Path of Dragons 13 - Chapter 79 - The Undertaking

Elijah stood on the cliff overlooking the ocean, watching as the massive waves warred with one another for prominence.  It was like looking at a mountain range in motion.  From above descended gargantuan tentacles, splashing into the water, only to reemerge moments later and clutching deceptively small prey. 

From experience, Elijah knew that the creatures snared by those tentacles were as large as blue whales, and demi-gods to boot.  The tentacles belonged to truly awe-inspiring monsters who lived just outside the limits of the planet’s upper atmosphere.  It was fortunate that Gorveth simply couldn’t support them.  Otherwise, Elijah and everyone else who lived on its surface would have long since died.

The same was true about the monsters living in the deepest parts of the ocean.  Elijah had encountered those, and though he’d grown much more powerful since those meetings, he knew good and well that he had a long way to go before he could fight them on even footing.

It was a good thing, then, that he had no intention of doing so.  Fighting them, perhaps, but not on even ground.

Without further ado, he leaped from the cliff, sprang off of Cloud Step, and shifted into the Shape of the Sky.  A flap of his wings sent him further along, and once he’d reoriented himself in the appropriate direction, he used Lightning Rush.

He tore across the sky as a bolt of electricity, slamming through the towering waves without hesitation or impediment.  The ability lasted a little more than three seconds, and in that time, he covered nearly a thousand miles.  It was a good reminder of just how far he’d come, given that when he’d first set out across Gorveth, Lightning Rush was only capable of carrying him half that distance. 

At best.

Soon enough, the ability ended, and he dove toward the nearest wave.  As he did so, he used Shape of the Sea, transforming into a massive sea turtle before plummeting into the water.

Once, the liquid itself had been like acid against his scales.  Now, with the benefit of his increased attributes that had come from his recently obtained levels and the enhanced durability of becoming a demi-god, it felt no more serious than a sunburn. 

He dove.

And immediately, he found himself under attack by monsters.  It wasn’t his first foray into the depths.  In fact, he’d lost count of how much time he’d spent in the ocean over the past couple of years.  But the local monsters had been whipped into a frenzy, probably because they could sense what was coming.

Elijah shifted his mindset, letting himself embrace the beast as he tore through the monsters.  They kept coming, but such was their nature.  Elijah carved a path through them, scarcely noticing what form they took.  For a while, his world became a mass of tentacles, teeth, misshapen eyes, and the darkness of the depths.

Experience flowed in as he continuously dove deep.  And then, after leaving the monsters behind, he reached the seafloor.  Only a few hours of searching netted the discovery of a familiar landmark, which in turn led him to his final destination.

The trilithon was massive.  At least five hundred feet tall and just as wide.  The surface of the stone had already been engraved with artful but simple depictions of sea life, and not the monstrous kind.  To his senses, it shimmered with barely contained ethera. 

The latest ring was exactly two thousand miles from the previous outer circle, and he’d been steadily working on it for the better part of two years.  At last, he was on the verge of completion. 

But then, he’d need to start the next ring.  And the next after that. 

He’d never gotten an accurate estimate on the planet’s exact size, but even if he managed to keep going for a decade or more, he’d only cover a fraction of the planet.  And that wasn’t even considering how long it would take Treebie’s roots to spread across all of Gorveth. 

No – the undertaking was not meant for the faint of heart or the impatient.  Even using his most generous estimates, it would be a century or more before the world was entirely encompassed by Treebie’s roots.  And only then could the true cleansing begin.  There was no telling how long that would take.

Once, such a timeframe would have sent Elijah plummeting into an existential crisis.  But the same could have been said if he’d contemplated a decade-long endeavor.  And that decade had already come and gone.

There was a certain aspect of peace in the process.  A surety that he was making progress that served to comfort him.  It also distracted him from the very real questions he had about Earth’s fate.  There was a chance that, when he finally did return, he’d need to repeat the process with his home planet.

Until then, he could only take one day at a time.

To that end, he extended his Mantle of Authority through his beak-like nose and carved the final rune on the trilithon’s lintel.  Upon completion, the entire ring pulsed with power and sent a wave of cleansing energy through the corrupted sea. 

The local monsters responded the only way they knew how – by attacking.

Most of them went straight for the trilithons, but plenty targeted Elijah himself.  He welcomed them with equal aggression.  Killing them had become a matter of course even before he’d completed the circle, but now that it was done, they were grossly weakened, and to the point that he could dispatch them with ease.

As a giant sea turtle, he ripped through the monsters, carving a path of black blood and carnage across the sea.  For a while, he lost track of time as he circled the ring.  It was thousands of miles wide, and he was fighting the entire time.  So, the trip took months more. 

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t necessary.

The monsters couldn’t destroy his trilithons, as demonstrated numerous times on land.  Yet, Elijah found it difficult to stomach their ineffectual attacks.  However, after months of fighting, he wanted nothing more than to retreat to dry land and take a much needed break.

With that, he leaped free of the waves and transformed into the Shape of the Sky.  Once he’d established the right direction, he used Lightning Rush, which took him most of the way to land.  After that, it only took another hour to reach the cliffs.

He landed on wobbly legs, then, after resuming his human form for the first time in months, sank to his knees.  He remained like that for a while, just reacclimating to his lack of fins.  Finally, he rocked back on his heels and raked his fingers through his hair. 

Despite the fact that he’d spent so much time fighting monsters, there really wasn’t much excitement about his latest excursion.  Or really, his life in general.  After killing the Synod, there wasn’t much on Gorveth that could truly threaten him.  Certainly, if he let his guard down, that would change.  But so long as he maintained focus, he wasn’t in much danger.

Instead, he’d fallen into a rhythm of constant labor, which was comfortably boring.  Almost zen-like. 

But he would have been lying to himself if he said that he didn’t miss the life-and-death battles that had characterized so much of his life post-World Tree. 

The only thing that really excited him about it was the tidal wave of experience he’d received, which had pushed him all the way to level two-sixty-eight.  Just looking at his status came with a sense of immense satisfaction.

With the influx of levels combined with all his buffs and equipment, Elijah was inching closer to the two-thousand mark with all his attributes.  Because of that, his relative power had increased significantly.  Attaining demi-god status had remade him, and yet, he knew that by the time he reached level three-hundred, he would do even more for his strength.

What would he find when he reached level five hundred? 

There had been a time when the idea of going from level one to a hundred constituted the largest transformation he could envision.  And to a degree, that was true.  It was the foundation upon which everything had been built.  The increases he’d seen since becoming a demi-god were far more impactful, though.  It felt like he’d truly begun to step onto his path.

Even so, he was disappointed.

Almost twenty levels, and he’d yet to get a new ability.  If he didn’t get one at two-seventy, he wouldn’t get another reasonable chance until two-seventy-five.  And given that he was beginning to feel the bite of diminished returns, he expected it to take quite a while to reach that point. 

But then again, it wasn’t like he was specifically looking for levels.  The most important goal was to terraform Gorveth, and in that endeavor, he’d made significant progress.  And it would only get easier as he went along because, as he’d begun to suspect, the monster population was anything but infinite.  One day – perhaps soon – he would drive them to extinction.

With that happy thought in mind, Elijah picked himself up and headed inland.  He wasn’t in much of a hurry, so he remained on foot, and soon enough, it became clear that it was the right choice.  It wasn’t long before he felt Treebie’s roots down below, and the effects on the atmosphere were more than evident. 

The terrain changed as well, turning from dull greys and blacks to something far more verdant.  And eventually, Elijah felt soft grass beneath his bare feet. 

A few days later, when he finally saw Treebie’s canopy stretching above him, he let out a relieved sigh. 

The continent was primed for terraforming, but it would take quite a lot of time for life to push back against the desolation of the abyss. 

But what else did Elijah have but time?

He descended the mountains, passing the site of the battle with the Synod.  The area was far more vital than most, a state it owed to his use of Flames of Renewal.  Even if the forest hadn’t survived the fight, the surrounding earth had been suffused with so much vitality that it had become far more fertile than its surroundings. 

A day or so later, he reached M’yakein.

The city hadn’t changed that much over the past couple of years, save that it had grown quite a bit larger and much more populous.  When Elijah entered, he found himself beset by well-wishers and worshipful declarations calling him the Reclaimer.  A few men and women even dressed like him, eschewing shoes and favoring threadbare clothing. 

They weren’t priests – not exactly.  But they definitely led the burgeoning cult that had sprung up around him.  Thankfully, they didn’t expect much from Elijah.  Otherwise, he might have avoided the city altogether.

Soon, his path led him to Benedict’s building.  When he knocked on the door, he was greeted warmly by Jasai’i.  The woman still wasn’t particularly comfortable around him, but she had come to accept his presence.

Unsurprisingly, she had a baby on her hip.

Little Louis was only a few months old, but he was strong, healthy, and quite vocal.  Elijah was happy to see the burgeoning family.  Especially Benedict, who’d taken to fatherhood with uncharacteristic zest.  When Elijah had asked him about it, he’d said that he was eager to do a better job than his own father.

Elijah could understand that, given what he knew about Benedict’s early life.

In any case, he wasn’t there to check on the infant.  Or to talk about family.  Instead, he’d come to ask Benedict a very important question.

“What did you decide?”

“You don’t want to sit down first?  Maybe have a cup of tea?”

“I don’t like tea.”

“Right.  You call it dirty leaf water.”

“Because that’s what it is,” Elijah insisted.  He would tolerate it, especially in the absence of coffee, but now was not the time for inferior beverages.  “What did you decide?”

“I’m going to do it.  Tomorrow, I’ll make my choice,” Benedict stated.

“Evolution,” Elijah sighed.  Benedict had been holding off for two years, mostly so he could shore up his cultivation.  He’d not made nearly the progress Elijah had, only reaching tier three in everything but his mind, which he’d progressed to the fourth tier.  But it was still impressive by everyone else’s standards. 

For Elijah’s part, he would have waited to get everything to tier-four, but Benedict was eager to take the next step.  And Elijah didn’t blame him.

“It’s about time,” Elijah added.

“There’s no guarantee I’ll get anything that will help us get home.”

“I know.”

“But you’re hoping.”

Elijah shrugged.  “That’s all we have.  Hope.  Besides, you’ve been working on those portals for years now.  That has to count for something, right?”

“Maybe.”

Elijah gripped his friend’s shoulder.  “Whatever happens, just know that I won’t judge you too harshly,” he assured Benedict.  With a grin, he added, “I mean, I’ll definitely judge you.  That’s going to happen no matter what.  But I won’t be too harsh.”

“How generous of you.”

“What can I say?  I’m a magnanimous sort.”