The Oracle Paths

After minutes of breakneck running through the labyrinthine corridors of the Magnetic Resonator, the sinking realization that he was dealing with a Dungeon Digestor grew ever more acute. Regardless of his eidetic memory or his exceptional cognitive abilities, he seemed to be forever retracing his steps.

Even more unsettling, he had lost all sense of where he was in relation to the surface. The gravity here would frequently shift, thwarting any effort to distinguish up from down.

The gravity transitions were so smooth that Jake, without moving from his spot, could find himself upturned in mere seconds, unaware that the corridor had twisted a full 180 degrees around him.

Had he not run into one of the many drones he'd released to prevent him from getting lost, recording the shifting corridor with its onboard camera, he might have remained oblivious for a much longer period.

Evidently, the Dungeon Digestor didn't deem a robot no wider than a pollen grain as a threat. Since Jake wasn't around, it felt no need to act with subtlety to deceive him and could rearrange its corridors and conduits as it pleased.

| That was its first mistake.

Jake's sole solace was that he hadn't been ambushed again by those revolting Sinewshades. Although he would've preferred it. It would at least have indicated he was on the right path.

"This fucker is messing with me," Jake seethed, his fist slamming into the nearby wall, leaving a deep indentation.

[There's no point in letting these Digestors rile you up this much,] Xi attempted to calm him. [Sure, this Dungeon Digestor is altering its layout to mislead and slow you down, but you could view it differently. The Digestor is afraid of you.]

Jake mulled over this possibility, admitting that his Oracle Al's argument held some merit. Otherwise, why go to such lengths to delay him, especially when it was closest to the Nexus that the Digestor was most formidable?

Perhaps it had other matters preventing it from dealing with him? A glimmer of hope briefly lit up his face.

Cekt? If his master was trapped here, it all made sense. As promising as a Dungeon Digestor establishing near a black hole might be, its space-time abilities couldn't be too potent. Holding a full-fledged Rank 3 Aetherist captive must demand all its attention and the focus of the most dangerous Digestors under its control.

Of course, these were just his conjectures. Maybe he was heading straight into a trap himself. Nevertheless, he would rather believe that the Digestor feared him, rather than succumb to despair.

"Then, I'll give it even more reasons to fear me. I can't let it down, right?" Jake laughed ominously and broke into a sprint, his speed suddenly tripling.

From an aerial view, one would be awestruck by Jake's supersonic blur, traversing kilometers in mere heartbeats. His sonic boom was terrifying, each sharp turn made with such intensity, it seemed like he was ricocheting off the walls.

His footprints, sinking several inches into the metallic floor, were visible everywhere, and the corridor walls, victims of his passage, had all become slightly concave due to the shockwave's blast.

This time, Jake wouldn't blindly trust his senses and memory, having already acknowledged that it was a waste of time. The Magnetic Resonator's internal configuration changed so swiftly and smoothly, he always caught on too late.

Streaming from his sleeves, millions of mini drones, similar to the previous ones but a size smaller, buzzed silently and scattered in his wake, spreading through the steel corridors of the base like a swarm of gnats.

As Jake released such a large mass of drones, he tensed slightly, wary of the Dungeon Digestor's response. However, when nothing occurred after a while, a glint of mockery flashed across his eyes.

"Let's see how you'll toy with me now," Jake thought with frosty contempt.

These nanorobots were at the cutting edge of technology, even for someone like Hade, who came from a civilization that was far more technologically advanced than Earth. Their performance could not be explained by science alone; magic had a role in their creation.

Jake had developed these drones in his spare time. The power of knowledge combined with a cognitive prowess millions of times greater than that of a human had allowed him to churn out prototypes at a moment's inspiration.

He didn't intend to rely on long-distance coordination with these drones. These walls obstructed all forms of signals, be they electromagnetic or spiritual, with irrefutable efficiency.

In that case, he decided to use a decidedly old- school method of communication: the wired phone.

Once deployed, the mini-drones extended long cables, no thicker than bacteria but reaching lengths of several centimetres. These microscopic cables latched onto each other, creating a continuous line that branched at every turn.

All Jake had to do was connect his mind to the mother drone in his possession, which was directly linked to his bracelet, to view everything in real-time.

It didn't take long for him to catch the Dungeon Digestor red-handed. Taking a step in one direction, he reappeared kilometers in the opposite one, charging right into the corridor that was just finishing its rearrangement.

The line formed by his drones snapped as the labyrinth altered its configuration, but it was a minor concern. Jake quickly deployed additional drones, renewing the cable's continuity and charting the new segment of the maze. If he stumbled into an already explored section, the dormant drone cable would notify him.

One could not ask for better marking under these shitty circumstances.

With Jake's blistering speed, the labyrinth's seemingly foolproof method of deception crumbled under the weight of his deductive reasoning and quick thinking. In less than a minute, he had already traversed a third of the distance to the Magnetic Resonator's heart.

Unfortunately for Jake, the Dungeon Digestor wasn't entirely devoid of intellect. The moment Jake began a consistent march in the correct direction, it suspected foul play and promptly initiated a hunt for the cause.

When Jake finally sensed a vast, intricately hidden presence sweeping over him, he instantly knew the breather was over.

"Sixty-two seconds. Swift work," he grumbled, a ripple of annoyance flashing across his face.

However, a triumphant grin danced on his lips when he discovered the cable he was relentlessly unfurling was still intact. This revelation suggested that the Dungeon Digestor had no psychic means of attacking physical matter, animate or otherwise. Had it been equipped with such a capability, Jake would have been eradicated by a mere flicker of thought from the enemy.

Yet, the Dungeon Digestor was not entirely defenseless. In response to this conundrum, the behemoth did what it did best and commenced an overhaul of its entire internal architecture. It swiveled, reoriented, and sealed old and new corridors so rapidly that the drone cable was carved into millions of fragments within moments.

In less than five seconds, Jake found himself utterly blind and isolated, pondering why the Dungeon hadn't employed this tactic from the get-go to halt him. He would have undoubtedly suffered significantly more.

Nevertheless, as the tremors subsided and silence once again blanketed the labyrinth, Jake refrained from moving immediately, weighing his options. His brow furrowed in thought, but soon relaxed, and a serene smile inched its way onto his face.

"Nice bluff," Jake chuckled to himself.

At that moment, he felt the vast spiritual presence abruptly extinguish. He didn't know how, but he could sense its pain and frustration.

He didn't know what or who was responsible, but whatever was trying to restrain him here had paid a steep price for its action. Deep down, he hoped it was Cekt's doing.

If it was indeed Cekt, it only cemented his resolve to persist with his forceful infiltration.

Indeed, this time around, no corridor morphed as he recommenced his journey. Elated, Jake happily unfurled his drones in search of his allies. Unless it was a new ploy by the Dungeon Digestor to let his guard down, he was nearly certain that it would not resort to this strategy to impede him.

Indeed, a cacophony of encroaching growls and piercing whimpers confirmed his suspicions a few seconds later. Instead of assaulting him directly, they first targeted his drones, ruthlessly shredding them with savage claws and teeth.

The confrontation was now unavoidable.

The freshly deployed network of drones was utterly dismantled, with only a few lucky robots escaping the maw of destruction.

Jake could have kept releasing his drones, but his supply was not bottomless. Now that these monsters were so kindly thwarting his reconnaissance efforts, he had no choice but to greet them in person... to pay them back in kind...

Making use of his still intact cables, Jake reached one of the crime scenes in a heartbeat, and without a moment's hesitation, swooped down on one of these monster clusters like a raptor on the hunt, igniting a slaughter.

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