The Oracle Paths

"Let go of my leg."

"Hmm? Oh your leg! Right!" She prattled theatrically as she gave him a mischievous wink. But she did not let go of his leg. On the contrary, she hugged him even more tightly, her chest pressing against his leg.

Jake's face darkened when he saw her familiarity with him. More importantly, the tickling sensation at his ankle had turned into a tingling sensation running up to his knee. She had perhaps clung to him to survive the attack of the rock giant, but she had also taken advantage of it to do something to him.

Upon further examination of his leg, Jake did find a strange energy permeating his armor. Although it was an Inferior Aether Artifact forged with precious metals his armor was unable to block the substance.

This energy was colorless and intangible, but it had a fragrance that affected not only his olfactory nerves but also his Spirit Body. The numbing sensation coming from his leg was not just an impression, the affected Spirit Body was also growing less and less responsive.

"GET OFF ME!" Jake shook his leg violently, sending her waltzing with a kick.

Once he was attacked, he would not give any special treatment to his enemies. This woman may have been charming and unbelievably beautiful, but from the moment she targeted him, he lumped her in with his other opponents.

Therefore, to get rid of her he had kicked her as hard as he could. Unlike Nucnar and Belakor, she was of normal size, and even rather slender and delicate. The only huge part of her body was her bosom.

When the tip of Jake's foot planted itself in her navel, her body arched like a taut bow and her hefty breasts jutted forward from the sudden acceleration. It might have turned on some horny freaks if the pressure of the kick hadn't emptied all of her stomach of its stomach acid.

BANG!

Jake dodged the young woman's breakfast with a calculated backward leap, while the beauty crashed like a meatball into one of the few walls still intact. The spartan, who was on the same side and still sitting on his throne, turned over briefly to check her condition, then he rolled his eyes, unfazed.

And indeed, this kick although capable of ripping open a tank had not been enough to finish her off.

"Cough, cough! Gallantry today is not what it used to be... " She crawled painfully out of the crater, her deformed limbs forming disturbing angles.

As if she was alone in the world and that there was nothing embarrassing about it, she got rid of her torn dress which hindered her movements, then put back each of her joints in place while letting people hear pops and cracking noises giving them goosebumps. Her damaged bones and internal organs also recovered in an instant.

It was only after her joints were back in place that she slipped on a new white dress identical to the previous one and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mwahaha! Ashun, it looks like you've lost your charm, haha." Nucnar guffawed loudly at the sight of the young woman's decrepit state. "I guess old age spares no one, not even the gods."

"You!!!"

The rock giant, who had just now crushed the roasted skull of his comrade Belakor, felt no guilt and still found the heart to tease the mysterious beauty. His steel club rested comfortably on the headless torso of his victim and he seemed in no hurry to remove it.

"Nucnar, when are you going to get your weapon off my neck?!" An angry voice exploded from the demon's chest where his long, jagged mouth stretched down.

Belakor wasn't dead yet!

Jake might have expected it, but he was still shaken. After all, he too had recovered from injuries worse than this. Wyatt had not long ago been locked in jars chopped into small pieces. However, it was one thing to be able to do that and another to realize that there was nothing unique about one' s apparent immortality.

"Oh, I beg your pardon, haha." Nucnar roared with laughter again before reluctantly lifting his club. At first glance, his apology seemed sincere, but his eyes sparkled with delight. It didn't take a mind reader to see that he was very proud of his screw-up.

A tiny head, as hideous as the previous Belakor's, but more juvenile, quickly sprouted at the top of the demon's neck before quickly maturing to its normal size.

Jake became increasingly grim as the process went on. None of these Players were normal. Each of them was a true monster.

Whether it was the "fragile" beauty who could take one of his kicks, the rock giant who hit even harder than he did, or the demon who could survive the most vicious attacks, each possessed rare abilities sought after by the other Evolvers.

What particularly shocked Jake was that he could not feel any signs of weakening. When Jake was regenerating from such a serious injury, such as decapitation or grievous wounds, his Vitality would speed up his metabolism and provide the energy, but the nutrients had to come from somewhere. He couldn't really make matter out of nothing.

Normally, this energy would be drawn from his biomass. Every time he healed from lethal wounds, he lost weight. The Aether stored in his cells would also be lost and his Bloodline would be weakened. For this reason, he feared amputations and usually did his best to recover the blood lost in battle.

When he had his back to the wall, he could nevertheless rely on the environment to compensate for this deficiency. This was the role of his Aether Sun Core. As long as there was heat, soil and light, Jake would never really run out of energy and nutrients.

What shocked Jake in this case, to be more exact, was not the lack of signs of weakening, but the fact that he couldn't identify the actual source of their power. His Myrtharian Eyes flickered intensely, their galactic glow penetrating their flesh and their secrets, but what he saw was beyond comprehension.

Belakor had several Energy Cores of different kinds within him, but they were dormant. They were not what sustained his perfect regeneration. The energy and matter required for this miracle really seemed to come out of nowhere, as if it had sprung from nothing in the same way as Aether.

His gaze then swept over the other Players present and he noticed that their anatomical structures were all different, but they too seemed to be sustained by an unknown energy source. It wasn't obvious in the others, but the beauty had seen her spine shattered and her gut displaced by Jake's kick. Yet, she too had recovered safely.

The only one, who did not move an inch and was content to observe the events on his throne, was the Spartan. He seemed fascinated by Jake's reaction, but also admired his composure. Most Evolvers would have fled when they realized that none of their attacks were working.

Jake wasn't going to run. On the contrary, he was even more determined to deal with them to remove this unpredictable threat hanging over his head.

Suddenly, the Aether Sun Core resurfaced in his left hand and a mystical sword in his right. Since his last power-up, he no longer feared the surface heat of his artificial sun, but the core temperature was still too much even for him. The sword in his right hand was the Tempest Sword, his recent acquisition or rather confiscation of Qewie's weapon.

Upon seeing a Bronze Aether Artifact and the familiar plasma ball reappear, the remaining Lost Divinities Players stopped bickering. Belakor brandished his huge infernal sword for the first time with a serious expression.

Nucnar surprisingly distanced himself, clasping his hands together to erect a defensive formation of rocky ridges around him. The beauty Ashun shamelessly took refuge inside. Azeus, Shamash and the other hooded Players also moved into fighting position, encircling him with almost symbiotic cooperation.

Then, without anyone signaling to attack, chaos erupted in the room. A huge purple bolt of lightning struck the floor where Jake had been standing a fraction of a second earlier, shattering the floor with a deafening thunderclap. The Aether Sun Core popped up to Belakor's left, smashing his head again.

Brazen, the demon showed incredible agility as his head and torso bent 90 degrees backward, narrowly dodging the ball of flame. Accompanying his tilt, his heavy sword split the air in a brutal upward swing and Jake deflected the huge blade with his short Tempest Sword.

Belakor cringed in anticipation as he saw him attempt to parry his weapon, but what followed soon made him cringe. With little effort, Jake blocked the sword with his own, his body suspended in the air despite the impact while he had no support. Then the Tempest Sword showed the world once again what earned it its Bronze Artifact status.

The technique that even the Oracle Shield could not intercept manifested itself again. After repelling the demon's strike, his blade with its own chaos microcosm lengthened instantly from one meter to five meters. Stunned, Belakor displayed his experience as he felt the tremendous flood of energy contained within the blade.

An Oracle Shield covered him just in time and he even generated a second one to sandwich Jake inside. Jake pressed on with his thrust, but an Oracle Shield also encased his body to nullify the danger.

Belakor had already regained his cool as the enemy blade drew closer to his heart in slow motion, but the next second his eyes bulged with shock as an energy storm blasted the entire left side of his chest. Compared to Qewie, Jake could mobilize the full power of the weapon.

Without blinking, Jake then swung his arm upward to split the demon's head in two, but the demon was abruptly yanked backward when a harpoon pierced his shoulder. Groaning in pain, Belakor was pulled backwards in extremis, narrowly escaping an even worse death than his previous decapitation.

When Jake spotted the harpoon's owner, he saw that the Spartan was in a javelin-throwing position, a coil of rope held firmly in his other hand. Comically, he was still sitting on his throne.