The Oracle Paths

"What?! No one is coming to help us?" Tim blurted out with a shell-shocked face.

"Apart from Mirror Vanguard, I'm afraid not..." Vexa grunted wistfully. "I'll make them pay for it, but until then we're on our own. Enough small talk, follow me."

After authenticating themselves and receiving their respective badges, the cube man lead them directly to one of the training rooms built in the basement. Even before entering the facility, what shocked them about this floor was the technology and the tight security.

Armed, laser-scanning cameras constantly scanned the vast hallway littered with hermetically sealed doors accessible only with the pass in their hands. In addition to the pass, their appearance, DNA, Aetheric and spiritual signatures were also matched against those in their database, making it virtually impossible for them to commit fraud.

"Welcome back, Major Vexa. A robotic female voice echoed in their ears as he unlocked the entrance to one of the training chambers.

Several Mirror Guards members who had been chatting in whispers between training sessions turned in their direction with wide-eyed surprise as they heard that their leader for this Ordeal was actually in the Purple Hell. They hadn't seen him for months.

One of them, a muscular, greenish alien about 3m tall that looked like a mix of Cell from Dragon Ball and the Chimera Ant King from HxH walked up to Vexa and gave him a manly hug. Releasing him, he said without a smile,

"I heard what happened. As soon as I take care of the Anti-Life members holding me back, I'll join you in plucking those Schwazen pests."

" Well glad to hear it, Radur." Vexa snorted gratefully. He had heard of the difficulties his colleague was facing.

While Vexa was the commander-in-chief of all Quanoth operations, Radur was a sub-leader on par with him and Nullifyer with his own responsibilities to shoulder.

His duty for this Ordeal, besides getting a good rating for himself and his men, was to eliminate a rather special creature that multiplied rapidly by mitosis as soon as it built up enough energy. This alien species was neither hostile nor corrupt, but it had one major structural difference from the other life forms of Quanoth: It was composed of antimatter.

Antimatter had the same elementary particles as matter, namely electrons, protons and neutrons, but their charges were reversed. The electrons became positions, while the protons and neutrons became antiprotons and antineutrons. When colliding with normal matter, matter and antimatter particles were then annihilated releasing an astronomical amount of energy.

One gram of antimatter could generate an explosive power of 40 kilotons when in contact with an equivalent quantity of matter. In other words, three times the Hiroshima atomic bomb. For comparison, it took 4 to 5 kilos of plutonium or uranium to initiate the nuclear reaction required for such an explosion.

Thus, it was easy to imagine the danger of a life form composed of antimatter and able to survive and develop in a conventional world of matter. Whereas the black clouds and the Mana Superstorm were the main world-ending cause of most Quanoth iterations, it wasn't as if Aurae had set up only one threat.

Most of the participating Players would never realize they had escaped obliteration, too focused on trying to survive against the ordinary threats posed by the monsters of the Wilderness and other human or alien kingdoms killing each other for the sake of an illusory hope of survival.

Mirror Vanguard obviously advocated the destruction or neutralization of such a creature, but Anti-Life saw it as a weapon for their dark purposes. For this reason, two super factions were competing locally on Quanoth because of their conflicting interests.

No matter who won, the regular Players would not be affected, provided this antimatter life form did not explode. However, if Anti-Life were to acquire it, their victory in this Ordeal would be all but assured. With such a weapon, this faction could easily dominate the other super-factions.

"Don't talk to me about it, these Anti-Life guys are driving me crazy. They're really playing with fire..." Radur chuckled as he cracked his neck. "Whatever it is, it will be over soon. Regardless of the outcome, I'll be coming to lend you a hand in four to five days."

With that short, cordial exchange, the sub-leader bid them farewell and teleported out of the complex. Vexa and Prysm appeared to be in a much better mood, so Jake and the others figured that Radur was a strong ally and remembered not to provoke him.

"Come in." Prysm invited them into the training room.

Inside, they found a room resembling a giant warehouse, with high ceilings and enough room for several soccer fields, but otherwise it was rather empty except for a console embedded in the wall next to the front door.

The door closed and Vexa clapped his hands to get their attention,

"Aether, Physique, Spirit, Bloodline. These are the four most important Aspects of an Evolver." The cube man declared in a deep, booming voice. " No matter what your initial shortcomings were, during these Four Ordeals you would normally have made extensive progress in each of these four Aspects or you would not be here on Quanoth, a place reserved for the elite.

"The first Ordeal taught you the basics of combat and strengthened your Aether and Body stats, while the Second Ordeal focused on your mentality, your mindset to toughen you up in the face of death, or more generally what scares you, and help you overcome your traumas. For many, this Ordeal made them realize that they would never be able to do it, or it increased their determination to become stronger to avoid such scenarios at all costs. Whether you failed or survived to the end you gained valuable lessons and a better understanding of yourself."

Jake and the others didn't know what he was getting at, but so far they agreed with him. For example, he may have toughened up and gained confidence, but in the face of his recent failures he had quickly realized that his self-confidence and composure were actually quite tenuous.

If one were to take away his crutches, he was still the same procrastinating, low-self esteem adult of old. He was working hard to turn that around, but it wasn't so easy to change.

"The third Ordeal introduced you to Corruption, or at least one of the forms it can take." Vexa continued to speak at the same pace. "It may have made you aware of the flimsiness of our moral values, principles and beliefs. I won't steal? Under the influence of Corruption you will not only steal, but you will kill without remorse to satisfy your greed. I will not rape, rather die? Not only will you rape under the effect of Corruption, you will surely take pleasure in dominating, torturing, destroying the lives of others as long as you get some kind of benefit from it. I will never be a cannibal? With the Corruption, you would even eat your brothers and sisters if your stomach began to growl.

"Long before you were affected by Corruption, your personalities were shaped by your upbringing and socioeconomic background and are still affected and influenced by your hormones and neurotransmitters. For artificial species such as androids, it is their programs, their operating systems that condition them to behave in a certain way. The consumption of certain substances, drugs and food by your mother can also affect your personality from birth. Therefore, the Corruption therefore begins in a sense from your very conception."

Jake and the other Myrtharian Nerds all stiffened. They had never thought of Corruption in this way. They had always seen it as a kind of mind magic that was impossible to get rid of. The idea that corruption was everywhere, insidious, inevitable, and sometimes welcome was totally new to them.

"... And most, if not all of you, had failed to resist it during your third Ordeal. Some of you may remember horrible things you did during your last Ordeal and it will haunt you forever. Some..." And at that moment he gave Jake a meaningful look, "Some managed to resist it to some extent, realizing that some things were important enough to them to resist the Corruption. The energy that comes from this inalienable will is called True Will. If you have not yet been eliminated from this Ordeal, it is because you have passed the test, and if you have not awakened your True Will you have shown the predisposition to do so.

"What do you think True Will really is?" Vexa then asked them in a cryptic tone. "A hint, it has to do with the main theme of this Ordeal: Soul Classes."

No one answered immediately. After some thought, Jake was tempted to answer that his True Will was a very pristine and pure form of Soul Energy altered by some part of his Soul Aether Code, but his instincts told him that if that were the case awakening his True Will would be much easier. As Vexa and Prysm watched them rack their brains over his simple question, they burst out laughing.

Seeing their baffled faces, the cube man laughed some more and then said,

"Stop worrying. Whatever explanation you have in mind, you're right. True Will are just like Soul Classes. So let's start by debunking a common misconception,

"True Will actually has nothing to do with your will. In fact, it's the exact opposite."