The Oracle Paths

Jake suddenly heard another round of explosions behind him and caught sight of a dazzling Aether light blade renting the sky in two. Hade had not died in the blast and had begun his counterattack.

A toothy grin spread across his face and his aura shifted abruptly, becoming killing intent incarnate. He triggered all of his armor skills as well as Bloodline Ignition.

The Gravity Domain expanded to a radius of 500 meters, multiplying gravity by a factor of 100. Aether, earth, metal, heat, light, lightning and magnetism converged on Jake 30 times faster than before, his body becoming an unstoppable siphon.

His body, already over six meters tall, grew two more sizes, exceeding eleven meters in height due to the dual Ignitions, one from a skill and the other from his armor. His elemental affinity increased fourfold again, as did his stats, and a horrifying presence began to emanate from Jake, effortlessly repelling and then overpowering that of the Nullifyer.

With one thought he telepathically engraved all the Words of Power that could boost his fighting power, ranging from enhanced Stamina to those that would turn him into a perfect God Slayer. On the other hand, he wove dozens of supportive and enhancing Aether Spells that were meant to amplify his abilities once again.

Shamash's medallion appeared around his neck, his Myrtharian Hammer in his left hand and his God Slayer Broadsword in his right. He also activated his lvl 3 Reiga Core and Aether Core (that means between 1000 and 10000 points) that he had been patiently building up energy for the past few weeks and used Aether and Reiga Conversion to boost his already terrifying stats again.

Within a heartbeat, Jake's power reached incomprehensible levels and the air began to distort around him. The Nullifyer, who looked tiny against the imposing Myrtharian remained motionless, his reaction indiscernible under his hood.

"In that case, I shall entertain you." Jake decreed in a deep, booming voice that reverberated for kilometers around and merged with the roll of thunder, as if the storm clouds above him were answering his call.

Lost Divinities' leader slowly raised his head, revealing eyes of a turpid blue like those of a blind man, then his lips curved into a sneer,

"Let me be the judge of that."

Jake stopped dithering and without a sound he teleported behind his opponent and swung his broadsword down with a earth-splitting slash. With all his equipment, he weighed over 3100 tons without being affected by it. When his sword struck, an apocalyptic shockwave blasted the entire valley, sundering the ground thousands of meters deep and releasing a blinding flash of light and heat.

After bringing down his blade, the Myrtharian maintained his posture, his feet floating high above several kilometers of emptiness. A gigantic crater had hollowed out the bowels of the earth, exposing even the magma chamber where he had been training for months. A geyser of lava had broken through the surface, spreading rapidly to the bottom of the crater as if filling a vat.

With his Myrtharian Eyes, Jake probed the bottom of the crater with utmost vigilance, but he found no trace of his enemy.

"Did I defeat him?"

He could hardly believe it.

Then he felt the telekinetic force helping him fly vanish and his body dropped like a stone. The fall lasted several dozen seconds before he crashed heavily into a pool of gushing lava. With a leap, he pulled himself out of the magma and landed in a defensive stance on the still hard and dry ground of the crater that the lava had not yet reached.

At that moment he heard footsteps in front of him and his pupils narrowed as he recognized his opponent completely unharmed. Even his black coat was completely intact, free of dust.

Clap, clap, clap.

"That was an impressive strike. If it was Deimos or Khag' Dagmai standing here instead of me they would have been thrilled." The Nullifyer apathetically complimented. "Alas, they might have lost. It is a miracle for an ordinary human from an inferior Seed World like yours to reach such a level in only Four Ordeals. Just for that reason, know that I will not kill you. Because I am not your enemy. Lost Divinities is not your enemy. Nobody on Quanoth is your enemy. After this Ordeal, everything will be much clearer for you."

Jake found it hard to hide his puzzlement. What on earth was he talking about?

" Still..." The hooded alien continued with a hint of pity in his eyes. "That is why I must destroy you, make you bite the dust so bitterly, that the humiliation and the feeling of helplessness will keep you awake at night. As I learned first hand, defeat is the mother of change. Without it, man becomes arrogant and conceited. He loses the sense of urgency that drove him to excel and soon begins to slacken. When you think you're the best, you're no longer so.

"So please, let me teach you the painful lesson of failure. Maybe one day you'll thank me. Nullify Spells."

At that very moment several strange things happened. The dual Bloodline Ignition was turned off. The Gravity Domain was deactivated. His Words of Power were disabled. His Aether Spells were switched off as well. The weight of his equipment that Jake didn't perceive reappeared and he suddenly felt much heavier and clumsy.

"What th-"

"Nullify Bloodline."

It didn't stop there. His Myrtharian Eyes dimmed and his stats dropped sharply, divided by 32. The Aether and all the other energies that were part of his everyday visual landscape vanished and the shock was as brutal as if his eyesight had been stripped away.

Because of the sudden drop in his physical strength to about a thousand times that of a normal human, the 1900 tons of his armor and the 720 tons and 500 tons respectively of his broadsword and hammer suddenly became too heavy for him and his body was smashed to the ground, barely able to move.

With a thought, he stowed away all his equipment in the Space Storage and he was finally able to stand up. But besides his physical weakness, the most disturbing thing was the sensation of mental fog that lengthened his reaction time and reduced his cognitive performance.

Even more terrifying, the lava veins running across the surface of his skin died away, his claws shattered, revealing ordinary human nails. His translucent fangs shortened, becoming white teeth again, just like any other human. His silver hair with golden strands reverted to dark brown and his galactic eyes turned back to their ordinary green. His skin kept a faint tan, but he was now just an ordinary 4 meter tall human.

"Let's test your fighting skills in this diminished state. The Nullifyer said in a sullen voice as he walked over to him with a leisurely air.

Jake, who was not facing his first disadvantageous fight, gritted his teeth and stood on guard, using for the first time a martial stance taught by one of the hand-to-hand combat modules of his Purgatory.

"Hmm? I guess I should have known better than to expect a Player like you to rely solely on his overwhelming strength to make it this far." The god smiled as he rolled up his sleeves, exposing unusually shredded bluish forearms. "Round 1."

The Lost Divinities leader lunged forward and struck with lightning speed with a soundless palm strike. There was no warning, no air movement, no superfluous muscle contractions betraying his attack. This palm strike had an end, but no beginning or middle.

BANG! Ba-Ba-bang!

But Jake blocked in time. His arms went into cross arm guard just in time, intercepting the enemy palm in time. Yet nearly simultaneously, myriad impacts rippled through his whole skeleton as if he had blocked not one blow, but several thousand. His crossed arms were pushed against his torso and he was flung backwards.

Jake immediately adjusted his stance and landed cleanly in a series of somersaults and back rolls. He switched to a Philly-Shell guard. He relaxed his muscles, his right lead shoulder came forward, he closed off his center line, held his rear hand against the right side of his face as a shield and his left lead hand across the stomach below his rear arm.

He had given up blocking head-on in favor of dodging and counterattacking.

The Nullifyer charged at him and with a swift roundhouse kick attempted to knock his head off. Jake threw his neck back in extremis, and felt a ripple of compressed wind distort the air above him. Still having outstanding agility, Jake whose spine was parallel to the ground allowed his legs to go with the motion.

The dodge turned into a back flip kick, but his opponent just brought his other knee back. As he folded it, he expertly twined it around Jake's ankle and twisted hard, crushing his ankle.

Jake's leg did a 720 degree spin on itself and a chilling crack echoed from the crater floor. The two fighters landed a few feet apart, one gracefully, the other limping, his face pale and sweaty.

In a few short exchanges, the more skilled fighter of the two had been determined.