Chapter 21 - The Oracle's Code - I

The city spread beneath, like a shining beast, breathing neon veins that split the darkness. Zypher clutched the Divinitas code tightly; the weight felt heavier with each step as they pushed toward the Oracle, a legend whispered in the darkest corners of Neo-ilka. An Oracle thought beyond human, digital and divine walking over realms of coded life, though her path was treacherous through Neo-ilka's most forbidden alleys, cutting deeply into the heart of a forgotten underground.

As they approached the entrance to the Oracle's domain, Kiera pulled Zypher aside. "Are you sure about this?" she asked, voice stiff with tension. "The Oracle doesn't just see the future. They say she rewrites it." The air grew charged with each word of warning.

"We need her knowledge if we're going to finish Daed's weapon," Zypher replied, looking around at the team assembled before him. Each face was determined, though laced with a quiet anxiety. "Without her guidance, we're just another group of renegades fighting a losing battle."

They walked into underground tunnels; each step took them further from the familiar hum of buzz in Neo-ilka streets. The silence here was king. Condensation dripped from walls, casting weird shadows from dim emergency lights that hadn't been changed in decades. The Oracle's sanctuary lay protected by layers of ancient tech—machines that could read intention, devices that adapted to emotional cues.

The air had cooled, and the mist off of Zypher's breath hazed in the air as he eyed the corridor. A faint glow emanated from a set of massive, iron doors, with their edges studded with tiny sensors that came to life as they approached.

A mechanical yet enlightened voice reverberated off the walls of the tunnel. "You are seeking knowledge not yet earned, the Oracle says. Provide proof of purpose.".

The group exchanged suspicious glances. Orion stood forward, his voice firm as always. "We have gone too far to turn back now," he said firmly. "Whatever it is, we are prepared to face."

When he spoke the words, the doors opened and there was a great chamber full of screens and projections. At its center stood the Oracle—a woman bathed in a soft, unearthly glow, form shifting between pixels and flesh, reality and data. She was a woman of indeterminate age, draped in translucent robes that seemed to ripple like code, her eyes pools of glowing blue.

"Zypher Nyx," she greeted, her voice like the low vibration of circuitry. "And his band of misfits. The city hums with your stories."

Zypher stepped forward, his skin tingling with a stinging caress: the sense of her eyes on him. "Oracle, we require your aid. We have some portion of the Divinitas code, but only you can show us the way to unlock its full potential."

The Oracle leaned forward slightly, a tiny smile at the curves of her lips. "You bear a shard of godhood, one key that can open even those doors the gods themselves have locked." She glanced over the rest of them, resting on Kiera, Orion and returning to Zypher. "Power such as this, however, is not freely granted. To wield it you must first understand what it costs.".

"Then tell us," said Zypher, and his conviction conveyed itself. "Price or no price, we will pay it."

The Oracle lifted her hand, and a holographic map of Neo-ilka sprang forth, zooming into areas far beyond the city, places even the most adventurous had left to vaguest imagination. "Three nodes there are, strewn across Neo-ilka, legacies of an old world. Each holds a fragment of the sequence of the Divinitas. They are watched over by ones who hide behind sacred idols.". In order to make the code operate in its full capacity, you need to gather those pieces and bring them back here. Only then will I grant you the knowledge you're seeking."

Kiera's face was tense with a frown. "The old-world nodes. I thought they were just myths, relics left to rot."

The Oracle's gaze turned solemn. "Many believe that. Some myths are truths veiled to protect the unworthy.

Orion crossed his arms over his chest, his face disbelieving. "And exactly where are these nodes? I don't think they would be located in very accessible places.".

She flickers with amusement. "Of course not. The first is within the Vault of Aegis Corp, and the second is at the very heart of Titan Spire. And the third. hmm. 'tis hidden in a place no living soul has gazed upon in a hundred years—the Labyrinth of Aetheris, buried beneath Neo-ilka's core.".

The room grew quiet. Each was a notorious location and not just companies guarded these but mysteries as well. Breaking into the Vault of Aegis would be its own death wish.

"The corporations. they've locked these fragments away for a reason," he whispered quietly. "They must know the power they hold.".

"Indeed," said the Oracle with a tinge of sadness to her voice. "The corporations are nothing but shadows of the gods they have pretended to be, but they keep the fragments of the pieces because they believe they can hold onto power they never were meant to have."

Zypher's fists tightened, his determination pouring like a dark wine into his veins. This was no quest for power but a matter of retrieval, redressing a wrong that had turned the world askew, invited greed.

"When we have them, how do we get them back to you?"

The Oracle's face softened, her expression one of quiet reverence. "Return here. I will guide you when the time comes. But know this: as you gather each piece, the code will awaken, and those who would see you fail will rise against you. The corporations, the mercenaries, even gods themselves—they'll hunt you. Crossing these lines will make you enemies beyond what you can imagine."

Orion chuckled low, his eyes glinting with danger. "We're used to making enemies."

Kiera's face was set, her jaw twisted into determination as she stepped closer. "If this is what it takes to bring justice to Neo-ilka and restore what's lost, then we'll do it.".

She nodded, her form flickering between flesh and code. "So be it. The journey ahead will test every one of you. But if you succeed, you might hold the power to remake this world."

With a final, almost tender look, she reached forward and touched her lips to the side of his head. And in that instant, she transmitted a flood of information, like water poured through him: locations of the nodes, a mental map of where they all went, and a sense of each fragment's unique, pulsing energy. It was almost too much to bear, like taking a divine revelation without the grace of any intervening water.

"Go," the Oracle whispered. "Seek the lost pieces of the Divinitas, and remember… your purpose is greater than you know. For you carry the will of gods."

The chamber of the Oracle grew dark, and as they turned to depart, Zypher felt a weight settle into her words of finality-the warning and the blessing. They walked up from the Oracle's place in silence, each pondering what lay before them. This wasn't merely gathering tools for a weapon-but reshaping the future of Neo-ilka, perhaps the world.

As they stepped out into the glowing neon lights of the city, Zypher knew, without fail, that he was invulnerable as a part of this team. This ragtag bunch was something more than that; it was a group of warriors, bound by the purpose of a mission that had grown bigger than any of them. Together, they would cross lines, defy the corporations, and chase the echoes of gods long forgotten.

And in the distance, as shadows in darkened corners move in Neo-ilka, as if unseen hands were watching, waiting for the reckoning to begin.

It was a hum of machinery through the industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Neo-ilka that Zypher and his team walked into. Neon lights gave way to flickering sodium lamps, and the cityscape faded shortly into a maze of towering pipes and giant mechanical structures. This was the domain of the forsaken tech plants, where discarded experiments and machines were left rotting. This was where they would close in on the first target-the Vault of Aegis Corp.

Approaching the looming structure, his mind reeled with what the Oracle had said last night. "The gods in the machine," she'd murmured, reciting some ancient proverb. "Once beings of flesh and divine will, now fractured and confined to circuits and code." The image of the ancient gods trapped inside Neo-ilka's machines unnerved him. What parts of them might remain deep in the Vault?.

The team huddled near a stack of rusty crates as Zypher laid out the plan. "Aegis Corp's fortified this place. We can't go in the front. We'll need to find some sort of access from the old maintenance shafts in the plant."