The Oracle Paths Chapter 1234: No Hesitation

In that precise instant, Jake was burdened by several genuine worries—but one cried out for urgent focus.

Should anyone who dealt with Anthace—or even held one of its extensions for an extended period—end up under its sway without noticing... then what about an Evolver such as himself?

Could his mental strength and sheer might render him resistant? And if not, how soon would the top-tier Players—the elite group he was part of—start collapsing like marionettes with strings pulled from below ground?

If the possession struck quickly, then indeed... he faced a grave issue.

Jake possessed numerous items made from Anthace’s wood and leaves. He even carried two Goblets of Ethershine—one enchanted to +25, the other to +27. They rested in his Space Storage, a space meant to shield from outside interference.

Verification remained essential.

He looked within himself.

Plunging deep inside, Jake examined his body and mind using the strongest Oracle Scan available through Artefact Incarnation. With this power engaged, he wasn’t merely operating a tool—he became one. A vibrant Oracle creation. Almost all his energy could channel into one focused observation.

An Oracle Scan resembled mental sense in many ways. The energy it drew upon, after transformation, closely mimicked Spirit Power. Even in standard use, its outcomes were staggering—able to probe billions of kilometers across all directions.

Yet Jake aimed to intensify it more.

Intrigued, he incorporated his Spirit Lumyst into the mix—Saint-grade in purity, yet ridiculously plentiful in amount—then paused, nearly excited.

The shift hit him right away.

Accuracy heightened. Depth increased. Clarity leaped multiple levels in moments.

The spiritual surge of the scan exploded—not outward. It detonated inward—as though each cell in his form burst into a quiet, unseen supernova. But the blast stayed perfectly restrained, squeezed inside his own physical limits.

The Celestial lingered just meters distant, observing him intently.

He detected zero signs.

Usually, a Player might sense an Oracle Scan via their bracelet if granted enough access. This instance, the signal was so polished—so fundamentally apart from typical Oracle signals—that no regular Oracle Device could register it.

In Jake’s view, you’d require fortifying one with thousands of tons of liquid alloy just to start nearing the needed level.

Unlike bracelet scans, this Oracle Scan didn’t display data for viewing.

It flooded him directly.

And Jake grasped, with total certainty, the state of his body and spirit.

The positive update?

Anthace held no control over him.

Not in the slightest.

For locals whose development depended solely on Lumyst, that idea might seem impossible. But Jake’s structure wasn’t single-threaded. His base was multi-layered, strengthened, varied.

The four Aspects—Aether, Body, Spirit, and Bloodline—interlinked, boosting his advancement beyond key limits. His fresh Lumyst-based cultivation method didn’t supplant them; it uplifted them. It supplied a premium energy form with real physical and mental traits.

In essence, enchantment acted like a fifth Aspect. Theoretically, no cap existed on how many enchantments a creature could endure.

Even a figure like Ceythie—a Great General skilled in high-level Spirit Lumyst cultivation—had failed utterly against his allure. And though the Celestial could briefly rival Jake’s presence, that stemmed only from the immense Lumyst hoarded in his cores, paired with an extraordinarily elevated enchantment awakening in body and spirit.

Sheer accumulation through force.

Not true foundational dominance.

The negative development, though...

Jake clearly sensed Anthace’s trace embedded in his cells and Spirit Body.

It stuck like the aftermath of a wrecked oil tanker—leaking quietly into pristine waters, tainting all through simple nearness. Faint. Probably innocuous for him, particularly since he now recognized it and could cleanse it away.

But it hinted at something disturbing.

Anthace had likely monitored him since obtaining the +25 Goblet of Ethershine from Lady Faye.

He’d thought he’d mastered that deal—and he had, if focusing solely on the cunning temptress involved.

He simply hadn’t accounted for the tree lurking in the dark.

"Well played, Anthace. Not bad for a tree," Jake whispered to himself.

Luckily, he’d ditched intricate plans. Apparently, directness trumped stealth when the arena itself buzzed with hidden eyes.

He directed his attention back to the Celestial, face toughening.

"How much longer can you hold out?" he inquired calmly. "Your defiance could just be a tale the tree fed into your mind."

"Possible." Valandar shrugged, the motion laden with resigned apathy. "My struggles might prove pointless. But what’s life worth if I don’t cling to the drive to resist?"

Jake offered a slight smile.

The veteran fighter had gained his admiration.

"Fair enough. So how soon until it fully claims you?"

That’s when the Radiant Conclave’s leader gave a sorrowful, broken smile.

"Not long. A few minutes at most. Once this barrier falls, my awareness will get forcibly taken. When it does... don’t hold back. If I come at you and you slay me in defense, that’s fine. If possible, save whatever’s left of my followers."

Jake held off on replying right away.

That matched his initial plan too—seize control swiftly, morally, firmly.

That was prior to discovering the tree had essentially mind-wiped most of the continent’s inhabitants.

He hadn’t forsaken his goal of an orderly, honorable takeover.

But circumstances appeared to dictate otherwise.

"I’ll try," he stated finally, tone quiet.

It was the sole vow he could offer.

"That’s sufficient." Valandar nodded, eased—but not foolish. "Then pay close attention. I’ll share what you seek to learn while time allows."

During the last minutes of their secluded talk, Jake discovered an alternative method to revive the Chalice of Lumyst.

If the true fragments were unavailable, substitutes of equal worth could serve. And just one being fit that role.

Anthace.

The issue?

Those fragments’ traits—plus their boundless Life Lumyst—had spread uniformly across the tree’s vast form, transforming its essence. In a manner, the entire tree had evolved into a budding chalice.

Yet no single section—branch, sap, leaf—held the core attribute needed to remake the Chalice in its prior glory.

Thus arose the variable-strength Goblets of Ethershine.

The sole portion of Anthace potentially meeting the material needs lay in a precise spot deep in its trunk’s heart—where its personal Life Lumyst Core dwelled.

Regrettably, that didn’t resolve all challenges.

The fragments’ qualities scattered throughout its enormous frame. Each cell had absorbed a sliver of that power.

If Jake employed just the trunk’s center for crafting... The Chalice produced would surely fall short.

That’s why Valandar suggested a different approach.

One that Jake favored greatly.

Eliminate Anthace.

Or more accurately... corner it so severely that, driven by raw instinct for survival, it would gather all its life force into one seed—a final, frantic bid to endure and perhaps regrow in a far-off, better time.

A typical plant couldn’t achieve that.

But the Titan Tree? With Lumyst command matching Claire’s?

Absolutely. It could manage it.

It wouldn’t prove simple. Far from it. But Jake lacked better options.

As their discussion neared its end, the Celestial started to shake. Mildly initially. Then more intensely. Twitches coursed through him, each tougher to contain than the previous.

He rushed to deliver the last vital details. And the moment the barrier shielding them from external probes shattered—

Anthace struck.

Over the continent, it released its forces.

Billions of revived Saints and Radiant Lords burst from the soil—past champions, lost myths, even former Celestials whose presences shone fiercer than Valandar’s.

Every point they’d covered got validated in the harshest manner imaginable.

Lustris didn’t merely crumble. Twyluxia sank into turmoil and terror that dwarfed the prior downfall.

*****

In the current scene, the Celestial’s weakening words shifted to a new quality.

A dirge.

"Ah... Anthace... How long have you schemed this treachery?"

Valandar feigned shock and hurt. Even if staged, it gained him precious moments before submersion.

His eyes scanned the Saints emerging from the buds.

Jake pondered, expression neutral.

"All these Saints... These millions of fighters... No—these legions of Light Warriors. Bold, devoted, valiant... I don’t know every one, but many feel familiar. Many from the millennia I’ve endured."

The Celestial breathed in deeply, absorbing the continent via the breeze.

Jake scoffed inwardly.

"From the count of Saints our realm birthed in recent centuries... and the tally of presences I sense now—ones rivaling the present Conclave, or surpassing it—I can gauge how long you’ve orchestrated this.

His tone grew keener.

"Tens of thousands of years... at minimum."

Then his face set firm.

Jake grimaced inside.

"And certain presences... echo mine. Others... outstrip it. The Celestials who preceded me. You even claimed their corpses..."

His gaze tightened.

Jake clapped mentally.

"...despite them resting sealed under the temple, in the vault built to block your roots."

In reply, the whole root forest quivered.

A psychic wave burst forth—piercing enough to startle the Oracle Knights. A telepathic message. Too intricate for many to parse.

Anthace had responded.

Jake missed the precise words, but he didn’t require them.

The meaning shone clear.

Disdain.

Ridicule.

An overwhelming, endless superiority. The sort an eternal entity spares for a wailing child who scarcely comprehends his play area.

The tree saw through Valandar’s weak deception.

At last, Jake ended the quiet.

From honor—and perhaps slight compassion—for the aged champion, he joined the act.

"Huh... I figured I’d braced for the direst outcomes. Even for messes too twisted to fathom. But this? Yeah, no. I didn’t anticipate this.

"Doesn’t change a thing. A foe remains a foe. And triumph arrives when all foes lie dead or erased.

"The circumstances shift. The goal holds. Advance, then. I’ll cut you down regardless."

In that instant, Jake detected it.

Not merely gazes.

Mental probes.

Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.

Frantic locals. Hostile Players. Competitors masked by alliance flags. Supporters trapped amid adversaries.

And ultimately—

The immense, corrupt mind of a particular tree.

For the first time, Anthace spoke to him outright. The Titan Tree, ruler of the Lustra Plains, directing every soul like players in its sinister orchestra—

Its voice slammed into Jake’s thoughts like a surging flood.

'YOUUU... WIIILLL... FAIIIIIIL!!!'

It sounded repulsive. Like aged bark scraping together. Timber cracking under strain. And underneath, something wild. Otherworldly.

Jake abruptly realized the extent of the Lustra Plains’ indoctrination.

A tone so distorted and ugly should have revealed its schemes ages back.

"Go fuck yourself," Jake shot back bluntly, giving the enormous tree towering above the capital the middle finger. "And schedule a speech coach too."

Shadrex. Weiss, Kaelum. The other Players and natives seeing the move didn’t all catch the cultural detail.

But all grasped the message.

Offense.

Defiance.

Moments after, a spiritual blast erupted from the tree’s center, racing over Twyluxia at insane velocity.

Valandar’s gray eyes—bright and optimistic seconds before—faded.

His mind evaporated.

The Celestial had vanished.

What was left fixed its soulless, blank stare on Jake. Then, as if tugged by a hidden cord, Valandar charged—thrusting a single palm sheathed in dazzling light.

Jake parried the attack with a sharp chop from his right hand.

And then,

Disregarding the sympathy he’d sensed. Disregarding the commitment he’d given. He countered.

No mercy. No pause.

He thrust his fist ahead—

Directly at Valandar’s visage.