The Oracle Paths

River's Bane wasn't as at ease as it tried to pretend. Despite being a revered Titan, a Kraken ruling the higher reaches of the Lumyst River, it had never come so close to death at the hands of a human. Not even when ambushed during its centennial hibernation by the Celestial and the four Saints.

Back then, it had sacrificed a few tentacles to escape, but at no point did it feel in mortal danger. It was a bit more tense when Featherfall, Dreadnought, and Anthace cornered it, but with guile and ferocity, it escaped.

Even against three Titans, it had survived! So why was this human, whom it had just blasted to kingdom come with an ultra-laser of the purest Water Lumyst, troubling it so much? Its tentacles, usually unfazed by cold, were now bristling...

Then, it remembered a detail it had overlooked: the two prey in its stomach!

At first, it seemed like a golden opportunity. The two creatures had almost failed a Lumyst baptism, barely surviving with severe injuries and tumors. Their lifeforce was abundant, and they weighed much more than they appeared, giving River's Bane a glimpse of their true size.

To River's Bane, these two foolish prey ticked all the boxes for an exceptional snack! So, it had swallowed them whole without hesitation. But now, it was starting to have regrets...

'Should I spit them out and call it quits for tonight?' River's Bane pondered for a moment before scoffing at the ludicrous thought. It feared nothing and no one!

'Besides, I won! It's impossible that it's not dead...' it reassured itself, though seemingly doubting its own affirmation.

That's right. That human must have died after taking that hit! No creature from the Lustra Plains could survive complete annihilation of all vital organs! Not even the Celestial!

Except perhaps Anthace... or Dreadnought. But this human was neither plant nor worm. It wasn't an expert in anatomy, but from devouring various prey, it had learned some facts: Humans couldn't survive without their heads and brains...

Unfortunately for River's Bane, its anxiety was not unfounded. Just as it began convincing itself that it had indeed defeated its adversary, a familiar silhouette burst forth like a streak of black, silver, and blue light from the dark abyss created by its watery laser.

"..."

River's Bane was too stunned to curse. It was captivated by the dazzling, thick layer of Lumyst shining on the surface of the resurrected human's body. Its appearance had changed significantly from the previous generic and unremarkable Lumyst Aura.

"You...!" The Kraken's enormous bulbous eyes widened in horrified astonishment, realizing immediately with its vast experience what had just happened. "You weren't using any Lumyst earlier? That was just your raw physical strength?"

The cephalopod dismissed the thought as soon as it formed. The human had definitely used various powers to reach it. Especially that last attack where it managed to scratch it by piercing its Water Lumyst Barrier.

That evil black miasma incinerating both its flesh and spirit had hurt like hell... Just thinking about it made it break out in cold sweat, a physiological reaction it thought it had long been immune to.

Moreover, this wasn't the first time it encountered such destructive energy, deeply hostile to all existence. Throughout its long life, it had encountered such individuals several times, and each time the events that followed had been catastrophic for their continent. Only a Titan as ancient as itself could have such memories.

Contrary to what the natives imagined, wars between the Duskwight Lands and their Lustra Plains were nothing new. Every time these foreigners appeared, an era of chaos would inevitably follow.

Opportunities were numerous, as were chances to die. When it all ended, the victors were usually too few to even consider it a victory... As a lone Titan, it had long learned not to meddle in foreigner affairs...

Foreigner... Foreigner... A shiver of dreadful realization suddenly ran through the Kraken's massive frame.

"You're a foreigner!" River's Bane shrieked, instinctively erecting its tentacles into an impregnable defensive grid out of sheer terror. "So this Lumyst... You just cultivated it?!"

Jake, quickly acclimating to his newfound Lumyst reserves in silence, looked up in response, smirking evilly.

"Too late."

Five seconds of Lumyst was more than enough. That time had given him more than he needed not only to master this new energy source but also to learn the ins and outs of the Breath Of Living Elements. The contrasting colors of his Lumyst, dancing between sapphire blue, mercury silver, abyssal black, and blinding white, were blatant proof.

"I'm coming," Jake warned laconically, his smirk vanishing from his face.

The disappearance of that smile scared the Kraken even more than when it looked at him like a squid on a sashimi board during their first round.

"I DEFEATED YOU ONCE, I CAN DEFEAT YOU TWICE!" River's Bane yelled in pure denial, launching its tentacles in an attack like a volley of arrows.

BOOOOOM!

The already ravaged ground shattered like a smashed plate as the heavy tentacles penetrated deep into the earth like massive spears, so taut and sheathed they were. The protective Water Lumyst enveloping them exploded like a tsunami, sending ripples and tides flooding the devastated area, seeping into every crevice and crack.

Whooosh!

In an ultra-fast comet blur that made its heart skip a beat, Jake reappeared unharmed in the air at eye level, taunting it with a look of pure disdain.

"You should have fled when you had the chance instead of swallowing my friends," he declared coldly before ominously adding, "Be smarter in your next life."

Before the Kraken could retort or even defend itself, Jake landed on top of the beast's skull and raised his right arm in the air, his fingers together and outstretched as if mimicking a knife.

The five seconds of Lumyst he had produced, a mishmash of his various attributes due to his limited experimentation time, suddenly converged from the rest of his body towards his raised hand. His Lumyst Aura appeared to dim quite a bit when he did this, but the concerned hand, in contrast, began to shine like a dark-blue sun, a terrible screeching noise tearing the air and distorting space-time by its mere existence.

Then Jake lowered his arm with serene killing intent, and a dark arc of light with some tones of lightning blue struck the monster, colliding with the Water Lumyst halo isolating its skull. The two very different types of Lumyst immediately clashed, one trying to destroy the other, and for a very brief moment, River's Bane thought it had a chance of winning.

The energy contained in this Lumyst arc, as terrifying and baleful as it was, seemed far too insignificant compared to its thousands of years of accumulation. As soon as its Water Lumyst Aura showed signs of yielding, the Kraken immediately reinforced it by releasing astronomical amounts of Lumyst cultivated in its Lumyst Core since it was but a tiny squid.

Its survival depended on it!

Thanks to this prompt initiative, River's Bane even temporarily regained the upper hand, with Jake's emitted Lumyst blade appearing almost extinguished like a damp firecracker in the face of the deluge of Water Lumyst emerging like an infinite, increasingly violent tide.

Hard to believe, but during the few tenths of a second their clash lasted, their environment had been thoroughly replaced by icy water, the entire region terraformed into a gigantic artificial lake. The Kraken was going all in.

"I WIN!" the cephalopod roared, infusing with a single thought the Water Lumyst it continued to release unrestrainedly to take control of all this water.

With another thought, it commanded all the water in this vast expanding lake to unleash itself upon and only upon Jake.

A double whirlpool of several kilometers in diameter collided brutally with his tiny human body stuck in the middle, the torrential violence of the current trying to mince him like a steamroller. Even with his body enhanced with Life Lumyst, Jake felt it.

Yet, a condescending victory smile subtly curved the corner of Jake's lip just before the twin water rolls put him through the wringer. No doubt that if River's Bane had succeeded, he would have been like that infamous lost sock that is never found...

"That was a good plan. Too bad you don't know much about me," Jake sighed, then teleported without warning beneath and behind the monster where its stomach supposedly was.

Without hesitation, he concentrated the Grey and Red Lumyst he had just freshly produced during those few milliseconds into his fist and punched forth with all his strength. The Water Lumyst halo, a bit thin at that spot but dense enough to stop the first-round Jake, was immediately perforated, shockwave-like ripples clearing the aqueous energy from its path.

The Kraken's not-so-fragile skin caved in, shaken by an impact of immeasurable violence, but did not give way. However, that was all Jake needed to end the fight.

River's Bane, having never taken such a blow to the liver, lost all concentration, its Lumyst losing all cohesion in the blink of an eye. The rollers and columns of water several kilometers high remained eerily suspended motionless in the air before beginning their descent.

Even if the Titan hadn't made such an embarrassingly rookie mistake, it wouldn't have changed anything. Without Water Lumyst to stop his mental sense, Jake was liberate to employ the second and third forms of Morphic Grasp.

"Soul Crush/Essence Snatch," Jake murmured darkly, clenching his two fists outstretched in front of him.

The awareness of River's Bane froze, a searing pain like liquid fire spreading through its entire soul. That was all it took for the abandoned Lumyst arc at the top of the Kraken's skull to counterattack.

The colored energy blade, which seemed on the verge of extinguishing, suddenly flashed with a bright dark radiance reminiscent of a reanimated star during its supernova, and the next flash split the Kraken's body in two. Space was sliced, a black line of nothingness forming in the middle, and then the sound of a thunderclap evoking the birth of the big bang destroyed what remained of the Kraken in an cataclysmic explosion.