The Oracle Paths

"Wh-what's going on?! This wasn't supposed to play out like Raaagghhhh!!!"

One of Anti-Life's aliens was wiped out by the Mana Storm before he could activate his Oracle Shield. A few more caught by surprise were also obliterated on the spot, but Anti-Life wasn't a super faction for nothing. The other Players, despite their disbelief, deftly switched on their defenses, escaping instant death.

After a few dozen deaths, the number of survivors stabilized again, fatally delaying the end of the Ordeal.

"These vermin... They're truly useless." Psykow clicked his nonexistent tongue as he saw that his ploy had not worked. If two-thirds of them had perished, the Ordeal would have ended immediately.

But no matter how calculating and sociopathic he might be, a leader could not deliberately slaughter his subordinates. His initial plan to kill all his enemies having failed, he had no choice but to move forward with his plans.

Right! Once the other factions were eliminated, his plan had always been to let his subordinates face the Mana Storm in order to fairly select the winners. After all, there were over 25,000 Players under his command and there were only 10,000 spots in the Celestial City.

This sacrificial battle had always been bound to happen.

Unlike the other super factions, Psykow paid minimal attention to the hiring of his subordinates and could accept anyone as long as they had the inner drive to tear this world apart. Not only were criminals welcome, but the number of psychopaths and other sickos who committed heinous crimes made up a significant percentage of the Players under his command.

As such, he had no empathy for his subordinates and could sacrifice them without remorse. Even a key Player like Neri was no exception if the situation called for it.

Of course, Jake and the other survivors were also suffering from the Mana Storm. With Psykow's psychic spell lifted, he no longer had to worry about his split personality disorder. Although his mental state was not normal, it was stable and that was enough.

Keeping the heads of Enya, Wyatt, Carmin and the other Myrtharian Nerds he had coldly murdered during his short-lived rampage, he tried to stabilize their state with a healing spell, then transferred them to his own personal Portable Fortress.

Thanks to the Digitalization, even in this state they could still be saved. This was hardly a surprise in Wyatt's case, as a Vampire Progenitor could even survive prolonged dismemberment, but Enya's survival was unexpected.

The heat that should have killed her had kept her wickedly alive, ravaging what was left of her body while stabilizing her wounds. However, even with the Myrtharian Body Passive, regrowing her entire body was no easy task. She was missing essential abilities.

For now, even if she survived she was effectively crippled. At least until the Ordeal ended.

"Sorry guys, I hope you won't hold it against me too much." Jake muttered as he teleported near Lucia's dying body to bring her to safety with the others.

Just then, before he could save anyone else, the Mana Storm slammed into the earth and he too was hit by the flood of energy. Bracing himself for the impact, he turned on his Gold Stone Skin at full power, wrapping himself in a powerful telekinetic force field to keep it from reaching him.

The intangible barrier shattered into nothing within a second.

"Oracle Shield." He deployed unfazed. In the end, despite his strength, he had only lasted a second longer than Anti-Life's cannon fodder before activating his own shield.

He had no way of knowing what was going on around him. His mental sense was breaking down at the slightest brush with the Mana Storm, aggravating his throbbing headache.

Jake began to count the seconds, or rather the milliseconds, hoping that the Mana Storm would be enough to interrupt Ruby's meal, but it was then that the lost and terrified face of her human half flashed in his mind.

Subconsciously, he teleported to where he expected to find her and found nothing but a pool of blood. Digestor Ruby was also nowhere in sight.

"Is she hurt?" He frowned, then shook his head as he realized she wasn't worth his concern.

Right now, he had his own problems to deal with as well.

SHRRIRRIIIIIIII!

"Don't touch me, evil woman!"

The unmistakable shrill cry penetrated the Mana Storm's opacity, suddenly raising goosebumps. Digestor Ruby was still alive, and she was on the hunt for more prey to devour.

"And that voice..." Jake had a bad feeling as he recognized this one. "Rogen."

The giant Throsgenian sounded utterly terrified, which was almost as shocking as if he had suddenly become intelligent. As boorish and unrefined as both Gerulf and he were, they weren't afraid of anything.

He considered teleporting to his rescue for a split second, but a warning notification abruptly rang through his mind.

[Jake, your Oracle Shield is already about to overheat.] Xi anxiously informed him in as steady a voice as possible. [If you don't want it to be down for a long time, you'll have to turn it off preemptively.]

Jake reluctantly looked at the time that had passed since he had activated his Oracle Shield and a look of panic finally contorted his face despite his deranged mental state.

"How is that possible... It's only been 1.3 seconds!"

[Instead of getting emotional about the time elapsed, you should rather try to find a solution.] His Oracle AI gave him a sharp rebuke.

Jake immediately returned to reality.

"The Purgatory." He remembered.

This one had been shut down when he lost consciousness, but it was still functional. He quickly reestablished his connection to the artifact and fanned out the Purgatory to only about ten meters around him to maximize its density. Checking his Aether reserves, he grimly discovered that he had only 188B Aether points left. The short battle before had drained most of it.

To maximize his chances, he also went back to camp on the scrap mountain where Vhoskaud was holed up. The android had resorted to a strategy similar to his own, choosing to sacrifice its wealth to survive a few more seconds. As it turned out, Jake could also use Vhoskaud's wealth for the exact same purpose.

"Thank you Vhoskaud for your generosity. I'll make it up to you. Or maybe not." Jake snickered as he went back to wolfing down the mountain of steel.

"JAKE!" Vhoskaud was so furious that he summoned his Undead army again to get rid of him, but they crumbled as soon as they made contact with the Mana Storm. "FUCK!"

In the end, he was still a robot at heart and after realizing that no cheap solution would suffice to get rid of this greedy pest, the android accepted his fate with a sigh. He concentrated on renewing his lost parts, and stopped granting Jake, whom he already considered his nemesis, even a glance.

Jake sat cross-legged in silence atop the steel mountain and passively siphoned off its surface at a dizzying pace without understanding how he was doing it. It was the same kind of instinctive skill as breathing or eating. His body knew what to do.

The mini Purgatory he had deployed around him filled with lightning, lava, magical metals of all kinds and radiation, shaping a sphere of light as blinding as the sun around him. Ironically, Vhoskaud was the first to suffer.

While only the metal near Jake had previously liquefied, the heat and lava spewed from the Purgatory that wasn't immediately disintegrated by the Mana Storm then trickled down onto his mountain of scrap metal, causing the hapless Vhoskaud to overheat like a pressure cooker.

If he didn't have a foolproof shield like Psykow's, his circuits would most likely have melted. This only made him more resentful of Jake.

"I swear I'll make you pay for this." The android promised himself mentally, his joints clicking in frustration.

Although Jake would normally have been pleased with Vhoskaud's misfortunes that had been plaguing them all the way through the Ordeal, his face was about as grim as the android's.

SHHRRII!

Digestor Ruby's screams had not ceased to blare, and neither had the Players' screams of agony. Every thought that crossed his mind coincided with the deaths of hundreds of people. He just prayed with all his heart that no Myrtharian Nerds were among them but it was unlikely.

[You lose 15B of Aether points per second. Xi notified him a beat later. [Your Purgatory must produce 700 tons of matter per second to nullify the Mana Storm, but the latter's density is also skyrocketing. According to my calculations, you'll run out of Aether in 7.3 seconds.]

Jake jumped to his feet. "That's not enough."

His wealth wasn't enough. He didn't have strong enough shoulders to bear this kind of reckless spending. His shrewd gaze drifted down to the mountain of scrap metal again.

"Sorry Vhoskaud, but I'm going to have to rely on your wealth a little more actively."

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