[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-path-of-dragons":3,"chapter-path-of-dragons-path-of-dragons-chapter-1191":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Path of Dragons",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1685284,2151,"Book 13: Chapter 53: Hero","path-of-dragons-chapter-1191",1191,"\u003Cp>Path of Dragons\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A legion of black-armored figures raced across the fields, trampling crops with every thundering step. They moved in unnatural silence. No shouted warcries. No grunts of effort. There was nothing to mark their passage but heavy footfalls and the damage they left in their wake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the edge of the fields waited a much larger army. They were disciplined, but they showed far more humanity than the unnatural creatures racing toward them. Some were clad in green armor. Others wore all white. And still others were clad in deep red.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fire erupted from outstretched hands belonging to the latter, and streams of flame tore across the fields to slam into the charging knights. It splashed off their black armor, entirely ineffective, though it set the crops ablaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From atop the low wall surrounding Dravkein, Benedict watched his black knights slam into a shield wall erected by the Emerald Guard. Their massive axes fell with mechanical weight, and the front line of the opposing army flexed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But to their credit, it did not break.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>White-clad Hunters lanced in from the flanks. Sparks flew from the points of impact, but from experience, Benedict knew that his black knights – freshly summoned – would escape the attack without appreciable damage. And their counterattack sent blood flying in every direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The screams of the dying filled the air, joining a cacophony of sound that included the screech of metal on metal and the thud of breaking bones. It was so loud that it reached Benedict even hundreds of yards away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not yet,” he said to himself. “Hold.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just after, his first black knight was destroyed. To him, it felt almost like someone had stabbed his soul with a needle of white fire. Not nearly as debilitating as when he’d been imprisoned beneath Easton, but still painful enough that it elicited a slight wince.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon after, another black knight fell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then another after that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the next few minutes, his minions were destroyed. He hesitated to characterize it as dying because he wasn’t entirely sure that they were alive to begin with. What he did know was that their minutes of continued existence were numbered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, it wasn’t until half of them had fallen that he stabbed his forearm and used Blood Ritual. With that ability, he mentally took hold of the flow and directed it into a free-floating ritual circle. The glyphs were complex, and they fit together in an intricate stream of blood that would give most people a headache to behold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Benedict didn’t even look directly at it. Instead, he focused his attention on the feel of it. On the native ethera contained within the blood and how it interacted with the other streams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was far more complex, but somehow, easier for him to understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such was the case with magic for him. He’d always struggled to relate to people, but esoteric forces were so clear in his mind. They made sense in a way that nothing else ever would.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even so, it took long minutes for him to trace the proper patterns and another few minutes to completely infuse the circle with energy. By that point, his legion of black knights had been destroyed down to the last armored figure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They’d taken quite a few of the enemy with them, mostly command personnel. If they’d targeted the weaker members of the invading army, the death toll would have been much higher. But that strategy would have assuredly resulted in a lost battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And given the stakes, that just wasn’t an option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, when the ritual circle had been saturated with ethera, Benedict cast his latest spell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alone, Hellfire Infusion did nothing. However, when Benedict used it in conjunction with Summon Behemoth, the effect was absolutely devastating. Not only did it double the duration of the temporary summon, but it also made the creature much more powerful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Benedict sank to his knees as the spell drained the majority of his remaining ethera, but he kept his eyes trained on the closest field, which had erupted into a potent earthquake. Great rifts tore across the landscape, emitting geysers of molten rock. The ever-widening faults continued to expand until a massive hole tore itself into being. It measured nearly a hundred feet across, and from experience, Benedict knew that it was full of lava and jagged pillars of onyx.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lava swirled into a fast-moving maelstrom as a ring of basalt emerged. The interior of that circle shimmered, then flashed, revealing a true hellscape of fire and erupting volcanoes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A hand emerged, jagged and smoking, with skin like burning charcoal. A blocky arm followed until the fingers grasped the edge of hole. It gripped the earth, spreading fire from its mere presence as it dragged the rest of a humanoid body into their reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cinder Demon was far beyond any creature Benedict had ever summoned. If it adhered to normal level ranges – which creatures from its plane did not – the thing would have been solidly in the demi-god range. But its power was too different to truly make comparisons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only reason Benedict could summon such a mighty creature was because of Hellfire Infusion. Otherwise, it would have refused his call. The backlash might have even killed him, especially given that his core was almost entirely empty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he’d managed it all the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the creature was not happy about being enslaved. It climbed free of the portal with a roar. The army stumbled in their second charge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Benedict didn’t blame them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cinder Demon’s appearance matched its name. It was heavily muscled and made of volcanic rock covered in that burning charcoal skin. Horns of fire spread out from its bovine head, while a cloak of molten rock descended from its shoulders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it was more than a hundred and fifty feet tall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Benedict had seen such a creature opposing him, he would have run for cover. Clearly, the Ithalonian army felt the same way, though they were disciplined enough not to flee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a stupid decision, especially without the leaders slain by the black knights.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cinder Demon stepped forward, sending cascading flames to envelope the fields with every footfall. The attacking army responded with an ill-fated charge. The red-robed sorcerers tossed fireballs at the massive demon, which elicited a cruel laugh that echoed for miles all around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then, the Cinder Demon attacked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A nine-tailed whip of flame appeared in its hand. When it cracked, it did so with the force of a volcano, sending shockwaves across the land. Crops turned to ash in a second, and a pulse of fire tore through the army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the enemies were not entirely incompetent. Even faced with overwhelming power, the red-robed sorcerers quickly recognized the situation and shifted their combined focus from attack to defense. They cast spells furiously in an attempt to corral the fiery damage. And for the most part, they succeeded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even a fraction of the Cinder Demon’s power was enough to burn the army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Men and women screamed as they roasted within their armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, just as the demon closed the gap, the ground opened up and swallowed the creature whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even with Hellfire Infusion on his side, Benedict couldn’t maintain the summon spell for more than a minute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not with the other hundred demons already under his command.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Now would be a good time to attack,” he croaked, having fallen to one knee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One of Dravkein’s defenders raised a curly horn to his lips and blew a long, pleading note. It was the signal for the rest of the defenders to attack. More than a thousand good fighters dropped their illusory disguises, which hid them in the nearby terrain, and raced into battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ithalonian force was still reeling from the demon’s attack, so they barely had time to brace for the next one. A thousand furious fighters hit them in a charge that shattered their ranks. Meanwhile, Benedict’s hundred other demons – which he thought of as weavers – dropped their own stealth ability and took the Ithalonian’s from behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The weavers resembled spiders, crossed with scorpions and mixed with felines, which made them entirely disconcerting to behold. Even more than the Cinder Demon, they were clearly from a different, blacker dimension.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But they were quick, stealthy, and best suited to capturing enemies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In seconds, they’d bound more than a hundred Ithalonians in dense webbing that they were incapable of escaping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon after that task was complete, the weavers stepped through nearby shadows to return to their own dimension. As they did so, Benedict felt the strain on his ethera gradually lessen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pushed himself to his feet as he watched the end of the battle. The Ithalonians fought hard, but Benedict’s demons had surprised and unnerved them to the point where they couldn’t muster a proper defense. They fell within a few more minutes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where are you going?” asked the horn-blowing hunter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gathering new sacrifices,” Benedict stated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She trembled, then glanced back at the hundred or so other bodies he’d drained to enable the summoning of the Cinder Demon. It was a gruesome affair that left the bound prisoners entirely drained, but it was necessary. He couldn’t summon such powerful minions with his blood alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such was the downside of his class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Great potential and variability, but with a significant cost. It also meant that without his demons, he was much less powerful than most people his level. But with them, he could definitely fight above his weight class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By necessity, he’d proven that multiple times over the past couple of years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Benedict leaped down from the low wall, he glanced at his notifications and noted that he’d gained a level. Two-forty-four. Years of nearly constant battle, and that was as far as he’d gotten. It just showed how insane Elijah’s progress had been that he’d reached two-fifty before they’d even completed the Labyrinth of Mad Gods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as much as Benedict liked to see his numbers go up, it didn’t really mean much. After all, he wouldn’t be able to evolve to the demi-god tier for the foreseeable future. Not considering how many Ithalonians he’d killed. There was no chance they’d let him use their Branch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not willingly, at least.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the back of his mind, he considered the possibility of crossing the excised planet and invading Ithalon. But that was patently ridiculous. Dravkein’s population had been inflated by four separate sets of refugees from other settlements, but even then, they couldn’t begin to rival Ithalon’s numbers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time Benedict reached the bound enemies, the ground had begun to cool. Still, he stepped lightly as he began to ferry them back to the city. Along the way, a few people stepped up to help, and soon enough, the captives had been deposited inside the wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the weavers’ threads could dissolve, someone bound them in chains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once they were deposited in a makeshift dungeon, Benedict headed home, where he found Jasai’i waiting for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It went worse than expected,” he said, collapsing onto a chair. “There were more than a thousand.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So many?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The fields are burned. I don’t know if the discs survived,” he went on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She slid in beside him and hugged him close. It was nice, just sitting in her arms. It made him feel safe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We can’t stay here. You know that, don’t you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Surely we can –”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re going to keep coming, and each time they send an army, it will be bigger than before. I don’t know how much longer I can hold them off.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re not alone.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Benedict barely contained a snort of disagreement. The fact was that Dravkein would have fallen more than a year ago if it hadn’t been for his intervention. The natives were not built for war. Their numbers only included a few real combatants. The rest were hunters or civilians.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even though there were a couple of demi-gods among them, they couldn’t display the same combat capability as someone like Benedict. Part of that was because of his class, but it was also because of his demon core.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Benedict wasn’t as powerful as Elijah, he could still hold his own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By comparison, he stood out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He’s doing something out there,” Benedict insisted. “You’ve felt the pulses.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We don’t know if that’s your friend.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It is,” Benedict said. The waves of vitality had initially taken them by surprise, but by now, they’d become commonplace. “He was going to Druhmor. He found something there. I know it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They won’t agree to go,” Jasai’i stated. “You know they won’t. We will never survive the journey.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Benedict frowned. The last thing he wanted was to travel across the excised world. According to Zek, the way to Druhmor was truly perilous, and it was deadly in a way none of them had ever experienced. It was not an exaggeration to predict that everyone who undertook such a trek would perish along the way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Benedict also knew that their choices were quickly dwindling. Soon, they would have nothing but deadly options before them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s always a battle, isn’t it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is?” asked Jasai’i, looking up at him with those wide and inviting eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Existence,” he breathed. But then, his finger found her cracked cheek and brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “But it’s not all bad, I suppose.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not all bad? I should take offense.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gave her a tight smile, then leaned down to kiss her. “I apologize for offending you, then.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She let out a shuddering breath. “You may be forgiven, but I require more penance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Penance you require, and penance you shall have. I look forward to making it up to you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he kissed her again, and for a few short moments, he forgot his troubles.\u003C\u002Fp>",2327,"2026-06-06T13:41:01.983Z",1,"novelbin.me","c93c4305e653bf941e57c01786e95f261de0b2f9729c96ea0dbffd756c85b97f","path-of-dragons-chapter-1192","path-of-dragons-chapter-1190",1206,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fpath-of-dragons-cover.jpg"]