Oracle of Tao Novel CHAPTER 20: In which Ambrosia talks to herself

AMBROSIA

I hated this place and its yucky landscape. The earth was skin, water was blood, and the bridges that joined the islands were muscle and bones. Having defeated that Odin guy, Brunhilde, and all of her servants, we were heading to a fairly safe area. A lull, if you will, before we t Estheriel. I certainly hoped we had fought enough monsters...

Nevras and Tamashii wandered ahead with the others, but I was a bit distracted. When I noticed how far ahead they were, I called out faintly, “Wait up guys...” But my train of thought was interrupted by a beautiful yet curvaceous woman. , of course!

“Now arms, however beautiful, are instrunts of evil on, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures,” a voice from seemingly nowhere announced. But I knew that voice. That was my evil double, here to harass

again. And here I thought she'd learned to behave when I mastered the Tao. “Ahahahaha,” her voice echoed, “You? Master the Tao? Don't insult . The Tao is not sothing humans can master, only work with.” Apparently, she could read my mind, being

and all. I was cuter than her, though, so there.

I’d had enough. I didn't need to take this abusive talk, I'd walk away. That'd show her. And yet, when I tried, I discovered, “I can't move! But why?” “Ahahahaha,” she mocked

again, “Where are you heading in a rush? I think it's ti we had a chat, don't you, Ambrosia?” Fine, you win. I an, I do. I an... never mind. Soone won.

But she wasn't done with . Said she, “But first, a test of your power. Beast Summon!” I don't rember having the ability to summon creatures so I've very certain that she shouldn't be able to either, but looking around, I had my answer. The area was not the skin and blood terrain that I had been currently in, but an area of darkness and nightmarish images. It was the Black Bug Room of legend. Everyone has their own Black Bug Room. Obviously, this was inside my head, so it was her show right now.

The summoned thing in question was a horrific black segnted slug thingy. I tried to use my Crests and then my Tao, but of course, this was inside of her vision for , so I couldn't move without her permission. Nope to Crests, no thanks to the Tao since she was part of it, so it was just weapons. My fishing pole bounced off, so I pulled out my First Iron dagger, and slashed it it. It sliced apart, only to kinda squish itself together. It was a tough punk, alright, but I was tougher. I slashed faster, cutting it into aty chunks. Years of learning to cook for family had helped with my skill in knives, so I made short work of it. Only... it didn't stay that way. No matter what I tried, it kept getting itself back together. “Why isn't it dying?” I asked. Frustrated, I put all of my energy into killing it off, screaming the words, “You stupid monster! I'll kill you!” And the beast was done. But sothing was different about .

“What... just happened?” I asked. My voice sounded different, for one. I looked at my nails. They were longer and kinda discolored, as if I hadn't properly managed them, which was weird since I always kept my nails trimd and cleaned. I wanted to distance myself from my beggar past, after all. My hair also felt a bit ssy. My hair! As I looked it it, my hair was more like Evil Ambrosia's. Or that of Tamashii, who apparently had inherited from the other side of . While my hair was normally kind of like a blueberry, hers was more like a plum, a deep shade of purple. Even my clothes seed to have undergone a more military makeover. I looked like her. Maybe she was cuter?

She explained, “Every ti you fight, you beco closer to ... and them. A monster...” I thought of all the fighting I had done during my quest. Hell, all the fighting that I had done in this area! “I'm not a monster!” I protested, then second-guessed myself, “Am I?” She echoed my suspicion with her voice in my head.

She said, “It's up to you. Human beings can be anything, from like an angel to a demon. I will help you. I will show you your futures.” I guess, my other self decided for my own good (or sothing) to show

sothing. Nevras, Tamashii, and the others were standing at my side once again, facing Estheriel. She zapped all of us with a bolt of lightning, and I heard myself scream. And then the vision reset, and this ti, I was the one there facing all the others of my current team. My body moved on its own, as I watched myself brutally kill my friends and comrades. “What... what just happened?” I gasped. The other

explained, “These are possible futures, the first will happen if you fail, or course. And the second...” She paused for effect.

“I'm not telling,” she said, laughing again as she slowly faded away. What a punk. I really hate her... ummm, . I don't know what would cause that other future... but I do know I have to stop Estheriel's plans. To , carrying out quests gives

sense of purpose. But I rembered Elias telling us all about Henry Ford, and how he built a huge car factory, only to regret what he had created and buy a town to keep in the past.

NEVRAS

For so reason, Ambrosia took quite a long ti to catch up with us. She finally arrived about 20 minutes later, after the others behind her all ca. I guess she got distracted? In any case, unlike before where we just assud Belial was evil, and went right ahead with defeating him, we actually bothered to ask Estheriel a series of questions about who he (she?) was, and what the angel's motivations were. I found out so backstory, such as that Estheriel had originally tried to help humans, that God had apparently been indifferent when the Council fell (I was annoyed at this one too, but you don't see

trying to redo the entire universe), and other facts. Eventually, I wasn't sure what else to talk about. Tamashii had long since used her psionic powers to manifest a handheld video ga console (it was a bright pink rectangle with white buttons on the top and front), and was playing so ga she dread up on the spot. It appeared to be an rpg involving heavy platform elents and which contained princesses. I kinda wanted to play, so I asked her about it. She brandished the small pink device.

“Oh this?” she replied, “This is Super Sparkle Princess Saga. I invented it after playing so old gas using the Crystal Mirror and a Universal Gapad (which to be honest, looked a bit like the Logitech F310 Gapad). Basically, these two princesses et this other girl who's like a bounty hunter and stuff, after their man has been kidnapped,” she explained plot points then extrely complex controls, “You know, simple.” Amazingly, it was, with the controls being kinda like that Kingdom Hearts ga, only it had a bunch of girls instead and a lot of them had ranged weapons.

The ga seed to place a great deal of emphasis on fashion. So of the outfits let you breathe underwater or withstand temperature. And as you went to towns, you could also make money doing fashion events. It also had farming and fishing sidequests.

I figured the controls out just in ti to notice Ambrosia returning, and to hide the ga. She wouldn't take it from Tamashii. Instead, she'd likely forget her whole quest, and we'd all be playing gas in front of this angel.