Path of Dragons

Book 4: Chapter 22: Closing a Door

Book 4: Chapter 22: Closing a Door

The night air was pleasant, playing against Elijah’s skin with the cool breath of impending autumn. Yet, he didn’t really allow himself to feel it. Instead, he focused on the city laid out before him. Even in the depths of night, there were plenty of people out and about. The city itself was lit by a thousand torches and ethereal lamps. But there were a few other fires, too. Great blazes that swept across the city, devouring everything Roman had built.

“You know it’s all doomed, don’t you?” Elijah whispered. “This whole city is going to burn, and everyone who ever pledged loyalty to you will fall.”

“I...am...humanity’s only...hope...”

It took Elijah a moment to comprehend what the man had said, but when he finally wrapped his mind around it, he barked a harsh laugh. “You?” he spat with no small degree of incredulity. “You’re barely in the top ten, and it doesn’t feel like you spent any time working on your cultivation. You’re too weak to be anyone’s hope.”

Roman tried to argue, but Elijah had no interest in hearing it. So, he squeezed Roman’s throat with a little more force, then, at last, slammed him against the ground. The force shook the balcony, and Elijah knelt atop the self-styled king. He leaned close, whispering, “You are a small, pathetic, little man who murdered his only friend for nothing. If there is a hell, that’s where you’re going. No one will ever remember you, and if they do, it will only be to curse your name. I promise you that much.”

Then, Elijah picked the man up by his neck before once again slamming him against the floor. He did it again after that. And another four times. By that point, the back of Roman’s head was a mass of blood and shattered skull, but that didn’t stop Elijah from keeping going. Again and again, he bashed Roman’s head against the ground, not even stopping when he felt the experience from the man’s death entering his body.

Over and over, he continued to batter the skull of his sister’s murderer against the ground until, at last, he was holding nothing but a handful of skin. He hadn’t just decapitated the man. He’d removed his head by way of blunt force trauma.

For a long moment, Elijah just stared ahead, and for once, his mind was blank.

He was empty.

Exhausted.

He’d achieved his goal, but rather than feeling a sense of accomplishment, he just felt nothing. Then, suddenly, there came an onslaught of grief and anger. Frustration. Guilt. A thousand other, subtler emotions contributed to his state of mind, and before he could get ahold of himself, he had begun to weep.

He knew he was behind enemy lines, and that he should leave the area. However, in his current mindset, he couldn’t force himself to move. He’d expected to feel better about it all once he killed Roman. But he didn’t. The pain he’d felt upon hearing the news of Alyssa’s death was even stronger now.

And Elijah couldn’t take it.

He wanted to lash out, to go on a rampage that wouldn’t be sated until he’d killed everyone and everything. Or retreat to a cave in the middle of nowhere. Or return to the grove and take comfort in his family’s presence. A hundred other plans flitted through his mind, but he knew that none would help.

Only time would do that.

After a few minutes, he mechanically pushed himself to his feet and took notice of his latest notification. He’d gained another level. Not surprising, given that Roman had been in the top ten. That, plus all the others he’d killed since coming into Valoria, had been quite a boon to his levels, pushing him to seventy-nine.

One more, and he’d get a new spell.

Biting flies flew across the chamber, delivering their afflictions unto the unsuspecting crowd, and when those flies dissipated into motes of ethera, Elijah summoned another set. And another after that. By the third, half the guards had already begun to show signs of sickness, but Eliijah refused to stop.

Indeed, he kept going until his entire store of ethera had been used. By that point, everyone inside had felt the effects of his afflictions. Of course, they’d begun to panic, as well. But they’d already grown too weak. In fact, they were already dead – they just didn’t know it yet.

Elijah focused on recovering his ethera as he watched the soldiers die. None of them managed to resist for long. They were laughably weak, and Swarm, when used properly, was incredibly powerful – so long as it had plenty of time to work. Still, it left Elijah with a bad taste in his mouth.

Killing needed to be more difficult than that.

But then again, would the result have been any different if he’d gone in there in his guardian form? No. With his attributes alone, he was all but untouchable against people like that.

Regardless, he couldn’t let that stop him from doing what was necessary. These soldiers were tools of oppression, and even though he hadn’t, until that very moment, realized that he’d committed himself to freeing the city from their clutches, he’d already chosen not to disregard their plight.

So, the moment Elijah recovered his ethera, he moved on to the next gathering point, where he repeated his actions from before. As he did, he paced himself better, letting Swarm’s afflictions work rather than rushing to pile them on as quickly as possible. It was much more efficient, and by the time they succumbed, he had only used half of his ethera.

Over the course of the rest of the night, Elijah kept going, killing thousands of people. Along the way, he gained level eighty, but he didn’t bother checking his notifications. Even though he knew he had gotten another spell, he didn’t intend to use it yet. After all, trying out a new ability without testing it extensively was a good way to get killed. Besides, what he was doing was working.

By the time morning came around, Elijah had slaughtered everyone in the palace. Some might have been relatively innocent. He couldn’t know one way or the other. However, the moment he had chosen a side, they had all become enemy combatants. And there was only one way to deal with those.

Elijah wasn’t interested in keeping his enemies alive, after all.

Once he’d finished his deadly trek through the palace, he progressed into the grounds. Along the way, he killed any guards he found, though it was much more difficult because, out in the open, he couldn’t rely entirely on Swarm. Instead, he was forced to use his bestial forms, which were just as effective, but required more effort. With his battle experience, high attributes, advanced cultivation, and powerful spells, he was never in any true danger, though.

Not unless he made some serious mistakes, which he did not.

Eventually he reached the city proper, where he had an even easier time. Troops were everywhere, arranged in groups of five. Most had the benefit of a Healer, defender, and a trio of damage-dealing classes including Sorcerers and Rangers. But so long as Elijah took out the Healers quickly, the rest went down without much difficulty.

Each of the archetypes were good at what they did. The defenders were difficult to permanently put down, the Rangers and Sorcerers could output quite a lot of damage, and the Healers could keep a group alive through all manner of attacks. Yet, they were incapable of dealing with someone like Elijah – an intelligent and superior opponent who could fill all roles at once.

The results were predictable.

And Elijah slowly made his way through the city until he was brought up short by a surprising development. He stopped in his tracks as he studied the scene, the anger and grief that had faded into the background returning tenfold.