Path of Dragons

“Wake up, bro.”

“I’m not asleep. I’m just resting my eyes,” Elijah muttered. He would have already passed out, but for the rumbling emanating in the distance. It wasn’t nearly as powerful a quake as what they’d felt in the immediate aftermath of their previous actions, but it was more than enough to distract him from descending into blessed unconsciousness.

“You really shouldn’t drain your whole core,” Dat responded. “It’s super bad for you.”

“You think?” Elijah groaned. The exhaustion he felt in the wake of using all the ethera in his core was more complete than any he’d ever experienced. He could move, but it was like he’d gone back to the first few days after Earth was touched by the World Tree, when he was still suffering from cancer and the results of chemotherapy and radiation. In short, it was as if none of his attributes mattered anymore.

Which gave him some hints as to how those attributes worked. A good part of his power was clearly dependent on ethera. He didn’t know if it created a constant drain on the ethera in his core or if the core, once its contents had been exhausted, drained the ethera from the rest of his body. But the consequences were obvious.

As Dat had said, completely draining his core was super bad for him.

As he lay there, Elijah focused on his Jade Mind. The vortexes in each facet swirled sluggishly, but with every passing moment, their speed picked up. And after a minute or so, they managed to funnel a trickle of ethera into his channels, which flowed down to his parched core. It was like a rainstorm in the middle of a drought. Slowly, Elijah felt his power return until, after ten minutes, he felt like he’d returned to normal.

His core was still mostly empty, but now that his body had been sated, it was free to refill. And with his Regeneration, powered by his powerful Jade Mind, it wouldn’t take that long before it was full. Maybe an hour, but that would depend on how hard he wanted to push his Mind.

That was one thing he’d learned about the system. It functioned according to basic parameters, but of late, he had discovered that it was more a system of ranges, rather than absolute values. For instance, his most recent use of Lightning Domain was far more powerful than it had ever been before. He likened it to running. He could maintain a moderate jog almost indefinitely, but if he really pushed himself to sprint as fast as possible, he would quickly run out of energy. The difference was that when spells – or cultivation – were pushed, they drew their energy from multiple sources. Ethera was always a factor. So was stamina. But just as important as either of those other aspects was willpower.

So, in that way, it really wasn’t so different from intense exercise. Just because someone’s muscles were capable of great feats didn’t mean they had the will to push their bodies to that extent. It was one of the elements that set elite athletes apart from everyone else.

Thankfully, Elijah had a long history – going back to his days spent in the boxing gym, but not unaffected by his fight with cancer – of pushing himself harder and longer than most. It was probably the single biggest reason he’d managed to survive so long.

Once he felt better, Elijah opened his eyes to find that the area was entirely covered in shadow. It was deeper than ever before, and if he hadn’t had the benefit of One with Nature, he would have been almost entirely blind.

“Uh…can any of you see?” he asked.

“No. The shadows have grown deeper with ever passing second,” Sadie stated.

“Oh. Good thing I have this,” Elijah said, pulling out his ethera-powered flashlight. When he flicked the switch, it sent a beam of light out to pierce the darkness. However, it was far weaker than it should have been, and it only traveled a few scant feet before completely dissipating. Disappointed, he complained, “Come on. This is a police-issue Maglite.”

“Magic darkness, bro.”

Elijah just shook his head. “Does anyone have anything that can burn?” he asked.

As it turned out, Ron carried some bandages in his pack, which they wrapped around gnarled sticks they found on the ground. Once they’d built torches, Elijah retrieved his firestarter – which took the form of a laser pointer – and set one of them ablaze. The flickering light it provided was meager, but it was better than nothing.

It also showed the extent of the damage the area had experienced. Many of the trees had been completely uprooted, and the ones that had managed to survive the quake had had their limbs sheared off. It looked like a combination of an earthquake and a hurricane had fallen upon the area.

“So, what’s the plan?” Ron asked.

“I vote for runnin’ away,” Kurik answered. Under his breath, he added, “Not that nobody’ll listen to good sense.”

“We’re not leaving. We’re already halfway through the challenge. The hard part’s done,” Elijah said.

“You don’t believe that, do you?” the dwarf asked.

“Uh…depends on what you consider the hard part? I mean, trying to figure things out is harder than just fighting a monster, isn’t it?” he suggested.

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“I thought you used to be a scientist,” Ron remarked.

“I was. Not a good one, mind you, but…”

“We’re not leaving,” Sadie stated. “And I think it’s clear what our destination should be. Whatever we’re supposed to do, it’s in that palace.”

They all agreed with that assessment, so it wasn’t long before they set off in that direction. Dat and Elijah, both of whom were equipped with extrasensory capabilities and stealth, scouted the way, while the other three used their makeshift torches and Elijah’s flashlight to pick through the decimated forest.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter any other shadow slayers. Not living ones, at least. There were plenty of dead bodies, suggesting that the disaster hadn’t been picky about its victims. What that meant, Elijah had no idea, but he filed that information away in the back of one facet of his mind nonetheless. Perhaps it would be important later.

In any case, they slowly made their way through the Vale of Whispers, eventually finding that all of the unused candles had been snuffed out. To stretch the duration of their torches, Elijah coated the bandages in some of the fat he’d rendered from the boar guardian. He only had a little in a jar – there was much more stored back home – but when he lit the fat-coated strips of cloth, he found that they burned much longer. On top of that, the light went much further. In retrospect, it made some sense. After all, that fat had come from a powerful creature that Elijah had only managed to kill by running it to exhaustion.

It was also quite a boon to the progress of their exploration. Elijah had no issues sensing his environment well enough to make his way quickly and efficiently, but Sadie and the others had nothing like One with Nature. Except Dat, of course, who seemed completely unbothered by the shadows. Obviously, that was due to his attunement.

In any case, the new, fat-burning torches allowed them to move much more quickly, so it was only a few more hours before they came into range of the palace. And to everyone’s surprise, it was completely devoid of shadows. A shaft of sunlight shone down on the jagged and asymmetrical building. There were no glimmering reflections of that light, though. Instead, the whole thing looked matte black, as if it absorbed the sun’s rays.

After everyone else had made it to his position, he shifted back into his human form and asked, “That’s weird, right?”

Ron answered Elijah’s question with one of his own, “Can’t that word be used to describe everything we’ve been through since coming to this Trial?”

“Fair,” Elijah acknowledged. Then, he glanced at the others, asking, “Do we just go in the front door? Or…”

Indeed, the front gate to the palace was wide open. Or more accurately, the doors had been shattered and torn free of their hinges. A few splinters remained, but not enough to bar their view of the shadows within. One thing was certain – that gaping door filled with darkness did not look inviting.

“I think you know the answer to that question,” Sadie said in a monotone voice.

Elijah sighed, then shifted back into the Shape of Venom, but before he left, he said, “I’ll be back in a little while. If there’s another way in, I’ll find it.”

The moment he was out of sight, he used Guise of the Unseen and approached the palace. However, when he passed into the miles-wide beam of sunlight, his stealth was stripped away, leaving him entirely exposed. Looking up, he saw that the vortex of darkness that had once swirled above the palace had disappeared. Fortunately, there were no enemies around to take advantage.

Which was both comforting and troubling. The first, for obvious reasons. He didn’t want to get torn to pieces. But the latter was true as well, because he knew that they hadn’t killed nearly enough shadow slayers to depopulate the entire challenge. There were thousands of the things hanging on or around the palace, and the fact that they were no longer there filled Elijah with anxiety. After all, if they weren’t there, and they hadn’t been killed, then where had they gone?

It was with those discomforting thoughts flowing through his mind that Elijah approached the palace. Without the availability of stealth, he shifted back into his human form. It was his most versatile, which he expected might be necessary going forward.

The shaft of sunlight was wide enough to encompass the entire palace as well as the grounds for hundreds of yards all around. Elijah couldn’t make an estimate as to how broad it truly was, but he knew it was at least a couple of miles wide. He took his time on his way to his destination, focusing multiple facets of his Jade Mind on One with Nature.

But he felt nothing.

There were no enemies lying in wait. No traps meant to trip him up. Just a bunch of splintered trees and churned earth. To call it unnerving would have been a vast understatement. The fact that his senses didn’t extend into the palace itself made it especially uncomfortable.

Even worse was the sense of the palace itself. It didn’t feel like a building. Instead, it was almost like a living thing, though one so alien that he could scarcely comprehend it. It was also big. Powerful in a way he’d not felt since the umbrafyix. But it was also inert, almost like a creature on the edge of death.

The challenge of the Umbra was unnerving in a number of ways, but that left him chilled to the bone.

Gradually, Elijah circled the structure, and he couldn’t help but marvel at the architecture. As he’d previously noted, there were characteristics similar to what could be found in buildings on Earth. Like the cathedral in Milan, with its jagged, cluttered, and wholly gothic design that still somehow worked. However, there were alien details as well, like curious overhangs featuring lace-like stonework that shouldn’t have been structurally sound.

To Elijah’s eye, it looked like the designer had tried to cram hundreds of concepts into a single building, and rather than creating a unified aesthetic, they’d only achieved chaos. Beautiful chaos, but the nature remained the same.

Maybe that was the point. Or maybe the architect had been mad. But they were obviously talented, as were the craftsmen who’d created it.

As Elijah circled the building, using One with Nature to search every nook and cranny, those thoughts echoed in his mind. He didn’t have any answers to the resultant questions, which left him frustrated. He wanted to know the world’s history. He wanted to experience their culture. Because after all, what was the point in coming to an entirely new planet if one didn’t see the full breadth of who the natives were?

The fruitless search – both for answers and another entrance – left Elijah irritated, so when he returned to his companions, his statement that there was no other way in came with none of his usually affable tone.

“I guess we don’t have a choice, then,” Sadie said.

“I guess not,” Elijah agreed.

The pair exchanged a pointed look, but Sadie broke her gaze after only a second. Then, she stated, “Then we should get it over with. I’ll take the lead. Elijah, in the rear. Everyone else knows their roles. Let’s move.”

Elijah wanted to make some petty remark about not needing her orders, but he restrained himself. There was something in her eyes that told him that doing so would be a big mistake. So, unsatisfied with his own silence – as well as the situation – Elijah fell into line as they trekked toward the shadowy entrance to the alien palace.

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