The Oracle Paths

His vision came back into focus and pooling what mental strength he had left, Jake wobbled to his feet with great difficulty. If anyone could see his insides right now, they would have diagnosed him as dead on borrowed time.

His stomach, instead of looking like a skin sack, now looked more like a sea urchin saturated with black light. Those needles were mutating and deteriorating the mucous membranes and organs nearby, transforming those cells from the inside out in a way that did not look like evolution.

Despite Jeanie's help, his digestion of the Mana Storm was failing. Jake knew his body better than anyone else and he knew it was in trouble.

It was no longer the time to worry about others. Charity always began with oneself. Giving others money you didn't have, compromising your health and your future for others was never a wise idea.

'If I forgot to save someone, sorry. I did my best.' Jake inwardly apologized without showing any sign of guilt. He didn't owe anyone anything.

The Mana Storm's conflicting energies finally flowed out of his digestive system and into his bloodstream. His lava veins were snuffed out, first changing color unceasingly, then turning black. The blood affected by this melting pot of spells irrigated his brain a split second later and his already awful headache reached unprecedented heights that he would not have dreamed possible even in his worst nightmares.

"AARRRRRRRGH!"

He thought he had seen it all, experienced it all after exposing his Spirit Body to the radiation of a star, but at that moment he realized he was still wet behind the ears. He was far from having experienced the pinnacle of suffering.

Jake hadn't even taken a step when he collapsed to the ground again.

"Jake!" Jeanie began to sob as she bit her lip, shaking with despair. She really didn't know what to do to help him.

With nothing else to do, she concentrated harder than she ever had in her entire pathetic life and doubled the power of her Water Spirit Shield again. Jake's symptoms were immediately alleviated, but the Mana Storm was not purged. Still, his mind regained some strength and as he vomited a gush of black blood he staggered to his feet once more.

While he still could, he bit his tongue until it bled and tried to teleport directly to his building. He failed miserably.

Amidst the general indifference, he crashed with Jeanie a few meters further than his previous position. Even his body was failing him. Like Gerulf and Rogen before him, he could barely feel his lower body. Looking down, he saw that his legs had begun to warp, their structure becoming more and more like the Mana Storm. His arms and torso were following the same path.

Only his brain, and more specifically the Aether Soul Core located under the glabella of his forehead, was stubbornly resisting, its spiritual energy condensed to the extreme to buy himself some time. It also meant that he was no longer able to muster any mental power, nor could he cast any Aether or Reiga Spells.

"If I can't teleport, I'll just walk." Jake gritted his teeth and after getting up a third time began to walk on his hands while he could still feel them.

Pushing hard against the ground with his forearms, he propelled himself a hundred meters or so forward, covering a good bit of the distance between him and his destination. On the third leap, his arms failed him, his bones giving way under his weight and turning into billowing light.

Rolling over onto his back, he lifted his upper torso with difficulty, took a sharp breath and exhaled with all his might. A blast of air rocketed him twenty meters away, then his lungs gave out. He was in so much pain that he couldn't even think straight.

If Xi hadn't taken the initiative at that moment, he would surely have died.

[Oracle Heal.] She said casually.

Indeed, he still had an Oracle Heal left! His body, 90% converted into Mana Storm, immediately returned to its original appearance, but the conflicting Mana currents inside him were not purged from his system.

Nonetheless, for Jake it was more than enough to change the game. The pain subsided to bearable levels, his soul regained its full integrity, his spiritual energy levels peaked, and his body regained its Olympic fitness.

On the surface, he was back to where he started, but his situation was in fact radically different. Before, he was already injured and exhausted, both physically and mentally, but now he was at full strength. The other crucial difference was that a tiny portion of the Mana Storm had indeed been digested and absorbed into his cells.

The matter produced with his Gold Stone Skin had also neutralized a significant amount. Thanks to Jeanie's Water Spirit Shield, the Mana Storm on the outside could not reach him. After his last rescue, he hadn't touched anyone directly and that meant that the Mana Storm's energy wreaking havoc on his body could only decrease.

Jeanie nearly fainted with happiness as she saw Jake heal instantly. It was probably the most miraculous case of instant healing she had ever witnessed. And it was coming from a fairy who grew up in a world where magic was part of their daily lives.

Rejuvenated, Jake tried to teleport again, but this time he was caught off guard when nothing happened.

"Hmm? What's going on now?" He frowned.

"Cough cough."

Hearing Jeanie cough at the top of her lungs, he reached out with one hand and brought her down to his face. The tiny Min Min glowed a million times brighter than an LED light, but with his acute vision he noticed her pallor right away along with the clammy sweat dripping from her entire body.

"You should have told me if maintaining that healing barrier was wearing you out." Jake smiled wryly. "I wouldn't have tried to save everyone."

She shook her head vehemently.

"It's not that. The Mana Storm has become... heavy." The fairy gasped for breath.

Jake immediately focused on his own sensations and realized she was telling the truth. He hadn't considered this because his basic strength was almost 110,000 times that of a normal human. In contrast, Jeanie's was only 0.5 the last time he checked. That was half the strength of a full-grown man despite being over level 90.

As the Mana Storm grew in power, its density also increased. Ironically, Jeanie had no trouble resisting its baleful energies, but its "weight" was capable of crushing her.

It didn't account for his failure to teleport, though.

[The Mana Storm saturated the air with so much energy that space has become unstable.] Xi suggested gloomily. [I advise you to hurry back to your building before spatial rifts start popping up everywhere. When that happens, the planet Quanoth will cease to exist for good.]

"How much time do I have?"

[A few seconds at most.]

He covered Jeanie sitting in his palm with his other hand to relieve her of her burden and then broke into a sprint toward his building. Now that he knew Jeanie was so frail, he was careful not to accelerate too sharply. She seemed to be able to withstand sudden bursts of acceleration despite her small body, but the last thing he wanted was for her barrier to inadvertently go off or his life would be in danger.

A building loomed in front of him and Jake breathed out in relief, his tension easing just a little. Without slowing down, he ran straight into the wall and then,

BAM!

He slammed into the indestructible steel wall. The rebound threw him violently backwards and he ricocheted on the ground several times before stabilizing his fall. Dazed, he congratulated himself for having such a solid head.

If this was the Jake of his third Ordeal his skull might have exploded like an overripe fruit if he had hit it at that speed. Minerva's barrier that he had collided with while flying at top speed still appeared from time to time in his nightmares.

Disoriented, Jake jumped to his feet and looked carefully at the building in front of him. He immediately noticed that he had a problem. A huge problem.

This was the wrong building.

"Silver-gray walls, ice-blue veins streaking its surface, black lightning, some weird light and other kinds of energies I can't quite identify..." Jake calmly listed. As he listed the characteristics of this building, his expression darkened, becoming more and more sinister.

No matter how he looked at it, this building was unmistakably that of...

[Ruby.] Xi answered in his place.

A foreboding feeling suddenly chilled his blood. It was soon confirmed when he received a notification from the Oracle System:

[Special Ordeal Mission: Prevent Ruby's Digestor half from entering her building. Failure will result in -1000 points in your final Ordeal Rating and a demotion of 2 Oracle Ranks.]

At the same time, he felt a hot breath at the back of his neck. He immediately understood what had just happened.

"FUCK YOU, ORACLE!"