The Oracle Paths

When Jake leaned over to admire his handiwork, a stinging pain made him drop hard to his knees. Clutching his skull with both hands, he convulsed on the floor despite his iron will.

Wyatt, who had just finished disposing of the last Undeads summoned, stared at him with a peculiar expression but was not overly concerned. Still, it was fortunate that they were on the same side, for if the Vampire had any ill intentions towards him he could easily have taken his life.

Momentarily slipping in and out of consciousness, Jake's tight control over his Aether of Vitality and his cells loosened completely, much like a horse being let go of its reins. The Words of Power etched into his flesh instantly dissolved.

It was only after the Runes were completely erased that Jake finally stopped convulsing like an epileptic. Knowing that he would fall into a deep, restorative sleep if he succumbed to temptation, he gritted his teeth and gathered what was left of his willpower to get up with a grunt.

"Are you okay?" Wyatt asked in a genuinely concerned tone upon seeing him so haggard. It was hard to imagine coming from this tireless thug.

"I'm fine. Just my Spirit Body that's been overdrawn." Jake replied evasively, brushing off his concern. He still didn't trust this Vampire. Changing the subject, he asked, "How are Carmin and Lily?"

The blond man clouded over as he heard his question. Gently setting the two young women down on the grass in front of him, he examined them carefully and a tear of rage silently rolled down his face.

"Carmin will be fine if she gets a blood transfer. For Lily... It's already too late. Her mind is already gone."

Jake closed his eyes and let out a crestfallen, dispirited sigh upon hearing the sad news. During this mission, ironically, their first two victims had been the only children on the team. Trash was a stranger to them a day earlier, but Lily was Carmin's darling little sister.

She had failed to protect her during the Third Ordeal, and this time, the kid had been culled within hours of their arrival on Quanoth. How many of them would make it to the end?

"Quanoth is the staging ground for the previous Ordeal finalists." Wyatt grimaced, his face sullen. He blamed himself for this. "If I'd known it would turn out this way, I never would have allowed them to come."

Jake nodded mechanically like a robot, his mind completely blank. He hadn't caught up with his companions since his breakfast at Lodunvals. It had already been over 12 hours. Perhaps many of them had already been killed in similar tragedies.

At that moment, Jake and Wyatt felt they were on the same page. They shared the same responsibility, the same burden. As they looked at each other, the thoughts running through their minds were of the same ilk:

'I need to get stronger, but I also need companions who can keep up with me.'

Lily, Carmin's sister, had been eliminated in the last two Ordeals. The Fifth was known for its extraordinarily high death rate, so there was no reason to imagine that she would fare any better in the next Ordeal. For the young Blood Human, the adventure ended there. Neither Wyatt nor her sister would allow her to participate in such a dangerous Ordeal with no safety net.

As for the Myrtharian Nerds, Jake knew he had to prepare himself mentally to make similar resolutions. His longtime companions, Will, the two sisters, Kyle, Sarah... With the exception of Enya, all of them had died at least once in the previous three Ordeals.

Looking only at the last Ordeal, only the two sisters and Kyle had lasted to the end. But considering Kyle's circumstances... Jake preferred not to get his hopes up too high or he would be left sorely disappointed in the future.

[Don't be so defeatist.] Xi tried to console him, but when she saw that it didn't work, she spoke more harshly. [Trust them, but be pragmatic. You must not compromise your Ordeal to protect them. Your interests may serve theirs, but even if they don't, they are your subordinates. You must accept the idea that they may die following your orders. There is no such thing as zero risk.]

"I know... Only those who survive this Ordeal, regardless of the reasons, will be granted permission to accompany me on my Fifth Ordeal." Jake had made his decision.

He then returned to the Lich's bisected corpse and lifted its hood, revealing a pristine white face with the smooth, slightly reflective sheen of a luxury car shell. An android.

Jake had met a similar person before: Siri, Cekt's third disciple on B842. If he remembered correctly, the android species she belonged to was called the Delcrons.

Tearing off the rest of its cloak, Jake was able to determine that it was indeed a cybernetic life form and not just a cyborg with a few enhancements. He barely managed to hide his astonishment. A robot Lich. The Mirror Universe never ceased to amaze him.

From a strictly physical point of view, the electrical activity of a processor was not so different from that of a neural network. These Delcrons, whether they were natural androids or created by someone, could feel things and develop a Soul and Spirit Body just like everyone else.

What was strange however, was that traditionally a Lich was a deceased mage who had returned from the dead. It often took a lot of preparation to transition from a normal mage to an immortal Lich and their appearance was often gaunt and rotten like a mummy or reduced to a skeleton.

The original brain had long since disintegrated and it finally came down to a kind of possession. A Lich was ultimately a spirit inhabiting a body designed or chosen specifically to become its vessel.

In this case, what about this Delcron's "brain"?

Jake dug his fingers into the Lich's metal skull, then yanked hard on both sides to split its skull open. Inside, he discovered a tapered structure that should be the equivalent of a motherboard and data storage device, but it was completely blackened as if it had fried.

"So this Delcron guy was well and truly dead. Or did he choose to kill himself to become a Lich?" Jake shook his head.

As he fumbled around in his cranium, his eye was suddenly drawn to a small crystalline bulge in the back of the spindly structure. Unlike the latter, it still emitted a faint greenish light reminiscent of an LED.

"It looks like some kind of tracking device or transmitter." Jake muttered warily.

As he wondered what exactly this device was, Jake suddenly remembered that he still didn't know what had happened to Bhammod and Elduin. The dwarf and elf had been slapped hard by the Daemonified Were-Eagle's wing and blown extremely far away. Human and Astral reinforcements had departed in their direction several minutes ago.

"I gotta go. I have two more companions to rescue." Jake excused himself restlessly as he stored the Lich's carcass in his Space Storage before sprinting away like a demon.

Wyatt frowned, but after dropping Carmin and Lily off near a tree out of sight, he slit his wrist and let a trickle of fresh blood flow into the fainted young woman's parted lips. When her pale face regained some color, he licked his finger and ran it over his wrist to close the wound. The saliva of all Vampires had hemostatic properties.

After that, he ran in Jake's direction, a burst of Blood Energy increasing his speed explosively. Jake was caught up in an instant, but considering his current physical condition it wasn't a feat worth bragging about.

Once he was next to Jake, Wyatt slowed his running pace to match his rival's. Two minutes later, they heard the clash of weapons and shouting and knew they had arrived at the right place.

Cornered at the foot of a cliff, where a three-foot deep human-shaped depression had formed a couple of dozen meters off the ground, the two Players recognized Elduin fighting like a madman with his two scimitars against a group of hostile men and specters. Their jeers appeared to be taunting the elf, reveling in his vain resistance.

Bhammod lay unconscious a few feet away, his condition unknown. Jake couldn't help but notice that the crater in the cliff was beautifully shaped to match the dwarf. In addition to taking the winged slap from the Were-Eagle, he had apparently also taken responsibility for the landing.

No wonder Elduin was still unharmed. Having himself a cousin with a Water Elf bloodline, he knew that all elves were endowed with supernatural lightness. If they pushed their elven agility to the extreme they could even run on air and surf on gentle breezes.

The elf was currently in the middle of a duel to the death against a bearded human warrior, with questionable hygiene and wearing an eye patch. Despite his filthy tank top and mud-stained pants and boots, his attacker was a formidable swordsman. Elduin, who was a Rank-A Adventurer, held no advantage.

It was quite clear that if they had joined forces, they could have defeated him easily, but these humans and specters seemed to want to torment him a little longer for the sole purpose of entertainment.

With a glance, Jake assessed the level of each of these warriors. 7 humans, 5 specters. Their levels ranged from 57 to 71. The specters were weaker, rarely exceeding level 30, but their purpose was not to fight on the front lines but to facilitate recon and communication on the battlefield.

Jake and Wyatt exchanged glances and a murderous glint flashed across their faces.

"Kill!"