Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

The crowd was silent as Skahan let Kaela’s body fall. It hit the sand like a verdict, bouncing subtly before settling in. Blood didn’t pool beneath her. Instead, the sand soaked it up, forming clumps. Meanwhile, Skahan let a broad smile spread across his face.

And then he waved.

As if he hadn’t just broken a promising young woman. As if he hadn’t done something far more horrific than mere execution. He had done that, but he had also robbed her of all dignity and pride.

Even Elijah could feel the significance of that.

Skahan swept into a courtly bow. Then, without further gloating, he turned his back on Kaela’s corpse and strode toward the exit. Scattered cheers followed him, but the majority of the spectators remained silent. They knew what they had just seen.

Elijah felt a cold shudder traced its way up his spine as his stomach knotted with anxiety. He clutched his hands into tight fists. “I’m going to kill him.”

He started forward, but a large hand brought him up short. Elijah tried to pull away, but Birk’s casual grip was more unbreakable than any shackle. He whipped around and growled, “Let me go.”

“No.”

Elijah’s ethera swirled.

“Control yourself, boy,” Tura hissed. “Think.”

It was immediately clear that that wasn’t going to happen. So, Birk less-than-gently escorted him away from their seats and into the bowels of the Praesidium. Elijah resisted, but there was nothing he could do against a peak deity.

Sara followed in a daze.

Finally, they reached an unused room. Birk shoved Elijah inside. “Stay.”

By that point, Elijah’s anger had transformed from a raging bonfire into a volcano ready to explode. He tamped that down. “You can’t watch me forever.”

Tura stepped forward. “Think, boy. What do you believe will happen if you attack that…wretch?”

“He’ll die.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t care,” Elijah admitted.

“W-what’s going to happen to her?” asked Sara, her voice barely more than a whisper.

“I don’t know,” Tura admitted. “Nothing good. It depends…it depends on her family. And her mindset. The Chronomancer can’t reverse psychological trauma or social damage.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Elijah muttered. “Now or later. The second you let me go, I’m going to hunt him down and rip him apart, piece by piece until he begs me to finish it.”

It was not a rational thought. Elijah knew that. But he also couldn’t change the way he felt. Watching Kaela – a woman he’d begun to love, a person he respected – so reduced was enough to send him into a spiral. It also reminded him of all the terrible things he’d seen. Those slaves back in Meridian Lux. What had happened to his sister. The attack on his grove.

He trembled with barely contained rage.

Right up until Tura slapped him.

“Get ahold of yourself, boy,” she growled. “Run it through your mind. Say you attack him. Maybe you kill him. No guarantees there, considering he’s protected by his family. Or the Scales of Peace. What then? You won’t survive the retribution. Are you willing to throw your life away?”

“There are worse reasons to die.”

She hit him again. This time, it actually stung.

“The stupidity of youth never ceases to disappoint me.”

“And the cowardice of age never ceases to infuriate me.”

“Boy –”

“I have to do something!” Elijah shouted. “I can’t…I won’t let this…I can’t let it stand.”

“Do you believe that killing him will help her?” Tura asked.

“I…it wouldn’t hurt.”

“Yes, it would. Because the consequences would kill you. Do you think she wants that on her conscience? She will already be fragile. Perhaps fractured. If you die trying to avenge her defeat, she will break into a thousand pieces,” Tura explained. “Think. Breathe. And plan.”

“Plan?”

“You are in a tournament, boy. You will fight Skahan ak Vael. Perhaps next round. Or the one after. But you will fight him. You need to be ready. Do to him what he did to her.”

Elijah turned away. “What did he do?” he asked. He had a good idea, but he wanted it confirmed by Tura.

“Mental manipulation,” she answered. “How they kept the ability hidden for so long…I don’t know.”

“If it was mind control, then why would there be consequences?” he asked, focusing on the social impact rather than the very real trauma that would come from such a violation. That was easier to deal with, as far as he was concerned.

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Tura looked away.

“It is not control. Those abilities don’t conjure it from nothing. It merely nurtures the seeds that already exist within a person’s mind,” Tura explained. “She was already afraid. Otherwise, it would not have worked.”

“That’s stupid,” Elijah said. “Everyone feels fear.”

“Just so,” she agreed.

“Then why –”

“We are a culture of dominance,” came a new voice. Elijah turned to see that Kirlissa had arrived, but even he could sense that her form was merely a projection. “Breaking as that unfortunate girl did was…it is an admission that we are not all-powerful. That we still feel the emotions of a mortal. That we cannot control everything. And for a dragon, that is more than we can bear.”

“How the hell is succumbing to mental manipulation worse than getting killed by any other spell?” Elijah demanded.

Kirlissa looked at him like she wanted to hug him. But she kept her distance as she explained, “You fought the vespirans in the Broken Crown.”

Elijah nodded. “What does that have to do with…oh.”

“You see.”

He did. He still sometimes had nightmares about the time he’d been captured by the vespirans. Back then, they’d tried to infect his mind with some sort of larvae. His Antlers of the Wild Revenant had protected him, but the other dragons had no such defenses.

Clearly, that was a common tactic among the vespirans.

“The past will always leave scars,” Kirlissa stated. “Succumbing to mental influence is one of the most shameful things a dragon can do. It is not rational, but long-held cultural standards rarely are.”

Elijah turned away, clutching his hands into tight fists. He felt like a volcano ready to explode, but without any avenue available to do so. It made sense, but it was neither justified nor fair.

Suddenly, Elijah remembered something.

He turned to Sara, who was practically shivering. “He did it to you, too, didn’t he?”

“I…I…”

She couldn’t finish, which told Elijah all he needed to know. But the story she’d given about Cyran pinning her during their spar suddenly made a lot more sense. Especially now that Elijah had all the pieces to the puzzle. What had happened to Kaela, the mental probe he’d felt during the encounter in the park, the disparate image of the Sara he knew and the girl she’d described in her admission.

The fire burned even hotter.

He tamped it down.

Instead, Elijah stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his sister’s shoulders. He hugged her tight, feeling how small she really was. She leaned into him, her face buried in his chest as tears flowed down her cheeks.

“I’m not going to kill him,” he said.

“Good,” Tura responded, the word almost a sigh of relief. “I –”

“I’m going to do so much worse.”

“Elijah –”

“When I’m done, there won’t be anything of Skahan left.”

Elijah looked up to see Kirlissa’s flickering projection. She gave him a small nod of approval. He didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, she’d failed her daughter by allowing Skahan to exist. Politics be damned. If Elijah had been in her place, with her power, whole worlds would have burned. The dragon deserved worse than death.

And Elijah was going to deliver it, whether Kirlissa approved or not.

She faded away, leaving them alone.

Elijah continued to hold Sara while Tura and Birk stood nearby, unsure of how to act. He had no doubts that Tura would have taken his place, but Birk decided to lean on his role by standing sentry.

Finally, Sara pulled away.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…what…what happened to me isn’t as bad as what happened to Kaela. Y-you should go to her.”

“Are you sure?” Elijah asked, his anger still simmering. However, his decision to take things in a less immediate direction had tamped the fires down to a low burn. It would last longer that way. And he knew he would need that in order to do what he had planned.

His mind was already whirling with ideas.

She nodded, wiping her cheeks. “I’ll be fine. Just…just tell her…I-I don’t know.” She sniffed. “I’m sorry. Tell her that for me.”

“You can tell her yourself.”

“Maybe.”

As it turned out, that single word was prophetic. When Elijah set off for the staging room, he found his way blocked by a pair of deities who refused to let him through. Eventually, Kaela’s father came out and told him that he would not be seeing Kaela ever again.

“What? Why?” Elijah demanded.

“She is going into seclusion.”

The final word sounded venomous, making it clear that the older dragon really meant banishment. They would hide her away until people forgot what had happened. And given the timescales involved, that could be centuries.

“I just need to know if she’s okay.”

“No.”

That was the only answer he would get before he was turned away. The two guards made it clear that if he refused to leave, they would drag him from the Praesidium themselves.

Elijah wanted nothing more than to fight it out, but he knew a losing battle when he saw one. So, it was without any satisfaction that he left the arena behind. After taking to the skies, he flew aimlessly until he found his way to the lava lake. Pepper, at least, was happy to see him.

Sitting on a volcanic rock, Elijah idly ran his hands along the basilisk’s hot scales, plans still swirling in his mind.

That was how Kirlissa found him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sitting next to him.

“Not your fault.”

“It is. I should have prepared you for this. You have no idea how we think.”

“I’m getting a better picture,” Elijah said, still staring at the roiling lava. “We came here, you know. She was using it for cultivation.”

“I am aware.”

“What’s really going to happen to her? Will I ever see her again?”

“That is unlikely,” Kirlissa answered. “She may never leave her home planet again. If she does, it will be to join the frontlines. Her family cannot afford her shame.”

“Shame,” Elijah muttered, his tone venomous. “Such a stupid concept.”

“It is.”

“Why don’t you put a stop to it?”

“Because even transcendents have limits. And changing draconic society is one of them. It is a task of millennia.”

Elijah didn’t have an argument for that. Sure, he wanted to argue. He wanted to rage. But he knew that it was the result of misplaced anger, rather than justified blame. So, for a while, he just sat there, wondering if he would ever see Kaela again.

He wanted to, and desperately. But he was used to not getting what he wanted.

“Sometimes, I feel like I’m cursed.”

“That is because you are incredibly self-centered,” Kirlissa countered.

He blinked. “What?”

“This is not about you, Elijah. This was a calculated political move meant to undermine a rival,” Kirlissa stated. “It wasn’t even about Kaelari. Not completely. Skahan would never have acted if he hadn’t gotten permission from his seniors.”

“So, I should add his parents to my list?” Elijah asked.

“Perhaps their allies, as well.”

Elijah nodded. “Good.”

“There are transcendents among them.”

He shrugged. “Then I have one more goal for when I get there.”

A few moments of silence followed, and when he looked toward Kirlissa, he saw an expression of disbelief. “So sure of yourself.”

“I guess I am,” he said. “But in the meantime, I need help.”

“What do you require, my son?”

“I need to cultivate. I don’t want potions or chambers, either.”

Then, he explained his requirements.

“I know a place. It is dangerous, though.”

“Everything worthwhile is,” he acknowledged.

“I agree.”

With that, she laid out the answer to his question. By the time she’d finished, Elijah was satisfied that it would do the trick. However, he also agreed that it would be incredibly dangerous.

A good thing, too. Because in his current state, a little danger was just what he needed.