BOOK 9: CHAPTER 32: CONSEQUENCES

In a lot of ways, holding Isaiah responsible was irrational. However, in every way that Elijah wanted to consider, he certainly was. Without what had happened in Seattle, no one would have doubted his power. There was no way to be certain, but Elijah believed that, had that not happened, Breeze never would have dared to attack the grove. Moreover, the pirates wouldn’t have agreed to the plan if they truly believed they might encounter the strongest man in the world.

So, it seemed perfectly reasonable to hold Isaiah accountable.

What was not reasonable was how he intended to do that.

Elijah wasn’t so far gone to his anger that he completely forgot the other problems facing Earth. The Primal Realms were still out there, and for better or worse, Isaiah was the lynchpin that bound the coordinated efforts of the world’s elite together. Without him, it was likely that everything would fall apart.

So, he couldn’t kill the man. No matter how much he wanted to. Not without dooming Earth, at least, and as angry as Elijah was, he would not let his simmering rage push him that far.

But he still intended to make a point.

That’s how he found himself throwing the elf’s body over his shoulder and exiting the palace. He didn’t need to search the town to know that the residents had fallen victim to Breeze’s attack. They were all dead. At least a thousand people, gone.

Thankfully, the smoke would assuredly linger for days, it had already dissipated a little, and Elijah’s ongoing efforts had already banished the poisonous gas’s effects. So, there was nothing left but to do what needed to be done. To that end, he shoved the body into his ring – it barely fit – then shifted into the Shape of the Sky and began his flight back to the ruins of Bloodrock Bay.

The return took longer than the trip to Kel’ilathen, largely because he didn’t have Lightning Rush available. Still, he could cover quite a lot of ground while in Shape of the Sky, and by the time he reached his destination, the sun was only beginning to set.

Thankfully, the lone survivor had already accomplished his task. The corpses had been piled into a tall mound of dead flesh.

“Survivor!” he shouted up landing. “Return, or I will kill you.”

There was a clatter from one of the top levels, and a moment later, the man appeared. He had multiple gold chains around his neck, a huge sack of loot thrown over his shoulder, and a bunch of jeweled bracelets around his wrists. He’d even found a crown.

He wasted no time before descending the system of ladders and ramps. Only a few had been destroyed during Elijah’s rampage, so he only had to go the long way on a couple of occasions. However, after only a few minutes, the man trotted up to where Elijah stood next to the bodies.

“I have one more task for you.”

“What do you need me to do?” he asked, his eyes flicking this way and that.

Elijah told him what he required, then dove into the bay. A moment later, he had shifted into the Shape of the Sea. Once the transformation was complete, the survivor got to work, tossing the bodies on top of Elijah’s broad shell. At first, it went quickly enough, but as the task progressed, the pile became more precarious.

There were just so many bodies.

Maybe a thousand people, and that was only a fraction of the number that had been present. Many had been ripped to pieces during his assault on the dock and the ships that had made their berth there. Still, it would be enough.

The job took a couple of hours, and by that time, night had fallen. When it was done, Elijah reminded the man to spread the word of what had happened to Bloodrock Bay. Then, he paddled out to sea.

He didn’t push himself to maximum speed. Instead, he established a leisurely pace, not because he wanted to take his time, but rather, he didn’t want to lose any of the bodies. Because of that, it took the entire night and half of the next day for him to reach his island.

After dumping the bodies on the mainland, he returned to the island and gathered all of the pirates’ corpses and threw the now-rotting bodies onto the pile.

It became a massive monument to death.

But Elijah was not finished.

Gathering as many of the corpses as he could carry, he trekked toward the Teleportation Spires. When he arrived, he received precisely the welcome he’d expected.

“What happened?!” Eryka asked, concerned.

“I’m going to keep them coming,” Elijah stated, throwing the bodies down. “It’s going to take a while. When I’m done, I expect you to send me to Seattle.”

“Elijah, what –”

“Do I make myself clear?”

Eryka went silent when she saw his face. Then, she just nodded.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Over the next couple of hours, Elijah continuously ferried bodies into position. Each time he returned to the vicinity of the spires, there were more people watching him. At first, Eryka’s eyes widened with each return trip, but after a while, her surprise turned to horror. And by the time he finished, she looked as numb as Elijah had forced himself to become.

Rage still simmered below the surface, quarantined in its own facets of his mind. However, it would do him little good at the moment, so he had shut it away.

He knew it would bubble up again.

It wasn’t a question of if, but rather when.

Once all the bodies were in place, Elijah ordered, “Help me put the bodies in the circle.”

The gathered people hesitated, but only for a moment. The implication represented by the presence of so many bodies was clear. Elijah had killed them. And no one wanted to join that pile.

It didn’t take long to move the bodies, and when it was done, Elijah took his place beside them and ordered Eryka to teleport him.

She placed her hand on the apparatus, then activated the spires. With a surge of ethera, Elijah traveled more than a thousand miles in an instant. The second he appeared, shouts of alarm erupted from the men and women manning Seattle’s teleportation spires.

Not surprising, given that Elijah had just appeared with almost a thousand corpses.

He ignored their shouts. He disregarded their orders for him to stand down. Instead, he activated Shape of Thorn, then used Domain of Vines.

Domain of Vines

Create a domain of snaring roots with venomous thorns. Venom causes lethargy and restricts the flow of Ethera. Potency based on Regeneration attribute. Only usable while under the effects of Shape of Thorn. Duration of domain based on Regeneration attribute. Current: 269 Seconds (while remaining under the effects of Shape of Thorn) or 41 Seconds (if Shape of Thorn is canceled while domain is active).

Elijah focused on the spell, funneling its expression through his body. He’d done it a few times before, but those had been due to the environment. This time, though, he forced the vines to grow from his shoulders and back. They erupted from his scales, then slammed into the bodies, skewering them a dozen at a time. He wove the vines through the entire pile until every single corpse was accounted for.

Of course, the locals didn’t take that very well.

It wasn’t long before the guards opened fire with their little rifles. The bolts of ethera slammed into him, but he didn’t even flinch. He’d grown quite a bit since his last visit, and what’s more, he was now in his Shape of Thorn. Finally, he wore his Mantle of the Chimera, so it wasn’t long before his Regeneration attribute soared, adding to the timer of Domain of Vines.

Without even acknowledging the attacks, Elijah lifted the corpses and made for the gate. Shouts followed him as drones buzzed overhead. Elijah ignored it all. He only had a limited amount of time to reach his destination, and he intended to make it work.

Soon enough, Seattle’s gate came into view. Elijah didn’t hesitate to barrel through the men and women guarding the entry point, though he took even more shots along the way. They were no more effective than the last hundred.

Elijah wasn’t quite as fast in Shape of Thorn as he was in his other forms, but he could still cover quite a lot of ground when he wanted to. He moved in leaps and bounds as he rapidly crossed the city. Then, when he only had thirty seconds left on Domain of Vines, he reached the Citadel.

Once there, he twitched his vines, throwing the corpses forward. They hit the steps, and a few of the more rotten ones exploded on impact, spraying decaying viscera in every direction. Most remained intact, though.

“Isaiah, you asshole – I know you’re watching!” he shouted as he returned to his human form. “Come out here and see the fruits of your labor!”

A crowd had gathered – at a respectful distance, of course – behind him.

More importantly, the implication behind Elijah’s tone was clear. He would not take no for an answer.

He found a drone, looked directly at it, and said, “Remember our last conversation.”

It was not a shout. There wasn’t anger there. Just a calm reminder of what he would do if pushed. And it worked.

After only a couple more minutes, Isaiah appeared at the top of the stairs. He took a circuitous route around the bodies, then planted himself only a few feet in front of Elijah.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. From the vein pulsing in his forehead, he was barely capable of restraining his own anger. The fact that he could still feel strong emotions was a good sign. “Who were these people?”

“Pirates.”

“Pirates?” asked Isaiah, confused. “What do pirates have to do with me?”

“They attacked my island.”

“Oh. You have Seatle’s sympathies and –”

“Do you know why they attacked my island, Isaiah?”

“Presumably because you had something they wanted,” he guessed. “That is what drives their kind.”

“True, true. But do you know why they thought it was a good idea? I’m sure it’s already crossed that big brain of yours. You’re a Scholar, right? You’re more than capable of connecting the dots,” Elijah stated. “Do you want a hint?”

“I don’t think –”

“Last time I was here, you tried to put me in my place, didn’t you?” Elijah asked, stepping forward. “Did you stop to think how that might affect me? Or rather, people’s perception of me? Do you think, even for a fucking second, that they would have attacked me if you hadn’t given them hope that I wasn’t as strong as I seemed? I don’t.”

Elijah summoned the elf’s corpse, then threw it at Isaiah’s feet.

“That’s the man that hired them. Breeze was his name. Do you know what he did when I came to hold him accountable?”

“Tried to kill you, I assume.”

“Yes. In the process, he slaughtered every person in his little town. Maybe a thousand more people. I didn’t bother bringing their corpses. By the time I left his palace, they were too degraded,” Elijah explained. He could still picture their bodies, having turned mostly black from the poison gas. The only solace lay in the fact that they had died almost instantly instead of being made to suffer.

“That’s more than two-thousand deaths on your head,” Elijah stated. “I know I killed them. I take that blame. I will bear that guilt. But you, Isaiah – you set the stage for this, all because you wanted to sit at the adult table. Well, now you’re here. You need to ask yourself if it was worth it.”

He raised his voice. “If anyone else attacks my island, I will kill them, their families, and everyone they know. Their homes will be destroyed, and everything they care about will be broken,” he shouted. “Don’t make me become a monster again.”

Then, without another word, he used Roots of the World Tree, teleporting back to the grove. Vengeance was his. His reputation was safe. So, why didn’t he feel any better? Why did his anger still burn with just as much ferocity?

He sighed, then headed toward the treehouse to check on Nerthus. He still had a lot of work to do, but his friend’s well-being was now the most important thing on his mind.