The Oracle Paths

"No, it's not him." Jake refuted flatly. "Look closely. This alien is a little taller, his bronze skin is paler and his horns are somewhat shorter and darker than Hakkrasha's."

Enya pulled herself together as she took notice of these discrepancies as well. Although she hadn't met him in two Ordeals and his appearance may have changed she quickly realized that their backs were too different. Their waist to shoulder ratio was too dissimilar. Hakkrasha was a bit shorter, standing about 3 meters tall at the time, but his build was at least 30% wider.

"Oh... I think you're right." She sighed in disappointment. "My bad, I got excited about nothing."

Will also remembered Hakkrasha and said leisurely, "If I'm not mistaken, this is the second Jakam I've met in four Ordeals. This one looks strong too."

At the mention of the word Jakam or perhaps the name Hakkrasha, the alien bearing his resemblance stopped in midair and abruptly teleported in front of them, much to the surprise of his leader and the other Player flying alongside them.

"You met Hakkrasha?" The alien asked aggressively in a guttural voice.

Gerulf, Rogen and Drastan didn't like his attitude and stepped to the front of their party to glare at him from their respective 7-8 meter heights. Far from being deterred, the bronze alien suddenly swelled to a colossus of over 25 meters tall in a heartbeat, forcing them to look up to keep meeting his gaze.

Unluckily for the brazen trio, they had not mastered any Gigantic spells and had to swallow their pride with a grudging look. The Jakam voiced no sadistic satisfaction or gloating over this symbolic victory, just plain indifference. He just wanted an answer to his question.

Nonetheless, Jake couldn't let any stranger from another faction humiliate his friends. With his hands in his pockets, he released a psychic force field that enveloped the giant bronze alien, completely isolating him from the crowd and leaving only him and Jake inside.

The Jakam obviously felt this vast spiritual presence causing the Aether to stagnate around him and narrowed his eyes at Jake.

"What's the meaning of this?"

With undaunted coolness, matching the alien's indifference, Jake slowly looked up and met his gaze.

"I just want to spare my allies."

Before the Demiurges Player could retort anything, the Aether stagnating inside that force field shot at the speed of light toward Jake's body. If that was all, the Jakam would not have been shaken, but he also felt a horrifying tugging force forcibly extracting energy from his cells and Cores.

This Player was not ordinary and did not panic. He in turn deployed his massive will and spiritual power and tried to counteract this siphon-like force sucking out the energy from his cells.

The other Demiurge Players who were watching from afar, including their leader, were totally confident in their comrade's abilities, but suddenly their faces grew grave as the stalemate was broken in a split second.

Inside the psychic bubble created by Jake, the Aether density dropped dangerously close to zero in barely a second and a half, and then the Jakam burst into a roar, contracting all of his muscles in a tremendous effort of concentration as if his life were at stake.

A golden sphere of light covered with symbols, images and inscriptions expanded around his body, briefly disrupting the Aether drain, but it only lasted a few seconds. Soon the golden barrier began to crack, then like the nearby Aether before it its light particles shot toward Jake and disappeared inside his body without a trace.

In the next millisecond, the Jakam's Aether stats dropped by over 99% and his most valuable Aether Core was downgraded from Grade 7 to 4. It could have ended there, but inside the psychic force field, the air suddenly distorted over the alien.

The exhausted Jakam suddenly felt an overwhelming spiritual and gravitational pressure slam him to the ground, threatening to reduce his body and soul to a helpless molecular mess.

'How?!' That was what the alien wanted to ask, but because of the dip in his Aether stats he failed to realize that it wasn't the gravity field that was powerful, but his body that had become weak.

"Jake, stop. He was just asking us a question." Enya anxiously shook his arm.

He showed no reaction and continued to increase the pressure on the alien. His four beautiful fairy wings in various shades of blue glittered hypnotically behind his back while the ocean of darkness in his eyes gave off an eerie silver gleam. His face was as icy and apathetic as that of an apex predator before its prey. Beyond the will to kill, there was also the will to devour its victim. This was not at all a healthy feud between players of opposite factions trying to intimidate each other.

More pragmatic, Will gave Lucia a nod and she got the message.

"Sorry Jake." She murmured in an inaudible voice, then fearlessly entered the force field erected by him.

Lucia finally understood what the unfortunate Jakam was going through. Even though she had mentally prepared herself for it because she had lived a similar experience a few minutes earlier, she still hadn't found a way to resist it.

She collapsed immediately despite all her determination and tenacity. Just by this fact, one could see how special this Demiurge Player was for not being dead yet.

Every time it looked like he was about to perish, a stream of energy would gush forth from an unknown source to keep the fight going. However, the longer the fight went on, the more Jake amped up his draining speed, as if siphoning off all that energy had finally whetted his appetite.

"...Jake."

Lucia's and Xi's voices rang out simultaneously, one real, the other in his head. Jake snapped out of his murderous trance and realized what was happening. He was about to spare the Jakam and Lucia caught in the crossfire, but at that moment an intruder broke through his psychic barrier and stepped inside.

The Aether density rose sharply and Jake felt that siphoning off the surrounding Aether was no longer as easy. He was still able to do it, but it would take a lot more effort. He soon felt a tremendous sense of dislike for this newcomer who had just deprived him of a meal.

"That's enough." The leader of Demiurges declared in a booming voice that reverberated in their eardrums as he spread the black gas obscuring his appearance.

Jake saw a myriad of stars inside and although he was only a few feet away from the alien, he experienced the uncanny sensation that thousands of kilometers separated them. This illusion lasted only a moment and with a snort he retracted his spiritual presence into his own body.

The tortured Jakam did not recover right away. He remained amorphous for a long time, and it was only after his leader touched him with his finger that he regained his color, his Aether stats and Cores restoring themselves in no time. It was a rather miraculous ability.

How powerful was this Demiurges leader compared to Ael and Psykow? The alien was also shocked by Jake's performance. Such a level was far above that of a Fourth Ordeal Player. Many Sixth and Seventh Ordeal Players were weaker than this.

"I thought I was the only Player in this Ordeal to be of an Intersystem Class, but it seems I was wrong." The Demiurges leader admitted as he stared at him with genuine curiosity in his blazing eyes. "I understand better why Aurae and the Oracle sent us on our missions so far away from here. They didn't want us to cross paths too soon. Funnily enough, that means the other four superfactions were meant as your stepping stones. How cruel..."

Deimos, Ashun, Neri and the others who were secretly listening to their conversation became livid with anger and shame as they caught the alien's condescension. Seen from this perspective... everything he had just said was absolutely true. They had all become Jake's stepping stones. It was so preposterous it was laughable.

The alien noticed that his Jakam partner had just woken up and motioned to Jake and the other Myrtharian Nerds, "Please answer his question so we can leave. I have things to do."

Admirably, the Jakam still displayed the same calm and indifference despite the beating he had just taken, unlike the rancorous and vindictive scowl of Gerulf and Rogen who were itching to fight again to clear their names. On this point, once again one could note their differences in temperament.

"I just want to know if you know Hakkrasha and where and when you met him." He repeated in a placid voice, suppressing a yawn. "If you run into him, tell him that Bhomuro would like to hear from him."

After what had happened, Lucia and Enya thought it best to make sure that Jake and this Bhomuro avoided interacting with each other in the future. So it was Enya and Will who took it upon themselves to share what they knew. Upon learning that they had met him during their Second Ordeal, his interest dropped sharply.

The Jakam asked a few more questions, but upon learning that this Hakkrasha spent his time sleeping even during the Ordeal a faint smile stretched his bronze face,

"That's him."