The Oracle Paths

This morning was a morning like any other. A perpetual storm was raging, thunder was rumbling, the hurricane was raging and the heavy rain was pouring down like a waterfall on Spirith City, the soon-to-be capital of the Eltarian people.

From the top of Eltar's temple, an emaciated priest with a sharp hawk-like gaze and a templar woman with an equally icy aura were conversing mysteriously as they stood watching the sky. Their wrinkled foreheads and dark circles betrayed just how burdened with worry these two important figures were.

"The gods are angry." The female templar sighed for the umpteenth time in the past few months.

The high priest nodded absentmindedly without taking his eyes off the dark rolling clouds.

"You wanted to see me, Lodi?" The man in the toga finally asked after many minutes.

The templar woman snapped to attention, placing her right fist over her heart briskly, causing her bronze armor to rattle.

"Several temple servants have given me a strange testimony. They say they sometimes hear noise coming from under the ground."

"Hmm? Why am I only being told about this now?" The priest frowned in annoyance.

"Because due to the racket brought on by the storm, it was almost impossible to ascertain. I also investigated in person, but I couldn't find anything. It was only this morning that the noise became louder, becoming impossible to mistake.

The priest could have ignored these disturbances, but he had not reached his position out of carelessness. He immediately took the threat seriously and extended his mental sense to encompass half the city in his surveillance zone. When he found the source of the ruckus, his face fell.

"K-Kintharians!" He stammered, his hair standing on end involuntarily. How on earth had they gotten so close?

As soon as his mental power swept past the huge, vaguely feminine-looking Kintharian supervising the work, she yelled something and the tunnel more than fifty meters underground suddenly enlarged until it encompassed the entire temple. At the same time, hundreds of other tunnels and fissures shot out in all directions like cobras springing to attack.

BOOOM!

The marble floor suddenly caved in beneath the priest and the Templar woman, triggering the instantaneous collapse of the temple. Cracks as terrifying as the lightning bolts thundering above them split the earth, spreading like a virus to the immaculate buildings and then to the compound protecting the city.

Whether it was the residents' villas or the civil, religious or military infrastructures, they were destroyed in a matter of seconds when the earthen base that served as their anchor and foundation melted away. The earthquake that followed shortly thereafter finished off the few buildings still standing.

Screams of panic erupted throughout the city. The city was large, but there were only 100 inhabitants. The Templars, made up of Eltarian veterans, numbered only a dozen, not enough to cover the city.

In any case, even if they wanted to, they would not be able to help. The three Kintharians who had just burst out of the ground had petrified the templars and temple priests on the spot. Lodi and the high priest who survived the destruction of the temple were no exception.

At least these templars and priests of Eltar were not a disgrace to their status. Although the temple had been completely leveled, there had been no casualties among them. The same could not be said for the rest of the ruined city.

Right now, these templars and priests were levitating calmly in the sky, their togas and capes battered by the wind and the torrential rain. They erected telekinetic spheres around themselves and their clothes and hair went still again.

"Who are you?! Why are you attacking us?" The old priest shouted in fury.

The only answer he received was a smoldering, magma-like stare as indomitable as a volcanic eruption. Ruda, or rather a giant dark-skinned woman over five meters tall and weighing the weight of several elephants, calmly stamped her foot and a seismic wave instantly spread throughout the city.

"Kill!"

Everywhere the wave spread, gravel, earth and rock liquefied. The two Kintharians next to her, even more muscular and massive than she was, stamped their feet to assist her, and new doomsday tremors were emitted from their position as the epicenter.

A lake of magma replaced the once grand city of the Eltarians in a matter of seconds.

" H-How is this possible?!" The Templars shuddered in horror as they watched helplessly as their city was destroyed.

They had known for a long time from Asfrid that a group of Kintharians had settled somewhere in the jungle and that they would one day be their enemies. But they never imagined that this war would come so prematurely.

The high priest and the templar woman Lodi had other considerations. The Kintharians were normally like those big, dumb herbivores who end up as beasts of burden. They had physical strength, but their temperament made them harmless and unable to accomplish anything.

This absolute power... They had never seen it, not even in the archives recording the history of their race. The only Kintharian capable of such destruction... was Kinthar himself!

But these three individuals were not Kinthar, or they would have been dead long ago. Either way, they were far beyond what a few poor templars and priests like them could handle. Perhaps with a Supreme Templar they would have stood a chance, but their new nation was still in its infancy. It would take them decades, maybe even centuries to see such a warrior emerge.

"What do we do high priest?" A terrified young priestess whispered, shaking like a leaf. She was so afraid that she could hardly maintain her levitation. If she lost control, she would fall to her death.

Subconsciously sensing that a crucial decision was about to be made, the volcanic gleam in Ruda's eyes redoubled in intensity and a stupendous gravitational pressure pressed all the Eltarian priests and templars to the ground, the weaker ones fainting and suffering multiple fractures and injuries on the spot.

Lodi gritted her teeth, resisting with all her might with her telekinesis, and letting out a high-pitched scream, her Spirit Body swelled out of her body, transforming into a sinister jaw within which a sort of vortex swirled. Spirit vines also shot out in all directions, piercing the foreheads of all the other templars and priests except the high priest.

The spiritual pressure radiating from the young woman increased exponentially and the intangible jaw became even more terrifying and solid, a monstrous roar threatening to pull their traumatized souls out of their bodies.

"AARRGH! Die, abomination!" Lodi let out a resolute war cry and the huge jaw condensed from her Spirit Body stretched wide open before snapping shut on Ruda and the other two Kintharians, not having budged an inch.

The jaw closed and a Soul Steal dozens of times more terrifying than the one cast by Asfrid on Jake began to devour the souls of Ruda and her two champions.

For a brief second, the high priest and the other templars and priests who had just been drained of all their mental energy regained hope, but alas, it was short-lived. A blinding flash of light shot out from the calm, apathetic figures of the three Kintharian warriors and the spiritual jaws trying to devour them " shattered its teeth".

Three titans of light and heat energy slowly rose up, Ruda and her two guardians still standing in the same position inside their respective Spirit Giant.

"T-The Kintharian Soul!" The high priest was no fool. Their records mentioned that the souls of true Kintharians were akin to a combined Light, Earth, Metal and Fire Elemental Spirits.

If he wasn't daydreaming, Lodi had already lost. And indeed, reality verified his fears.

Ruda's Spirit Body grabbed the devouring spirit aggregate by the scruff of the neck as if it were a disobedient kitten, and just the mere touch set off a spray of sparks and rays that instantly consumed the spirit construct. The Soul Steal had been dispelled.

"AAAAAARRRRGH!"

A nightmarish shriek of agony that had nothing to do with the previous battle cry pierced the silence. Her soul had literally combusted like dry wood in a forest fire. Even if she survived this torture, she would have the IQ of a chickpea after this.

As he witnessed the fate of his chief templar, the high priest broke out in a cold sweat. Thinking of the decision he had to make, he desperately looked up to the sky, but only the endless storm responded.

'Even our goddess has abandoned us...'

"I surrender. Lay down your weapons."

"Good decision." Ruda smiled, her fierceness gone.

The magma lake that submerged the city froze with a thought, becoming solid again, and the wind-battered Eltarians were able to set foot back on land. The war that had not even been declared was already over.

Asfrid and Jake, who were watching the result of Ruda's blitzkrieg, showed different reactions. Jake was obviously happy. It was his plan and it had worked beyond his expectations. In fact, he had even learned a thing or two. If he had to fight the current Ruda personally, he would have fled without hesitation.

After all, he had forced them to endure drastic training for several years while he himself had only been able to train in the manner of a Kintharian for a little over a month. Even if Ruda had a less pure bloodline than him, the difference in talent was not enough to be compensated in such a short time.

As for Asfrid, this game had also broadened her horizons. She would never see those silly Kintharians in the same way again. 'I should be more respectful to them while they still respect me.'

"I surrender." Asfrid sincerely acknowledged his victory.

When she admitted defeat, a flood of energy from the tablet surged through Jake's wavering, withered soul, restoring his original power and beyond. His Myrtharian Bloodline was also greatly stimulated by this splendidly won victory and his lvl 22 Spirit Body jumped two levels at once, going straight to level 24. His Intelligence, Perception and ESP Aether stats had also increased significantly.

The world below them suddenly vanished like a TV being turned off and Jake's Floating Island and hundreds of bystanders curious about the outcome reappeared in their field of vision.

The first test was over. One more to go!