Dragon Gods Reign

[Unknown world]

Somewhere in one of the many universes connected to Vunreon a planet was completely consumed in conflict. All over its surface were battles, some even visible from outside the atmosphere. Even the gods weren't spared from this conflict, with the two pantheons that tried to gain control over it being the cause of the war.

But even they wouldn't have expected it to turn out like this, with kingdoms falling hourly and cities by the minute. Previously they had only minor direct conflicts, preferring to let the mortals that worshiped them fight amongst themselves. But this all changed when one of the gods had, what he thought to be, a master plan.

Without consulting the other high ranking gods, he decided to ask the demons for their help in eradicating their rival pantheon. While initially not being interested in such a lowly conflict, their opinion quickly changed when they learned that said rival pantheon hoped to one day become a subsidiary under the angels.

Jumping at the idea of depriving their hated enemy of a potential ally, demon after demon joined this endeavor. Soon even a sixth tier demon joined in, making their rivals fate all but sealed in the gods eye. While only the fourth highest tier, to get an Archdemon or higher to join him was only wishful thinking.

Without warning this horde marched through the world, soon arriving before the pantheons gates. On their way they left a path of chaos and darkness, destroying kingdoms and killing arbitrarily. Even with the little time this brought the gods, they lost all hopes for survival once the army arrived at their gates.

Mounting a desperate defense, they tried to hold out for as long as possible while hoping that the angels would arrive before their end. Unexpectedly, they did do quite well, managing to hold out for two days under this constant siege.

By then the sixth tier demon had enough and took action personally. Smashing through the gate that stood through the attack of thousands of demons, he cleaved a path of carnage through the pantheon. Even their leader fell within minutes, clearly showing the power difference between the two.

But just before they fell completely, the attack suddenly stopped. Without forewarning, the demons started to fall over with their body being riddled with deep cuts. Looking around in confusion, the surviving gods soon saw the women that saved them.

Flying above them was Visuria, elegantly hovering in place while displaying her ten pairs of wings growing from between her shoulders fully. Following after her were millions of angels, neatly lined up and organized down to the last man. Even two with nine pairs of wings were among them, flying near her with vigilance.

Ignoring the looks of admiration she was getting from the gods she saved, her attention remained on the other pantheon. Soon thousands of light spears manifested all around her, before flying towards their targets at unimaginable speeds. The gods didn't even have a chance, their entire city along with every last god in it soon nothing more than pages of history.

But from the cities destroyed ruins soon came a wave of demons, larger and more powerful than the last. With them spreading all over the planet the angels also split, forming smaller armies to hunt them down. Before anyone could even realize it, the world had become the newest battlefield in the eternal war.

Visuria was meanwhile still hovering in the same spot, looking over the events happening with a smile. Without anyone being any wiser, she turned a minor demonic incursion into a graveyard for gods that would no doubt leave the world in chaos. While it was against her very nature to act like this, she still did so.

'Maybe you will finally appear today.' She thought to herself.

Watching the carnage unfold for hours, a smile soon crept onto her face. Giving a quick motion to the two nine winged angels next to her, they, and soon after the rest of the army, vanished.

A few kilometers from Visuria's position, another women suddenly appeared. The women that had just spoken to Lyadria now flew opposite of Visuria.

“Its been a while, I had already wondered how long it would take you to come out Nemoress.” Visuria said, still smiling.

“Well, my world doesn't revolve around you Visuria.” Nemoress said with a similar smile.

The two had fought against each other for long enough that they knew the other. Having confirmed that they both understood the plan, their smile grew even wider.

'Lets make this escalate as much as possible.' Both thought, maybe for the first time sharing the same idea.

Without any indications, the world suddenly became split in bright and dark. Nemoress half being enveloped in pure darkness energy, while the same happened on Visuria's half with light energy. Wherever the two sides met, they fought fiercely with neither being able to overpower the other.

After a few minutes of this stalemate their fight truly begun, with Nemoress dashing forward and breaking the clash of light and darkness. With the energy on her side weakened and being pushed back, Visuria closed the distance with a sword of pure light in her hand.

Faster than all but the two ninth tier angels could see, the two women had already exchanged dozens of clashes. Each strike was parried by the other, with both combatants evenly matched.

This continued for hours, with both periodically separating for a brief moment before again engaging the other in close quarters. An in the wake of each of those engagements the world they flew over felt the consequences, with only the angels and demons remaining alive after just a few minutes, protected by the energy their respective goddess radiated.

When the fight slowly drew to a close, not just the planet but the entire universe had to deal with its consequences. Stray attacks that flew towards other planets devastated these completely if they didn't outright destroy them. Whether this happened by accident or on purpose only the two can know. Even other universes that were close enough could feel it, though in most this was reserved for gods and similarly powerful entities.

But both Visuria and Nemoress ignored this, silently coming to an agreement to keep this act up. Vanishing, both returned to their respective realm with their armies soon following.

Only then did the other gods of this universe finally get the chance to witness the aftermath. The space where once a world was could now barely even be called space anymore. The collision of the two energies was violent enough that this comparatively short time was more than enough for the world to be destroyed, leaving behind barely a few rocks floating in space. Everything, every man, woman, animal, beast and even god followed the planets fate. Not even an elemental god could have survived it, so those lesser gods stood no chance.

Even space itself didn't escape unscathed, with dozens of cracks having formed all around. While they mended within seconds, for a few moments this universe itself had been wounded. And even with these cracks repaired there still remain aftereffects of the battle, the area now being a death zone for millennia.

Shuddering at this sight that could very well happen to them, the surrounding gods hastily returned to their own pantheons.

[City of Selin]

Despite having fought one against four, Averyla remained in quite a good shape. While she had some cuts, they weren't deep enough to pose a serious threat. Most barely managed to cut through her scales and failed to pierce her skin, with even those that did being stopped soon by the dense muscles right below.

And despite fighting with superior numbers, her opponents were in a similar state. Their skin had cuts in many areas despite the aura avatar around them. From the looks of it the battle would take hours or even multiple days to come to a close.

While aura used far less mana than magic, Averyla fought most of the time only with her body. Despite this her opponents could barely keep up, with every of her uses of elemental control nearly winning her the fight. Despite it being clear that they would eventually loose and with the constant threat of the next magic attack being the deciding one, the four fought on.

A large part of the immense difficulty they faced was due to the same ritual they were supposed to defend. While it was weakened considerably, the disturbance of mana did reach the surface. While the impact on magic and aura was minimal, the peak fourth rank aura ability relied heavily on the ambient mana around the user. With its chaotic state they didn't dare to try and rely on it, not wanting to experiment in the midst of a fight.

This, combined with the minimal effect that the first and second order ability had against beings that mainly relied on their physique, meant that a fight that would normally be slightly in their favor turned against them.

As this fight raged on, the four humans started to understand the true extend of the defense formations power. One dragon could keep the four strongest fighters of the city occupied, even winning albeit slowly, but nine such dragons didn't have the power to breach them or at least hesitated due to it.

For a short moment they hoped that the formations would be repaired if they just stalled enough, but they quickly realized that it wouldn't change anything. The formations were only destroyed in the area where Darganth's attack hit, the rest were still fully operational. But they were designed to fight towards the outside, their effectiveness into the city and especially the royal palace being limited on purpose.

It wouldn't make sense to plan a multilayered defense where the first line helps the enemy once it is taken. And especially the royal palace wasn't an easy target from the walls, preventing mutinies and dissatisfied soldiers from having the royals as an easy target. Nearly always such a design was a great idea, but now the four cursed it.

“Do you want to help her or let her have her fun?” Daranth suddenly asked after spectating the fight for a while.

“I'm good.” Vagha replied.

“Same.” “She can have them.” The others said. The only one who didn’t reply was Siurin.

“I still have to grow accustomed to my new body and she still needs some energy for the rest of the city.” He said after a moment, before dashing towards the fight.

“You take care of the remaining fourth ranks, we will deal with the rest?” Darganth proposed, earning the approval of the others.

While the eight remained and searched for their targets, Darganth, Allaire and Jennia leisurely made their way towards the army. When they started getting closer, Darganth and Jennia undid their transformation, while Allaire formed an aura armor around her. As Jennia had regularly received some of Darganth's blood during their travel, her dragon-hydra bloodline had developed tremendously.

While she had yet to gain an additionally head, her affinities have already started to increase. With Darganth's help she had also finally unlocked her third element, gaining elemental manipulation over the time element. This was even one head earlier than Enilla, who had gained time only at the fourth rank.

When the soldiers saw a dragon and a hydra walking towards them, they started panicking. While they didn't outright desert, the chaos that started to form among their ranks forced the third rank individuals to run around and calm the situation.

Taking advantage of their strongest fighters now being dispersed, Darganth picked one and activated his aura. With the green wind element swirling around him, it only took him one beat of his wings to cross over a hundred meters and arrive in front of his target.

Not giving the man enough time to react, he swung down his claw and cut cleanly through him. Searching for his next target, he found a first order aura expert who was currently bombarded with arrows from Allaire. Letting an earth spike impale his foot, Darganth slowed the man enough for to hit him where he wasn't covered in armor.

Despite its advantages over regular armor, the technique wasn't perfect. This lead to most only covering their upper body to retain their mobility, something that Allaire exploited by hitting the man's upper arm. With his right arm, the weapon wielding arm, too wounded, he was effectively taken out of the fight.

Jennia had in the meantime taken a similar approach to his and used an element in conjunction with her superior physique. Slowing everyone near her, she easily overpowered her weakened opponents. With the spell not directly targeting the enemies and instead the area around her, only few managed to even partially resist its effects.

Just as Darganth wanted to search for his next target, a peak third rank aura user rushed towards him. About half way to him the man started to hover at increasing attitude, until an aura avatar started forming around him. Pulling back its fist, the man tried to use the avatars momentum to overpower Darganth.

Not committing to such a disadvantageous battle, he instead gathered his mana in his maw. Unleashing his breath with a roar at nearly point blank, Darganth watched as the aura avatar was catapulted back over 150 meters. Before it could stand up, Darganth gathered mana for a second time.

This time not choosing his gravity breath, he unleashed a torrent of poisonous mist at his opponent. Not even a second later it impacted and slowly sank into the aura case around the man. While the avatar wasn't affected, the same couldn't be said about the surrounding soldiers. The mist that didn't manage to get through the outer layer of the avatar remained, instead spreading into the surroundings.

Sensing the poison reaching closer and closer to him, the aura user inside the avatar decided on one last charge at Darganth. While the construct nearly as tall as himself ran straight at him, Darganth just had an amused smile on his face. Just when his attacker reached back withing fifty meters of him, he spread his wings and clapped them together.

Seeing the resulting wave of wind nearing, the man's instincts started to scream danger. Before he could make sense of this, the wind started to behave unnaturally. As if passing around a thin object, it split in two. These two half's of the wind directly started rotating inwards, causing a small hurricane to form.

With Darganth enhancing its power with wind magic, it soon reached enough strength to bring the man off balance. Using the short window of opportunity, he dashed forwards and sunk his claw into the avatars chest. While it managed to initially resist his attack, soon the aura enhanced claw ripped through its defenses. With its core, the man who created the avatar, being killed, the aura construct soon faded.

With their strongest opposition dealt with, the three of them rampaged through the defenders nearly unopposed. While an early or advanced third rank individual would arrive occasionally, these reinforcements were dealt with quickly.

Soon the group of defenders around them started to run, having lost all chances to mount any meaningful opposition. Seeing their colleagues run, the nearby groups soon followed their example. While they had been ordered to offer assist them, their moral faltered when they saw the peak third rank dye.

Even their leaders started faltering, with most of the third ranks even joining their fleeing soldiers. Seeing them run through the city streets, soon caused the civilians to also start fleeing. This lead to chaos across the city, with nearly all its inhabitants trying to get out of the nearest gate. With the fourth ranks either dead or occupied elsewhere, they had no stabilizing factor.

While this was happening, Siurin and Averyla were starting to overwhelm their four opponents. With her serving as a distraction, he used this chance to test out his new powers. As soon as he joined the fight, black smoke started to form around him. Feeling the demonic mana it was made from, the four warriors tried to keep their distance.

It is well known that demonic mana excels at corrupting, something that makes it extremely dangerous to fight against. Under prolonged contact it could corrupt their entire body, something that would make them fall under the users control. Additionally it can even corrupt mana itself, making defending against it difficult once one came into contact.

Now having to be extra vigilant, the four quickly fell to a disadvantage. When he personally joined the fight, any semblance of hope left them. Pouncing on the first one, Siurin swung his claw towards the avatars head. With his new demonic mana he would only have to inflict a small cut in it and wait for the corruption to take effect.

While his target barely managed to dodge, he saw one of the others trying to strike his right side. Turning a bit, he let the strike hit one of the plates covering his body, deflecting it to harmlessly pass by him.

With his opponent now left defenseless, bit down of the avatars left shoulder. Feeling it bent under the force of his maw, he flung the man to the side. Landing next to the one who managed to dodge his strike, Siurin started circling his opponent.

The shoulder he bit into already started to become corrupted, changing the color of it to black. The two men also sensed the demonic mana to have taken hold, with the afflicted one starting to panic. While it only affected his avatar and was easily gotten rid of by simply dismissing it, he knew that loosing this much mana may cause them to loose.

Despite its size, it cost very little mana to keep up an aura avatar. Instead, the expenditure becomes great when first forming it and when repairing damage. So dismissing it and forming a new one in the middle of a fight was extremely dangerous, not just due to the moment of weakness.

Faced with this dilemma, he looked at his colleague for help. With a nod, the man got between him and Siurin protectively. Having the protection to safely form a new avatar, he let go of his hold on the mana surrounding him.

Smiling at this chance, Siurin arrived before the other one with raised claws in the blink of an eye. Slamming them down, the man managed to bring his sword between himself and the incoming attack. While the impact forced him down slightly, he managed to endure it.

Before the man could try to change the situation, Siurins tail shot forwards. Widening his eyes in fear, the man couldn't do anything as it struck the knee of his avatar. Striking with enough force to bend it inwards, the man was happy that he couldn't feel pain from impacts on the construct.

With his posture now destroyed, his defense quickly collapsed and he fell onto his back. Trying to roll away from the approaching claws, he barely managed to dodge the brunt of the strike. When he brightened himself, he directly felt something to be different. Despite his best efforts, his aura avatar had three deep gashes on his back.

While they were quickly filled, he could clearly sense the demonic mana intermixed with his. Forcing himself to remain calm, he planned to try and end the fight quickly. Sensing his colleague to position himself at his side, again in aura avatar, he became determined. Just as he brought his sword in front of him, he was overcome with hopelessness.

While the larger patch overshadowed it previously, he could now see and sense the demonic mana in his sword, directly where Siurin's claws touched it. In the hastily reaction before blocking them he had forgotten that there wasn't any difference between the sword and his body, both parts of the avatar made from the same mana. In theory he could use sharp enough nails to achieve the same cutting power, in this state it wouldn't matter.

Having tested the effectiveness of his new demonic mana, Siurin started channeling his dragons breath. Watching the expression of his two opponents to become filled with hopelessness, he exhaled the cone of demonic mana with a smile. Not having enough time to flee, the two were hit dead center by it.

Once it subsided, the space where the two previously stood was filled with thick black smoke. In this smoke Siurin could clearly see the remains of the two men, two slightly denser masses of demonic mana. Their entire being, body and soul, being torn apart from the demonic mana. Siurin had no use in getting them under his control so he just let the mana tear them apart.

Turning to Averyla, he saw that she had already ended her fight and was spectating him with interest. With his fight over, she made her way towards him. Arriving at his position in human form, she waited for him to also transform.

“Its good to have you back.” She said, hugging him one he finished transforming.

Staying like this for a bit, they simply stood in silence. Only after multiple minutes did Averyla let go of him, before stepping back and latting her gaze wander up and down his body.

“Both demonic and draconic mana?” She asked him slightly surprised.

“What can I say, I am no longer the weakest of us.” He said with a smile. Seeing her glare at him, he explained what had transpired.