The Oracle Paths

"W-What?! You're going back to Laudarkvik?!" Aisling stammered, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"I need some materials I can' t find here." Jake vaguely explained out of laziness to elaborate.

"What do you need?"

Jake opened his mouth at first to tell her that he would figure it out, but changed his mind when he recalled that she knew the inner workings of the city far better than he did.

"I need any special materials of the earth, metal, fire, light or spirit element." So he revealed, relying heavily on the concept of elements to make his point. "Otherwise, I am interested in any treasure, herb, potion or food that can make me stronger.

On Quanoth, where Mana was the predominant energy system, the notion of affinity and elemental mana particles was widespread and even children knew what it meant.

Aisling quirked her eyebrows in surprise after listening to his strange request. This Guilty had quite an appetite. She didn't answer him right away, weighing the pros and cons of what to do. Eventually, she let go and suggested an unexpected alternative,

"What you are looking for can be found in Laudarkvik, but these are resources controlled by the 9 Factions. With the escalation of hostilities over the past few months, Laudarkvik is close to civil war and all the stores selling these resources have been closed and without a permit you won't get far."

Jake's heart sank as he learned just how bad the situation had gotten in the last few months. He hadn't realized it when he sneaked into the Draculs' HQ, but Qewie's ambush should have tipped him off. On the surface, the city seemed peaceful, but most of the population had already chosen sides or would soon be forced to make a choice, willingly or not.

"You wouldn't be telling me this so quietly if you didn't have solutions to offer." Jake suddenly remarked as he sensed the young woman's slight nervousness.

" That's right. I do have a proposal. After my capture and that of the other officers, my Mutant faction has become worthless, but as long as Haynt and the coalition formed by Duke Gole are still standing I doubt they will have the guts to push their luck. If we go back to the Mutant HQ, I'll give you full access to our vault. We may be the poorest of the 9 Factions, but after all these years we've amassed quite a bit of wealth..."

It was now Jake's turn to be silent. In life, when a gift seemed too good to be true it often was.

"Going back to the Mutant HQ could be dangerous... What do you want in return?" Jake asked.

Aisling visibly relaxed when she saw that he didn't immediately refuse. With a rosy face, she looked him straight in the eye and said in one breath without catching her breath,

"My previous offer still stands, but this time it's not a vice-leader position I'm offering you, but my whole body and soul. You can do whatever you want with me and what belongs to me and that includes what's left of the Mutant faction. I have only one condition: You must also accept my little sister into your faction and if possible save my father."

The Dhampir Demon was bright red after offering her body to a man she barely knew, but Jake ignored her blush to properly consider her offer. In truth, Aisling was very clear on her situation and considering her own interests, she wouldn't lose much in the process.

The Mutant faction was worth little or nothing. The 26 elite Mutants, including the three Vice-leaders serving as the backbone of her faction, were either dead or captured by enemy factions like the Demons or Lost Divinities. All the Mutants who were able to resist had fought to the bitter end to repel the invaders and had paid for their courage with their lives. Now, apart from a few adventurers on missions and some retired veterans, there were only cowards and non-combatants left.

By handing him the leader position, Aisling wasn't doing him any favors at all. Especially knowing that there were only 10,000 places available in the Celestial City and that the Mutant district had at least a hundred thousand civilians. Aware that she couldn't save them all, she had made peace with herself and given up this vain hope to devote herself to the only person who was truly dear to her: her sister.

The rest didn't matter. If her father hadn't sacrificed himself to try to save her she would probably never have included his name in her terms.

In the end, Jake accepted her pledge of allegiance wholeheartedly and they set out for Laudarkvik. Aisling with her level 82 and hybrid bloodline was much stronger than Carmin and the duo had no trouble sneaking into the city. By now, the former Mutant leader didn't have the energy to be surprised, and Jake's magic tricks left her unimpressed.

The city had indeed changed a lot in a short time and the inhabitants' discontent was growing louder. The miasma of negative thoughts formed a black cloud over the city for those who could see them, while crime had skyrocketed in recent weeks.

The number of disappearances, kidnappings, and deaths by bloodletting or cannibalism was only increasing and at this rate there would soon not be enough people in the Slums to feed the Vampires, Were-beings, and Demons enjoying themselves.

The Thrajah clan no longer shied away from feeding in the open. All the Were-beings clans that had joined the Demons had no restraint either, treating the Outer City as their private hunting ground. In the slums' filthy streets, splashes of dried blood, rotting human bones and other gruesome scenes were commonplace, and the residents lived in terror of their impending death, slowly sinking into madness.

If before the commoners of the city were treated like milking cows that were kept for as long as possible to maximize their milk supply, now they were just cattle waiting for slaughter. The ghosts and specters who once obeyed the Astral had betrayed Haynt to serve the demons, and there was nothing to keep them from tormenting the population to feed off their desperation.

At this rate, even if a civil war did not break out, Laudarkvik would still go under.

Before reaching the Mutant HQ at the peak of Laudarkvik, they made a stop at the fourth plateau where the Mutant district and its office were located. Aisling immediately broke down in tears when she saw the state of her former territory.

Apart from rats and crows, there was not a living soul here. There was blood and corpses everywhere, and the colorful buildings and villas lining the roads had long since been looted if not outright destroyed. At the end of the main road, a once stately five-story building had been replaced by a mountain of rubble.

Aisling fell to her knees, petrified with horror and despair, as she stopped in front of a small, lifeless body crushed by a rock the size of a pickup truck. Jake scanned the corpse with his mental sense and reassured her in a soft voice,

"She's not your sister."

"No... But I knew her too. Her name was Cecil and she was Norton's granddaughter."

Jake remembered the grizzled Mutant who had led their rescue mission to Lodunvals. He, too, had died in a cruel way. Now even his innocent granddaughter had passed away.

Scanning the rest of the wreckage, he found several corpses with similar features, all of which had been tortured to death or worse, especially the good-looking men and women. This was probably not Lost Divinities' style, but rather the handiwork of Demons or Vampires from the Thrajah clan.

"At least she died on the spot." Jake consoled her earnestly. It wasn't until she saw the other bodies that Aisling realized what he was referring to.

Her face turned livid as she recognized each of his bodies and she began to shake so badly that he thought she too was about to have a seizure. Fortunately, this didn't happen and after a while, all emotion left her face, leaving only a bone-chilling coldness.

"I guess it's over for the treasure?" Jake quipped as he reached the spot Aisling had indicated.

The secret entrance to the underground staircase leading to the vault had been exposed and the orichalcum door protecting its treasures had been opened. Perhaps because it was too heavy, but the raiders had left it where it was after robbing everything.

However, as he examined the empty room and the orichalcum door left intact, Jake couldn't help but voice his doubts.

"It wasn't the Demons who stole the treasure." He swore as he inspected the strange lock made up of multiple cogs, but most importantly the same magical optical security scanner found in the Draculs' mansion. "And there's no blood here either. If this isn't a setup then the treasure was removed before the district was attacked. Any idea who it might be?"

Aisling fell silent for a moment, then violently punched the wall to her right, a 40 centimeter crater denting the stone wall where her fist had landed.

"Besides me, only Rifalen was allowed to go here." She gritted her teeth so hard Jake could hear them grind. "I didn't see his body among the casualties and he wasn't with me when I was captured because I had instructed him to take care of the HQ in my absence."

Jake watched her for a second, but he felt obliged to say it,

"In that case, unless he was forced to, we have to face the facts and consider that he betrayed us as well."