The Oracle Paths

As Jake and the others continued to endure the tempering of their bodies by lightning, the situation in the Celestial City continued to deteriorate. A few hundred meters away from their party, hidden behind a building, the survivors of Lost Divinities were surviving as best they could.

Ael and Felphi had already activated their own abilities, but unfortunately they did not spare their allies. They had no choice but to split up. Ael was not one to sacrifice his comrades in vain, however, and he had provided them with precious Bronze and Silver Aether Artifacts for protection.

A sphere of nothingness had formed around Ael and Felphi, but Ashun, Dhamde, Deimos and Khag' Dagmai were nowhere in sight.

"The situation looks bad." Felphi lamented. "Two Codexes is not enough to play for time. Anti-Life and Vhoskaud have got us good. If we do nothing, Deimos and the others will perish."

She wasn't kidding. The Nosk god was the only one capable of converting this black lightning into energy with the long dendrites that served as his hair, but he was assisted by only two Codexes. Not fifteen, not five, but two. Rogen's and Lord Phenix's wounds were nothing compared to his own.

If he did not have a powerful Divinity in his possession he would already be dead. Yet his Divinity was gradually depleting despite the fact that, unlike Shamash, his link with it had not been severed.

Seeing the majestic Nosk collapse to the ground, momentarily losing consciousness, Ashun, Dhamde and Deimos looked grim. If the Nosk could not handle the lightning then their deaths were imminent.

Dhamde, the swordsman in kimono, drew his sword in a rage.

"If I have to die, I want to die in battle, sword in hand." He declared coldly.

"You and I are on the same page." Deimos chuckled as he grimly stroked his long golden spear.

The Spartan calmly put his helmet back on and silently communicated with his two leaders. A moment later, an evil laugh escaped his lips.

"Ael and Felphi seem to agree."

Ashun, the pretty goddess, displayed a disgruntled pout but inwardly she was extremely nervous. If she had known that this end of Ordeal would be so chaotic she would not have come.

"In that case, who should we target?"

"Ael will go on the attack first. You will know who to attack at that time. For now, he asks us to regroup. He will temporarily place us in his Gold Artifact, the Pantheon of the Gods to buy time."

"Seriously? He's willing to sacrifice his precious relic to save us?" Ashun's face beamed with joy. "I knew he was a good guy underneath that cold, indifferent facade!"

Deimos rolled his eyes, but the quartet immediately set off to regroup with Ael and Felphi. The Nullifyer transferred them without a word inside his artifact and they were surprised to find Felphi inside as well. Seeing their confusion, she shrugged and explained,

"No need for everyone to waste their True Will. Ael will be very weakened so it will be up to us to carry the offensive on his signal."

"I see. Who will be our target?" Dhamde asked ominously.

"Mirror Vanguard and Neri."

*****

On the side of Psykow, Neri and Vhoskaud the atmosphere was much more serene. With 15 Codexes they had nothing to worry about.

"They should be dead by now, right?" Neri giggled happily.

"Some cockroaches are unexpectedly persistent." Psykow replied apathetically.

"Don't underestimate them. Or you'll regret it. Don't say when it happens that I didn't warn you." Vhoskaud scornfully berated them, cracking his metal knuckles.

"Tsk. You robots lack a sense of humor." The black hole woman spat tauntingly.

"Does humor give me energy, make me stronger or allow me to survive longer?" The android retorted placidly. "No. Only the lower organic life forms give such importance to such a non-essential concept."

Neri laughed coldly.

" Ha-ha. Yeah, basically what I said. You're just a robot. Without your power chip you're no different than any other tin can."

"Shut up you two." Psykow suddenly barked. "We have a visitor."

A flying squirrel covered in acidic blood suddenly burst out of the mass of black clouds swirling around them and landed heavily at their feet with a miserable squeak. Two futuristic telescopes sprouted from the two electrified orbs serving as Vhoskaud's eyes, taking aim at the ailing squirrel alien.

"A squirrel? Shall I crush it to put it out of its misery?"

Hearing the android's words, the agonized alien's sparse hair bristled and a blast of acid generous enough to fill a small lake drowned the trio. Psykow's intangible shield fended off this wave of acid with ease, while it disappeared without a trace upon contact with Neri's skin.

On the other hand, it was Vhoskaud who suffered the most. His armor quickly corroded and he had to activate numerous energy shields in quick succession to stop the acid's progress.

"This acid can dissolve energy?" The robot wondered in an excited voice as he stared at the squirrel with a look of burning desire. From his tone, it was hard to believe that he had just been injured. "You'll make a fine specimen for my collection."

"Don't kill it." Psykow dampened his ardor. Addressing the alien he asked impassively, "What's your name?"

The bloodshot-eyed squirrel hesitated for a moment, then answered hatefully,

"Scrat."

"Scrat. I like your expression. If you want to survive, join my faction. It's your only chance."

The two aliens stared at each other coldly for a few seconds, the squirrel fully aware that it was probably one of those three Players who were responsible for all those antimatter explosions and the deaths of most of his fellow humans.

But only his survival mattered. The rest of the Mirror Universe could die for all he cared.

"I accept."

The alien's thirteen drop-shaped eyes crinkled slightly in satisfaction and he said,

"Then, welcome to Anti-Life."

*****

Several dozen minutes later, the density of clouds had already far exceeded that of the original atmosphere. They were so condensed that their texture was becoming more and more like a wall.

Rogen, Tim, and Lord Phenix had reached their limits, but Gerulf had partially succeeded in his breakthrough. The black lightning was no longer as dangerous to him, but even so the damage to his Spirit Body had pushed him to the brink of fainting despite the support of Asfrid and the other Myrtharian Nerds.

Only Ruby, Azeus, the alien woman and Jake appeared to have truly mastered this lightning to a high enough standard to handle it so far. Haynt was holding his own, but that was only because his Spirit Body level was significantly higher than theirs.

'Weird. Gerulf is a Kintharian and Tim even has my bloodline. They shouldn't have ended up in this state.' Jake frowned as he channeled more black lightning in his own direction to relieve his friends. 'Is it that hard to assimilate such power?'

[... Hard to say.] Xi replied cautiously. [Tim's bloodline has a lower level than yours. Maybe that's the reason.]

Jake could sense, however, that she was not convinced by his own explanation. She, too, was puzzled.

'I thought it was normal to be able to easily incorporate new elements and materials because of my bloodline, but maybe I was wrong.'

The black lightning was hardly doing anything to him anymore. Not only did he have no trouble controlling it, he could even feel it feeding his Spirit Body and cells instead of damaging him. The danger he felt now was that his body and soul were slowly approaching overload. His digestion would soon not keep up.

'Anyway. I really benefited from those clouds. Thanks Aurae for the gift.'

As a result of the contributions, from Jake, Ruby, Azeus, the alien woman and the others, the clouds had not moved any closer to the ice fortress, but with the density increasing rapidly they were losing ground, retreating step by step.

"I'm close to my limit." The alien woman suddenly declared in a sullen voice. "If you don't have a solution, we will die in the next few minutes. We must attack."

VRRRROOOO!

The group gasped at the whirring sound, their eyes widening in shock. The ground began to shake and the surrounding Mana flow became chaotic. Gerulf and the others were only alert, but Jake and Asfrid recognized the familiar sound and were well aware of what it was.

The Mana Storm! And it was coming... from everywhere!