Elijah cut through the air, traveling at a speed normally reserved for fighter jets. He caught a gust of wind that he rode to even greater altitude, then used Cloud Step. He kicked off the bundle of cloud that manifested beneath his feet, abruptly changing directions. Then, he did it again. And again after that. Five times in total, each instance sending him in a wholly different direction.

But then, the charges on his Footwraps of the Wild Revenant ran dry, and he found himself gliding along, almost a mile above the mountainous terrain. Using Eyes of the Eagle, he saw a caravan snaking along the pass leading to Ironshore. Seventeen heavy carts, each one pulled by sturdy dwarves who presumably had a class to ease their passage.

Vaguely, he wondered how much the goods contained in those carts were worth. It wasn’t by accident that Ironshore had become such a rich city, and while that wealth wasn’t evenly distributed among the people, it did raise the standard of living for every resident. Everyone benefited when the city was successful, and Ramik made certain that they all had access to the basic necessities.

Without bias, Elijah could say that the situation in Ironshore was the best he’d seen, followed closely by Argos. Everywhere else was beset by the problems that came from extreme inequality. And those problems were even more prevalent because those other cities – like New York and Seattle – had much greater populations than Ironshore or Argos. That magnified every issue.

Those thoughts distracted Elijah as he flew east. He had no real destination in mind. Rather, he’d only wanted to get away from the grove. Away from Nara’s judgement, which had struck a nerve he definitely didn’t want plucked.

It was just another reminder that, even if his trauma had been quarantined within his mind, it could still affect him greatly. His shifting mood was evidence of that much, and it told him that he needed to get moving on his mind cultivation sooner rather than later. If not for the increased power it promised – an ability to absorb more ambient ethera through the apertures in his mind was a huge deal – but also because his psyche labored under too much pressure. Eventually, his mind would start to bend, and at some point, it would break entirely under the burden.

Elijah couldn’t allow that.

So, as he flew aimlessly, he focused on the problem at hand. The visualization of his cultivation system was all but complete. However, it lacked a few minor details, chiefly concerning how everything fit together. Until he figured that out, he couldn’t proceed to the next part of his plan.

Thankfully, that wasn’t all that complex. Once he finalized the imagery, it only required a significant amount of ethera. For him, that meant the only viable location to complete the process was the cultivation cave he’d just left behind. Of course, the way he used that ethera was going to be painful and dangerous, but that just came with the territory of cultivation.

Just once, he’d like to progress without almost killing himself.

Not likely, he knew.

After a while, Elijah realized that he was flying in the vague direction of Argos, as evidenced when he passed the ruins of Norcastle. No one lived there – not anymore – but many of the structures remained intact. A single campfire surrounded by guild adventurers just outside of town told Elijah that the local tower hadn’t been left to grow out of hand.

Thankfully, he was far too high to alarm them.

Another hour later, and he was above the swamp. He’d communicated with Konstantinos a few times, and from everything the Alchemist had said, the children were doing well. Still, Elijah considered stopping by, but eventually, he chose not to – largely because doing so would require him to brave the unpleasant environment of the swamp.

Maybe that made him a bad friend.

But the swamp was just that unbearable that he considered it a reasonable decision.

After another hour or so, he left the swamp behind and passed over Khotont. The formerly Mongolian city hadn’t changed much in the years since Elijah had visited, but the area surrounding it was much more populated by small villages and mobile tent cities of the region’s semi-nomadic people.

Thankfully, there were no more rampaging boars in the area.

However, he did see a set of Spires glinting in the distance, proof that Khotont was at least important enough to garner the Conclave’s attention. Elijah continued south, passing a stretch of forest until he reached a flat plain that stretched out as far as he could see.

He was just about to head back to the island when he caught sight of an enormous herd of cattle. If there were less than ten thousand cows, he would have been incredibly surprised, and it was probably close to twice that number. Intrigued, he drew closer, and he saw a few details that concerned him.

First, most of the cows were at least twice the size they had been back on Earth. There were some that were more than three times as big – and that wasn’t even considering the bulls, which were massive, rhino-sized creatures that stood tall, muscular, and proud, their deadly horns sweeping wide and glistening with potent ethera.

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More than a few of those were ascended creatures, though Elijah felt nothing to suggest they were anything more than simple beasts. Still, they were a majestic sight that would have struck fear into any potential predator’s heart.

Yet, Elijah’s concern was well-founded, because barely a single cow in the entire herd was free of injury. Even the calves were wounded, and many had crude spears and arrows jutting from their thick hides.

Wherever the herd went, a trail of blood followed.

But Elijah was far more worried about the creatures surrounding the herd on three sides. Vaguely, they were humanoid, but they were slightly taller on average than a human being. The differences didn’t end there, either – the creatures were entirely naked, with white, saggy skin that bunched at the joints. Many were armed with crude weapons like spears or very rudimentary bows, and their facial features were bulging and dramatic, with tusks protruding haphazardly from their mouths.

To call them ugly would have been a vast understatement.

Elijah also got the strong impression that they were, at their core, unnatural. Not on par with an actual monster, and certainly nothing compared to one of the Voxx, but unnatural, nonetheless. He was diving before he’d even considered the ramifications of his intentions.

He landed after only a few seconds, hitting the ground a few hundred yards away from the herd. Immediately, he shifted into the Shape of the Scourge, though he didn’t bother with Guise of the Unseen before he sprinted toward the nearest creature.

He hit it like a missile, breaking dozens of bones upon impact before he moved to the next. With a vicious kick, he split the creature open at the belly, his claw not stopping until it hit the thing’s backbone.

That was when he realized three things. First, the creatures were all ascended, and a few were more than a few levels in. Second, they were indeed monsters, though the unnaturalness he felt was somehow diluted. He was immediately reminded of the orcs, though these things were wholly different, both in feel and appearance. And third, there were hundreds of them, which meant that he had his work cut out for him.

Not wanting to chance Spreading Blight for fear of infecting the herd – after all, they were neither enemies nor allies, so they occupied a bit of a gray area for his spells – he shifted into the Shape of the Master and took to the fight, scythe in hand.

The first ten or so went down without issue, spraying oddly thick, pale blood in every direction. Body parts went flying with every stroke of Elijah’s scythe, and the wails of the dying filled the air.

But as he’d expected, that was when the response came.

Hundreds of projectiles filled the air. Spears, arrows, and even rocks sailed toward Elijah. Thankfully, he was in the form of Shape of the Master, so dodging the clumsy attacks was far too easy. What he couldn’t dodge, he slapped away with his scythe as he sprinted toward the closest enemies.

They fell with barely any resistance, confirming that Elijah didn’t have much to worry about. The creatures went down by the dozen, most of them bisected, but many losing limbs before they were disemboweled. The smell of so much blood sent the cattle into a stampede, which was probably for the best. After all, the further away they ran, the less danger they were in.

In the end, it only took about ten minutes for Elijah to slaughter every last one of the creatures, but by that point, the herd was miles away.

He was less concerned about that than figuring out where the creatures came from. So, he shifted into the Shape of the Scourge, adopted Guise of the Unseen, and followed the trail they’d left through the savannah.

It wasn’t difficult. The numbers meant that they’d flattened quite a lot of grass, leaving an easily discernible trail that Elijah had no trouble following. Still, it went on for almost ten miles before he reached the source.

The camp was crude and comprised of huts made of piled mud the creatures had clearly harvested from the nearby river. At the center was an elaborate tent made of purple cloth.

Elijah crept closer, passing among the creatures without incident. The things were oddly lethargic, most of them not even moving, and there were quite a few that looked far less developed than others. Almost like unfinished sculptures.

That notion proved prescient when Elijah saw a trio of gnomes – two men and a woman – exit the fancy tent. The women took the lead, a large staff in hand, while the two men carried a huge box between them.

The woman was robed, her attire similarly hued to the tent, while the men wore sleeveless tunics that exposed oddly bulky arms – for a gnome, at least.

“Empty it there,” the woman spat, her voice filled with venom as she gestured with her staff at a circle drawn into the ground. He didn’t need to look closely to recognize the glyphs of a rudimentary enchantment.

The two males tipped the crate over, spilling white mud into the circle.

“The beast?” she asked, holding out her hand.

“One second,” one of the men intoned in a lazy voice as he retreated to the cottage-sized tent. True to his answer, he returned a moment later carrying a squeaking prairie dog. The creature was fairly well-leveled. Not ascended, but not far off, either, and the gnome struggled to hold it still. He offered it to the woman.

“What am I supposed to do with that? Take it to the circle, fool.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry, m’lady.”

She tapped her foot impatiently as the man approached the circle, then unceremoniously drew a knife. The prairie dog’s throat was slit before Elijah could even respond. The body ended up being tossed onto the pile of mud.

“Finally,” the robed woman said with a roll of her large eyes.

Only a moment later, ethera began to gather. After a few seconds, it started to swirl. Then, ten seconds into the casting, she released her spell. The white mud stirred, then enveloped the dying prairie dog before, over the next thirty seconds, slowly molded itself into one of the tusked creatures. When it fully formed, the mage cast another spell, infusing it with ethera.

And life, it seemed.

Elijah could feel the bundle of vitality within the creature snake out, suffusing its entire body and turning mud to flesh. That was when he narrowed down the source of the wrongness. It was life repurposed and molded into something else. Something that was both more and less than the real thing.

And it filled Elijah with mingled sadness and anger.

It wasn’t as strong of a feeling as he’d experienced with the Tamer. At least the prairie dog was now dead, and it could no longer suffer. Compared to slavery, that was far less egregious an affront to nature. Yet, it was unequivocally wrong.

Elijah had no issues with killing. He did it often enough that he didn’t bat an eyelash at it anymore. What he did find objectionable was the repurposing of nature, and it only took him a second or two to realize that he could not let it stand.

So, without further ado, he decided to put a stop to the abominable practice he’d just witnessed.