Path of Dragons 13 - Chapter 58 - Sudden

Elijah glanced up, only to see Treebie’s limbs stretching far and wide.  The innumerable leaves glittered in the wind, casting the whole of Druhmor in starry illumination.  The plants below drank that light like it came directly from the sun, using it to fuel their growth.

Vitality, dense enough to become visible, hung in the air like a light fog, while the ambient ethera infused the atmosphere with unconstrained energy.  It was much more powerful even than the center of the Hartwood Grove, and the plant life had responded. 

Somehow, insects had even appeared.

Elijah had no idea where they’d come from, but the fat and fuzzy bee-like creatures buzzed happily from flower to flower, completely unaware that they should not have existed.  The only explanation Elijah could conjure was that some dormant eggs had been cleansed of corruption, and the influx of vitality had forced them to hatch.

That was where some of the native bacteria had originated, so it wasn’t entirely out of the question that other things were buried in the soil.

Over the past two years since he’d completed the new rings, Elijah had spent most of his time fostering growth across the land.  It was much easier now, largely because Treebie did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to design.  His roots had long since spread to the edge of the new area, and the tree’s will had imposed a very specific structure to the growth aboveground. 

The result was that, even having just completed his latest project, Elijah had begun to look towards the next.  Otherwise, he might’ve had to confront the reality of his own continued solitude.

In the interim, he’d built a host of water features.  Small ponds connected by streams that he hoped would one day create an irrigation system that mimicked nature.  Building them wasn’t as satisfying as constructing trilithons – few tasks could rival that for sheer scope – but he felt it was a necessary task if he wanted the four-hundred-mile-wide region to become completely self-sustaining.

And he did.

Once he created his next system of rings – which he wanted to take another thousand miles out – the distances involved would necessitate temporary abandonment of Druhmor.  And he wouldn’t do that unless he knew, without a sliver of doubt, that it could support itself.

So, he’d gradually carved the streams and ponds, incorporating them into the circular design via a clever use of runes. After that, he only needed to wait for the natural precipitation – or groundwater – to fill them. 

To his surprise, the hybrid plants in the Abyssal Moat hadn’t disappeared.  Instead, they’d immediately begun to evolve, then spread across the new territory.  The effect was something he believed was far more sustainable than what he’d built in Druhmor.  Though only time would tell if his supposition was correct or just the result of blind hope.

In any case, Elijah had already begun to map out the next phase in his eternal quest to terraform the planet.  Doing so would spread his influence to more than five million square miles – or about two-thirds the size of North America before Earth’s transformation.  The maps he’d gotten from Zek suggested that it would cover about a tenth of his current continent. 

He didn’t want to think about what that meant in the context of the entire world, which was far larger than he’d previously considered.  The maps were unclear on just how big, though he had made a few educated guesses that suggested its massive size.

Either way, even after all his hard work, he’d only managed to terraform a fraction of a percent of the planet’s surface area.  A depressingly small effect, but every step – small as it was – mattered to the overall journey.  And Elijah was determined to see it through to the end.

After putting the finishing touches on a small stream, Elijah headed back to see how Treebie was doing.  As always, his family and friends stood silent watch.  Elijah had never bothered removing their party hats, which had long since rotted.  He ignored them, instead laying his hand on Treebie’s trunk.

Before he closed his eyes, he took in the massive tree.  The trunk alone was broader than a redwood’s, and it rose more than a mile into the sky.  That height was the result of a massive growth spurt that had since slowed to a more normal pace.  Perhaps in a few thousand years, his canopy might reach the upper atmosphere.  But for now, it was mostly static in height.

The same could not be said for his roots, which extended hundreds of miles into the earth and had already spread halfway across the latest iteration of the rings.  What’s more, satellite trees had begun to pop up at regular intervals.  They grew much more slowly, but the first had already reached the sapling stage. 

Of course, they weren’t separate entities.  They were just extensions of Treebie’s root system.  But they functioned as vitality repeaters, enhancing the atmosphere and keeping the density of the ambient energy from dipping too low. 

Seeing that, it was easy to predict how the rest of the terraforming process might proceed.  At times, Elijah felt that his role was unnecessary.  Treebie could very well convert the entire planet on his own.

But Elijah also knew that his efforts weren’t entirely wasted, either.  By creating his rings and cultivating the interior, he had laid the foundation for Treebie’s growth.  Not only would the tree have failed to survive those first few years without that environment, but his growth would have been much slower as well. 

In short, even if Elijah’s input wasn’t strictly necessary for Treebie’s continued survival, he acted as a force multiplier for his growth. 

In any case, Treebie’s bark had settled into a half-crystal state that glimmered in the ambient light, while his leaves glowed with their own illumination.  Elijah found it comforting. 

His fingertips brushed against the grooved, crystal bark as he extended his soul into Treebie’s trunk.  It only took a moment before the tree’s spirit mingled with his, then enveloped him in a way that still strained his soul.  The echo of the World Tree remained within, though it had merged with the tree’s spirit, resulting in amalgam that felt both different and undeniably similar to one of the Branches. 

That was when he felt it.

The planet’s core.

Treebie’s roots hadn’t just extended hundreds of miles below the surface.  They had grown hundreds of thousands of miles.  Elijah couldn’t estimate it properly, but from what he’d derived from his experiences and the multitude of maps he’d gotten from Zek, Gorveth was roughly five times the size of Jupiter, give or take a multiplier or two.  If those measurements were even remotely accurate, it meant that the core was around two hundred thousand miles below the surface.

And Treebie’s roots had reached that roiling mass of corrupted energy.

Elijah’s first thought was to somehow burrow his way down and use the planet’s Worldseed to cultivate his core.  That was what he’d done back in the Primal Realm, and everything had worked out just fine. 

However, it only took him a few seconds to realize how silly that idea truly was.  It also reminded him that Primal Realms were bare echoes of reality.  The Worldseed he’d absorbed was powerful, but it only contained a fraction of the energy found withing Gorveth’s core.  Even feeling it through Treebie’s roots was enough to confirm that, if Elijah came within ten thousand miles of the thing, he would be vaporized.

But somehow, Treebie’s roots survived.

It took a little longer for Elijah to realize what was happening.  Treebie didn’t resist the damage.  Rather, his roots rebuilt themselves so quickly that they simply outpaced their own destruction.  In that respect, it wasn’t so different from an ability like Mycelial Regrowth, except that Treebie wasn’t using a spell or a skill.  Rather, his constant growth was the result of sheer regeneration.

It was an awe-inspiring display of the durability of nature.

And it also showed Elijah just how special Treebie really was.  Sometimes, it was easy to forget that he’d been grown from the seed of a powerful natural treasure that then merged with a piece of the most powerful entity in the multi-verse.  On top of that, Elijah had spent countless hours communing with the tree, guiding it forward via Nature’s Design as well as the power of his own soul.  And finally, he’d trained Treebie, leading by example via the growth of Druhmor and its surroundings.

In short, if Treebie wasn’t unique, he was so close that the distinction meant nothing.

But it quickly became apparent that the tree’s roots were incapable of gaining ground.  The continued to grow, but with the damage from the core – which was not only powerful, but also riddled with dense and swirling corruption – prevented the roots from making any real progress.

Elijah decided to lend his feeble weight to the struggle.

His core roiled, and his soul shimmered.  Every leaf – every spore – within his mind fluttered in the wind of his inner world.  And power surged forth, pushing into the branches of his soul and merging with Treebie’s essence. 

Instantly, he felt overwhelmed by the tree’s unique spirit.  But that was where his mindscape came into play.  The cloud of spores absorbed the mental damage, falling away and rebuilding themselves so rapidly that Elijah couldn’t track them.  That left him to leverage every leaf toward the task at hand.

He guided his awareness through the maze of Treebie’s roots.  The tree was more than capable of resisting him.  If he’d wanted, Treebie could have crushed him like a bug.  But he didn’t.  Elijah had been with him since the very beginning.  Years of growth, all with Elijah by his side. 

If a tree understood the concept of family, then Elijah would have qualified for inclusion. 

Even so, the journey was not easy.  The planet did not tolerate Treebie’s presence willingly.  Every second came with renewed attacks by the ambient corruption.  And yet, the tree persisted.  The roots regrew, then strangled the very corruption in their presence.  It was a constant war, but it was one Treebie was built to win.

However, with every mile deeper, Treebie’s natural defenses wavered.  Elijah bolstered them as best he could, lending the weight of his own soul to the fight.  Compared to Treebie’s, his assistance was like an anthill next to a mountain.  But sometimes, that was all it took to make a difference.

It also taught Elijah how to help. 

He couldn’t fight the corruption directly.  His soul was strong, but that was only within the confines of his Mantle of Authority.  And while the bond between him and Treebie had merged them to some degree, it wasn’t complete.  So, instead of fighting directly, he was forced to funnel energy into the tree’s soul, which Treebie then used to fuel his own defenses.

That prepared him for the conflict at the planet’s core.

If Elijah had stopped to think for more than a few seconds, he probably wouldn’t have committed to the battle.  He had no reason to believe he could truly make a difference in such a fight.  Yet, he couldn’t bear to see Treebie hurt. 

For years, the tree had been his only real companion.  A member of his own family.  In a way, Treebie felt like his adopted son.  And while Elijah was well aware that he was anthropomorphizing the tree – just like he did with the statues he’d built – that didn’t change the way he felt.

If Treebie was fighting a battle, then Elijah would be right there by his side.  Even if all he could offer was moral support, which wasn’t so far from the truth.

He plunged ahead, sending his awareness rocketing through Treebie’s roots until, at last, he reached the battleground of Gorveth’s core.  And it was apocalyptic.  Even when Elijah had ascended to the very pinnacle of the obelisk and beheld the power of the unfiltered abyss, he hadn’t seen anything like the world’s core. 

It was life.

It was pure ethera.

And it was corruption. 

Interwoven between those characteristics was something Elijah could only refer to as Gorveth’s spirit.  It was a pitiful thing.  Barely alive, emaciated and screaming in pain.  Yet, it endured, twisted and broken though it was.

Comparatively, Treebie’s roots, ever burning, shone like the sun amidst impenetrable shadow.  They fought the corruption via their very presence, only for Elijah to realize that he’d taught the tree another lesson. 

He had taught Treebie the power of his Mantle of Authority.  And as it had done with every other aspect of Elijah’s guidance, he’d incorporated that into his root structure. 

Treebie’s roots were his mantle, just as the branches of Elijah’s soul comprised his.  But their physical presence gave the mantle weight in a way that wasn’t easily quantifiable.  It was no more real.  Rather, it was as if the mantle existed in multiple dimensions at once, and the effect was multiplicative.

Elijah shoved his own power forward, adding it to the battle.

It made no difference.

But Elijah’s abilities weren’t limited to his mantle.  It was a powerful weapon in his arsenal, but it was not the only tool in his kit.  And the odd bond he shared with Treebie allowed him to work through the tree to cast his spells.

He knew he couldn’t attack the core directly.  The corruption was ephemeral, and as such, he couldn’t destroy it through a physical filter.  Instead, he focused on empowering Treebie.  To that end, he cast his trio of healing spells all at once, then added Nature’s Design to the mix. 

Even as dense flows of vitality added to the tree’s natural regeneration, Elijah guided the regrowth in the most efficient way possible.  By that point, he was as familiar with Treebie’s biology as he was with anything else in his life.  And he used that knowledge to his advantage, stepping in where nature failed to find the most efficient path.

And gradually, Treebie gained ground.

His roots snaked around the core, inch by inch.  Days passed.  Then weeks.  Elijah maintained his focus, funneling ethera through the many apertures in his mind, through his soul, and into his core.  The energy churned within, instantly attuning to him before racing out and fueling his spells.

At times, he was forced to take breaks.  Those hours were like torture for him as Treebie’s progress once again ground to a halt.  And yet, the tree never lost ground.  He crept forward, his path inexorable.

Soon, the roots encircled the entire core, coating it in the crystal-hybrid tendrils of pure life.  The corruption within roiled as if alive, as if angry at the confinement.  Treebie ignored its apparent ire, and so did Elijah.

Instead, the roots entered the core, breaking through the shell, like vines tearing down a wall.  Elijah didn’t know it at the time, but the moment the shell was breached, the battle was won. 

Day by day, the roots crept forward, slowly inundating the core.  The corruption contested every inch, but now Treebie had the upper hand.  And it wasn’t until his roots suffused the entire sphere that the corruption gave one last surge – as massive as any that had come before.  Treebie’s roots endured it with the stoicism of a mountain.

And then, like a tidal wave, the corruption retreated into the Worldseed.

Treebie didn’t celebrate when he surrounded that comparatively small sphere, but Elijah felt a tiny exultant breath escape his own mouth.  Finally, he allowed himself to open his eyes.

A second later, the world trembled, and a dense wave of vitality swept across Druhmor, past Elijah’s circles, and into the distance.

But more importantly, Elijah felt the World Tree’s presence turn from an echo to a distant shout. 

Then, for the first time in years, he saw a new notification appear before his inner eye.