The Oracle Paths

Whatever. This had nothing to do with his objective. The mission pressed on.

Now that Jake had found his first target, all that was left was to pay him a personal visit. Although the Sun Spirit wasn't as ridiculously large as the World Eater, the star was massive enough to make the distance between them deceiving. We're talking at least an Earth-to-Sun span, to say the least.

A terrifying journey to make on foot for most Players in this Ordeal, but not for someone of his caliber. Not only could he conjure the solid illusion of a spaceship with a snap of his fingers via the Purgatory, but he could also easily get there by flying on his own in no time flat.

Without friction to slow his path through the vacuum of space, even a weak but constant propulsion force would, in theory, let him accelerate endlessly, approaching the speed of light. But it went without saying that Jake wasn't going to bother with such a rudimentary method, even though it was totally within his capabilities.

With mental agility honed through countless practices, his mind deftly melded into the Aetherdream, and with a single thought, he teleported directly to his destination. With the sun in sight, it was a piece of cake.

The first thing that struck him upon reappearing was the blinding yellow-white brilliance assaulting his retinas; only then did his brain register the crushing heat threatening to incinerate his entire being. It was only afterward that Jake became aware of the overwhelming density of Sun Lumyst saturating the millions of kilometers around him.

The closer you got to the star, the worse it became, until the density dangerously approached that of a solid wall. That is, if you even managed to get that close... In reality, the consuming heat of the omnipresent Sun Lumyst would have cremated their body and soul down to the last particle long before.

Despite his talents, Jake wasn't an exception to this rule. Not completely. High doses of Sun Lumyst could kill him too, but he could absorb it to cultivate or regenerate as long as he didn't venture too far.

Which is exactly what he did without delay.

His wounds, which had struggled to heal and had barely begun to clot, were cauterized and then replaced by new burns in the blink of an eye, but this time the foreign Lumyst could be claimed with a bit of persistence. Without considering that, the heat and radiation alone from the sun were an abundant energy source perfectly compatible with him.

Another piece of good news: now that he was no longer entirely within the domain of influence of Klayr and Twyluxia, Jake could once again sense the ambient Aether. As long as there was Aether, almost anything was possible for him.

Too bad the corpse of the cosmic monk was absorbing most of it, automatically converting it into Lumyst. This Lumyst formed the atmosphere clinging around the membrane isolating Twyluxia, but a thick layer of Black Lumyst also obscured the rest of the body under the grip of the Blade Spirit.

It was the latter's broken blade that was dominantly stealing most of this energy for its own use. For this particular reason, Jake couldn't get a clear view of the situation in enemy territory, despite the absence of a protective membrane.

Not entirely disrespectful, after healing his wounds he first tried to establish a connection with the Sun Spirit—if only to get permission to borrow some of his solar Lumyst.

He received only a depressing silence in response. Even more startling was that the spiritual energy he emitted to transmit his message had burned up well before reaching the surface of the star.

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'Of course, I should've known that communicating with a sun wouldn't be so easy...' he grumbled, already weary of the situation.

[Guess you'll have to use your vocal cords the old-fashioned way,] Xi suggested ironically.

'In space?' Jake retorted with a snort.

[Well... why not?]

Jake was tempted to continue their pointless bickering, but time was unfortunately running out.

'Fine, let's do it your way.'

In the end, he resorted to several physical methods to transmit his message, ranging from radio waves and Morse code via light pulses to his own voice transmitted as a wave through the ambient Sun Lumyst. The message was: "I'm here on behalf of the Lumyst Chalice. I need to talk to you; the situation is urgent."

In his eyes, that was more than enough to convey his intent, but unless his method of communication was wrong, the Sun Spirit had visibly decided to keep ignoring him.

'Fucking star... Have it your way.'

If the Sun Spirit was playing deaf because he'd borrowed a bit of his Lumyst, Jake wasn't going to hold back!

Reopening all his pores, cells, and energy channels to their maximum, Jake transformed in a flash from a friendly human to a ravenous demon. An unstoppable siphon devouring ambient Aether and Sun Lumyst indiscriminately immediately began ravaging an ever-growing region.

He had already crafted various Lumyst Cores corresponding to his different attributes, and conveniently, the Sun Lumyst was compatible with several of them. Whether it was his main Life and Spirit Lumyst Cores or his embryonic Cosmic, Fire, and Star Lumyst Cores, they could absorb it without flinching.

At first, Jake had estimated that it would take him several days at this rate to reach the Radiant Lord stage for at least one of his Lumyst Cores, but in the end, he accomplished the task in a little less than five minutes. The thick and scorching Sun Lumyst for kilometers around had been entirely siphoned...

To pull off this miracle, Jake hadn't hesitated to brutalize his body—but that was, after all, what he did best. A Lumyst cultivator native to Twyluxia would never have had a body sturdy enough to handle such an energy overload.

Even if it was pure Life Lumyst overflowing with vitality, most wouldn't have endured it; their bodies would explode into a huge and hideous tumor resulting from rampant cellular growth.

When his main Life and Spirit Lumyst Cores simultaneously reached the next level, Jake felt a crack resonate in his mind. The next instant, his mental clarity and perception of the ambient Lumyst skyrocketed. At the same time, he felt abundant power flowing through his veins, reshaping his muscles, bones, and organs on a profound level.

After a quick self-check, Jake was left speechless.

"I'm just... 3% stronger?!" he gasped, dumbfounded.

Where was the promise of his strength tripling or even quadrupling upon crossing this new threshold? A beginner Radiant Lord, even a mediocre one, was reputed to effortlessly face five to ten Corebearers.

[That was inevitable,] Xi chuckled, failing to suppress a giggle. [Those ratios are based on the anatomy of the natives. Your body and mind are just too strong. Even the mental strength of a Great General like Ceythie, comparable to a Saint, only matched a tenth of yours before you even started seriously cultivating. I'm afraid you'll have to develop these Lumyst Cores to a much higher level to see tangible benefits.]

'Hmph... In that case, let's keep going,' Jake groaned, the corner of his lip twitching as he got back to work with furious enthusiasm.

If there was one piece of good news he couldn't complain about, it was that with his breakthrough, he was more in sync with this world. The restrictions on his bloodline and other powers should lift another notch upon his return to Twyluxia.

As he resumed absorbing the ambient Sun Lumyst—with more force this time—Jake realized that although his strength hadn't quadrupled as he'd hoped, the finesse of his control over Lumyst and the meridians channeling this energy had improved enough to let him tolerate much more.

Which didn't change a thing for him, since he was always overdoing it anyway... Less than an hour later, the entire peripheral corona of Sun Lumyst surrounding the sun had been entirely devoured by Jake, leaving an astonishingly clean space.

He felt that he wasn't far from another breakthrough and wasn't thrilled about the dwindling Sun Lumyst. It felt like the Lumyst was starting to "run away" from him. Annoyed, he set off without further ado in pursuit—straight toward the star.

VROOOOOOOOSH!

He was immediately rewarded with a cataclysmic solar flare right in the face. Billions of tons of superheated plasma, hurtling at several million kilometers per hour, slammed into his location with surgical precision. Way too precise to be a mere coincidence.

'Fuck! I finally pissed him off,' Jake cursed as he got smashed away, his stunned body spinning wildly without any control.

A few minutes later, he was back for round two with a sly grin, ready to throw down. The solar flare had hurt, but the energy its plasma contained hadn't gone to waste.

He could tell the Sun Spirit hadn't seriously tried to kill him; a laser-focused solar eruption would've hurt a lot more. This time, he'd been barely injured, partly thanks to his adaptive power that had changed his body's properties at the moment of impact. It was just a warning.

Jake then made a second 'polite' attempt to communicate with the Sun Spirit, but was again silently rebuffed.

"..."

And so began a game of cosmic ping-pong between Jake and the Sun Spirit. Jake devoured as much Sun Lumyst as he could, while the Sun Spirit retaliated with increasingly horrific solar flares.