The Oracle Paths

Prysm subconsciously teleported in front of Vexa to stop his fall, but as she reached him she let out a groan of pain and her arms disintegrated, the scarlet flowers covering her arms turning black instantly.

"Shit!"

In one swift motion, she sliced both arms a few inches above the contaminated area, telekinetically manipulating several sharp petals. Two plant stems grew back right afterwards, blossoming to regenerate the two original arms. As for the ones she had just severed, they had already decayed leaving no trace, not even ashes.

Jake also tried to move closer to Vexa but a corrosive aura destabilizing his DNA and Aether Code stopped him dead in his tracks. Three meters away was his limit.

Remembering the method Prysm had used to neutralize this extremely invasive energy, he mused briefly, weighing the pros and cons, then summoned five of his Aether Cores. Using his mental manipulation, he placed them in formation around Vexa, then used his Aether Control to cause them to indiscriminately siphon off all the surrounding Aether.

This destructive aura was capable of destroying even the Aether Code and that meant that somehow it was intertwined with the Aether in an incredibly intricate way. This entanglement was the only loophole he had found to get rid of it.

The Aether saturated with this corrosive black energy was sucked faster and faster into his 5 Aether Cores and their pure white radiance turned gray, darkening rapidly. From that point on, Jake knew they would never be able to use them again, because the accretion disk surrounding them was also polluted.

'Well, having a few waste Aether Cores is also an asset in itself. With these, I can at least clear out those pesky auras.' Jake consoled himself with a not quite convinced look.

Seeing his method, Prysm looked at him in a new light, but she especially took into account that they had no time to lose. Vexa's life was at stake. She raised her arms and a new tide of scarlet petals shot forward, clashing with the evil aura emanating from the fainting cube man.

Within a few minutes, Jake and Prysm's efforts overcame the aura, but its source, Vexa, had not been removed, so they could not get rid of it completely. As soon as they stopped, this all-pervading energy began to spread through the bunker again.

But it was enough to help Vexa. Prysm braved the danger fearlessly, letting that destructive aura wash over her to reach the cube man. Once near him, she opened her veins and spilled a copious amount of sap. As it dripped onto Vexa's face, the aura sizzled and soon he was able to open his eyes again.

As soon as he regained consciousness, he nodded gratefully to the flower woman and took over. Several flashes of light occurred and his body was encased in several house-sized Green and White Cubes. From inside the cubes, a bright emerald light brighter than a star shone down and the Mirror Vanguard leader stifled a groan of pain.

Black miasma oozed out of the walls of the last Green Cube before igniting on contact with the surrounding Aether. What little survived the purification was then absorbed by Jake's stand-by Aether Cores.

Prysm and the Myrtharian Nerds waited patiently in silence for nearly six hours, then suddenly the Cubes faded and disappeared, revealing an unharmed but tired Vexa. Prysm immediately threw herself into his arms, her eyes welling up with tears. A trace of tenderness flashed briefly in her multicolored, cube-filled eyes and he returned her embrace, stroking the petal-shaped hair mechanically to reassure her.

"Cough, cough..." Jake cleared his throat. "We're still here. Just get a damn room."

A love affair between a flower and a cube who would have believed it? The two lovebirds stopped whispering sweet nothings to each other, but they remained clung together.

"I'm sorry I worried you." Vexa apologized composedly. "I shouldn't have involved you in my mission. As you can see, we were misinformed."

Prysm finally disentangled herself from the cube man and staring at him sternly she asked,

"What really happened there after we left? A Power and some Principalities are deadly threats to any Fourth-Ordeal Players but you. A fight like this is always risky and I always prepare for the worst, but this is the first time I've seen you come so close to death."

Before answering, Vexa conjured up several seats composed of millions of cubes and uttered,

"Sit down."

Jake and the others slouched to their seats, too eager to know what had happened to him. Feeling the stares of Prysm, the Myrtharian Nerds and his newly released underlings he sighed,

"That Power... That was just the appetizer. They sent a Virtue."

"Impossible." Prysm adamantly objected. "Aurae would never tolerate a creature of that level on Quanoth."

"Then two more..." Vexa added shortly thereafter, his expression turning more and more gloomy. "3 Virtues, 37 Powers, 846 Principalities and 12386 Archangels, that's what they sent to kill me."

Dead silence.

Jake and the others didn't know what all those names entailed, but they could sense from the cube man's tone that it was definitely not normal.

"Corrupted?" Prysm inquired darkly.

"All corrupted." Vexa confirmed. "This has gone far beyond what our data from Quanoth's previous iterations predicted. There's something wrong in the Mirror Universe, and not just here.

"You think Aurae...?" Jake frowned.

"No. Well, maybe, but I don't think so." Vexa shook his head. "After a certain threshold the Corruption can't really be destroyed, just diluted. With each new iteration of Quanoth, Aurae makes something new out of the old. He destroys Quanoth and recreates it, but he reuses the same Aether. The Corrupted Aether is still there and is accumulating. Aurae is aware of the issue, but he does nothing because he sees it as an opportunity to train the most promising Players."

Jake and the other Myrtharian Nerds didn't know what to make of it. This situation was beyond them, and even Xi appeared unnerved by the news. There was nothing in her records or memories to indicate that the Mirror Universe was in such dire straits.

"What do we do now then? Do we give up?" Jake stared coldly at Vexa.

Giving up also meant giving up on saving Ruby, and indirectly giving up any hope of revenge against Lost Divinities. It also meant automatically failing two Side Ordeal Missions.

Jake's question represented everyone's thoughts. Not only Prysm and the Myrtharian Nerds, but also the surviving subordinates. Their prognosis was no longer life-threatening, but they were no longer in any condition to fight, either physically or psychologically. Vexa was well aware of this and declared,

"We're not giving up."

"But?" The flower woman pursed her lips as she saw his face grow cold.

"But we're in no condition to attack them." He continued with a steely look. "We're going to need more help and information. The Demiurges are fighting the World Destroyers in space so we won't be able to count on them. Lost Divinities is too spread out and they are preparing to take on the Drurs with Replicators. The Drurs are just as dangerous as the Schwazens and if they face surprises as unpleasant as ours, then they won't help us either. That leaves the other subfactions of Mirror Vanguard and Anti-Life. I won't hide it from you, Anti-Life is almost as detestable as the Digestors. Their nature and ambition is in their faction name and their only known allies are the Replicators. The idea of us being wiped out by these corrupted Schwazens will surely delight them."

Listening to him, Jake suddenly formed an idea.

"Why not ignore the Schwazens and wait for them to migrate to Celestial City on their own? Wouldn't that force the other super factions to fight them for survival?"

Vexa and Prysm both winced at his suggestion.

"Your plan might work if these Schwazens really intended to follow the rules of the game set by Aurae. All angelic species, whether artificial or natural, are affiliated with a god or higher entity whose authority and power they embody. An angel without affiliation is deprived of some of its powers. These Schwazens are Corrupted and the powers they use have nothing to do with Aurae. One could have doubts about ordinary angels, but these Powers and Virtues manipulate the Dawn and Holy Element, and all their attacks are powered by their True Will of Destruction. These are the typical abilities of a Seraphim Digestor or perhaps something even mightier.

"The records of Quanoth's past iterations don't mention this, so it must have happened quite recently. If my instincts aren't playing tricks on me, the reason Mirror Vanguard was given this mission is because the Schwazens have a way to escape from here."

At that moment, Jake remembered the terrifying winged Digestor that had appeared to retrieve Nylreg at the end of his Third Ordeal and his face lost all color as he came to the realization that this scenario was entirely plausible.