The Oracle Paths

Jake sensed the approaching supernatural aura more than he saw it. When he considered drawing his sword, a small, wrinkled, turd-green alien was already standing in front of him, staring at him with gloomy yellow eyes.

Master and disciple stared into each other's eyes with an unnerving poignancy until...

"What's up?"

Cekt Mogusar broke the silence with a shamelessness befitting his image.

Jake was dumbfounded and rubbed his eyes twice to make sure he hadn't imagined the alien opposite him. Finally convinced that he was not dreaming, he probed curiously,

"What are you doing here, master?"

" So what?! I don't even have the right to come and save my disciple now?" The little creature took offense, brandishing his cane grandly.

Jake broke out in a cold sweat as he saw the alien's outburst and quickly corrected himself.

"Of course not, master. You are free to do as you please..."

Thinking of something, Jake suddenly made sense of what had just happened and asked more politely,

"You didn't happen to come across a Digestor on your way here that strongly resembled me?"

This was not Cekt's first Dungeon run and he immediately understood the underlying meaning. His conscience spread again to the far reaches of the floor and he swept through it with a concentrated frown before eventually shaking his head.

" I regret to say no. If there is such a Digestor it has slipped through. Perhaps he fled to the lower floors..."

The Aetherist didn't sound convinced of his hypothesis as he voiced it, but he couldn't think of a better reason. He found it hard to conceive that a measly low-ranked Digestor could have gotten past him, but even if it did it wouldn't be a tragedy, nor would it be the first time such miscellaneous feats had occurred.

"You said he looked like you?" Cekt picked up sharply. "Don't tell me you seriously whacked that Punching-bag Digestor, huh?

Jake felt subconsciously like a young maiden whose skirt had just been lifted. Deeply embarrassed. However, this embarrassment was short-lived and the built-up overflow of emotions immediately erupted with verve and vehemence.

"What was I supposed to do?! Refuse politely? This thing was a fucking Rank 9, damn it!"

"Oh... Just a Rank 9... I'll be ashamed to say that in public with such condescension. Don't tell anyone you're my disciple." Cekt scorned him while picking his nose nonchalantly without paying the slightest attention to his diatribe.

Disregarding the heavy-hearted young man, the gremlin hopped from one survivor to the next, mechanically smoothing his goatee to check their wounds and their psychological state. He also took a cursory look at the corpses before bouncing back to Jake.

"Alright, I was joking. You did well for a first run." Cekt patted his knee to comfort him. It wasn't by choice, but because his arm didn't reach higher. "Compared to your other two co-disciples, you did pretty well."

"My co-disciples?" Jake repeated the word with confusion.

"Yes, before I came to rescue you and your faction, I had to stop at two other Oracle Shelters first to take care of other disciples. With you, there are seven of your generation. By that I mean selected on B842. The others operate on other planets or systems."

"I see..." Jake nodded as he understood the situation.

He had never thought himself exceptional. He owed his status as a disciple to a simple deal. If he hadn't boldly negotiated the price of the blood samples obtained during his First Ordeal, Jake wouldn't have even been qualified to speak to him.

Whether these other disciples owed their positions to daring deals like his or whether their talents had really caught the eye of the capricious Aetherist remained to be seen.

Suddenly, a monumental earthquake shook the entire cave they were in. The cause was clearly an explosion emanating from someplace below them.

As the earth cracked open and then gave way to anarchic lava eruptions, Cekt Mogusar stopped swaggering and turned professional. The alien rose swiftly into the air above the small crowd and without explaining anything pointed his cane directly at the ceiling of the cavern.

A torrent of inexhaustible energy surged forth from his small body, accompanied by an insane psychic aura. His bracelet informed him that this exceptionally pure energy was primarily Aether, but his senses were telling him a different story.

The endless stream of multicolored light organized itself into a myriad of incredibly complex and cryptic runes and symbols until it formed a kind of formation resembling an incomprehensible constellation.

Balls of lights were orbiting around other balls of lights, orbiting themselves around other balls of lights, orbiting around other balls of lights... This cycle repeated itself seventeen times, giving to the whole an incredible and indecipherable density, forming a kind of tentacular network resembling millions of entangled rings from afar.

Paying closer attention to these light bulbs, Jake realized that they were Aether Cores or at least something similar. Each of these Aether Cores was more developed than his own and had something unique that set it apart from the others, but he couldn't quite tell what.

"Watch and learn, Jake." Cekt suddenly spoke in his head. "As a disciple, this is your first lesson. Aetherists are feared and revered for many reasons, but one has always been remembered: Aetherists are first and foremost Designers. We design everything, and that includes our own spells and techniques.

"No one is an Aetherist until they have created a unique spell that belongs to them alone, yet that they could teach or sell to others if they wished. This is the spell I created after a lifetime of research and development. I have named this spell Inference."

At that very moment, several Aether Cores within the formation began to glow intensely and beams of energy shot out from them, striking one or more other stars. These beams of light struck the other stars and in turn began to emit energy, targeting one or more of the other Aether Cores.

The process repeated rapidly in an infinitesimal fraction of time, until the amplified rays fed by the formation reached the Aether Core at the center. Once hit, the Aether Core did not emit any rays, but a change of nature took place within the ball of light.

The Aether Core formation shrank to the size of his palm and all that was left was the blinding light of the Aether Core, which clamped itself to the tip of his wand.

Cekt then waved his cane, which was still pointing at the ceiling of the cave, and after muttering some unintelligible incantation the spectral glow of the moon shone on their gobsmacked faces.

All the layers of rock and walls that the Dungeon Digestor had painstakingly erected to imprison them were gone. Above them, there was only a huge cylindrical hole 100 meters in diameter. Even the black clouds had disappeared, which explained the moonlight shimmering on them.

"This..."

Jake and the others were speechless. Jake had seen powerful Evolvers use terrifying spells before his eyes. Spells that he was not qualified to comprehend the level of complexity and power.

Such was the case with the Green Lightfield protecting the residence of the Ancient Designer Xion Zolvhur, or the mind-boggling magic based on Oracle Cubes that the humanoid Brachiosaurus-like Oracle Guardian had used to resist that invincible Seraphim Digestor.

But this original spell was in an entirely different dimension. The mysteries behind its workings seemed endless while the instantaneousness and magnitude of the consequences once the spell was cast was just unfathomable.

While Jake and the others were frozen in shock, Cekt had become concerned when he received no feedback from the Dungeon Digestor. After all, each of these walls was like its own flesh. Normally, a high-pitched, resentful wail was the minimum expected.

So why was the monster so silent. Was it already dead? The gremlin's already bulging eyes abruptly bulged out as he realized that some bastard might have already gotten the Nexus.

"Jake, I have to go." Cekt declared with some urgency in his voice. "Wait for me here or go back up to the surface. Citro and some friends of yours are waiting for you there."

Jake didn't think much more about who these friends were, since he had already deduced that his master had saved his other comrades on the way. Then he saw the little alien pointing his cane at the ground and he broke out in a sudden cold sweat.

"WAIT! There may be survivors below, including the soul of a friend of mine."

Jake and Will quickly explained to him what had happened to Kyle and the Aetherist pursed his lips in annoyance.

"Fine... We'll take the long way, but it'll probably be too late by then."

Cekt refrained from telling them that the only reason he was being so accommodating was because he was already convinced that rushing wouldn't help. At his level, there were plenty of ways to get out of a Dungeon Digestor without being noticed.

Because Jake and Will were so insistent, Cekt agreed to let them accompany him. In fact, he was the one who would escort them down. Neither of them could survive the lower floors without his help.

Like an elder taking his two little children to the park, the trio then set off, fearlessly jumping into the central volcano chamber to discover new lands.

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