Dragon Gods Reign

[City of Sarcena]

“This isn't the first time we're having this talk so how about we skip over the discussion and just vote to get it done.” The beast emperor proposed bluntly as Crelvic finished speaking.

This was naturally immediately followed by outrage from Crelivic. Abruptly turning his head toward Rezal, he froze just as he was about to speak as he remembered the rules for the open session.

Reluctantly closing his mouth again and keeping his complaints to himself so as not to have his proposition dismissed due to such a stupid mistake, he instead tried to get Torrak to return the word to him. For that, he stopped suppressing his presence, taking care not to accidentally push it beyond its resting potency by channeling his mana into it as that too would be against the rules a speaker had to follow.

Though before Torrak could react to this and allow him to speak up again, Batoim interrupted.

“I never was part of these so I would like to hear it.” Batoim said, shooting down Rezal's suggestion.

Indicating with a nod that he heard him, Torrak turned his attention from Batoim to Crelvic to see whether he still had something to add. Seeing that this wasn’t the case, he finally turned his head to Rezal.

“You heard him, I can’t do anything now.” Torrak said with a shrug.

“Fine, but I still don’t see the sense in it. Last time most of us agreed that the vampires wouldn’t be capable of keeping their territories clean of monsters and nothing happened that would’ve changed that.” Rezal said.

“And? From my point of view you’re all incompetent in dealing with monsters so how would they differ? Besides, you don’t know that they won’t exceed your expectations for them.” Batoim said dismissively.

Starting to grow suspicious at the fact that Batoim seemed to argue for Crelvic’s case a bit too vehement, Arkuns looked on with narrowed eyes. Deciding to wait patiently after only a short moment of deliberation, he leaned back and watched as Rezal growled in response to Batoim's attitude.

“I won’t claim to be perfect, but even you should put some respect for the efforts of others, especially when it comes to the extermination of monsters. Otherwise, you dragons might one day find yourself alone and swarmed by enough of them that they’ll rip apart even you.” Rezal growled.

“But there is no effort to respect. Apart from the western portion and the small stretch in the north that belongs to the beasts, the entire central area of the continent that surrounds my territory is left unattended despite three of you officially laying claim to parts of it.

Now, who do you think deals with the monsters that arise there? So unless you’re going to start doing it, I’d rather have the vampires take care of at least some of them instead of everything falling onto my kind.” Batoim said.

At his revelation, whispered conversations started springing up all throughout the gathered crowd. Quickly spreading as everybody added their opinion to it, with most either defending or decrying the three emperors in question, Batoim’s casual words soon resulted in a chaotic discussion.

He himself was meanwhile smiling content as he picked up more and more voices that spoke up against Rezal, Arkuns, and Oknar. And from the looks on especially the first two’s faces, they too heard what he did.

However, in Arkuns’s case, this wasn’t the only reason for his sunken expression. Instead, he was also starting to realize Batoim’s plan to rile the crowd up against him, making him regret his earlier inaction.

But while he realized what Batoim was doing, he still couldn’t quite figure out why. As such, he continued the discussion to maybe figure it out.

“Then maybe you should attend these meetings more often. As I’ve always stated in the talks among us, there were never many monster problems reported in and around that region so I saw no need to send my forces there.” Arkuns said.

“Did you even send someone to look? Because with how large some of the hordes I’ve found were, I highly doubt it. Or you did and just ignored it which, while worse, wouldn’t change much. So why not have someone else handle it as you seem either too incompetent for it or simply disinterested In doing so.”

“I’d be glad to discuss that, but right now isn’t the time for it. Instead, the closed session would be more appropriate as we’re still on the matter of Crelvic’s petition. And its merits depend on the vampire’s capabilities alone, not any failings of the rest of us.” Arkuns swiftly answered, dodging the question.

“Well, then what are these merits? Because I should’ve proven well enough that they can’t make it worse, so what else stands in the way of granting his request?” Batoim asked.

Already guessing Arkuns’s response from watching his reaction to those words and realizing that the conversation would turn in circles if it simply continued, Darganth understood that they had reached the limit of Batoim’s more diplomatic approach. And with him already having somewhat damaged Arkuns’s and Rezal’s reputations among the other attendees, even if less so than they had hoped, everything was ready to start undermining him more directly.

Leaning forward, he cut off Arkuns’s response by speaking up.

“How about we end this charade and say it how it is. More so than for any of the others, a new emperor species is a threat to your power base. In the case of the vampires, it is especially bad, but you have been doing everything you could to prevent the rise of a seventh great species because your tight hold over your subjects has stretched you thin.

Even now there are dozens of cases each year where a noble among your subjects becomes influenced by foreign powers. And surprisingly often, this involves a vampire. After all, not only is the eternal life that comes with being turned a great incentive for those who can’t succeed as a mana user, but they also won’t end up as an outsider under their rule.

So to protect this house of cards your current position is built upon, you’ve undermined anyone who was rising too far for your taste. That means orchestrating accidents as with the pack of feral beasts that overran the convoy of the Iverse’s princess or forgetting crucial information as you did when you never mentioned the new beast lord that lay claim to the Erlian gulf who then sunk a dozen ships of the Western trade company that happened to have just made a deal with a group of dwarfs on the western continent.

And not even your allies are safe, with you also supporting and supplying the nage in their conflict with the sea giants to this day, or-”

As Darganth spoke, Arkuns grew increasingly furious with every word. Clutching the armrest of his chair with such force that it broke after only the second revelation, he shot to his feet and interrupted Darganth before he could finish.

“I won’t stand such accusations! Batoim, get your subordinate under control or I will shut him up permanently!” Arkuns raged, his presence exploding outward along with his outburst.

Instead of answering, Batoim gestures to the room around them with a condescending smirk. There, over a dozen attendees had already jumped up from their seats and flared their mana despite the pressure of Arkuns’s presence still blanketing the entire room.

“Explain yourself Arkuns!” “What else are you responsible for?!”

“Traitor!” “I’ll have your head for this!”

Trusting in the protection of the conference's rules, they shouted over each other in a chaotic mix of demands for answers and proclamations of outrage.

Taking this scene in with a frown on his face, Arkuns’s fingers twitched as he kept himself from lashing out. That outsiders would be furious should his schemes come to light was something he had been prepared for, but to have some of his fellow humans in attendance do so filled him with anger.

They might represent their own faction's interests in this conference, but as ruler of humanity on the central continent, their interests were his too. And as long as one of their kind was at the helm, their organizations were an extension of humanity's power and influence, just like it was the case for the other emperors.

Because ultimately that was the core of the conflict on the central continent. Internal strife and the independence of the myriad of continent-spanning organizations might exist, but it was only superficially. The emperor artifact assured as such, giving their wielder enough power to crush their opposition even if it comes in the form of multiple other mythic ranks.

The only reason why emperors like Rezal weren’t doing so already was that they viewed the existing situation in their realms as more favorably. In his case, the constant fighting gave him a constant stream of powerful and experienced soldiers, though should the beastmen one day be in a position of dominance, he would undoubtedly crush all opposition among them.

This factor together with a few others resulted in the front lines of conflicts being nearly always along species lines.

After all, emperor artifacts were limited to one per species, so having another species among one's subordinates led to the possibility that a rival might arise from them. More so because should they be driven into a corner the other emperors would surely work together to engineer such a situation.

The limit meanwhile is enforced by a covenant created by all first-generation emperors besides Batoim, a magical contract that has yet to be broken and not because of a lack of trying.

Furthermore, it also ensures that new emperors and the successors of dead ones gain a chance at an emperor artifact of their own. For that, it guides them to the ancient temple that the first generation had found and ensures that they leave with only one of the hundreds of artifacts found inside.

Similarly, the magic imbued into the contract also returns the artifacts chosen by previous emperors back into this hidden temple after their death.

As such it is widely accepted that the covenant is perfect in assuring the emperors dominance among their kind. But with it, it also accidentally disincentives cooperation between species, even if the present situation of two alliances with multiple emperors didn't make it seem like it.

All of this only contributed further to Arkuns’s disappointment in his fellow humans. If they made it far enough to be representatives at an emperor meeting, they should be aware that just as humanity was his only option to gain the dominance needed to maybe ascend, he was their only shot to near endless resources to spread among themselves.

Mulling over these thoughts as he turned out the demands and insults thrown at him, Arkuns suddenly started noticing the voices falling silent. Curiously granting the crowd his attention a second time, he noticed a massive and muscular man with some beastly features standing in front of it. Towering above most of those behind him at nearly four meters tall and fully obscuring two humans at the same time due to his wide shoulders and back, his statue alone was enough to shut many of the others up.

Unflinchingly meeting Arkuns’s gaze as he turned toward him, the man spoke to him in a calm tone despite the rage shimmering in his eyes.

“Tell me, were you responsible?” He asked, knowing that Arkuns was well aware of what he was referencing.

“You know that you wouldn’t know if I lied?” Arkuns asked in response.

Keeping eye contact and gauging the other man’s reaction to his words, he was met with an unflinching stare. Letting the tension hang for a few seconds to see if his opposite would flinch after all, he erupted in gleeful laughter when he still didn’t.

“But why would I care to do it? Because of course, I’m responsible for what happened to your wife, who else would even come into question? You were at war with one of my vassals and she was your kind's second-best warrior, I just didn’t have the resources to overcome both of you on the battlefield at that time.” Arkuns freely admitted.

Nodding solemnly and without flying into the rage Arkuns expected in response, he calmly turned toward Neandra and lowered his head.

“I know our people had and still have their differences, but give me his head and I’ll lead the feral beasts back into the rule of the beast throne.”

Raising an eyebrow at the unexpected offer, Neandra couldn’t help but grin a moment later. Feral beast referred to those beasts that don’t develop intelligence during their evolution and thus mentally remain the same as they were when they were still animals.

In rare cases like the one in front of her, this could still happen later, but these individuals would still retain the weaker average magical capabilities and higher average physical parameters that differentiated them.

But ultimately they still fell under the classification of beasts in both cases, sometimes even having less genetic differences to a regular beast species than some of these regular species have between each other.

As such, this offer was naturally enticing for her even if only for the prestige of it.

“Right now would be a bit troublesome, but if the offer lasts a few days I’ll be glad to help you.” Neandra said, uncaring that she just openly said that she will kill another emperor in front of said emperor.

“Then we have a deal, your highness.”

Watching this exchange nervously, the other attendees carefully started backing away from the lord of feral beasts. Avoiding meeting Arkuns’s gaze as they did so, they tried to escape his notice while he was focusing his glare solely on the former.

“If it’s like this, why wait?” Arkuns muttered just loud enough that Neandra could hear it.

Smirking as she felt his mana surge outward along with those words, she casually held out her arm as it turned into a dozen blue darts of energy that shot toward her. Crossing the twenty or so meters between the two in the blink of an eye, they landed on the shield she had conjured up in front of her with a thud before vanishing in a small implosion that failed to even dent the shimmering barrier.

At the same time, the lord of feral beasts also gathered his mana. Taking aim at Arkun, he let metal spikes erupt from the ground in a straight line that was heading for Arkuns.

Though before they could reach him, the human emperor swung his sword toward them. From it, a crescent streak of energy shot out and toward the incoming attack. Colliding with it, it tore through the spikes with ease, sending small shards flying to the sides as it tore through the attack on its way to its target.

Unsurprising, the lord of feral beasts dodged the deadly attack flying his way with minimal effort. Stepping to the side, he didn’t even wait for it to fully pass by before already launching his next spell.

Though as he was guiding his mana out of his mana pool and shaping it into the needed form, something came crashing through one of the walls. Bursting wide open as this object passed through it, the debris of the wall showered over half the room in stone.

Immediately hundreds of shields flared to life in response and confused shouts echoed out from across the entire room. Amid these, a second impact became audible, prompting nearly all heads to turn to its source.

Already shocked when they realized it was at Neandra’s seat, many recoiled when they saw the easily three-meter-long arrow that was now embedded deep enough in her torso to slightly peak out of the back of the stone backrest she was sitting against.

In this chaos, Arkuns acted decisively and rushed toward his second attack before the shock wore off. Immobilizing the lord of feral beasts with a circle of inward-leaned spikes that shot up around one of his legs and pierced through it, he mercilessly swung down with his sword when he reached him a fraction of a moment later.

But as he did, he suddenly felt a piercing pain in his right forearm. With it, his arm's momentum also came to an abrupt stop as something tugged them back. As such, even though he barely managed to keep his sword in his hands, he failed to strike his target.

“Is this all you have to offer?” Neandra asked, shocking Arkuns for the first time in this chain of events that had just transpired.

Swirling around in total disbelief, the human emperor’s eyes went wide as he spotted Neandra still sitting in her seat, completely indifferent to the arrow shaft sticking out of her chest.

“How?” He asked, a thought that also swirled through the heads of most attendees.

“You’ll learn it soon enough.” Neandra said, “But only as the crowning finish.”

Reaching for the projectile’s shaft in between those sentences, Neandra broke it off right where it passed through her skin.

Then rising from her seat as she finished speaking, she shocked the crowd with the sight of her gaping wound fully healing in under a second.