Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Looking at the three small portals hovering over the map of the central continent, each leading to and showing a downward-pointed picture from the air at the location they hovered over on the map, Darganth observed the armies visible through them with some conflict.

Though they had planned with the fact that there likely would be resistance to their plans after the emperor meeting, the hope had been that it would be limited to small, scattered groups. But with both the human and the beastmen emperor having escaped, their vassals rose up as a unified force.

As such, the possibility of only a short period of chaos at the start of his rule vanished nearly completely in the two days since the meeting. With it, his plan of spending a few years enjoying ruling this world with his wives as they grew their personal strength was at least delayed and thus shortened if he didn't want to delay the timetable of the plans he made with Irsyr.

Though he was disappointed by this, he also couldn't deny looking forward to the events of the following weeks and months. While he finds fighting a war boring more often than not, this one looked like it might prove to be a rare exception and give him a few entertaining fights.

But no matter how much he looked forward to this, at the moment such thoughts were only a distraction and thus had to wait for later as Irsyr finished the report that gave rise to them.

“Ikrus really didn't hold anything back.” Darganth commented as Irsyr finished speaking.

“Similar to a cornered animal lashing out.” Venrie noted further.

“In a way it is one, and Ikrus should have realized that too. So why would it not risk it all in one last gamble?” Yldra said.

In response to this assessment, Darganth nodded in agreement.

“Just by looking at the fact that none of the changes to its laws of reality were targeted at dragons, it becomes clear that Ikrus knows that it can't win if the Locis or Solar dragons act here. The problem is that while it's an obvious bait to draw them away, the message contained in the pulses of energy it started sending out could ruin our plans.” He said.

“So you want to take the bait?” Irsyr asked sceptically.

“The rest of us are enough to deal with whatever they might throw at us, so it's the path with the least risk to our plans.” Darganth said.

“Not the least, I could always wipe the entire board clean.”

Sighing, Darganth shook his head in disagreement with Irsyr's proposition.

“But I'm not interested in just sitting back and letting others do all the work until I regain my full power. The fact that it might lead to the first real risk to my safety since my rebirth doesn't change that, nor does whether you like that or not.” Darganth said, leaving no room for debate.

“Besides, evacuating and then destroying this entire universe is too drastic of a measure for our situation anyway.”

Begrudgingly accepting the implied order in Darganth's words, Irsyr turned his attention back to working out a different plan.

“Alright, I and every other dragon helpful for it will focus solely on ensuring that no hint of what is happening reaches even a single being outside of Ikrus and leave everything here to you.” He said before adding to Neandra and Venrie, “I take it you two will mobilize your people for that?”

“Mainly I. You know how aggressive the majority of beasts are at the best of times and the tensions of the past few years only made it worse, so instead of wasting time reigning them in we can better use that in a productive manner.

And while they bolster our numbers on the front line, Venrie can have her people focus on supporting us with ritual spells. Open warfare isn't exactly a strength of the elven species after all, so this way we can play to their strength.” Neandra said.

“Roughly that. I'll still take a small group of elites to help directly in the fighting, but most will stay back and protect our forests and with it the mana tree as well as the rituals.”

Nodding along with their words, Irsyr saw no need to add to them. Instead, it was Alicia who followed up on their explanation with a question.

“I'm still relatively new to this whole magical warfare thing so I might be missing something, but couldn't Neandra win this war on her own. As far as I understood, the only beings capable of matching her that exist in this universe are dragons.” She asked.

“Ikrus itself can too, otherwise you would be right.” Neandra said.

“But I thought Irsyr would take care of it?”

Swaying his head from side to side with a hesitant expression, Darganth half agreed and half disagreed with her words.

“Well, Ikrus itself can't intervene, in that you're right. But its power to directly influence reality within its borders is generally limited, for most things it needs an avatar and those are the problem. Both the permanent one we met at the emperor conference and any temporary ones it might create can just appear nearly anywhere they want.

The most that could happen is that he catches the existing one off guard and manages to take him out, but I would bet that he, Arkus, and Rezal are currently in Ikrus's universe matrix so that's impossible right now. And once it is breached, there would no longer be a need for that as the universe will of Ikrus will die with the destruction of its core.”

“So we'll have to constantly watch out for its avatars?” Allaire asked with an exhausted sigh.

“And the two emperors. But not constantly as at least the dragon peaks are safe. Additionally, while Ikrus should be able to have them manifest nearly everywhere else, it isn't as fast as teleportation spells so we'd have tens of seconds forewarning, meaning they can't use it to ambush us.” Darganth said.

“So we'll use the peaks as our base of operations?” Venrie asked in response.

“Yes.”

After confirming Venrie's thought, Darganth turned to Irsyr.

“How long do you think it'll take you to get everything ready for your part?” He asked.

“At most the rest of the day.”

“Take a day or two more if you need, thanks to the spatial mage's mana that I devoured I can already reach the mythic rank. Sadly only as a mage, but I'll still need a day or so to get the mana infusion done and start reapplying at least the rudimentary enchantments I had before my death.” Darganth said.

“Should I also delay the reinforcements for the group already blocking Ikrus's signal?”

Thinking for a moment, Darganth nodded in response.

“You mentioned Edylia is going to coordinate that effort, this way you two can spend these two days however you like. And inform the others too, I doubt this will be a matter of only a few days so they should enjoy this free time.” He said.

“With only those currently here I estimate five months at least. But a few should also come back from their missions in that time so it might change.”

“Vunreon's standard rate or Ikrus's new time flow?” Darganth asked to be sure.

He did so because time inside the separate space in which a universe’s core existed always progressed at the same rate no matter how fast the river of time inside the rest of the universe flowed.

“Five months in Ikrus's new time flow.” Irsyr said.

Glad that it was this case, Darganth nonetheless didn't dwell long on it. Instead, he turned back to the table and the map spread out across it.

“Then the rest of us have five months to destroy any armies opposing us and hopefully draw out Arkuns and Rezal in the process. Optimally we would then capture them, but as long as we can prove it to their subordinates it doesn't matter much should they die.”

“Don't hold much hope for the first option.” Neandra said as she also stepped to the table.

“Never had. Though I doubt he will come out during the first battle anyways, so I'm trying to find where we can use that to do the most damage to his forces.” Darganth said.

“I can wait.”

As she spoke, Nenadra also let her gaze quickly wander across all three portals. Needing only a moment to study each of them, she soon pointed toward the southernmost one.

“I recognize these banners, they belong to a duke who is one of Akruns's most influential supporters. If you truly think Arkus won't intervene yet, he is our best target.” She said.

“Irsyr will need a few days to breach into the separate space that houses its core and it won't risk bringing them here while he's still in the physical realm.”

“Then it sounds like a plan.”