The Oracle Paths

Reasoning with Mufasa and Shere Khan was much easier than Jake had anticipated. Once Will's protection was ensured, the businessman made his way to the two felines and yelled,

"Calm down!"

This command was suffused with an enigmatic power, and the summoner's voice carried on unimpeded, shaking the eardrums of the two alpha beasts. The thunder stopped rumbling and the hurricane subsided to the relief of those nearby.

The lightning tiger descended from the clouds with a crack of thunder, resuming its solid form before them. Except for his slimmed down body, he was unharmed. The tornado obscuring the lion also dispersed, revealing a Mufasa in good shape, but with a scorched mane and fur.

Overall, it appeared to be a draw, but it was hard to know what the final outcome would have been if the fight had gone on a few more minutes.

Once the two Aristocats leaders were back to their old selves, softening up the other felines was a breeze. A few harsh growls sent a chill down their spines and they reined themselves in. Alas, Zira, one of the lionesses had indeed died during the conflict.

Mufasa and the other cats mourned her death with resounding growls, but they knew this was no time for wallowing. The chaos was far from over, and every second they were under attack from crazed Evolvers and Digestors.

ROOOOAAAARRRR!

Jake was about to urge them to get the hell out of there, but the foreboding roar he'd learned to dread echoed again, this time causing a landslide and rockslide that affected the entire battlefield.

"Fuck, we need to move. NOW!"

The group of survivors did not hesitate. Even the other Evolvers and creatures affected by Hecate's spell felt a jolt of clarity and trepidation when they heard this war declaration that heralded carnage.

But this did not last long, and they soon fell back into the killing frenzy. For Jake and his companions, however, it was no longer any of their concern.

Racing as fast as their legs would carry them, the group forced their way through, fleeing decisively in the opposite direction of the roar. The dilemma was that it was leading them straight to the central volcano.

Jake was soon plagued by a dilemma. Enter the volcano and descend to the next floor and face unknown risks? Or go straight ahead and bypass it to continue fleeing in the opposite direction of the Floor Boss.

In the first case, there was a high probability that the Floor Boss would not follow them, but based on the power-scaling of the previous floors, the slightest encounter down there would threaten their lives.

In the second case, they also had a good chance of escaping without incurring any additional risk, but this Digestor seemed to have lost his mind. Even its fellow creatures shunned it like the plague. If their rescuers were late, he might find them again, and this time they would have no other scapegoat to suffer the consequences on their behalf.

What was the right choice? It was hard to say...

Biting his lip restlessly, Jake's face suddenly relaxed and uttered,

"Let's go down to the next floor."

ROOOAARR!

As if responding to Jake's determination, the Floor Boss' booming roar swept through the space around them, and the sheer magnitude of the blast was such that their vision became slightly blurred this time. Will was even bleeding out of his nose and ears. Maeve, still strapped to him, was in an even more alarming state, blood even dripping from her closed eyelids.

"Run faster!"

There was no need to turn around. They heard him barge in more than they saw him, but they knew right away in their hearts that the fate of the survivors slaughtering each other behind them was sealed.

Some of these warriors and monsters were undeniably formidable. If Jake had had to fight them one by one in a fair fight, he would probably have died before he saw the end of it. But against this abomination? It was hopeless.

Sinfully curious, Jake glanced behind him for a split second and what he saw scared the hell out of him. His eyes widened in stark horror as he witnessed a display that could only be described as divine retribution.

It was as if a bunch of ants were being smote by a god of war.

The humanoid creature swiped the air in front of it with two fingers and all the Evolvers who had been unaware of attacking it were cut in half. As their severed halves fell to the ground, the wound remained white-hot from the residual heat, consuming the rest of their flesh.

A fraction of a second later, the rest of their bodies caught fire, then turned to ash, instantly turning to dust.

The Myrtharian Digestors who recognized it had keen instincts and did not stupidly kill themselves like those moths running towards a flame, but their end was not much better.

Seeing these fellow creatures scurry away like terrified prey in front of some apex predator, the Floor Boss grabbed the air and the palm facing the monsters began to pulsate with an unspeakable aura of neither heat, radiation, nor Soul Energy.

Yet the fleeing Digestors, most of whom still were in their optimal fighting form, with their Silver Stone Skin activated and their blood glistening like lava, froze in their tracks as the elusive aura passed through them.

Before they could grasp what was happening to them, their lava veins lost their incandescence and the galactic glow in their silver eyes faded away. Before their brains could command their hearts to beat faster to resist this loss of heat, their bodies turned to ice and then shattered into pieces.

All in all, from the time the Floor Boss made his entrance to the death of all those Evolvers and Digesters, only five to six tenths of a second had passed. Not nearly enough time for Jake and his group to run far away.

Jake had witnessed the whole scene with his own eyes, and the moment Floor Boss had lifted his hand in front of him, he had seen the inherent heat of every living thing standing too close to him being stripped of all their thermal energy.

This heat had been reabsorbed by this pulsating hand in the form of invisible gamma rays, imperceptibly lighting up the nearby network of veins and arteries up to halfway up his forearm.

This kind of unfathomable feats... Jake was currently unable to do it!

A few Evolvers and Digestors had survived this first exchange, but not all the small fry had escaped. However, neither Jake nor these guys were fooled. Now that they were the only ones left, it would soon be their turn.

The Elite Digestors present strongly resembled the clone that Jake had defeated with tremendous difficulty, and they didn't even dare to breathe, their bodies quivering involuntarily despite their best efforts. Their subconscious obedience, though, satisfied the Floor Boss's innate vanity and gave them a brief respite.

Conversely, nearby Evolvers who chose to flee or attack became the object of his next attack. Jake and his group, who were about to flee, became the priority targets, much to their chagrin.

The Floor Boss waved his hand, blasting off the flies that deigned to target him, his gaze trained on the fugitives. When his starry eyes landed on Jake and his companions, they all understood immediately that they were screwed.

The Floor Boss was undoubtedly Jake's clone. But a clone that had evolved multiple times as a fucking Pokemon, becoming an absurdly overpowered and grotesque version of him to the point where it no longer bore much resemblance to him.

At over five meters tall, this Jake was already a giant, the original Jake only reaching his navel. His musculature was freakishly hypertrophied, his Silver Myrtharian Bloodline reverting to his Kintharian lineage.

His translucent canines protruded from his lips, more like an orc's face than a human's, and his claws were gleaming and sharp as the most precious of swords. His long silver hair with a few golden strands flowed down his back to his ankles, fluttering gracefully in the non-existent breeze.

Noteworthy, but enough to make their blood run cold, this Digestor was only wearing plain grey clothes. No silver chitin exoskeletons, no weapons forged out of his own body, no monstrous pieces of armor of which these creatures had the secret.

Instead, there was something else, something much more terrifying: A Bracelet. This thing had its own Oracle Device. Or at least, something very similar.

'So in the end, a Dungeon Digestor can even emulate this kind of advanced technology.' Jake's heart became sullen as he stared at the bracelet.

He could see it in the eyes of this monster. This creature was frighteningly intelligent. It wasn't hunting sadistically for fun, but for a specific purpose.

This Digestor would never let them escape.

Bracing themselves for death, Jake, Will, Fumdalf and the other felines gave up trying to run and got into a fighting stance, drawing their weapons when they had any. At that moment, Jake wondered where Crunch and Lord Phenix might be, but was relieved not to see them around. At least those two oddballs would survive a little longer.

Then, just as Jake and the others thought they were doomed, an overwhelming spiritual pressure descended upon them and they were all, without exception, slammed to the ground, Jake included. He could barely lift his head without fainting to check out who or what they were dealing with.

Astonishingly, this Soul Power did not belong to the Floor Boss. The Digestor was not about to black out like them, but he was also on his knees, roaring pitifully but hatefully at something floating in the sky.