Dragon Gods Reign

[Beast continent]

Standing before a massive table with a detailed map of the beast continent carved into it, Darganth nods in satisfaction as Bator's magic erases three more small tokens and their accompanying figure from the board. Just a couple of weeks ago there had been around a hundred of these, each one representing a different clan, tribe, or pack of beasts that chose to rebel against Bator's newly established rule, but by now that number had been reduced to barely half a dozen.

Even of these six remaining ones, there were only two whose situation didn't guarantee that they would soon follow the fate of the three recently destroyed groups. The other four were meanwhile surrounded by three or more other models, though these weren't marked with a small token hovering above.

These and every other one of the hundreds of them represented one of the aforementioned groups, the difference in design pointing to which of them and also indicating their size and power. And while most just remained in the same location as they were before, some were eager to curry favor with the continent's new ruler as seen with the four encirclements.

“It's time.” Bator suddenly said, drawing the attention of the entire room onto him.

With a quick motion of his hand, the markers representing the four surrounded rebel groups vanished from the map. At the same time, the representation of one of the groups forming the encirclement moved atop their old position, showing who it was that dealt with them. Of these moved pieces, two were figures of a dragon, whereas the other two were ones indicating a supreme clan and a beast lord respectively.

“Perfect, then it's just these two remaining.” Darganth answered.

Looking back down, his gaze stopped on the source of his anger of the past two and a half months. Grouped together to show that they were acting in unison, there were three indicators of different groups.

Of those, two represented beastmen and beasts of up to the fourth rank respectively. And while they were already a mild annoyance, especially due to the high number of reinforcements they seemed to have received from individuals that managed to flee their tribes or pack's destruction, Darganth's anger stemmed from the third group, or rather individual.

Standing there was a figure representing a fire dragon, the wooden block that served as its base having its age of 81 years carved into it.

Taking a couple of deep breaths to reign in his returning anger at the sight, Darganth moved his attention to the near-complete opposite of the continents to keep himself from exploding into a fit of rage.

There the map showed the presence of two beast lords, along with their respective packs. But unlike in the south-east with the other group, this was also the full extent of their power as there had been far fewer escapees from the attacks in this region.

This came from a multitude of factors, but the main one among them was that the South had more beastmen. And while this meant more rebels, there were also more beastmen that attacked the rebels to get into Bator's good grace than beasts who did the same. This resulted in the South erupting into a war zone before he started ordering those who volunteered, leading to a far more chaotic situation.

But even though this force could consequently be crushed by a variety of groups that now fell under Bator's command, he was going to take care of them personally.

Rising from his seat at the head of the table, he turned to Darganth and spoke, “Then I'll go to take care of my part, I take it you'll be doing the same?”

“Of course, dealing with him has waited long enough.” Darganth answered.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Bator turned to one of the individuals silently waiting in the room with them.

“Tahas, I'll entrust you with leading the troops in my stead. Accompany his highness and fulfill his orders as good as you can.”

“Understood, Father.” The half-dragon answered.

“Then follow me.” Darganth said, channeling mana into the spell that was imbued into the map before them.

Despite his action seemingly having no effect, he nonetheless turned to leave the room with Tahas closely behind him.

“Take care.” Bator said as Darganth left.

Answering with a short nod before continuing on with impatient steps, he made the door swing open with a small swiping motion of his hand before marching through it.

Ignoring the hundreds of heads that turned his way as soon as he stepped through the door, Darganth walked down the length of the hall. Passing the arch-like structures that lined both sides of it, he stopped at the fifth and last one before turning to the right.

Just like the nine other versions of the arch, its two pillars are about ten meters apart on the ground before leaning outwards away from one another. Curving back inwards, they formed a massive circle that was cut off at ground level.

In contrast to the other nine, this one had hundreds of glowing patterns, runes, and magic circles visible on it, powering the massive portal that occupied the empty space inside the structure and reaching down all the way to the ground.

Waiting for Darganth in front of the portal were Serania, Jennia, and Allaire, each one wearing their full armor. Turning to him as he approached, all three had a serious expression on their face, with even Jennia dropping her usual laid-back attitude.

“Is it finally time?” Allaire asked, to which Darganth nodded in agreement.

Waiting about a minute until Tahas arrived with about a hundred fully armored draconians, half-dragons, and dragon-blooded beastmen and beasts in tow, they started making their way toward the portal.

“Ready?” Darganth asked one last time.

Waiting for all three women to answer affirmative, he finally stepped through the portal.

At the exact same moment as Darganth crossed the portal, the eyes of the dragon he was after suddenly snapped open. Turning in a seemingly random direction, he found Darganth already staring back at him.

Only seeing him suddenly frowning, the other individuals sitting in the tent furrowed their brows in confusion and turned toward him.

“They are here.” The dragon said, pulling his attention away after seeing the first couple half dragons follow after Darganth.

His words caused a mixed reaction among the individuals gathered. While some mirrored his frown, a majority of them smiled or cheered elated.

“Who did he send? If it's those bastards from the Wind Rider clan I'll lead the charge.” One of the smiling individuals asked.

His words quickly prompted follow-ups from others, with each one demanding to take command if they would be facing a group they had personal grievances with.

Listening to the chorus of shouts, the dragon massaged his temples as he shook his head. Only when it still didn't die down after a couple of moments could he no longer stay silent and endure their squabbling. Striking the ground with his fist, he caused the ground to shake as a web of cracks spread over multiple meters around him.

“None of you will do anything of the sort.” He growled into the ensuing silence.

Taking a moment to look at the beasts and beastmen that were gathered before him, his gaze sending shivers down their backs whenever he looked in their direction, he continued.

“I am starting to question why I even started accepting you, I guess I was too optimistic due to the initial two successes. The rest of you bunch is just here for their own benefit, an idea born out of ignorance.

What just arrived outside is Bator's personal army. Just in the short couple of seconds I looked at them, I found eight of his children among them, accompanied by nearly twenty other descendants of his and easily twice as many draconians. Do you now start to realize what we're up against?”

Pausing after those words, he needed a few breaths to calm the rage he had talked himself into.

Attempting to use this pause to speak up, a beastman barely managed to open his mouth when the dragon glared at him while shaking his finger in denial.

“No no no, I'm not finished. And neither will Bator be, for that isn't the full extent of his force. Because among that force is only one mythical rank and I know for a fact that he has a couple dozen under his command. He isn't even taking us seriously, and rightfully so from his perspective, so you can either stick to the delusion that you can win and benefit from this whole affair or you can listen to me and at least not die a futile death.”

Finishing his speech with deliberate slowness to fully get his message across, the dragon let his gaze wander across the room challengingly.

Initially meeting no opposition, with most choosing to avoid eye contact with him, it didn't take that long before the first person found it in them to stand up to him. Meeting his gaze, the beastman rose from his seated position to look down at the transformed dragon.

“Inrad, even you shouldn't play such games with us. We agreed to keep our goals to ourselves to prevent them from splitting our alliance, so don't start with your sob story.”

Raising an eyebrow in response, Inrad took two short glances to his left and right respectively, silently communicating with two other individuals. Seeing both agreeing with him, he rose to his feet with an emotionless expression.

“No.” He said, leaving a short pause after those words.

“And you can argue as much as you want, I won't care. For one, I never agreed to that, you did. Because as much as you seem to think otherwise, this alliance started long before Bator's announcement, originally including only me, one clan of beastmen, and one pack of beasts.

The rest of you joined because you wanted protection and we let you because your power was helpful. But don't be fooled, as soon as any one of you becomes more trouble than he is worth, that individual won't remain here for long.

So either you start listening to me right now and sit- the fuck- back- down, or you'll wish you did.” Inrad said, his mana flaring up with the last sentence.

Continuing to meet his gaze and using his mana to contest against Inrad's, the beastman stayed defiant.

“I don't believe you, you can't afford to lose any of us. Just like we need you to keep that mythical rank at bay, you need us at your side or you'll be swarmed by tens of fourth ranks. As a result, I need to endure your arrogance and condescending attitude to those of us who don't follow your definitely, one hundred percent not self-serving goal, and you'll have to do the same with my honesty.”

Sighing in disappointment, Inrad paused for long enough that a victorious smirk formed on the beastman's face.

“A pity.” Inrad commented a few seconds later.

At the same time as he said this, the beastman opposite of him suddenly started screaming in pain. In an instant, the head of all but three of those gathered snapped into his direction, shortly followed by those close to him scurrying back with haste when they saw the beastman encased in flames.

Watching in shock as the beastman thrashed around while silently thanking the fact that his feet seemed to stick to the ground, their heart sank when he collapsed to the ground after just a couple of seconds. Shortly after the screams also stopped, first being replaced by a raspy shouting before ending in total silence.

As the now-dead body of the beastman quickly burned to nothing but ash, Inrad stepped into the center of the gathering without care.

“Anyone else that wants to speak up?” He asked, turning around to take a look at every last person in the room.

Seeing no one repeating the previous man's mistake, Inrad returned to his spot and sat back down with a sigh. Confused by this, the other participants of the gathering looked at each other, clueless on how to continue.

“Äh, then what are we doing instead?” Someone finally asked.

“We'll wait, no matter what they try. Trying to win or to flee is futile anyway, so I plan to go out in a blaze of glory. Maybe a fraction of you will live to see it, whether as prisoners or having performed a miracle and escaped, so fight with the intent to do as much damage as possible.” Inrad said.

Breaking out into shocked murmurs, the crowd started to get rowdy.

“What is the difference between that and trying to break through their lines now? We'll fight the same enemies but with the latter, some of us can escape to fight another day, especially if you hold up their elites.” Someone asked.

Shaking his head in pity, Inrad sighed before explaining.

“You misunderstood, I won't fight directly. Because if I do, it is entirely possible that I'll be forced to turn against you. My blaze of glory will be quite literal in the form of an explosion powered by as much of my mana as I can achieve in that time, so I'll need to stay undisturbed in one place.” Inrad said.

Finally understanding his plan, the crowd slowly settled down again. Silently muttering prayers and steeling their nerves as they knew that they no longer had a choice, they waited nervously for Inrad's order to man the defenses.