The Oracle Paths

"Demons?" Jake and Will stammered in unison.

"Demons, fiends, devils, call them by any name you like." Cekt spouted imperturbably. "You wouldn't know the difference between the three anyway."

Jake was dying to retort that he had memorized the entire Oraclean dictionary, but hardly tempted by a sterile debate he wisely held his tongue while smacking his lips. Will, alas, dove headlong into the honey trap.

"Devils are generally above demons and fiends are... monsters?"

An expression of pure gloating suddenly distorted the little alien's face, as if he was already savoring what was to come.

"Wrong! Outrageous simplification! And partially misleading by the way." The Aetherist tsked as he wagged his finger no with a know-it-all look. "Demons, fiends and devils can all be monsters, but they can also look just like you... or pretty close. Traditionally, a demon is an evil spirit or fallen angel, but when it is used to describe a monster or creature the connotation is not necessarily negative. Strong mythological beasts can be seen as demons too. But a demon can also have a more metaphorical meaning as when we speak of an inner demon gnawing at the mind of an individual such as an obsessive fear or a desire for unfulfilled revenge. If the conditions are met, sometimes these demons will come to life in a literal sense. These are the evil spirits born and feeding off our negative emotions."

Glancing absentmindedly at the corrosive, dark energy-laden smoke swamping his shield, Cekt conjured up a small orb of light in the palm of his hands, which floated under his wrinkled face, to reveal a devilish grin with yellowed teeth.

Resuming his lecturing, the alien chuckled,

"There are many different kinds of demons, like the Demons of Fear, Anger, Envy, Lust, Pride and so on. When I was talking about demons swarming around this floor, I was talking about this kind... You don't see them, but there are tens of thousands of them around us. They blend in with the miasma and dark smoke surrounding us, hoping to feed on your distress and agitation until they drive you to suicide."

Gulp!

Will shuddered with fright as the small alien dropped his bomb and he couldn't help but nervously look at the opaque smoke swirling around them. Even with active concentration, he felt nothing. If that old fart wasn't pranking them, then this was downright terrifying.

Jake was calmer, but by his furrowed brow he was clearly not as collected as he appeared. He couldn't detect anything either. Even when he activated his Myrtharian Eyes, he could only perceive a diffuse aura. It was as if thousands of energies of different natures had blended together, making it impossible to identify them clearly.

If there really were demons evolving in this miasma, then he was indeed helpless against them.

"How do we fight them?" Jake asked sullenly.

Cekt smiled approvingly and answered,

"Against a few low-level demons, a resolute and steady mind is enough and you can just ignore them. What is folklore or fantasy in inferior worlds becomes the norm in a world with high Aether Density. These phenomena are commonplace wherever the Aether Density exceeds 100,000. At this level, the Aether starts to have tangible effects on matter and mind whether we like it or not. Take a walk through the slums of an Oracle Shelter in System A1 and you'll see these spirit demons spawn before your very eyes... There, the Digestors are only one aspect of the problem..."

The old alien was an inexhaustible mine of information, but so far he had revealed only unpleasant secrets. Still, Will read between the lines and remarked,

"If Evil Spirits can be born from people's minds in this way, couldn't Good Spirits be born in the same way?"

Cekt nodded in approval again, but he offered no explanation this time.

"You missed the point. To birth these demons, the Dungeon Digestor was inspired by someone or something. Think carefully, is there anyone you've found suspicious?"

Jake shook his head apologetically. Shady Evolvers were a dime a dozen. Urul was clearly an evil creature, but he was the template for the orcs on the first and second floors, and his remains were probably rotting somewhere on the fourth floor, since the Floor Boss had indeed shown up completely unscathed. It didn't look like he was running from anyone...

Will, on the other hand, had a completely different reaction. After receiving Cekt's question, his eyes widened in understanding and he gritted his teeth in fury.

"This bitch! It can only be her."

Jake immediately understood who he was talking about. It could only be the veiled woman. Since no one had seen her face, it supported that assumption. Will hadn't told them yet how Kyle had lost his life, but he had seen how she had driven all the Evolvers crazy.

It sounded like the kinds of abilities a demon might have.

Will was about to ask a few more questions when Maeve started wriggling on Jake's back. Because of what had happened to Kyle, he had refused to leave her behind with Mufasa and the others. The real reason, especially, was that he hadn't seen Bhuzkoc's corpse anywhere.

Cekt frowned when he saw the young woman stir and with a telekinetic flick sent her back into the arms of Morpheus.

"We don't have any more time to waste." The alien scowled stiffly. "We've been here too long already. We need to help this Nosk."

'A Nosk?' Jake and Will thought with bewilderment before remembering the alien with an imposing ice aura that even his Bloodline struggled to fend off.

This Nosk had made an impression on him because he had mastered to a high degree an element that was the weak point of his species. In theory, this alien had no flaws that his foes could exploit.

"This Nosk is able to fight here?" Jake marveled. If that was the case, then this wasn't just a belligerent brute like the rest of its kind.

The trio then began to fly in a certain direction under the guidance of Cekt. The Aetherist's powers spared them a long and arduous walk through the thick, slimy substance, but the two humans were still disoriented.

Seeing no further than the tip of their noses, they had to rely on the tiny alien and the omnipresent darkness was mentally taxing. They couldn't wait for all this to end so they could go home and rest.

Sooner, but also later than they had hoped, the shield carrying them decelerated abruptly and the trio landed soundlessly. For Jake and Will, they might as well not have moved at all. The black sea and the opaque miasma were their only landmarks, and if they had been left to their own devices they could have roamed these waters until the end of time.

"Are you sure the Nosk is here?" Will raised a suspicious eyebrow.

From inside the shield, they couldn't hear a sound.

"I forgot to tell you, but this miasma also absorbs sound. If you want to soundproof your Floating Island, you know where to get it..." Cekt joked cheerfully, but he snorted with a vexed look when he didn't get the expected laughter. "Hmmph, not funny."

Jake activated his Myrtharian Sight and by channeling all of his Perception Aether into one eye he was able to discern two fighting auras with great difficulty. It wasn't that he had gotten stronger in a few minutes, but that the two entities fighting each other possessed incredibly powerful Aether signatures. Because of their proximity, the miasma didn't seem to be able to completely smother them.

Cekt waved his hand and the miasma obstructing their vision dispersed as if by a strong breeze. Stunned and resentful, Jake and Will glared at the old alien. If a look could kill, the Aetherist would have been vaporized instantly.

'If you could do that from the start, why leave us anguished in the dark all this time?'

Once the miasma had dissipated, the reality of the situation was unsurprisingly laid bare before their eyes. As expected, they recognized the Nosk they had briefly seen at the entrance to the Dungeon engaged in a fierce battle with a nightmarish creature.

It was funny how reality sometimes exceeded fiction. This demon was pretty much exactly as the legends and stories described them: horned, monstrous, dark with membranous demonic wings.

Going into more detail, it was a humanoid monster about three meters tall that looked like condensed dark energy. A silvery red glow pulsed where its two eyes had been and a cloud of miasma draped its body, forming a long spectral mantle connected to and feeding off the surrounding corrupted energy.

The creature exhibited tremendous physical power and dexterity, despite its ethereal state. Its body could be as solid and heavy as a train, but in the next moment become a cloud of poisonous gas paralyzing the senses and the mind. The dark energy forming its body could also be harnessed and shaped into the weapons and projectiles of its choosing, which then beamed the same reddish light as its evil eyes.

What was most unbelievable was his unparalleled combat expertise. The demon displayed an unreal martial proficiency that Jake hadn't even seen on TV. The most shocking part was that the Nosk had no trouble keeping up and didn't yield an inch to its opponent.

Jake and Will could only see the unimaginable speed and transformation abilities of the demon, but Cekt made sure to remind them that the true talent of a demon lay elsewhere. It was only then that they noticed the faint reddish glow growing in the Nosk's eyes.

This duel seemed balanced, but the Nosk was slowly losing his mind.