The Oracle Paths

Zhorion civilians and guards had fragile bodies, but only in their normal form. As soon as the mutiny had escalated to a battle of this magnitude, they all grabbed the pendant around their necks and changed into their Berserk form.

None of them approached the majesty or threat level emanating from the Zhorion priest, but their fighting prowess in this form was still something no normal Players could resist.

Every second, one or two prisoners were mortally wounded at the beginning of their revolt, but those who had survived so far were the cream of the crop among the participants. Strong mind, strong body and refined fighting skills.

By the time Jake's head emerged from the vault overlooking the city, the battle raging beneath him had already found a sort of equilibrium. When he saw the bloodshed and the number of dead Zhorions he almost burst into tears.

"My points! My precious points!"

All these dead Zhorions were supposed to die because of him. Who were all these fucking opportunists?! At a glance, Jake's gaze locked on a few prisoners who were different from the others with very distinct styles.

On the one hand, there was Kevin in his Werebear appearance and Kate trying their damn best to make their way out of the city. With their low-key attacks, they had already left the priest's area of influence and were well on their way to success.

"These two have good instincts. "Jake laughed as he watched them run at breakneck speed away from the conflict.

The Nosk was also quite a sight in the midst of all these Zhorions. Without its dendrites, it was a shadow of its former self, but its physical strength was hard to match.

This alien did not have its joints and organs frozen by the cold like the one he had fought, and even with its injuries its performance was still striking. With each punch and kick, a few Zhorions were thrown into the air as if they weighed only a few grams.

Of course, this alien was in a class of its own. There was another inhuman looking alien fighting all by himself. A kind of humanoid lizard somehow fused with a horse.Dark mane, brown scales, lizard jaw, herbivorous teeth, round and blunt claws on top and hooves on the bottom.

A farcical combination if ever there was one, but this alien was over four meters tall and weighed about a ton. Each of its tail blows were like unstoppable bludgeons. He was the largest participant Jake had encountered in this Ordeal so far.

A final group of three humans had taken command of the rest of the prisoners and together they were trying to exterminate as many civilians as possible. Obviously, they had triggered the Zhorion Hunter Feat and were actively trying to collect as many points as possible to improve their final rating while they still could.

Most of them had seen one or more of their friends being sacrificed and ending up as food, and even though they knew they were not really dead, their hatred for these Zhorions was genuine.

It was this group that had mainly stolen his points. However, Jake only needed a glance at them to understand that they were doomed.

These three humans were impressive, but their efforts to hunt down civilians had hindered their evacuation. The Thralls responsible for their safety, who until then had ignored these Players, had begun to take an interest in them. No doubt they would all die in an instant.

Losing interest in their fate, Jake smacked his lips impatiently and focused on the rock plug blocking the lava flow from the magma chamber. Unlike the lava coming up from the depths of the earth, which had to fight gravity, this one was instead driven by it.

The lava had already been in place for a long time. All that was left to do was to blow the ceiling of the cave. But this time Jake did not want to create a simple lava flow. He had a better idea.

A second later, an explosion sounded in the direction of the vault that made most of the people present, Zhorions as prisoners, look up. When the priest recognized the characteristic shimmering of the molten rock, his jaw went slack.

He had already mentally prepared for it after the first trap, but it was still a shock to see his worst apprehensions come true. And this time the lava was right above him, ready to pour directly onto the altar.

Their bracelets were not like the participants' Oracle Devices. They couldn't make wishes like the Players, just locate them. These bracelets had other useful abilities, such as the power to disrupt the Oracle's predictions, but for this kind of situation the device was too limited.

Sarah, lying on her back, who without arms or legs on the altar looked like a bloody log, burst out laughing at the sight of the lava clumping above them. Only that son of a bitch Jake could dare to sacrifice her like that, as if she was just a vulgar collateral damage.

Regardless, she was still happy. The crazy priest had cut off her legs during that long minute to vent his frustration and she couldn't wait for it to stop. She avoided further suffering and at least by getting killed by Jake she was pretty hopeful that she would be compensated.

"Why are you laughing?! "The priest bawled next to her in his demonic form as he hugged his scimitar, trembling with rage and fear. "You will be the only one to die. Even though without the altar I will be more vulnerable, I can still run away. How will you escape?"

Sarah burst out laughing again, convulsing briefly between laughs to spit out some blood.

"You're too optimistic. I don't know about the other Zhorions, but you're dead for sure."

On hearing the young woman's wacky voice, the priest frowned. Her conviction had given him a horrible foreboding. And a foreboding among their kind, it was sometimes more reliable than a prediction from the Oracle.

All of a sudden, the young woman's laughter stopped, her face frozen in a sort of insane grin, and the priest saw through the reflection of her pupils an intense light coming towards them. The Zhorion shivered and flew as fast as he could out of the crystal altar, but it was too late.

"Damn it!"

These were his last words.Like a garden hose at full power after a thumb was put in front to block its flow, the lava exploded into a multitude of droplets, forming a shower of lava that covered not only the altar but also the temple and a small part of the city.

Sarah had already accepted her death, but a rock in the shape of an upside-down bowl crashed onto her just before the lava rain came. With no arms or legs, her body was completely sheltered inside.

The priest had received similar preferential treatment, but the bowl was upright and weighed more than ten tons. Even without Jake's intervention, the height of the cave was high enough for the projectile to reach a velocity of nearly two hundred kilometers per hour. Adding his telekinesis, it was literally a meteor.

The priest, who was actively flapping his wings a few dozen meters away from the altar, was hit head-on by the enormous rock. Like an egg against a stone, an unmistakable cracking sound was heard on the battlefield and so the high priest died, crushed by a stone.

The lava rain came soon after, and the corpse under the boulder slowly began to hiss in contact with the molten lava. Had he chosen to withstand this attack physically by remaining on the altar, he might have survived, but he chose to flee. Without his demonic form, he was only a Zhorion, somewhat less frail than the others.

When the lava rain reached the Zhorions and prisoners fighting below, Jake breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes to count his points. His Zhorion Hunter Feat' s points had begun to skyrocket.

It was the first time he had killed so many enemies effortlessly and it gave him an intense sense of gratification. Still, when he saw his number of Player kills rising together at the same rate, he immediately felt awkward.

These participants may have been captured like nobodies, but for surviving until now they all had a considerable number of Aether points, ranging from a few hundred thousand to several million.

With the exception of Kevin and Kate, who had fled early on, and the prisoners that managed to break out before ending up charred, everyone present ended up roasted in a shower of molten rock.

The cries of agony and rage were powerless to stop this lava rain and very quickly the voices quieted down and silence returned to the altar square. Only then did Jake reopened his eyes and appeared again on the vault of the cave for all to see.

The few Zhorions and prisoners still alive who looked up at the culprit then discovered a human with a smug face and eyes filled with joy, as if the massacre that had just taken place had nothing to do with him.

Those who were barely hanging on to life died on the spot.