The Oracle Paths

The surviving Krynnis saw this as the signal he was waiting for to escape, but he had barely managed to convince his body to take half a step when his eyes widened in astonishment.

The evolution of the newborn Digestor was already complete. A humanoid child of about ten or twelve years old, with short white hair, and two silver eyes stood up calmly. The light in its eyes no longer seemed so foolish, and although its instincts as a brainless predator were still there, they were suppressed by a certain degree of wisdom and self-control.

"Is this really just a Rank 1 Digestor?" The Krynnis warrior swallowed with difficulty. Nothing he had experienced today came close to the level of absurdity of the scene unfolding before his eyes.

As if he could read his thoughts, the now Rank 1 Digestor looked at him disinterestedly and with a slight disdain, then pressed its two hands on the faces of the two "prey" it had not yet tasted. A low-level spiritual pressure radiated from the child, and under the influence of an intangible force, the easily accessible fluids contained in the bodies of its two new targets - namely saliva, tears, gastric juices, and the blood of some vulnerable capillaries - were painfully extracted from them, then inhaled in one gulp.

The scene played out once more, unfolding in a slow and dramatic spectacle. The child's form ballooned grotesquely, illuminating with a fierce radiance, only to collapse and crumble into a formless heap of biomass. The Krynnis soldier stood rooted to the spot, having learned from experience that there was no fleeing the inevitable.

However, as he witnessed a humanoid Digestor, as tall as a grown man, gradually taking shape, he was struck by its growing aura, and a resolute thought emerged in his mind.

"I must inform the rest of the Mirror Universe of what's happening here."

It was his soldier's instinct, and convinced he would not survive, he decided to risk everything. This time, he overcame his paralyzing fear and managed to move.

"I can do i-"

Suddenly, a pillar of white light shot up from the ground beneath his feet, and a two-meter-diameter laser heated the air to billions of degrees Celsius, obliterating and atomizing his body to the last atom.

He was dead, just like that.

After the Krynnis warrior's eradication, whose presence here was an unfortunate string of bad luck, a man with long white hair in black robes appeared in his place and calmly walked towards the newborn Digestor. His hands were clasped behind his back, giving him the poise of an expert.

His aura far surpassed that of the three dead corpses, and an infinite vicissitude seemed to emanate from him. This mysterious and powerful individual was the Oracle Overseer of B847 and a traitor of the Mirror Universe who had long since joined the Digestors' camp.

He was responsible for everything that had transpired here. However, everything had not gone exactly as he had initially planned.

For instance, this newborn and voracious Digestor. Upon seeing it, his interest was piqued, and his eyes filled with malice lit up.

"Hmm? A Digestor spawned in my Oracle Palace? That shouldn't have happened. What to do..." The man monologued aloud, disregarding the ravenous gaze the precocious Rank 2 Digestor was giving him.

Sensing that this powerful stranger was not someone he could defeat at his level, the Rank 2 Digestor realized that his all-you-can-eat buffet was about to be taken away from him. Like a shipwreck survivor clinging to his life buoy with all his might, he immediately resumed devouring the three precious corpses, this time as if his life depended on it.

Fascinated and speechless, the Oracle Overseer of B847 momentarily forgot to think and simply observed him with curiosity. Until he remembered that these three corpses were his precious trophies. With a wave of his hand, he telekinetically separated the Rank 2 Digestor from his meal and, after a brief hesitation, said,

"Rahh, too bad. There must be fate between us. For now, I'll spare you, little one. However, you have no business here. Join your peers and become worthy of this feast. I will follow your adventures closely. Since you owe me your life, I suppose I should also give you a name worthy of it. Hmm... You have tasted the flesh of Clayneth, Kolrath, and Dancrest. Okay, I've decided. From now on, you shall answer to the name Clayn Koldan."

"Clayn... Koldan?" The Rank 2 Digestor repeated in a hoarse voice, struggling to articulate.

Ignoring whether he appreciated his new name or not, with a snap of his fingers, the man tore through space and the little Digestor was sucked inside, teleported far away, somewhere on B847. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared in the midst of a barren plain, surrounded by millions of other Digestors like him, ranging from Rank 0 to 4.

Clayn had barely had time to comprehend where he had landed when the air tore open again, revealing an enormous black spatial rift before the disharmonious horde of monsters that had been hastily assembled.

A psychic shockwave of extreme violence burst forth from the rift, and an impossible-to-disobey telepathic command emerged in their limited cognitive faculties. The disorganized and agitated horde of Digestors ceased their bickering and rushed towards the gaping spatial tear as one.

The young Rank 2 humanoid Digestor didn't want to obey. He wanted to stay here and grow in peace. But carried away by the crowd of his kin, he had no choice but to follow and disappear into the rift.

A few minutes later, after the entire horde of Digestors had been swallowed up, the spatial rift closed, and silence returned to the plain. At that very moment, an innocent world that had until then been spared the scourge of the Digestors was on the brink of facing the same apocalyptic invasion that billions of universes had confronted before it.

As for the future Digestor calamity named Clayn Koldan, his story was only just beginning.