The Oracle Paths

An hour later, Jake, Lucia and the other Myrtharian Nerds officers completed their remote war council via a private Faction chat room. He and his friends' consensus was unanimous.

If a dumb cat and turkey, admittedly quite lucky, could acquire such an overpowered artifact, so could other natives and Evolvers. Knowing neither the number nor the features of these Artifacts scattered over the surface of Quanoth, they simply decided to adjust their plans according to the worst case scenario.

The most powerful Myrtharian Nerds like Mufasa, Shere Khan, Gerulf, ect... momentarily stopped hunting Players from other factions to fully dedicate themselves to finding all the Aurae Artifacts that their Oracle Paths could locate.

It didn't work out as planned. Less than a day later, Jake received reports from his companions informing him of their failure. All the Oracle Paths that had yielded a result pointed to the Celestial City or the Divine Academy interior, which was off limits for the time being.

The most worrying thing was that Hephais had gotten a lead by investigating with his own methods, but when he arrived on the scene he had only found the bleeding corpse of a factionless Player.

"So the worst case scenario has already happened." Jake sighed as he stared at the dark clouds thundering relentlessly over the camp. " So let's move on to plan B."

Plan B was simply to find out the functions of these Aurae Artifacts and determine which factions had them in their possession.

It was okay if the functions of these artifacts were different, but if all of these artifacts were Codexes like his own, then using them would prove to be a huge waste of Aether. Unfortunately, if he didn't use it, he would be giving the initiative to his enemies.

In the end, it came down to the original stake of who has the most Aether points. As a result, their plan to hunt down Players from other factions for their Aether and liquid alloy became a top priority, with all of their goals depending on the same prerequisite: Accumulate as many resources as possible in as little time as possible.

And if Jake and his comrades could come to this conclusion, so could the other factions. The next morning, the first bad news began to roll in.

That morning, Jake and Hade were working together on the engine of their future spaceship when they saw a grubby Drastan lumbering into the camp carrying the blood-soaked body of an armless, legless woman in his arms. The few remaining Myrtharian Nerds in the camp noticed that in a few days his Troll army had been cut in half.

Jake stopped handling the Adamantium Essence floating in front of him and walked carefully towards the Troll hunter. When he recognized the colorful feather tiara adorning the unconscious woman's forehead, his expression darkened abruptly,

"Kewanee? What happened to her?" He asked, already having some inkling of the answer.

In response, Drastan grimaced stiffly,

"It seems that your plan was not all that brilliant. Kewanee suffered precisely the same fate as all those players we've been chasing for the past few weeks. I was also ambushed. If I hadn't shown up in time, she would have been kicked out of the Ordeal. But all the Aether and liquid alloy she had stolen since the mission began was stolen by the enemy."

Hade also put down the strange screwdriver in his hand when he heard the giant's words. Joining their conversation, he questioned,

"Were you able to identify them?"

Drastan shook his head sourly. Jake exchanged a worried look with Hade, then made a general announcement in the Faction chat,

"Kewanee and Drastan have just been ambushed by enemy players with the same intentions as us. Assume that their Oracle Ranks are higher than yours and that they can track you as easily as you track your own targets. The mission stands, but from now on I want you to operate by area, with every remaining Myrtharian Nerds within range of an officer."

It would impact the rate at which they amassed Aether and liquid alloy, but the safety of his subordinates came first. The other officers like Enya, Aisling, Kenway, etc. took the order very seriously and marked their location in the chat room as a rallying point.

It turned out that Jake had made the right decision, but he had still acted a little too late. When he realized several days later that some of the Myrtharian Nerds hadn't been seen in a week, he assumed they wouldn't see them again until the Ordeal was over.

A total of 48 Myrmidians, 28 Kintharians and 16 Throsgenians had lost their lives. All of the ordinary Players had been wiped out by Shamash's last psychic blast and each current loss significantly impacted their fighting strength.

Despite his immediate countermeasure, his subordinates continued to be decimated one after another, but at a slower rate. Gerulf and the others also returned fire and rivers of blood were shed.

Ten days later, the giant Kintharian, who had not been seen for several days, appeared on the outskirts of Laudarkvik. On seeing him, Jake dropped what he was doing and leapt to his feet.

His friend was unharmed, but by his expression he knew at once that something was terribly wrong. The giant grunted faintly and flopped feebly to the ground.

"What happened?" Jake frowned. Such a powerful Kintharian should not have been so weak no matter how badly he was hurt.

"I lost all my alloy and all my Aether." He confessed shamefully through clenched teeth.

Jake's eyes widened in surprise. There was only one explanation for this, he had been dismembered and bled by the enemy until he was drained of his last drop of liquid alloy. What kind of enemy could do that to a warrior as formidable as Gerulf?

"Who was it?" He asked coldly.

"They call him the Nullyfier." Gerulf grunted as he closed his eyes with a frazzled look. After resting for a few seconds he clarified, "He's a god."

"Lost Divinities!" Jake spat bitterly. It's them again! Forcing himself to stay calm he then followed up by asking, "Your subordinates?"

"All dead."

Jake's face became ugly. In the Kintharian's area of operation were 38 Myrmidians, 28 Kintharians, but also the Water Elf army and his cousin Vincent. Thinking that his friend was worried about the latter, Gerulf revealed,

"Your cousin died a hero. He fell to the enemy, but he managed to save his two wives and their people."

All the tension of the scene was immediately defused and Jake remembered that his cousin was not actually dead. He must have been tortured atrociously by Lost Divinities before being culled out of the Ordeal. Then Jake thought of something else.

"What about you, Gerulf? If they managed to capture you and strip you of all your liquid alloy how did you escape?

"I didn't." The giant confessed shamefully, shaking with anger. "They... obliterated me. Body and soul, but just before I perished my loyal warriors activated the Vitality Link to transfer my injuries to theirs. With the one they call the Nullifyer already gone, I was able to escape easily..."

Jake's expression immediately changed upon hearing these last words.

BOOOMM!

At that moment, a cataclysmic explosion sounded at the other end of the camp and as Jake turned around, he saw Hade's underground workshop and the spaceship they had built together explode into millions of pieces. The Myrtharian Nerds too close to the epicenter were instantly atomized and the earth sank six or seven meters in a three-kilometer radius.

"Hade!"

Just as he was about to teleport to his friend, Jake froze, an overwhelming spiritual pressure bearing down on him. Instead of panicking, he slowly turned to the newcomer and growled impassively,

"And I was wondering how a Player with a higher Oracle Rank than Gerulf could accidentally leave him alive. It would seem that it wasn't a mistake."

About fifteen steps away from him, a hooded figure under a jet black robe glared at him as if he were already dead. His face was hidden in shadow, but his exposed chin was a pale blue, covered with stripes of a darker blue.

"Are you the Nullyfier?" Jake looked at him as he deactivated his Miniaturization spell.

Stoically watching him grow, the mysterious individual said softly,

"I am."

A wave of shock hit Jake and he then asked more gravely,

"Are you the leader of Lost Divinities for this Ordeal?"

"I am."

At that moment, Jake's anger left his body and a cold rationality took over. He activated Promotion and Oracle Cloaking, but his Shadow Guide stood still as he tried to include the man in front of him in his predictions.

"Your Oracle Rank is higher than mine." Jake commented calmly.

"It is."

"Then it was all a setup." He finally understood. Lost Divinities had never taken them seriously. "You didn't need Gerulf to find our camp. To you, we're just entertainment, aren't we?"

"...Maybe?"