The Oracle Paths

Jake sensed the deadly strike more than he saw it coming. Even with his reaction time becoming inhuman, his nervous system couldn't yet outpace the speed of light. Yet, he remained true to himself: unnervingly calm.

Lifting his head impassively towards the sky before the Radiant Mage leader had even finished barking his command, his pupils, reflecting the sky darkened by the dust fallout from the previous shot, suddenly contracted as the heavens ignited.

BOOOOOM!

A pillar of light, even more blinding and cataclysmic than the one that had struck down Crunch and Lord Phoenix, crashed down directly on him, the sound of the impact dwarfing a thousand rolls of thunder. His allies, struggling not to fall behind, froze in horror at the sight, skidding to a halt in panic.

Only Hephais, Lysandra, and Lee Yoon pressed forward, with Amy shamefully and helplessly dropping out of the race along with Senet and the other Players who had continued until now. If she got any closer, the superheated air molecules on the periphery of the laser would get to her long before she could come within shooting distance.

However, one thing that slightly lifted her spirits was that neither Hephais, Lysandra, nor even her friend Lee Yoon dared to directly enter the white light pillar with their bodies and armor as the only defense.

Lee Yoon had an almost unmatched natural defense with her Grade 10 Praying Mantis Bloodline, but absorbing a photon discharge energizing the air to exceed 100 million degrees Celsius was not among her abilities.

Amy barely knew Lysandra, but even though the Moon Elf woman leading their squad had an Oracle Rank higher than hers, she didn't seem like the tanking type. Indeed, to protect herself, she conjured a sophisticated incantation to deflect and reflect the light and heat in her path. The shimmering shield enveloping her now reflected her silver hair like the full moon shimmering on the water's surface, granting her an ethereal aura.

The science behind this technique was a bit murky, but it did the job. Slowly but surely, she too reached the top of the hill, albeit staying a good distance from Jake and the massive light pillar bearing down on him.

As for Hephais, he was the only one of the three confident enough to take the light pillar on with his own body, thanks in part to the Faction Passive. But as they say in his line of work, an assassin doesn't take unnecessary risks.

In response to blinding light, even darker shadows were bound to form inevitably. This would remain true as long as the light came from a single direction and an obstacle stood in its path. With his new Shadow Lumyst, the Egaean had already discovered that by intensifying his flow, the light around him tended to avoid him all the more spontaneously.

A blot of darkness in the omnipresent dazzle, he sauntered into the white light beam until he stood beside Jake with his customary indifference. Seeing Jake stoically endure the terrifying laser with his hands in his pockets, he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Why stay inside until the end if you can get out of this pillar whenever you want?" Hephais clicked his tongue skeptically as he felt the incandescent magma under their feet destabilize the entire hill and beyond.

The first shot had already significantly affected the terrain's topography. This second shot, comparable to a large nuclear warhead, would finish off the region. At least the hastily forged equipment by Jake was holding up. The Black Metal Lumyst was already proving its worth.

"I'm analyzing the spell, or rather, the state changes of the Light Lumyst that originated this laser," Jake replied a short second later with a fascinated expression.

As experienced firsthand against River's Bane, the elemental Lumyst could also be transmuted into its physical and tangible element as well as allowing its control. However, once the Lumyst was released into nature, anyone was theoretically able to control it.

These Radiant Mages understood that well. This pillar of light contained zero Lumyst. It was truly just light.

If a powerful Lifemancer or Soulmancer at the level of a Titan or an Abyssal Revenant were receiving this attack, even with Light Lumyst as their main element, it was almost impossible to react in time. Too bad for them, before becoming a Lumyst cultivator, Jake was primarily a Player with a ridiculously powerful bloodline.

Even before becoming a Cosmic D Starfeyrves, his Myrtharian bloodline already nearly completely protected him from light and heat. Not to the point of achieving absolute immunity, which was a talent beyond rare, but strong enough to allow him to endure and absorb the rest with his constitution.

At that precise moment, Jake's body didn't even need to call on its adaptive properties to resist. Between his robustness, the natural ability of his body to conduct, absorb, and store light in his cells to convert it into pure Aether via his Energy Body, he just had to relax and enjoy.

Despite everything, the light charge was insane and soon heated his body beyond humanly tolerable limits. But he had not been human for a long time.

Even if his cells exceeded a temperature of several thousand degrees, they wouldn't burn up. This gave Jake ample time to set up other countermeasures: like producing some Light Lumyst. Conveniently, the Life and Spirit Lumyst Core corresponding were in dire need of refilling...

A few dozen seconds later, a hole surrounded by lava of unknown depth had been drilled by the light pillar, almost entirely flattening the hill and its surroundings. What remained was an expanding sea of magma. The troops from both camps had long since retreated in terror, but the molten earth was quickly catching up with them.

Ceythie and her elite guards, heading on foot towards the hill after abandoning their mounts, were left speechless at the sight of this apocalypse. As a Great General worthy of the name, she also had her own trump cards to take the enemy down with her if she found herself backed into a corner, but even she was ready to admit that she had underestimated Corvac's level of preparation.

"Fortunately, I never gave the order to charge his HQ head-on," she exhaled emotionally, forced to slow down as the ground under her feet turned to lava. "Even leading the charge myself, my trump cards might not have been enough."

It depended on what Corvac still had up his sleeve as a last resort. Knowing him, he might still have a scheme or two...

"Shall we proceed the offensive?" An old general who had fought hundreds of battles with her asked gravely, shielding his eyes with his gauntlet due to the molten earth stretching as far as the eye could see.

The distant white light pillar was still dazzling them, burning their retinas even with their eyelids closed. However, one could notice the skill of these elite veterans in their ease of orientation and movement in all this light. Relying on their other senses honed in combat was almost second nature to them.

Ceythie was also forced to close her eyes, but after lowering the visor of her helmet, the sensation of discomfort subsided. Having faced those damn Radiant Mages before, they had developed some counters. After confirming that all her colleagues had lowered their own visors, she smiled with satisfaction and declared,

"The magma and burning air won't stop us. Take a deep breath and continue. If you haven't already, put on heat-resistant boots or bring out your anti-heat artifacts."

"Heuss!" The seasoned warriors responded in unison.

The deep breath was because the oxygen in the overheated air had been consumed and projected into the upper atmosphere. The multitude of carbonized carcasses slowly sinking into the lava was the living proof of all those unfortunate souls who had passed out from hypoxia before escaping the danger zone.

The moment after, Ceythie and her elite officers sprinted over the lava towards the distant light pillar serving as their beacon, the hill that had once been the enemy's stronghold now nowhere in sight...