The Oracle Paths

[Side Mission n°4 : Space Exploration : Leave the planet Quanoth and find out the cause of the impending apocalypse.]

Jake was taken aback when he received this sudden notification. At the beginning of the Ordeal, he had also attempted to fly out of Quanoth to get a broader view, but he hadn't received any assignments at the time. What had changed since the last time?

[Your strength and intent.] Xi answered matter-of-factly in his place.

Indeed, the main difference from before was that he was determined to reach the sun at any cost, whereas last time he had retreated at the first hurdle. Somehow, the Oracle System was able to sense his resolve.

Unless, this mission was too difficult for the old Jake and that showing it to him too soon would have caused him to devote his efforts to a nearly impossible mission, making him risk his life without reaping any benefit. Now that he had a reason to leave the planet, the Oracle had no reason to stop him.

As he entered the black storm clouds of the troposphere, Jake felt a slight resistance from the friction of the air, and his hair stood on end from the static electricity. With his normal eyesight, he could barely see the tip of his nose, and without his Myrtharian Eyes he would have been totally blind.

RUMBLE!

By the time Jake heard the clap of thunder, the lightning had already struck him. He had not activated his Oracle Shield and was hit by the full brunt of the electric blast. His body began to crackle, arcs of electricity streaking across the surface of his skin, but apart from a persistent buzzing in his eardrums he was unharmed.

" For fuck's sake, I almost had a heart attack!" Jake cursed angrily, his left hand resting on his thumping heart.

[Last time you didn't have to activate your Oracle Shield before entering the stratosphere]. Xi remarked with a worried tone. [Those black clouds are floating lower than before.]

"Hmm..." Jake frowned, hesitating to activate his Oracle Shield right away.

In the end, he gave up on the idea altogether. Only the heavens knew how many kilometers thick this atmosphere was. The later he activated his Oracle Shield, the more Aether he would save and the better his chances of success.

Bracing himself for more lightning strikes, Jake endured a deluge of lightning bolts during his ascent and the last ones, he had to admit, stung a bit... When he finally reached the upper boundary of the troposphere to cross into the stratosphere, his appearance was already a sight to behold.

His silky gold-silver hair was disheveled and slightly charred, while his skin was covered with third degree burns, its black and charred color telling a lot about the high voltage of these electrocutions. As for his already battered armor, Jake had been forced to put it away in his Space Storage. Perhaps because of the material, but it acted like a lightning magnet and the number of lightning strikes had decreased by half as soon as he got rid of it.

'If this was the me from three months ago, I would have been badly injured. Maybe not enough to kill me, but plenty enough to fry my brain and make me pass out.' Jake concluded as he finally broke through the stratosphere.

The fact that he had resisted the urge to activate his Oracle Shield accounted for some of his injuries, but the true reason was that these dark clouds were not the same as before. Three months earlier, he had only encountered these clouds from the stratosphere, whereas this time he had encountered them a few kilometers after leaving the ground.

This boded ill for the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Resolute, Jake did not slow down and even accelerated again, deciding to fearlessly face the danger. He instantly sensed the shift in surroundings.

From the slight friction of the air that barely slowed him down, he felt like he had just dived headfirst into a quagmire given the compactness of these clouds. If three months earlier, the black clouds of the stratosphere were like soaked cotton, these clouds were practically like solid ground on a rainy day.

If the lowest altitude and the dangerousness of these clouds keep increasing so fast, the apocalypse was indeed only a matter of time. He predicted that within three months, these clouds would touch the ground and 95% of the population would be forced to migrate northward. In four months, only aberrations like Jake would be able to survive.

He also remembered the giant three-headed bird he had encountered during his first attempt to fly outside the atmosphere and it reminded him that there might also be some beasts perfectly adapted or invulnerable to these environments, but logically they should be the minority.

Luckily, Jake did not come across any flying monstrosities this time. Not at this altitude anyway, or he would have been in trouble.

CRACK!

The lightning bolt that struck him this time shook his brain so hard that he was momentarily stunned and when he recovered he found that he had plummeted several hundred meters.

"The true challenge is starting now." Jake muttered to himself as he traced Words of Power on his charred skin to increase his defenses, aerodynamics and velocity.

At the same time, he turned on his Silver Stone Skin, his skin taking on a distinctive metallic sheen. In the process, he began to cast a few defensive Aether Spells, and he reduced his speed slightly to redirect some of his telekinetic power to encase his body in a protective force field.

CRACK! CRACK!

Two huge, dazzling bolts of lightning as wide as a truck struck him in rapid succession, his body becoming a blindingly blue torch of lightning for a split second.

[Jake?! Are you okay?]

For a moment she had forgotten that she could consult his Oracle Status in person. The lightning man remained unresponsive but gave a thumbs up to say he was okay.

[Phew...]

It wasn't that Jake didn't want to answer her, but right now he was extremely focused. The Words of Power had begun to drain his willpower and mental strength. He had already summoned Xion's Soul Stone in his right hand, but it had unfortunately lost some volume after its overuse. He would soon have to become more frugal if he didn't quickly find an alternative source of energy.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Three bolts of lightning struck him at once this time, but his defenses held up again. A relieved expression appeared on Jake's face and he even began to smile. With some pride, he finally made it through the entire stratosphere without using his Oracle Shield.

At last, he left the storm cloud zone, entering the mesosphere, the same zone he gave up last time. Looking down, he got another glimpse of the planet Quanoth and was appalled to discover that the black clouds now covered more than half of the planet compared to the last time.

Lodunvals, which still had plenty of daylight three months earlier, was now shrouded in darkness. Thinking back, Jake realized that Laudarkvik's two hours of daily sunlight had not occurred since he came out of seclusion. It had been pitch black all the time.

Now looking overhead, Jake gazed at the vast electromagnetic storm that had caused him to retreat the last time. His view was clear, and there were no dark clouds in his way. Yet the threat was at least ten times greater.

The vision reminded him of the colorful nebula pictures he used to enjoy as a child, except that here it was not a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, but a huge mass of lightning, Mana, Aether and other elemental magic particles. To venture inside would be to expose himself to a massive amount of power exceeding that of several billion nuclear bombs.

Besides, the Mana and Aether currents were so chaotic that it was impossible to predict what awaited him inside. He could vaguely make out the sun beyond this storm and not having changed his mind he took a long breath, then slowly flew towards the "nebula" encompassing the planet.

He ran an Oracle Scan, but the report left him confused. It didn't seem as dangerous as he feared, but he was right about the chaos inside. The Mana in there had so many variations, that it was not an exaggeration to say that all of the spells devised by Quanoth's mages throughout the ages potentially existed within this enigmatic magical storm.

The danger was no longer the storm itself, but being hit by some kind of unpredictable Mana. If it turned him into a statue, poisoned his cells to death or turned him into a toad against his will, his ascent would not only stop right here, but would also make him a laughing stock. The last example, though, was highly unlikely.

Still, Jake wasn't ready to give up. When he was about to make contact with the chaotic energies, Xi suddenly stopped him.

[Activate your Oracle Shield. I know it's going to cost us, but it's too risky.]

Jake hesitated briefly, but decided to trust her.

"Fine. I'll do as you say."

And that was his best decision of the day. What he saw inside would haunt him forever. It was a sight beyond comprehension.

Those streams of multicolored lights amazed him to the core, but when he saw his Oracle Shield start to flicker alarmingly like it was being thrashed by a million Rank 13 Digestors all at once, Jake was scared shitless.

"Holy shit! Xi, I love you. You really are my guardian angel!"

[ You will profess your love for me when we get out of here.] She replied in a voice that was a little more snappy than she intended, but one could still tell that she was clearly happy.

Forty-five minutes later, they finally left the Mana Superstorm, the previous joy on Jake's face replaced by an ugly grimace somewhere between rage and regret.

"Fuck! 27B Aether points gone just like that..."