The Oracle Paths

"It's my Ultimate Shield." Vhoskaud broke out in laughter as his enemies crashed into the wall of machinery insulating him from the battlefield. "Inspired directly from Psykow's from Anti-Life. It was my countermeasure against that alien in the event of a betrayal, but it seems I was pressured to use it much sooner than expected against you. If we weren't stuck in this confined space, I would have fought you in person but I just need to keep you busy here."

That was the truth. He just needed to hold them off for a little less than 85 seconds. After that, the Mana Storm would ruthlessly select the winners.

"Psykow?" Jake muttered as he watched the drop-shaped alien through the mental projection of his Purgatory. "If Vhoskaud is wary of him, I do wonder what his abilities are."

The alien was not trying to hide, floating in the purple sky unafraid of the widening cracks within it. However, he was fast. Even with the virtual omniscience provided by the Purgatory, the intangible, elusive sphere was constantly teleporting from one end of Celestial City to the other at an extreme frequency.

Jake doubted he could catch such an opponent. All the super faction leaders had unique abilities. It was not only their basic attributes, but that their powers were often incomprehensible. Until he understood their abilities, he could not directly risk approaching them.

He had learned this lesson the hard way during his first defeat at the hands of the Nullifyer. That was why this time he had stayed back instead of attacking Vhoskaud with the others.

"I should have attacked from the beginning." Jake sighed as he realized that the android would now be much harder to kill now that he had used his trump cards.

This army of machines and Undeads was truly countless... Still, he did not participate in the fight, leaving his subordinates to test the waters.

From his position, he saw Kenway transform into a gigantic humanoid lion, then get buried by a horde of walking dead. The sounds of impact and roar echoed from his position, sending hundreds of Undeads flying.

The huge mammoth Dumbo who had joined the Myrtharian Nerds kept drawing water from an inexhaustible pond with his trunk to shoot water missiles at his enemies, but their numbers were so absurd that thousands of machines and Undeads were already clinging to him, starting to devour him alive. If his fur wasn't even denser than steel, and his skin thicker than a tank's armor, he would have been shredded alive by now.

Lucia had come to her senses and given up her vendetta against Vhoskaud. Telepathically shouting orders to her teammates, she had managed to gather most of the scattered members into an unbreachable formation.

Sadly, in the meantime her new subordinate Temra, several Trolls of Drastan, as well as Ruby's teammates Raj and Melissa had been mauled alive.

"Shit! There are too many of them. We can't even move from our position." Wang Xiaoming snarled as he managed to generate a powerful Ki wave with a palm strike that blasted hundreds of robots in the distance.

Before he could complain again, one of the dragons protecting Will, who was struggling through the air with thousands of machines on his back, spat out a jet of uncontrolled flame as one of its membranous wings was torn off. Tens of thousands of Undeads were incinerated on the spot, but the stream of flame drifted right into Lucia's group.

"I shouldn't have gotten up this morning." Ryo and Craig said simultaneously as they dove to the side.

In contrast, Enya simply raised her hand and the flames were sucked in, strengthening her own aura. She then condensed another ball of crimson fire and fired straight at the wall of machinery protecting Vhoskaud.

BOOOOM!

Pieces of scrap metal and molten steel flew in all directions, but new androids quickly filled the gap. Regardless, this served as the signal to escalate the fight.

The thousands of huge railguns and other futuristic weapons of destruction floating in tight formation around this wall suddenly opened fire and another dragon under Will's command sacrificed his life by throwing himself before them. His death was completely in vain, as hundreds of blue-black lasers tore through him as if his scales were no stronger than a sheet of paper.

Haynt took over, expanding his own energy body to encompass all enemy fire and his allies. A bright light radiated from his body, then he exploded, triggering his supernova mode.

"Don't make me regret my sacrifice." His voice echoed in their heads as Aisling couldn't help but shed a tear. She knew he wasn't really dead, but it was still a traumatic sight.

The supernova explosion did not affect his companions, the blast expanding outward. The entire Celestial City was hit by the blast of heat, momentarily reducing almost all the Undeads and machines swarming the battlefield to ash.

*****

On the side of Mirror Vanguard and Neri, their battle had barely begun to take a turn for the worse when they were hit by Haynt's suicide blast.

"Damn it! We're their fucking allies! Antimatter explosions weren't enough, our own allies have to try to nuke us too." Radur fumed as he sealed all the vents in his armor and crossed his arms over his face to protect himself.

The other members of Mirror Vanguard activated their various defensive measures as well, but there were clearly fewer of them than there had been at the start of the fight. Several Players' corpses lay on the ground, rarely intact.

By comparison, Neri grinned jubilantly. A supernova meant nothing to her. She could swallow anything. Her body was an infinite abyss.

Vexa hurriedly assembled a huge Yellow Cube around his comrades to increase their survival rate, but caught a glimpse of the black hole woman's gloating gaze from the corner of his eye. The supernova blast hit her without causing any response from her. It was as if it were a light spring breeze.

In the midst of this surging heat and radiation, Neri pranced sensually over to Vexa, separated from him and the rest of Mirror Vanguard by a single Yellow Cube. She nonchalantly caressed the surface of the cube, dissolving it with a simple touch.

"Do you really think you have a chance of winning?" She teased, " In all this time, you still don't know what kind of person Psykow is?"

Vexa's eyebrows twitched, but he retorted impassively, "I don't know him well, but I know enough. And I'm sure Ael knows enough too."

"But even if you do know, can you really stop him?" She giggled as she leapt back to avoid the beam emitted by a Red Cube that appeared behind her. She could suck in anything, but that light could kill her if she wasn't careful.

Vexa stared at her coldly, not even trying to smile to keep up appearances. "We won't know if we don't try."

"Nice mindset." Neri applauded. "I hope you can hold onto it until the end. If you understand the nature of Psykow, you should know how... delusional it is. It's...already...too...late."

Vexa's eyes widened abruptly as he heard her final words. At that very moment, something unexpected, inconceivable happened inside the Yellow Cube.

Vexa spat blood and his Yellow Cube disintegrated as a result of his shock. When he looked down, he saw a long black stinger covered in his own blood sticking out of his chest. Turning to look for the culprit, he met Radur's icy, hateful gaze.

"I told you you didn't deserve to be the leader." His longtime friend declared with bloodshot eyes.

"RAAAAGGHH!" At the same time, Prysm screamed in rage, her eyes dripping with tears as she saw her lover get backstabbed before her very eyes.

"Prysm don't!" Vexa yelled.

Too late. Thousands of vines and brambles suddenly engulfed Radur, then a huge rafflesia flower closed in on him, chomping his whole head off.

The situation spiraled out of control less than a second later. Mirror Vanguard Players who had been friends for a long time and trusted each other began killing each other for all sorts of reasons. Some seemed to be motivated by real reasons and repressed emotions, while others seemed to be in the grip of horrible hallucinations.

The result was the same. Their advantage in numbers had become their greatest liability. Just as Vexa thought he was immune, he suddenly felt a dreadful presence in his own mind. His consciousness began to blur and his expression changed as he immediately locked himself inside a Green Cube.

A black hand shot through it a split second later, seizing Vexa by the throat.

"Did you already forget I was here? Neri said, tilting her head to the side like a psychopath.