Dragon Gods Reign

[Crimson Scale Clan]

Walking through the masses of beastmen of all kinds, Serania made her way out of the camp. Ever since her encounter with the solar dragon Bator, her tribe has been on the way up. The opportunity to become a part of a supreme clan was as rare as it was beneficial. Even if it came only due to her relation with Darganth, she didn't mind.

Compared to the small temporary camps of most tribes and clans, the living environment of supreme clans was incomparable. While still far from the cities of the other continents, it was a major improvement. The Crimson Scale Clan also stood out even amongst these, with it no longer being appropriate to call it a mere camp.

Wooden houses stood in orderly lines, with the traces on the path between them showing that they already stood for a long time. Walking on these streets were thousands of beastmen, the happy and carefree atmosphere standing in stark contrast to the usual tension on the beast continent.

Especially striking was the small number of people compared to the camps enormous size. Even the other supreme clans couldn't sustain this, the number of guards needed would simply eclipse the amount the population living in such a large space could provide.

The reason why this was possible here was the presence of Bator, a solar dragon of nearly a hundred thousand years old. Such an entity could rule nearly completely unchallenged on this continent, only a handful other dragons coming close to its power.

Of course he wasn't the first dragon and isn't even the currently only dragon that allied with a clan, but despite this they were the first one in recent memory to structure their entire life around this protection. A large part of this was that most dragons quickly grew bored of such deals, with few of staying for over a hundred years.

In Bator's case they had long since outgrown their fears of this happening, living under his protection since now nearly 1600 years. While they didn't know the exact reason why he stayed for this long, they didn't particularly care and simply enjoyed that he does.

After a few months staying here Serania had gathered the handful of thought they had about why he did, with most boiling down to their clan originating from a tribe of draconians. While often seen as merely a dragons foot-soldiers, she had noticed how he treated them and quickly became sure that this was at least part of the reason.

With her thoughts wandering to this, she again started to think about her own nature. Bator had quickly noticed her body to be preparing for a transformation, though her becoming a draconian was quickly ruled out. While there were draconians of both species of the void lineage as nearly all dragons can create some by letting a member of nearly all other species ingest a small amount of their blood through a special ritual, the transformation would start immediately and take only minutes.

While thinking about this, she soon reached the edge of the camp. Greeting the guards at the gate for a moment, she went a bit further until she was no longer in the are affected by the flight blocking formations. Instantly, she rose into the air.

Slowly accelerating herself, she flew towards a nearby mountain. Crossing the two kilometers in just a few seconds, she felt the sensation of passing into Bator's dragons fear that she had grown accustomed to.

Gracefully landing in front of the mansion that stood atop the hill, she greeted the two draconians standing guard before walking towards the door. As soon as she stepped near it it opened, allowing her to walk though it without interruption. After having seen it dozens of times, she no longer hesitated for fear of it not opening like she did at the beginning.

Finding herself in the familiar hall that is Bator's throne room, or at least something similar, she let her gaze sway around the room until she found the dragon. Seeing one of the doors at towards a neighboring room not fully closed, she rolled her eyes. Snapping her fingers and enhancing the sound, she made him aware of her presence and waited for him to come out.

Two minutes later a man with draconic eyes and a pair of horns walked out of the room. Seeing her he stopped for a second before continuing his path towards the throne standing at the opposite of the entrance.

“Already a week passed? Time sure does fly, felt like barely a day or two.” He said in a reminiscent tone.

“At least remember when I come visiting. It is strange enough for someone to not notice the passing of days.”

“Comes with the long live. Besides, you should probably grow accustomed with it as most dragons develop this tendency over time.” Bator said.

“Still doesn't mean I like it. Especially if I have to fear walking into one of you orgies when stepping into this room. And I know that I would be far from the first person, such stories spread fast.”

At this his thoughts seemed to drift for a moment. Soon he tensed up for a moment before turning back to her a bit less carefree.

“Maybe you are right, no idea how sensible you lover is. His kind are somewhat eccentric even by the standards of dragons, some rumors say that people died just for once being in love with one of their partners.” He said with a wary smile.

“That I wouldn't worry about, but still try from causing my fears to become reality.” Seraina said with a friendly smile.

Seeing him nod to this, she internally thanked Darganth. While Bator wasn't someone who would force his will on others, he was still somewhat persistent with his flirtations and she was glad to have been spared from them.

Additionally it served to greatly lessen her worries when she first noticed the slight traces of fear in him whenever Darganth was mentioned. And while she had initially thought it to be somewhat exaggerated, after he explained her the true reason why there are no gods in this world this sentiment changed.

Though throughout the time he helped her with perfecting her magic she had noticed another emotion he directed towards Darganth and that is hope. When she pressed him for this, he was initially reluctant but agreed after some time.

He told her about why there were no dragons above a certain age in this world, something that she previously never knew about. After going through her memories she found not a single mention of this and he explained that to his knowledge only dragons know of it.

Apparently the Locis Clan forces all dragons outside their clan above a hundred thousand years to remain at the dragon peaks or leave the world. While he knew their reason for doing this, it being the regions superior ability to shield them from the eyes of gods, he wasn't ready to abandon the clan despite this.

Even with the knowledge that it may lead to unwanted attention from the gods or conflict with the Locis, he was prepared to defy them. Though now he hoped that through Darganth he could at least stop the second case from happening.

Apart from this slight damper to her mood, she greatly enjoyed her time here. Under Bator's training she managed to bring her ability beyond that what the knowledge Darganth gave her allowed. While she was initially surprised as she thought it to be already perfect, Bator quickly corrected her.

As the knowledge she had received was very similar to a dragons innate knowledge at birth it also had the same weak points. No matter how perfect it was, no generalized knowledge could ever fit perfectly for someone. This perfect fit doesn't even remain the same across a persons life and often not even for multiple months.

This meant that she had to learn how to make the fine adjustments herself as this was far too individual to be truly taught. Instead, everybody had to find their own way to achieve this, allowing them to always make small adjustments and remain in perfect form.

As it was a complicated technique that only really served a purpose once a person reached the general peak only few managed to achieve it. Even while learning from one of the oldest dragons outside the dragon peaks she barely managed to scratch the surface of it even after weeks.

Standing it the hall, showing Bator her progress and listening to his advice, Serania suddenly snapped her head to the side. Looking towards the south with a frown as she thought to have noticed a strangely familiar feeling, she turned back slightly irritated.

Though when her gaze landed on Bator this turned to shock. He was currently staring with eyes wide from shock into the same direction, shaken from whatever happened.

“What is?”

“How? Even he shouldn't-” He started before suddenly glancing towards Serania.

After a moment his eyes widened in surprise and he stared at her in shock. Mumbling something under his breath, he took a few seconds to calm himself.

“Sorry, I was just surprise.”

“What was that?” She asked him.

“The Void. Even I don't know much, the two clans keep most of the knowledge to themselves. Though that is somewhat understandable, it is more or less their home.” He explained.

“The two clans? Do you mean Locis and Tempust?”

“Yes. How much do you know about them? And I mean truly know about their species, not about some of its members.” He asked. Thinking for a moment about this, Seraina only came upon things he told her.

“Nothing apart from what you told me, even most of your clan never even heard of them.” She said.

“That is to be expected, they always preferred to keep to themselves. What you just felt is intrinsically linked to their origin, so please keep it to yourself. You see, the two species are the closest dragons to our god and their members are the only ones to safely navigate the void apart from him. But even they aren't able to cross it or summon a part of it into down onto a world. As for what that was, that was an opening to the void which means-” He said, leaving the rest of the sentence away.

Shocked by this revelation, Serania wordlessly stared into the air. For her who had lived her entire life in a world without gods to learn about the presence about the god of all dragons, not just an ascended dragon, was a major shock.

She only came out of her stupor when over two dozen people suddenly teleported into the hall. Shocked by this, she quickly materialized tens of magic circles around her and only her remembering where she was in time kept the magic from activating.

Looking at the gathered group in caution, she turned to Bator. Seeing him nod, she let her spells dissolve and calmed down.

“Can she-” One of them started but was quickly cut short by Bator.

“She is allowed to hear it.” He said, shutting the man up.

While this was happening, Serania let her gaze over the group. Soon noticing many of them having the similar draconic features to Bator, she remembered what he said about dragons in human form and pieced the two thing together.

“I take it you felt it too?”

“Yes.” Bator answered.

“Do you plan on going over there? Because I don't know whether he wants the presence of anyone apart from high tier dragons.” This question prompted Bator to shake his head. Seeing the looks of confusion, he raised his hand to shut them up before they started asking questions.

“I won't go there because even my kind will probably be only tolerated. Trust me when I say that there are far more important beings here than even my kind.” He explained.

“Who? Nothing for centuries and even rumors about his death, who could live in this remote universe that he would want to visit?” One of them asked.

“Rumors about his death?” Seraina asked confused. Seeing all gazes turn towards her, she felt her hairs stand on edge.

“Nothing of your interest beastmen. While I don't know why he allowed you to stay here, better keep to you station.” One of the dragons said with a sneer.

Seeing this Bator sighed at his impulsive actions. He knew that the man ruled a clan a bit further away despite being a dragon barely two hundred years old who never trained. Slightly disappointed that he let this get to his head, manifesting in an unfounded arrogance instead of the usual pride of a dragon, he initially wanted to ignore him. But when he noticed the mana around the man flicker for a moment, he intervened.

“Stop it.” Bator said, “Attacking a bearer of the void mark is a stupid thing to do, even by your standards.”

This instantly caused a wave of shock to spread through the gathered group. Looking towards her in visible surprise, it took a while for them to calm down again. By then she could clearly notice most of them glancing towards her from time to time despite their main focus being on Bator.

“That explains you point. With one of the Void-born being here I doubt we are welcomed no matter how much we want to get our questions answered. If you learn anything new you will contact us or?” One of them asked to which Bator nodded. Seeing this they teleported away again.

Watching in silence, Serania turned to him just to notice Bator's absentminded expression. After a moment of thought, she waited in silence for him to order his thoughts. About two minutes later he slowly returned to his usual demeanor but she could see that he only hid his inner thoughts.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh, yes. I'm just mentally somewhere else right now so this will have to be it for today. His presence here changes things massively.” He said.

Nodding in understanding, Serania made her way back out of the mansion. Flying back towards the clan, she soon landed back in front of the gate and made her way to her house.

Bator meanwhile remained deep in his thoughts. Compared to her, his senses had picked up many more details of the void tunnel and even the weak mana signature connected to it. It had taken him not even a second to notice it being the same as the one on her, making him quickly connect the dots.

Though this only served to further his confusion as in his mind the mana was far too weak to belong to Darganth. Though this confusion is understandably as normally a god would resurrect with his power fully intact.

No matter how much he thought about it, it didn't make sens to him. The few possibilities that came to him were soon ruled out due to the presence of the Locis clan on the world.

No matter how much Bator hated Irsyr's rule, he couldn't deny the power and skill he possessed. Anything short of a primordial descending in person could be dealt by him even if it would lay waste to the entire planet, of that Bator was sure. And never in a million years would Irsyr's willingly endanger Darganth, that much even he knew.

While he thought about asking Serania for a moment, he quickly realized that he likely didn't include that in the knowledge he gave her so he ditched the idea. This meant that he only knew that Darganth was in this world and massively weakened.

Sighing at the implications of that and the trouble it would bring, he let himself fall onto his throne.