The Oracle Paths

No sooner had the Lost Divinities Players rejoiced in his demise than a blurred figure shot out like a bolt of lightning from his crater, streaking across several hundred meters in a blink to slash out at Deimos' throat.

The Spartan blocked in time with his spear, but the fierce strike knocked him back seven or eight meters, leaving deep furrows in the ground. Feeling the tremor of the golden spear between his fingers, a stern frown grew on his face. This strength... was at least 50% higher than that of their last bout.

Raising his eyes to face his cockroach-like opponent, Deimos' frigid heart throbbed as he met his gaze, which carried an inexhaustible killing intent.

Jake's shattered skeleton had been forcibly restructured by sheer willpower, and he was only standing thanks to his telekinesis. Redistributing his Vitality Aether to the most severely damaged bones and organs, he stabilized his condition within seconds, the gashes and burns covering the surface of his skin healing in a heartbeat.

The Spartan was not fooled by his ferocious counterattack and lunged forward, shortening the distance between them with a single leap to thrust forth like the wind with his spear, intent on impaling him and taking advantage of his diminished state to deliver the final blow.

Although he was absolutely confident of his superiority and their imminent victory, this insignificant player from another faction had already surprised him far too much. His fighting power was increasing by the second and after being blasted by Ozo's explosion, his power had suddenly doubled as if he was on steroids.

This reasoning was only based on his instinct and not on any observation or certainty, but it was close enough to the truth. Ozo's explosion, like any explosion, had released an astronomical amount of heat. The blast and the temperature generated was of such a magnitude that even Deimos did not think he could get away with such an explosion at close range.

It wasn't about Oracle Shield either. The Bubble Alien knew his strengths and weaknesses and rather than focusing on the Oracle Shield, which was of little value to an energy being like him, he had instead chosen to maximize his forte: His ability to explode without any lasting after-effects.

For this, he had opted for the exact opposite of the Oracle Shield as a special reward from his Second Ordeal: the Oracle Anti-Shield.

The mechanism was as follows. When two Oracle Shields clashed, it was simply a collision between two indestructible objects. One Oracle Shield could only destroy another by forcing the enemy's Oracle Device to overheat or by momentarily overpowering the Aether flow powering it.

The Oracle Anti-Shield worked differently. The clash between an Oracle Shield and an Oracle Anti-Shield was more like a collision between a particle of matter and antimatter. When the two shields met, they cancelled each other out.

By itself, the Oracle Anti-Shield had an extremely limited utility. It cost ten times as much to use as its defensive counterpart and was not very effective at stopping enemy attacks or regenerating. However, coming into contact with it was undeniably more dangerous. If someone had the unfortunate thought of attacking it directly with a weapon or their fist, the weapon and hand that touched the Anti-Shield would be instantly annihilated.

That's why, even with his Oracle Shield activated, Jake couldn't resist this explosion. The two shields of opposite nature had nullified each other and the blast of Ozo's explosion had then been able to hit his body with full force.

"He, he stole my energy!"

Suddenly Ozo's gut-wrenching, rage-filled shriek rang through the sky, sending tremors through the air that ravaged the ruined fortress they were fighting in. It had just recalled the body particles released in the explosion and found to its horror that its diameter had shrunk by almost 20%. Normally, even thirty consecutive explosions would not have weakened it that much.

Returning to his battle with Deimos, Jake smirked as he heard the Bubble Alien's furious wail. The Spartan inwardly cursed Ozo for its incompetence, but this incident gave him a new level of understanding of his opponent's abilities and he thrusted even harder.

Jake sensed the sudden change in the Spartan's disposition and dodged the piercing spear thrust aimed at his heart with a twist of the hip, diverting its path with his palm, but expecting it Deimos drew a sword with his free left hand and delivered an upward slash aimed at his armpit to sever his arm. Jake caught the dark red halo radiating from the blade and had no choice but to parry with his crack-covered sword.

Crack!

He blocked successfully, but the sword strike landed squarely where the previous indentation was and his saber blade, though an Intermediate Artifact, snapped cleanly. With only the hilt in hand, he had no choice but to tilt his head to the left in desperation to avoid the sword swing when the Spartan suddenly flicked his right hand holding his spear and slashed in toward his neck.

With his chest angled far to the right and his neck tilted even further in the opposite direction, Jake had no choice but to tuck his head and duck forward.

The spear swept past his head, cutting off some of his hair, but then Jake had to deal once again with the sword that his own saber had failed to block. This time it was a downward slanting slash coming from the left and to dodge it without falling, he threw the now useless saber handle at his opponent's face with no qualms. Deimos groaned, but he did not change his move. Instead, he lowered his head to block with his helmet and continued to swing his sword at Jake without looking.

This time, he was really in trouble. Ignoring his still brittle skeleton, Jake released the telekinetic control over it and coldly lifted both hands, one aiming at the sword, the other at the Spartan's chest.

As Deimos was about to behead him, his arm suddenly slowed as if he were facing an intangible force weighing several hundred tons. Then, this pressure also appeared against his chest and he felt his ribcage compress as during acceleration in an airplane takeoff.

Experienced, he unleashed his dark red aura without thinking twice to break Jake's influence on the space around him, but he was taken aback when instead the thrusting force only grew stronger. By the time he realized that Jake was not applying his telekinesis directly on him but on the air molecules in front of him, it was too late and his feet had already left the ground.

The Spartan's body was sent flying like a cannonball into his army's lines, knocking out dozens of his subordinates before stabilizing himself by planting his spear into the ground. This prodigious telekinetic thrust unfortunately came at a price, and Jake's poorly reshaped skeleton shattered again and he fell to his knees.

"I am heat!" Jake growled in a hoarse voice, his teeth clenched as he carved another rune into his flesh.

The drain of his spiritual energy instantly increased a hundredfold and his body blazed like a star. If the Lost Divinities Players had not repeatedly witnessed his abilities, they might have mistakenly believed that he had willingly immolated himself alive.

Sensing danger, Deimos became blurry and shot towards him, leaving a series of afterimages behind. The white Nosk, Khag' Dagmai, who had remained passive until now, also lunged at him, wielding a long light saber almost as tall as himself.

Inside the flames, Jake, who was still on his knees, spread his hands as best he could and brought Deimos and Khag' Dagmai's charge to a screeching halt with his telekinesis. The two mighty Players suddenly slowed down as if they had just hit a mountain, or rather become entangled in a giant spider's web, but it only lasted a moment.

The thousands of Players outside the anti-magic zone tacitly unleashed a barrage of spells on the motionless Jake, including the old white-haired ice expert. Missiles, bullets, spears, lightning, poison, acid, and stalactite steel and ice of all kinds bombarded him simultaneously, turning Jake's flaming body into a pincushion. A powerful ice spell hit him right after, promptly smothering the flames shooting out of his body.

To protect himself, he obviously activated his Oracle Shield, but this disruption inevitably affected his control over his telekinesis.

That's all Deimos and Khag' Dagmai needed to complete their offensive. The white light saber split Jake's body in two, leaving a trail of light in its wake, while the spear, covered in a huge dark red halo, skewered Jake from under his chin and emerged through the back of his skull.

Exchanging meaningful glances, the two leaders nodded, and preparing to strike again, boundless energy erupted forth from their beings. The Nosk's dendrites became brighter than a thousand stars as the Spartan disappeared under a monstrous dark red flame, which was quickly absorbed by his golden spear.

Jake could sense his end coming and without hesitation made the only choice he had left. He uncoupled his Spirit Body from his body and placed the latter in his Space Storage, putting all of his liquid alloy in it before fleeing back into his ghostly state.

In this etheric state, the anti-magic zone cast by Lost Divinities was powerless and he shot through the skies like a shooting star before stopping a few dozen kilometers away before looking back and declaring ominously,

" I concede you this victory, but I'll be back. Get ready for round two, because it will be your last."

With those defiant words, Jake summoned his body back and placed his soul back inside before flying off aimlessly into the Wilderness.

Long after he left, Deimos, Khag' Dagmai, Ozo and the other leaders continued to repeat his words as they stared at the spot where his figure had faded into the distance.

"Did we make a mistake by letting him escape?" The white Nosk asked himself gravely.

Deimos remained silent, inexpressive as always, but underneath that blank mask all the players present wondered what sinister thoughts he was really harboring.

For surely, seeing the devastated fortress around them, none of these Players felt that they had won a victory.