed.

'Though not as much as before,' Jake observed with delight as he examined himself. 'Now, I can summon a few artifacts.'

"RE…TREAT. THAT'S AN ORDER."

Jake smirked triumphantly at the sound of the unknown entity's voice echoing through Havocspire.

'Guess he's struggling as much as I am.'

But just as he relished the discovery, the force pulling at the other end of the rope surged exponentially. Jake was so caught off guard that he involuntarily spat out several kilometers of Life Threads before he could react.

The counterattack was so sudden and blindingly fast that he instinctively snapped his jaw shut, severing the Life Thread connecting him to his ultimate adversary. Fearing that this mysterious enemy might come after him for round two, he quickly activated his digestion and reclaimed all the energy that had leaked out during their peak duel.

He returned to his normal appearance, except now, the spectral aura enveloping him shimmered even more visibly in the twilight fog, resembling an apparition. Finally, even this was reabsorbed, and a heavy silence fell over the battlefield.

Jake, Hephais, and Meribelle waited for several long seconds, holding their breath and dreading the worst. At last, the deathly quiet was shattered by the clatter of hooves, footsteps, and voices rushing toward them.

Reinforcements had finally arrived.