The Oracle Paths

As soon as this pitch-black gas made contact with the slimy sucker of the oblivious great general, it soundlessly penetrated his skin, seamlessly seeping through his pores. Even the oily substance shielding the alien from Jake's radiation was powerless to hinder this thing.

For about ten seconds, the majestic Wengol showed no difference in its demeanor, continuing to stare unblinkingly at the Shining Mutant towering arrogantly over them from above.

Then something occurred that ended the standoff.

All of a sudden, the revered great general faltered, dropping his heavy spear and tumbling with a deafening metallic crash. The huge Wengol toppled forward, falling on all fours, then was seized by a fierce coughing fit. Sprays of blood and other bits of flesh painted the grass of the plain below him.

"General! Is everything all right?" The usually haughty and smug general of the protectorate brigade rushed over in concern to support his superior. Seeing his waxy complexion and the network of black veins running across his entire face, the Wengol warrior turned livid.

"Who did this?!" Urzul roared as he glared at the officers present.

The general found no sign of wounds, no hidden projectile nor trace of poison, but the instincts of a native with a Spirit Body as accomplished as his could not be underestimated.

"You!" The Wengol with the bulging muscles turned his gaze on the one unfamiliar officer who had just reported in. The jar had long since been stowed away, and his reclining posture made it impossible to read the expression on his face, which immediately drew his suspicion. "Get your head up!"

Caught with his hand in the cookie jar, the Wengol Player smirked, then slowly straightened before staring disdainfully at the generals and other officers present. No further investigation was needed to prove his guilt.

"Die!" Urzuh angrily brandished his huge trident made of pure gold, but hundreds of times sturdier, then charged at the culprit.

In terms of size, the Wengol Player was only as tall as the general's chest, but there was no fear on his face. Instead, he let out a mirthful chuckle and dashed forward bare-handed to meet his opponent's trident.

Seeing this officer's arrogance, Urzul's fury was further provoked and a terrifying spiritual pressure burst forth from the alien. The Player facing him suddenly felt as if he had entered a dark tunnel, seeing only a gigantic pure gold trident the size of a skyscraper.

At that moment, his arrogance bordering on insolence was humbled a notch and his three eyes slightly widened. Like Ruby against Laudar earlier, all traces of the carefree attitude melted from his face and an Oracle Shield wrapped around him in a protective energy layer.

BANG!

The trident blow was so powerful that even with the Oracle Shield the Wengol Player felt his body being hammered like a nail, smashing through several hundred meters of rock before finally stabilizing. When he deactivated his Oracle Shield and opened his eyes again, he saw only a patch of cloud lit up by Jake, as if he was at the bottom of a very deep well.

'Terrifying... After this Ordeal, I want a promotion.' The alien grunted in pain.

But since he was trapped in this makeshift well, he could now do as he pleased. The jar reappeared in his hands and this time he removed the entire lid after protecting every inch of his skin under a waterproof suit.

The black gas snake resurfaced, but this time there was no longer any need for stealth. The snake swelled rapidly, winding its way up the tunnel, until its head emerged from the crater. Once in the open, the snake detonated, its gas dispersing with the momentum of a hurricane.

Again, most of the Wengols didn't notice, but Urzul, who had not let up in his vigilance, leapt back, forming a water screen around himself to repel the gas. Tracing the source of the gas, a murderous glint flashed in the general's three cruel eyes and he shouted,

"So you're still alive.... THEN DIE!"

Undaunted, he moved with startling speed for his size and reappeared just above the crater, or more precisely, the tunnel he had drilled with his previous strike. Without hesitation and with a face distorted by rage, his muscles contracted beyond what was tolerable. The arm holding the trident retracted to gather energy, his legs flexed, his back arched backwards at 90 degrees.

The Player at the bottom of the hole suddenly had a sense of foreboding. Feeling a suffocating spiritual aura erupting forth above him, the Wengol became livid.

"No good, I have to get out of here!"

"TOO LATE!"

Urzul's angry voice echoed in his head, shaking his brain and consciousness. The Wengol general's body suddenly relaxed like a spring, and his torso, leaning back, swung forward at a dizzying speed as if he wanted to touch his feet with his hands. His arm also unwound like a slingshot and the huge trident vanished like a comet down the well.

The targeted Player saw only a dazzling golden spark, then was overwhelmed by a breathtaking pain. He had just enough time to activate his Oracle Teleportation Skill before fainting.

Urzul immediately sensed the difference and an incredulous scowl crept across his face.

" He' s gone?!"

"WATCH OUT!"

Unexpectedly, the warning came not from one of his men but from the mutant above him. Only then did he realize the chaos that had erupted on the battlefield. Thunderstruck, he saw the generals and trusted troops he had grown up with killing each other with fanatical hatred.

Urzul, was overcome by an icy chill, and wanted to run to help his men, but a coldness in his extremities caused him to look down at his chest. A huge, distressingly familiar spear head protruded from his rib cage. Turning his head with difficulty, he recognized the great general he had been admiring.

His countenance was nothing like the heroic warrior he knew. His three white eyes had turned black and a smell of carrion emanated from his body. How could he not understand what was going on.

"Undeads!" He spat out before letting out a heartbreaking roar.

Jake, who had been watching the whole scene with growing disbelief, was completely shocked. The tragedy playing out in the Wengol army's high command was a tiny microcosm of the drama unfolding on the rest of the battlefield.

One by one, the supposedly dead corpses were rising up, attacking their fellow humans and Wengols nearby with unparalleled frenzy. It didn't matter if they were friends, wives or husbands, their thirst to kill was the same.

At the same time, the living were also killing each other as if possessed, and those who died soon returned from the dead to join the slaughter again. When Ruby reappeared unharmed from the clouds, massaging her aching chest, a bemused "o" came from her mouth.

Jake didn't know if it was their unwanted arrival that had precipitated this chain reaction, but now he had to find a way to save what could be saved. He had come to stop the Wengol army, but now he had to prevent their total extermination.

On the human side, each additional innocent who died broke his heart a little more and through gritted teeth he felt a horrible sense of helplessness.

"What a loser." Ruby sneered with a silver gleam welling up in her eyes. "Just kill. Kill your enemies or eat them, you'll never be wrong."

Jake was stunned by this spooky and admittedly questionable advice, but sometimes simplicity was the answer. If he couldn't save everyone, he could at least kill some of the people responsible.

"Thanks Ruby." He said, his face growing darker by the second.

Consulting his Oracle Scan, he arbitrarily chose one of the abnormal auras near the unharmed civilians he had spotted and slammed into it like a nuke. Spreading his mental power around him, Jake found no enemy, but when he activated his Myrtharian Sight and sharpened his senses he finally detected something.

Reflexively lifting his right foot, he heard a hissing sound pass under his leg and when he brought it down hard he stomped on some kind of thin, pointed tail ending in a heart-shaped tip.

A shrill cry of agony sounded below him and looking up at the appendage, Jake saw what the tail was attached to. A tiny eyeball about 3cm in diameter. A quake of disgust knotted his stomach, but he didn't hesitate to chop the organ off with a claw.

Glancing at the corpse, Jake found the eye somewhat familiar. The frill in which this eyeball was recessed looked like an overlay of three- and four-leaf clovers, and it reminded him directly of the emblem Lily had scrawled.

'The Thozuch Clan. Demons.' Jake understood.

According to Norton, these creatures were called Beholders. They weren't very intelligent, but they had the same psychic and corrupting powers as the other, more evolved demons. What made them special was that they were often controlled by more advanced demons, serving as informants as well as transmitting and receiving antennas for their Mana.

In other words, these Beholders could send the negative energy they collected and send it back to the higher demon controlling them. Perhaps that demon could even watch everything that was going on here.

The feeling of being overwhelmed by the situation was only growing, but Jake at least had a clear target now. Now that he knew what a Beholder looked like, his next Oracle Scan focused specifically on their signature and he detected not a few dozen this time, but several hundred.

Focusing his Myrtharian Eyes on them, he saw a torrent of miasma flowing out of the humans and Wengols killing each other, and then converging on these evil little creatures. The first part of the mystery was solved.