The Oracle Paths

It was a situation that no one could have predicted, and yet, as Jake eyed the two Ruby's, he immediately understood what had happened. It was an unforeseen consequence of Psykow's psychic powers.

The first Ruby was the Ruby he imagined her to be after the Oracle had cured her chronic birth defects when she arrived on B842: snow-white long hair, frail, fair, but still paralyzed in the lower half of her body. Her pallor, her moist eyes wide open and her mouth gasping in terror conveyed the full extent of her inability to process what was happening, her guilt eroding her from within.

There was also tremendous confusion. Jake wasn't even sure she could remember her name under these conditions, her Spirit Body and Soul only a sliver of their original state. She was so weak, she could barely stand, most likely thanks to her Aether stats and the remnants of Bloodlines that had not been stolen by her clone.

Last but not least, both her eyes were a deep navy blue. Her right amethyst eye was gone.

This could have been good news, but after experiencing the essence of Psykow's powers himself, Jake knew that the price was unacceptable. Right now, it wasn't wrong to say that her clone was more Ruby than the original Ruby.

Just not the kind of Ruby he wanted to see again.

In place of the second Ruby stood a freakish creature as splendid, alien as it was terrifying. Humanoid in shape and with a distinctly feminine anatomy, she was currently more than ten meters tall, her steel-gray skin covered with a magnificent, streamlined chitin armor that hugged the contours of her body. Ten enormous gold and silver wings had folded simultaneously in front of her, converging in one point like ten spears to impale their already dead victim: Vexa.

A burst of bluish light and matter was continuously expelled from her feathers and joints, blasting everything behind her while forever freezing whatever came in contact with these particles.

Her face, though flawless, was filled with malevolence, two amethyst eyes within which slumbered a golden and black lightning fire. Her lips were stretched into a carnivorous and sadistic grin, revealing a row of translucent fangs. Even from where Jake was standing he could hear the chilling throaty growl of a ferocious beast leaking from her vocal cords.

No doubt Ruby had taken the opportunity to sever her Digestor half, but the latter had not agreed to leave without taking her due. Maybe it wasn't even Ruby's original intention, but faced with the Digestor's overwhelming voracity and oppression inside her, she had no choice but to take this extreme step to secure a small chance of survival.

For the moment, the Digestor version of Ruby was completely disregarding her existence, too busy devouring the corpse of the cube man. Focusing his attention on him, Jake realized that Vexa wasn't actually 100% dead, but it was just as bad.

The ten harder-than-diamond wings spearing his chest were injecting an endless stream of various, frighteningly incompatible energies. Absolute cold mixed with lightning, holy light, radiation, and the innate destructive dark energy that all humanoid Digestors of this caliber awoke.

Vexa's body had already lost its humanoid form, taking on the appearance of a mass of shapeless multicolored cubes. The light emitted from these cubes alternated regularly between green, yellow, white, blue and black as if he were trying to heal himself, increase his defense and energy levels, protect his mind and amplify his bloodline, but it was a losing battle.

Just as Vhoskaud had fought Jake earlier, he was frantically summoning new cubes from who knows where to replace the ones devoured by Ruby's evil clone, but unlike the android he was losing a lot of energy for every cube that was lost. He didn't have an infinite amount of spare parts either.

While Vhoskaud suffered emotionally from the "financial" losses he incurred, Vexa was literally consuming himself, like a candle burning at both ends.

Even more horrifying, the aura of Ruby's clone was expanding at an alarming rate, its Aetheric signature becoming more complex and strange as time went on. Jake could already see colorful cube-like growths forming on the surface of her chitin.

At this realization, a cold sweat shivered down his spine.

Jake could not let this situation continue. And the few survivors who were still lucid had finally realized that too.

In the sky, Psykow, who was rejoicing in the deaths of his enemies while teleporting away from Ael and Felphi's relentless attacks, suddenly stopped.

"Hmm? What's going on here?" The drop-shaped alien showed signs of concern for the first time.

He knew his powers very well. This wasn't supposed to happen. His precognition powers already made him sense that this Digestor would be a danger to him if he let it devour Vexa at will.

At that moment Ael jumped in front of him and activated his nullification powers at full strength. The two Players fell to the ground, the Mana Storm pouring down on them as if a dam had just exploded.

Barely conscious, the Nullifyer summoned the last of his strength to condense some True Will and suppress the second personality threatening to overtake him at the helm of his own body, then punched forward.

"Absolute nullification."

"Ael stop!" Psykow shouted, this time choosing not to avoid the blow.

The Lost Divinities leader's nullification powers were not something one could effectively protect against. That's why he had repeatedly teleported away to avoid getting trapped in the Nullifyer's domain.

Psykow's previously unbreakable shield ceased to exist at that moment for a number of reasons. First of all, the Aether density in the bodies of both fighters dropped to a value dangerously close to zero, depriving them of any energy.

Their Aether, Body and Spirit stats suffered the same fate, followed by their consciousness, memories and everything that defined their existence. The paradox was that in doing so, Ael also forgot how to use his own powers, which in turn automatically nullified the spell.

This was where his True Will came into play. By allowing him to protect a single intent, he could postpone the interruption of the spell and even fight subconsciously for a while like a robot running a program.

BANG!

Ael's fist connected with Psykow's central eye smoothly and it instantly exploded, followed by the rest of his body like a balloon pierced by a needle.

"Oracle Heal." Psykow, in his spiritual state, promptly pulled one of his jokers before being repatriated to the Red Cube.

When he realized he couldn't dodge the attack, he had projected his consciousness out of his body. With his powers, all he had to do was look at where he wanted to project his mind to move there.

Defending himself with another Oracle Skill like the Oracle Shield was not an option because of the nullification that also applied to his bracelet. He could only rely on his mind and True Will to get out of this predicament and the simplest solution was to distance himself from Ael to preserve their mutual strengths.

Because of the circumstances, he had already deactivated his psychic magic and the survivors were quickly regaining their senses. The damage to their souls, however, was irreversible.

Ael looked around for his enemy, but his friend Felphi suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his view. With a wave of her hand, she disrupted his next teleportation and forced him to look into her eyes.

"Ael, we have another more pressing problem than Psykow. Postpone your revenge until later. I have already reached a compromise with both him and Vhoskaud."

The Nullifyer stared at her with a haggard look, but after a deep exhale clarity reappeared in his eyes. He scanned the Celestial City with his mental sense and realized what was happening. The Mana Storm above, an out-of-control Digestor Trojan below.

It wasn't enough to shake him, but when he saw Ruby's Aetheric signature he realized the gravity of the situation.

"Her Aether stats are now over 300,000? How is it even possible? Ael blinked stupidly.

That was the level of an intermediate Rank 10 Digestor! And not one of those monsters that failed to evolve, but an elite that could claim the title of Citizen. Unlike the other Players, as the leader of a super faction he knew a lot more about the nature and workings of Digestor societies.

"She devoured thousands of Undeads, part of her original human soul, Radur and an impressive amount of Oracle Cubes. Even for a Digestor Trojan that amount of energy should have left her bedridden for months, but it seems that her Angel of Aurae bloodline allowed her to significantly shorten the process by altering the underlying mechanisms of her own digestion." Felphi explained succinctly, having silently watched the whole scene.

As the Mana Storm descended upon them, drowning them in an ocean of clashing energy, Felphi's voice echoed through the chaos,

"We must end the Ordeal now. And Psykow understands that too."

The tens of thousands of Anti-Life Players that Psykow had hidden in one of his Artifacts suddenly popped up out of nowhere all over the Celestial City. Their gleeful smiles at the thought of the Ordeal being over were brutally replaced by utter terror as the Mana Storm hit them in the face as a greeting.

To survive, Psykow could even sacrifice his own subordinates.

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