Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 2 - Simmering (Patreon)

Bogoni was stronger than ever, and yet, he’d never felt weaker.  Most of that was due to the escalating power of the deity trial.  By all rights, neither he nor anyone else in his party ever should’ve stepped foot in Orveth Kaal outside of the demigod cycle.  However, when he’d been offered the opportunity do so, he’d not hesitated.

No one ever accomplished anything great through timidity.

And what’s more, there was absolutely no way he would allow his team to enter such a dangerous trial without the protection he could offer.  Doing so would have run counter to everything he held dear, and it would have become a violation of his very identity. 

Even his family had supported the decision. 

Of course, that was as much due to an attempt to curry favor with Prosperity as it was a statement of support for his chosen endeavor.  They were Vyrins, and at the end of the day, their fate was tied to the clan’s matriarch.  Not in some ephemeral sense, either.  She remained in control of everything within her domain, and if she wanted them to prosper, they would.

By contrast, if she wished to sever the strings that tied them to her family, she was more than capable of casting them adrift.  With war looming within the Empire of Scale, that would be a death sentence.

Or an opportunity, if his parents were craven enough to see it as such.  After all, Prosperity had a lot of enemies.  More now than ever before, and they’d grown far bolder as well.  It had even come to infect the deity trial, which should have been off-limits for petty squabbling.

The fact that the other clans had set themselves against the Vyrins was evidence enough that things were changing.  If they’d become so bold as to flout tradition in Orveth Kaal, then surely things had become much worse in other parts of the empire.

All because of one dragon.

Elijah Hart es Vyrin was an anomaly.  Insanely powerful for his level, talented beyond comprehension in cultivation, and with a familial connection to the wealthiest dragon in all of existence – he represented a sea change within the Empire of Scale.  If he was allowed to reach transcendence, the balance of power would dramatically shift.  Even as a demigod, he’d thrown everything into chaos, and as he worked toward evolving into a deity, that would only grow more pronounced.

He was different.

Bogoni had seen that in the process of cleansing that first cell, and that was the least of Elijah’s accomplishments in the Bound Sky.  He killed deity-level orcs like they were no more than mortals, and while some might have pointed out that they were underpowered by the cyclical nature of the ancestral world’s ethera, Bogoni knew the truth. 

He recognized that no one else in the trial could have done what he’d done.  Not even if they all worked together could they rival his accomplishments.  And now, he’d done something similar in the deity trial.  Not in terms of killing, but rather, in the destabilization of the entire world. 

It was humbling.

And terrifying.

But it was also inspiring. 

Bogoni knew good and well that he could never match Elijah’s feats.  He was inferior in just about every way he could conjure.  Yet, rather than succumb to jealousy, as so many others had done, he chose to look at his sometime companion as an example of what was possible. 

After all, Elijah didn’t have the benefit of the upbringing suggested by his parentage.  He hadn’t even experienced ethera until well into adulthood, and he’d spent much of his life alone in the wilderness just trying to survive a world he didn’t truly understand.  Even with that situation working against him, he’d risen to the top of his planet.  Then, he had taken it further by winning the Tournament of the First Fang.  After that, he’d completely upended the Bound Sky’s demigod trial.

Now, he aimed to do the same with the deity cycle.  He was well on his way to changing everything about how it worked, and it was only a matter of time before he did something else unbelievable. 

By contrast, Bogoni had grown up with all the benefits of dragonhood.  He had tutors.  Power.  He had the support of his family and membership in one of the empire’s greatest clans.  From that perspective, he had no excuses for a lack of success.  He had no reason not to throw himself at impossible situations. 

Elijah wasn’t his guiding star, but he was proof of what was possible, given the right attitude. 

Of course, some of the others told him that trying to emulate someone like Elijah Hart es Vyrin was a good way to end up dead.  Or worse, considering some of the stories Bogoni had heard of what happened to people who found themselves on the wrong side of the empire’s most powerful clans.

He would not shirk his responsibilities, though.  And he certainly wouldn’t cower in fear.  It was antithetical to who he was and who he wanted to be.

So, when the news of a discovery of a cell had reached the Vengeance, he had volunteered to spearhead the expedition to cleanse it.  Doing so wasn’t really necessary for placement in the deity trial.  It wouldn’t be as overtly beneficial as it had been during the demigod cycle.  However, it did provide indirect benefits, because every action taken on behalf of the effort to reel Orveth Kaal back into the empire counted on the Ledger. 

That included killing monsters and destroying the corruption infesting each cell.  It threatened the entire effort, which meant that Bogoni had adopted cleansing it as his duty.  The benefits regarding his placement in the trial were of secondary concern.

The others did not feel the same.

Sure, they all wanted to do their parts.  However, that paled in comparison to collecting rewards.  Everyone wanted to get their hands on items and opportunities meant for deities.  Especially as demigods.

Bogoni didn’t blame them for that.  Those sorts of rewards could completely change a person’s fate.  And he certainly wasn’t above collecting them himself.  They just weren’t the driving force behind his decisions.

Thankfully, he was secure enough in his choices that he didn’t need to give them much thought.  Instead, as he led his team deep into the cell, he maintained complete focus on the task at hand. 

And they needed it.

Unlike the way the cells presented in the demigod trial, the ones in the deity cycle grew into labyrinthine spaces that could rival towers in terms of scope.  They lacked the three-floor structure, instead spreading out across a single self-contained complex.  Some could stretch for miles in every direction, often descending well below the point where they should’ve broken through the bottom of their host island. 

But they were system spaces, and they occupied entirely separate planes of existence than what most people thought of as the real world. 

For Bogoni’s part, he thought of them as dwelling somewhere between towers and Primal Realms, though with the ability to clear them in a few days at most.  Less, for someone with an appropriate level of power, which he and his team admittedly lacked.

They were all approaching peak demigod, but there was a wide gulf between the top of one tier and the beginning of the next.  A few levels as a deity could grant power on par with a dozen gained as a demigod.  On top of that came significant advances in evolved spells and abilities. 

The first few formed the firm foundation of a fighter’s power, changeable only through guided evolution later in the tier.  And they were transformative, putting most deities on an entirely different quality of existence. 

For someone like that, clearing a deity cell might’ve been as easy as casting a few spells.  Probably not, but from the outside looking in, it certainly seemed like that.  Whatever the case, Bogoni didn’t have that advantage.  Instead, he and his team were forced to make up for it through preparation, organization, and sheer grit.

By virtue of his position as the party’s designated defender, he was expected to supply most of that.  The others followed his lead, which only added to the pressure he felt every single time they stepped into battle.  However, he had spent his entire life preparing for that burden.  And what’s more, he trusted himself far more thoroughly than he would have trusted anyone else to shoulder that load.

Naturally, he took the physical lead as well, leading his team through the sludge-covered corridors.  The entire place took the appearance of a dank sewer system, complete with a channel of murky water flowing down the center.  Thankfully, the edges hosted a large enough space that everyone could avoid having to wade in the muck. 

But nothing could save them from having to fight in it.

The first wave of monsters saw to that, as they originated from that central trough in a cascade of slimy tentacles that took Furyo by surprise.  In less than a second, he’d been dragged into the mire.  Bogoni was the first to respond, but he’d only made it to the edge of the channel before an enormous explosion peppered his front with slime-covered water.  A moment later, Furyo burst free, holding one of the curious firearms he’d purchased from the Earthlings.

He lacked a proper class to use it, but as an Engineer, he was more than capable of making plenty of modifications to his liking.  And it was obvious that he’d altered it for more firepower. 

The explosion displaced thousands of gallons of water, and it vaporized even more.  The result was a brief instant where the bottom of the channel was exposed.

What Bogoni saw sent a tremor of fear up his spine.

The channel was absolutely covered in monsters.  Thousands of them. Piles of blistered tentacles, writhing in agony.  And at the center was…

Bogoni had no idea what to call it.

Generously, he’d have called it an eyeball.  Yet, it was free-floating and wreathed in burning muck.  Thankfully, Kalyn didn’t hesitate before sending a barrage of crossbow bolts to penetrate deep into is pupil.

Even as Furyo leaped free, a wave of mental anguish slammed into Bogoni’s psyche.  Fortunately, he was prepared for just such an attack. 

His last ability evolution was responsible for that.  Mental Fortress was an evolution of the lackluster Mind Defense, which had always granted a very mediocre barrier against attacks of the mind.  However, Mental Fortress had not only improved the base power, but it had extended it to his allies.

In one ability, he gave his reeling companions the tools they needed to overcome the attack and respond with an assault of their own.  They didn’t hesitate.  Imal’s was the most valuable contribution.  The eyeball, as well as the tentacles, were creatures of water. And for a demigod, there was no one with better control over that element.

She ripped them to pieces.

Not to be outdone, everyone else attacked as well.  Okar, lanced in with his blades, Kalyn continued to loose one bolt after another, Furyo used his small but deadly firearm, and Palikina popped in and out of stealth to ram her daggers into one monster or another. 

It all happened in less than a second before the water came crashing back down, but by the time the channel once again turned placid, it hosted at least as much black blood as water or muck. 

Over the next few hours, they encountered more of the same.  They didn’t have a proper Healer, but the Druid who’d joined them kept up well enough.  Fiona.  As far as Bogoni could tell, she managed the job as well as any true Healer could have.  Maybe better than most, considering that she rarely needed rest. 

That was a hallmark of Druids who focused on healing, from what he’d been taught.  On the rare occasion that they joined parties, they were models of efficiency.  The only downside was that they generally lacked the sheer healing firepower most like-leveled Healers might be able to bring to the fight.

Either way, the group had become a well-oiled machine.  So long as Bogoni did his job, he didn’t think there was much that could derail them.  Not even the final fight, which featured five Voxx-like monsters working tandem. 

With Bogoni calling out targets, the group slowly whittled the opposition down until only his counterpart remained.  Killing that creature took a while, but they still managed the feat all the same.

After that, they all gathered their devices from Furyo and began the long process of cleansing every inch of that cell.  It was massive, so it took the better part of a day to finish up. 

So, by the time they did so, they were all more than ready to return to the Vengeance.  Relieved, they exited the cell, only to find their way blocked.

Bogoni stepped forward, pushing Fiona back.  “If they attack, everyone runs.  I’ll hold them here.”

“We’re not abandoning you,” said Imal.  “Besides, they might be friendly.”

Bogoni knew better.

The trio of dragons only a hundred yards away were all deities.  He could feel their power, even from so far away.  What’s more, they had that predatory look that only such large and unmatched dragons could possess.  Each of them was at least five hundred feet long, and that wasn’t even including their tails.  They had trampled a good part of the forest, just by virtue of their immense size.

“Maybe they just want to talk,” said Furyo, though his fingers clutched tightly around the grip of his firearm. 

“Maybe,” Bogoni acknowledged.  Cooperation was the general rule during the deity trial, but there was no guarantee that tradition would hold sway in such an unprecedented cycle.  “Only one way to find out.”

He hefted his shield, readied his hammer, and stepped forward to see why a trio of deity-tier dragons were waiting for them.