Path of Dragons 13 - Chapter 83 - A Long Time Coming

Elijah’s heart beat out of his chest as he floated amidst the gore of the previous battle.  He knew he couldn’t stay where he was for much longer – not without becoming embroiled in another battle – so he swam toward the surface.  Bursting through the waves like a humpback whale, he shifted into the Shape of the Sky and flapped his wings to gain altitude.  Once he was free of the mountainous peaks of the sea, he reoriented himself toward land and used Lightning Rush.

A few seconds later, he was more than a thousand miles away and still coasting off his previous speed.  After that, it wasn’t long before he passed the cliffs ringing his continent.  He didn’t stop until he was a few hundred miles inland and safe from any distractions.  Only then did he land and hastily wash the battle’s gore from his body.

Once that was done, he dipped into his recently deployed tent and, at last, allowed himself to acknowledge the notification he’d been waiting on for what felt like an eternity. 

Shape of the Sky was one of Elijah’s oldest unevolved abilities.  In fact, Elijah was certain that the few other abilities that had yet to evolve would only do so by combining with something else.  Spells like Eyes of the Eagle had the distinction of still being relevant because they did their jobs as well now as they’d done them in the beginning.  Shape of the Sky was similar, in that it was always meant to ease the burden of travel, and it still accomplished that aim quite well.

After all, Shape of the Sky was still his fastest form, and by no small degree.  Even without Lightning Rush, his flight form could outpace just about anything he encountered.  And with it?  Nothing could hope to keep up.

So, he’d not really expected it to evolve, though he was eager to see what was on offer.

As had been the case for a while, the descriptions of his options were somewhat vague, though Elijah’s instincts went a long way toward hinting at their natures.  That gave him some insight into what he had in store, regardless of his eventual choice.

The first, labeled Tempest, was the most intriguing, largely because, based on the description and his instincts, it seemed to offer something similar to Flames of Renewal.  Though instead of burning everything and siphoning vitality from the ashes, it would use a storm as the medium for damage and change.

It was easy to imagine it heralding a massive typhoon that scoured the land.  And in the wake would come new life.  Like a superbloom in a desert after a storm. 

Likely, it would shift the form’s focus a little more toward combat, though it would almost assuredly remain his best shape of travel. 

And that was incredibly tempting, especially considering just how vulnerable the Shape of the Sky had become.  It was so fragile that, without his advanced body cultivation, it would have become practically useless, save to go from one place to another in relative peace.

In short, the Tempest was a viable option.

Elijah moved on to the next, labeled the Serpent.

When he focused on that option, Elijah’s instincts told him that it would evolve the spell in a direction both new and old.  On the one hand, it would remain a travel-focused form, almost assuredly with all the detriments that came with that.  However, on the other hand, the bit about navigating the dimensional fabric sounded very much like it might give him the very tools he needed to escape Gorveth.

He had no idea how such a thing might work, but after discussing portals and foreign dimensions so often with Benedict, he felt certain that the Serpent would come with the ability to open portals to other planes of existence. 

By itself, that might not give Elijah the means to reach Earth.  But with Benedict’s help?  Maybe he could manage the impossible.

It was difficult not to choose that option then and there, just because it offered the opportunity to get home. 

Probably. 

As was always the case with his spell evolutions, the vague description and his overreliance on intuition meant that any choice he made would inevitably constitute a bit of a gamble.

Perhaps it would have been different if he hadn’t been so invariably alone.  Other people probably had guides or mentors to show them the way.  Meanwhile, Elijah had always forged his own path.  Even if guides existed, they would be far too expensive for him to afford. 

Not that it mattered.  The Knowledge Base was unavailable until Treebie’s connection to the World Tree matured, and even that was based on hope and optimism rather than any real evidence.  The end result was that he would need to make his choice on his own, same as always.

Regardless, he needed to look at the next option before he made his decision. 

And the second he focused on the Phoenix, one thing became obvious.  It was uniquely powerful.  He got the feeling that, even with his rare class, it was not a normal option.  Maybe it was the result of his Legacy.  Or perhaps something else was at play.  But it was clearly stronger than the other options.

Which complicated things quite a bit and transformed the decision from one of preference into a choice between incongruent options. 

The description of the Phoenix toed the line of mythology.  Fire, destruction, and rebirth, just like the creature of legend.  How that merged with his draconic heritage, Elijah had no idea.  But it was easy to imagine himself as a dragon-like creature with wings of fire, streaking across the sky.

It was a powerful image, and he felt certain that it still fell short of what it truly promised.

And it felt natural.  Right.  It felt like what he should take.

If the situation had been different, he might have done just that.  However, the reality of his circumstances meant that he wasn’t making a choice in a vacuum.  After all, what did more destructive power matter if it meant he would be stuck on Gorveth for the rest of his life?  Or even for the foreseeable future?

He lay back, unsure what to do.

The Tempest was easy to eliminate, given that it seemed to tread much of the same ground as the Phoenix, only less effectively.  That left him with two viable options.  The Serpent or the Phoenix.  Potential for escape or more power. 

When he put it like that, his choice seemed easier.  After all, Benedict had recently been faced with a similar decision, and Elijah had chided him for choosing the wrong option. 

Still, even if Elijah felt mostly certain about what direction he wanted to go, he decided to sleep on it, to let the decision simmer for a day or two before he picked one or the other. 

The only problem was that when he tried to sleep, he found himself lying awake and staring at the underside of the tent’s roof.  It rippled in the subtle wind, offering no insight into his upcoming decision. 

Elijah wasn’t sure how long he lay there, but eventually, the exhaustion of fighting the tentacle monster caught up to him.  He fell asleep without finalizing his choice, only to dream about phoenixes and serpents. 

When he awoke, he still wasn’t ready to make a decision, so he made his way back toward Druhmor, hoping to find some inspiration along the way.  And eventually, he found himself landing in the mountains and staring at the ring of statues.  He walked among them, stopping only when he stood before the sculptor.

“What would you do?” he asked.

She was now a statue, so she didn’t answer.  But asking the question unlocked something in his mind.  The sculptor had known her fate.  She had recognized what remaining on Gorveth meant.  If she had been offered the chance to escape, she would have taken it without question.

After all, power was useless without a future.

With that thought coursing through his mind, Elijah made his decision.  He chose the Serpent.

The ability list was followed by another notification, telling him that Lightning Rush had been absorbed into Dimensional Leap.  Given that Lightning Rush was a part of another spell – Stormborn, which granted abilities native to most of his other forms – it was odd to see that it had evolved alone.  But Elijah couldn’t be bothered to worry about that. 

Not with what he’d just gained.

With a single choice, his chances of escaping Gorveth had gone from implausible to very likely.  It was also confirmation that his spells as an Emerald Archon would be very much more powerful than the ones he’d gained as an ascendent. 

Eager to check things out, Elijah used Shape of the World Serpent for the very first time. 

As usual, the transformation was quick.  It took less than a second, but in that time, he felt his body rapidly expand and reform.  His arms retracted into his body, while his legs fused together. 

When it was all finished, he inspected himself with Soul of the Wild, and he was awestruck by what he found.  For one, the new form was enormous.  More than two hundred feet long, and at least twenty feet wide.  The body rippled with muscle as the scales flashed with every color of the rainbow.  Green fin-like structures lined the body, while a massive crest ran from the head all the way to the tail. 

The face reminded Elijah of a Chinese-style dragon mixed with a cobra.  Tendrils flowed from either side of the mouth, looking like a mustache.  Another collection descended from his chin, completing the facial-hair look.  But the eyes were the true standout.  They gleamed like onyx and glittered with pinpricks of starlight that made each orb look like a galaxy unto itself.

In short, the form lived up to its World Serpent moniker – an effect supported by the fact that, even without trying, Elijah remained a few feet off the ground, his body slowly slithering back and forth. 

Being a snake was an odd feeling, though Elijah had shapeshifted often enough that he adjusted fairly quickly.  Once he did, he decided to test it out.

He flexed the muscles along his body, and he slithered forward through the air. 

After doing a few loops, Elijah decided to pick up the pace.  And when he pushed himself to his limit, his pace elicited a loud sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. 

Then, once he’d established control over his new body, Elijah chose to explore his abilities.  The first was Dimensional Leap, mostly because he felt that, as a Lightning Rush evolution, he knew what to expect from it.

He was simultaneously right and wrong.

The first, because it worked similarly, though instead of transforming him into a bolt of lightning, he found himself entering a dimension of nothingness, only to emerge a few seconds later.  It took a second for him to determine his exact location, but when he did, he was happy to see that he’d traveled nearly two thousand miles.  That put him in the middle of the ocean.

He let out a few panting breaths.

The trip through the void was nothing like he’d expected.  Even during those few seconds, he’d felt some force pressing against him.  The only reason he wasn’t immediately squashed was because of Scales of Infinity.

But while in there, he’d felt something else.  A path through the nothingness.  Perhaps that would be his way home.