Dragon Gods Reign

[Foundation of Space]

Passing through the opening at the bottom of the vortex, Darganth felt the familiar weightlessness of the foundation of space wash over him. Along with this feeling, the threads of energy holding his arms and legs also started to dissolve, returning to the endless expanse of spatial energy that now surrounded him.

Once he was freed from the last binding holding him, Darganth reached out and took control of the spatial energy surrounding him. Reminiscing as he let it rush into his body, he basked in the feeling of commanding power, unlike anything he had experienced since his death.

Using the energy under his control to slowly hover forward, he started to take a look at his surroundings. As he did, only a part of his attention was on the layer of space he was in, while most of his focus was on peering back into the physical world.

In doing so, he simultaneously looked into all four cardinal directions as well as up and down of the spot in the physical realm that corresponded to his position in the foundation of space. Through this, Darganth saw his position in the physical world shift by dozens of meters with each meter he moved in the spatial realm.

Pausing for a moment as he estimated how many layers deep he was in the spatial foundation by comparing this with his experience, Darganth was interrupted when a few seconds after his arrival another presence appeared in the otherwise empty expanse.

Turning around, Daranth saw the mage that had brought him there in the first place appear from a second vortex that appeared in the otherwise calm sea of spatial energies.

Meeting his eyes as the man looked up, Darganth watched him frown before quickly channeling another spell.

“I've already delayed this long, why couldn't you have left like the other two.” He heard the mage mumble, clearly frustrated.

At the same time as he overheard those words, Darganth burst into action. Controlling the spatial energy around him to accelerate forward in an abrupt burst, he shot at his opponent as fast as his current power allowed him.

Despite the fact that there was not even air around him, he soon started feeling a resistance slowing him down. As he started accelerating further, this pressure soon started to rise exponentially as the spatial realm itself pushed back against him.

Despite this he reached his target in just a short second, forcing the man to abandon the spell he was casting and fly to the side as Darganth slashed out with his clawed hand.

Noticing that he did so far slower than he himself could have, Darganth grinned as he realized that the man's spatial affinity might be lower than he had initially assumed.

As this thought crossed his mind and he prepared to continue attacking with even more confidence, two more presences abruptly appeared in the layer of space he was in. Immediately dashing backward as one of those was only a handful of meters away from him, Darganth only saw it from the corner of his eyes when Yldra appeared behind the mage with her claws raised.

Slashing down, she tore four bloody gashes into the man's back. While doing so, she sent a pulse of mana out from her hand and into the mage. Through it, he lit up like a beacon to her senses, allowing her to tack and aim spells at him even through different layers of space should it become necessary.

Stopping after this first strike and refraining from pressing her advantage as the mage sped away from her, Yldra instead moved toward Darganth.

Having relaxed again after having identified the other presence as Sarkia, he meanwhile kept an eye on their opponent as he waited for her to arrive.

“How come you're here?” Darganth asked as she reached his side.

“Let myself be caught by his spell after seeing him bring Sarkia here.”

“Just to ambush him?”

“I had hoped I would interrupt a better plan than whatever this is.” Yldra said slightly dejected.

Chuckling, Darganth turned back to the mage who seemed to have realized the conundrum he was in.

“Then would you mind letting me have a shot at dealing with him alone?” Darganth asked.

“No problem, but are you sure? He's definitely been a mythic rank for quite a while and were we still on the surface even I might have some trouble in a fight.” Yldra asked.

“As you said, were we still on the surface. He probably thought we're Solar dragons and planned to fight us with our fire magic weakened, otherwise he would never have brought us to such a favorable environment.”

Considering his words for a moment, Yldra nodded in response to his reasoning.

“But maybe you could nonetheless remain at the ready, that would help massively.” Darganth added.

Grinning softly, Yldra agreed with his request.

Bolstered by her support, Darganth started hovering away from her and Sarkia and toward Arkuns's guard.

“Is it not going as you planned?” Darganth asked amused as he approached the man.

“Spare me your mockery, it won't faze me.”

“You misunderstand, I'm simply wondering what the plan behind all of this is? Especially as you seem to be targeting those who are themselves proficient in spatial magic. Space might reject those not suited to its gifts but dragging them into the uppermost layer should still be possible, so why risk targeting those who can escape the easiest or fight back the best?” Darganth asked with genuine curiosity.

Laughing in response to his inquiry, the mage shook his head in disbelief.

“And you expect me to just explain my plan to you?”

“It seemed to me that you're trying to keep us out of the fight, so I expected that you would jump at the chance to delay me for longer.” Darganth said

“I'm certainly delaying, but that doesn't mean I'll explain my plan.”

Sighing in response to the man's words, Darganth momentarily relaxed as he shook his head in frustration. Simultaneously he stealthily gauged his opponent's reaction, prompting him to abruptly jump into action when he saw an opening.

Dashing at the mage, he gathered spatial energy into his body before slashing out with his claws. With this motion, the gathered energy erupted in the form of five crescent slashes of condensed spatial energy that flew toward his opponent.

As it headed toward its target, a wall made from the surrounding energy condensed in its path. Intercepting Darganth's strike before it could reach the mage, both masses exploded into a cloud of highly concentrated spatial energy as they crashed into one another.

Following closely behind his attack, Darganth ignored this and burst through the cloud. Healing what little damage the high energy concentration did to him as he quickly crossed through in under a second, he appeared before his opponent with one arm already reeled back.

Aiming at the man's head to end the fight quickly, he punched out.

Missing as the mage hastily dodged to the side, he didn't stop his onslaught and slashed out with the claws on his other hand. Simultaneously closing the distance again, he launched a series of strikes that followed the previous one with practically no delay and forced his opponent onto the back foot as he had to dodge the mixture of slashed, thrusts and strikes from Darganth's fists and claws.

Changing up the rhythm a few seconds later after yet another upward slash from his claws that didn't find its mark, Darganth controlled the spatial energy to form a sword in his right hand and slashed out with it.

Catching his opponent unprepared with the longer reach of this attack, Darganth finally managed to land the first hit in their exchange. Cutting across the man's belly and leaving a shallow wound, he was just about to follow up on it and press the advantage when the latter managed to interrupt with a counterattack.

Bending his torso to the side as a beam of energy tore through its previous position, Darganth found himself in an unfavorable position as about a dozen sword-like constructs appeared around his opponent. Practically at the same time as he noticed this, the first of these already came flying straight at him.

Moving to the side and easily avoiding this one, Darganth quickly found himself confronted with a second of these constructs flying at him. Dodging again with only barely more difficulty, he nonetheless started feeling the pressure when two more constructs launched at him right as the second attack passed by him.

Parrying the first one that reached him with his sword, Darganth was forced to fly backward to let the second one harmlessly pass by before him. As he did, he got a moment of respite due to the increased distance between him and the source from where the next wave of attacks came flying, allowing him to finally notice the discrepancy in how many constructs still remained.

Instead of having decreased in number after four had already launched at him, the mage had used the time their attacks had won him to conjure not just enough new ones to replace these, but to increase the total amount to seventeen.

Realizing that his disadvantage would only increase if he continued like this, Darganth knew that he had to change his approach. Dodging as he planned his next steps, he had been forced back even further by the time he came to a decision.

Remaining steadfast in the face of the next wave of attacks, he took a deep breath as he watched the two constructs that were heading for him.

Just as they were about to reach him, he leaned forward and let out a roar. With it, his dragon's breath shot out and caught the two swords in its path. Easily shattering them despite being considerably weaker than it would've been had Darganth been in his true form, it came barreling down onto his opponent.

In response, the man hastily redirected the remaining constructs to intercept this sudden attack. Flying head-on into the beam, the first few of them vanished into it with similarly little effect as the first two. However, this still achieved some of the desired effects by at least weakening Darganth's attack, with the cumulative effect allowing the eighth and ninth constructs to resist for a moment.

Scattering ever so little of the breath attack's energy as it shot through them in addition to the energy expended in their destruction, they weakened it by a slightly larger margin than the previous constructs. And with it, they eased the burden on the next one even further.

Through this, the nearly one dozen energy constructs that followed them quickly started weakening the beam until it destabilized.

By then, the mage had also formed a personal shield around himself, shielding him as Darganth's breath attack exploded with enough force to damage the layer of space itself.

Through the ensuing tear, energies from the two adjacent layers rushed into the one they were in, forming a chaotic storm of spatial energy that remained even as the tear repaired itself.

Sensing the danger this storm posed to himself, the mage shifted his focus toward the edges of this cloud as he waited for Darganth to attack him again. Due to this, he was caught by surprise when Darganth's true form burst out of the cloud of energy a moment later.