The Oracle Paths

At the same time that this silver substance was seeping through the pores of Jake's skin, the Virtues and various Powers and Principalities relentlessly pursuing and battling Vexa and Radur's squadrons suddenly retreated.

Vexa was so surprised when the three Virtues gave up the chase that he halted in his tracks, wavering on whether to attack again to hold them off. They were still a long way from the ambush point they had chosen to eliminate these three powerhouses.

When he was about to target one of them in the hope of taunting them again, he received a notification from his Oracle Device. He was startled when he found that it was a message from Jake.

"Caphriel has been freed and Ruby is in our hands, sedated with the potion you gave me."

"What about the other Digestor Trojans?" Vexa inquired.

"Dead."

The cube man's face twitched as he learned what had happened to them, but he didn't press the issue. It was unfortunate they couldn't be saved, but he couldn't ask Jake to risk his life for them.

Jake had indeed considered saving them, but at this point his True Will was nearly exhausted and he was being racked by a splitting headache. The problem with overusing his mental strength was that it resulted in not only psychological fatigue but a severe lack of motivation and deep apathy.

Jake had killed the other six Digestor Trojans instead of saving them simply because he didn't give a damn about their fate at the moment. Vexa had anticipated this contingency, so he refrained from blaming him. This outcome was good enough.

"See you later at the base."

*****

Radur faced a similar situation, with thousands of Powers, Principalities and Archangels chasing them like a swarm of buzzing gnats suddenly veering 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

Unlike Vexa's plan, Radur had never intended to ambush them anywhere, contenting himself with gradually reducing their numbers with guerrilla tactics and long-range bombing. Myrtharian nerds like Lord Phenix and Crunch were smeared with Schwazen blood, as were the bladed weapons of the Mirror Vanguard Players.

Radur shook his scorpion tail vigorously to clean off the angelic blood covering his stinger, and read Jake's message.

"Ugh?" The alien's slit pupils constricted in astonishment. "They pulled off the mission despite the fact that I failed to lure the two Virtues guarding the temples? I'm impressed... It would seem that Vexa is a better judge of character and talent than I am."

The warrior turned to his men and barked,

" We're going back home."

*****

Half an hour later, another council was held in Mirror Vanguard's secret base, this time with an additional guest. Caphriel.

Caphriel was a Schwazen Virtue very different from the other evil, degenerate angels teeming within the Serinese Theocracy. She was able to alter her size and right now she looked like a gorgeous young woman with a flawless angelic face, and an hourglass body curvy and thin where it should. She wore a long red dress falling to her ankles and not particularly skin-tight, but her voluptuous forms made the outfit even more suggestive.

Like the other Virtues, her skin was a pale grey and her wings, hair, irises and nails were pure gold. While the other Corrupted Virtues were of a cold and depressing dark gold , the gold of her wings and hair were much brighter and heart-warming.

"First of all, I want to thank you for saving me." Caphriel bowed low before them, her doll-like face filled with gratitude and sincerity. Her voice was incredibly sweet and cute for such an ancient and respected angel.

Vexa and Radur noticed that her gratitude was not directed at them, as her pretty eyes twinkled with adulation as she focused on Hade, who was the epitome of indifference.

'How fucking dense are you?' Jake and the others cursed inwardly seeing him totally oblivious to the angel's sweet-eyed behavior.

"Ahem, it was the least we could do. We were only doing our duty." Vexa cleared his throat awkwardly before regaining his seriousness and getting to the heart of the matter. "Can you control the other Virtues? It's good that you're on our side, but these five Virtues together can do considerable damage if we let them run free."

Cough...

"What?" The cube man became annoyed as he saw Jake and his group interrupt him with self-conscious expressions.

"There are only three Virtues left." Asfrid explained. "Jake killed one, we killed the other."

She had gotten the second kill, but she didn't dare take credit for her teammates who participated in the fight.

Vexa, Prysm and Radur's jaws dropped when they heard the news.

"Are you kidding me?" The cube man asked grudgingly.

"I'm afraid not." Lucia smirked with a smug face.

Vexa and the other Mirror Vanguard officers were still in shock, but it was good news for them. Being professionals, they quickly regained their composure.

"Only three Virtues left, then. Three instead of five doesn't fundamentally change the picture." Radur grunted.

"But at least we know now that the Myrtharian Nerds are capable of killing those Virtues." Prysm eyed them strangely as she spoke these words. Wasn't their progress a little too fast?

"If we could use all of our Artifacts we could easily kill them too." The scorpion-tailed alien pointed calmly, thinking that Jake and his team had resorted to an Artifact.

Vexa frowned, not as convinced as his friend Radur, but he didn't contradict him. He wasn't totally wrong.

For one thing, his Cube Magic was regarded simultaneously as a Bloodline, a magic and a technology. His body could behave like a cube, but he could also produce, assimilate or use those belonging to other members of his species.

Some of the cubes in his possession were considered prohibited weapons in this Ordeal, as was the Grade 10 Aether Core that Jake had recently acquired. This could be extremely unfair to some Players like him who had the ability and means to easily produce such weapons even from scratch.

'Fortunately, this is the last Ordeal that is so restrictive. From the Fifth on, we will at last be free to deploy our full power with all the implications that entails...' Vexa thought grimly in his head.

After that, it was decided that they would give Caphriel a chance to convert the Schwazens whose Corruption had not yet reached the point of no return. Aurae could replace the Digestor entity as their new god, and Jake knew that the Ancient Designer was currently here, so he was very confident with this plan.

The Virtue refused to donate her Bloodline to Ruby for the time being, arguing that she needed all her power to purify and convert the corrupted angels. Besides, she needed Aurae's approval to allow such a sacred ritual. Turning someone into an angel was not a trivial act and required some preparation.

Jake was in no hurry and agreed to wait. In the meantime, Ruby was forced to remain in an artificial coma by consuming the potions prepared by Mirror Vanguard.

With the three Virtues and their armies of Powers and Principalities still posing a great threat, it was decided that the Mirror Vanguard elites and Myrtharian Nerds would accompany Caphriel on her cleansing quest.

Over the next few days, Caphriel toured the villages and cities to convert ordinary Schwazens. Citizens who had committed too many crimes or had been corrupted to the point of no return were mercilessly put to death by Mirror Vanguard, while Jake and his comrades were content to deal with archangels and Principalities who might pose a real threat.

These frequent but moderately difficult fights allowed them to gain experience with their True Will and their first Killing Moves were gradually refined, getting closer and closer to perfection.

By now, Jake's Grabbing Move had reached a certain level of proficiency and Mirror Vanguard's higher ups like Vexa and Radur were stunned by the terrific progression of his True Will. Who would have imagined a few months earlier that a simple grabbing motion could produce such damage while being so versatile.

"I can't wait to see the look on Ael's face when he gets a taste of this technique." Vexa laughed to himself as he watched a Schwazen Power implode, then get siphoned into a Spatial Rift without being able to react.

He also had a very positive opinion of Asfrid, Lucia, Gerulf, Rogen, Svara and Hephais. Their True Wills were amazingly synergistic, and Vexa himself wasn't confident he could survive an ambush from those six if he didn't have the Oracle Rank advantage.

"As for these guys... they're not built for teamwork." Vexa pursed his lips in disapproval as he glared at Mufasa, Shere Khan, Crunch and Lord Phenix.