Path of Dragons

Elijah spent the better part of an entire day studying the settlement and the pyramid at its center, but in the end, he had neither the expertise or the desire to learn its secrets. The best he could come up with was that it resembled the summoning mechanism used by the gnomish golemancer he'd killed. Different, largely because it didn't feel even remotely reminiscent of necromancy, but still similar enough that it immediately came to mind.

The most troubling part was that he could not discern where the energy went. He felt it gathering, and he saw it being absorbed, but after that, it was like it simply disappeared. Even to his powerful senses, it was just gone.

Briefly, he considered using his Mantle of Authority in an attempt to disrupt the process, but ultimately, he chose to continue his investigation via other means. That meant heading deeper into their territory, because from everything he'd seen, the settlement was not self-sufficient.

There had to be something else out there supporting it.

Proving that were two factors. First, Elijah found a storehouse packed with vegetables. With no farms in the area, that meant they had to come from elsewhere. And second, there was no evidence of where the jackals had originated.

Because they certainly weren't from Earth.

It had taken Elijah a distressingly long time to realize it, but once the thought came into focus, he became slightly embarrassed that it hadn't happened sooner. The creatures felt a lot like the denizens of other planes he'd encountered. Like the lava kraken. Or the giant skeletons he'd fought in the Trial of Primacy.

To him, it was obvious that they had been summoned from one of the other nine realms, though Elijah wasn't certain which one. Certainly not Aesira or Silvara. Nor Pruina or Alta Terra. Not Ignis or Niflara. Perhaps the Umbra or the Etheranum, but Elijah didn't know enough about any of those realms to educate a guess.

But they definitely weren't from Mortalum, which was the realm where Earth – and the rest of the multi-verse, as far as he could tell – resided. The other realms were entirely separate realities, accessible only through powerful spells that required quite a lot of preparation and expertise to cast.

To date, Elijah's only experience with them had come from his time in the Trial of Primacy, and he suspected that those had been set up specifically to give them a taste of what was out there.

Or maybe they were just part of that world.

Either way, Elijah wasn't certain what it meant that denizens from another realm now roamed free on Earth.

He was intrigued, though. Very, very intrigued.

So, once he'd exhausted his investigative abilities concerning the pyramid, he left the settlement behind. It wasn't long – only a few hours – before he found another. This one was slightly larger, both in terms of population and area. Both could be explained by the extensive farms they'd built. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that those farms were capable of feeding a population of tens of thousands.

Elijah also encountered another non-native creature when he saw a green eyeball floating in place on the outskirts of the village. The thing was diffuse, barely seeming solid, but Elijah got the feeling that it was dangerous in some way. So, he stepped around it lightly, maintaining Guise of the Unseen.

It was not enough.

The thing whirled to follow him, then erupted into a pillar of green flame that stretched into the clouds. A second later, a bell rang, and the village came alive like a kicked anthill. Hundreds of people rushed in every direction, and the tattooed warriors responded to the alarm with characteristic enthusiasm.

In only moments, Elijah found himself exposed and facing more than a hundred fighters. It wasn't long before the sky was full of arrows and spears, each one glistening with ethera.

For a split second, Elijah considered slaughtering them, but then he realized just how pointless that would be. They weren't a real threat to him. Even if every single one of those attacks landed, he'd get little more than a few scratches on his scales. And what would he gain from it?

At best, it would be a preemptive attack on a potential enemy. Thinning the herd, as it were. But at worst? Killing those people might put him at odds with whoever was in charge. And so far, he'd seen nothing to suggest that they needed to be his enemies. In fact, everything he'd witnessed told him the opposite – they could be valuable allies against the Third Army.

So, in the interest of keeping the peace, Elijah took off, leaping over one of the buildings, kicking off of a cloud, and leaving the village behind. Of course, the residents of the settlement didn't give up there. They followed, with the other green eyes marking his path by alerting every time he came close, but they were far too slow to catch him.

Still, it took a significant force of willpower not to just turn around and show them what it meant to chase someone like him. He could practically smell the blood.

Was that the beast in him? Or the dragon? Perhaps it was even his human pride asserting itself. Whatever the case, he pushed it aside, though not without a good deal of effort.

It took an hour for him to lose his pursuers. Not because they could keep pace, but rather, because his path kept bringing him into contact with those damnable green eyes. Or with other residents of the area. He even stumbled upon another hunting party and was forced to kill one of them when they got too close.

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But in the end, he escaped without causing too much mayhem. He didn't immediately continue on his way, though. Instead, he found a stream and used it to obscure his trail before transforming into the Shape of the Sky and taking flight. When he doubled back, he saw that his efforts had not been without reason.

The red-eyed jackals were still in hot pursuit, though they'd left their hunters far behind.

That meant they were fair game.

Because while he didn't want to kill a bunch of people who were only reacting to an intruding beast, he had no such reservations about killing a bunch of jackals that didn't even belong in his world.

So, over the next few minutes, he repeatedly dove, snatched them up in his claws, then climbed as high as possible before dropping them onto the rocks below. It was a method he'd seen used by eagles to kill mountain goats, and it proved wildly effective. The jackals had no defense against him, and soon enough, they were all dead.

However, he did find one interesting thing – they gave no experience. Not because they weren't high enough level – they were, if only barely. Rather, he suspected that they were summoned minions, which meant that they were worth a lot less when it came to progression. That, combined with the level difference, meant that they couldn't even move the proverbial needle for him.

Elijah circled for a while, thankful that the hunters hardly ever looked up. Even if they did, he was so high that he would appear as little more than a speck. Still, considering the number of airborne predators he'd encountered since Earth had experienced the touch of the World Tree, that lack of awareness seemed like a mistake.

Eventually, the hunters gave up and headed back to their settlement. So, Elijah continued on his way, remaining in the Shape of the Sky as he put together a decent picture of the area. He was no Cartographer, but over the next few hours, he still got a good idea of the layout.

Finally, as the steppes became foothills of another mountain range, Elijah caught sight of a towering plateau in the distance. It was at least two thousand feet tall at the summit, but it appeared slightly shorter because the sides had been terraced for farms. Dense foliage spilled from one terrace to the next, looking like hanging gardens. People milled about, harvesting food and tending to livestock.

And then there was the city.

It stretched from one edge of the plateau to the next, and it took clear inspiration from Mesoamerican architecture. Familiar designs like the pyramids Elijah had already encountered were prevalent, but there were no unimaginative square dwellings here. Every building looked like it had been designed with intention. They were works of art – simple in basic design, but rich in details like engravings and statues.

Some were large enough to be temples or communal buildings, but others were much smaller. In addition, there were hundreds of other buildings – all following the same architectural principles – laid out in a grid surrounding an enormous pyramid that was at least five hundred yards wide and twice as tall.

When Elijah drew closer, he saw so many people that he estimated that the city housed a population at least equal to Ironshore's. Most wore garments similar to what he'd seen in the villages scattered throughout the region, though there were some who'd attired themselves like Egyptian pharaohs, with a prevalence of pristine white cloth and gold trim.

There were also men and women who wore hooded, blood red robes and carried staves capped with straight blades. Not quite naginatas, but not spears either. Somewhere in between, Elijah reasoned.

All of that, he saw from far above while using Eyes of the Eagle.

Then Elijah saw what looked like Japanese oni patrolling the streets. There were only a couple dozen, each one about ten feet tall and well-muscled, but they all radiated an identical sense of power. If Elijah was forced to interpret it, he'd have said that they were all at least level one-fifty. Maybe as high as one-sixty-five.

And that was a troubling number, given how many of them there were.

It wasn't long before Elijah saw everything he was going to see from above, so he retreated to a couple of miles outside of town before landing and assuming the Shape of the Scourge – as well as Guise of the Unseen. The city and its surroundings were still dotted with those floating, green, and basketball-sized eyes, but Elijah hoped that he could weave his way through.

He headed toward one of the four immense sets of stairs that led from the ground to the top of the plateau. It connected to a well-traveled road that Elijah thought led back to one of the villages, but he'd avoided those during his investigation of the area. Instead, he preferred to cut cross-country.

In this case, though, he thought it best to simply follow the road and climb the steps, only veering off when absolutely necessary.

So, that was what he did. Along the way, he was forced off the steps a few times by the ever-watchful eyes, but so long as he kept a distance of about fifty feet, they didn't seem capable of seeing him.

As he climbed, he saw that the terraces were incredibly interesting things. Every other one was populated by deep pools, inside of which floated man-made islands containing verdant gardens. The pools themselves played host to many species of fish, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as a wide variety of insects.

The people tending the gardens did so with a reverence Elijah could respect, and he found the entire aura to be extremely peaceful.

That feeling was at odds with two factors plaguing Elijah's mind. First, the stench of unfamiliar magic hung heavy in the air. That gave the atmosphere a heavy feeling that Elijah just couldn't disregard. Second was something he'd noticed as he drew closer to the pyramid – the density of the local ethera had thickened considerably.

He didn't think the center was in the city itself, but it was close enough to affect everything.

Perhaps it was just a confluence of towers in the area. Certainly, a settlement as large as the one atop the plateau would have access to at least a few towers. Especially given the size of the controlled territory.

Or maybe it was a Primal Realm nearby.

Elijah didn't think that was as likely – the air wasn't quite thick enough to suggest that much. But he was on guard for it nonetheless.

Thankfully, he reached the top of the plateau without incident, so he soon found himself within the city itself. The buildings, as he'd seen from afar, were rich in detail, and they'd clearly been built by people with appropriate classes. They weren't as thick with ethera as Ironshore's structures, but they were still impressive nonetheless.

The people all looked content, going about their daily business. Elijah remained in stealth, largely because he knew precisely how much he didn't fit in. Not only was he missing the proper attire – half the people went practically naked, but for a loincloth or a long skirt – but he also lacked the swirling red tattoos that everyone else displayed with pride.

But that didn't mean he couldn't eavesdrop.

Most of what he heard was normal for any settlement of size. Just local gossip or idle conversation. But he did hear one name more than any other – the Seat of Benediction – and it wasn't long before he established that that was the name of the city.

Ominous, Elijah thought.

He filed that in the back of his mind as he continued his investigation.