The Oracle Paths

Jake and his group were taken aback to find the survivors of New Earth gathered in front of Ruby's building. Its exterior had changed somewhat from before. This one looked... more ordinary, so to speak.

The building was a plain cube with white walls. If it wasn't for the few luminous grooves and the widespread coldness emitted by the walls, one could have doubted that it was meant for one of the Ordeal's champions. Even the aura radiating from it was quite tame, as if it were a mere house for a regular human.

"You came too?" Craig nodded as he recognized them.

In addition to the chubby young Aetherist, there was also his friend Ryo, his instructor and vice squad captain Wang Xiaoming, and Melissa, a lovely brunette still wearing her New Earth Special Forces combat gear, or at least what little was left of it. The others had to swap theirs for other clothes because all their equipment had been severely damaged.

"Wow, is this all that survived from New Earth?" Will blurted out with a fawning look on his face. "I think next time you should select your members more carefully."

Craig and Ryo shared a look and sighed in unison. Martial arts master Wang Xiaoming displayed a wry smile, patting himself on the back that their captain Alef had perished before hearing those cruel words.

"If I may say so, you don't have that many survivors either." Melissa retorted with a sardonic edge.

"Touché." Carmin giggled as she covered her mouth.

"Still more than you." Lord Phenix crooned, giving her a lofty look.

The young woman flinched but refrained from escalating things further. Jake saved her from further embarrassment by addressing the issue directly.

"What is Ruby's situation?" He asked calmly. "She won't let you in?"

"No..." Craig grimaced bitterly. "Thanks to the Oracle Path, we know she's still inside, but she's not responding.

"Hmm..." Jake was at a loss for words, too. After a moment, he said, "Let me try."

If the Oracle was treating Ruby like his Soulmate, there had to be a more concrete reason than a vague notion of love at first sight. Which, as it turned out, had never happened... He could barely tolerate her existence after all the crap she'd pulled on him. Though now... They were even.

pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 "Sure." Craig saw no harm in letting him have a go. They'd been stuck outside his building for ten minutes.

"Wait for me here." Jake informed his comrades as he walked toward the white wall.

He was still wondering how he was going to do it, but as he tried to check the solidity of the wall in front of him, his hand went through it. Craig, Ryo and Melissa's eyes widened in disbelief.

"It's open?!" They exclaimed with delight as they ran to the wall.

BAM!

They slammed pitifully into the white wall, the resulting crack reminiscent of a coconut being thrown against a windshield. Jake was so stunned that he waved his hand through the wall a second time to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

After massaging his aching forehead, Craig groaned, "It looks like she doesn't want us to come in... I wonder what we did. If you can Jake, apologize for us."

"Okay..."

Taking a short breath, Jake lifted his chin and with a steely look entered the building. The interior was much the same as the exterior, but two people were inside. One standing, the other lying down. Upon recognizing, the standing person, his expression underwent a dramatic change.

"You... What are you doing here?" He asked alertly.

He had good reason to react this way. The woman was a pale beauty with gray skin and long golden hair. She was dressed in a golden armor dress that matched her hair and carried in her right hand a long golden spear with several bells under its spearhead. The most striking feature, however, was the eight golden wings folded behind her back.

He had met this Schwazen woman in the past.

"Why couldn't I be here?" Caphriel smiled, but her face didn't look so innocent anymore.

Not with what Jake could now perceive of her. She was... like him.

"You were corrupted? No, you were a Digestor in the first place too." Jake reasoned aloud as he stared at her with increasing enmity.

She shrugged.

"That's how we Digestors operate. The Corrupt and the regular Digestors make a lot of commotion and noise, but it allows those with better self-control like me to survive and work in the shadows."

Jake was getting more and more confused. That meant she'd been faking it since they first met and that even her imprisonment by the other Corrupt Virtues was staged. However, it made the current situation even more implausible.

"I don't understand." He confessed. "Why ruin your cover now and not before? What do you get out of telling me all this. You could have just saved Ruby's human half and kept the truth to yourself."

" First of all, because you are now able to recognize what I really am, but more simply because it was an order from Aurae. The Mirror Universe rejects Digestors like we reject you, but that doesn't mean we can't coexist under certain circumstances, but I digress... I'm a Digestor Trojan, like Ruby. Aurae created me like all the other Schwazen Angels from Quanoth. He obviously noticed my unique nature from the beginning. Although I instinctively hate the Mirror Universe and everything in it, thanks to Aurae's efforts I can still sort things out. So I am what one might consider a double agent. This time by saving Ruby's human half, I have done both Aurae and my Digestors superiors a favor. Two birds with one stone."

Jake was increasingly puzzled.

"So, what happens to you now that you've accomplished your mission?" He then asked.

She tenderly stroked the sleeping Ruby's silky white hair and gave him a look of mischief, "I will become a Player under Aurae's orders. My Digestor higher-up's orders are also along those lines."

"Aurae and the Oracle are willing to take such risks?" Jake had a hard time swallowing that.

"Of course not. But what else can they do but kill me right now and lose their double agent? If they used a spell or technology to brainwash or enslave me, the Digestors would find out and vice versa. It's a risky bet for both sides, but unlike the Mirror Universe, the Digestors don't fear my betrayal. My mere existence is beneficial to them, because I spread Corruption around by the mere act of breathing. For Aurae and the Oracle, it is not so easy. The risk of me betraying them or having betrayed them is great, but there are too few double agents like me for them to give up that chance, even if it backfires. You have to understand that for every Digestor Trojan like me, there are several million born every second in the Mirror Universe. All of them without exception, including me, will eventually become true Digestors. It will just take more or less time and it is on this short window of lucidity that the Oracle is banking. There are other reasons, but sadly I don't know much more about them than you do."

Jake remained silent for a while, digesting all these revelations, then remarked, "That still doesn't explain why you're telling me all this, let alone why you're still here. You don't have to wait for Ruby to wake up."

She looked at him as if he were an idiot and laughed to herself. At his growing annoyance and bafflement, she finally calmed down and disclosed, "If you don't know yet, you will soon."

Jake felt a trap coming on. Surely the Oracle or Aurae weren't planning to ask him to recruit her into the Myrtharian Nerds to keep an eye on her? Although... Given how well she got along with Hade there was at least one who would be happy to take on that task.

"You're not an idiot." Caphriel smiled as she noticed that he had figured it out.

She walked toward the exit and as she passed by him, she gently patted his shoulder and whispered in his ear with a hot breath, "Looking forward to working with you, boss."

When Jake turned around, the angel had disappeared. He then turned his attention to the sleeping Ruby and was finally able to focus on the other thing that was bothering him. Unlike Caphriel he could tell that she was no longer a Digestor, but then why did he have that same feeling of closeness? That feeling was not there before.

When Jake wondered where this strange sensation came from, Ruby suddenly opened her eyes. Their eyes met.

At that moment, he instantly realized from her blank stare why she hadn't allowed Craig and the others to enter. She simply didn't remember them.

But from the way her eyes bulged with terror when she saw him, she remembered him.

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