The Oracle Paths

Jake never once changed his course as he made his way back up, staying on the most direct path aligned with his starting tributary. From the lower reaches, through the middle, to the higher reaches, at each junction, he encountered numerous other tributaries merging with his own. Or was it the other way around?

Regardless, he maintained the same direction, deliberately avoiding visits to the other adjacent branches of the Lumyst River. This likely spared hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of enemy Players, but even in showing this mercy, or perhaps laziness, he still wiped out half a million, at least. It was a severe blow to the Players of the Lustra Plains.

This was partly because, as he ascended the Lumyst River, all tributaries eventually joined, increasing the likelihood of encountering Players from all over the continent seeking to bathe in its waters.

That's where the rub was.

The Players ambitious and confident enough to explore the upper banks of the Lumyst River, to bathe there or collect its water, were all decently strong and ranked Players. It took no less than that to find the courage to venture there.

That's why the slaughter perpetrated by Jake had such terrible consequences. A high percentage of the Players killed during his nocturnal river ascent turned out to be the elites of their respective factions. The number of Rank 10, 11, 12, and 13 Players killed in the last hour was uncountable.

Just by moving from point A to point B, Jake had completely crippled the combat power of the enemy Mirror Universe. However, he quickly realized they must have been warned somehow, because soon, while still quite far from his destination, the number of Players lurking near the banks abruptly dwindled, then dropped to zero.

'Eeh? I guess that's the advantage of having a functional Oracle System,' Jake mused with a dry smirk.

[You're one to talk.] Xi teased him with a light laugh. [Between those of ours you've resurrected and the enemies you've killed, I wouldn't be surprised if victory is already in the bag.]

The annoyed frown creasing Jake's forehead wasn't soothed by the velvety voice of his partner.

'Maybe you're right, but it's my rating at stake. Doing the bare minimum isn't enough," he objected, shaking his head. "I chose to lay low the first few days, which I don't regret at all, to better assess my opponents and the situation, but the pace of the Ordeal is escalating faster than expected. If our Oracle Paths were functioning as they should, our enemies wouldn't be so rushed, but since our Oracle System offers them no resistance, I guess even their most straightforward plans are working.'

Xi nodded with a thoughtful "Hmm," obviously understanding what he meant.

[That's indeed the main problem on our side.] She sighed a bit later. [Take their ambush tonight on our Players, for instance. If their Oracle Paths were working, they could have easily anticipated it and even counter-ambushed. In the end, the Oracle Paths of the lower-ranked Players would have canceled each other out, prompting caution, and none of them would have dared to leave their fortified encampments, their immobile Shadow Guides implicitly telling them that venturing out at night would lead to their demise. Those who took the risk anyway would likely have been killed by a higher-ranked enemy Player, their Oracle Paths failing to account for them.

This would have then dissuaded other hesitant Players from following suit before forming alliances, gaining strength, and ensuring that death wasn't waiting around the corner. In the end, only a few high-ranked Players confident in their ability to escape under any circumstances would have dared leave their encampments to hunt, visit the river, or explore the continent, but with extreme caution. Except for a few adrenaline junkies who tend to ignore their Shadow Guide, they would probably have reserved their intention to attack the enemy for much later in the Ordeal, using this time instead to form coalitions and gather their factions.]

'That's another thing that bothers me,' Jake jumped in, still looking morose. 'Those Players that Hephais slain and those who ambushed him didn't seem to be from the same faction. A small, isolated group cooperating like that isn't impossible, but these were too well-organized. It looked like a large-scale operation.'

It wasn't just a hunch. To be sure, he had soulsearched the minds of several of his victims, but confirmation came from the soul of Lord Ooom, which he had also devoured along with everything else instead of just extracting the Aether and Soul Power.

Normally, he would shy away from this practice due to the obvious danger to his mental health, but this time, he had chosen to take the risk to save time. After experiencing Ruby's troubled childhood and gradual mental alienation by her Digestor half, he knew a bit better how to handle the side effects.

Especially since the advantages were worth it! It partly explained why mimicking the water mastery of the deceased Lord Ooom had been so easy, although his high cognitive stats were the main reason.

[Doomhorn?] Xi guessed, reading his thoughts. [It is indeed surprising that such an android can coordinate all their factions despite their differences.]

Jake nodded without a word. It would have been understandable if it were one of their Oracle Knights, but that wasn't the case. At least, thanks to his random soulsearches, they had learned what they needed to know about their enemies.

And to say the least, it wasn't looking good. A little less so, though, after his rampage tonight.

As unthinkable as it might seem, the 8,445,693 enemy Players participating in this Ordeal were still almost 6 million even after Hephais and his excellent work. Conversely, Jake was shocked to learn that his own camp had already lost over 60% of its participants before even tonight's assault.

Although Jake had resurrected/saved a large number of allied Players in the last hour, he and his friend couldn't be everywhere. Twyluxia was too vast. Consequently, he estimated that this percentage would climb above 70% by the end of the night.

It was depressing.

As for those six million enemy Players, they were divided into only three factions led by their respective Rank 17 leaders. There were only a small handful of factionless independents.

The distribution of Players from these three factions was also concerning. It was completely unbalanced.

Weiss' faction, 'The Thought Weavers', clearly inspired by their leader's nickname 'Mind Weaver', was by far the most problematic of the three. In addition to counting more than 7 million of the enemy Players participating, the psychic web connecting its members offered them all sorts of benefits.

On this front, it opposed Cho Min Ho's King's Idol Alliance, which also brought together a large conglomerate of factions, although it didn't even come close to half that number even when scraping the bottom of the barrel.

By devouring Lord Ooom's soul, who was also from Weiss' faction, Jake had thought he would learn everything he needed to know about it, but strangely, when inspecting his new memories, he realized that the most important part was missing as if memories had been erased just before their digestion. Notably, what their Permanent Passive Faction Skill was.

Comparing this result to the other soulsearches, he then discovered that it wasn't an isolated case. The theory that spontaneously came to his mind was that one of the functions of this passive was precisely to safeguard information leaks about it.

This was all the more troubling as even Lord Ooom, a Rank 16 Player, didn't know much about their mysterious leader's abilities. The only thing he got from its memories was a blurry image and a vague feeling of an unfathomable woman.

The second largest faction, that of Kaelum, counted about 1.3 million Players. Its name, 'The Vraxers', was also derived from their leader's nickname 'Titan of Vrax', but although it sounded more abstract, it hid much fewer secrets.

They were just savages like their leader. Their powers varied greatly, but they were especially renowned for their fighting skills and thirst. Of the three factions, they were the most well-equipped for war and backed down from no challenge, regardless of the bloody battle awaiting them.

In terms of large-scale strategy, they were infinitely less to be feared than the calculating Thought Weavers, but individually they had a much stronger striking power. Most of the allied Players slain on the battlefield before his arrival on Twyluxia were due to these Vraxers.

Finally, there was the third and last faction, 'The Architects'. It only counted a few thousand members, and it was also the only one not to have a name inspired by its leader. Shadrex, the Bipolar Seer, had an unknown personality and abilities, and his subordinates were just as eccentric.

Except for Iaoth, whom he had met that night, its members weren't especially strong but all had unique abilities or bloodlines making them irreplaceable. Luck, foresight, divination, altering fate, providence, karma, curse... Think of something and they had it.

Just by summarizing in his head what he had just learned about these three factions, Jake had already decided who he had to eliminate first. The outline of a plan was slowly taking shape in his mind...