Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

Even as riots swept through Ithalon, Elijah dropped to his knees in despair. But his eyes never left that corrupted tree. He could feel it, now. He could sense the rot within. The influence of the abyss – of the Ravener – wove its way through the Branch’s entire structure. A poignant reminder of where he was.

Of what he’d left behind.

Of his most recent failure.

A thousand images, mostly of the people back on Earth, flashed through his mind. In the space of a second, he saw Sadie. Carmen. Miguel. Nerthus. All the other members of his grove. He saw Ironshore and Seattle, New York and Kalki. He saw what they would become. He imagined their fate, which mirrored the desolate world of Gorveth. And most of all, he saw his own meaningless future, and for that brief moment, he sympathized with Ko’rien’s choice to simply give in. To give up. To surrender to the futility of her existence.

In that bare moment, Elijah wanted to do the same.

It passed quickly, but the echoes lingered. He shoved them into their own leaves, then forcefully shed the negative thoughts. They would do him no good. Dwelling on failure was a useless endeavor.

He pushed himself upright, letting the Shape of Scourge fall away in the midst of his despair. His bare feet whispered across the tiles as he approached the Branch. In form, it looked very similar to the one he’d discovered in that long-abandoned city months before. However, instead of being entirely conquered by the corruption, it felt only partially infected by the Ravener’s touch.

When Elijah drew closer, he saw that each limb featured only the thinnest strand of branching corruption. A black thread, embedded within the crystalline structure.

He could feel it, too. Hunger and a desperate need to consume. To absorb all. To convert everything to its nature. However, the one thing that was missing was the Ravener’s presence.

Elijah reached out, expecting nothing more than to be overwhelmed by its attention. Yet, when he touched it, he found nothing but cold crystal.

And a notification.

Congratulations! You have satisfied the requirements to evolve your class [Primal Lord]. You have 1 path available to you.

Elijah gasped as a simple thread of optimism wove its way through his mind, offering a breath of hope amidst the cloud of negativity. Yet, that only lasted for the couple of seconds it took for him to move to the next notification, which detailed his lone option:

Class: Blighted Sovereign (E)

An Archdruid with no grove, the Blighted Sovereign is a creature of pure loss and hatred. Life quivers before his touch, and the Abyss kneels in acquiescence at his presence.

Required Archetype:

Druid

Required Class:

Primal Lord

Required Legacy:

Unique (within the constraints of the Ascended Realm)

Attributes Gained Per Level

STR

DEX

CON

ETH

REG

35

35

50

73

101

Elijah’s heart beat faster.

But he knew something was wrong. No – everything was wrong. The class was obviously powerful. Its Eldritch rarity was confirmation enough of that, and the sheer volume of attributes only supported Elijah’s first impression.

Everything about it felt so very wrong, though. His instincts screamed at him to take the offered power and never look back. But they also pummeled him with orders to run as far away from the option and forget it had ever been available.

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It only took Elijah a moment to see it for what it was.

The class was corrupted. Perhaps not entirely. But it was tainted by the Abyss, and in a way he didn’t understand. It terrified him, though. More than just about anything, because even with that knowledge, he still wanted to take it. It went against everything he believed about himself, and it didn’t take sharp intuition to predict how it would affect him.

Perhaps he could overcome it. Maybe he could master it. He could use the power to find his way home. To save Earth. He could rescue the world from excisement and turn the power of the abyss against the Ravener itself.

The power beckoned him forward.

And his attunement and intuition screamed at him to turn away.

If he’d been back on Earth, Elijah’s choice would have been an easy one. He’d never sought power for power’s sake. Certainly, he reveled in new abilities and increased attributes, in the freedom that came with progression. But as much as he enjoyed those things, they were nothing next to his instincts.

Corruption was well-named. It was no benign force. If it could not consume, it infected. It changed. It mutated life into a mockery of what it should have been. Some might have considered the Ravener and the World Tree to be two sides of the same coin, and there was some merit to that notion.

But Elijah knew the truth.

The Ravener – and the Abyss – was antithetical to natural life. It was the enemy. Even if the multi-verse existed in every shade, in every color of the rainbow, the difference between the abyss and the natural universe was black and white. It was stark and inescapable. It was not a situation where one gave definition to the other. They could exist separately, and they both desperately wanted – no, they needed – to usher that desire to do so into reality.

Neither would rest while the other existed.

And if either weakened, the other would take advantage and scrub their enemy from existence.

Elijah knew that down to the core of who he was. If he chose this option, it would put him at odds with the World Tree. It would exile him from his own path.

Yet, power still beckoned. Not for its own sake, but because of what it represented – the opportunity to save the people he loved.

If he took the offered evolution, if he became a Blighted Sovereign, nothing would stand in the way of his return to Earth. And when he got there, he would conquer the Primal Realms and guide the planet to unrivaled prosperity.

He knew it.

It was inevitable.

And all it would cost was his very nature.

Some people would consider that a fair deal.

A class was just a tool, after all. The man wielding that tool – that weapon – was the important part of that equation.

That simple justification echoed in his mind, infecting his thoughts and spreading throughout his soul. He wanted to take the offered evolution. He wanted to wield that power for the good of all. For the sake of his friends and family. To help Earth survive.

And yet, he couldn’t do it.

Was it cowardice that kept him from reaching out? Did he lack the confidence that he could overcome the class’s implied nature? Or was it simple prudence that stayed his hand?

Elijah didn’t know. Perhaps he never would.

But what he did know was that he could never take that class. He wanted it too much. He needed it. And more than anything else, he could easily envision what he would become under its influence.

However, he did not pull away.

He couldn’t do that, either.

Not without trying to right the wrong of the Branch’s corruption. The Ravener’s eye remained elsewhere, which gave him an opportunity to do something he’d wanted to do the last time he’d encountered a tainted Branch of the World Tree.

He deployed his Mantle of Authority, channeling a truly massive amount of ethera through it. The Branch did not react.

But Elijah felt the weight of the Ravener’s presence settled onto him. The all-powerful creature did not bestow its attention upon him, though. Not yet. Something stood between it and the Branch. Like a shield, but more all-encompassing.

If Elijah could have spared a thought, he would have realized that it was the only thing keeping the Branch from fully falling to influence of the Abyss. It maintained the slightest of connections to the World Tree. A whisper of nature ran through the Branch, and it was likely the only reason the people of Ithalon – of Gorveth in general – had survived long enough to carve out an existence.

Elijah latched onto that, begging for the World Tree’s favor. For its attention. For its intervention.

It remained silent.

Elijah gritted his teeth, forcing more power through his Mantle of Authority. And the thread of corruption within the tree quivered.

It did not recede. It would not retreat. But that simple movement filled Elijah with hope. It spurred him on. Power surged within him as a familiar sunflower spread its petals and filled the Arbor Crown with vitality. Rain fell, slicking the tile floor and soaking Elijah in water as well as vitality.

But he needed more.

His core shuddered.

The apertures in his mind swirled with renewed fervor.

And his silver-grade body surged with life. Every cell expanded, connecting to his soul – to the branches of his Mantle of Authority – and through it, increased power. The mantle trembled. The leaves of his mind rustled as if subjected to hurricane-force winds.

Elijah screamed.

The tiles beneath his feet cracked as plants erupted into being. And for the briefest of moments, he felt like he was back in the center of his grove.

Yet, he wasn’t.

He hadn’t activated Grove Conduit. It wouldn’t have worked if he had. Instead, the power came from within him. The life spread forth from his body – from the trunk of his being – and through his branches.

It was beautiful.

It was powerful.

And it was the absolute antithesis of the Abyss.

The thread of corruption within the Branch retreated from his touch. Slowly – ever so slowly – the World Tree’s gaze returned. But with it came the Ravener’s attention.

It hammered at the shield, but it held, flexing inward. And then, it split.

It was only a pinprick of a hole, but even that sent Elijah flying backward. The shield sealed after only an instant, but that tiny bit of the Ravener’s influence – its mere attention – was enough to send cracks soaring throughout the Branch. They healed almost as quickly as they appeared, and for a brief moment, the World Tree’s presence warred against the Ravener’s.

And the World Tree won.

Elijah nearly blacked out from the sheer weight of the clash. He might have, had he not recently cultivated a silver body. Even so, he found himself slamming against one of the pillars within the Arbor Crown, where he sat, staring at nothing.

And most importantly, clutching a sliver of crystal in his trembling hand.

He blinked, his thoughts catching up to events. He felt concussed. His emotions were muted. His consciousness felt far away. But after a second, he found his eyes flicking back and forth between the branch in his hand and the extension of the world tree at the center of the pavilion.

For a moment, the broken limb remained jagged, sparking ethera and vitality until it regrew. The corruption within shuddered, but it didn’t disappear. Instead, as the attention of the World Tree and Ravener faded, everything returned to normal.

Except that Elijah now held a clear sliver of crystal – a piece of the Branch – within his hand. Maybe six inches long and only an inch wide. Most importantly, it was entirely devoid of the Ravener’s influence. There were no threads of corruption, but an echo of the World Tree bloomed within.

That echo, as faint as it was, enveloped him. It encapsulated him. It comforted him. Its mere touch cleared his mind and mended the soul he hadn’t even realized he’d ravaged. The power of his body far exceeded the might of his soul, and though its unique nature had allowed it to endure more than anyone could have rightly expected, it was still only Expert-tier.

And the jump between the fourth and fifth cultivation stages – no matter the aspect – was enormous.

He’d already felt as much when he progressed from Iron to Silver-tier body.

The echo faded, leaving Elijah’s condition perfect. Its disappearance also reminded him that he was in what amounted to enemy territory. Never was that clearer than when a hundred men and women – each one clad in stylized armor emblazoned with a symbolic tree – surrounded the Arbor Crown.

Most felt like high-ascendents. A couple were demi-gods, though. Elijah’s quick appraisal told him that they were far weaker than Ko’rien. Early stages, then. But demi-gods nonetheless.

He pushed himself to his feet and stowed the broken limb in his Arcane Loop. Even as he did, an idea settled into his mind. Maybe it came from within. Perhaps it originated with the World Tree itself. But whatever the case, before he could enact it, he needed to escape his current predicament.

It was time he unleashed the Shape of Embers.