The Oracle Paths

Several minutes later, in the outer space high orbit of B847, a steel island the size of Australia silently drifted billions of kilometers above the planet's surface. This Floating Island belonged to a certain extraterrestrial race, or more precisely, to their planetary government.

To own a Floating Island of such magnitude while B847 had just inaugurated its final form was no small feat. In comparison, the New Earth island was still only the size of England. This spoke volumes about the immense potential of this civilization.

But at this moment, besides the reigning silence, something was amiss regarding this large Floating Island: the absence of light and shield.

Such an island had to be constantly protected by a powerful energy shield to intercept celestial bodies and cosmic debris wandering through space at dozens of kilometers per second. Even a simple rock could cause serious damage to the infrastructure and environment if it collided with the ground.

Besides these cosmic threats with a certain destructive potential but relatively rare, this energy shield generated by every Floating Island was also necessary to isolate the island from a much more tangible danger: Space Digestors.

At this precise moment, this essential energy shield was deactivated, while the cities and landscapes on the surface of this Floating Island were completely exposed. Because no force was holding the atmosphere of the island anymore, it had started to leak out, forming a barely visible comet trail in the wake of the drifting island.

Despite all these anomalies, there was movement on its surface. A lot of movement.

When this unhealthy darkness and silence seemed destined to endure, a faint yellow light flashed several times at a certain location on the island: the top of a ruined skyscraper. The things swarming on its surface screamed shrill cries of excitement, stretching their silvered scythes to try to grab what had just been ejected.

A blue-blooded alien missing its right arm crashed to the ground, rolling several times before struggling to get up. It was the same brave soldier who had appeared on the surface of B847 a little earlier.

At that moment, his calm and confident demeanor had long since disappeared. The alien was exhausted, and his gaze was wild with despair.

It hadn't been easy for him to survive until now. Crossing an entire Oracle Shelter crowded with Digestors, then entering its Oracle City and climbing the skyscraper to touch the Yellow Cube at its summit.

Without his equipment allowing him to become almost invisible, his experience, and his superhuman strength, he would have failed halfway. Even with all his assets, he had lost an arm and ended up on the brink of death. Thanks to the real-time analysis of his bracelet, he knew he didn't have much longer to live.

His body was saturated with various poisons, he had lost more than 80% of his blood, drank too much Digestor Blood, and absorbed too much Digestor Aether directly to have a chance of survival. Assuming he survived, the Corruption and pieces of Digestor souls he had assimilated without any filter had already critically damaged his consciousness.

An ordinary human would have long since gone mad, a vulgar beast thirsty for blood, but this alien could still formulate coherent thoughts. Despite his desperate condition, he had not yet given up on life.

Until now.

The Floating Island he had so desperately tried to reach belonged to his people. He had already sensed it by receiving no response to his attempts at communication, but it was one thing to suspect it and another to confirm it with his own eyes.

Looking around him, his eyes widened in horror, and the tension rising aggravated his wounds, making him spit out phlegm of blood. He fell to his knees.

Surrounding him...there were only Digestors. Billions of them. As far as his sight could extend, these nightmarish creatures covered every inch of land and building constructed by his species.

Upon witnessing this sight straight out of an apocalypse film and what he had faced since arriving on B847, the alien accepted the harsh truth. The Krynnis race was no more.

As the Digestors approached him with interest, the alien felt no fear and was even ready to let himself die. On this island was his wife and children. He had no reason to live anymore.

He closed his eyes.

When he was on the verge of being devoured without defending himself, a sudden thought crossed his mind. His eyes opened in a start.

"No, there is still a slim hope. The Oracle Capital of B847!"

It was the last bastion of the planet. The floating island where the Oracle Palace and Senate of the planet were located. If the Oracle Overseer and the Oracle Guardians assigned to the planet were not on a mission or in their spaceship, then that was where they were most likely to be found.

"RAAAAAAGGH! Scram!"

Letting out a roar of rage containing all his resentment and hatred towards these monsters, he threw his last grenades in front of him to make a path and opened fire without restraint. The nuclear battery had been able to recharge his rifle a little during his few seconds of respite.

Only a few meters separated him from the Yellow Cube covered with Digestors busy devouring the Aether irradiating from its surface, but this distance was like a chasm wider than the universe. When he managed to touch the Yellow Cube by some miracle, he had lost both his legs and half of his left hip.

His body covered in Digestors was teleported away, and the silver creatures, thinking they were about to enjoy a good meal, fell to the ground pitifully.

Bam!

The alien reappeared in mid-air at the top of another, much more majestuous skyscraper and collapsed to the ground. His vision was blurry, and he was ready to be attacked at any moment. But as he tried to put his intestines back in place, gritting his teeth to endure the excruciating pain taking his breath away, he received a familiar notification.

"Serious injuries detected. Oracle Green Cube nearby. Do you want to be teleported to it and receive emergency treatment? The cost of the procedure is estimated at 2***********."

"Cough, cough! Fuck..."

Coughing up another burst of blood, the alien was still lucid enough to realize that even with the millions of Aether points on him, it was far from enough to pay for such treatment. Despite this, he clicked yes anyway.

"Fix what you can. At worst, I'll contract a debt." That was his only thought to live a little longer.

A few minutes later, he crawled out of a gigantic Green Cube. His body had aged several decades, and he was completely naked. All his wealth, from his longevity, his equipment to his Aether, had been requisitioned to finance his treatment.

The Corruption and his altered consciousness could not be cured, but at least he was no longer in danger of death. Opening his tired eyes, he looked around to see where he was.

His blood froze, but not for the same reasons as before.

In this Oracle Capital, there was not a single Digestor's shadow. Only corpses. A lot of corpses.

The thing was, these were not just any corpses. Among the hundreds of thousands of bodies lying around him, a few thousand had four arms, some had six, and they wore futuristic armor with an opaque visor helmet resembling black liquid mercury.

Oracle Guardians. All dead.

But it wasn't the shocking scene of macabre carnage that shook the hardened alien to his core. These corpses had no visible wounds, and their armor remained pristine.

Worse yet, when the curious alien removed the helmet of one of the Oracle Guardians, he found the deceased's face to be peaceful and serene. He even appeared to be in good spirits.

Whatever or whomever had massacred them had ripped out or annihilated their souls in one fell swoop. But their killer had not devoured or harvested the bodies, which ruled out a mere Digestor invasion.

The exhausted alien had already forgotten the unjust extermination of his people. He wanted to understand what had happened. His soldier's mentality took over, and he forced himself to traverse the picturesque battlefield where the dead, clad in shining armor, seemed merely asleep. Every time he breathed a little too heavily, he would hallucinate that they all woke up simultaneously to shout "Boooo!" at him.

Of course, nothing of the sort happened. The alien limped across the battlefield for a long time until he reached a certain place: the Oracle Palace. Three unique and vastly different aliens from the rest stood there, still as statues. Even in death, they emitted brilliant waves of Aether visible to the naked eye.

They too had been killed in one blow. His instinct told him that these Evolvers were entities superior to mere Oracle Guardians. Perhaps Oracle Overseers or powerful Players/Evolvers who had come to attend the inauguration of B847?

He would never get the chance to ponder this question.

As soon as this thought emerged in his mind, an event that was extremely common in the Mirror Universe but much less so in an Oracle City, let alone an Oracle Capital, occurred.

A Digestor spawned.