Dragon Gods Reign

[Monster territory]

Following the commander into his office, Darganth waited until the former activated the privacy enchantments.

“A bit excessive, don't you think?” He asked once it was done.

“With how many other 'guests' we currently have in the city, no.” The commander replied.

Raising an eyebrow, Darganth's confusion prompted the man to explain.

“The high order and at least four vampire lords have recently sent some teams tasked with something. Until just now I wondered what it is, but capturing a young dragon would be a rather safe bet.”

“Then I assume you don't have any clues to her location?” Darganth asked slightly frustrated.

Hesitating for a moment, the man was just about to answer when he saw the intimidating look Darganth was giving him. Having noticed the moment of hesitation, he naturally pressed the matter.

“I implore you to think carefully what you say, misleading me would be a costly act.” He said.

At those words, the commander gulped in fear. And with Darganth allowing his presence to spread a few meters, his instincts as a warrior overshadowed any attempt at thinking. With one hand on the hilt of his sword, he just stared at Darganth while hoping that the latter wouldn't attack.

“But I am not unreasonable, as much as my exchange with your subordinates may have given the impression. At least as long as I am treated with a minimum of respect, and my expectations for that truly aren't high, so just tell me why you won't or can't help me.” Darganth said.

These words were akin to a catalyst that allowed the commander to restart his thoughts. Hastily withdrawing his hand from his weapon, he performed a light bow before speaking.

“It is because I took a binding oath to never purposefully act against the interests of either the high order or the vampire lords as long as they respect the city's neutrality. I am already lucky that the spell that enforces it doesn't seem to count me sharing their presence as a breach.” The commander said.

Lifting his hands, he presented Darganth with an illusionary paper that served as the contract for the man's oath. Verifying his words with a quick look at the piece of paper, Darganth took note of each clause.

“Overshooting what I meant, but better than the six idiots. And a reasonable explanation, so I won't press you for information.”

At those words, the commander breathed a sigh of relief. Lifting his head, he already opened his mouth to apologize for not being able to help when he saw the smile on Darganth's lips.

“Then I just have to find a different way to get the information, as long as you don't help me the contract won't be broken.” Darganth said, having noticed the glaring hole in the deal.

The high order and the vampire lords agreed to not act against the city, just like both the commander and the city council had done towards the two groups' interests. But nowhere in the contract was stipulated that either part had to support the others, allowing them to circumvent it when they only turn a blind eye.

And from the commander's expression, after he declared his intention, Darganth wouldn't be the first to use that loophole.

“Then thank you for your help.” Darganth said.

“The pleasure was all mine, good sir.” The commander answered him.

Parting with a handshake, Darganth teleported out of the barracks as soon as he left the office. Arriving atop the wall into which said barracks were built, he let his gaze wander across the city below.

Searching for either the human or vampire teams, he found at least a part of the latter. Teleporting again and arriving in the room where he had sensed the three vampires, Darganth took full advantage of their surprise.

Swinging his arm to the right, his fist struck the nearest of the three right against the side of the head. His strike struck with enough force to spin the man's head around, breaking his spine with a sickening crunch as the head was torn apart from the rest of the body.

Before his dead body even fully slumped to the ground Darganth was already descending upon the next vampire. Taking two steps toward the only woman among them, he punched forward with the full weight of his momentum put behind his fist.

Despite this, she managed to barely dodge his attack by twisting her body to the side, attempting to swipe her claws over his side during the process. But before they connected, Darganth's tail struck out and swiped her feet away from under her.

Putting aura into his outstretched leg to stop his momentum, Darganth tried to capitalize on this by stomping down on her before she could get up.

Rolling away from this despite the sudden fall, the vampire backed off a few meters. Arriving next to the other remaining one in a blur, she straightened her back and caught her breath.

Darganth also used this short pause, sealing the room they were in by placing it into a self-contained space, akin to a pocket realm, that filled the same area of the space inside it. This was a popular tactic among space mages as the walls of this space were very stable and blocked anything from entering or exciting.

The two vampires also seemed to be aware of this as they tensed up as soon as they felt the change. Realizing that they were now trapped in there with Darganth, all hope that they had vanished from their eyes.

“What, had you hoped that the rest of your team would get here in time?” Darganth asked with some mockery in his voice.

Snarling in response, the two vampires exchanged a quick glance before rushing toward him.

Bringing an aura armor to life around him in repose, Darganth met their charge with one of his own. Letting both their attacks through, he grabbed both by the throat while they were still shocked that their attacks bounced off from his armor.

This shock didn't last long and soon they started to struggle against his grip. In response, he momentarily encased his arms with flames, causing both to stop their resistance with a pained whimper.

“What do you want.” The man asked Darganth with hateful eyes.

“Where is my sister?”

Darganth's question caused both to furrow their brows in confusion. A moment later this was replaced with anger as they assumed he mistook them for someone else.

“Bastard, how would we know? To think that we would fail this pathetic idiot, a mere first-order one even.” The female vampire cursed.

“Oh, I'm sure that you know.”

With those words, Darganth's true nature manifested behind him. Creating the illusion of warping space to fully fit into the room, the two vampires just stared blankly at him when they saw his true body.

“Fuck.” They cursed in unison.

“My question remains the same and one of you better answers it.” Darganth said.

His words were followed by a moment of silence as both vampires deliberated on what to answer him. The woman was the first to finish doing so, looking at him with defiant eyes.

“Fuck off you- Argh!” She started, only to scream in pain as Darganth set her aflame.

Watching in terror as she burned for seconds before finally turning to ash, the other vampire spoke hastily.

“She had a lair about twenty kilometers north but the humans managed to destroy it. That was two days ago and since then we have not managed to find her again, only getting reports of sightings.”

“Anything else?” Darganth asked.

“No.” The man said and shook his head.

Confirming his words by watching whether his lie detection spell sent a signal in response to those words, Darganth nodded in satisfaction.

“Please, make it painless.” The man said.

“You don't want to be spared?” Darganth asked him out of curiosity.

“The lord will kill me anyways, but that would be far more painful. And he is probably already waiting for you to drop this spell so escape is no option. Thus, please.”

“Oh, don't misunderstand, I would have killed you either way. I was just curious.” Darganth said with a shrug.

Following these words, he focused for a moment and cast a spell. Before the vampire even knew what had happened, a thin tear in space had already cleanly cut through his neck and decapitated him. Incinerating the vampire's body to make sure that reviving him would be made exponentially more difficult, Darganth didn't spare him another thought and turned to leave.

Stopping his spell that kept the spatial separation active, Darganth felt a new presence approaching before it even fully dispersed. Pausing his teleportation spell, he waited for the person, whom he assumed to be the vampire lord, to arrive.

“Am I right to assume that you were the one to end my subordinates?” A voice asked him.

Turning towards its source, he saw a slightly pale man standing a few meters away from him. All around him hovered a swirling maelstrom of blood, hiding all but the man's face.

“Yes, so what?"

Furrowing his brows, the vampire looked at Darganth in irritation before suddenly starting to laugh.

“Hahaha, how long has it been? Not even Lucius dares to show me this little respect, to think that a mere blood bag would do so.”

Slowly walking towards Darganth, the blood around the man converged to form a sword in his right hand. With this the rest of his body was also revealed, showing the blood-red suit he wore.

“This will be fun.” With those words the vampire lord rushed forward, appearing only as a blur that reached Darganth in an instant.

Swinging down his sword, his eyes widened in shock as it simply passed through Darganth as if he wasn't even there. Suddenly a wave of pure kinetic energy slammed into him, flinging him through the room until he crashed into its wall.

Unharmed, the vampire was just about to close the gap once more when he felt Darganth's presence bearing down on him.

“Transforming just to kill isn't worth my time so do yourself a favor and just leave before my patience runs out.” Darganth said.

In the moment of hesitation that followed his words, Darganth already turned around to leave. Without caring whether the vampire lord would follow him or not, he teleported towards the location the other vampire had told him about.

The vampire lord was meanwhile looking in the direction Darganth teleported with a conflicted expression. Not just had he lost three subordinates, but he also let Darganth escape even after personally taking action.

On the other hand, he was well aware of how much a fight between them would be in Darganth's favor, forcing him to settle for letting him go. It may cost him some prestige among the other lords, but it was still the better option in this situation.

"Yegor." He said.

As soon as he spoke, a mass of blood rose from the wooden floor next to him. Slowly taking humanoids form, it suddenly solidified to reveal a second vampire standing there.

"Yes, my lord?" Said vampire asked.

"Call back the troops, it will be wiser to sit out this storm." The vampire lord said.

At this order, Yegor's eyes widened in surprise.

"But your army's-" He started.

"Make up a third of our total, I know. But just because the others will march to their death I won't subject my troops to the same fate. Lucius's days are numbered and I'll be there to replace him. So do it, now." The vampire lord interjected.

"As you say." Yegor answered, leaving as quickly as he arrived.

His lord was already turning to leave too when he finally noticed the presence watching him. Walking out of the building his subordinates had rented, he looked toward the commander who was watching him from atop the city wall.

Chuckling in amusement at the latter's mistrusting gaze, the vampire lord transformed into a single large bat before flying towards the sky.

Watching this, Darganth nodded in satisfaction before finally continuing on. After his initial teleport, he arrived about five kilometers from the city. There he had waited if the vampire lord would follow him.

Compared to a fight inside the city, Darganth was far more confident in ending it quickly here as the vampire wouldn't have any civilians to draw blood from and heal. Darganth was far too powerful to attempt the same, with his resistance to magic increasing the difficulty even further.

But seeing that the vampire lord didn't follow him, he spun around before returning to his true form. A moment later he was soaring above the trees, his dark scales making his form seem like little more than a shadow as he flew straight towards Alicia's last known position.