At that exact moment, Jake had more than a few legitimate concerns weighing on him—but one demanded immediate attention.
If anyone who interacted with Anthace—or even carried one of its extensions for long enough—ended 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 Players—the very top bracket he belonged to—started 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 Anthace’s wood and leaves. He even had two Goblets of Ethershine—one 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 wasn’t just using a device—he became one. A living Oracle construct. Nearly all of his energy could be funneled into a single act of perception.
An Oracle Scan wasn’t 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 outrageous—capable of scanning billions of kilometers in every direction.
But Jake wanted to push it further.
Curious, he added his Spirit Lumyst to the equation—Saint-grade in quality, yet absurdly abundant in quantity—then 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 outward—no, not outward. It bloomed—as 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 refined—so qualitatively distinct from standard Oracle output—that no ordinary Oracle Device could have picked it up.
In Jake’s estimation, you’d 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 didn’t 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 might’ve been inconceivable. But Jake wasn’t built on a single pillar. His foundation was layered, reinforced, diversified.
The four Aspects—Aether, Body, Spirit, and Bloodline—fed into one another, amplifying his progression curve past critical thresholds. His new Lumyst-based cultivation system didn’t 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 Ceythie—a Great General who cultivated Spirit Lumyst at a high level—had been incapable of resisting his charm in the slightest. And while the Celestial could momentarily match Jake’s 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 Anthace’s presence woven through his cells and Spirit Body.
It clung there like the residue of a sunken oil tanker—seeping 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.
He’d believed he’d completely dominated that exchange—and he had, if you only considered the ambitious seductress involved.
He just hadn’t factored in the tree watching from the shadows.
"Well played, Anthace. Not bad for a tree," Jake muttered under his breath.
Good thing he’d 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 what’s the point of living if I don’t 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... don’t 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 didn’t answer immediately.
That had been his original intention as well—conquer cleanly, ethically, decisively.