Path of Dragons

“It ain’t proper.”

“You were welcome not to use the cultivation cave, you know. Complaining about it now isn’t going to change anything,” Elijah said, striding alongside Kurik. Before, the dwarf would have struggled to keep up – on account of his much shorter legs – but after his bout in the cultivation cave where he’d advanced to Body of Stone, he had no issues maintaining Elijah’s pace.

“If my parents could see me now…they’d disown me,” Kurik went on. “Who ever heard of a dwarf cultivating with ice? Ugh. I feel like I got frozen maggots crawlin’ all over me.”

“Don’t be such a drama queen. Advancement is advancement. It doesn’t actually matter how you achieve it,” Elijah said. However, he knew that wasn’t necessarily the case, especially in later stages. The information he’d found on cultivation was a bit vague about how it worked later on, but it did mention that the requirements grew more strenuous with every step. On top of that, different environments gave different benefits, though the guide hadn’t mentioned exactly what those benefits were.

For now, though, all that mattered was taking each step, and everyone in the party had advanced one aspect of their cultivation. Both Kurik and Sadie had reached the second tier with their Bodies, while Dat had chosen to work on his Mind. Meanwhile, Ron had advanced his Mind, hoping to increase the rate at which he could regenerate ethera. In short, they’d all taken huge strides, and they’d only stopped because the cave’s ethera density needed to recover before they made another push. Elijah wasn’t certain if that would occur before the end of the Trial, which was only six months away.

In that time, they needed to complete six more challenges. To that end, once everyone had taken the next step in their cultivation, they’d immediately set out to do just that. Thankfully, the map they’d discovered in the Immortals’ compound laid out the disposition of the remaining challenges, so they merely had to pick the closest one and cross the wilderness.

Still, even knowing the way, the trek had taken an additional week, but now that they had drawn closer, the jungle had begun to give way to a coastal plane. That was within expectations, because the next three challenges – the Underrealm, Niflara, and Ignis – were located near the sea.

They’d chosen the one representing the Underrealm because it was the closest, though not by much. The next in line was Niflara – which was the realm tied to the sea – with Ignis being a little inland. That disposition established the order in which the group intended to tackle each challenge. After that, they would be required to cross the entire continent to reach the challenges associated with the Umbra and Ethereum.

It was a good plan, though one Elijah expected would necessitate some adjustment as they encountered additional problems. The Immortals were gone, but Elijah knew that further conflict wasn’t out of the question. There were too many people, each one with different goals, to completely avoid future clashes. They could only hope that those disputes wouldn’t affect the rest of the Trial-takers, though Elijah wasn’t too optimistic on that front.

Kurik continued to grumble as they kept going, but eventually, he fell silent. Meanwhile, Elijah concentrated on One with Nature. He still hadn’t grown completely accustomed to the wealth of information available to him, and he expected that it would require another advance in his Mind cultivation to reach that point. Still, he was continuously surprised with just how much he could sense.

The effect wasn’t just limited to quantifiable information, either. Sure, One with Nature was the medium through which he felt everything, but the sense of connection he’d developed was the real benefit. Because of that, he felt more immersed in nature than ever before, which he felt could only be a good thing going forward. It was almost as if his attunement had grown stronger.

Perhaps it had.

Regardless, Elijah no longer felt an ounce of regret concerning his choice of specialization. For one mile after another, he focused on his surroundings, and along the way, vegetation grew less pervasive. Despite the day having barely progressed past noon, the sky became darker as roiling black clouds blocked the sun.

And then, they finally reached their destination.

After leaving a sparse stand of trees behind, Elijah crested a slight rise, and he saw a forest of a different sort. A collection of towers, many of which were broken, stretched as far as he could see. Even when he used Eyes of the Eagle, he couldn’t discern their endpoint. The spires themselves were tall and composed of black stone. Looking closer, Elijah established some sense of scale. The closest were almost a mile away, and yet, he could tell that each spire was at least a couple hundred feet wide at the base, though they were much narrower toward the top.

As he’d previously noted, many of the towers were broken, and aquamarine lightning danced between their peaks. Barren terrain stretched between the towers, and in the distance, Elijah saw black waves crashing against a rocky shore. A few towers extended into the sea, though they stopped after a hundred yards or so.

Dark clouds blanketed the sky, casting the entire area in perpetual gloom. The only light came from the teal lightning arcing between the towers.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, bro,” Dat said.

“At least you have experience with this kind of thing,” Elijah said.

According to the reports they’d read, the Underrealm was populated by undead, which was precisely in Dat’s and Sadie’s realm of expertise. They’d spent years fighting the unliving in Hong Kong, and Elijah hoped that their vast experience would give them some advantage going forward.

“Is there anything I should know about what we can expect in there?” Elijah asked.

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Dat answered, “Zombie rules.”

“What?”

Sadie elaborated, “Destroy the brain. Complete dismemberment can sometimes work, but it usually only makes them immobile. It probably won’t kill them unless you destroy the brain.”

“But that’s just the normal undead,” Dat said. “There are tons of other types that are a lot worse.”

“Like what?” Kurik asked.

“According to every guide I’ve read, the varieties are nearly as endless as classes,” Sadie explained. “And they’re different on each world. Back home, we encountered ambulatory skeletons, wraiths, vampires, and these odd sludges that could envelope people and suck the life out of them.”

“That’s what they do. They’re driven to eradicate life because it hurts them.”

“Hurt might be a stretch. There’s no evidence that they feel pain,” Sadie said.

“Everything feels pain, bro.”

“The point is that they can’t survive in areas with high vitality. So, they consume it, somehow transforming that energy into death-attuned ethera,” Sadie continued. “If it’s like Hong Kong, when we get far enough into their territory, we’ll start taking damage.”

“Like the tomb I found.”

“Yes,” she said. “But it’s unlikely to be that concentrated, except in pockets.”

“So, we don’t really know what to expect, except to specify that it’s probably undead monsters who will suck the life right out of you, given half a chance,” said Ron. “Oh, and if Elijah’s experiences are any indication, there’s a chance we’ll encounter areas where the flesh will rot right off of our bones.”

“Basically, bro. It sucks.”

Ron sighed and shook his head.

“Are they sentient?” Elijah asked.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Sadie admitted. “Some people claim that the ones who’ve been converted maintain some intelligence. The zombies are just what you expect. Completely mindless. But the more powerful ones…they can talk. They can reason. So, I don’t know.”

“Great,” Elijah muttered. “I guess we’ll use the normal formation. Dat and I will scout it out, while you hang out here while we figure things out? Once we identify a target, we’ll advance the same way we always do.”

Everyone agreed that was the best option, so Elijah slipped into the Shape of Venom and used Guise of the Unseen. After that, he and Dat set out for the collection of towers. As Elijah drew closer, he felt the same absence he’d experienced in the tomb, though there were pockets of life here and there.

Then, just as he passed the first tower, Elijah received a notification:

Elijah frowned. It was the first time they’d encountered a challenge that would reward a piece of equipment. Before, they’d gotten raw materials or, in the case of the Singing Cliffs, a consumable item that provided attributes. He wasn’t certain what the change signified, expect that he expected the Pendant of Vitality to be quite powerful.

Otherwise, the notification made the goal of the challenge clear. Somehow, they were meant to deactivate the towers – which, if he had to guess, were the reason for the deathly aura suffusing the region – then defeat the Conqueror. Could they do it out of order, though? Did they even want to try? If the other challenges were anything to go by, the boss – for lack of a better term – would be incredibly strong, and Elijah had to assume that the towers somehow empowered the Champion, whose nature was still a mystery.

Elijah continued forward, even going so far as to climb the outside of one of the broken towers. When he reached the top, he saw a black crystal suspended in the center of the exposed floor. Upon trying to touch it, an explosion of force sent him flying backward. Panicking, he narrowly avoided plummeting to the ground by reaching out to grab the edge. There, he hung for a long moment, his hissing breath coming in gasps. He likely could have survived such a fall, but the moment the force had hit him, Guise of the Unseen had been stripped away.

And when he looked down, he saw hundreds of zombies spilling out of the tower. Far too many bodies for the tower to accommodate. In addition, thousands of winged creatures descended from the clouds and started to circle. Before they saw him, Elijah reengaged Guise of the Unseen, but it was clear that his actions had once again resulted in serious consequences.

The entire region looked like someone had kicked an anthill as hordes of undead creatures rushed to fill the gaps between the towers.

Elijah wanted to kick himself. Trying to touch that crystal had been stupid. And in retrospect, the results were obvious. However, in his defense, he’d hoped that doing so would allow him to simply deactivate the tower. Clearly, he was wrong. There was another piece of the puzzle, and finding it was the first obstacle.

He glanced down at the ground, which was roiling with a horde of undead ta’alaki and ka’alaki. Then, he looked around at the flying monsters – they looked like humanoid bats, though with bits of flesh dangling from their bodies and giant holes in their wings. Those wings were so damaged, in fact, that Elijah wondered how they remained in the air.

Magic, assuredly.

That was almost always the answer when the laws of physics were treated as mere suggestions.

In any case, Elijah scampered down the tower, grateful for the efficacy of his stealth skill. When he reached the ground, he spent quite a lot of time observing the zombies. To his surprise, they moved in large clumps, and after half an hour, he figured out why when he saw that one of the zombies had the light of intelligence in their eyes. It wasn’t terribly overt, but he sensed that it was not only smarter but more powerful than the others. Those lesser zombies seemed to understand that as well, and they congregated around the elite undead, almost by instinct.

Elijah continued to watch until he saw a similar interaction in another clump. Three more instances of the same phenomenon told him that he was on the right track.

Thankfully, after a couple of hours, the zombies returned to their towers. When Elijah followed one group, he saw them step through what looked like a grey square suspended in the wall of one of the towers. Once all the creatures were gone, it winked out of existence.

Within twenty minutes, the entire region was once again devoid of undead, leaving Elijah to explore at his leisure. After another couple of hours, he’d discovered nothing of note, so he returned to the camp and told everyone what he’d found. Dat arrived about an hour later and confirmed everything Elijah had revealed, though he did have two other things to add.

“Those crystals at the tops of the towers can be neutralized,” he said. “I’m not sure how, but Hex of Scrying says that the answers are in the bigger spires.”

“All of those were sealed,” Elijah said. “Even when I climbed to the top, I found nothing but an open area with the crystal.”

Sadie said, “Then I think that’s the first thing we need to figure out, right? How to get inside.”

“We only explored a fraction of the area,” Elijah said. “That’s where we should start. I think my next step is to fly over everything to get a sense of what’s going on. Then, we can make a plan.”

Everyone agreed, though Sadie did caution him to be careful and not touch any other strange crystals.

“I’m always careful,” he said.

Then, he leaped into the air and initiated the transformation into the Shape of the Sky. A second later, he beat his wings and soared high above the towers.

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