The Oracle Paths

It's getting more and more mysterious,' Xi commented with an uneasy look on her face. There was one other thing she had discovered before he woke up that she still hadn't shown him.

Her attention was drawn to a space beyond time and space in Jake's sea of consciousness and a tiny speck of light was slowly swirling in this condensate of spiritual energy. Upon closer inspection of this light, it looked like a glowing sapphire egg.

Jeanie.

Jake couldn't look inside his own soul, but Xi had no such limitation. This egg had appeared as soon as the Minmin was sacrificed. That meant that in addition to Xi, Jake's mind now had a second roommate. Except that their spirit link seemed to be of a very different nature. She hadn't told him because she was afraid of disappointing him if this egg ended up dying or giving birth to something else.

One would have to wait for the fairy to awaken before drawing any definite conclusions. However, it wasn't this thing that Xi had discovered that was tormenting her to the point of rendering her voiceless. She had a feeling that the Minmin had the answer to this riddle.

"You didn't have to give me all those Aether Points. I know you must not have many left either." Lucia suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek before he could react. Before he could push her away, she had already disentangled herself from him and was skipping merrily towards their companions outside having noticed nothing.

Jake was stunned. He was speechless. He hadn't meant to do that. He had just released a tiny bit of Aether to return what he had accidentally stolen from her.

Curious, he relaxed the pores of his cells and emitted another burst of Aether. He simultaneously scanned the building with his mental sense and the feedback allowed him to estimate that he had roughly released the equivalent of 15 billion Aether points.

"That's crazy." He blurted out in a daze.

'I think we can confirm that your body now has the capabilities of a Grade 10 Aether Core.' Xi sighed with emotion. I just don't understand why the Aether density of this city doesn't drop in your presence. Where is all this energy you're producing coming from?'

Jake was speechless. Closing his eyes, he could feel that his cells and soul were drawing in an astronomical amount of purified Aether from somewhere, but he couldn't pinpoint its location. It was as if his cells were magically gorging themselves with energy, creating energy out of nothing.

"Could it have something to do with me devouring Ruby?" He suggested, thinking that was the only thing that had recently happened that could explain all these anomalies. "Xi, have any Digestors ever shown this kind of ability?"

' ... They have.' She confirmed with a shaky voice. 'The Digestors consume our Mirror Universe's Aether and corrupt it before spitting it out, but if that's all there was to it, we'd have a way to deal with them. The Ancient Designers are more than capable of conjuring up large areas devoid of Aether. This was one of the first strategies that was devised to starve out the Digestors and prevent them from spawning. It did work to some extent, but it only slowed their growth. After a period of time, new Digestors also began to spawn again in these energy-drained areas. Since then, it has been concluded that the Digestors could tap into an Aether source from outside the Mirror Universe that we are not able to intercept or even detect.'

"You think I'm getting this Aether from the same source they are?" Jake was not pleased with this explanation. "So that would make me a Digestor like the rest of them."

'That's why my job is to keep a close eye on you as usual. Whatever happens, we'll get through this new ordeal together.' Xi said with conviction.

"I hope you're right." He did not dare to deny this.

Once he had calmed down, he left Aurum's building and joined the others. Meanwhile, what was left of the Mana Storm had been completely purged of Quanoth's atmosphere. They could finally watch the stars at their leisure. Although the sun was gone, it wasn't completely dark.

After taking a few steps outside, Jake and his group heard a metallic clattering sound approaching them. Turning, they saw a human-sized android wearing a simple black hooded mantle.

"Vhoskaud?" Jake recognized him at once.

For a moment he was tempted to kill him, but he gave up, remembering that the Ordeal was more or less over.

"Congratulations, Jake. I can see that your gains from the last battle are not small. Psykow must be feeling anxious now." The robot complimented him casually, as if he felt no resentment or hatred toward him.

"What do you want from me?" Jake didn't entertain him and cut to the chase.

"I wanted to apologize for everything that happened in that Ordeal." Vhoskaud stated solemnly. "It wasn't personal. If in the future we participate in a future Ordeal together we will be on the same side, so I prefer to wipe the slate clean."

The Myrtharian Nerds, and Lucia in particular, didn't look too thrilled with the idea, but they were rational. The android was an unrepentant villain, but more importantly he was a mad scientist. As long as their mutual interests did not conflict in the future, collaboration was not impossible.

They doubted, though, that they would ever get to like him. It should not be forgotten that Replicators' goal was to multiply and spread all over the Mirror Universe in an unrestricted manner. For what purpose? Well, probably nothing good.

"We'll see in the future." Jake finally nodded in a neutral tone. "However, I hope we won't be working together anytime soon."

For once, a genuine smile stretched the necromancer android's lips. " So do I."

He never wanted to meet this madman again. Vhoskaud greeted them one last time, then vanished before them. He had chosen to leave the Ordeal right away. Unlike them, he had spent several hundred years on Quanoth plotting his plans to little avail, so he was in a hurry to leave.

Just when they thought they were finally at peace, more unwanted guests appeared before them: the Lost Divinities survivors.

"I didn't think so many of you would survive." Ael chuckled as he stopped a few steps in front of them. "Congratulations are in order."

This was the first time they had the opportunity to observe Lost Divinities' leader up close and personal. His equipment had not survived the last battle either, and he was wearing a pair of shorts with holes in them and an ordinary black shirt. His pale blue skin and darker stripes were obvious to everyone and with his black hair in a mess he was rather handsome with a rather androgynous physique.

On the other hand, Felphi, the alien of the same species who walked beside him was much more feminine and voluptuous. She smiled innocently at them with her big sapphire eyes sparkling with curiosity. However, Jake and the others had not forgotten that these two were directly responsible for the death of Hade and so many others.

"Are you coming to congratulate us with the same intention as Vhoskaud?" Lucia crossed her arms with a dismissive look.

Ael smiled. "Maybe I am. Only fools don't change their minds. What's a few disagreements in a minor Ordeal like this one worth when we'll be fighting together for perhaps several thousand years. In case you haven't noticed with this Ordeal, there have been far too many accidents for it to be a coincidence. I don't know when they will officially announce it, maybe tomorrow at the Divine Academy briefing, but the Mirror Universe is in dire straits. The time for petty bickering is over."

As he said this, he stared emphatically at Jake as if he had a singularly fascinating specimen before him to study and added, "It's going to sound like Vhoskaud, but I admit I underestimated you. What I'm really wondering is if Aurae and the Oracle underestimated you too, or if everything that happened in that Ordeal was part of their plans."

Felphi gave them a teasing wink and then the two blue aliens vanished into thin air like Vhoskaud earlier. They had finished what they had to do here. Dhamde and Khag' Dagmai disappeared right after, leaving only Deimos and Ashun behind.

"Too bad we couldn't fight each other." The Spartan God declared as he extended a handshake to him. "If the opportunity arises I am free for friendly spars if any of you are interested in exchanging pointers. I will be there during the one-year stay granted by the Divine Academy. If you want to meet me you know where to find me."

Since they each had an assigned building it was indeed easy. Jake stopped hesitating and shook his hand. Deimos' grip intensified by leaps and bounds as if he wanted to crush his bones, but Jake's face remained totally impassive. It was as if a newborn baby was trying to crush a diamond with his tender fist.

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