The Oracle Paths

Jake could've killed him if he had used some of his Soul Power, but he had dumped almost all of it into the attack meant to obliterate Iaoth. Despite his bone-crushing offense just moments ago against Quilo and Sokal, he was completely drained, mustering every ounce of focus and willpower to keep from collapsing on his feet.

As for Iaoth's panicked retreat, it might seem pathetic to an outside observer, but their brief clash—with an obvious winner—actually masked a far more complex battle riddled with layers of nuance. One shouldn't forget that using magic, Spirit, or Soul Power in any form at this stage of the Ordeal was nearly impossible for 99% of the Players.

In that instant, Jake had resorted to the Fourth Form of his Original Spell 'Morphic Grasp,' called Liberation. The effect was as the name suggested.

After locally shattering space-time itself by compressing it to the extreme, he did the exact opposite and released the pressure. At first glance, this might seem contradictory to the True Will of Crushing he had developed, but that was because the name didn't fully encompass its true scope.

'Morphic Grasp' was actually a much better fit. Each time Jake compressed something, he would visualize a hand in his mind. And what does a hand do after it closes? It opens.

In the realm of infinite possibilities that was the Aether, one concept could almost always beget its opposite, or even neighboring or entirely different concepts, given the right approach. It was mainly a matter of how this tenuous link was established, be it rationally or metaphorically. In the end, the caster's will and vision decided everything, hence the term 'True Will.'

By using this scientifically inconceivable Fourth Form, which acted not just on local space but on the fracture of unknown composition and nature caused by its collapse, Jake had created an explosion that no Player or native could withstand or halt. Not even him.

It was as if the object in his hand had been switched. Faced with this unblockable explosion, unless one countered with a Soul-Power based spell of similar concept and magnitude, the only option was undoubtedly to dodge.

One might think that if Iaoth were so powerful, she could've simply dodged and counterattacked, but that didn't account for the unfathomable Time-Slowing Spell that Jake had instant-cast to pin her in place. This spell didn't rely on his Soul Power at all and had thus been conjured solely through sheer power and talent.

Time-based spells were already notorious far and wide for their astronomical cost and complexity. Right now on Twyluxia, perhaps only a handful of Fifth-Ordeal Players from both sides could use a time-slowing spell at their full strength, but none with such a mind-bending effect.

If somehow they managed to slow time around their target by a factor of two, that would already be remarkable; nothing like Jake's off-the-charts time-slowing spell that was terrifying enough to make a Rank 17 Evolver break into a cold sweat despite being proficient in that element.

Also, Twyluxia's restrictions on Players were proportional to the Players' strength to some extent, though not entirely. While Jake was able to access a tiny fraction of his powers through sheer will, the backlash he had to pay for casting this Time Spell was probably unimaginable.

Even a Rank 17 Player should be dead. No wonder Iaoth bolted faster than her own shadow without a second's hesitation.

In any case, fleeing had exposed her to a similar backlash from the Aetheric laws governing Twyluxia, rendering the question of whether to continue fighting moot. Whether it was a jaw-dropping bluff from the enemy or not, she refused to take that risk.

All of this to say, that was ultimately why Jake couldn't finish Sokal in one hit. His punch, as horrifyingly powerful as it was, was nothing special. It was just his raw strength...

But that was more than enough to traumatize the copper-skinned warrior for life, to the point of making him give up on any future battles with uncertain outcomes! Sokal didn't yet know how much this unforgettable encounter would shape his future, but years later, after this new cautious mindset had saved his life multiple times, he'd come to gratefully thank his mysterious 'benefactor.'

Anyway, getting back on track, as drained as Jake was, his bloodline was still as unfathomable as ever, and then some. During this brief lull after beating the crap out of Sokal, his mental fatigue had already receded, indicating that his Soul had begun its recovery. It was a type of damage that the vast majority of Players couldn't recover from without external help, usually either rare or exorbitantly expensive.

Without forgetting for a moment that he still had enemies to kill, Jake reappeared almost instantly in front of the bewildered, chain-covered stone giant, Torak. It took less than half a second for him to catch his breath, and only a tenth of that to catch up to him.

The stone giant was rather fast with his long legs, but that was only relative to the average Player. Against Jake as a pursuer, he was like a baby turtle crawling towards the ocean for the first time: Slow as fuck.

The poor colossus gazed utterly dumbstruck by the turn of events, not to mention terrified despite his sluggish mind. He was trembling like a scared child looking for the reassuring figure of his master, but the latter was nowhere to be found. Just like when the creature had shamelessly ambushed Hephais earlier, he had twisted invisible as soon as things had gone south, leaving his disciple to fend for himself.

Sadly, it was Jake facing Torak, and he had zero mercy for his enemies. Without betraying the slightest sign of fatigue, he confidently lifted his foot for a monstrous kick and coldly taunted,

"You seemed pretty smug after kicking my friend into the river. How about trying mine?"

"Who are y-?"

Just before his foot slammed into the giant's sternum—which was sure to shatter into thousands of stone fragments due to its mineral nature—Jake suddenly gazed up, fixing his gaze on an invisible point right above him. Unfazed, Jake changed the trajectory of his leg at the last moment to collide with the massive invisible paw trying to squash him.

BAM!

A monumental shockwave blasted Torak over a mile away, while Jake, with his foot stretched vertically above his head, sank deep into the ground like a nail. But what followed was quite different from the conclusion with Hephais.

Glutton's opportunistic attack wasn't even over when Jake leapt out of the crater's abyss where he had been pinned, and running on air in a few deafening steps, his knee slammed deep between the eyes of the gigantic wolverine. Unlike his disciple, the latter hadn't forgotten that he could use his Oracle Shield and activated it without hesitation before his brain could be obliterated.

The impact mercilessly reverberated against his attacker, and Jake couldn't help but wince as he felt a sharp pain in his knee. Not one to back down, he struck the energy shield hundreds of times and, concluding that the creature wasn't running out of Aether anytime soon, immediately adjusted his strategy.

Wearing a nefarious grin, he cast a heavy gaze full of ill intent at the frightened stone giant. The expression on Glutton's face, behind the shield, instantly turned to horror.

"DO NOT DO THIS! HE'S JUST AN INNOCENT CH—"

BANG!

With a colossal backhand slap, Jake smashed Torak's head into the ground. Then, holding the giant by his own chain while strangling him with it, he shot an icy warning glance at his immobilized master and said,

"If you want him to live, you know what you have to do. Surrender and cooperate."

Faced with compromising his Ordeal and those of millions of Players on the same side, or saving a comrade—even if it was his disciple—a purely rational being wouldn't have hesitated for a second. Unfortunately for them, Jake had easily figured out the relationship between the two aliens and was pretty certain of the outcome.

And, unsurprisingly…

"I surrender..." Glutton sighed, deactivating his Oracle Shield with a defeated air.

He closed his eyes resignedly, and the next moment he was rendered unconscious by Jake as well. Their vitality making it impossible to keep them unconscious for more than a few seconds, Jake didn't hesitate to severely damage their brains and even alter the electrical behavior of their neurons to put them into an artificial coma.

It was a small trick within the capabilities of many advanced Lightning or Life users, though it wasn't always enough. Here, it did the trick; the two mineral beings hadn't exactly excelled in psychic strength up to this point. Just in case, Jake also included a mild hypnosis spell with the little Spirit Power he had left.

He then tied them back-to-back from head to toe with Torak's stone chain. Grabbing the end of it like a leash, he then burst into a frantic dash to the East, a predatory grin floating on his face.

He could spare everyone else, but not his next meal…