The Oracle Paths

A second later a loud bang was heard inside the black clouds, corresponding to Ozo's detonation. It was an act of desperation as a last resort and the result was obviously not what Ozo had hoped for as it failed to break out of the clouds in time.

Jake and his comrades stood by indifferently, staring at Deimos and the other two Lost Divinities survivors with a cryptic expression. They had no intention of confronting them.

With a nonchalant wave, Jake and Gerulf closed the earth beneath them, burying the three Lost Divinities Players beneath kilometers of rock. If they could still get to the surface without being swamped by the clouds and the Mana Storm, Jake was willing to let bygones be bygones.

Deimos, Dhamde and Khag' Dagmai breathed an involuntary sigh of relief as Jake and his companions left after giving them one last dismissive look. A few seconds after their departure, a spatial rift reappeared where Ael and Felphi had been obliterated and sucked in.

Two bloody masses were spat out of it a few seconds later. An intangible shockwave spread around them, disrupting the atomic bonds of the rock around them, and the two badly wounded aliens fell through.

Deimos and the other two officers' expressions changed as they recognized the aura of their two Supreme Leaders. A relieved smile crept across their faces.

As they thought! It wasn't so easy to get rid of these two deities. With their leaders ahead and the black clouds behind them, the three Players worked hard to smash their way through the rock using only their fists and weapons. Even with the kilometers of stone slowing their ascent, they were still much faster than the black curtain.

Ten seconds later, Ael, Felphi, and the Deimos group joined up.

"How many Players are still alive?" Ael asked calmly as she glanced at the four survivors, especially Ashun who was still chilled.

"Only the four of us." Deimos replied with a grim face, his phalanges blanching as he clutched the hilt of his spear tightly.

"Not bad." Ael patted his shoulder with an unruffled smile.

Felphi was equally deadpan, showing no sadness after her whole faction had been wiped out. Seeing the guilty countenance of Deimos and the others, the Nullifyer sighed and said,

"It's not your fault. I made a mistake in failing to recognize the significance of the Digestor Trojans in this Ordeal. If I had known, I would have killed Ruby directly instead of giving her to Mirror Vanguard. I would have also responded positively to their request for help in eliminating the Schwazen threat, but what's done is done. This will serve as a lesson for our next Ordeals. The Myrtharian Nerds will be our allies at that time and the more powerful they are the better for us when we are called upon to collaborate in the future."

Deimos opened his mouth in objection, but Felphi snarled curtly,

"You are not our only team. Several dozen Players led by Flingel were moving separately with all our prisoners from the various factions. They also have a Digestor Trojan and Jammer with them. As long as we have these bargaining chips, we can still negotiate with the other superfactions, Myrtharian Nerds included."

At that moment, as if to prove her wrong, Ael received a notification from his bracelet and his face turned ugly. Felphi received the same notification a second later her mouth gaped then snapped shut as if she had just swallowed a fly.

"What's going on?" Ashun asked as she realized something was wrong.

Ael closed his eyes and rubbed his temples wearily, then said,

"Flingel's group was just wiped out by a coalition of enemy players. Leading them was the Vampire Progenitor Wyatt..."

"Damn it! We should have taken out that fucking Vampire when we had the chance!" Khag' Dagmai cursed as he demolished the rock wall on his right with a punch. "This ridiculous test imposed by the Oracle forbidding us to kill them has completely sabotaged us!"

The Nosk King had tested Wyatt personally a few months earlier, leaving him for dead after the latter had barely managed to awaken his True Will. The latter had threatened him with revenge if he did not immediately release Carmin at that time. The threat had become a reality.

"We knew the risks." Felphi belittled him coldly. "That's why I wasn't encouraging you to rob them any more than necessary at that time. It's only a return of karma and it was the Oracle's way of raising our Ordeal's difficulty. Otherwise, surviving on Quanoth would have been a small challenge for most of us."

"What do we do now?" Dhamde asked peacefully right after.

All eyes turned to Ael and after a short hesitation he said,

"For us the Ordeal is over. We're laying low."

The survivors did not like the answer, but inwardly they heaved a sigh of relief. They understood what their leader implicitly meant.

*****

Jake and his group joined the other Myrtharian Nerds a few seconds later. With two Myrtharians, a Kintharian and two Throsgenians to lead the way, moving underground was no challenge. Upon reuniting with Jake, Gerulf and the others, Lucia and the other Myrtharian Nerds were finally able to relax.

"I didn't believe for a second that you were dead!" Lucia chuckled loudly as she threw herself into Jake's arms, but Enya and Aisling sneered at her false bravado. Seconds earlier, she was gnawing her nails in anxiety as she paced back and forth.

Jake looked around at the survivors and saw that several familiar faces were missing. Svara had been badly wounded in her failed ambush against Felphi and despite the support of Hephais, Drastan and his Trolls she had finally succumbed.

Kenway had been badly wounded by Belakor and as a demonic deity he was not one to fight fair. He had discreetly resorted to the help of Astraroth and his psychic attacks to incapacitate him, the Werelion's mind being his weak point despite his level 90.

Two Myrmidians were missing, as well as two of the birds of prey, the diamond rhinoceros, Bagheera and Thomas'O Malley on the Aristocats side. Lastly, Daniel had been countersniped by a Lost Divinities marksman seconds before Jake arrived, joining his daughter Lily in the group of early eliminated Players.

In addition to these familiar Players, Drastan's army of 70 Trolls had been decimated. Without it, their losses would have been far more severe. A bracelet had already been given to them for this final battle, with the other thousands out in space aboard the spaceship with the other rescued survivors.

Unlike the previous two Ordeals, Will was unharmed. All his efforts to become a Dragon Soulspeaker had been worth it.

Maeve had also survived, defying all odds. Right now, she stood coldly apart from the group, arms crossed. God only knew what she was really thinking.

"Why aren't you moving forward anymore?" Gerulf asked in a guttural voice as he looked up at the metal ceiling above his head.

"You idiot, that's the foundation of Celestial City." Rogen scoffed loudly, feeling proud that he had outsmarted the Kintharian.

"So what?" Gerulf snorted. "It's just metal."

Provoked, he raised his arm and connected his mind to the steel frame of the entire city, and the metal began to squeak unpleasantly under his efforts. However, the ceiling above them did not buckle, indifferent to the Kintharian's powers.

"See? Even Jake didn't try."

"All right, that's enough you two." Asfrid reprimanded them sternly. Turning to Jake, she inquired nervously, "Hade?"

Jake shook his head apologetically.

"I was too late."

Asfrid had expected it, but she was still depressed when she received the confirmation. Hade didn't deserve to die. If he had gone his own way from the beginning, he could have survived to the end without anyone's help.

"It was his choice." Jake consoled her.

Feeling the tide of black clouds rapidly approaching from below, he ended the rejoicing of the reunion and brought out one of the last Portable Fortresses made by Hade that remained. This one had been saved for this specific situation.

"Time is of the essence, those who cannot teleport, get inside. He ordered in an urgent tone. "Those who don't think they can handle the antimatter explosions outside either, get inside as well."

With the exception of Ruby, Gerulf, Haynt and Rogen, who were not afraid of radiation and could take the blast from those explosions for a while, none of them were heroes and they all obediently went inside. Even Lord Phenix, who could rise from the ashes, hid inside readily. If he was hit by a second blast before he was reborn he would be killed for good.

Jake and the others could hear it. From the beginning, the earthquakes had never stopped and had only intensified.

A few minutes later, the black clouds engulfed the ground beneath them and Jake, Ruby, Gerulf, Rogen and Haynt teleported to the surface holding hands.