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

Roiling flames washed over Elijah, superheating the air until every breath scorched his throat. The huge slab of metal in his hands grew hot enough to burn his hands to ash, and the wall behind him melted under the onslaught.

Yet, he persisted.

Mostly, that was because he’d cast Wild Resurgence, Blessing of the Grove, and Nature’s Bloom a moment before the flames rolled over him, but it was also because he had funneled ethera into Grove Conduit, pushing it as hard as he possibly could manage. Ethera tinged with thick vitality spilled out, increasing his Regeneration and establishing what felt almost like a miniature domain. It wasn’t as powerful as what he felt within the grove – far from it – but it was enough to close the gap between the effects of his ongoing heals and what he needed to survive the Failed Iteration’s Self-Destruct.

Only barely, though.

Elijah lost count of how many times he re-cast Nature’s Bloom. Dozens, at the very least, and casting it so many times in quick succession truly highlighted the spell’s full power. It was necessary, too. Thankfully, the explosion burned through his nerve endings, so he didn’t feel much past that initial surge of pain. If he had, he probably would have gone into shock.

And that would have inevitably resulted in his quick and ignominious death.

Even as tiny flowers bloomed where no vegetation should have existed, then were burned out of existence only to reform, Elijah continued to heal until, at last, the flames died down.

He kept going for a few more casts before he dropped the hunk of metal. It was at least a foot thick, but half of it had turned to molten slag. So, when it hit, it did so with a loud thud before tipping over. It also took a significant portion of his flesh with it. When the melted side hit the cooler floor, a sizzling sound filled the air right before a loud gong echoed through the room. Vaguely, Elijah was aware that the rapidly cooling metal had cracked, but he barely paid it any mind.

He couldn’t.

The air was still far too hot for Temperate to mitigate, so he spent the next few minutes slowly healing himself until the air temperature started to normalize. He couldn’t allow himself to relax, though. Not until he was certain that the danger had passed. So, on bare feet, he stepped forward to investigate the hunk of ash and metal that had been the Failed Iteration.

The thing was dead.

Elijah could feel that much easily enough. However, he needed to ensure that it wouldn’t rise. After what he’d seen, he didn’t know what the fusion of Vey’thaalian and machine could do.

So, he spent the next few minutes sifting through the wreckage. Then, at last, he found a twisted piece of complex machinery. It still emitted a significant amount of ethera, but it was formless. Purposeless. It had nowhere to go and nothing to do. However, after inspecting it for a few moments, Elijah realized a couple of things.

The most important was that it resembled a heart. Certainly, it was missing a few pieces, and many of the smaller parts had melted entirely. Elijah had once been a biologist, though, and even if he’d been apathetic about his career, he wasn’t so terrible at the job that he couldn’t recognize the remains of a heart when he saw them.

Of less importance was a series of power crystals he found. They were entirely spent, but they featured a level of engraving he’d not seen since encountering the giant crystal back in the Desolate Reach. Without further delay, he slipped the crystals and the heart into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel.

Maybe someone smarter than him could figure out what to do with them.

In any case, the most disturbing part of the discovery was that he’d felt a similar mechanical organ, and not that long ago. The implications of Isaiah’s mechanical heart were undeniable.

And it should have been expected.

After all, he knew of the existence of multiple people who’d received other elder cores. Sadie and the others from Hong Kong had been blessed with angel cores. Benedict had similarly been given a demonic core. And Elijah himself sported a dragon core. So, was it so odd that Isaiah would gain the attention of the mechaniques?

No. Not at all.

However, it did highlight the fact that Elijah couldn’t allow himself to overlook any potential threat. Isaiah’s schemes notwithstanding, the man was easy to underestimate. He wasn’t a true combatant, and his class seemed more focused on creating and using technology. Still, if he had an elder core – which seemed almost certain at this point – he could prove a dangerous adversary.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. Elijah didn’t want to think of the man in that way. But after the Summit, he wasn’t entirely certain where he stood with the ruler of Seattle.

They definitely weren’t friends, but they weren’t enemies, either. Not yet, at least.

Sighing, he looked around the ruined chamber. The once-molten walls were nearly unrecognizable, having been reduced to hardened slag. Bubbles and fractures were frequent, and in places, they looked like a cooled lava flow.

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But more importantly, with the Failed Iteration’s death, a door had opened.

Clearly, that was the way out.

Still, Elijah wasn’t ready to move on. Not until he’d returned to peak condition. So, over the next day, he healed his blistered skin, ate roasted monster meat, and even spent a few hours sleeping. Nothing disturbed his convalescence, so after a little more than a day and a half, he felt prepared to attack the rest of the Primal Realm.

Still, he forced himself to wait for a few more hours – during which, he continued to heal and channel ethera through Grove Conduit – so he could be certain that he’d returned to perfect condition.

Because Elijah suspected that his journey through the Primal Realm was nearing its end. Already, he’d spent a couple of months inside, and he’d been pushed to his absolute limits. However, he’d also made incredible gains, as evidenced by his attainment of another two levels, which put him at one-seventy-one.

But this time, he didn’t get a choice of spell evolutions. Instead, he’d gained a new ability to add to his repertoire: