366 Race Against The Clock

The huge silver sea urchin that had crashed on his island was in the process of hatching and its surface was breaking up faster and faster, revealing more and more cracks.

Other Space Digestors almost as bulky had formed a swarm of monsters and piled up all around his Yellow and Blue Cubes, actively swarming on their surfaces.

The beautifully rhythmic light pulse of the Cubes flashed faintly as these monsters were covered with a thin whitish halo and began to grow in size, evolving at breakneck speed.

Some of these insectoid creatures were biting hard on these two Cubes, trying with all their might to dismantle the structure. For the time being, the Cubes were holding on.

"Shit, they want to devour the Aether Cores inside! "Jake realized with dread.

[ Kill them! Quickly! ] Xi shouted in an agitated tone.

Jake charged towards the monster horde, not forgetting to first point a finger at the silver sea urchin and fire a dozen bullets of explosive air in its direction without looking. A huge explosion rang out, slightly rocking his island, but he was mentally prepared for it.

With his telekinesis, he stabilized in time, but most of the monsters crawling over the two cubes lost their balance and fell. Except for the few monsters that found a hold or hooked on with their claws or mandible, all monsters were affected.

With a few strokes of his machete, Jake cut the remaining monsters into pieces without forgetting to give here and there vicious kicks to get rid of the most stubborn beasts.

A star-like glow sparkled deep inside his pupils and by raising his arms in front of him, a double telekinetic force field was generated, which he used to trap a thick wall of air by folding his arms together, thus putting the atmosphere of his small island to good use.

His Aether Core sped up his rotation and the Aether began to flood towards him. His lava veins became apparent and the air wall's temperature soared vertiginously. The trapped gas ionized and the air wall became plasma.

Jake then used his mental strength to project this wall of heated gas with all his might and a deflagration spread out in front of him like a fan, calcining and blowing away all the carcasses and digestors in front of him.

Even the enormous silver sea urchin that had practically hatched began to roll to the edge of his island, its metal spines half melted, and then fell into the vacuum of space. The object ricocheted twice off the shield of Will's island before fading into the cosmos.

"Xi, please set up a shield. "Jake ordered reluctantly when he saw that a third wave of asteroids, even larger and more numerous than the previous one, was already showing up in the distance.

[ All right. ] His Oracle AI complied without arguing. The situation was critical.

His Floating Island vibrated almost imperceptibly and an intangible energy escaped from the metal disc under his feet. An energy shield was instantly deployed, enveloping his entire territory in a kind of dome.

Just as the shield was being activated, a silver rock about twenty meters in diameter violently collided with the protective force field, causing intense ripples on its surface. The ground swayed abruptly, but the object was expelled into the cosmos like a cannonball bouncing on a trampoline.

Jake heaved a sigh, but kept swinging his sword, decapitating and hacking apart all the remaining Digestors in a matter of tens of seconds.

With the threat exterminated, Jake put Sarah, still unconscious, on the ground and then activated his Oracle Space Storage to siphon a large amount of air from the artificial atmosphere. He then deactivated his island's new shield and dived into the void. Xi reactivated the shield right after his spacewalk.

Jake was anxious. He had hurried as fast as he could, but a few tens of seconds was already too long. He, who hated to use his Shadow Guide, swallowed his pride and asked his bracelet to calculate the Oracle Path " Rejoin Enya and Esya as soon as possible while they are still alive".

His Shadow Guide, a faithful copy of himself, then began to fly at high speed in a certain direction and Jake set off in pursuit.

As he flew over his companions' Floatings Islands, he frowned when he discovered that the islands of Sarah and the two sisters had been completely overrun by a horde of Digestors. There were so many monsters swarming on their surface that the bright light of the Yellow Cubes was not even visible anymore.

Jake blamed his comrades for their stupidity. He could have stopped them from committing this madness, but by sensing their confidence and enthusiasm, he had mistakenly assumed that their self-confidence was justified. After all, they had just received their Second Ordeal rewards.

He had been sorely wrong.

Jake fired a few explosive bullets as he passed by the island of the two sisters, but even he didn't dare get too close. The silver sea urchins had hatched, and out of them, the Digestors were staring calmly at him, standing motionless in their fragmented shells like generals commanding from their operations bases.

Their bodies had a vague humanoid appearance, but they were small and frail, measuring only one meter in height, but with a cranial envelope three times larger than that of a normal human. The back of their skull was elongated like a long horn ending in a sort of umbilical cord connecting them to the fragments of their shell.

The silvery debris had softened, changing their microstructure to form a mysterious framework. But Jake did not see their final shape. Because of the urgency, he had no time to worry about them.

For three long minutes, Jake propelled himself like a heavenly missile through space, calmly counting the growing distance to their Floating Island. He could have given up, but according to his Shadow Guide the two sisters were still alive.

Unfortunately they would not last long. He didn't know how long they could survive in space with empty lungs, but probably just a few minutes. He could trap the air in his lungs despite the vacuum with his telekinesis, but that was not the case for everyone...

The Myrtharian Body had its limits in an environment without stars or a reliable source of heat. Relying on that 10% ability to produce a constant flow of oxygen was unrealistic.

After 10 minutes, Jake began to really lose hope. Even if he managed to find them both, they would probably be close to death.

A minute later, Jake almost screamed with joy when he saw two specks of reddish light in his line of sight. His optimism revived, he rushed to the two glows and discovered the two sisters in a precarious state.

Esya had lost consciousness, but Enya was still conscious, her eyes haggard and confused, but alert. She was holding her sister's hand tightly.

A steady flow of scarlet flames was pouring out of the young woman's body, enveloping her and her sister in a mantle of flames. Their armor, which had been provided by the government, had begun to corrode and he could now admire quite a bit of their fair skin.

At a glance, Jake recognized a faint network of lava veins under their skin and understood how Enya and her sister had survived. By producing these flames, they had stimulated their Myrtharian Body, but the effect was limited.

Esya had not benefited from Hakkrasha's decoctions and could not produce lasting flames in space without a suitable gas for combustion. As a result, she lost consciousness very quickly.

Jake was surprised that their bodies had not been charred by these reddish flames, but he put off his questions for later. Enya opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something important, but no sound came out. But from her desperate look at her sister, he got the message.

With a scan, he knew at once what their actual plight was and his heart leaped in his chest when he discovered that Esya was on the verge of death, in a severe state of hypoxia. Her heart had already stopped beating. Without the exceptional Constitution and Vitality of Evolvers, her cells would have already begun to succumb and die.

Driven by his instincts, Jake formed an immaterial sphere enveloping himself and the two sisters like a soap bubble suspended forever in the cosmos, and then released all the air stored in his bracelet.

Enya turned off her flame halo and took a loud breath as if she were inhaling for the very first time in her life. The sudden influx of oxygen gave her a burst of euphoria and a slight dizziness, but when she saw that Esya was not reacting, she began to panic and sob. She fainted a few seconds later.

Jake knew that she was fine, she had just exhausted her energy reserve. As Fire Mages, their anatomy was capable of cultivating a Fire Core from the fire elemental particles. He remembered that they had become unable to regenerate their fire mana after arriving in the Mirror Universe, but it seemed that Enya had overcome this problem.

Yet, not having neither an Aether Core nor an Aether Conversion Skill, he didn't know how she had recharged her Fire Core, but at least thanks to that they were still alive. Perhaps the rewards of the last Ordeal was the reason.

Nevertheless, with Enya passed out, Esya's survival was in his hands. Dreading what was to follow, and sensing Xi's excitement, Jake took Esya in his arms and gently pinched her mouth with one of his hands to open it. He tilted her head back slightly, keeping it steady, and his lips approached the target not without a certain amount of jitters.

He felt like one of those losers kissing and groping drunk and semi-conscious girls in nightclubs and deep inside he didn't feel good at all. But every emergency had its extenuating circumstances.

His lips finally met those of the young woman, and the first thought that crossed his mind was that they were damn soft. He could also feel soft mounds pressing against his chest, and he momentarily forgot what he was supposed to do.

[ Cougn, Jake... Time is running out.] Xi whispered in his ear.

Jake cursed himself for his bewilderment and misplaced thoughts and blew into Esya's mouth. He simultaneously controlled his Aether of Vitality and Constitution, and activated his Aether Conversion Skill and Aether Core to increase the flow of these two Aether types.

The intertwined bodies of Jake and Esya were bathed in a mixed aura of green and yellow light, and the pale skin of the young woman immediately regained some color.

With his telekinesis, Jake massaged her heart with an immaterial hand and her blood began to circulate again. Her stopped vital functions instantly resumed their activity and soon the lazy heart of the young woman began to beat vigorously on its own.

Then suddenly Esya opened her eyes.