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

“You look different,” she said, holding him at arm’s length. “The same, but different.”

“It’s been thirty years, Lucy.”

Her hand crept up to his face, and she asked, “How do you not have a single wrinkle? You look like you’re in your twenties.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” Elijah remarked with a grin. Then, he waggled his eyebrows at her. “Want to revisit some old memories?”

She punched him in the arm. “Don’t even joke about that. You’ll give my husband a complex.”

“Oh. You’re remarried?”

She shrugged. “Is that so surprising?” Lucy asked. “I wasn’t looking for it, if that makes any difference. But love found me all the same.”

“That’s good. I’m glad for you. Really.”

“You sound very convincing.”

Elijah sighed, then turned away. As he ran his hand through his hair, he admitted, “I don’t know. Maybe I’m a little jealous.”

“We were never going to get back together, Elijah.”

“I know.”

“We’ve only seen each other a handful of times since high school. You couldn’t have expected me to –”

“It’s not that kind of jealousy. It’s more like…I don’t know. It’s more that I’m envious that you…I guess that you found somebody,” he explained. “It’s not about you and me. It’s about…it’s about everything. Ever since I got back, I’ve had to smile and watch as I realized that everyone I knew just moved on with their lives. Even my nephew is married and has a family now.”

“A lot changes in thirty years.”

“Don’t I know it,” he remarked, pacing back and forth. “I’m happy for them. I really am. I just wish…I just wish that one thing…just one thing stayed the same.”

Lucy reached out to grab his hand, stopping him in his tracks. “I don’t think it’s about them.”

“I’m pretty sure it is.”

“This is about you. It’s about the world. I understand it, too. You feel like you’ve been left behind.”

Elijah didn’t argue, because that was precisely how he felt.

“You remember in high school? Our freshman year?”

Elijah nodded. “Vaguely. I remember sneaking off during second period to make out behind the bleachers.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about that,” she said. “Do you remember Zoe Kennedy?”

“Uh…”

“It’s okay. You weren’t really friends with her. But I was. In middle school, we were always together. Slumber parties. The mall. Everything.”

“Oh. I remember her now! She got sick or something, right?”

“Broke her back riding horses,” Lucy said. “Spent most of freshman year bedridden, and she didn’t come back until we were sophomores. I tried to visit her, but she wasn’t very pleasant to be around back then. We kind of drifted apart. At the time, I kept thinking that everything would go back to normal when she got better.”

Lucy sighed. “But it didn’t. She healed just fine. She came back healthy and everything. But by then, the damage had been done. All of her friends – including me – had moved on. Sure, we were nice to her. We still invited her to hang out. To our slumber parties before we outgrew the idea. But she always felt like an outsider. Like she’d missed too much to really connect with us.”

“And in this scenario, I’m Zoe Kennedy, right?”

“I’m saying that’s how you feel, Elijah. Not that it’s how things are. All your friends. Your family. Everyone – they all still love you. They want to reconnect. They want to be there for you. The only thing standing in the way of that is you.”

For a few moments, Elijah remained silent. Then, at last, he said, “Damn. You ever think about being a therapist?”

“This isn’t a joke, Elijah.”

“I know. I know.”

“You always do that. You undercut a serious conversation with –”

“I’m sorry. Call it a defense mechanism. But I guess you’re right. Kind of,” he admitted.

“Where was I wrong?”

“I just don’t think it’s completely fixable,” he answered. “Not the way I’ve been thinking about it. Nothing will ever give me back those thirty years. And nothing will ever let them see exactly what I’ve been through, either. I think things have to change. Maybe not necessarily for the worse, either. Maybe they’ll even be better. Probably not, but I like to think I’m an optimist.”

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“You came to that conclusion pretty quickly.”

“Maybe I’ve had it on the tip of my mind for a while now.”

“And you just needed me to point out the obvious?”

“I guess?”

She sighed. “So, just like old times.”

“Enough about me, though. What’s been going on in your world?” he asked. “The Silo is impressive. Last time I was here, it was just one tower. Now look at it.”

She smiled like only someone who takes pride in their work could. Then, she went on to explain how it all worked together. She detailed the advancements she’d made regarding the engineering involved, and she even told him about her ascendent evolution, which was a hybrid class focused on ethereal engineering and horticulture. That had allowed her to make huge advancements in her field.

Of course, she hadn’t done it alone. She had an entire department of the local government working under her. Isaiah had spared no expense when determining its funding, either.

“I think when he approved most of that, he expected to marry me. The idiot.”

“What?” Elijah asked, surprised. “You two had a thing?”

“Not exactly. I don’t think Isaiah thinks like that. Not anymore. Maybe not ever. He only wanted to marry me because he thought it would give him a better reputation among the people. I considered it, too. At the time, things were a bit rocky around here. And whatever you think about Isaiah, he’s a fundamentally good person. Strict. Rigid. Entirely uncompromising in most situations. But I knew he wouldn’t treat me badly.

“But in the end, we decided to keep our relationship professional. I met Lance soon after, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

“I’m glad for you,” Elijah said, smiling sincerely. It was nice to see that someone like her had come through the so-called apocalypse and found happiness. For his part, Elijah had found plenty of joy. A lot of happy moments. But he was a long way from being content.

Which was why, eventually, he found himself saying his goodbyes. He fully intended to return. He promised as much. But there was a part of him that knew it would be a long, long time before he saw Lucy again. Just knowing that she was okay, that she’d found some measure of happiness – that was enough.

So, it was with some melancholy that Elijah left the Silo behind.

He didn’t bother going back to the hotel. Everything he’d brought with him to Seattle had been packed away inside his Arcane Loop. Almost as if he knew that the Silo was going to be his last stop.

He spent a little bit more time just wandering through Seattle before, at last, heading to the main gate and leaving the city.

Before he knew it, he was miles outside the city and wandering across the desert. The heat barely touched him anymore, but he still found himself sweating. Even so, he couldn’t deny the beauty of the area. Like the American southwest, with towering sandstone pillars and scrubby bushes. There was wildlife there, too. Lizards and snakes, insects and even small rodents.

Once upon a time, Elijah would have considered it inhospitable. But now, he was functionally immune to the inherent danger, which let him truly appreciate the natural wonder of it.

He remained in place for a little more than an hour before he finally decided to move on. He didn’t use Roots of the World Tree, though. Instead, he shifted into the Shape of the World Serpent and took off.

He’d studied some maps, so he knew the basic direction he wanted to go.

He had set out to see the world, and there was no better way to do so than by taking the long route to his destination.

The world flashed beneath him, with the desert eventually giving way to forest. And that forest soon turned to a vast grassland. He flew over giant lakes, steep canyons, and even slithered through a vast mountain range that took him nearly three hours to leave behind.

Along the way, Elijah saw plenty of evidence of long-lost civilization. Cities that were slowly being reclaimed by nature, overturned ships. Highways snaking through the vast wildernesses. Giant subdivisions covered in new growth. All abandoned. All devoid of people.

From his vantage, Elijah could truly see the scope of the lost world, and he could only imagine the number of people who’d died. It was easy to think of it as just a number. Academically, he was well aware that billions had perished in the aftermath of the world’s transformation. But seeing how much territory had been abandoned really put it into all perspective.

Elijah did see a few smaller populated settlements, but he gave them a wide berth. The last thing he wanted was to send them into a panic, which was exactly what would have happened if they saw a two-hundred-foot long serpent flying through the air above them.

Eventually, he reached the coast, where he stopped for a couple of days. The weather was much warmer than it had been on his island, and the beaches were composed of sugar-white sand that reminded him of the Caribbean. The waves were gentle, with aquamarine water and plenty of marine life. Elijah even sensed a couple of West Indian manatees nearby, all but confirming that his suspicions about the area’s origin were correct.

He spent those couple of days just relaxing and playing the part of the beach bum, but eventually, he decided to move on.

Normally, he wouldn’t have dared to cross an ocean in his flight form. But the Shape of the World Serpent was far more durable than his old Shape of the Sky had been. It could take whatever punishment Earth could throw at it. And on the off chance that something truly powerful attacked him, he felt confident that he’d have enough time to change forms.

So, he took off, using Dimensional Leap to get a good start. The ability was capable of covering thousands of miles in an instant. From the maps, he knew that barely covered a tenth of the distance across the ocean.

But that was okay. Elijah wanted to see the world, and the ocean was a big part of it.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the largest body of water on the planet. The world had been reshaped, so the comparison wasn’t perfect. However, he couldn’t help but compare it to the Atlantic, though scaled up considerably.

The ocean abutting his island was much, much larger.

In any case, Elijah estimated that it would take close to ten hours to reach the other side. So, he wasted no time before pushing himself to top speed.

Below, he saw massive waves that once would’ve been considered tsunamis, and he sensed powerful creatures within them. He didn’t get close enough to see what they were, but he knew they were at least at the level of low demi-gods. Probably much stronger, if he could sense them from an altitude of more than a thousand feet.

As it turned out, Elijah’s calculations were slightly off, and he reached the other side of the ocean in a little more than eight hours. He took another day or two to relax on the beach, which was far rockier than the one he left behind. The surf was much rougher as well, which had a charm all its own.

In any case, it was relaxing.

Eventually, Elijah moved on, crossing the continent the same way he’d passed over the other one. There was far less evidence of human habitation, suggesting that this continent had been formed from some of the less populated parts of the world. Like Africa, perhaps. Or parts of Canada, maybe.

Whatever the case, Elijah lost himself to travel until, at last, he saw his destination on the horizon.

Someone had taken great pains to restore the iconic skyline of New York, and they’d done a phenomenal job. Because even if Elijah hadn’t expected it, it would have been wholly recognizable.

He proceeded forward until, just as he’d done outside Seattle, he landed and continued on foot.