At that exact moment, Jake had more than a few legitimate concerns weighing on himâbut one demanded immediate attention.
If anyone who interacted with Anthaceâor even carried one of its extensions for long enoughâended up falling under its control without realizing it... then how long would it take for an Evolver like him?
Was his mental fortitude and raw power enough to make him immune? And if not, how long before the elite tier of Playersâthe very top bracket he belonged toâstarted dropping like puppets with their strings yanked from underground?
If the takeover was fast-acting, then yeah... he had a serious problem.
Jake owned more than a few items crafted from Anthaceâs wood and leaves. He even had two Goblets of Ethershineâone enchanted to +25, the other to +27. They sat inside his Space Storage, a place that was
supposed
to be isolated from external influence.
Supposed to be.
That still required verification.
He turned inward.
Diving into himself, Jake swept through his body and mind with the most powerful Oracle Scan he could currently deploy via Artefact Incarnation. With that ability active, he wasnât just using a deviceâhe
became
one. A living Oracle construct. Nearly all of his energy could be funneled into a single act of perception.
An Oracle Scan wasnât all that different from using mental sense. The energy it relied on, once converted, bore striking similarities to Spirit Power. Even under normal conditions, the results were outrageousâcapable of scanning billions of kilometers in every direction.
But Jake wanted to push it further.
Curious, he added his Spirit Lumyst to the equationâSaint-grade in quality, yet absurdly abundant in quantityâthen waited, almost eager.
He felt the difference instantly.
The precision sharpened. The intensity deepened. The resolution jumped several tiers in a heartbeat.
The spiritual impulse of the scan burst outwardâno, not outward. It
bloomed
âas if every cell in his body detonated into a silent, invisible supernova. Except the explosion was flawlessly contained, compressed within the boundaries of his own flesh.
The Celestial stood only a few meters away, watching him carefully.
He noticed nothing.
Normally, a Player could use their bracelet to detect an Oracle Scan if they had sufficient authority. This time, the signal was so refinedâso qualitatively distinct from standard Oracle outputâthat no ordinary Oracle Device could have picked it up.
In Jakeâs estimation, youâd need to reinforce one with thousands of tons of liquid alloy before its hardware even began approaching the required threshold.
Unlike when he used his bracelet, this kind of Oracle Scan didnât present data to be read.
It was
felt.
And Jake understood, with absolute clarity, the condition of his body and spirit.
The good news?
Anthace could not control him.
Not even close.
For natives whose growth relied entirely on Lumyst, that mightâve been inconceivable. But Jake wasnât built on a single pillar. His foundation was layered, reinforced, diversified.
The four AspectsâAether, Body, Spirit, and Bloodlineâfed into one another, amplifying his progression curve past critical thresholds. His new Lumyst-based cultivation system didnât replace them; it elevated them. It provided a high-grade energy source with tangible physical and psychic properties.
In a way, enchantment itself functioned as a fifth Aspect. In theory, there was no limit to how many enchantments a being could undergo.
Even someone like Ceythieâa Great General who cultivated Spirit Lumyst at a high levelâhad been incapable of resisting his charm in the slightest. And while the Celestial could momentarily match Jakeâs aura, that was only because of the monstrous accumulation of Lumyst in his cores, combined with an improbably high enchantment awakening of both body and spirit.
Brute stockpiling.
Not structural superiority.
The bad news, however...
Jake could definitely feel Anthaceâs presence woven through his cells and Spirit Body.
It clung there like the residue of a sunken oil tankerâseeping silently through clear water, polluting everything by mere proximity. Subtle. Likely harmless in his case, especially now that he was aware of it and could scrub it clean.
But it carried an unpleasant implication.
Anthace had probably been tracking him ever since he acquired the +25 Goblet of Ethershine from Lady Faye.
Heâd believed heâd completely dominated that exchangeâand he had, if you only considered the ambitious seductress involved.
He just hadnât factored in the tree watching from the shadows.
"Well played, Anthace. Not bad for a tree," Jake muttered under his breath.
Good thing heâd abandoned complicated strategies. Turns out subtlety was overrated when the battlefield itself was wired for surveillance.
He shifted his gaze back to the Celestial, expression hardening.
"How long can you still resist?" he asked evenly. "Your resistance might just be a story the tree planted in your head."
"Possible." Valandar shrugged, the gesture heavy with fatalistic indifference. "My efforts may be meaningless. But whatâs the point of living if I donât at least hold onto the will to defy?"
Jake smiled faintly.
The old warrior had earned his respect.
"Fair enough. So how long before it takes you over completely?"
That was when the leader of the Radiant Conclave offered a sad, defeated smile.
"Not long. A few minutes at most. When this barrier drops, my consciousness will be seized by force. When that happens... donât hesitate. If I attack you and you kill me in self-defense, so be it. If you can, spare what remains of my people."
Jake didnât answer immediately.
That had been his original intention as wellâconquer cleanly, ethically, decisively.
That was before learning the tree had effectively lobotomized most of the continentâs living beings.
He hadnât abandoned his vision of a disciplined, principled conquest.
But it seemed that reality had other plans.
"Iâll try," he said at last, voice low.
It was the only promise he could make.
"Thatâs enough." Valandar nodded, relievedâbut not naĂŻve. "Then listen carefully. Iâll tell you what you want to know while we still can."
In the remaining minutes of their private exchange, Jake learned another way to restore the Chalice of Lumyst.
If the original fragments were no longer available, they could be replaced with something equivalent. And only one entity met that condition.
Anthace.
The problem?
The properties of those fragmentsâalong with their near-limitless Life Lumystâhad been distributed evenly throughout the treeâs entire body, fundamentally altering its nature. In a sense, the whole tree had become a proto-chalice.
But no individual partâbranch, sap, leafâpossessed the intrinsic quality required to reforge the Chalice as it once was.
Hence the existence of the variable-quality Goblets of Ethershine.
The only part of Anthace that might satisfy the material requirements was a very specific region at the core of its trunkâwhere its own Life Lumyst Core resided.
Unfortunately, that didnât solve everything.
The fragmentsâ properties were dispersed across its colossal body. Every cell had inherited a fraction of that energy.
If Jake used only the heart of the trunk as forging material... The resulting Chalice would inevitably be inferior.
That was why Valandar proposed another solution.
One Jake liked a whole lot more.
Kill Anthace.
Or rather... force it into a corner so extreme that, by pure survival instinct, it would condense its entire vitality into a single seedâone last desperate attempt to preserve itself and maybe sprout again in some distant, more favorable era.
An ordinary plant couldnât pull that off.
But the Titan Tree? With its mastery of Lumyst rivaling Claireâs own?
Yeah. It absolutely could.
It wouldnât be easy. Not even close. But Jake didnât exactly have the luxury of alternatives.
As their conversation drew to a close, the Celestial began to tremble. Subtle at first. Then worse. Spasms rippled through him, each one harder to suppress than the last.
He hurried to relay the final pieces of crucial information. And the instant the barrier isolating them from prying senses finally collapsedâ
Anthace made its move.
Across the continent, it unleashed its army.
Billions of resurrected Saints and Radiant Lords erupted from the earthâformer heroes, forgotten legends, even past Celestials whose auras burned brighter than Valandarâs own.
Everything they had discussed was confirmed in the most brutal way possible.
Lustris didnât just fall. Twyluxia itself plunged into a level of chaos and panic that made the earlier collapse look tame.
*****
Back in the present, the faltering words of the Celestial took on a different tone.
A requiem.
"Ah... Anthace... How long have you been plotting this betrayal?"
Valandar forced the look of wounded disbelief. Even if it was theater, it bought him a few extra seconds before he drowned.
His gaze swept across the Saints blooming from the buds.
Pure performance,
Jake thought, face blank.
"All these Saints...These millions of warriors...Noâthese
billions
of Light Warriors.Brave, loyal, courageous...I donât recognize all of them, but I recognize many. Many across the thousands of years Iâve lived."
The Celestial inhaled deeply, drawing in the continent through the wind itself.
Heâs really farming aura until the bitter end,
Jake sneered internally.
"Judging by the number of Saints our land has produced over the last few centuries...and the number of auras I feel hereâauras on par with the current Conclave, or even
stronger
âI can already estimate how long youâve been preparing all of this.
His voice sharpened.
"Tens of thousands of years... at the very least."
Then his expression hardened.
Youâre about to turn into a puppet Iâll have to beat senseless. Why bother posturing?
Jake winced.
"And some of these auras... match my own. Others... exceed it. The Celestials who came before me. You even got your hands on their remains..."
His eyes narrowed.
Oscar-worthy performance. Thatâs all this is.
Jake applauded silently.
"...even though they should have remained buried beneath the temple,in the crypt designed specifically to be inaccessible to your roots."
In response, the entire forest of roots rippled.
A psychic pulse exploded outwardâsharp enough to make even the Oracle Knights flinch. A mental broadcast. Too complex for most to decipher.
Anthace had answered.
Jake couldnât hear the exact exchange, but he didnât need to.
The intent was obvious.
Contempt.
Mockery.
A suffocating, bottomless condescension. The kind a timeless being reserves for a screaming toddler who barely understands the sandbox heâs throwing dirt in.
The tree wasnât fooled by Valandarâs flimsy bluff.
Finally, Jake broke the silence.
Out of respectâand maybe a little pityâfor the old warrior, he played along.
"Huh... I thought Iâd prepared for the worst. Even for scenarios so screwed-up you couldnât imagine them. But this? Yeah, no. I didnât see
this
coming.
"Doesnât matter. An enemy is still an enemy. And victory comes once every enemy is dead or wiped out.
"The situation changes. The objective doesnât. Step up, then. Iâll slaughter you all the same."
At that moment, Jake felt it.
Not just eyes.
Mental senses.
Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.
Desperate natives. Enemy Players. Rivals hiding behind alliance banners. Allies buried inside enemy ranks.
And finallyâ
The vast, vile consciousness of a certain tree.
For the first time, Anthace addressed him directly. The Titan Tree, conductor of the Lustra Plains, orchestrating every living being like instruments in its dark symphonyâ
Its voice crashed into Jakeâs mind like a tidal wave.
âYOUUU... WIIILLL... FAIIIIIIL!!!â
It was a disgusting sound. Like ancient bark fibers grinding against each other. Wood splintering under pressure. And beneath it all, something feral. Alien.
Jake suddenly understood just how deep the brainwashing of the Lustra Plains ran.
A voice that warped and grotesque should have exposed its intentions centuries ago.
"Go fuck yourself," Jake replied flatly, flipping off the massive tree looming over the capital. "And book a speech therapist while youâre at it."
Shadrex. Weiss, Kaelum. The other Players and natives who witnessed the gesture didnât all grasp the cultural nuance.
But everyone understood the intent.
Insult.
Provocation.
Seconds later, a spiritual shockwave detonated from the treeâs core, sweeping across Twyluxia at absurd speed.
Valandarâs gray eyesâclear and hopeful just moments earlierâdimmed.
His consciousness vanished.
The Celestial was gone.
What remained turned its inhuman, emotionless gaze on Jake. Then, like someone yanking a puppet string, Valandar lungedâstriking with a single palm wrapped in blinding radiance.
Jake deflected the blow with a precise edge strike of his right hand.
And then,
Ignoring the empathy heâd felt. Ignoring the promise heâd made. He retaliated.
No restraint. No hesitation.
He drove his fist forwardâ
Straight into Valandarâs face.