Dragon Gods Reign

[Spatial Realm]

As Darganth and Yldra waited for Sarkia after finishing up their plan, their two opponents started moving toward them. For that, the one that had appeared more recently exercised his influence on the purer energy to hasten its dispersal and calm the spatial storm, allowing the other one to move through the sea of spatial energy freely again.

Exchanging a quick glance, Darganth and Yldra wordlessly spread out. Positioning themselves in a manner in which they would flank their opponents if they continued on their current path, they waited to see what they were planning.

To their surprise, this at least initially didn't include attacking them as the two mages instead came to a stop a few meters before them.

“You should have already noticed that I'm restraining myself so drop your guard, I'm well aware that continuing this fight is senseless.” Halfheartedly holding up his arms as he approached, the mage spoke dismissively and without fear.

Shifting his gaze between Darganth and Yldra after he did, he momentarily waited for a response before dropping his arms with a sigh when he didn't get one.

“Look, the moment even a hint of a different mana signature shines through the veil my disciple here is creating with his presence that monster of a dragon will know and drag me back up before I can even manifest a spell. So I don't stand a chance and as such, I want to make a deal. But constantly having to look back and forth and one of you staring me down in his draconic form makes me rethink the idea.” The man said.

Raising an eyebrow at Yldra after he finished speaking, he looked at her with an arrogance that expected her to do as he asked.

“If that deal isn't your unconditional surrender then we're not interested anyway, so why should we?” Darganth said in response.

Letting out a hearty laugh at his statement, the mage didn't believe Darganth's words.

“You've not just seen but experienced my creation so what makes you think I would accept that? That isn't a mere spell fusion that any third rank can do, it's a multilayered spell circle, a spell I alone created from scratch. And I'm one of only a rare few who has the knowledge, experience, and skill necessary for that so don't treat me like any ordinary mythic rank.” The man shouted, growing increasingly agitated and speaking louder with every word.

Straightening his posture with a deep breath as he finished speaking, he let the pause hang in the air for a moment before adding a final sentence to his tirade.

“So dismiss my worth on your own risk you brutes, because I'm sure Batoim won't.” He said with utmost confidence.

“And?” Darganth asked bored.

Taken aback, the master among the two men opposite of him shook his head in confusion while a hint of the same appeared in his disciple's stoic expression.

“What and?” The former asked, not sure he interpreted Darganth's tone right the first time.

“And why would that make a difference? Darganth said.

Seeing the man's confused reaction to this confirmation, Yldra let out a hearty laugh.

“Well, you aren't hiding from Batoim, are you?” She asked with an unsettling grin.

Absentmindedly reacting by shaking his head, the man looked at her with a nervous glance from the corner of his eyes.

“No, you're hiding from the dragon who just so happens to be my father. So do you truly think I would care even if Batoim thought you were worthy enough to keep around?” Yldra asked.

“So that gives you your confidence.”

Seeing the man's reaction, Darganth looked toward Yldra with a sigh.

“I don't think we'll get farther here.” He said.

“No.” Yldra said, adding slightly louder, “Sarkia?”

On her signal, the draconian burst onto the scene from beneath the two mages. Shooting upward in her true form, she had her maw opened wide as she tried to both their opponents in one bite.

Snapping her jaws shut over the two men's position, she felt her teeth hitting at least something. Swallowing the bit of flesh she realized was too small to be an entire human body, she turned her head backward as her momentum carried her a few dozen meters further before she managed to come to a stop.

By the time she did, she also spotted the wound she had inflicted as she noticed the weaker of the two mages holding the profoundly bleeding wound where she had severed his right arm.

Frowning at the fact that she missed her original goal, she was about to catapult herself back at them when Yldra shot toward their opponents with a sword of spatial energy already in hand.

Aiming the silvery blade at her previous opponent, she purposefully targeted a spot that wouldn't be lethal and thrust the blade into his shoulder. Piercing cleanly through it, she turned the blade to widen the wound and let it smoothly glide out when she threw her opponent back with a kick to the chest a moment later.

Chasing after him, she left it to Darganth to deal with the other mage.

Arriving a moment later when the man's shock over the sudden loss of his arm still hadn't passed, Darganth charged at him from the side. Swinging his right claw in a wide arc to force him further away from his master, he twisted his body as he swung at him.

Bending backward to immediately turn around in a tight loop before he could even know whether his attack landed, he managed immediately launch himself back at his opponent after he dodged his claw.

Not having lost sight of his opponent even during such a maneuver, Darganth struck out again with the same precision as before.

Watching as his opponent escaped to the side just before his jaws snapped shut, he immediately twisted his body to give chase. Rapidly catching up, he soon closed in enough to scrape the man's personal shield with his first swing.

Just as he was about to attack a second time to hopefully land a cleaner hit, a beam of spatial energy tore through the emptiness in both their path.

Panicking at the sudden appearance of Sarkia's breath attack, Darganth's opponent instinctively reacted by abruptly coming to a halt. And before it could even register for him that this might be a mistake, Darganth already reached him and devoured him whole.

Immediately feeling the reinvigorating rush of his prey's mana draining from him as he landed in his stomach a fraction of a second later, Darganth didn't get to focus on his rapidly rising strength for long as he too reached Sarkia's breath nearly at the same time.

Hastily leaning to the side as he turned, he barely dodged the beam of energy. Though the wounds it would leave him with would be shallow and would heal within a minute, the sensation of even just the surface of his skin effectively disintegrating as the might of space slammed into him would bring a discomfort that Darganth would rather avoid.

As such, he had no view of Yldra's fight when a moment later a strong wave of spatial energy swept through the layer.

Sensing nothing but a slightly higher concentration of spatial energy from it, Darganth didn't think much of it until it reached him. As such, the surprise was even greater when he suddenly found himself back in the physical world. Furthermore, he found himself back in the hall where the emperor meeting was happening.

Appearing inside the isolated space where the emperors had been, he almost immediately crashed into the barrier separating it from the rest of the room. Recoiling in surprise, he immediately unfurled his wings to catch himself from dropping the dozen or so meters he was above the ground.

As he did, his wings quickly slammed into the barrier, causing Darganth to plummet to the ground as he couldn't spread them far enough to stay in the air.

Crushing the stone thrones beneath him, he forced the dwarf emperor and his two guards to jump up after having sat out the entire fight up until then. At the same time dust and debris flew into the air as the entire pedestals they stood on crumbled beneath his weight, leaving only the two he didn't step on standing by the time he shook off his disorientation a second later.

Looking around once he did, he quickly saw that the fight had already concluded. Arkuns, Rezal, and the mage Yldra had been fighting were forced to huddle in a dome of energy he quickly realized was being sustained by the avatar of Ikrus's universe will that was inside with them, while the dead or wounded bodies of their subordinates filled the ground around them.

Immediately outside of this dome he also found Neandra, Irsyr, and Ydra, with his wives standing a few meters away from them in their own group and seemingly immersed in their separate conversation before his arrival.

Smiling as soon as he spotted them, Darganth wasted no time and transformed back into his humanoid form. Appearing near the center of the area inside the barrier, he just started walking toward them when he felt a surge in spatial energy followed by Sarkia appearing back in the physical realm like he had.

To his surprise, as soon as she did, her form rapidly shrank to about fifteen meters from head to tail. Watching this rapid process with wide eyes, Darganth barely even registered when she crashed to the ground a moment later as he had turned to Irsyr with a questioning look.

Seeing him react with a slight frown, Darganth met Allaire's gaze to give her a silent apology before making his way toward Irsyr.

“What happened?” Darganth said.

“Ikrus happened.” Irsyr answered him.

“It changed it's laws?” Darganth asked surprised.

“With quite a persistence, even I barely managed to shrug off the new restriction.” Neandra said.

Furrowing his brows and turning toward their three trapped opponents, Darganth mustered them as he considered what the purpose of that might be.

Seeing that, Irsyr interjected, “It's not just that, the time flow is speeding up. Right now it already reached double that of Vunreon's standard and is still rising, Ikrus is preparing for something.”

Nodding in agreement, Darganth stepped closer to the dome.

“Luckily we have a way to answer the question of what. And maybe he also doubles as a way to stop it.” Darganth said, looking at Irkrus's avatar.

Following his gaze Irsyr immediately understood his words. As Ikrus wasn't one of the rare few universe wills that were in the process of developing an ego of their own, as such its actions were purely logic-driven and done without emotions.

But this didn't fully extend to its avatars as it didn't have a soul and thus ego to descend into them with, leaving an opening for them to form a personality. This could eventually develop far enough that the avatar becomes a new being that, while retaining some powers and connection to the universe will due to being a former avatar, is no longer an extension of its will.

However before it reaches that stage, the avatar's developing personality can slightly influence the universe will. And with how out of character openly picking a fight with Irsyr was for a universe will, it wasn't far-fetched to assume that the avatar before them had some responsibility for it.

As such, Irsyr stepped forward until he could reach the dome with his hand. Placing his claws against it, he was just about to push them through the wall of energy when the constantly shifting, humanoid mass of elements that was the avatar's form moved.

Lifting its head, it met Irsyr's gaze only for its body to implode in on itself a moment later. The same thing happened around the three men accompanying it, leaving an empty dome before even Irsyr could react.

Watching as the energy barrier slowly faded out of existence without its power source, Irsyr had a frown on his face.

“Ikrus knows more than I thought.” He said.

“So it still comes to the same scenario we worried it would.” Darganth said with a sigh.

“Probably.” Irsyr confirmed.