Elijah floated in the center of the oasis, keenly aware of the eyes following his every move. The mo’o remained in place, clinging to the trunk of a tree near the guelta’s bank. The pool of water was still, though beneath the surface was an entire ecosystem of fish and other aquatic animals. He hadn’t bothered to inspect the bottom, mostly because doing so would intrude upon the mo’o’s territory. There was a natural treasure down there, and one the guardian would protect at all costs.

  Even from Elijah.

  Tolerating his presence was one thing. Allowing him to get close to the natural treasure was an entirely different subject. And while the mo’o was obviously a guardian, it was still a wild animal. Elijah chose not to provoke it, at least as much because he didn’t want to anger the creature as because he had no reason to disturb the harmony of its existence.

  So, he floated aimlessly as he stared up at the pristine blue sky.

  Lost in the consequences of the World Tree’s touch was the fact that Earth’s response to humanity had completely altered course. Elijah was no great environmentalist, but even he had to acknowledge humanity’s effect on the environment.

  As a graduate student, he’d gone on an expedition to Alaska to study whale migration patterns. Doing so had required them to trek across the untouched Alaskan wilderness for more than a week. It had been one of the most difficult hikes Elijah had ever experienced, though it had also been eye-opening in a way he never could have expected.

  Partially, that was due to the sheer beauty on display. It reminded him a little of home, though somehow more vivid. More real. And far more intimidating. However, the factor that had surprised him most was that, even out there in the seemingly untouched wilderness, he found evidence of humanity’s spread. Metal barrels. Discarded plastic bags. Even a small shack with a roof that had long since fallen in.

  It had taught Elijah a very distinct lesson – humanity’s presence loomed over even the most remote places on Earth, and not in a good way.

  But now, there were whole swaths of wilderness – some the size of entire countries – that had never felt the touch of mankind. And given the massive decrease in humanity’s population, that would likely remain the case for centuries. On top of that, the change in how combustion worked had cut carbon emissions down to almost nothing, ensuring that the clean and crisp air would remain so for the foreseeable future.

  A radical environmentalist would say that the death was worth it. Being a biologist, Elijah had encountered many people like that. It was a brand of cynicism – or perhaps nihilism – that had always rubbed him the wrong way. For his part, Elijah had always fallen on the side of wanting humanity to simply do better, to correct the mistakes of the past as they forged a new path into the future.

  Whatever the case, that problem had been solved, and not by humanity. The World Tree had done the job for them, and now, they had no choice but to deal with the aftermath.

  In a lot of ways, it was easy to dismiss the sheer magnitude of death. They were just numbers, weren’t they? But Elijah had personally seen destroyed cities. He had walked through Honolulu. He had burned thousands of corpses.

  Nothing was worth that, and anyone who said otherwise was a monster.

  For a long time, Elijah just floated. In a lot of ways, it was as rejuvenative as soaking in the ash lotus spring in the grove, though the oasis came with an extra characteristic he’d come to enjoy – solitude. As happy as he was with the grove’s growing population, he couldn’t deny that he valued the serenity that came from being alone.

  Even now, completely isolated from the rest of the world, Elijah could still feel everyone in his domain, which had continued to grow at a rapid pace. It had already reached into the mountains on the other side of Ironshore, and to a lesser extent, it encompassed the areas surrounding his many trees. It only took a little concentration to know everything about those regions.

  Ostensibly, that was why he’d used Roots of the World Tree to teleport to the Circle of Lost Seas, but checking up on the new fort being built near the local tree wasn’t particularly urgent. In any case, he had some time to kill while Sadie worked on her cultivation.

  He could afford to relax for a few more hours.

  In service of that, he shifted into his dragon form. As his body grew, water displaced, lapping over the rocky shore. The mo’o didn’t react visibly, though Elijah could feel the creature’s ethera swirling as it prepared its defenses. However, when it became clear that Elijah would not attack, it relaxed.

  Though that surge of energy told Elijah that the creature was incredibly powerful. On the edge of demi-god status, just like him. No wonder it never ventured far from its natural treasure. It was probably too powerful to survive the comparatively thin atmosphere outside the oasis for very long.

  Elijah could sympathize.

  For all that he reveled in his advancements, the reality of his situation was becoming increasingly clear with every passing day. He had outgrown Earth, and not by a little. When he managed to accumulate enough experience to take the next step and become a demi-god, it would only get worse. For him, and for the environment.

  The only reason he hadn’t already been forced to leave was because of the grove. Without that sanctuary, he’d have slowly become starved of vital energy as well as ethera. Sure, he could hop from one natural treasure to another. Or maybe he could have gotten Biggle to concoct some sort of potions to relieve his fatigue. But that would only last so long.

  Elijah likened it to an experience he’d had while scuba diving. Back then, the air in his tank had been improperly mixed, with the levels of oxygen being far too low. That had created a creeping sensation of slow hypoxia. Eventually, he’d passed out, and the only reason he’d managed to survive was because a colleague had rescued him.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Being on Earth was like that now. A slow exhaustion that felt like he could never quite catch his metaphysical breath. And it was worse when he adopted his dragon form. Countering that feeling was the fact that he’d increasingly begun to feel more comfortable as a dragon, to the point where it felt no more alien than his humanoid shape.

  In some ways, it felt better.

  Was it his natural form? Or did that label belong to the one he’d had for most of his life? Maybe the answer was both.

  At any rate, Elijah wasn’t in a position to truly judge, largely because he couldn’t spend an appreciable amount of time in his dragon form, and for a variety of reasons. The atmosphere – and his energy requirements – were the biggest issue, though he was also very cognizant of how people would react to the presence of a full-size dragon in their midst.

  He wasn’t na?ve or deluded enough to think it would be positive.

  In any case, shifting into his dragon form felt a little like kicking his shoes off after a long day on his feet. If he still wore shoes, that was. Regardless, the metaphor fit.

  After a while, Elijah finally swam to shore, where he sprawled in the sun. His emerald scales glistened with power as the water evaporated. And for a while, he felt as peaceful as he had since the world’s transformation.

  His mind drifted to Sadie and her efforts in cultivation. The powerful fluctuations had initially sent the Temple of Virtue workers into panic, but it soon became apparent that they weren’t harmful. He watched her via his locus as she hummed a song that echoed throughout the temple.

  One of the downsides of his locus was that he couldn’t actually hear anything through that metaphysical sense. He knew sound existed – through the subtle vibrations in the air – but he couldn’t interpret them into anything recognizable.

  Despite that, from what Elijah could feel, he experienced a sense of calm reassurance that reminded him of the feeling he got when someone was subjected to a just punishment. Not happiness. More of a relief that the world worked through a sense of order, that the rules they’d all collectively agreed to follow were still of paramount importance.

  That fit with what Elijah knew of her attunement, which he assumed was something like justice or virtue. She’d never revealed its exact nature, but he knew her well enough to make a few educated guesses.

  The song felt like that, and it had been ongoing for the past few days. In that time, Sadie hadn’t moved more than a twitch. She barely even breathed, though he could feel the power within her. Soon, she would break through to the next tier of core cultivation. When she did, the waiting game would end, and they would set out for Benediction.

  Once he was dry, Elijah pushed himself to his feet and shifted into the Shape of the Sky. Once that transformation was finished, he glanced at the mo’o and said, “It’s all yours.”

  Predictably, the creature didn’t answer.

  With a flap of his wings, Elijah launched himself into the sky. Then, without further hesitation, he used Lightning Rush, instantly transforming himself into a bolt of electricity streaking across the blue sky. The advantage of being able to feel the tree was that it functioned as a great landmark, and he used that to orient himself in the proper direction.

  After a little less than three seconds – and hundreds of miles later – the spell wore off, and he returned to the Shape of the Sky. The momentum took a while longer to dissipate as he glided across the Painted Wastes at the speed of a Concord jet. Even so, he saw various battles playing out below as Seattle’s forces engaged in a neverending war of extermination against the vespirans and their enslaved underlings.

  Before Elijah had conquered the Broken Crown, that would not have been possible. But now? The creatures weren’t nearly overbearing enough to combat so many soldiers. And to Elijah’s relief, Isaiah hadn’t held back. He’d sent thousands of troops to protect the tree and utilize the Painted Wastes as a leveling tool.

  Soon, they would venture into the Primal Realm itself, and Elijah was eager to discover how differently it presented to those not of draconic origin. Would the scenario completely change? Or would it simply be less cataclysmic? There would be no telling until someone else conquered it and returned to tell their tale.

  Riding the momentum of Lightning Rush, it only took Elijah a couple more hours to catch sight of the tree in the distance. And the fortress that had been built to protect it.

  Once again, Isaiah had risen to the occasion. The walls surrounding the fort were nearly as tall as Seattle’s, and even from a distance, Elijah could see the multitudinous cannons they’d placed along its length. Moreover, as he’d already felt, there were nearly ten thousand soldiers standing guard and cycling in and out of the compound.

  The only thing that was missing was a set of Conclave Spires, though that wasn’t surprising. They required a ley line confluence to function, which was mostly impossible so close to a Primal Realm.

  As he approached, Elijah felt the cannons turn in his direction, though they didn’t fire. The operators had been informed of his various shapes, so they knew better than to attack. Still, Elijah knew that his arrival came with a wave of trepidation. Some of those people had participated in the Battle of Seattle. They had seen what he could do, and with that knowledge came a steady dose of fear.

  He accepted it as the cost of doing what was necessary, though he didn’t revel in the terror.

  Elijah landed in a cloud of dust, and by the time it settled, he’d already shifted back into his humanoid form and was striding toward the fortified gate. There, he met a squad of soldiers. They weren’t weak, either. Ascended, though only just.

  The leader greeted him, then led him inside. Elijah’s first stop was the tree. Because the tree was so young, his locus barely extended to the walls. But it was enough to allow him to ascertain its health. However, there were some things he could only tell by laying hands on the ancestral tree variant.

  For a while, he did just that, feeling the tree’s inner workings. It functioned the same as it had when he’d grown it, absorbing the local ethera at an accelerated rate. In doing so, it kept the Primal Realm from growing too powerful. In addition, it also filtered that ethera, expelling what it didn’t use. Thus, the local area experienced increased atmospheric energy.

  He also felt that it sent a good portion of that energy back to the Hartwood Grove, further bolstering the ambient ethera on Elijah’s island. With so many conduits of power flowing into his grove, it was no great mystery why the atmosphere had grown so dense with vitality and ethera.

  Once Elijah had established that the tree was healthy and working as intended, he visited Jessup, the base’s commander. The no-nonsense colonel laid out the defenses as well as their months-long plan to eventually conquer the Primal Realm. However, before he could discuss it further, Elijah felt something truly surprising.

  Thousands of miles away, Sadie’s song surged, sweeping across the entire Temple of Virtue. That was not unexpected. What shocked Elijah was its effect on the tree at the temple’s center. The white trunk turned gold, while the leaves glittered silver. Internally, the tree’s purpose only shifted a little. It was still based on vitality, but its nature had been branded by Sadie’s song.

  The dragon within raged at the supplantation of a piece of his authority. Anger surged. Pride enveloped him. And he very nearly transformed, then and there in Colonel Jessup’s office.

  But with an effort of will, he pushed it all down. He stilled his ethera and took control of his mind.

  “Is something wrong?” asked the commander of the base.

  “No,” Elijah lied. “It’s fine. Please continue.”

  Even as Jessup did just that, Elijah’s attention remained on his tree. Or rather, on the tree that now belonged to him and Sadie in equal measure.

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