Path of Dragons-Chapter 22Book 8: : Purity

With his legs crossed beneath him, Elijah sat atop a large, rocky edifice in the mountains. He was only a few miles away from where he’d fought the spider who’d once guarded the pass leading to Norcastle, but there was no life in his general vicinity. Even the microbes had been killed – a fact which left him with more than a little guilt.

But the damage was done. He couldn’t turn back. Not now that he was finally making progress.

He cycled dense ropes of ethera through his body, pushing until the channels of his soul burst. He gasped in pain, but there was nothing for it but to forge ahead. So, he shunted that agony into its own facet of his mind, where it joined all the other results of his self-imposed torture.

Elijah knew that if anyone saw him at that moment, they would have been appalled. He could feel his skin flaking off with every passing moment, only to be renewed by his constant reapplication of Soothe, Nature’s Bloom, and Blessing of the Grove. Without either leg of his trinity of healing, he would have melted into a puddle. Even with them working against the degradation assailing his body, he could barely keep up.

That was the point, though.

If he wanted to progress – to truly push to the next grade of body cultivation – his old body needed to be broken down to its most basic pieces, to have the very foundation of who he was sundered. During that process, he would remove all of the deep-seated flaws most people ignored. Only then could he rebuild, stronger and better.

To accomplish that, he’d regretfully donned the Shackle of Penance, and it was just as horrible as the name implied. Not only did it destroy his body with every passing second, but it also made his ethera channels far more permeable while restricting the flow to a molasses-like pace. A necessity, given that he needed to flood his body with dense ethera, but having to wrangle his nearly-solid ethera via focus alone was far more difficult than he’d ever considered.

And he had to do that while his body was steadily being broken down.

At first, he’d only managed it for a few minutes, but now, he was up to almost two hours. A huge leap by anyone’s standards, especially given that he’d reached that point in only a couple of days. At the moment, he couldn’t consider that, though. It took every facet of his mind just to keep himself from dying.

The seconds passed like subjective eternities, but Elijah kept at it. Cultivation had long since passed the point where it could be accomplished quickly, easily, or without pain. In that respect, it was like any other means of training.

The idea to use the Shackle of Penance in such a way had come to him the very day he’d taken possession. Since then, Elijah had worked toward the eventual goal of pushing to the next tier of body cultivation. The good thing was that the bracer supercharged his efforts, and as a result, he’d made enough progress that he thought he could soon take the final step. But even then, Elijah wondered – at least when he wasn’t subjecting himself to torture – if it was worth it.

Slow and steady would have been a lot less painful, after all. That was how everyone else did it. But Elijah had never been like everyone else, and what’s more, he couldn’t afford to take his time. Too many responsibilities weighed down on him – not least the fate of the world, which would be decided in only a few short weeks.

So, he pushed himself to take more, to push harder. And the results spoke for themselves. Two hours passed. Then three. Four. Elijah sank into himself, and he continued going for five total hours before he finally sensed something click within him. It was just a feeling, but it was so powerful that he knew precisely what it meant.

He was ready for the penultimate step.

With no small degree of difficulty, he removed the Shackle of Penance, gingerly placing it in its shielded box before shutting it away. But the corruption it emanated remained within him, ravaging his body with every passing second. Elijah knew he couldn’t take any more – not now that his concentration had broken – so he began to force it out. To do so, he harnessed the power of his own ethera, gathering it and pushing it to the surface. Then, he vented everything.

Ethera and the shackle’s corrosive power rushed out of him, all at once, and he couldn’t contain the scream that came with it. Even with his voice echoing through the mountains, Elijah couldn’t spare a moment’s distraction as he scoured his body with the power of his own will-driven ethera.

Bit by bit, he lost everything to the atmosphere. With that power went the last vestiges of corruption and the natural toxins that permeated anyone’s body. Through it all, Elijah remained in place, his every muscle tense and quivering, until at last, he had nothing left to vent.

He collapsed from his perch atop the rock, his body limp as he tumbled to the ground. Fortunately, the rain and the healing effects from Blessing of the Grove remained in effect, nourishing his broken body until he could finally push himself to his knees. Even that became a nearly impossible task.

Elijah hadn’t felt so weak since he was trapped within the prison of his cancer-stricken body. But he had survived that, and he would endure this. It was only a matter of willpower.

Because he certainly wasn’t finished.

The final step of his cultivation was still to come. So, the second he felt strong enough to rise to his feet, he found himself trekking down the mountain. With Soul of the Wild, which was just as powerful as ever, he could feel the aftermath of his cultivation. The entire side of the mountain had been stripped of all life, and Elijah feared that if he didn’t work to reverse the damage he’d done, it would remain barren for all of eternity.

He intended to do that, but for now, he had something more important – and time sensitive – on his mind.

So, he descended the mountain and crossed the strip of land between the peaks and the coast as quickly as he could. He remained as weak as ever, and Elijah knew that it would take months – or years – to recover, if he left things the way they were. The only choice was to continue his plan, else he’d never be capable of contributing to Earth’s survival.

In a way, the trek was no different from his experiences with the Shackle of Penance. It was a means of pushing himself just a little further, and he embraced it for what it was. Even if he could have shifted into one of his other shapes – which was impossible because his ethera refused to regenerate – he would not have gone down that road. Instead, he embraced the weakness as the test it was, meeting the challenge with an unbreakable will to succeed.

Eventually, he reached the water, and when he dove in, it was like acid against his sensitive skin. Still, he pushed forward in an awkward paddle. Thankfully, no sea creatures bothered him as he swam – if his stroke could even be called that – toward the island. That wasn’t to say it wasn’t without issues of its own. Even in the strait, the current was incredibly strong, which meant that in his weakened state, making his way to the island was slow, tedious, and extremely painful. ŕ𝐀𝐍∅βËȿ

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Elijah could take a little pain, though, and hardship had never dissuaded him. So, he forged ahead, awkwardly cutting through the water until he finally washed ashore. For a few minutes, he simply lay there gathering the strength he knew would not return on its own. Nearby, he could feel Nerthus hovering in the trees, though the spryggent knew enough about Elijah’s plans to stay away.

After a few moments, Elijah felt something hovering over him, and he looked up to see that one of the crabs had gotten curious. It was reminiscent of how he’d begun his post-World Tree existence, except that the crab seemed entirely disinterested in making a meal out of him.

Was that because of his attunement? Or because it had learned to fear him? Elijah had no idea, but he was grateful the creature didn’t do more than poke him with its massive claw.

After a minute or two, Elijah felt strong enough to push himself to all fours. He was far too weak to walk, so he crawled down the beach, slithering over and between rocks until, at last, he reached his destination.

By that point, night had well and truly fallen, and a blanket of stars lit his way as he once again returned to the sea. Because the cultivation cave was on the western side of the island, the surf was a lot rougher than in the strait, but he cut through it as best he could, eventually dipping below the surface and finding his way to the submerged tunnel.

Even in ideal circumstances, traversing that small space was an experience in claustrophobia. In his current state, it was as terrifying as anything else he’d ever endured. Yet, Elijah remained strong, dragging himself along its length until he finally reached the cave itself.

Doing so didn’t come without consequences, though. In his weakened state, the current of ethera was blisteringly strong, and it felt like someone was sandblasting his skin from his flesh. By the time he pulled himself into the cave, his body was beet red and screaming at him in agony.

Like so much other pain he’d already endured, Elijah shunted it into its own facet – which was getting crowded – before focusing on the cave. The level of ethera within the confined space was stronger than it had ever been before, courtesy of the Leviathan’s Bones, the attention he’d given it during the preparation process, and the pearl he’d placed within.

Even so, Elijah could only hope that it would be enough. As far as he knew, nowhere else on Earth could even begin to approach those levels. By all rights, taking the next step in his journey of cultivation shouldn’t even have been possible on such a newly-touched world.

Which meant that if he managed it, the gap between him and everyone else would be that much wider.

Once he’d finally completed the journey, Elijah let himself drift in the center of the room. He still hadn’t recovered, and he knew he wouldn’t until he took matters into his own hands. He couldn’t even cast any spells, he was so drained of ethera, and he knew that if he looked at his status, his attributes would likely be in the negatives.

He chose not to do so because it was all going precisely as he’d planned.

But now that he was in his cave, he was ready to take the final step, which would doubtless prove to be more difficult than anything that had come before.

Steeling himself against what was to come, Elijah reached out with a tendril of his soul, absorbing the cave’s ambient ethera and bypassing the apertures in his mind.

He screamed as it felt like someone had poured boiling water through his veins. The ethera didn’t confine itself to his still-malleable channels. Instead, it raced through every fiber of his being, saturating each cell until he felt as if he was going to burst. He strained, trying to take even one more drop, but eventually, he could hold no more. After that, he stirred it, directing it faster and faster through his body. Along the way, it gathered any impurities that remained. Metaphysical scar tissue dissolved. Even the most stubborn toxins ripped away, and imperfections were worn down.

Faster and faster, Elijah directed the dense ethera until he could take no more.

Finally, using the same method he’d utilized before, he vented it.

A cloud of black sludge erupted from every pore. Some of it was literal poison – stubborn remnants of his previous experiences – but mostly, it was a physical representation of something more ephemeral. Elijah nearly choked on it as he retrieved one of nine beads from the necklace around his neck. In normal circumstances, it was easy enough to unfasten – just a simple latch – but in his weakened state, it took a few fumbling attempts before he managed it.

Then, he pushed a tiny bit of ethera into the small sphere to activate it.

Instantly, a whirlpool swirled around him, sucking every ounce of contamination into the bead. It swelled to the size of a softball before it became too heavy for Elijah to hold. It fell to the cave’s floor with a thud.

But it had done its job, cleansing the water all around him.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

That meant he was ready for the next cycle. One down, eight more to go. Nine total, and when he was done, his body would be entirely pristine. Only then would he be ready to push to the next stage of body cultivation.

Which meant that he had a lot of pain in his near future.

That wouldn’t change with delay, so Elijah dove in head-first, trying to push himself a little further with each cycle. The second was far more difficult than the first, though Elijah wasn’t certain if that was in his mind or if it truly was harder. The third continued that trend, but by the fourth, he felt like he’d found his groove. It was still incredibly taxing and horrendously painful, but for the next three cycles, it was easier to bear.

Then, he hit a wall with the seventh.

No matter how hard he pushed, his body didn’t want to cooperate. His mind had grown sluggish, and his very being felt as if it had been torn to pieces. Yet, with every passing moment, he continued to move forward. It was like crawling across a world of sharp glass, but still, he managed it, completing the cycle with a bubbling roar.

If that iteration was like crawling through glass, then the eighth felt like he’d been forced to slither through it. While being doused in salt and bathed with rubbing alcohol.

He’d gotten this far, though, and he wasn’t about to give up now. So, even though he felt certain he was killing himself, Elijah continued on. Inch by metaphorical inch, he completed the cycle.

And then came the ninth.

In some ways, it was easier. He could see the finish line looming before him. And in other ways, it was so much more difficult. Every ounce of saturation came with considerable pain. Every impurity he dislodged was incredibly well-entrenched.

But he would not be denied.

Too much depended on his success. Too many lives would be lost if he failed. And more than anything, Elijah refused to let himself lose. Others had accomplished the feat. The guide he’d read explicitly said as much. So he knew it was possible. And that was all the motivation he truly needed.

Finally, he completed the cycle, flushing the impurities from his body, which were then absorbed into the ninth and final bead he’d brought along. Even as it fell to the cave floor to rest in the silt next to all the others, Elijah lost control of his body.

He seized. His every muscle contracted. And more importantly, he absorbed more and more ethera with every passing second. It kept going until he couldn’t hold anymore, and then, just when he thought it would stop, it continued. Ethera poured from his soul, clouding around him in a dense pocket of energy.

Then, it began to condense.

At first, it was like oil, but soon enough, it became semi-solid. Finally, it formed a crystalline structure that encased his body like a cocoon. Even if Elijah had been at full strength, he couldn’t have broken through. And in his weakened state of near-death, he could only wait.

Once the cocoon had formed entirely, Elijah felt a pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced. There were no words to describe it, and thankfully, he only had to endure it for a split second before he lost consciousness. But in the space of that instant, he realized what was happening.

His entire body had begun to dissolve.

Elijah had just enough time to panic before he passed out.

Fortunately, he didn’t dream. Instead, he was entirely unaware until some indeterminate amount of time later, he awoke. For a few seconds, he was still encased in that same crystal, but it wasn’t long before a single, hairline crack appeared. Then another. And another after that. Soon enough, those cracks spiderwebbed across the entire surface until the entire thing shattered.

But Elijah barely noticed the shards of crystal dissolving into the water. Nor did he truly see that the cave had once again been stripped of all life and ethera. Instead, he only had eyes for one thing – the notification looming before his inner eye:

Congratulations! You have cultivated a Body of Bronze.

And already, even after only a few seconds, he could feel a striking difference.