The Oracle Paths

Time ticked by and six weeks after he commenced his training, Jake received a message from Asfrid and Hade.

[We have reached the southern border of the Shatug Empire. No casualties to report, but the Emperor of Ret'Asi's army has been decimated. We await your command to evacuate the civilians from the planet while we still can.]

"Finally."

Jake restored the room to its original, pristine appearance, then teleported in front of the Orange Cube that had brought them here.

"Where are you going?" Vexa's voice boomed behind him.

"I have to take care of some small matter for my faction. I'll be back before sundown." Jake replied succinctly.

The cube man nodded, then announced,

"We got the information you wanted. Your subordinate, Hephais, was very impressive. He is wasting his talent in an ordinary faction and so are you."

Jake smiled as he was told that the assassin had managed to wow the Mirror Vanguard intelligence department. Vexa ignored his grin and continued,

"There will be a briefing early tomorrow morning. Our plan to deal with these Schwazens will be revealed. We've also gotten some news about Ruby Hale, the Digestor Trojan you're trying to save, and the situation is a bit more complicated than we feared. If you still want to save her to get back at Lost Divinities, you better be there."

Jake put on a grave face and nodded mutely.

"I'll be there."

"Great. See you later."

Vexa watched Jake vanish into the Orange Cube with a somber expression, then sighed wearily. He sounded confident, but defeating the Schwazens and freeing Ruby would not be as easy as he tried to make it look. If their progress wasn't as great as he expected, they would be slaughtered before they reached the capital.

*****

Jake returned to the surface and immediately felt the chill of the snowflakes on his face. When they made contact with his skin, they sizzled and then vaporized in a flash. It was dark, but not night, and he quickly realized that the black clouds had drifted all the way here even though the sky was still clear.

SHHRRRRIII!

"Fuck!"

He had barely made it outside when a Schwazen chose to fly over the area he was standing in. Jake squinted at the angelic creature and his pupils narrowed as he saw the golden sheen of its armor and the three pairs of metallic wings flapping at its back.

An Archangel.

If this was the Jake of two months ago, victory was not impossible, but their clash would have triggered a cataclysm and generated so much noise that they would have alerted all the Schwazens patrolling for dozens of kilometers around. But that was before.

As soon as the creature's golden eyes locked on him, Jake knew he had been spotted and adjusted his strategy accordingly. With superhuman speed, his hand grabbed the air in front of him and the archangel Schwazen imploded, remaining oblivious to his own death until the very end.

Jake teleported over the silver and gold painted snow where the archangel had been killed and scanned the remains carefully.

[Amazing, even the feathers that were supposed to be four times stronger than Adamantium were pulverized.] Xi flattered with awe. [It looks like your training has paid off. The real question is to what extent.]

Jake was about to reply when he saw a whole squad of Schwazen angels flying in his direction.

'Let's not just stand here.' He grunted stiffly.

Numerous Aether Symbols flashed over him and his silhouette faded from the snowy plain, his presence completely erased. The Schwazen squad circled over him without detecting anything unusual.

An hour later, Jake left the Serinese Theocracy, entering the Shatug Empire, the home of the Drurs. He had chosen the shortest route, but it was also his first time in what was rumored to be the most powerful and advanced empire in Quanoth.

Unlike the Schwazen nation, he noticed many differences. Despite the all-out war raging on the continent and the fierce competition for access to the Celestial City, the Drur cities were still prosperous and peaceful. From a bird's eye view, they looked like the futuristic city of Coruscant in Star Wars.

Here, nature had lost its rights and it was virtually impossible to spot a tree. The whole Empire was a gigantic, hyper-advanced megalopolis, a dense forest of skyscrapers that could be more than 6 kilometers high. No wonder Tim was able to survive so long in hiding before being rescued by Lucia.

Not intending to take a look at the Celestial City, Jake continued southwestward while still curiously observing the cities below him. Taking advantage of his invisibility, he also got a glimpse of his first Drurs.

They were humanoid aliens, 5 to 11 meters tall, with dark purple skin and pointed ears like elves. Their musculature was overdeveloped whether it was for men, women or children, and like the orcs their lower canines protruded from their mouths.

However, unlike the latter, they were civilized and their purple eyes sparkled with intelligence and wisdom. At least among the civilians, one would not find the typical wickedness of the Schwazens, nor the bloodthirstiness of many other inferior species. Their clothing was also refined and sophisticated, although armor and guns had very recently replaced the other styles.

Jake was not fooled, though. It would be a foolish mistake to believe that these Drurs were good people. Halfway to his destination, he spotted a group of aliens trying to sneak into an alley in the vain hope of reaching the Celestial City.

A Drur soldier spotted them and sounded the alarm. Seconds later, two of them were riddled with smoking holes by accurate blaster fire and the other six were decapitated. After tying them together by their feet and hanging them upside down from his belt, the Drur who had killed them went to an open-air market and one of the merchants, obviously a butcher, traded the bodies for a handful of coins.

Tim had already told him that the Drurs viewed other races in the same way that humans treated chickens or pigs. Some were vegan, vegetarian and empathetic, others didn't care what they ate as long as it was filling and tasted good.

Before the descent of the Celestial City, animal rights advocates had nearly convinced the Drur population that other intelligent aliens and humans did not deserve this treatment, but the joint invasion of all other races and nations had nipped that ambition in the bud.

Now, in order to survive, the Drurs had decreed that everything that was different from them would be their enemy and thus their food. It was also a way to show respect to their opponents. A tradition that had to do with their zero waste policy...

Jake witnessed several similar scenes as a distant spectator, but he never intervened. He had long since come to terms with the fact that he couldn't save everyone.

Further south as he drew closer to the border with the Maze of Mirik, the landscape began to change. The cities were no longer as thriving and populated and many buildings and vehicles were in ruins or ablaze.

The streets and alleys had become a battleground between the Drurs and the thousands of nations that had joined forces to reach the Celestial City. It was a bloody chaos punctuated by screams of agony and explosion, and the Drurs were slowly losing ground. However, for every Drur that fell, hundreds and sometimes thousands of invaders would lose their lives.

Jake broke out in a cold sweat as he imagined what the chaos around Celestial City must have been like. The elites of every Quanoth race had gathered there and the city was now a powder keg on the verge of exploding. All that remained to be done was to light a fire for the ultimate bloodbath to begin.

After witnessing all this, the Myrtharian lost interest in all these battles and refocused on his flight. In the late afternoon he reached the camp secretly established by the Myrtharian Nerds.

On the way he had also seen what was left of the Ret'Asi army. A few thousand men compared to the tens of millions of a few months ago. The war against the Shrons must have been brutal...

Asfrid and Hade sensed the arrival of their leader even before he landed. He may have moved stealthily and been invisible, but by the time he crossed the spiritual barrier protecting the camp he had revealed his position.

When Jake showed up in the middle of the camp, the few Myrtharian Nerds defending the camp like Drastan, Daniel, Kevin and Mufasa were delighted, but most citizens of Laudarkvik barely looked up for a second before falling back into their depression. The journey had pushed them to the limit and many had no hope of ever regaining a normal life.

There were few Myrtharian Nerds present, but that was because the others had already joined the Purple Hell in the last few weeks to train under the supervision of Vexa and Prysm. In exchange, they would have to participate in the special operation against the Schwazens.

"Is everything ready?" Jake asked Asfrid and Hade privately a few minutes later.

"We're just waiting for your go-ahead."

Jake looked up to peer at the ominous black clouds, then said grimly,

"Let's get started."