The Oracle Paths

The New Earth Players stiffened as they received his thinly veiled threat. Not to mention that it rubbed salt in the wound by reminding them that one of their comrades was the slave of a dangerous human with no obligations to the Earth Union.

"We'll try to keep that in mind." Wang Xiaoming replied in a rude voice, his face frosting over.

Melissa had already rescued Ruby from the boisterous Ryo and she was now in good hands.

" Be good." Jake gave her one last look, then nodded to Craig and Ryo and headed with his companions toward the Divine Academy.

The energy dome that once protected it had long since been shut down by the school's principal. There was no impenetrable force field to stop their march, and they only had to imitate the path taken by the Demiurge Players to find the entrance. Anyway, it wasn't as if they could go wrong.

Blending palace and fairy tale castle with high pointed towers, the primary difference was that the Celestial City was not really a city but a spaceship, or rather some sort of orbital station. The Divine Academy was part of this huge structure and its walls and roofs were therefore obviously not made of stones, bricks and tiles. In fact, despite its grand architecture, its walls were streamlined and smooth, jet black and giving the feeling that the building had been cast rather than built.

The front door was two large silver-blue steel doors as tall as a four-story building and as such was quite impossible to miss unless one was totally blind. The real challenge of this door was not to find it, but to open it. At a glance, Jake could tell that pushing the door open with his own hands would require considerable strength.

Nothing insurmountable for Ordeal winners like them, but by that criterion alone a good number of participants basically had no chance of ever being able to enter the academy premises freely.

As they arrived at the door, Jake recognized several familiar faces. Tim? Skorgeld, Trea and Fo, the other three Beskyrians, were also present. He hadn't heard from them, so he didn't know for sure if they were alive, but he had apparently been worrying for nothing. Their luck was really a wonderful asset.

'Wait. Aren't I supposed to be very lucky too? Why did I brush with death so many times then?' Jake suddenly felt a deep sense of injustice.

He could see at a glance that Tim and his three companions had not suffered as much as he and the other Myrtharian Nerds. At least their armor was still in one piece.

'Oh, don't complain.' Xi clicked her tongue figuratively. 'You're definitely the luckiest of them all. Your survival after all that has happened is a miracle. But unlike you, they can use their luck actively as a resource, while yours is totally passive. That's why its effects in your case are much more unreliable.'

Xi's words were immediately confirmed by Tim when he directly addressed the question to them.

"When the situation started to get out of hand, we fused our luck together and looked for a way out." The teen explained with some shame. The truth was that the four Beskyrians had cowardly abandoned them instead of continuing the fight together even if it was out of pure self-preservation.

"By pooling our luck together we managed to create a statistically improbable local fragility in the energy shield encompassing the Divine Academy and stormed through it with our Oracle Shield." Skorgeld, Ulfar's son quietly enlightened. "We thought we could repeat the feat to help you on the other side, but after that we were struck by the misfortune backlash. Breathing a little too hard might accidentally break a rib so we could only resolve to pray that you succeed."

"How convenient." Lord Phenix sneered.

"Hey! We saved another person too. A snooty, despicable Vampire from Pureblood." Trea defended herself vehemently.

Wyatt and Carmin's faces suddenly brightened. "Who?"

"Seren."

"I should have known." Carmin snorted without hiding any of her utter disdain for the pureblood extremist. "While we were dying one after another, she was figuring out how to save her life. I must say she has good instincts."

"That's enough Carmin." Wyatt raised his voice a little. "I don't blame her. If everyone had followed her example we wouldn't be the only three survivors of our faction."

The pretty brunette disagreed, but she didn't dare contradict him. It was the truth. They had been too reckless during the last stage of the Ordeal and had greatly overestimated their abilities.

"Where is this Seren then?" Will chimed in on the conversation.

Fo, the Beskyrian woman of noble lineage who specialized in talismans, huffed in anger and spat, "She ditched us here to explore the Divine Academy alone. Not a single thank you. If it weren't for the fact that our two factions are allies I would have taught her a lesson."

Tim, Skorgeld, and Trea nodded in agreement.

Jake stared at them alternately and then asked the awkward question, "What are you waiting for at the entrance?"

Tim and his three companions exchanged awkward glances, then Trea confessed awkwardly, " It so happens that the backlash from spending all our luck isn't over. The curse of bad luck isn't as dangerous as it used to be, but it's still enough to endanger us if we try to open a door like that without caution."

Jake understood right away as he tried to push the leaves of the huge steel door. Even with 80% of his strength it had not budged one iota. It was important to know that his current strength was beyond belief. Without his Oracle Status he was not even able to estimate the extent of it.

He realized very quickly that this was not a door to be pushed open, but one to be pushed aside. The thing was, there was no good grip for his hands. It was more like the kind of sliding door structure found in automatic doors in supermarkets.

Still, he had seen the door open without a hitch for the Demiurges Players.

"How did Seren get in?" Jake asked Tim. He was willing to believe that the Vampire had a few tricks up her sleeve, but he was 100% positive that she wasn't stronger than him.

"By touching the door with her bracelet." The teenager shrank his shoulders.

Jake's mouth dropped open. Was it that simple? A mere recognition system through the Oracle System? That explained why he couldn't open it now.

Aisling wasn't familiar with the four Beskyrians' powers and couldn't help but express doubts, "If the door opens automatically and you just have to authenticate yourself what's the problem?"

This time Will spared the boy further embarrassment and explained instead, "If even Jake can't open that door by brute force, that means it's heavy enough to kill most of us. If the door opens automatically, it means it relies on technology. That's what a power as elusive as luck or bad luck can tamper with most easily. If there is a remote chance that the door may malfunction, their bad luck will trigger it. Imagine what would happen if the two sliding doors suddenly closed on them. They would be crushed to death on the spot..."

Tim and the other three Beskyrians flinched. This was exactly what they feared, even though it was extremely unlikely.

"Well, I'll have to open the door manually anyway." Jake suddenly felt like an outcast among his peers. "You go in first, I'll stay with them. If I can get it open I'll hold the door for them."

Lucia and Enya both stared at him intently for a short instant but did not argue. They trusted him. But not Ashun. If the two women hadn't pushed her inside, she would have insisted on staying back to watch how he planned to open the door.

"See you later then." They smiled and pressed their bracelets against the door.

The two giant panels slid open at supersonic speed, whipping up a deafening gust of wind. The two women turned pale and finally realized why the four cursed Beskyrians refused to take the risk, no matter what.

After the two women passed through, the two doors closed even more viciously, colliding with so much force that Jake doubted he could escape unscathed if he were to stand in the middle. This door was as much a means of defense as it was of attack. Opening it was just the beginning of trouble.

Under the somewhat contrived smiles of Jake and the four hapless ones, the other Myrtharian Nerds, Pureblood and Ryne stepped into the academy one after the other. When the doors clanked one last time after the cocky Crunch shuffled proudly past his fuming master, Jake grouched grimly,

"My turn."

In front of the others he hadn't dared to use all his strength, but since this door was so hard to open and he wanted to know his limits, he found this was the perfect opportunity to put them to the test.