The Oracle Paths

Jake immediately had a bad feeling.

"If you have something to say, say it now or shut up." He scolded curtly at the barbarian.

The probationary Myrtharian Nerd flared at him, but in the end he swallowed his resentment and obligingly answered,

"I don't know much about this, but I heard Shamash and Deimos talk about it once. The Serinese Theocracy is a nation reputed to be even more powerful than the Shatug Empire. However, this is not the territory that the Celestial City has chosen to land in.

"Lost Divinities never give up any slice of the pie and tried to infiltrate this nation like all the others. Last I heard it was a spectacular failure. At her last report, Varisha asked permission to withdraw her troops and let Mirror Vanguard handle it.

"You should know that Mirror Vanguard is different from Lost Divinities. They do not pursue profit or power, but to defend the interests of the Mirror Universe. I don't know of many compelling reasons for Lost Divinities to regurgitate what they've already swallowed. Speaking plainly, I can think of only two."

"Digestors or an enemy so powerful and hostile that it threatens the normal flow of the Ordeal." Skorgeld chime in with a bored expression.

Loitering around the Celestial City for the past few months, the Beskyrian had gleaned quite a bit of information. Mirror Vanguard's specifications were part of it.

"In other words..." Jake's facial features stiffened, the ambient temperature plummeting several degrees. "You're not even sure if Lost Divinities' base is still here."

Azeus froze, but he quickly regained his poise and hastily justified himself,

"Lost Divinities or Mirror Vanguard, what does it matter? If Lost Divinities captured your Ruby, and if she is indeed a Digestor Trojan, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if they sold her off or handed her over to Mirror Vanguard. Look on the bright side, if it's Mirror Vanguard that's nearby then the chances of Ruby being in their hands are extremely high."

Jake snorted but didn't press the issue. Despite his annoyance, he had to admit that the barbarian had a point. Lost Divinities or Mirror Vanguard, who cares?

"And why evil incarnate? Everything you said only suggests that they are dangerous. Nothing more." Tim asked Azeus naively.

"You'll find out soon enough. Look over there..."

The group flying low over the mountainous terrain froze as they saw a stack of corpses blocking a small canyon. Jake controlled his telekinesis to bring the Beskyrians to the ground while Azeus landed instantly, leaving a trail of lightning in his wake.

After landing, Jake scanned the canyon carefully and spotted several incongruities. Before being ambushed, this long convoy must have included tens of thousands of migrants of various races, but there were only a few thousand dead bodies. Where had the others gone?

But more unsettlingly, these corpses were mostly emaciated, hideous or unhealthy old men. There were almost no children among them, and the few exceptions suffered from deformities or infections.

"Why did they leave the supplies? They even left the gold and jewelry." Fo, the Beskyrian woman covered in talismans, felt a pang of unease as she picked up a pure gold necklace inlaid with gemstones weighing several pounds.

Such a piece of goldsmithing should have been a national treasure. It was inconceivable that the attackers ignored it. On top of that, according to its Mana fluctuations it was most likely a Mana Artifact. And a rather high level one at that. Between Advanced and Bronze quality.

Jake took the necklace from her hands and after scanning it, his pupils constricted in surprise.

The necklace was a defensive artifact that could generate a shield around the wearer that could withstand the equivalent of two 5-megaton nuclear warheads daily. If the Artifact was not used, the excess Mana would be stored for later use.

" Come take a look!" Trea, the group's Ranger, waved at them from across the canyon. Joining her, they found a long silver feather that looked more like an eccentric short sword than an angel or bird feather.

Next to it was the corpse of a terrorized humanoid creature, no doubt one of the migrants forming the convoy. The thing that carried him through the air had been attacked, losing one of its precious feathers and inadvertently dropping him. Besides the fact that it was probably a child, it had been disemboweled alive, its intestines having been chewed up by something before the fall shattered its skull.

Turning to Azeus, Jake said grimly,

"It seems you weren't wrong about these Schwazens. Their diet seems to be somewhat unique. Not exactly angelic."

The barbarian remained fixated on the victim's desperate, pain-twisted face for a moment, then grunted,

"I wish I was wrong..."

CRRREEAK!

Jake and the others turned with a start and saw that Crunch had put the silver feather in his mouth, trying to bend it with his teeth. At first, they wanted to swear at him for causing them such a fright, but they forgot their rebukes when they saw that the huge feline was unable to deform, let alone damage that feather.

"Give me that." Jake ordered flatly as he held out his hand.

Not being told twice, Crunch spat the slime-filled feather into his master's hand and the latter evaporated it with a burst of heat while suppressing his disgust. Once the feather was presentable, Jake took one end in each hand and flexed his muscles with all his might.

At first the feather just squeaked, then when Jake activated Bloodline Ignition and raised the temperature forming a sphere of lava and plasma around him it finally folded like a marshmallow.

"This feather is about 8 times harder than Adamantium and has a melting point 12 times higher. Jake revealed solemnly.

For that reason alone, the Schwazens deserved their reputation as the most powerful humanoid race on Quanoth tied with the Drugs. It was a miracle that the Ret'Asi Empire had endured until now.

Gulp!

Tim and the other Beskyrians greeted the news with mild enthusiasm. They had to hope that this feather belonged to one of their finest specimens, or they would have something to worry about when they met them.

"What do we do with all these dead bodies?" Tim scratched his head as he stared at the heap of corpses with pity.

"We b-"

Just as Jake was about to answer, a spray of flames more dazzling than the sun sprayed the mountain of corpses, cremating it all at once. Looking for the origin of these flames, they saw a huge turkey not far away, emptying its lungs with great spirit, its beak wide open...

"We burn them..." Jake finished his sentence while shooting a glare at Lord Phoenix.

An unpleasant smell of burnt meat soon tingled their nostrils and the group decided to set off again, but only after collecting all the jewels and other artifacts that might be of use.

The group moved on again, but this time paying much more attention to their surroundings. Later that afternoon, Skorgeld and Tim signaled Jake and the others to stop.

"We've passed our destination. My instinct tells me to turn back." Tim said gravely.

Jake frowned. He hadn't sensed Ruby's presence in the area. Based on his gut feeling, she should be much farther northeast.

"Are you sure about this?" He insisted cautiously.

"Absolutely sure."

"Skorgeld?" Jake then asked.

"The same."

He hesitated for a moment, then decided to trust them. If someone had the ability to interfere with their luck, they definitely needed to get to the bottom of it. So as not to overshoot their destination again, Jake resolved that they should retrace their path on foot.

The terrain was rugged and steep, with the thick snow cover and turbulent winds making the trail hardly walkable. With no time to waste, let alone time to dig tunnels, Jake used his Earth Control to trek directly through the mountains.

Azeus, whose powers were based on electricity, was not a fan of diving into a magically softened mountain. If Jake lost control of his magic or lost consciousness, their groups would be walled in by kilometers of rock.

Even with Jake's powers, their progress was slow. Tim and Skorgeld's good luck was not infallible, and they had no way of distinguishing between their own instincts and the times when luck guided their steps. For this reason, they wandered around, feeling their way, making narrower and narrower circles as they got closer to their goal.

Then, several hours later at nightfall, Tim stopped in his tracks. Skorgeld continued for a few more steps and then also stopped. In front of them was the entrance to an inconspicuous underground bunker.

"Here we are."

Jake and the other Beskyrians could sense that this was the right place, too. Azeus, on the other hand, had a much less optimistic reaction. He sniffed the air and said,

"This is not a Lost Divinities base, but if this were Mirror Vanguard, a sentry would have come to meet us long ago. I don't sense any presence."