The Oracle Paths

Ruby shuddered with disgust as she caught sight of his evil rictus betraying his spiteful intentions.

'Yet another one of those disgusting bastards, using his power and authority to satisfy his lust and get away with it. I bump into two or three of these guys every day at New Earth HQ.' She sneered with surliness.

The Baron was a man in his prime, brown hair draped over his shoulders, bushy eyebrows, slightly curved nose, sunburned skin, and quite an impressive build for a mage. He wore a dark robe usually worn by high-ranking wizards, but reinforced with armor plates and fine chain mail forged from a magical alloy brimming with energy. He wielded a sinuous wand no larger than a twig, and only a tad less rough, but a heavy claymore slung across his back told her that he also knew how to swing a sword when the situation called for it.

Seeing her frozen in place, Laudar vainly thought that she was scared stiff by his demonstration of power. Defenseless lambs staggered by terror like this one, he had met a lot of them during his career.

But just as he was wrong about Ruby, she was also wrong about his intentions. As creepy and insane as his sadistic smile appeared to be, the current Ruby didn't arouse him that much.

Sure, if the girl had kept an ordinary size and stayed true to her cuteness, her innocent airs and her inborn seductive assets, then maybe he would have been tempted. But facing a half-giant over three meters tall with such 'eccentric' cosmetic features... Laudar didn't have such a heavy taste.

On the other hand, slaughtering without any inhibition, spoiling his enemies' aspirations and witnessing their faces decompose in despair as they realized their helplessness and the nearness of their imminent death was his biggest guilty pleasure.

Laudar, notwithstanding, was not a lunatic. Regardless of his violent tendencies, the Baron was a necessary evil in the eyes of the Ret'Asi Empire. He deserved to rot in a cell as much as the inmates rotting in his own dungeons, but unlike them he had been perpetrating his crimes on the right people.

While his duties required him to ensure the safety of Lodunvals and protect its citizens, Ret'Asi did not dictate how he should do it, especially in this time of war and instability when the empire was facing a crisis, both external and internal.

As long as his territory was under control, taxes were paid and the main cities were safe, no one would question his leadership, even if it meant turning a blind eye to some crimes.

Usually, the Baron was quite self-controlled. He kept his impulses in check most of the time, killing only a servant, or even a guard from time to time when his temper flared. When he really couldn't take it anymore, he would summon his faithful pegasus Actalaus and fly to the Wilderness or a country bordering its borders to carry out a new round of slaughter.

In committing these acts he never revealed his identity, but many rumors had emerged during his decades of reign. Laudar may have been cautious, but his gigantic black pegasus did not go unnoticed.

Eleven years earlier, a prince of Khinchod, a Wengol-controlled nation, had finally tracked him down and paid assassins to eliminate him. He narrowly escaped death and since then has kept a low profile, never summoning his faithful pegasus again.

This prince had finally given up and as the years went by, the rumors had died down and his bellicose and cruel reputation had gradually mellowed. Unable to let off steam, he had channeled his attention into this new and highly ambitious project, but those two Guilties had ruined everything...

For that alone, they deserved the death penalty! The first one had escaped, but he would not let the young woman slip through his fingers.

For that... He had to stop her from moving first...

"Actalaus crush her legs!" Laudar ordered with a wicked chuckle.

" Gladly." The huge pegasus' deep voice reverberated like a drumbeat, rattling the ribcage of Ruby and the other adventurers still around.

"Protect me!" She shouted to the group of previously charmed adventurers. It didn't matter if it meant their deaths, she absolutely had to break out of here.

"As you wish."

The Paladin Captain and the two spearmen in heavy armor each carrying a heavy bulwark rushed fearlessly toward the titanic black pegasus, unaware of the suicidal nature of their action. They had already realized the absurdity of their behavior, but could not resist the urge to obey her. This insight struck them deeply, sending their minds reeling again.

The female mage with the side-shaved head also began to chant a long incantation and a beam of yellow and red light struck her three teammates, significantly boosting their strength and toughness. A second incantation formed a protective barrier around them.

The other hooded woman in the group also blurred into the shadows and instantly resurfaced above the neck of the winged horse, the tip of her enchanted dagger slashing straight at the beast's massive carotid artery.

The last golden-armored man in the group lunged toward the creature's hocks, brandishing a heavy cleaver over its head. Its speed was terrifying and each step would shatter the lava recently frozen by Ruby.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Elduin hollered out in horror as he saw his lifelong comrades unhesitatingly comply with such an insane order.

The dwarf Bhammod was equally dumbfounded, but more mature than his friend, he wrinkled his nose and pulled the elf by the arm to prevent him from joining them. Elduin resisted, but the dwarf's iron grip was like an indestructible vise.

"Why?!" The elf roared with rage and incomprehension. A few minutes earlier everything was fine and just because they had crossed paths with a little bitch, their happy and successful life had suddenly turned into a disaster.

"It's too late for them." Bhammod shook his head. "Let's try to find a way out of here instead."

"How?"

The dwarf smiled ruefully.

"I'm a dwarf, don't forget that. Earth and metal hold no secrets for me."

No matter how much he boasted, when he touched one of the illusory steel walls Jake had erected his expression quickly turned gloomy.

'What the bloody heck is this metal? I can't even clearly count the number of different materials that go into this alloy. The metallurgical process used is even more unfathomable. I still feel the energy of these metals, but I have no control over it.'

"So?" Elduin asked optimistically, but the tears streaming down his face and his trembling voice revealed his true feelings.

For while the dwarf inspected the steel rampart, the pegasus Actalaus had finally sprung into action.

SMASH!

With an impossible-to-follow front hoof kick, he squashed one of the heavy armored spearmen, his blood and guts splattering in all directions, completely repainting the area.

The swordsman with the cleaver who was reaching for his hocks was stepped over by a leap of the beast and was also punished by an even more vicious back kick. The blast of air preceding the hoof strike had already ruptured its organs, while the real blow flattened its torso and head like a sheet of paper.

The female assassin who had tried to stab the pegasus' carotid artery only hit wind, garnering the mocking whinny of the beast. The wing flapped and its last memory was a huge wall of black feathers hitting her face at breakneck speed.

A firework display of blood and mushy organs rained down on the last three survivors. The second spearman, mad with anger and despair, furiously threw his weighty halberd at the beast, but the horse merely reared up with disconcerting agility. When it put down its front hooves, one of them trampled the overly daring adventurer to death with no mercy.

The Captain, helplessly witnessing the instant death of all his comrades, finally regained his lucidity and the awakening was brutal. His reflexes, stamina and strength being by default superior to those of his teammates, and with the support of his Paladin Spells, he had managed to narrowly avoid a hoof kick and a wing flap.

Not at all in a hurry to end him, the colossal pegasus galloped on towards the female mage brewing a huge fireball and with a snap of his jaws he chomped down on the adventurer, only her blood-dripping, severed ankles sticking to the ground.

"Raaagh!" The battle-hardened paladin finally snapped. Overcoming his compulsion to obey Ruby, he shifted his focus from the demonic beast that had just wiped out his party onto the one he believed to be the true culprit.

He expended all of his mana instantly, focusing all of his Holy Force into the arm gripping his sword, and a spiritual presence surpassing all of his previous performances seemed to amplify the size, sharpness, and sacred aura of his blade exponentially. It had taken the death of all his friends for him to transcend his limitations.

"Idiot." Ruby laconically criticized with her eyes closed as she lifted her only free hand towards him.

Her other hand was clutching a strange black medallion from which wisps of black smoke were billowing out that held a wonderful, otherwordly energy. Laudar, who should have been attacking her or thinking about the abuse he was about to inflict on her, was shaking strangely like an epileptic, his face twitching with a mixture of pain and disbelief. Clearly, he was facing something terrifying.

The Paladin Captain, who was still more than six meters away, drew back his arm to gather power, preparing to deliver a single, deadly thrust. He was still far from the ideal distance. But as he thought about the timing of his strike, his eyes widened in shock and as he looked down he saw that he was suspended several meters off the ground, impaled on an absurdly long silver scythe.

With his last bit of strength, his gaze traveled up the blade until he saw the delicate, handless arm to which it was connected. As his consciousness faded with remorse and hatred, he uttered a final, inaudible rattle,

"Truly... A... Monster."

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