The Oracle Paths

1167  A Storm Approaches

Starting from the north, the twilight sky, painted in shades of orange, quickly became veiled by ominous black clouds. The brilliance of the setting sun, a timid purple, intensified almost imperceptibly as the silver moon, taking its place, shone with a hostile light, appearing surreal. If those opaque clouds obscuring the continent hadn't hidden the phenomenon, perhaps the witnesses of the scene would have found the situation familiar.

If one were to treat the two celestial bodies as living beings, it was like two territorial beasts roaring or puffing up to appear more intimidating than they actually were, trying to warn off an intruder encroaching on their turf. A vain attempt to avoid confrontation.

Naturally, due to these clouds appearing out of nowhere, almost no one noticed the change except for a few natives and Players with sharp senses. They were too happy or preoccupied retreating from their respective battlefields, ecstatic to have survived another day of gruesome war.

No one reacted in time when these black clouds swooped down to the ground, sweeping over both the Light Warriors and Underworld Barbarians who had let their guard down, like a swarm of hungry locusts. The radiant Auras shimmering on their bodies were like a delicious feast of fireflies blinking in the night.

Speaking of these fireflies, the hundreds of thousands of fireflies still fighting each other with the energy of despair not long ago began to scream in terror, and one by one, they started to be snuffed out.

Whether they were natives or Players from both sides, those still alive were tough as nails, and once the surprise passed, they fought fiercely. The clash of blades and bestial roars resounded for a long time, exterminating quite a few of these alien creatures shrouded in black light. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

But faced with such a huge number of these infamous spawn lacking the slightest instinct for self-preservation, the defiant cries of the humans and beasts soon fell silent. A handful of Players and natives managed to escape the massacre by sensing the changing tide, escaping a grim death, but the rest were ruthlessly torn apart.

The survivors, covered in wounds, felt a shiver of cold sweat run down their spines as they heard the harrowing screeching sounds and agonized cries behind them, but none turned back. On the contrary, gritting their teeth and with faces pale with sweat, they quickened their pace and bolted without looking back.

About half an hour later, silence returned to the devastated battlefield, and the black cloud took off again, appearing more opaque and massive than before. Simultaneously, the brilliance of the sun and the moon intensified, as if issuing a second warning to the swarm of monsters in vain.

*****

At the same moment, Jake, who was cultivating his Lumyst in his tent, opened his eyes wide, his brow furrowing significantly. Raising his arm in front of his face to observe it, he noticed he had goosebumps.

"I'm... afraid?" He murmured doubtfully.

Though rare, he was not unfamiliar with this kind of premonition. This gift of foresight, combined with his sharp instincts, had accompanied him since he became a Myrtharian. The increase in his stats, particularly his Extrasensory Perception, had only amplified this talent.

Jake had long learned to trust these signals while refraining from overinterpreting them. The only thing he could take for granted was that the threat was real.

Instinctively, his gaze turned north, and although his eyes couldn't see that far, he knew the danger was coming from there. But strangely, when he turned south, considering seeking refuge there, he didn't feel any safer either.

This time, he clearly sensed that this second instinct didn't come from his gift of foresight but from his heightened luck, silently telling him it wasn't the right decision.

As Jake pondered whether to abandon his plan to conquer Lustris, a spiritual fluctuation from his bracelet's Space Storage brought him back to his senses. By leveling up his Lumyst Aura, the restrictions of Twyluxia applied to him had partially lifted, and that included his equipment. Although not as smooth as usual, the connection with his Space Storage and Inner Dimension had regained some vitality. Enough to sense what was happening inside.

Intrigued, Jake projected his senses into his bracelet and quickly found the source of the fluctuation. It came from the Spirit Shell forged by Astrid and the other Eltarians.

'Hmm? An Eltarian nearby?' Jake was perplexed.

For a spiritual impulse for telepathy to reach the Spirit Shell in his bracelet, the sender had to be very close. The partial lifting of his bracelet's restrictions didn't change that.

And if an Eltarian was nearby, one powerful enough to ignore this restriction, Jake should have detected them with his constantly deployed mental sense.

Skeptical, he accepted the communication. As soon as he picked up, Asfrid's calm but relieved voice resonated in his mind.

'Finally, I can reach you!' The spiritual guide of the Eltarians exclaimed before regaining her usual composure.

She had begun to lose patience. She had worked hard to reunite her people and upgrade her Spirit Shell through enchantments to a level sufficient to reach the entire continent. It had taken no less than 18 spirit enchantments for such a Spirit Shell to come into being, much to the dismay of the young woman and her companions.

No less than 250,000 artifacts had been sacrificed during this endeavor. Even after its creation, the group of Eltarians had to pour their Spirit Power inside for almost a day to charge it just enough to attempt a first signal transmission.

Due to the restrictions of their Space Storage, Asfrid and the others didn't expect many Myrtharian Nerds to respond unless they had kept their Spirit Shell on them, but it was worth a try.

Fortunately, their leader had responded on the first attempt. Reliable as always.

'Did you feel it?' Asfrid abruptly changed the subject.

When Jake had responded to the signal, she had been relieved, but she had also detected a terrible reaction in the north. The spiritual impulse sent in that direction had been completely swallowed by something.

Since then, she had instinctively stopped emitting in that direction for fear of luring the entity or entities responsible for the phenomenon. Without Jake, she refused to investigate.

'I did,' Jake acknowledged grimly.

He wasn't surprised Asfrid had felt it too. After all, his gift of foresight came from his Eltarian genes. When the priestess explained what she had felt with her new Spirit Shell, Jake stood up abruptly.

'Are you sure of what you detected?' Jake made her repeat, although he knew internally that it was impossible for the Eltarian to be wrong.

'Certain. Whatever it is, it's spreading southward,' Asfrid reported before adding hesitantly, 'This thing doesn't seem to have a precise direction, but the Spirit Power is consumed faster at the center of the continent and more precisely at...'

Jake's expression became a wall of ice upon hearing this. Even if she hadn't said it, he knew she was obviously not talking about the actual center of Twyluxia but the imaginary boundary marking the separation between the Lustra Plains and the Duskwight Lands.

Without being a genius, there were only three possible explanations for such behavior: The target of this energy-devouring thing was either the neutral zone where the Lumyst Water of the two river halves interacted, the battlefields and fortresses on either side of this boundary, or both at the same time.

Asfrid had just revealed that before losing the signal, she had sensed that this thing had stopped at a specific place. After checking the location on a military map taken from her division commander, determining where the unknown entity was and what it was doing there took no effort.

'The only thing left to determine is whether the threat comes from the Radiant Conclave,' Jake reasoned with a frown, 'but based on what we faced earlier, I doubt it.'

Digestors... He really hoped he wasn't dealing with them this time, but he should have known it wouldn't pass like that as soon as Lucia and the others were sent elsewhere, far from the other Players.

He had anticipated it but didn't expect it to be so difficult to hear about them. He now had a start of an answer.

Apparently, Twyluxia wasn't the only entity within this world-plane. At best, it was just the main continent, possibly a living entity itself.

And if Twyluxia was some kind of World Spirit awakened by the Lumyst River as he suspected, then he had to face the fact: It had at least one enemy.

I'm back once again. I know, it was another long absence, and I'm sorry for that. For a whole bunch of reasons, I also hope it will be the last. So, starting today, daily releases are resuming.

Arkinslize