Path of Dragons

“Whoa, now. I’m not –”

As Elijah tried to defuse the situation, a fighter stepped forward holding a pair of handcuffs. “Do not move. Do not resist. You will be –”

Elijah had no interest in letting anyone bind him. However, with the Envoy clearly having activated some ability meant to suppress his power – both in terms of his spellcasting ability and his attributes – he didn’t really have much choice. Still, if there was one thing Elijah knew about the world, it was that everything was relative. Sure, Envoys were extremely powerful within range of their Branch, but there was nothing that could overcome an enormous disparity in levels or cultivation.

And Elijah had both on his side.

When the fighter drew close enough, Elijah rammed through the restrictions imposed by the Envoy. Whatever ability they’d used resisted his efforts for only a moment before it shattered entirely. The Envoy – a petite, black-haired woman in the back – let out a scream before collapsing to the floor. She immediately curled into a ball, clutching her head and screaming in pain.

Meanwhile, now that Elijah was free, he acted. His staff swept out, shattering the knee of the handcuff-bearing fighter. The man’s broken leg collapsed beneath him as he let out a pained grunt. Elijah snapped out a kick that hit him square in the chest before dashing to the side.

Even as the fighter flew backward into his fellows, Elijah took stock of his situation. The Branch – which was larger than any he’d yet seen – stood in the center of the vaguely circular room. The entire place had a futuristic look – as if Elijah was inside of a spaceship – with three floors surrounding an expansive lobby. Toward the outer edges, he got a glimpse of enormous windows, through which he could see the open sky.

That was all he got the chance to see before he was on top of the next fighter in line. This one was armed with a spear, and she wasn’t shy about trying to skewer him with it. However, his unconstrained attributes were so much higher than hers that he had no issue dodging to the side and caving in her ribs with a short jab of his Feral Spire. She didn’t collapse, though. Instead, she activated some sort of ability meant to restrain him, but Elijah tore through it with ease before smashing his fist into her jaw.

The sound of cracking bone joined shouts of alarm as she dropped to the ground. Elijah stepped over her, avoiding her weakly grasping hands as he targeted another enemy. Just then, an arrow very nearly clipped him, and he decided to end the farce, then and there.

So, he activated Shape of Thorn. Power flooded into him as he dodged another arrow, and when the transformation completed a second later, he activated Domain of Vines.

Vines erupted from the pristine tiles below his feet, snaking out to wrap around the stunned fighters. They tried to resist, but they were all far too weak to even begin to fight them off.

All but one, at least.

This one had to be the leader, judging by the slightly fancier equipment, which looked like modern riot gear mixed with traditional Chinese armor. He also felt like the strongest among them, an assumption supported by the fact that he managed to rip through the vines trying to encircle him in a cocoon of vegetation.

When he reached Elijah, he led with a well-controlled thrust of his straight sword. It found nothing but air. Even in his clumsiest form, Elijah had no trouble avoiding the man’s attack. And soon enough, he had his massive claws wrapped around the leader’s neck.

“Why?” he growled, pulling him close.

“Monster,” the man spat, choking on the word.

“Enough!” came a shout from the other side of the room. It was more than a hundred feet away, but Elijah heard it clearly enough. More importantly, when he focused on the owner of that voice, he felt true power. The man wasn’t as strong as him, but he was no pushover, either.

And given his resemblance to a certain Crusader, it wasn’t long before Elijah identified him.

“Are you Nico Song?” Elijah asked, his voice echoing through the space and easily overwhelming the muffled screams of the fighters he’d captured with his vines.

“I am,” the man announced. He was taller than his sister, but his features were almost identical. Not so much that he’d have called them twins, but enough to label them siblings at a glance. He also wore a fitted top with a high collar and wide-legged trousers that, at first, Elijah thought was a voluminous skirt. The entire ensemble was white with gold embroidery. More interestingly, Elijah could feel the man’s core via Soul of the Wild. It flickered like a tiny sun, and when Elijah focused on it, he felt an odd sensation. It felt like the attention of a loving, if extremely strict, parent, though to such a degree that the description felt woefully inadequate. “Please release my people.”

“Are they going to attack me again?” Elijah asked. “Because if they do, I’m going to start throwing them out those windows.”

“You have my word that you will not be attacked unless you make the first move,” Nico stated evenly. “We only want peace.”

“Funny way of showing it,” Elijah remarked, letting Domain of Vines wilt. The roots and vines fell limp, and a second later, they dissipated into ethera. The once-captured fighters fell to the floor, gasping for air. Perhaps he’d been a little too vigorous in his constriction.

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“Who are you? Why are you here?”

Elijah let himself resume his human shape. “I’m Elijah. I’m friends with your sister,” he said with a little wave. “I heard you have a Primal Realm problem, so I’m here to help.” He glanced around at the fighters. “Probably not the best start to an alliance, I’ll admit. But in my defense, your people tried to suppress and bind me. That’s not something I will allow.”

“That…is standard operating procedure in Heaven’s Bastion,” Nico said, stepping forward. He moved with incredible grace, and it almost looked like he was gliding. “An unfortunate side effect of having been attacked from within only three days ago. We were on high alert.”

“I see.”

Elijah wasn’t sure if that was an excuse or a reason, but he was in no position to figure it out. At present, he lacked the information necessary to assess the situation, an issue he hoped to alleviate when he reunited with Sadie.

“Can I see Sadie? Or Dat?” Elijah asked, noticing the flicker of irritation at the Witch Hunter’s name. “Or should I just leave? If I’m not welcome…”

“No. Your assistance will be most welcome. Please, follow me,” Nico said. Without another word, he turned and strode away.

“Wait, you’re not going to heal these people?” asked Elijah. But by that point, Nico had already disappeared through the door by which he’d entered. “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”

With that, he cast Blessing of the Grove, then Soothe on the most injured of them. To his surprise, the effect of the first was almost as potent as if he’d used Nature’s Bloom, and in only a couple of seconds, the damage had been mended. The fighters all looked shocked – and more than a little terrified – though Elijah tried his best to ignore that last part.

Only then did he realize just how much of a step forward he’d taken. He’d known that his recent improvements were powerful, but he hadn’t expected them to take such a leap. It made sense, though. Tiers were important, and just as he’d easily torn through the Envoy’s attempt at suppression, his healing spells were that much stronger when used on those of a lower tier.

Would the same be true if he’d used something like Lightning Domain? If that was the case, he’d have killed them outright, and without even meaning to.

One thing was certain, though. Going forward, he needed to be more careful. Thankfully, the slight delay was only a few seconds before he was following Nico’s path into what turned out to be an elevator. The man himself narrowed his eyes at Elijah, but he didn’t say anything about the healing.

For his part, Elijah’s first impression of Sadie’s brother was not a good one. Sure, the circumstances weren’t ideal, but as far as he knew, Nico was a Healer, and a powerful one at that. There was no excuse for him not to use his powers to mend his people’s injuries.

“You have electricity?” asked Elijah as the elevator hummed to life. A moment later, it was descending at a rapid pace, which made it difficult to feel the passing floors. However, what he did notice was that the building – which seemed to be a skyscraper – had been divided into domiciles where thousands of people currently resided. That had to have taken quite a lot of work, but with the right classes and a few years, almost anything was possible.

“We do,” Nico answered crisply. His British accent wasn’t as pronounced as Sadie’s, but Elijah could hear notes of it all the same. Clearly, his life had followed a similar pattern as his sister’s. “This was once the International Commerce Center, though we have made significant alterations since the world’s transformation. It is far sturdier, and our electricity is provided by ethereal power converters in the basement.”

“Lots of people living here, too.”

“Of course,” Nico stated. “Heaven’s Bastion is our stronghold. Too many continue to refuse our protection, but we are the largest population center in Hong Kong.”

Elijah nodded, but before he could respond, the doors slid open to reveal a luxurious apartment. The style put Elijah in mind of antiseptic modernity, with clean lines and lacking any color. There were a few plants here and there, and a couple of nods to Chinese heritage peppered the space. But for the most part, it was wholly uninspiring, and Elijah found it entirely discomforting.

And it wasn’t difficult to see why, either.

It was a nice enough place, and it had clearly cost a fortune to build. But it was hollow, an artifact of a world long past. And it lacked a certain beauty that Elijah had begun to take for granted.

“Nice place,” he said politely.

“This is our family’s quarters. Please wait here while I fetch my sister,” Nico responded.

After that, Nico strode through the lobby – for that was the only way Elijah could describe it – and disappeared down a nearby hall. With the Healer gone, Elijah stepped from the elevator and began to inspect the décor. After only a few seconds, he found a golden statue of a Chinese style dragon. It was a nice piece, and clearly, the artist had spent quite some time on it. However, to Elijah, it was no more substantive than anything else in the room.

Hollow.

He kept going back to that word, but it wasn’t adequate to describe what he felt. Part of it was the much lower levels of ethera, which he’d expected. His grove played host to the highest density of ethera on the planet, so anywhere he went would assuredly be inferior in that respect. However, the biggest problem was that almost everything in the lobby had been made before Earth had experienced the touch of the World Tree. As such, it just felt empty.

Elijah was wrestling with those thoughts and what they meant when he felt a familiar figure come into range. Sadie was still a hundred or so feet away, but he was familiar enough with her presence to immediately recognize her. In that moment, he felt a pang of relief – and a healthy dose of anticipation – at their reunion. Until those feelings gripped his mind, Elijah hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed her.

And Dat, he added a moment later.

Soon enough, Sadie appeared in the lobby. She wore a simple pair of sweatpants and a tank top, and she was covered in a sheen of sweat. The moment she laid eyes on Elijah, she gave a broad smile. For someone with her reserved demeanor, that was tantamount to throwing herself across the room and wrapping her arms around him.

Or at least that was how it made Elijah feel, which had definitely not been part of his plan. Apparently, the old adage that absence made the heart grow fonder was truer than he’d ever expected.

“Hey,” he said, returning her smile with one of his own. “How have you been?”

“Took you long enough,” she stated.

“I had some things I needed to do first. Ron and his daughter are safe now, by the way,” he responded.

“Good. I’d have gone for them myself, but…”

“I know,” he said as they closed with one another. Pointedly, Nico didn’t look happy. He wasn’t overtly angry – indeed, his face was mostly placid – but Elijah could feel the slight twitches of irritation around the man’s eyes. “So, what’s the situation here? We’ve still got a couple of weeks before the Primal Realm goes active, right?”

“We do,” Sadie stated. “But there are complications. Some, we’re actively taking care of, but there are others that may make this much more complicated.”

“I guess you’d better fill me in, then.”

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