Duality of Shadows-Chapter 936: The Oracle

At this moment, the couple of golems was in a corner, with Ruri clenching her fists tightly and wearing a cold expression. A massacre of innocents was about to happen on that continent.

"We can only do what’s within our reach. Other people’s lives belong to them," Bruno said softly to Ruri, who took a deep breath.

Meanwhile, Alm was manipulating and sensing his soul fragment inside Isla. "She’s fine and has returned to the castle," he communicated, but his voice carried a certain pain.

Due to the heavy meditative state, their mission was the absolute priority. If nothing went wrong, Isla would remain in that place until she managed to master the mirror. That would be a problem—after the tournament ended, Alm and Bruno would face difficulties returning without being noticed.

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Thus, the ideal plan was for Isla to leave, taking the mirror to the castle, bringing them closer to all their other objectives.

Seizing the opportunity, Ruri subtly manipulated the formation. The moment Caipora attacked with everything, the flow of power from the mist heading toward Isla was altered. Ruri then acted precisely, causing a severe injury to her.

In a meditative state, Isla was extremely vulnerable. Her body was constantly absorbing the mist, but a furious torrent suddenly invaded, rupturing her meridians. She was undoubtedly covered in blood, consumed by agonizing pain.

Alm and Bruno, in turn, inserted more of their souls into her, infiltrating her mental sea. Even so, Alm felt terrible about the state he was forced to leave Isla in.

Ruri, noticing this, smiled faintly but chose not to say anything. If it had been her, she was sure the two would’ve felt the same.

Hours passed. The first twelve hours of this final part of the tournament had already elapsed. Once they were sure no hidden gazes were focused on the crater, Alm and Bruno concentrated on the inventory.

"It’s stabilized, master..." Liumi reported in a faint, weakened voice.

She had given everything, even sacrificing part of her own soul to stabilize a tiny fragment.

Caipora was inside, but Alm and Bruno hadn’t been able to save her on their own. At their current level, without resorting to a celestial soul, it would’ve been extremely risky and nearly impossible to rescue her against such colossal power.

At the last moment, the statue and the bell moved on their own, burning the faith power sent by the god in question. Thus, a tiny fragment of Caipora’s soul was preserved. Seeing this, Alm and Bruno placed it in the inventory before the heroes arrived.

Now, they used the heavenly laws to recover that soul quickly without hesitation. Since they weren’t on the planet, they had a great opportunity to act unnoticed. They had to do it—Caipora might hold valuable information.

Minutes later...

Inside the inventory, a pair of eyes slowly opened. The first thing that appeared before her vision was a massive, indescribable grayish tree.

Caipora widened her eyes, incredulous at what she saw, and jumped, even more startled, realizing she hadn’t disappeared completely.

"How..."

She turned, noticing two figures slowly approaching. As she stared at them, her soul froze.

"Let’s skip the introductions. We’re the missionaries, and it seems you knew we’d be here. Tell us everything quickly," Alm ordered coldly.

Caipora nodded, her eyes glued to the two, but she didn’t respond immediately. Many thoughts ran through her mind. She had only felt so oppressed before when facing the Queen herself.

Bruno then showed the statue and the bell. "It was this deity that saved you. Start explaining—who is this god?"

"She..." Caipora murmured, taking a deep breath. "Her name is Void Goddess."

The answer came out nervously, but under their piercing gazes, she continued speaking quickly.

Caipora explained that she had found that "weapon" and handed it over as if it were trash, making it clear that it belonged to a dead sinner god. For any investigation, everything seemed to corroborate this version.

"The Void Goddess lives in the Underworld, hidden in a world within the void, along with many people. She’s a survivor of the past war. The Underworld is the only place where it’s possible to hide from the Queen... and even then, it’s only viable thanks to her Divine Dao."

According to Caipora, this immortal goddess was in the True Inner Dao Realm and still cultivated the power of faith, creating followers.

Over the millennia, the Queen and the heroes had scoured the Underworld intensely. Almost all fugitives had been found, but this goddess managed to remain hidden, even maintaining a small hidden world.

Bruno asked calmly, "How did you free yourself from the Queen’s control, and what was your goal here?"

Caipora took a deep breath before answering. She explained that she was an entity born of the laws, a predictable and common mutation across many universes. Her power consisted of merging with the laws and the world and everything natural around her.

Upon hearing the details, Alm and Bruno concluded that it was similar to the Wuji from the tattoo.

This unique nature allowed her to enter the Underworld, merging with the Yin there as if she were part of it. Because of this power, the Queen recruited her. She could perform tasks with ease in the Underworld, while the heroes would need to sacrifice much time and effort. Using her was convenient, but not essential.

In the past, Caipora was precisely the one responsible for locating the three Primordial Chaos items in the Underworld. After she found them on her own, the heroes moved in. With her help, all three were sealed.

Alm and Bruno’s eyes lit up. Realizing this, Caipora understood their intentions and said, "I’m just a soul now. I lost my body and power, so I can’t locate the others. But before, that would’ve been possible. After the Queen captured the three items, she decided she didn’t need me anymore. All efforts were concentrated on controlling those items because, once mastered, they could easily locate the others. I became useless."

She sighed deeply. "The Queen’s control over me could only be broken once. And that was thanks to my peculiarity."

Caipora then explained that during the search for the Void Spear — the last item captured — she encountered the Void Goddess. According to her, the name wasn’t a coincidence. The Goddess’s Dao was extremely close to the item’s, and when the two met, the Goddess showed no intention of competing for it. Instead, she used the item’s power to hide, waiting for Caipora.

The moment Caipora was alone and finally located the item, she was suddenly swallowed into the Goddess’s void world.

"Even among low-level immortals like Behemoth, if I fought against them, I’d lose quickly. My combat power is very limited and simple. But because of my mutation, if I were in a powerful environment full of laws and natural Qi — like a sacred forest — my abilities would multiply. My title as Guardian of the Forest isn’t for nothing, after all."

Using the planet Alpenglow as an example, if she fought using the full power of that supreme planet, not even the ten strongest heroes together could defeat her. Of course, that was in theory, as the God Gaia would intervene and cut off her strength.

She explained all of this to make it clear that the moment she entered that void world, her situation became deadly.

If there were any immortals there, she would likely be killed easily. But, according to her, the Void Goddess knew exactly what she was doing. As soon as Caipora entered, she was sealed, and the Goddess used her Dao to create a hidden mark on Caipora’s true body.

With this mark, Caipora could, in theory, think and act independently again. However, the Queen’s dominion was still deeply entwined in her body and soul, allowing her to act only within certain limits.

"I could think for myself. But if I did anything against orders, the dominion would activate normally. So I never did anything against the orders to avoid being discovered. With that Dao’s power, I could rebel just once. After that, the heroes would know I broke the dominion." She explained lightly, then stared at them.

"My goal, however, wasn’t planned by me or the Goddess. It was something orchestrated by the Heaven’s Will," Caipora added, "Have you ever heard of the Oracle?"

Both nodded. They had recently discovered it but didn’t know many details. They just decided to rely on their danger instincts in case something unpredictable like this screwed them over again.

"The Oracle resides in the sacred castle. You were heading there after this tournament, right? That’s where its influence is strongest. As soon as you got close, a missionary would be immediately identified. That’s why the heroes aren’t afraid. Their security is practically inviolable. My goal was to destroy that security and create an opening."

"You destroyed the castle?" Bruno asked quickly.

"No," Caipora replied with regret. "I’m insufficient, but I guarantee I forced the heroes to use all the castle’s defenses and drain their energies. The Oracle can only predict something using the castle, which is a large formation supporting it. Without that energy, it was disabled."

"How long?" Alm asked coldly.

"The energy needed to recover the formation is immense. Maybe thirty days, or a bit less," she replied quickly.

"Why did you say the plan was made by the Heaven’s Will?" Bruno asked, curious.

She answered thoughtfully, "The Oracle is actually a consciousness created from the Heaven’s Will. It observes the past and the future... but the future doesn’t exist. It just makes predictions, reading people’s destiny and karma."

Caipora explained that the Oracle was captured during the war and used as an essential weapon by the Queen. However, it didn’t predict everything correctly. After it was captured, the Queen built the castle to amplify its capabilities.

"Before it was captured, the Oracle predicted your arrival at this time," Caipora continued. "According to the Goddess, the Oracle sent this message to many different figures: immortals, primordial beasts, and even missionaries. Then, it completely erased its traces, making it impossible to predict anything about you again."

Alm and Bruno finally understood why some people already knew of their arrival, like the immortal Oni and even Kaiyka, who was a missionary. It was all orchestrated by this Oracle in the past.

"It predicted you would attack the castle," Caipora explained. "Its description was: When chaos begins to bloom, the Game Breaker will be near. I was the only one who could infiltrate and help at the exact moment. I didn’t know where you were, but I did my best."

"Why did you find that ’weapon’ and leave it there? Was it another prediction?" Bruno asked.

"No. That ’weapon’ was, in fact, trash. I found it easily, and the statue still had the immortal will of the Goddess’s follower. I received her inheritance, and that’s what allowed me to use that power earlier. After that, I just handed over the weapon as trash, to leave no traces for the heroes."

Caipora also explained, somewhat intrigued. Even she didn’t believe the power they demonstrated during the tournament came from the weapon. In fact, it was only partially so. The majority came from Bruno’s control over faith power, combined with their immortal knowledge of Yin, Yang, and natural laws.

"In the end, our random actions opened many doors," Bruno said, satisfied. "We saved her, and now we can invade the place with more information."

"Sorry, but I can’t help much. Since I became useless, I wasn’t even allowed to enter the castle for real; I don’t know much about what’s inside," Caipora said softly.

"Hm? That won’t be a problem. We have two informants infiltrated. A month should be enough," Bruno said calmly.

"That Heaven’s Will bastard called us Game Breakers? Since when are we playing games?" Alm commented sarcastically. "Well, now we just have to save some people, steal the two primordial chaos items, kill a god, and then escape while spitting in the faces of all the heroes and the Queen. Sounds simple."

Caipora listened, tense and speechless. Despite the sarcastic tone, there was something inexplicable in their confidence. It was as if this really were a game... the Oracle’s adjective for them seemed quite accurate.

Then, the golem opened its eyes. At that moment, they felt the formation connection activate. The twenty-four hours were up.