Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)-11-57. Disconnected
The sky roiled, billowing clouds of corruption staining the atmosphere. Even though he knew it couldn’t touch him, Elijah watched it like it was an impending natural disaster. A tidal wave of wrongness that would sweep over what was left of the planet and infect them all. Having experienced a taste of the abyss once before, he knew this was different. If that cloud were allowed through, he would be lucky to survive more than a few minutes. Any longer, and he’d be dead, and no amount of healing or cultivation could save him.
“Ominous, isn’t it?” asked Dolo, trudging along beside Elijah. “Good thing we don’t have to worry about it. Just keep your eyes on the ground and try not to think about it.”
As he leaped over a particularly jagged piece of terrain that might’ve once been a building, Elijah struggled to follow Dolo’s advice. And it wasn’t just because of the abyssal corruption high above. Though he knew it was kept at bay by a powerful quarantine instilled by someone much stronger than him, Elijah was even more concerned with the distinct feeling of disconnection that suffused the air.
The whole world felt like it had been cast adrift. The World Tree still had a presence. Elijah could feel that much. But it was diffuse. Weak. It was like the planet was only connected by the thinnest of strings, and one that could break at any given moment. For someone whose power was so closely aligned with the World Tree itself, Elijah felt like he was drowning in nothingness.
His instincts told him to spread his Mantle of Authority and cleanse the lingering corruption that had seeped through the quarantine. It was so ubiquitous that he knew it wouldn’t do much good. If the whole planet was infected, and the source was all around, then how was he meant to affect any lasting change.
A shuddering earthquake shook the terrain. Some of the nearby dragons and their allies fell. Others slunk low to the ground to reposition their center of gravity. Elijah had no difficulty maintaining his footing, though. Such was the advantage of high dexterity.
Most of the army was of a level with him, but their actual power varied widely. One level two-hundred was very different from another, largely due to cultivation, class rarity, and equipment. Personal skill played a significant role as well. It was confirmation of something Elijah had long since established – levels were a great measure of someone’s progress, but they weren’t all that useful in determining a person’s true power. They were just one factor among many.
With his mythic class, decent equipment, and advanced cultivation, Elijah was more than just a cut above the other members of the army. Even their elites would struggle to match him.
However, there were plenty of others that could more than outpace him, though the demi-god and above fighters kept themselves separate from the lower-tier army. Elijah hadn’t been allowed close to them, but even from afar, he could feel their power.
And it served as inspiration.
He wanted what they had. He needed their strength. And not so he could lord it over everyone else. It was about a more primal imperative for advancement. It was about freedom. About the ability to protect the people he cared about. It was about reaching the top and establishing himself as the apex predator.
Seeing them also told him just how wide of a gap there was between the ascended and demi-gods. More than once, Elijah had looked at an enemy – like the final titan in the Elemental Maelstrom – and considered them close to being demi-gods. But now, with actual demi-gods so close, he knew he had been mistaken.
As powerful as it had been, that titan was no demi-god.
A tremble went up Elijah’s spine as he considered the power on display. He wasn’t afraid, even if he should have been. He was excited. Because soon enough, he would count himself among them. And that was a heady thought indeed.
As the earthquake faded, the procession continued on. Over the past couple of days, Elijah had seen many things about the Broken Crown. The first was that the world had once played host to an advanced civilization. Only a day after his arrival, the army had traversed a city that would’ve rivaled any on Earth. Of course, it was abandoned, the tall skyscrapers completely empty of all life. But it was evidence of what it had once been.
Vaguely, Elijah noticed that their design principles weren’t all that different from Earth’s, though with a strange blend of art deco concepts combined with features usually found in baroque architecture. The result was a clashing style of clean simplicity combined with fine detail that, despite their seeming incongruency, managed to work. Walking through those streets was a lot like seeing an alternate version of Earth, though one where everything was slightly skewed.
What sort of creatures had lived there?
Humans, perhaps? Elves? Gnomes or goblins? Or perhaps a species with which he was entirely unfamiliar? Had the system even bothered to create a backstory? Or was it all just set dressing?
Elijah wanted to know, but he recognized that he wasn’t likely to get any real answers.
Still, as the days passed, he often found himself wandering away. Dolo cautioned him against straying too far, but Elijah was confident in his own ability to survive. If he could make it through the Chimeric Forge alone, he could explore a couple of miles from a massive dragon army.
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Being alone gave him the opportunity to process some of the things he’d learned. The first was that the Empire of Scale was not the only draconic force. Dolo had heard of the empire, but he had come from the much smaller independent kingdom of Bavos. According to the informative tetradrak, there were thousands of such draconic forces out there.
When Elijah had asked why they weren’t united, Dolo had just shaken his head and muttered something about bad blood. He refused to say anything else on the subject.
That didn’t keep him from explaining his own people’s history. Tetradraks were an old race that had been around since the very beginning of dragons. However, they had long existed in that strange space between sentience and sapience. They fought alongside dragons, but until very recently, they’d not been given the designation as a system-sanctioned sapient race.
Now they had, and in doing so, they’d gained the designation of serpentor, which put tetradrakes at the third level of draconic society.
“Dragons like you are at the top,” he’d patiently explained. “Then there are drakes. Half-dragons and the like. After that, there are serpentors like us. Naturally, we’re the biggest group. Some of us are adopted in. Humanoids who’ve gained the right to join draconic society. Others are like tetradrakes, who’ve evolved into it. After that come our allies. Roughly speaking, they have the same rights as serpentors, though they are not permitted a voice in governance.”
“Do you have a democracy?” Elijah had asked.
“We do. All dragons have a voice,” Dolo had stated. Then, in a smaller voice, he added, “Though some voices are louder than others.”
“What do you mean?”
“A demi-god’s wishes will always count for more than those of a mortal. Or an ascendent.”
“How does that relate to the castes?”
Dolo then revealed that draconic society was even more complex than the simple caste system implied. Things like cultivation and level could trump one’s caste, but not always. Class and wealth made a difference as well.
In any case, after allies came non-draconic guardians, who had rights all their own. In their territories, their will superseded any others. However, outside of their chosen domains, they were treated roughly the same as any other ally.
“Then we have the wyrms.”
“What are they?” Elijah had asked.
“Sad creatures. Some refer to them as wild dragons, though that term is usually considered offensive. Disgusting. They have rejected sapience in favor of a wilder existence. They live purely as beasts, often forgetting themselves entirely. They are not accepted within any draconic society.”
Then, he’d revealed that most wyrms were hunted down and killed, though many were too powerful to be dealt with easily. Usually, they relocated to frontier planets where they were generally left alone.
“Unless they get too strong. Then, the powerful will exterminate them.”
Elijah frowned at that. Or rather, at the implications. From a practical perspective, he could understand why they would put down something so dangerous as a wild dragon. However, there was a part of him – probably his attunement – that balked at the notion of killing something just because it was too powerful to be controlled.
But it wasn’t as if he could change anything. For one, he was within a Primal Realm, not the real world. Anything he did inside the Broken Crown would be erased the moment he conquered it and left. And for another, kingdoms like Bavos, even if it was real, were far too powerful for him to affect.
So, he filed his misgivings in an unused cluster of leaves and continued to listen to Dolo’s explanation of draconic society. The lowest rung were people who had no real connection to dragons. They were protected by certain laws and customs, so long as they broke no rules. However, they were clearly outsiders, and heavily monitored and restricted ones.
One of the most surprising aspects of it all was that Dolo seemed convinced that every draconic society followed similar customs. The castes were all the same. The laws were almost identical. When Elijah asked why that was, Dolo had simply said, “It is the only way that works.”
And that was that.
In the day since they’d had that conversation, Elijah had been unable to get more out of the tetradrak.
He did learn a little more about the Hive, which was mostly made up of vespirans, wasps, spiders, and drachnids. They had a hierarchy of their own, though its nature was a mystery to Dolo. The only certainty was that the vespirans were at the top, and unquestionably so. Mortal vespirans had been seen to control demi-god spiders, suggesting that level made no difference in their society. At least in relation to the different species.
Along the way, the army was attacked a couple of times, but only by probing forces meant to gauge their strength. They were repelled, of course, but Dolo seemed convinced that another big battle was coming. Elijah tended to agree.
Because of that, he didn’t venture too far from the army. The last thing he wanted was to be cornered by an entire swarm of vespirans. Even when staying within a few miles, Elijah found plenty of interest. In addition to the remnants of the fallen society, he found pockets of nature that had somehow managed to persist.
He spent a few hours studying a specific clump of bushes, and he was surprised to learn that they had adapted in such a way as to absorb the abyssal corruption. He wasn’t certain if those plants would survive total immersion, but for now, they were thriving.
Elijah took a few cuttings and a couple of berries, hoping to study them further when he got the chance.
But the real find was a towering tree that grew through the ruins of a crumbling building. Its roots spread for nearly a hundred yards in every direction, and its crown encompassed the structure’s entire roof. The tree’s existence wasn’t that surprising. If bushes could survive, then a tree surely could as well. What shocked Elijah was the thing’s vitality. It wasn’t just surviving. It was thriving.
Unfortunately, he only had a few minutes to study it before he heard a sound like a thousand helicopters. He looked up to see a swarm cresting the horizon.
The vespirans had decided to attack.
Elijah quickly gathered a pinecone-like strobilus from one of the branches, then shoved it into his Arcane Loop. Then, he transformed into the Shape of the Scourge, took on the Guise of the Unseen, and sprinted back the way he’d come.
The swarm was faster.
They overtook him after less than a minute, then broke off into two distinct groups. From one, Elijah could feel the power of demi-gods, and it wasn’t long before they were met by the most powerful dragons in the higher-level army.
Elijah ignored them.
He knew that those powerful creatures wouldn’t interfere with the lesser battle, which was where he belonged. So, he plunged ahead, dodging between ruins and racing toward the fight to come.
He arrived just as the two sides clashed.
Without hesitation, he dove into the fray, ready to kill as many wasps as he could.
.
!
11-57. Disconnected
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