Dragon Gods Reign

[Monster territory]

After flying across the monster territory for five days, Darganth and Alicia finally neared the border. Over the course of these days, they had come upon multiple battlefields, all of which had already been concluded.

Now the landscape that was already warped by monster mana had become even more inhospitable in these places as they were overflowing with death energy. Those foolish enough to enter nonetheless would slowly wither before being raised again as another undead to roam the area.

Additionally, there will be undead spawning from the zone even without such fools, with the dead zone constantly overpowering the mixed life and death energy near it to fuel itself further. And though it would expand only slowly, if at all, the density of death energy inside it will grow and allow more and more powerful undead to spawn.

Thus, unless someone used life-energy dense enough to not immediately be converted by the death zone and fought back against it, they would thus scar the land indefinitely.

Despite this, Darganth wasn't worried at all when he let Alicia take a closer look at the death zone. He was even somewhat happy as he saw it as a sign that her adventurous spirit was returning to her despite her experiences in the past months.

Considering that he had seen a good number of otherworldler lose a part of themselves due to the shock of being thrown into a new and incomprehensible situation, he was especially glad that she didn't show such signs.

Despite the delay due to this, they were now passing by one of the last villages before reaching the meeting point he had set up with Jennia and Allaire.

However, even from high up in the sky he could see that the village had changed significantly since he visited in search of Alicia. Most of the wooden houses were no longer standing, all either burned down or blown to pieces, and the extensive fields around them were now nothing more than charred stretches of earth.

Guessing what had happened, Darganth shook his head in disappointment but didn't plan to act on this. This changed just a moment later when Alicia also saw the village and, after hesitating for a moment, dived down.

Following after her with a bit of distance, Darganth made the decision to leave this to her and only intervene in case it would get dangerous.

'As much as it pains me, it is better for you to realize the cruelty great power can lead to while we are still here where I can protect you.' Darganth said to himself.

At the same time, Alicia was focusing on the village ahead of her. Noticing the bloodstains that none of the handful of individuals walking around in it seemed to care about, she grimaced.

As she came closer, she started noticing two distinct groups among the humans below. Of the two the smaller stood out far more noticeably, with her quickly noticing that its members were ordering the other group around.

At first, she only assumed it to be the village's hierarchy at play and disregarded it, but when she saw drew closer she finally noticed the state this second group was in.

Malnourished and often with still open wounds from blade cuts, they were literally whipped around the village.

Growling at this sight, Alicia sped up further and quickly neared the village. Even before this some of the humans in it had noticed her, with a couple people from the second group just stopping and staring up at her.

Seemingly unaware of her approach and enraged at their pause, one of their overseers swung the whip in his hand at one of the men. But before it could strike its target Alicia reacted, not willing to let others be hurt by her actions.

Focusing her magic, she took hold of the overseer's arm and yanked him backward through it. His eyes widened at this and he crashes to the ground before even realizing what had happened.

Before he can lift himself up, Alicia had already arrived within the town. Transforming and hovering a few meters away from him, she looked down in disgust.

“Somehow I had assumed that you all still have some conscience and wouldn't brutalize fellow humans, but it seems I gave the high order too much credit.” She said, her voice filled with disappointment.

“Hehe, so what if they are technically human? Monster sympathizers don't deserve to be called that.” The man said.

Seeing his obnoxious smirk, Alicia's rage grew even further.

“Besides, shouldn't you worry about yourself first?” The man asked right when Alicia sensed another person approaching.

Reacting just in time to fly backward, she still felt the wind currents as the new arrival sailed through the air before her. But despite him missing her, she still wasn't safe as two more mana signatures arrived near her.

Looking down at the two aura users and seeing them hesitate to attack her, she felt some hope.

“Look, I don't want to fight you too. So how about you just leave the village and its people and none of us lose?” She proposed.

Seeing the two aura users hesitate and ponder her offer, Alicia was about to relax when the first attacker spoke up.

“And lose my blood banks? No thanks.”

Turning to her right from where his voice came, her eyes widened as she realized that she was dealing with a vampire.

“Why, How?” She asked in disbelief.

Having seemingly waited for this moment, the two aura users used her confusion over the vampire's cooperation with the humans to attack her.

Before she could react, the two first ranks had jumped toward her, their internal aura-enhanced swords aiming at her from two different angles. But to her luck and surprise their blades barely managed to pierce through her skin, leaving only superficial cuts on her sides.

Gasping, Alicia reacted without thinking and turned her head down to inspect these wounds.

The vampire noticed this opening, acting decisively to not let it close before him. His form blurred as he sprinted closer, Alicia only managed to catch a glimpse of him when his claws were already bearing down on her neck.

Just as Darganth was about to intervene, her instincts managed to get her to move. Swirling around in the air and punching out against the incoming vampire, Alicia subconsciously channeled magic through her arm to keep the attack from tearing into her fist.

When her strike connected with the vampires, this magic was released from her fist in the form of a strong gravitational impulse.

To Alicia's complete shock, this impulse tore through the vampire's body within the blink of an eye, taking his entire upper body along with it.

Already recoiling from this sight and staring at her deed with wide eyes, Alicia didn't manage to react and cancel her attack before it impacted the ground near the two aura users. Watching the gathered energy explode outward, she froze up when the two man's pained screams echoed out of the kicked-up dust.

“I didn't. It wasn't.” She said shakily, not knowing how to react.

Looking down at her shaking hands, she just hovered there for a few seconds.

Deciding to finally intervene, Darganth hid the two of them in a sphere of darkness magic as he approached Alicia.

“What have I done?” Alicia asked after a few seconds.

“What he would have done to you.” Darganth answered her.

“I wish I knew what to say to help you, but I don't. The best I can do is to give you one crucial piece of advice, namely to never lose yourself. Morals and all that are just products of one's environment so don't let them constrain you, nearly all mana users also don't. Instead, listen to what you yourself want and act according to it.

Just now you wanted to save the people of this village, didn't you do that? So why would you put the life of their tormentors above theirs or care that you needed to kill to do it?” Darganth said.

Listening to his words, Alicia was unsure how to react. Trying to focus on the thoughts about the villagers she saved, she fell into another mental hole.

“I don't know. I don't even know why the group of human outsides did this.” She said in despair.

“Neither do I, but what does it matter? The unfortunate truth is that by allowing singular individuals to wield massive amounts of power, the existence of mana pushes people to extremes and makes situations like these far more common.

But on the other hand, it also gives allows the rise of heroic figures that the people rally around. And humanity is especially fickle in that regard as they are the species with the least tendencies towards specific personality traits. Their short lifespan only adds to that, just like longer-lived species tend to change only slowly. But in both cases it is strength that dictates the rules, and whether they opress or protect those that can’t fend for themselves purely depends on the ideals of those in power.”

Attentively listening to his words, Alicia took a moment to steel herself before looking through Darganth's spell with her dragon eyes. As soon as she did, she saw that the inhabitants of the village had captured one of the aura users she had wounded and were currently chasing after the remaining invaders.

“The thing is, the greatest strength of most humanoid species, and of humanity in particular, comes from unity. And when united they tend to rise to greatness. But this unity rarely holds, if no outside threat exists then they tend to get complacent. Not always mind you, there are quite a few utopian universes to prove that, but often.

And once they do, the worst actors can once again rise freely and often do so. Not because they are more, but because they don't care for the rules. In an equal situation, those willing to cheat sadly have an advantage.”

“I understand, but what does this have to do with my aversion to killing?” Alicia asked.

“Nothing, but I needed you to understand that objectively, no species is beyond saving. So whatever they do and whatever your reaction to it is, never justify it by saying that it is for the good of all. Even if it is horrific, stand to your deeds and admit that you did them based on your own ideals, then you'll also be at peace with them.”

Following Darganth's words both of them fell silent. Leaving Alicia to her thoughts, he flew out of the concealment sphere and descended amidst the villagers.

Spreading his perception, he searched for and quickly found the remaining invaders that they had yet to capture. With no more mana users among them, he needed only a snap of a finger to teleport all of them to their already imprisoned allies.

Restraining them by conjuring tens of vines to grow out of the ground, he made sure that none of them could escape.

Only then did he turn to the villagers that were now standing around him.

“Leave them to me for now.” He said, causing the fearful villagers to hastily nod in agreement.

“Of course, lord dragon.” A few said wildly.

Waiting for minutes until Alicia was ready, Darganth smiled softly as he saw her expression when leaving the sphere of darkness.

“Thank you, brother, I can manage the rest.” She said with determination.

“Then I'll leave it to you.”

With these words Darganth rose into the skies, coming to a stop a few hundred meters above the ground. From there, he looked down and watched Alicia as she walked toward the prisoners.

Turning to the remaining mana user, she dragged him towards her before waiting for the people of the village to gather around her. Without even needing to listen, Darganth could already guess that she was asking them what his fate should be.

After a few seconds, they seemed to have come to a conclusion as Alicia unceremoniously broke his neck. Saying a few words to the people, she used magic to gather axes, swords, spears, and all other manner of weapons from around the village and dropped them around the prisoners.

Leaving the inhabitants to it, she slowly flew up towards Darganth amidst their cheers. Arriving next to him with a slight smile, she looked in the direction of their destination.

“I'm ready.” She said.

“Then let's go.”

With those words, the two resumed their journey.