The Oracle Paths

Chapter 1245: They Are Already Among Us

Melkree’s almond-shaped yellow eyes widened with an almost comical delay when she heard the shocking revelation. She did look surprised, though among dryads such expressions were rather uncommon. Her face then puckered in an oddly adorable way as she tried to recall what she remembered about her former second-in-command.

She vaguely remembered having relied heavily on him back when she led a small faction, though she had already forgotten even the faction’s name. She only had the faint impression that the word Forest had been part of it. In the end, if Albert hadn’t suddenly popped out of nowhere to save her, she would have completely forgotten about him.

Watching her think and mumble sluggishly while absentmindedly twisting her pale green hair, Azeus and Jake might have found her endearing—if not for the way that impression was quickly ruined by her yellow teeth, tangled hair, and questionable personal hygiene.

No matter how cute her human appearance seemed, she was still a tree.

What interested Jake the most, however, was that Albert—the lycan—didn’t seem panicked in the slightest. The confusion on his face at the accusation looked entirely genuine. If Jake were suddenly accused of being dead, his reaction would probably look very similar.

As a result, it was now Jake’s—and Azeus’s—turn to be confused.

The former prospect of Lost Divinities didn’t know the situation, let alone this Albert, but he knew Jake wouldn’t throw out such an accusation without being at least somewhat certain.

While Melkree kept thinking endlessly, trying to piece together her hole-riddled memories—no doubt the result of her prolonged detachment and indifference toward events—Jake took the opportunity to continue staring at the lycan pinned to the ground beneath his killing intent before stepping closer at a slow pace.

His galactic eyes, as clear as moonlight yet filled with an ocean of darkness, narrowed in puzzlement as he examined the canine that had somehow returned from the dead.

He circled him without a word. His senses unfolded in silence.

His Oracle Scan swept across Albert’s body. His aura. His Aether. His attributes. His bloodline. Even the faintest energetic fluctuations in his Spirit Body.

Nothing.

Everything matched perfectly.

The lycan’s Aetheric signature was stable. His Saint Bernard lycanthrope bloodline was intact. His stats, his life aura, his spiritual structure… everything aligned with the memories Jake retained of him—even accounting for significant progress.

Even more troubling: he felt none of the familiar impulses.

No devouring hunger.

No latent malice.

None of the insidious, unsettling pressure that Digestors typically radiated.

And yet…

The fewer signs he found that something was wrong with Albert, the more convinced he became that something was off. Over time, Jake had learned not to ignore such instincts.

He couldn’t directly sense Corruption—the Aether Code responsible was far too compressed for his current level—but the combination of his abilities created something like a meta-sense, allowing him to detect a vague dissonance surrounding this Albert.

No matter.

He might not be able to detect Corruption himself, but that was what the detector was for.

A slender device resembling the handheld scanners used in airport security checks appeared in his hand. Yet when he finished the scan, even his expression betrayed genuine disbelief.

[Corruption 0%, Stage 0.]

Melkree, who had just heard the detector beep, was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts. She still couldn’t quite remember what had happened to Albert the last time she had seen him.

Why hadn’t he been by her side all this time? Why had she chosen to join Jake’s faction and plant herself in the heart of his Floating Island if she still had subordinates…

The answer would have to wait.

Because when she read the detector’s result—though she didn’t normally pay attention to such things—even she understood that zeros across the board were a good sign. Jake’s stunned expression, as though he had just tasted spoiled food, was the cherry on top confirming her certainty.

Her Albert could only be the real Albert she had once known.

“You see?” the dryad exclaimed with a bright, innocent smile, revealing a row of yellowish teeth stained with darker specks as if she had recently eaten dirt. “His aura is normal. Even you can’t find anything wrong with him!”

Jake didn’t answer immediately. He kept staring at Albert with icy intensity.

Then he sighed.

“Melkree…”

His tone was flat. Tired.

“Do you really not remember?”

The dryad frowned.

Jake briefly closed his eyes, as though holding back the irritation rising inside him.

“We found his corpse,” he said coldly. “Decapitated.”

Silence fell.

“His soul wasn’t in his body anymore. It had either been absorbed by Urul Tak’s black magic… or claimed by the Dungeon Digestor. There’s no way he should still be alive.”

His gaze hardened.

“Have you already forgotten what a Dungeon Digestor is capable of?”

Melkree remained silent for several seconds.

She truly didn’t remember.

She might be a tree, but even she could admit that her tree-like detachment from reality wasn’t an excuse for everything. Giving so little weight to events and emotions that she forgot them shortly afterward would one day end up costing her dearly.

Jake slowly shook his head in exasperation.

The dryads… Their relationship with time was notorious for driving anyone interacting with them half mad.

For them, a few years could pass like a simple season. Memories faded, tragedies lost their edge. They lived within a slow current of existence, almost indifferent. And yet, paradoxically, certain emotions could strike them with disproportionate intensity.

Indifferent to horror for decades.

Yet unable to accept the loss of one specific individual.

It wasn’t necessarily that their memory was poor. Their true form was that of a tree, not a human. The way they perceived and stored experiences was undoubtedly very different from his own.

Jake pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine,” he finally said. “If a conventional test doesn’t work, I still have one more card to play.”

He extended his hand.

A small metallic device appeared in his palm—a handheld scanner resembling the metal detectors used during airport security checks.

The Corruption Detector. The same one he had just used.

“We’ll run one last test.”

Melkree opened her mouth to protest, but Jake ignored her. The lycan didn’t move either. His compliance alone was almost enough to make Jake doubt himself.

Just as the trio assumed he was about to repeat the same procedure as before, Jake suddenly brought the detector to his mouth and swallowed it in a single bite.

His throat visibly expanded as the object passed through, a muscular contraction forcing the device downward.

Then he digested it.

Instantly.

That digestion allowed Jake to extract—and at least subconsciously understand—every one of its functions and properties. Above all, he could now use it in combination with Artifact Incarnation.

This ability allowed him to literally embody the properties of the artifact itself, multiplying its performance with the only limits being Jake himself.

With his bloodline having recently advanced by one level, he could now maintain two Artifact Incarnations simultaneously. At the moment, those two incarnations were occupied by the artifacts Oracle Device and Purgatory.

After a brief moment of thought, he decided to cancel the first one to free a slot. Preserving Purgatory was the logical choice given that the Sun and Moon Spirits currently resided inside it.

The moment Artifact Incarnation took effect, Jake immediately felt the difference.

And the least that could be said was…

Wow.

If witnessing the Aetherdream for the first time through his Soul Class had been mind-breaking, suddenly perceiving how Corruption propagated and quantified itself was an experience nearly just as disturbing.

And this time, when he looked at Albert, his senses revealed a completely different truth.

Simply put, if the rest of the world appeared white, all Players who had fought or closely interacted with Digestors appeared in shades of gray.

Melkree was a dark white, which matched her peaceful nature—her rare encounters with those monsters having happened under duress. Azeus appeared in a deeper gray, but that was nothing compared to Jake himself. He could even estimate the thunder demigod’s corruption at roughly 28%, which honestly wasn’t that much after four years of constantly resisting Space Digestor invasions during his absence.

As for Albert…

He radiated black.

Darkness deeper than the center of a black hole—yet strangely luminous, insidiously darkening the white world around him like black ink slowly spreading through a pool of water.

Jake could already calculate that the mere presence of this Albert here could irreversibly corrupt Twyluxia and its inhabitants within a few centuries simply by standing still and doing nothing but eating and breathing.

When he thought about the countless Digestors currently roaming their Mirror Universe, the realization hit him like an icy shower.

In conclusion…

Albert was without a doubt 100% a Digestor.

Only those creatures were intrinsically corrupted down to the marrow.

Now the real mystery was where he had come from.

Jake already had a small idea, considering where they had once found Albert’s corpse.

Still pinned to the ground beneath Jake’s pressure, the lycan stubbornly maintained his confused act, as if he had no idea what he was being accused of. His snout pressed into the dirt, he couldn’t see the increasingly icy expression hardening the features of the Oracle Knight.

Azeus and Melkree, however, clearly felt the shift in Jake’s attitude.

Things were not looking good for the lycan.

The dryad’s heart was already breaking, her eyes growing moist with sap, but she still asked in a timid voice,

“So?”

Jake slowly lifted his gaze toward her. His voice fell like a guillotine blade.

“Corruption: one hundred percent.”

A freezing silence followed.

Jake looked back at the lycan.

“Stage ten.”

His galactic pupils gleamed with murderous light.

“It’s a Digestor. Or more precisely, a Digestor clone. Of our late Albert. Same memories, same appearance, same power—on the surface even the same personality. But it’s not him.”

The moment his true nature was exposed, the confusion on the Saint Bernard lycan’s face melted away like snow under the sun.

His expression hardened, while a cold steel-silver gleam surfaced deep within his pupils.

The alien knew that the moment his identity had been uncovered, he was doomed. Yet he showed neither fear nor futile resistance. Instead, he chuckled and articulated calmly,

“Impressive. There’s a reason you’re one of our top-priority targets. We were supposed to be undetectable by conventional methods. Unfortunately for you, you found a way—too late.

“The Mirror Universe is already burning under the Sinewshade Virus. While you fear infection and corruption, we’ve had all the time we needed to replace you.

“Let me ask you something. Do you have the slightest idea how many people out there are actually impostors like me?

“Whether you survive this Ordeal or not, once you return, hell and despair will be waiting for you, hahah—”

SPLASH!

“Hm?”

Jake looked down.

Only to see a pile of entrails scattered across the ground like an overripe fruit someone had just stepped on.

Azeus and Melkree were still reeling from what they had just learned, but they both shot him the same intense, judgmental glare.

Realizing his mistake—and just as frustrated as they were—Jake scratched the back of his head and admitted sheepishly,

“Sorry. His laugh pissed me off. I forgot to hold back.”

Azeus—and even Melkree—rolled their eyes spontaneously.

Alright.

Fair point.

Rest assured, these Digestor Clones will not have any direct impact on this Ordeal. The Players participating in this Ordeal are not particularly affected by this issue. There are probably a few cases like Albert, but the clones would still need to successfully replace the original individuals in order to infiltrate their factions.

However, their numbers could be enormous on planets like B842. Even if they fail to replace the originals, those same clones can still infiltrate other factions just as easily…