Path of the titans sys.., p.1
Path of the Titans - System Consolidation: A LitRPG Epic Fantasy, page 1
PATH OF THE TITANS - SYSTEM CONSOLIDATION
A LITRPG EPIC FANTASY
PATH OF THE TITANS
BOOK 3
TIMOTHY MCGOWEN
ILLUSTRATED BY
CHRISTINA P. MYRVOLD
EDITED BY
CANDACE MORRIS
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Nexus Guardian Book 2: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure
Copyright © 2024 by Timothy McGowen
All rights reserved.
System Expansion, Book 3
Path of the Titans
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-956179-45-3
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-956179-46-0
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-956179-47-7
First Edition: May 2024
Published By: Rising Tower Books
Publisher Website: www.RisingTowerBooks.com
Author Site: AuthorTimothyMcGowen.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For permission requests, email to timothy.mcgowen1@gmail.com . This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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SPECIAL THANKS
I wanted to give a special thanks to those that helped bring this book to its current state.
Candace Morris - Editor and Super Hero.
Dantas Neto, Sean Hall, Hugo Morais. (Elandar) - Proofer
I dedicate this book to my fans. Without your loyalty and dedication I’d never be able to craft so many wonderful stories.
CONTENTS
1. New Arrivals
2. Aftermath
3. Venting Frustrations
4. Themed Dungeon
5. Preparations to Leave
6. Journey to Civilization
7. Strange Encounters
8. Arrival at Lumisar
9. Mother
10. Rejection
11. Into the Tower
12. Challenges of a Different Kind
13. Riddles and Mind Games
14. Temptations
15. A New World
16. New Dungeon
17. Fire and Brimstone
18. Return
19. Farewell
20. Life on a Ship
21. Pirates
22. Titan Engine’s Combined
23. Underwater Search
24. Not a Water Dungeon
25. Pain
26. Creation and Gifts
27. Departure
28. Well Traveled
29. Covert Operation
30. Dark Titan
31. New Beginnings
32. Beth
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CHAPTER 1
NEW ARRIVALS
“Aetex! Watch out!” Knox called as a dark figure blurred and appeared before him. He didn’t seem to notice or care. Instead, he began speaking with the figure, and neither attacked.
“Frederick, see to Ramses and keep him safe,” Knox said, jumping from the wall and using Ethereal Step to appear on the ground unharmed from the fall. He needed to know what was being said and why a new army had appeared.
Was this the cumulation of the dark oozes and the attacks of the darkness-infused girl? There was no telling; so, he would get his answers. Despite the ever-growing mass of troops, he felt confident approaching because Aetex let off a power that trumped any of the dark figure’s own.
Knox’s sense had been confused at first, taking in the mass of energy from them all and assuming that it was an individual power level, but as he got closer, he felt that these people weren’t as powerful as he’d first assumed. The one speaking with Aetex had power that much was for sure, but she was more around Knox’s level and not quite Aetex’s own.
“And here he is now, allow him to speak for himself, but I can assure you he is a man of honor,” Aetex said as Knox approached. Knox truly saw her for the first time as he came closer, and his jaw hung open a measure.
As the first light of dawn began to paint the horizon with hues of gold and crimson, the figure of a female stood in stark contrast to any other elf Knox had encountered. Her obsidian skin caught the early light, creating an ethereal shimmer that contrasted sharply with the darkness from which she stepped. The sun's nascent rays played upon her white hair, turning it into a radiant halo around her, while her striking purple eyes absorbed the burgeoning light, reflecting i with a luminous intensity that seemed almost otherworldly.
She stood for a moment, considering Knox, and allowing the first touch of sunlight to caress her face—a rarity for one of her kind, he assumed, as she’d come from under the ground. The rising sun cast long shadows that danced around her, mirroring the complex interplay of darkness and light that defined her existence. With a grace that belied her formidable presence, she stepped fully into the light, her gaze fixed on Knox, a regal power seeming to surge within her.
“You speak for your people?” She asked, her words were understandable, but she had an odd accent that Knox hadn’t encountered before.
“I do,” Knox said, his own Mystic Armor shining blue light in contrast to her own armor that seemed to pull the very light around her into itself.
“I seek audience with a Titan and have brought my people here to ask for asylum against the dark one,” she said, then seeming to remember something], she added, “My name is Sintra’reah T’sarran, but please call me Sintra.”
“I am Knox Trelling, Titan of the Light. Are you telling me you are here for asylum and not to attack us?” I asked, a weight ready to release upon hearing her words.
“We’ve risked life and limb to find one such as you, and our home is no longer safe for our kind. The dark one, the Titan of Darkness, seeks to subjugate not only our kingdom but the surface as well. I come for asylum, but also with a warning. Her influence has reached the surface, and even now, she plays for power. Will you aid us in throwing her down and ending her evil reign?”
“Of course, we will,” Aetex answered before Knox even had time to fully process what had been said.
“I’m willing to hear you out, but if you aren’t attacking, then I suggest you gather your people together and come inside,” Knox said, far less worried about them as he scanned them individually with his sense. There were injured and weak among them as much as Knox’s own people.
“Very well,” Sintra said, she turned and signaled to her people, some two or three hundred if Knox had to guess.
Knox walked ahead of the group with Aetex at his side.
“You missed the entire battle,” Knox said, eying the large man and wondering where he’d been.
“I had my own role to play,” Aetex said as if that settled the matter. “Besides, you defeated your foe and drove out the undead, the last bit was a mystery to me, I was on my way to aid you with them, but our visitors arrived the moment I did.”
“Where were you?” Knox asked, not wanting to let him out of it so easily. “I needed you.”
“These folk needed me more,” Aetex said. “They’d found a few enemies below that they couldn’t handle, so I intervened.”
“Did you know they were friendly?” Knox asked, shutting his eyes in frustration for a moment.
Aetex smiled down at him. “I’d hoped, and speeding along their surfacing would have brought them here in time to help deal with the army we fought, it is my great pleasure that they did not need to fight, as they are much weakened from the magics they had to employ and their long journey.”
“We will talk about this more later,” Knox said as they made it to the broken gate and entered Luminar, the Titan Complex.
Knox spoke with the Ahtora King, who left in peace and with the promise of trade. His people had received minimal losses, and they took their dead with them. He tried to get them to stay longer, but they insisted that they must withdraw back to the water s from whence they came. It was all for the better, as Knox had his own dead to deal with. They’d lost dozens of men and women in the fight, perhaps even a hundred, but it was hard to tell with so many undead corpses to worry about.
Knox gathered together all those he felt should have a say in the matter and summoned forth the dark elf Sintra.
“Tell us of your journey and why you left to the surface?” Knox asked. He was more curious to learn about a civilization that lived within the ground and obviously had access to levels and such, but he would take things slow and for the benefit of everyone, start from the beginning.
“I will tell my tale, and in return I hope you will assist me in my quest,” Sintra said, launching into her story from the beginning.
They called themselves Noctrae, which she said roughly meant ‘walkers of the night’. They lived deep within the caverns of the dark underground and there she ruled as a princess to her people. However, some two hundred years ago—her people were very long lived—a force known as the dark one began to influence the people of the Noctrae into worshiping her. She told them she was a Titan of old and their sacrifices were necessary to grow her power.
Her people took this in stride, giving this powerful being much of what it asked for, until the queen of her people was requested as sacrifice some ten years back. This caused a civil war between those loyal to the crown and those loyal to the Titan of Darkness. It ended with the queen’s death and a small force of her loyal followers fleeing to the surface for help. They’d heard word of an ancient Artifact that could magnify power beyond that of its wielder’s wildest dreams, however it is said to only be able to be wielded by another Titan. So, they followed the signs toward the surface and for ten years they searched.
Now they’d found Knox and wanted his help to find this device which they called, the Aura Prism.
“I’ve heard of such a device,” Draven said, interrupting the tale. “How you know of it is beyond me, this is a matter I should speak to you privately,” he said, narrowing his gaze on Knox.
“Follow me,” Knox said, grabbing the man by the shoulder and taking him to a side room. “Speak quickly, what is so secretive that you can’t say in front of everyone.”
Draven looked conflicted suddenly, as if perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything to begin with. “I’ve said too much already,” he said, rubbing at the back of his neck. “But if my guess is right, you’ve a right to know.”
“Then tell me,” Knox said.
“The device she calls the Aura Prism, we call the Aurorapex,” he said. “It has been guarded by my family for many generations. My family holds the seat of power in Lumisar, the city state in which your mother is our High Magi. I know more than I ought to, but in this situation my prying ears have done you a favor.”
“I know all this, well, most of it,” Knox said, shaking his head.
“What you don’t know is that your mother is key in suppressing the power of the Aurorapex. We fear the day our true ruler would return, so we hide the power. You see, once the Aurorapex is claimed, with it comes the throne of Lumisar. Though we exist within another kingdom, our city-state has always been separate. Should we crown a new king, it would most certainly mean war.”
“I’m going to share all this information with the others,” Knox said flatly. Draven sighed but seemed resigned to the information getting out.
Knox returned and shared what he’d learned, then Draven left the meeting, offering no new information.
“And we are to just trust these newcomers and get aboard with their quest?” one of the Elders asked, voicing a concern Knox already shared.
“We will consider it, but the safety and rebuilding of Luminar comes first, before all other considerations,” Knox said. “With that in mind, let us speak of supplies.”
The meeting turned to more pressing matters and Sintra listened without interrupting.
“We need to talk,” Dernal said, pulling Knox aside at the end of the meeting. Everyone knew what they needed to do, much of it involved cleaning and repairing work along with the maintenance golems, but Knox had no specific task assigned to him, besides caring for Ramses.
“About what?” Knox asked, walking to the guest cabin that had been set aside for Ramses. Dernal walked along with him, seemingly uncaring in what direction they went.
“Your mother hired me to protect you, you should not return to Lumisar, for you will share her fate if you do,” Dernal said.
His words stopped Knox dead in his tracks, and he looked at him with steel in his eyes. Did he just admit to being hired by his mother?
“You knew how much I yearned to know of her, you knew how much I wanted to be like her,” Knox said, his words much quieter than he meant them to be, but so fierce were the tangle of emotions going through him that he could barely get out what he wanted to say.
“I went against her wishes after I got to know you, she implored me to keep you out of the Adventurer life, but I knew how much it meant to you,” Dernal said; clearly disclosing this was having an effect on him, but Knox didn’t care.
“You,” Knox said, tears coming to his eyes as he regarded his old friend. “How could you?”
“Without me you’d never have walked this path and taken on the power you have now,” Dernal said, heat entering his voice. “I wish now that I’d followed your mother’s warnings. You’d be safe, we’d all likely be safe.”
His words stung and suddenly Knox felt himself withdrawing. He could do whatever he pleased, what did it matter to Knox anymore? He had a greater mission to accomplish now, and he would see it through to the end. His people would be safe, even if that meant he had to go to Lumisar and put himself in harm’s way.
“I can’t right now,” Knox said, turning and dismissing Dernal with a look. The short man didn’t resist, instead he hung his head and turned to walk the other direction.
Of all the people Knox thought might betray him, never had it occurred to him that Dernal could be the one.
CHAPTER 2
AFTERMATH
“Are you feeling up to talking?” Knox asked Ramses. The man had lost much of his color again and looked frail. They were in a small hut, furnished because it belonged to one of the fallen.
It was a spherical design and the walls rose up to an impressive twelve feet at the highest, much higher than was needed for Knox and his people. Even Terrim could stand in one of these smaller huts and not hit his head. The bed took up a quarter of the space and a water basin had been set beside it to give Ramses a way to bathe himself if needed. It looked like someone had helped him because he was clean, and Knox couldn’t imagine him having the strength to do it himself in his condition.
“I’m fine,” Ramses said, sounding anything but fine. His voice was more a croak than anything resembling coherent speech, but he cleared his voice and spoke more clearly. “I’m fine,” he repeated, sitting up and gazing up at Knox.
“Here is your journal,” Knox said, handing over the book he’d grabbed on his way here. “I read some of it, sorry I didn’t mean to intrude on your privacy.”
“It revealed some of my entries to you?” Ramses asked, his expression one of shock.
“Only a small handful, enough that I know what you’ve been through, and I’m surprised that you made it as far as you did with no one around,” Knox said. He put a friendly hand on Ramses’ shoulder and the man flinched but didn’t pull away.
“Yes,” Ramses said, his eyes going distant. “I’ve had a time of it, that’s for sure. Are you here to listen to my request for aid?”
“I’m listening,” Knox said, after everything that had happened, he was more than a little apprehensive about hearing what else was about to be added onto his plate, so to speak.
“I wish to stay among you for a time while I rejuvenate, then when the time is right, I want to connect our Titan Engines. You are the closest of our brethren, but not the only other Titan. Eventually, I see a world where the System is once again the law of the land, each Titan Engine working together as a network of power.”
