The Oracle Paths

Blending in with the dragon cohort, another gigantic eastern black dragon carried several dozen humans. All of them wore black military combat suits differing from each other only in their echelons. The effigy of Earth was sewn onto their right shoulder pad, betraying their affiliation.

"Are you sure Jake and Ruby are here? My Shadow Guide isn't responding." Alef, the old lieutenant colonel and instructor of Ruby's squad, inquired warily as he saw the mesmerizing battle raging in front of them.

Wang Xiaoming, the vice-captain and martial arts instructor of the squad standing next to him, abruptly switched his stance and punched the air in front of him. Multiple layers of Qi overlapped, combining to form a monstrous shockwave that knocked out the hundreds of aliens who had just tried to throw him off his feet like bowling pins.

"Jake should be nearby somewhere, but for some reason we can't seem to find him." Craig answered frankly, ignoring the relentless attacks of countless enemies that even the dragons couldn't entirely stop.

Glancing over at Will, he noticed that the merchant was just as clueless as he was. Since their last meeting, the four-eyed man had changed a lot.

His overall appearance was almost the same, but his features were more handsome, his slightly curly brown hair was now an emerald green, as were his eyebrows and irises. His skin glistened slightly and on closer inspection one could discern tiny scales covering his skin. Embedded in the center of his forehead, an ovoid crystal of pure green glowed mysteriously, diffusing an oppressive energy.

This crystal was Charizard. When he had died in the Digestor Dungeon, such a crystal had also appeared. It contained his soul and genetic information, making it easy to resurrect him with the right magic or technology.

Since Will had become a Dragon Rider, their connection had grown stronger and their energies had begun to influence each other. By becoming a Dragon Soulspeaker this long process that should have taken hundreds of years had been shortened to a few months.

Now Will and Charizard could fight together as well as separately, but his new powers didn't stop there. The crystal embedded in his forehead was the source of his confidence and served as a special spiritual dimension.

The reason he didn't feel guilty about being escorted by all those dragons was because he could easily store them inside by keeping them in a stasis state. He didn't need to secure dozens of places aboard the Celestial City, but just one.

Squinting, he could make out a strange dragon-skull shaped building in the distance and knew as soon as he saw it that it was reserved for him.

Immyr, Hade's mount tasked with protecting Craig and ferrying his entire squad, peered thoughtfully at Will, but suddenly his gaze fell to the ground below him and he growled in a deep voice,

"We're in the right place."

Before Will or his passengers had time to ask him why, the ground liquefied and a vortex of dirt and rock formed below them. Before they could react, they were engulfed by the ground and began to plummet.

The dragons charged with protecting Will as well as Jinlong tried to resist the pull, but their new leader stopped them quickly.

"Do not resist." He ordered, following the example of Immyr who was perfectly composed.

The group of humans and dragons disappeared without a trace but drew no attention to the battlefield. Tens of thousands of aliens were dying every second by so many different methods. Getting buried alive was just one of them.

"Good to see you again." Jake chuckled a moment later as Will landed in front of him, looking haggard.

The merchant had been confident at first, but the fall had lasted several long minutes in the pitch black. The other dragons crashed one after the other and it took the telekinesis of Jake, Asfrid and Hade combined to keep them from collapsing their temporary base as they landed.

"Good job." Hade stoically thanked his dragon.

Immyr let the human passengers off his back and nodded casually. There was no need for unnecessary words between them.

As Craig, Alef and the other New Earth soldiers landed, they did not relax, sweeping their eyes over their surroundings with obvious nervousness. At that moment, their eyes suddenly widened as they recognized a beautiful young woman with long golden and silver hair walking towards them.

Alef and the other soldiers immediately drew their weapons, but Craig and Ryo stopped them.

"R-Ruby?" Craig checked with an uncertain tone.

"The one and only." She smiled wrily.

Seeing her embarrassed and guilty expression, New Earth Players' faces instantly brightened.

"Ruby, is it really you? You're not planning to kill me anymore?" Ryo joked goofily.

The Japanese was still bald, but at least he wasn't walking around shirtless anymore. The dangers of this Ordeal had finally made him realize that fighting without protection was not very wise. He still had his trusty claymore slung behind his back, but its design had changed slightly since their last encounter.

"It's really me." Ruby replied without taking offense. "At least for now, I'm managing. Thanks to Jake and the others."

"Yo." Jake greeted them with a hand up, accepting the compliment without shame.

Realizing that Ruby was herself again, several of her lifelong comrades like Melissa, Mary, and Raj started to tear up and threw themselves into her arms. The Digestor Trojan nearly suffocated in their embrace.

They had so much to talk about, but a sudden twist on the surface cut their reunion short. The earth suddenly shook and a deafening shockwave instantly collapsed the man-made cave they were hiding in. The rock turned to magma and a deadly level of radiation washed over the cave.

Jake's countenance changed and with one hand he liquefied the rocky material surrounding them, diffusing the energy of the shockwave while absorbing the overwhelming excess heat and radiation into his body.

"The serious stuff is about to start up there. Let's get back on track."

With a flick of his other hand, he manipulated the rock around him and the cave expanded into a workable tunnel going straight under the Celestial City.

*****

Seconds earlier on the surface, a blinding mushroom cloud several kilometers high had exploded in the center of Celestial City, atomizing hundreds of thousands of aliens and natives. Against all odds, someone had used a weapon of mass destruction before Anti-Life.

Kilometers north of the city, an old Drur stepped down from his missile truck and stubbed his fag with indifference. His vehicle was almost 50 times larger than a tank and the missile he had just fired was the size of a small rocket.

"With that, we should have less competition." His co-pilot scoffed with unconcealed contempt.

Just as they were about to fire a second missile, the smoke cloud from the first explosion finally dispersed and the Celestial City reappeared before them completely intact. They had expected it or they would never have dared nuke the city, but their carefree attitude suddenly disappeared when they saw that the giant robot standing on one of the buildings was also completely unharmed.

At that moment, Vhoskaud raised his hand toward them and an arc of electricity flashed within his pupils. All the vehicles and electronic weapons in their control were instantly hacked and all the nuclear warheads stored in their vehicles were immediately detonated.

"Oh shii-" The old Drur who was lighting a new cigarette never had a chance to finish his sentence.

BOOOOM!

A ball of flame followed by a blast hundreds of times more terrifying than the first exploded north of Celestial City, wiping out the entire Drur army as well as all the Players and natives in the vicinity with a few rare exceptions.

Vhoskaud averted his gaze from the mushroom cloud with indifference and focused again on controlling his army. To drive these Players and natives to kill each other, he had summoned a few million Undeads to add to the chaos, but they were dying too quickly.

The small fry had long since been eliminated and all the survivors were Players and natives capable of fighting at one against ten thousand without being disadvantaged. There were only a few dozen thousand survivors left and if several of them joined forces they could definitely threaten him.

But despite this, there was still no sign of Lost Divinities and Mirror Vanguard.

At that moment, the two aliens at the top of the skyscraper and Vhoskaud exchanged a knowing look and the giant android nodded. The black-hole woman smiled broadly and entered the code for the container tucked under her arm.

It was time to get down to business.