Dragon Gods Reign

[Beast continent]

Returning to their true forms as they walked toward Inrad, Darganth, and Jennia came to a stop a few dozen meters in front of Inrad.

“Your Highness.” Inrad said dryly.

“My wayward kin.” Darganth answered, prompting Inrad to snort in protest over the term.

Raising an eyebrow at the strong reaction, Darganth was intrigued enough by the reaction to momentarily set aside his rising anger.

“Want to tell me why you've done this? Before I still had at least some hope that you simply didn't believe it was truly me, now I just want to know why.” Darganth asked.

“Oh, I didn't doubt it for a second, Bator wouldn't make up such a lie. Furthermore, it's because it's you that I even considered rebelling, though I doubt you would understand.” Inrad said.

Surprised by the admission, Darganth's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he kept careful watch over Inrad.

“Normally I would tell you nonetheless, just in the hopes of convincing your companion here but considering she carries the taint of your mana I'll spare myself the effort.” Inrad added.

“The wisest decision you've made so far.” Jennia commented mockingly.

Sighing in response to her provocations, Inrad started to slowly nod with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Maybe. But someone has to be the moron who stands up first or my kind will end up no better than many others.” He said.

At those words, Darganth's vigilance faltered for just a moment as he got a first glimpse at Inrad's motivation and his thoughts started to race to form the rest of the picture.

Despite this, Inrad didn't exploit this opening and instead unleashed his presence.

“Now, are you gonna fight me or will you just use your authority? Because I'm not going to back down no matter what you say, nor am I going to go down without resistance.” Inrad said with a booming voice.

Pausing for a second to let his words sink in, Inrad launched himself at Darganth. In response, Darganth lowered his stance and spread his wings as he prepared for their clash.

Swinging his claw down a moment later, Inrad struck out against Darganth's neck before catapulting himself further up with a beat of his wings. Jumping to the right to dodge, Darganth followed him a moment later.

Hued in a white aura, he quickly caught up and snapped at Inrad with his maw, forcing him to swirl to the side. Quickly passing him in altitude, Darganth also transitioned into horizontal flight a moment later and continued to give chase.

As the two cut through the air, Jennia didn't remain idle as she watched the chase from the ground. Gathering her mana, she waited for an opportune moment before unleashing a silvery beam from one of her maws.

Rapidly streaking through the air, her attack tore through the empty spot where Inrad had been had he not abruptly swerved to the side just in time. Tumbling around in the air for a second as he tried to regain his balance, he was left as an easy target for Darganth.

Flying through Jennia's attack without care, he didn't react at all even as it cut across his body in a straight line. Wherever the beam of space energy had passed, the normally nonexistent or only barely noticeable glow of emerald and silver that shone along the edge of each of his scales became far more noticeable.

In the case of the smaller scales along his joints and other less armored places where there hadn't been any of this coloration before the change wasn't large. A faint web of flowing lines marked these spots, though they were still vastly overshadowed by the near-absolute darkness of the surrounding scales.

The somewhat larger scales that covered most of Darganth's body were meanwhile surrounded by a noticeable glow that at least partially covered the next scale. But even that was still a far cry from the intense glow coming from the massive scales covering Darganth's chest, the largest of which measured over a meter in length.

These didn't just glow from their edges and illuminated the scales growing out from below them, instead shining so bright that the glow pierced through the scale itself. With the radiance coming from inside the scale shining from it nearly everywhere, Darganth's chest no longer had any traces of the black of his scales and was instead a sea of an emerald and silver shine.

As Darganth continued to fly after Inrad, the phenomenon started spreading to more of his scales. With it, his movements started to speed up, allowing him to catch up to his opponent in just a few short seconds.

Folding his wings and diving onto his opponent, he rammed into Inrad who turned around and swiped his claw at him just before the impact. Digging the claws of his hind legs into the abdomen, he started tearing into Inrad as the two started plummeting to the ground.

Lashing out with his two other claws, he ripped through scales and flesh alike as he left bloody gashes across Inrad's chest. Beating away Inrad's attempt to bite into his neck with his wings a second later, Darganth retaliated and caught his neck before he managed to pull back.

Increasing the pressure of his bite, Darganth let his fangs sink into Inrad's flesh with a bloodthirsty grin, causing the other dragon to howl in pain and throw his head back. Barely dodging this first thrust of the horns by bending his neck as much as he could, he turned his head slightly at Inrad's second attempt and blocked it with his own horns.

Letting go and moving his head back at Inrad's third attempt to force him away, Darganth also let go with his claws when Inrad turned his head his way a moment later. Spreading his wings and abruptly teleporting a couple of meters up with a flap of his wings, he vanished right before flames tore through his old position.

Practically hovering in place even as Inrad noticed that he had dodged and raised his head to turn his fire breath against him, Darganth watched with a wild smile and waited until it was about to reach him.

Angling his body down at the last moment, he vanished with another beat of his wings, his body flying through the layers of space with as little effort as others walked over land. Teleporting onto the other side of the flames, he grabbed Inrad by the base of the head.

Opening his maw to reveal an intense glow from inside his throat, Darganth unleashed his own dragon's breath. Ripping straight through Inrad's abdomen, it opened a gaping hole just under his ribcage.

Feeling the resistance to his hold waning considerably and seeing the ground approaching, Darganth pushed off from Inrad immediately after and slowed his descent. Spreading his wings and slowly gliding to the ground, he watched the other dragon rapidly plummeting down below him.

Hanging limply in the air with a look of resignation in his eyes as he stared up at Darganth, Inrad crashed into the earth with his back first amidst a thundering boom. Punching a crater into the ground with his weight, he let out a weak roar before slumping to the side.

Nonetheless using her earth control to bury most of his body beneath a wave of rock, Jennia teleported next to the barely breathing dragon. Taking on her humanoid form, she looked down from the edge of the crater as she waited for Darganth to land.

Gliding down without hurry, Darganth too transformed into his humanoid form and landed next to Jennia.

“I expected more of a fight.” She said once he stood by her side.

“And this was with him taking flight to keep you from intervening too much.” Darganth said.

“Yeah, that was somewhat of a bore.”

Nodding, Darganth kept looking down at Inrad with a thoughtful expression.

“What do we do with him now?” Jennia asked into the silence.

“We'll make him answer some questions.”

With those words Darganth let his dragon's authority burst forth, enveloping Inrad and forcing him to transform into a humanoid form. The moment the flames that were left in the wake of his true form vanishing fully turned back to flesh Darganth lifted his arm and caught him.

Telekinetically dragging the heavily bleeding body toward the two, he dropped Inrad next to them. Keeping his hand extended, he started healing at least the worst of Inrad's injuries by reversing time on them.

Opening his eyes with a groan, Inrad shot up as soon as he saw Darganth only to freeze up under his dragon's authority.

“I already gave you a minuscule chance to get away so I expected some obedience without me having to use my authority.” Darganth said.

Quivering in pain from the still substantial injury on his abdomen, Inrad nonetheless stayed silent despite the pain the standing pose Darganth's authority held him in brought him.

“Want me to do some convincing?” Jennia asked.

Glancing at her, he saw her inspecting her clawed fingers with a threatening smile as she let them dance through the air in a rhythmic wave. Considering her words for a couple of moments, Darganth shook his head.

“As fun as it would be to watch, I doubt it would be effective, at least not without taking a few days. But I'll keep him in my care for quite some time so you'll get your chance.” Darganth said.

As soon as he spoke those words, Darganth felt Inrad's struggle against his control over him intensify. Confused, he turned back to him only to see Inrad's eyes showing fear for the first time since the start of their fight.

“You thought I would just kill you, didn't you?” Darganth half asked, half exclaimed in surprise.

Changing the order in his authority just enough to allow Inrad to move his head while simultaneously forcing him to convey the truth, Darganth chuckled when he saw him nod.

“Then I'm sorry that you learn it only now, but I do also follow the few rules I expect the rest of dragon kind to follow. And concerning the rule outlawing the killing of another dragon I even go a step further and don't exploit or even use the few exceptions that I've put in place. After all, why would I, all it takes is one use of my authority and I can prevent any such dragon from ever trying to get revenge on me in any form.

So I hope you've enjoyed living freely up until now because no matter how much I can understand what I believe to be your reasoning or what explanation you'll give me once I spare you some of my time, it will be at minimum a long time, even from my perspective, till you'll experience it again. And at worst such a time will never come.” Darganth said.

Ignoring Inrad's panicked expression and his attempt to speak up, Darganth robbed him of his consciousness with a wave of his hand.

Sighing heavily as Inrad slumped over, Darganth silently stared into the air for some time as he contemplated. Throwing a regretful glance at the unconscious dragon, he soon turned away and left him for the slowly approaching half-dragons to pick up.