The Oracle Paths

Ten days later, six figures hiding their faces under thick hooded cloaks crossed the border into Serin Theocracy, followed by a giant black cat and a dazzling phoenix-looking turkey.

This territory was located tens of thousands of kilometers north of the Ret'Asi Empire, and more precisely directly east of the Shatug Empire where the Celestial City was located. Its southwestern border touched that of the Maze of Mirik, and it was through this route of entry that Jake and his group had just infiltrated this inhospitable territory.

Gone were the deciduous forests stretching as far as the eye could see in the Wilderness. Before them, arid, snow-covered mountain ranges formed long, narrow canyons. A few rare conifers littered the frozen tundra, the vegetation scarce.

To make matters worse, a bitterly cold wind blew hard, powerful enough to uproot ordinary trees. The few fir trees able to survive here were vegetal monsters with trunks whose circumference rivaled that of a small house.

The only consolation was that the black clouds and the Mana Superstorm were not as dense as in Laudarkvik. A few rays of sunlight still filtered through the atmosphere, maintaining a dreary clarity by day, but a clarity nonetheless.

"From now on, be careful and no more fooling around." Jake reminded his companions, especially glaring at Crunch and Lord Phoenix.

The trip to the Serinese Theocracy had not been a smooth one. Although they had flown most of the way, thereby managing to avoid getting lost, they had been ambushed numerous times by the Shrons. Half of these attacks were due to the nosy nature of these two troublemakers...

These insectoid people, operating under the same hive and caste system as ants or bees, knew no fear and their numbers were just terrifying. With each assault, Jake and his comrades had to face a tide of brown chitin insects swarming to the horizon. For those who didn't have a stomach for it, the sight alone would have made them lose all their nerve.

Of course, since Jake's group was made up of battle-hardened veterans, no one had shat themselves, nor did they run away. With each attack, they responded in kind. Carnage after carnage, bloodshed after bloodshed, they made their way to their current position.

At first the situation only got worse, as the Shrons' assaults became more and more frequent, while the average level of these insects increased with each new attack. But three days earlier, the Shron army that was about to intercept them had suddenly slipped away, leaving them dumbfounded.

As they thought about it, they realized that this coincided with the beginning of the Ret'Asi Empire's migration. Not just the Myrtharian Nerds and the population of Laudarkvik, but the Emperor's army. By now, they should have crossed the southern border of the Maze of Mirik and the Shrons, with their territorial and aggressive temper, had immediately responded to the provocation.

"I hope the others are okay." Tim said worriedly, shivering. These repeated encounters with the Shrons had left him with some psychological scars.

Jake patted his shoulder and laughed.

"Don't worry about them. Hade and Asfrid are keeping an eye out." He said in a reassuring voice.

It was the truth. The ship Jake and Hade had been building together might have been destroyed by Lost Divinity, but all the Portable Fortresses the Fluid Grandmaster had crafted were intact.

Unlike the Emperor of Ret'Asi, who had planned a mass exodus, with hundreds of millions of humans forming endless rivers of living beings moving at a snail's pace toward the Maze of Mirik, most of the citizens of Laudarkvik were safe in one of these Fluid Artifacts.

Even though Hade didn't have enough for everyone, all the elderly, disabled, children, women and generally anyone who wasn't fit to fight had been placed inside with enough food for the journey. In total, their migrant group numbered only a few tens of thousands of members and all of them were at least a D-Rank Adventurer.

Knowing Asfrid and the others, they must have been hiding their movements by making the Ret'Asi Empire's army and its human tide their scapegoat. From a moral standpoint it was questionable, but if this Ordeal had taught them anything it was that nothing was ever truly fair.

Jake then turned to the sixth party member accompanying them.

"Azeus, are you sure there's a base of operations belonging to Lost Divinities around here?" He asked coldly.

"Absolutely certain." The red-striped barbarian growled grimly.

After being defeated and captured by Hade, the latter had literally left him in his Space Storage for days after briefly interrogating him to no avail... That was, until Lost Divinities and their allies gave them a memorable thrashing.

After that, the Fluid Grandmaster remembered his existence and decided to have a proper chat with him. In the end, it turned out that he was not so loyal to Lost Divinities after all. Upon learning of Shamash's death, his jaded respect for these so-called gods had waned and he had realized that he didn't need them to forge his own destiny.

Of course, before trusting him and releasing him they had to take a few precautions. The first was to get him to leave Lost Divinities, which he did before they even asked him to. Secondly they had signed a rather strict Oracle Contract with him with many conditions.

Azeus had refused the Slave Contract, however, preferring to die than lose his freedom. The last condition was much simpler. He promised to join the Myrtharian Nerds, but only if they would let him challenge Hade again. If he won, he would take his place.

The result had been... a crushing second defeat!

Dissatisfied, he had then insisted on confronting Jake. The downpour of multicolored lightning had been like a massage for the latter and before the Myrtharian could get serious he had given up with a stiff grimace.

The lightning barbarian had then challenged Gerulf and Rogen to a duel. It had been a close one, but the Myrtharian Body passive gave a significant Lightning Resistance to all Myrtharian Nerds. The two brutes were already pretty much tireless tanks. Just like against Jake, he had eventually given up out of sheer annoyance.

When he had come across Lucia, he had finally believed that he would be able to enjoy an honest and fair fight, without any dirty tricks. It was true, but he had underestimated the Myrmidian princess. The young woman still not having digested her defeat against Lost Divinities had decided to take her anger out on him and the conclusion of this fight had been... ugly so to speak.

Just as he was about to give up, he finally met Asfrid. The wise and benevolent Eltarian seemed too gentle to exhibit any kind of violence and yet she was one of the most respected Myrtharian Nerds officers. Frustrated, he challenged her to a duel.

His defeat was even more miserable than against Hade and Lucia. His ability to turn his body into lightning was a real headache for most players, but for Asfrid it was irrelevant. As soon as the fight started she had put him under a powerful illusion and left him to fight an imaginary Asfrid for a few hours. When he realized that he was trapped in a dream, the night had already fallen and the Eltarian was long gone.

After that he had tried his luck against a few other members and finally got his first win against Enya. The Egaean had fought better than expected, but her powers were just not suited to this type of opponent. When Azeus won, he struck a victorious pose, feeling the sudden urge to humiliate her, but the tears welling up in Enya's eyes earned him a thorough beating by Jake.

Following this brutal return to reality, he had accepted his position and had obediently joined the Myrtharian Nerds. Unfortunately, Jake didn't trust him and had kept him prisoner in His Portable Fortress for half the trip before finally deciding to free him when the man begged him to let him fight on their side against yet another Shron army.

"Tim and Skorgeld, is your luck still pointing in the same direction?" Jake then asked after receiving confirmation from Azeus.

Jake, Fo and Trea transmitted their Luck Aether to them alternately. The teenager cleared his mind and let his instincts guide him on a few steps. Skorgeld did the same a few moments later to validate his previous trajectory.

"That's right, straight ahead." Skorgeld nodded.

"Let's hope Ruby is here or else we'll have to keep going all the way to the Republic of Weilia in the northeast. We'd lose at least two weeks there..." Trea complained as she waded through the knee-deep snow powder. She hadn't packed clothes for this kind of winter environment.

Jake frowned, but after a few seconds he declared with a confident face,

"Ruby is here."

"How can you be so sure?" Tim asked, giving him a curiosity-filled look.

"Because I can faintly sense her presence, but also because I've heard that the Schwazens who populate these lands belong to an angelic race. If Ruby still has any semblance of a conscience, she should seek every means at her disposal to resist her Digestor nature. Becoming an angel seems like a good place to start."

Azeus' scornful sneer sounded behind him.

"What are you laughing at?" Jake's face darkened.

"Your ignorance." The barbarian snorted as he picked his nose. "The Schwazens are angels all right, but not the kind you imagine. These things... are evil incarnate."