The Oracle Paths

Deep in the night, in the heart of the Dark Races district, Fourth Plateau.

The cobblestone alleys were pitch black and empty, the stores closed, the shutters and doors of the residences long since shut. The streetlights flickered ominously, until they died out entirely in the vicinity of an old mansion that looked like some kind of haunted house.

The house was built like a medieval fortress, it stood stone-still and motionless on a small artificial hill. Each window was shut, curtains drawn. The balconies were empty like ghastly open mouths, or perhaps the house was merely biding its time.

The windows were boarded up with rotting wood and painted with graffiti and the door was ajar.

The mansion was three stories high with a half-circle balcony. A black light used to glow through its walls, the paint peeling off, exposing the ancient brick beneath, the iron fence rusted over the years and the iron gates torn out at the bottom.

"Is this the place?" Jake asked confirmation in the darkness to the shadow standing silently beside him.

"It is boss." Hephais chuckled.

"As expected from an Android Lich." Jake smirked.

The scent of mold and rotten wood rotated on the breeze, it caught in their throat. Jake could also sniff the damp musty smell of old timber, damp earth and decay.

This house really did look derelict, but was eerie enough to deter even the most intrepid squatters. However, Vhoskaud had made a mistake in letting Xellmezon and his Undeads join him here.

The smell of death was not so easy to hide. Because Vhoskaud was basically a robot, smells were just data to him, mere electrical signals to be interpreted. Needless to say, he was unable to comprehend how much an army of Undeads actually stank.

The neighborhood's desertion should have long ago raised a red flag for him. Maybe he had realized it and didn't care, thinking he was untouchable, but tonight would prove him wrong.

"Commence the operation." Jake uttered coldly.

At that moment, the Myrtharian Nerds standing like specters behind him stepped forth under the flickering glow of the last functioning streetlight. Enya, Esya, Hade, Aisling, Lucia, Temra, Ingranus, Nicolet, Svara, Hephais, Kevin, several hundred Myrmidians, Kintharians and Throsgenians were there.

Mirroring this elite group, Wyatt, Seren and about 50 Vampire Nobles emerged from an alley on the other side of the building. A third group consisting of Kenway, Lysander and the surviving Werebears from Kevin's pack appeared in a third direction. From the opposite direction, Haynt appeared alone as a being of light, his starry outline shining on the dilapidated mansion as if to cleanse it of its filth and viciousness.

For one interminable second, a leaden silence settled in the desolate street, then like a single mind they entered the fray. There were no explosions, nor was there a loud entrance. Copying Hephais, they entered the building like blurry shadows at lightning speed, leaving silent afterimages in their wake.

Jake detected a barrier, but it didn't matter. It was already too late. Even if Vhoskaud had the means to teleport away, Xellmezon would be unable to follow suit. Besides, he was pretty confident that the android wouldn't abandon his workshop so easily.

Hephais turned into black smoke, blending into the shadows of the building and without triggering the barrier he slipped into the mansion through the gap in a window.

Hade pulled a black twelve-sided dice from his pocket and threw it against the barrier. A hole formed at the point of impact as if boiling water had been poured over butter. He and dozens of Myrmidians immediately jumped through the gap.

Wyatt's eyes began to glow like fluorescent rubies, and a heartbeat later, he and his companions passed through the barrier as if it didn't exist. They then turned into a pool of blood and slipped through the grooves, pipes and vents to enter the building without a sound. Those who were not able to do so used their Blood Energy to carve a stealthy entrance into the wall.

Haynt transformed into a starbeam and like a laser drilled a tiny hole through the barrier and wall, then reassembled his body inside the mansion. Jake simply covered himself with runes to disguise his presence, then after doing the same for the two sisters and his other comrades he simply teleported inside.

Kevin and the other Werebears sniffed the ground around the mansion, then suddenly transformed into their semi-bestial form and pummeled the cobblestone floor until it collapsed several hundred meters deep. So much for their stealth efforts.

"Sigh..." Jake shook his head wryly. "At least he found their HQ I guess..."

Indeed, as Kevin and his Werebears crashed through the floor, they landed heavily in a huge underground warehouse in which tens, hundreds of thousands of Undeads were aimlessly loitering, waiting to be summoned to a battlefield to wreak havoc and fill their forever insatiable stomachs.

As soon as Kevin and his pack appeared in their line of sight, disrupting their sleepy routine, these thousands of Undeads simultaneously came to life and charged at them with drooling mouths. Among these undead were animals, humans, Wengols, but also more unusual aliens like Nosks.

As the group of Werebears contemplated this immense army coming at them, they became livid, but Kevin let out a deafening roar, his eyes emitting an incredibly pure emerald green light. A barely discernible psychic wave spread through the pack with Kevin as its epicenter and the other Werebears erupted into a berserk state.

Dozens of bears as massive as dinosaurs filled the warehouse, their expansion knocking hundreds of zombies into the air. As for Kevin, he kept his human form but his skin was covered with golden and dark green stripes while his size and musculature tripled in volume.

Suddenly, a huge Wengol Undead armed with a long scythe slashed down at him, trying to chop his head off.

Clang!

The mithril scythe rippled on his fur generating a spray of sparks, then undaunted, Kevin took a fighting stance and punched forward at supersonic speed. A hole as wide as a table replaced the Wengol's upper body, the blast of air that passed through it traveling all the way to the end of the underground warehouse and blowing thousands of poorly placed zombies into the air.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

A crazed robotic voice suddenly erupted a few meters away from Jake's cousin and he abruptly discovered the presence of a hooded android that wasn't there a second earlier. This android was somewhat different from the ones Jake had described to him, but he recognized the newcomer without difficulty.

"Vhoskaud I presume?" Kevin grinned with a hungry look as he banged his fists together.

"And you are?" The Lich asked with a confused look.

"Your enemy. Jake's cousin."