The Oracle Paths

Chapter 1187  A Cold Welcome from the Moon

Since night still cloaked the sky on Twyluxia, the Moon Spirit should be orbiting right above Twyluxia by now. It was time to head back.

"By the way, is there any chance you can tone down your flames until your temperature matches mine?" Jake gave it one last shot before accepting his fate.

The fiery little boy frowned—or at least that's how Jake imagined his expression—before shrinking and lowering his gaze in shame. "I can't... When I try, I feel weak..."

Jake sighed as his last hope of conserving his Aether went up in smoke.

"It's all good..." he reassured him with a strained voice before moving on.

He knew the Sun Spirit wasn't lying. While Ray attempted to reduce the intensity of his flames, Jake had meticulously inspected the child's body.

How the magic of Lumyst managed to bridge the gap between a star teeming with overheated radioactive hydrogen inhospitable to life and such an environment being alive itself remained a mystery—but now he knew enough.

Like any living being, the Sun Spirit's body was made up of cells, but composed almost entirely of hydrogen. These cells could accommodate far more electrons than normal hydrogen, allowing for molecular bonds that were otherwise impossible. These very cells contained their own hydrogen, serving as the basic fuel for the thermonuclear reactions responsible for his brilliance. Such a balance was inconceivable in classical physics, but with the addition of Lumyst and Aether into the equation, mind-boggling miracles like this became possible.

Ray also differed from an ordinary sun in that the helium formed could be recycled back into hydrogen, and the energy emitted as light, heat, and radiation allowed him to generate Sun Lumyst, which in turn helped develop his Lumyst Cores. If he relied solely on this, the star composing his body would eventually starve, but the Sun Spirit had an abundant food source until now: Klayr's Lumyst.

Though dead, the immense drifting corpse of the cosmic monk continued to extract formidable quantities of Aether from the void, converting it into pure Lumyst to form the dangerous atmosphere shrouding his body. The circulation between the two cascades created by Claire's past sacrifice amplified this phenomenon.

After observing how Ray's body functioned with his own eyes, Jake immediately spotted a problem. While continuing to fly, he asked with a worried expression, "Ray, can you cultivate and nourish your body if there's no Lumyst source nearby?"

To make it clearer, he pointed to Klayr's corpse. Slow on the uptake, the Sun Spirit eventually grasped what he meant.

"Um... I think I could last a really, really long time, but I'd get really hungry and die eventually." The flaming boy replied, seemingly oblivious to how close this scenario was to reality.

"Just as I thought." Jake nodded to himself, letting it go.

Every Ordeal was the same old song. The natives were often incredibly powerful, but they all shared the same flaw: being so over-adapted to their environment that they lost elemental affinity for Aether. It made sense, given that the local energy drained the environment's Aether to exist.

Hade had gone through this too, and to solve the problem, he would've had to abandon his Fluid cultivation without the Oracle System's help. Enya and Esya also suffered from this setback when they first met.

Just another issue to tackle before wrapping up this Ordeal.

Moments later, the duo finally left Klayr's dorsal side, the broken chitin blade fading from view. As soon as it was out of sight, the Sun Spirit visibly relaxed.

"I hate that Black Lumyst," Ray confessed in a fearful voice. "Because Grandpa Twyluxia was losing territory, I tried it once and almost attacked big sis Moon afterward. Never again..."

If Twyluxia were to vanish, Klayr's corpse would be entirely up for grabs, and that Black Lumyst would become the norm. All the more reason to hurry up and eliminate this threat or salvage what could be saved from this sinking ship.

The Moon Spirit was much harder to spot compared to Ray's blazing form, but not overly difficult either. If the locals could see her shining from the ground without trouble, then locating her was a piece of cake.

As they drew near and the smooth, craterless silver moon filled their view, Jake mused aloud, "I hope your big sister will be as easy to convince as you. Otherwise, I'll have to roll out Plan A..."

"What plan?" the solar boy asked innocently, his plasma-like eyes widening.

"Eh, better we don't get into that."

Jake had a gut feeling it wouldn't be a walk in the park. For starters, even though they were much closer to the lunar surface than they'd been to the Sun Spirit's star earlier, there was no trace of 'Moon Lumyst' around. Apparently, Ray hadn't been kidding; she wasn't as naive as he was and knew how to cultivate properly.

This was gonna complicate things.

His prediction came true almost instantly as a violent wave of cold, spectral energy slammed into them, stopping them dead in their tracks. The Sun Spirit's glow dimmed abruptly, threatening to extinguish before flaring back up. As for Jake, he calmly fortified his mind, gauging the vast difference in spiritual strength between them.

Her Lumyst was entirely different from anything he'd encountered so far—the lunar element wasn't something concrete. Its meaning shifted across cultures. Abyssal Revenants awakened a spirituality and personality tied to their original function or nature, but this energy felt way more sophisticated.

Cold, spectral, earth, metal, water, sacredness, light, and shadow to a lesser extent... Jake sensed all that and more in the Lumyst tightening its grip around them.

"Big sis Moon, it's me!" Ray shouted gleefully.

The icy spiritual pressure focusing on them eased up temporarily, the lunar surface rippling to form a vaguely feminine face. Her control over her celestial body—to the point of forming a communicative face—put her leagues above the Sun Spirit.

"RAY... WHAT... ARE... YOU... DOING... HERE?" A voice that was anything but feminine—more like a constant earthquake—boomed at them. Literally. Her agonizingly slow enunciation made the experience even more unbearable.

After enduring five minutes for a complete sentence, Ray puffed out his chest proudly before her right eye and chided, pointing a thumb at himself, "Big sis Moon, you talk way too slow. You need to make a smaller avatar like mine."

"GET... LOST... YOU'RE... MELTING... MY... ROCK..."

"Oops, sorry..."

A minute later, a hole opened on the lunar surface, and a silver figure emerged, flying toward them. The hole sealed up instantly, leaving the moon's surface as smooth as before.

Jake took a moment to size up the famed Moon Spirit before politely greeting her. Unlike Ray, she resembled a young woman more than a child, though—as expected from an asexual lunar spirit—her form was entirely androgynous. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Her avatar seemed to be a blend of light-colored rocks threaded with veins of unidentified minerals in purple hues. He figured that's why the moon appeared to change color depending on whether you viewed it from the Duskwight Lands or Lustra Plains. Her long hair, delicate features, and ethereal demeanor set her apart from her immature opposite.

"It's definitely easier to communicate with this avatar," she muttered to herself before recalling their presence. Her demeanor shifted drastically, reverting to icy. "Ray, what are you doing here? And who's he?"

Despite her aggressive tone, her angular face radiated a sternness amplified by her crossed arms and raised chin. She scrutinized them one by one, focusing more on the poor Sun Spirit who couldn't handle her piercing gaze.

Feeling for the kid, Jake decided to cut his misery short and explained to the Moon Spirit why they were there. She listened stoically, her expression unchanged, seeking confirmation in Ray's animated gestures. Being smarter than him, making her grasp the gravity of the situation went off without a hitch.

At least until she responded in a tone that brooked no argument,

"I refuse to go with you."