The Oracle Paths

No one knew exactly when the Celestial City would depart, nor when the end of the world would occur. It could be a week, a month or a century from now. His Main Mission didn't include a time frame, but the Race Against Time theme was a clear indication that he'd better get his ass in gear.

Anyone who moved to the Celestial City too soon would have to fend off the relentless onslaught of millions of desperate migrants. No matter how strong they were, if the oncoming waves of attacks continued unabated for too long, the best warriors would eventually succumb from exhaustion.

This planet was huge. Champions and monsters at the top of the power ladder must have been tens, if not hundreds of thousands. Those considered mighty enough to become local tyrants, but not quite powerful enough to dominate the world, probably numbered in the millions.

The knock-on effect was that those with true personal or military power to claim a piece of the island would wait until the last possible moment before boarding to minimize the amount of enemies to be fought and the length of those battles.

But that didn't mean that those survivors on borrowed time had to sit back and wait for the final day. There was a realistic way to increase their chances and it had already begun.

The monster invasions and wars raging everywhere were the epitome of this. Although many also liked to take advantage of chaos and anarchy, forcing monsters and heroes to kill each other was by far the safest way to permanently reduce the number of rivals.

All those wretched monsters and mercenaries, those soldiers desperately fighting against each other, were only pawns and cannon fodder for other figureheads who probably hadn't even moved a finger yet. Once their numbers were sufficiently reduced, they would take action.

To adopt this strategy, however, they needed to know when the Celestial City would leave, or if not, the exact date of the apocalypse.

"Did the Aurae clergy tell you how long the Celestial City would remain in this world?" Jake asked the youngster as he walked. They could have flown, but it would have been harder for them to chat.

To his disappointment, the boy wracked his brains over the question for a long time, his index finger resting on his chin in a silly pose. His answer came out even more underwhelming.

"I think it was a year or two? Unless it was a month or two?" He stammered as he sought his approval with his eyes.

"Why are you answering me in a quizzical tone?" Jake's face scrunched up in annoyance. "I was the one who asked you the question. So obviously I don't know the answer. It's not a test."

The teenager shivered like a hare flushed out by a predator, but he sputtered back anyway,

"These are the Cathedral oracles who deliver the god Aurae's prophecies and reserve to themselves the right to interpret them. One hears everything and its opposite from their mouths and it is said that only the major Archbishops and the cardinals know what it is really about. For a reliable answer, only a member of the Divine Academy can answer you."

"A prophecy? Do people believe in this crap?" Jake blurted out with contempt.

A dumbfounded, not to say appalled expression flashed across the child's pale face as he heard the blasphemous words. As expected from a fearless monster. He did not even fear the fury of a god!

The truth was not that Jake did not fear Aurae, but that he knew full well that this prophecy was just a sham. Although for him it was a mere Ordeal, for them it was truly doomsday.

Turning his head furiously around to make sure an intruder wasn't spying on them, Trash whispered nervously with a conspiratorial snicker,

"The prophecies the priests tell us and their interpretations, Uncle Oaf always said they were a bunch of hooey and that those priests reciting them were just charlatans. On the other hand, the original Aurae prophecy, no one dares to question it."

"What initial prophecy? It remains a bombastic litany uttered by another breathing being." Jake refuted dismissively. "Unless Aurae himself recites it, I'm afraid it's still quackery."

"You've never heard Aurae's prophecy? I thought even monsters had heard of it!" The teenager was no longer just shocked this time, but downright frightened, though with a strange rush of anticipation.

"Should I?" Jake was far too lazy to come up with a half-baked lie. If the kid gave him any trouble over this, he'd let nature take its course, dumping him back in the middle of a monster horde.

The good news was that Trash had a strong will to live, and he at least had the ability to recognize the blunders to avoid.

"Ahem, you should..." The youngster corrected him forthrightly. "For one thing because everyone heard it in their heads when the Celestial City appeared. The other reason is that unless you've been living in a cave since the dawn of time, it's impossible not to have come across one of the Prophetic Steles. The planet is littered with them, even the Wilderness. They are indestructible and can be found near all important water sources, hilltops and mountains. There would even be some at the bottom of the ocean."

Jake suddenly gasped.

"Are these steles that incredible?" At the same time, he mentally asked Xi, 'Is it possible to churn out a prophecy of this magnitude for an Ancient Designer?'

[It depends on what kind of prophecy we're talking about.] She replied allusively. [If this is a true prediction involving many living beings, there are very few individuals in the Mirror Universe who can accurately predict the future over so many years. Although Aurae is an Ancient Designer, he is not necessarily capable of this.]

[However, these steles appear to be extremely ancient. If they were not created with this world' s new reiteration, then it may be that the end of the world doesn't destroy everything, but only the living beings and the traces of their passage on this earth. In this case, these steles would not really be prophecies, but simply a record of a phenomenon that is constantly recurring on this planet. Even if Aurae destroys almost everything with each iteration, he must have left a few clues here and there for the new natives to have a chance to prepare themselves.]

"Do you know where any of these steles are?" Jake questioned the teenager. "Unless you can recite it by heart."

He was more pessimistic about that second alternative. So far, the kid hadn't given him the impression of having a brilliant intellect.

"There's a stele in front of every major city's cathedral. Trash revealed before proudly boasting, "And yes, I can recite the prophecy! I don't know much, for sure, but Uncle Oaf forced me to recite it so many times that it's forever etched in my noggin."

The teenager modestly put his fist in front of his mouth to clear his throat, then began to declaim,

"When the celestial city descends from the heavens, the day it opens its gates shall bring forth broken friendships and an aeon of brutality.

The chosen ones will be welcomed as kings, while the renegades will be sentenced to carnage and damnation.

As stormy ash cover the sky, the guilty, knowledgeable of what no one knows and ignorant of all that is known, strong but classless, shall bring forth an age of inhumanity and depravity.

Blood shall be shed, empires shall fall, until the last heroes turned villains claim their place in glory.

It shall be then, when the purifying flames fall on Quanoth, that the old shall become the new again, ushering in a new age."

Dead silence.

Jake stayed blown away for a short while before coming to his senses. This prophecy was short but instructive!

The guilty ones were obviously the Players. They knew things that no one else knew, but ignored basic truths that even a child could recite.

His ignorance of this prophecy, which was on par with knowing the name of one' s own country's president on Earth, had instantly blown his cover.

And indeed, now that the teen had overcome his fright and broken the ice, he followed up with another accusatory-like question.

"Ahem... What's your class, sir? Someone as powerful as you must have an exceptional class like Berserker, Great Hero or something..."

The corner of Jake's lips twitched at the question, but he wasn't afraid of anything or anyone on Quanoth.

'So what, if they find out I'm an intruder? They're too busy killing each other to care about me. Still, from now on I'll be more careful once I'm in town. I'd better get a Soul Class as soon as possible to avoid suspicion.'

[Side Mission n°1 : Acquire at least one Soul Class. The rating will depend on the Soul Class(es) obtained at the end of the Ordeal.]

He laughed wrily. The Oracle seemed to agree with him.

When he received no response from Jake, the kid took his silence as an admission and did not insist. When he intended to stick to his doubts, the 'guilty' indifferently admitted his crimes.

"Hey Trash, how do you get a Soul Class?"