The Oracle Paths

"Myrtharian Nerds who have already reached their Main Mission goal and just want to take advantage of some extra Ordeal time to train, move to one side. Those who want to continue fighting with your leader stick to your position." Hade instructed sternly.

No one moved.

A faint smile of appreciation spread across the faces of Jake, Hade and Asfrid.

"Then wait patiently for us to return here." Jake laughed.

Jake pressed his bracelet to Hade and Asfrid's and accepted a colossal sum of 3700B Aether points. This was most of the Aether the Myrtharian Nerds had accumulated and stolen since the beginning of the Ordeal and the amount they could safely dispose of.

With the Aether Jake already had, he carried over 4000B of Aether points.

Hade then materialized all the Portable Fortresses he had made, as well as a small 20 meter long spaceship much less ambitious than the one they had originally planned. Apart from its two wings and thrusters, the ship consisted of a cockpit and a long hull that served as a cargo hold. The vehicle had no offensive capabilities.

"Is this the ship intended to house the Portable Fortresses in space?" Jake cocked an unimpressed eyebrow. "It's... more modest than I imagined."

Hade smiled wryly,

" Since making a proper battleship was no longer an option, I had to switch tactics. This plane is small, but it has camouflage and a reliable energy shield. It can detect a speck of dust at 10,000km radius and is programmed to initiate instant warp jumps into hyperspace in the event of a proven threat.

"After we leave, it will conceal itself in the shadow of the sun far away from Quanoth. Unless Aurae or a Player like the Nullifyer specifically want all these innocent citizens dead, who pose no threat to them, then we have nothing to worry about.

"It also has an oxygen recycling system, as do each of the Portable Fortresses I've made. They'll be fine for a couple of years, I promise."

Jake stopped quibbling.

"Very well. Together when you're ready."

Asfrid agreed, then began barking orders for all the citizens of Laudarkvik to enter their assigned Portable Fortress in accordance with the established security protocol. At that very moment, Jake finally noticed that the number of civilians under their protection had increased dramatically since his departure.

There were now more than half a million of them, most with decent fighting potential but not enough to survive on their own. Without their support, they would have been doomed to perish on Quanoth in the next few days or weeks.

'Good thing I never stopped making those Fluid Artifacts.' Hade ached as he watched the tide of humans disappear in a steady stream inside the black spheres.

Most were civilians forsaken by the Ret'Asi Empire's military or adventurers and mercenaries who had become stranded after their companies and squads had been decimated by war and repeated Shron assaults.

Jake was impressed by the utter obedience of these survivors. He wondered by what iron fist Hade and Asfrid had tamed these hardened survivors to obtain such a degree of docility from them.

About half an hour later, the barren valley where they had set up camp was completely deserted. Except for the few dozen Myrtharian Nerds and beasts subservient to Mufasa, only Jake, Hade and Asfrid remained.

"See you later."

Jake, Hade and Asfrid flew together in tight formation, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening shock wave. The trio collided with the mass of black clouds creating a thunderous rumble and soon they dropped out of sight of the other Myrtharian Nerds peering apprehensively into the sky.

It had been a few months since Jake had flown through these dark clouds and he felt the difference at once. After traveling only a few kilometers up, his Gold Stone Skin began to erode and when a bolt of lightning struck him, his consciousness blurred for a quarter of a second.

"Oracle Shield." He shouted telepathically to his two partners who had not waited for his reminder to activate theirs.

A triple Oracle Shields coated their bodies and they tightened the formation a little more, their bodies nearly touching. With the synergy of Asfrid's, Hade's and Jake's combined telekinesis their speed quickly topped 10km/seconds and seconds later they entered the mesosphere. Problem was, they still hadn't left the thunderstorm cloud layer.

"My Oracle Shield just overheated. Automatic deactivation in 5 seconds." Hade informed them bleakly.

His Oracle Shield formed the outermost layer of their triple force field. The Aether Fluid Grandmaster was currently carrying 7 tons of liquid alloy.

Jake thought quickly, then said,

" Reduce speed by 50%. Let's redirect our telekinesis to erect a barrier over the Oracle Shield."

Asfrid, whose Oracle Shield had just taken over, nodded silently and they decelerated sharply, an invisible but tangible sphere overlapping it. The frictional constraints were reduced dozens of times but they had to endure the downpour of lightning and whatever was lurking in those clouds twice as long. Hade took the opportunity to transfer his 7 tons of liquid alloy to the Eltarian female.

A few seconds later, they formally crossed into the thermosphere more than 100km above the ground and only then did they leave those infernal clouds. But instead of entering a slightly calmer buffer zone, the Mana Storm slammed right into them.

BAAAANG!

Their field of vision was replaced by a deluge of multicolored light, their telekinetic barrier freezing, melting, distorting, and then turning into soap bubbles in an instant before exploding into thousands of butterflies that burst into flames upon contact with the other Mana Spells clustered in what could now only be described as a Mana Gigastorm.

"My Oracle Shield just overheated! Forced deactivation in 5 seconds." Asfrid shouted anxiously.

Jake frowned. It was too soon.

"Give me all your liquid alloy. Quickly! If you have any other solutions, now is the time to use them."

Hade and Asfrid became solemn, their gaze turning to pure concentration. Jake equipped his entire liquid alloy and activated all his passive and active abilities, including those of his armor.

With what Asfrid had just handed him, he had 59 tons of liquid alloy on him. If Lost Divinities had not stolen some of it, he would have carried even more.

Despite this, the Oracle Shield quickly began to sizzle and flicker and less than ten seconds later Jake received an overheating message of his own.

"Fuck... Now!"

"Spiritual Fusion." Asfrid growled, forcefully merging their minds together to raise their consciousness levels.

A black blade appeared in Hade's hand and a bright white flame of True Will blazed in his pupils. While Jake and the others were training, they had taken the time to report on what their training consisted of.

Although Hade and Asfrid had not been able to join them, they had not been idle. The only downside was that their training conditions were not nearly as good.

"Sunder." Hade roared as he slowly sliced the air before him with his blade.

The Mana Superstorm split in front of them for dozens of kilometers, giving them a clear view for a split second. Jake's eyes narrowed and decisively grabbed the wrists of his two friends as he summoned one of his Grade 5 Aether Cores and used the local Aether density of over 100,000 points to teleport as far away as his eyesight would allow.

The Aether Core was unfortunately left behind, but that was the price he had to pay to get through this Mana Storm. Discarding 6 more Aether Cores, Jake and Hade repeated the maneuver until his Oracle Device sent him the notification he feared.

[Oracle Shield overheating. Shutdown Effective Immediately."

At that moment, Hade channeled what was left of his True Will of Sundering and sliced the Mana Storm one last time. For a split second, the sidereal void was revealed at the other end of the storm.

Jake wasted no time and summoned the small ship Hade had crafted. Xi, who didn't need his instructions to figure out his intentions, overrode the ship's AI and triggered an emergency Warp Jump.

BANG!

The little ship burst into a superluminal trail and a tenth of a second later it reappeared in the middle of space a few million kilometers away. Jake looked around and saw that Hade and Asfrid were both unharmed but shaken. It had been a close call.

"Remind me never to trust you with a plan like this again." Hade winced as he staggered back with a pale face. Almost all of his True Will had been consumed in getting them through this Mana Storm.

Jake laughed awkwardly with a guilty face. He really didn't anticipate that the danger would increase so much.

"How could I have guessed that breaking through that atmosphere would become so dangerous?" He sheepishly defended himself. "I'm beginning to think that the apocalypse Aurae predicted is indeed inevitable. But look on the bright side.

"We pulled it off."

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