The Oracle Paths

A few minutes later, Jake appeared alone in a dark alley in the Outer City. A chubby black man with a military haircut and a black uniform was fidgeting with a cigarette, spacing out as he stared at the black clouds above him.

The man wore a bulletproof vest and anachronistic gear by the standards of the Ret'Asi Empire, but what caught Jake's eye was the Earth patched on his right shoulder pad, which gave away his affiliation.

"I didn't expect to meet a New Earth soldier here on Quanoth." Jake abruptly cut off his musings in a not-so-friendly voice. "But if I remember correctly, you're a friend of Ruby's. I should have known she wasn't sent to this Ordeal alone.

"Are you aware of her true nature, Craig?"

Craig looked him straight in the eye, his customary jovial attitude gone, and answered with a wry smile,

"If you hadn't made that grandiose speech a few minutes earlier, I would have found it hard to recognize you."

Jake had once more cast the Miniaturization spell and currently looked just like a handsome and tall man with silvery-golden hair and eyes. It was a far cry from his hulky, ungainly physique of the Second Ordeal and even less so from his almost godlike appearance of a few minutes ago.

"That doesn't answer my question." The Laudarkvik leader threatened in a husky voice in return.

"That's why I'm here." Craig sighed as he stubbed out his fag with his foot to extinguish it. "This Ordeal didn't exactly go as planned for us. Ruby... left her post the day we got here. A lot of soldiers died. We have no news. Except for me and Ryo, no one is looking for her."

Jake feigned surprise. He didn't like Ruby, but her colleagues didn't seem like the kind of friends who would help her resist her wicked nature.

"And what are you doing here if you don't mind?" He asked dismissively. "If you can't find Ruby by following an Oracle Path, I doubt you can predict my location. And more importantly, as you already know, Ruby and I are not on the best of terms."

That was an understatement. She had betrayed him, then tried to kill him the next time they met and he had given her the beating of a lifetime in retaliation before making her his slave. He now knew a lot about her and did not resent her as much as he would have liked.

He understood that she wasn't totally responsible for what she was turning into, but on the other hand she was quickly becoming another person, her hatred for anything that wasn't a Digestor growing by the day.

The Slave Contract only had a hold on her human half, while the Digestor half of her soul seemed to have some resistance to his commands. For this reason, no matter how compassionate he was Jake could never trust her.

"You're right, none of us can locate Ruby. Not even Alef our instructor." Craig admitted honestly. "When the Digestor is in control, she disappears from any radar and is no longer a variable in any Oracle Path.

" Meanwhile, finding you wasn't that hard. You forget that the Ret'Asi Empire is mostly populated by humans. All the New Earths Players mobilized for this Ordeal with Ruby are scattered across the land. Keeping tabs on any events involving a powerful native or Player and comparing them to our databases, it wasn't hard to determine your identity."

"You flatter me..." Jake growled as he realized they had a file on him in their database. It remained to be seen how up to date it was.

"But that still doesn't tell me why you were looking for me?"

Craig chuckled miserably,

"One of our men has a Nightmare Bloodline, a kind of wraith that feeds off nightmares and their negative emotions. Their strength is at its peak in the dark and they hate light. Contrary to what one might think, a Nightmare can be a benevolent ghost when it merely relieves people of their nightmares and traumas. A good Nightmare can save you years of psychotherapy. They are also very good spies and messengers, as their intangible bodies can move from one point of darkness to another very quickly. For this reason, the Earth Union has formed a whole regiment of Nightmares and every important team cooperates with one of them."

Craig paused for a second and then sighed,

"It turns out that he belonged to Haynt's faction, but when the ghosts rebelled and joined the Demons, he was forced to follow suit to avoid being singled out. He then took refuge in the Dark Races' district, but when it... blew up... then caught fire, the light and flames claimed his life..."

"Oh..." Jake blurted out awkwardly. That meant he was a collateral victim of their clash against Shamash and Vhoskaud.

"Yeah oh..." Craig rolled his eyes. "He died unfairly, but he never stopped sending us his daily report. We know you've been here for a long time. We even know that Ruby was here at some point too and that you two teamed up."

Jake didn't try to deny it. It was pointless and he saw no reason to lie.

"Okay, Ruby did come here, but she's not here anymore."

"Cough..." Craig cleared his throat with an insistent look. "A rumor also came back to us that she was obeying your orders and was in no position to disobey you."

This time the Myrtharian glared at the coated Player with slight killing intent. This Nightmare could not have accessed such information.

"And where did this rumor come from?" He asked in a chilling voice.

Craig swallowed hard.

"Lost Divinities. It's one of their sources of income."

"Fuck!"

Jake punched the wall to his right and the three-story building that had asked for nothing collapsed like a house of cards. How Lost Divinities had gotten this information there were plenty of possibilities.

It could have been from a Thozuch Clan Demon, from a Beastmaster watching the area through the eyes of any inconspicuous creature like a small bird or rodent, or from Elduin, Carmin and Bhammod who were currently their prisoners.

On second thought, the latter was the most likely. Seeing that Jake was not going to deny it, Craig put on a relieved smile and finally asked in an almost pleading tone,

"Let me meet Ruby. I want to talk to her. Our soldiers need her."

Jake hesitated slightly, weighing the pros and cons, but when he realized he had nothing better to do, he agreed to his request.

"Follow me."

For any other Player, finding Ruby would have been challenging without a sufficient Oracle Rank, especially if her Digestor part was in charge, but for the Master with whom she had signed a Slave Contract it was totally within his purview.

He focused on their connection, a tenuous thread of consciousness, but soon began to sweat when he couldn't find anyone. Through the Spirit Shell, he sent a command to the Myrtharian Nerds and soon a surge of Spirit Energy flowed into his soul, pumping his aura to unprecedented levels.

Craig watched this change with bulging eyes, but seeing Jake's focused face he knew this was not the right time to interrupt. His Spirit Body momentarily boosted, his mental sense finally broke through the fog clouding his investigations and Ruby's presence, faint and distant appeared in his mind.

"This way." He soared, grabbing the soldier by the lapel of his jacket.

The duo flew through the dark sky much faster than a fighter jet and soon Laudarkvik faded into the distance behind them. They passed through many forests, jungles and valleys and Jake was surprised to learn that he had left the Ret'Asi Empire.

Quanoth was a vast planet, but it took Jake nearly a dozen hours to finally sense Ruby's presence above a bottomless, ice-covered chasm. Without fear, he plunged into the abyss, his Myrtharian Eyes glowing like torches in the darkness.

When he hit the bottom of the abyss, Jake didn't stop and charged towards the ground. Before he crashed, the ground ebbed like the tide to let him pass and he flew into the gap. They flew for a few more minutes, the temperature dropped rapidly before finally stopping in front of a palace of ice whose walls emitted an icy smoke close to absolute zero.

"Ruby is here." Jake declared calmly as he let go of Craig's collar.

The man collapsed to the ground on all fours and immediately began to vomit the full contents of his stomach.

"I thought after all those Ordeals, a soldier would have gotten over the fear of heights."

"Oh please!" Craig raved, holding back a gag. "I've been flying once a month since I was eight years old, but never, EVER, have I been on a plane like this."

"I'm not a plane." Jake hissed.

"THAT'S the fucking point! Dammit, even the centrifuges they used to torture us in to get us used to acceleration and gravity changes weren't this violent..."