The Oracle Paths

Like Jake, Lord Ooom and Glutton had been lurking in the shadows, watching the unfolding events, biding their time for the perfect moment to strike. Regrettably, due to Hephais' tenacity, they had to reveal themselves first.

In that sense, it was a win for the assassin. Hearing the dim-witted stone giant address the massive wolverine as "master," both Jake and Hephais initially assumed it was a standard master-disciple relationship.

They were in for a big surprise.

When Sokal called, and the mountain-like beast's jaw stretched into an oddly tender grin, doubts rapidly took hold of them. When the massive claw gently stroked the egg-like head of the giant, who then "purred" in response, the truth dawned on them in stony silence.

"Tell me I'm tripping... Glutton, he's your pet?!" Quilo was the first to break the stunned silence, his own allies just as clueless about the nature of their relationship. "Sokal, did you know?"

"Of course," replied the copper-skinned warrior, shrugging indifferently. "We're from the same faction. It's not exactly a secret."

Hidden atop his tree, Jake had to admit he was as baffled as the Morphian. It wasn't that a creature couldn't have a humanoid or even a human as a pet, but this was the first time he'd seen such a dynamic in action.

Though, in this specific case, it made sense. The enormous wolverine-like behemoth known as Glutton was bigger, stronger, smarter, and probably even wealthier than the dumb stone giant. In other words, the duo match the stereotypical dynamic Jake imagined between man and beast, only the power dynamic was flipped.

"Those two are something," Jake chuckled, observing the troll nuzzle the wolverine's front paw, reminding him of how his cat Crunch used to act around him in a not-so-distant past.

Speaking of which, he had no clue how much his trouble-making feline had changed over the four-year forced time skip. Considering its growth rate, he wondered whether Crunch would still recognize their relationship upon their reunion. Not that he had any intention of forcing the Oracle Pet Contract if Crunch wanted out.

Still... knowing his little prick of a cat, he wouldn't be surprised if Crunch tried to play a reverse Uno card on him, either out of spite or just for the sheer joy of payback. Well... He could try.

Meanwhile, the river, which seemed to have been blown apart by the series of blinding explosions from within, had already returned to its original state. Even the damaged banks began to mend before their eyes. The thing was, Hephais hadn't resurfaced since getting caught in the chain of dazzling explosions.

'Hephais, still kicking?' Jake mentally queried, his psychic senses struggling to penetrate the water due to the interfering spectral energies.

'Ugh... I've seen better days,' Hephais grumbled, realigning his bones one by one.

To make matters worse, his fourth baptism was underway, but with a glaring difference: the Lumyst Water surrounding him was no longer pure or potent enough to execute the spiritual enchantment instantaneously. As a result, his Soul and Spirit Body were continually taking heavy damage without any way to halt the process.

B-B-BOOOOOMM!

The luminescent spots responsible for the earlier explosions reappeared out of the blue all around the river, exploding almost immediately. The telepathic link that Jake had just re-established with the assassin was abruptly severed.

'Hephais?!'

This time, Jake had deeply analyzed the phenomenon behind these aquatic will-o'-the-wisps through his Cosmic Eyes. It was more alarming than he initially thought.

And the culprit was none other than... the hideous aquatic alien lurking at the bottom of the river. Jake had ignored it after the first series of explosions because it too was within the blast radius. From his point of view, it was nothing more than a kamikaze attack.

Too bad, he and Hephais had apparently underestimated their opponent. This marine alien was more clever than they initially gave it credit for. Xi arrived at the same conclusion.

[It manipulates the river water to envelop itself as insulating armor.] She explained matter-of-factly. [Except that this Lumyst Water isn't from the Duskwight Lands, but from the Lustra Plains. On top of that first layer, it's covered with a second layer of neutral Lumyst Water collected from the central border between the two halves of the river. This prevents the first layer of Life Lumyst Water and the Spirit Lumyst Water of the tributary we are in from interacting. When it deliberately triggers this interaction, say by flinging a drop of Life Lumyst Water through its layer of neutral water, a phenomenon akin to a nuclear fusion reaction occurs. After the explosion, three outcomes are possible. Either the two drops neutralize to form an ordinary water droplet like in the center of the river, or one drop absorbs the other, or the spiritual or vital enchantment succeeds. The last case is purely hypothetical and probably impossible in waters of such low energy, so it's primarily the first two cases that occur.]

Jake agreed with her, implicitly grasping what she left unsaid. Evolvers capable of manipulating water were not so rare on the scale of the Mirror Universe, but directly manipulating Lumyst Water meant that this aquatic creature was in a league of its own.

Furthermore, these greenish luminescent spots were very similar to the phosphorescent twinkles running along the alien body of the Player. This proved that these devastating explosions were not simply the result of rudimentary manipulation of opposing natures of water. It took a little more than that to trigger an blasting reaction of this magnitude.

Creating such destructive explosions was entirely within Jake's capabilities, but certainly not as effortlessly as long as he was restrained by Twyluxia. To achieve such an outcome with only a few water droplets, this marine alien was undoubtedly in its element...

Hephais seemed to have understood as well, because after showing no signs of life for half a second, he voluntarily landed ashore, at a safe distance from the watercourse. This time, his injuries were far more severe.

His skin and flesh hadn't melted, but disturbing tumorous protrusions had sprouted all over and inside his body. In addition to being grotesquely disfigured, his skeleton had also warped to the point that any movement became difficult.

"WELL PLAYED, LORD OOOM," Glutton praised, his voice still booming.

"That was the plan..." An awful, grating voice replied to the titanic wolverine. It sounded like an old woman who smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, combined with the chirping of a cricket and the wailing of a banshee.

Given how its allies winced and covered their ears, Lord Ooom's voice was just as unsettling for them as it was for the others. Jake wasn't sure if this alien even had proper vocal cords, but the sound of its voice was straight-up nightmare fuel.

Jake then turned his attention back to Hephais' concerning injuries, but relaxed upon realizing there wasn't much to worry about. He'd already cracked the case, and so had the other enemy Players.

"Life Lumyst Water?" Quilo frowned, recognizing the telltale tumors. "But not enough to stimulate his cells to the point where they transcend to the next stage."

When a life enchantment was in progress or partially failed, the destabilization of the genetic code combined with accelerated metabolism could indeed lead to such chaotic cellular growth. Failure could also result in death, but unlike a spirit enchantment, these types of damages were far easier to recover from.

'Hephais?' Jake reached out telepathically without moving.

'Don't show yourself yet. I've got a feeling there's an even bigger fish waiting to take the bait,' the assassin responded, letting his Cosmic Starfeyrves Body Passive do its work. 'I'd hate for your appearance to scare it off.'

During the brief moment when their enemies were congratulating themselves, his tumors had already receded.

'Well, you're not wrong,' Jake wholeheartedly agreed. 'Since they don't seem to be in a hurry to deal with you, let's let them gloat a bit longer.'

Indeed, upon the arrival of their second wave of reinforcements, their enemies seemed to have completely forgotten the objective of their mission. Their target was alone and without allies; the situation was indisputably under control.

Jake and Hephais were willing to play for time as long as possible, but after just two minutes, an ageless but openly irritated female voice cut short their bragging by bluntly questioning their stupidity.

"How much longer do you plan to ignore our enemy, you idiots? Have you already forgotten that time is of the essence for this mission?"

A female figure whooshed into the midst of the group of Players, like an apparition, startling Torak and the numerous clones of Quilo. Recognizing the newcomer, their faces slightly fell, then with a respectful nod, they grumbled,

"A pleasure, Lady Iaoth."

Their reinforcements were finally complete.

All this for just one target.