The Oracle Paths

"Rather die than submit to a filthy Mutant!" Seskel, who had already recovered, leapt at him using his clan's infamous Celerity Technique.

In the hands of their Vampire Progenitor, the instantaneous speed achieved by this movement technique reached a whole new level, tantamount to teleportation. Sneering, Jake let him sink his fangs into the back of his neck, but just before the bite, his skin became coated with an inch of Adamantium, along with a telekinetic barrier.

Seskel's fangs were stopped dead in their tracks, his jaw unable to close a millimeter. Feeling the force of the bite intensify, Jake rolled his eyes, grabbed the Vampire by the neck like a chicken and smashed his head into the ground.

"Then die."

His foot landed on the back of the Vampire's skull and a radioactive pulse throbbed down his leg. Jake stomped and Seskel's head exploded like a watermelon falling from the 20th floor of a high-rise building. The ultraviolet flash cut off his regeneration and his HP regen dropped to zero as his body continued to melt and bleed.

Seconds later, Jake sensed the final consummation of his soul and knew that Seskel was no more.

The display of power deeply traumatized the other three special prisoners, but before that Jake turned to Seskel's descendants.

"Do you want to die too? I don't mind since you deserve it anyway."

Quillian and Riah, Seskel's two children, stood pale, glaring daggers at him with hatred, but neither of them dared to utter a word, much less a fart. Jake stared at them for a long time, but failing to guarantee their loyalty he said grimly,

"Asfrid, search their memories and ascertain their crimes."

"As you wish."

She and the other Eltarians calmly proceeded to pry into their mental defenses and search their memories. Once hypnotized, a ruthless and meticulous interrogation followed that revealed the full extent of their misdeeds.

When all of their secrets were unraveled in public, Jake and the other Myrtharian Nerds were left with ugly faces as they discovered with horror that none of these Vampires were innocent. Even the seven and eight year olds had tortured dozens of humans for fun and their personalities were so twisted that neither he nor his companions had time to provide psychotherapy.

When the investigation ended, Jake didn't hesitate for a second and ordered,

"Kill them all."

It was their fate anyway. If he hadn't come here, perhaps only Seskel would have stood a chance of getting on board the Celestial City. And even then, it was far from a sure thing.

Gerulf nodded and with a wave of his hand his Kintharian Guard cremated the Vampire prisoners with solar rays so blinding and focused that less than a second later there was nothing left but their ashes scattered on the half-melted tile floor.

After seeing the extent of Jake and his men's cruelty, Syn and Melion didn't dither any longer. They pledged their allegiance to him and Lucia supplied them with enough liquid alloy to produce an Oracle Device. The Oracle Contract was established and they understood with great astonishment that they had not lost out.

Xaverie was disturbed by the strange censorship preventing her from understanding some of the words of their discussion, but seeing the convinced expression of the two Metamorphs she realized that it might not be as horrible as she feared.

"I agree to surrender and become your future wife..." The milf Demoness blushed shyly, but no one was fooled.

"Dream on!" Lucia, Aisling and the two sisters vociferated at the same time.

The Dracul clan also swore loyalty to him without resisting as they realized that Aisling and Remus were already on their side. Wyatt was also on good terms with them and the fear of ending up burned alive like Seskel and his clan was the last straw.

As promised, Jake invited Xaverie, Syn and Melion to join the Myrtharian Nerds and they were briefed on their purpose here. When they learned that their world was just the umpteenth iteration of a planet used as a playground and testing ground for the Players of the Mirror Universe, they were appallingly shocked. Even Xaverie was no longer in the mood to seduce anyone.

Once peace was restored, Jake brought out the subordinates of each faction and soon only the important people were left. The High Council room obviously didn't have enough seats for everyone, especially for such massive felines as Mufasa and Shere Khan, so their first war council was held outside.

Without being told, the Kintharians erected a huge stone forum almost as ambitious as Nucnar's round stone table, and after they left, the invited guests filed in.

Xaverie wasted no time and immediately started the discussion with a hot topic.

"Well done Jake, you have won our allegiance and Laudarkvik belongs to you." She first congratulated him while shooting him a fawning look of adoration. "But what are you going to do next? Don't tell me you're like those morons Seskels and Aggenurs, wanting control of Laudarkvik to satisfy their vanity?"

"Hmmph, of course not! Jake is not that kind of person." Lucia retorted curtly before giving the latter a sharp glare. "Isn't that right, Jake?"

If he answered yes the Myrtharian didn't dare imagine what would happen.

"Cough, of course not." He finally echoed, clearing his throat. "The goal has always been to survive this Apocalypse."

A knowing smile lit up the demoness' face.

"I see." She said as she looked at him strangely. "So you want to use this population as cannon fodder by dangling to them the false hope that they actually have a chance of reaching the Celestial City if they agree to fight under your banner.

"That sounds as hypocritical as a demon's methods to me. I like this."

Contrary to whatever reaction she imagined, Jake remained indifferent to her mockery. Instead, he nodded to Hade and replied,

"If you had said that a few days earlier, that would indeed have been my plan. The number of seats on board the Celestial City is limited to 10,000, so even with an outright victory only a fraction of us could have boarded. That's more than enough for my faction and Wyatt's, but not nearly enough to save the population of an entire city."

Xaverie frowned, while Aisling wore a surprised, almost anxious expression. She dared not allow herself to hope.

"You see," Jake resumed calmly. "Ever since I became the Mutant Leader I've been wondering how to save all these people under my protection. If it were impossible, I would have accepted it and moved on, but it turns out I finally found another possible path.

"I call this path Fishing for Bracelets."

"Fishing for bracelets?" Xaverie repeated with confusion.

She wasn't the only one confused. Except for Hade, everyone else was in the dark including his trusted allies like Lucia and Gerulf.

"Hade, I'll let you explain." Jake invited him to continue.

The former Fluidmaster walked to the center of the forum with one of his black spheres and activated it. The stone forum was immediately replaced by a spacious, luxuriously furnished metal hall. At a glance, those present could estimate that the building measured about 500 square meters.

Xaverie, Syn, Melion and Haynt immediately understood his intention, but they shook their heads instead,

"It won't work." The Astral declared flatly. "Don't ask me how we got this information, but we know for a fact that it is impossible to smuggle people into the Celestial City via a Spatial Ring, an Hidden Domain or an Artifact. Each person transported will count as one, and this is also the case for Necromancer and Summoner underlings residing in dedicated spirit dimensions."

That meant Vhoskaud couldn't have brought those millions of Undeads back to B842 through the Celestial City even if he wanted to.

Xaverie and Haynt expected to see disappointment on his and Hade's faces, but the two men just smiled.

"No one can fool Aurae." Hade admitted matter-of-factly. "We anticipated this happening from the start. To save everyone, we don't intend to clinch our ticket aboard the Celestial City by force."

"So what do you plan to do?"

Jake pointed his finger skyward.

"Leave the planet." Hade grinned.

"What do you mean leave the planet?"

This time Xaverie's confusion was genuine. As much as the other Players could conceive of the idea of traveling into space, it was all fiction to the natives of Quanoth.

It wasn't that it was impossible for them to go into space. Someone like Haynt could obviously survive out there. The problem was what kind of life to live once they did.

Unlike Jake and Hade, they didn't know what kind of life awaited them once this Ordeal was over, and they didn't want to flee into space with their clan and then leave them to their fate in the sidereal void.

But there was another major concern. No one was able to get through those black clouds. Those who had tried never came back.