Dragon Gods Reign

[Dwarf fortress]

The group that just arrived in the fortress eyed them wary, with the dwarfs keeping their crossbows pointed at them.

“Who are you?” One of the dwarfs shouted at them.

Sensing him to be the only one who was a mana user and his vastly better weapon, Darganth inferred him to be the leader of the dwarfs.

“Just a group on their way to the capital.” Darganth answered nonchalant, “And before you ask, yes we destroyed this outpost, but it was only after we were attacked first.”

“Then tell me why we shouldn't kill you right this instant.”

“Really? Because as far as I can see, I dealt with a group of rebels for you.” Darganth answered in an annoyed tone. This conversation was refreshing his memory as to why he hated dealing with dwarfs.

“We could have done so ourselves.”

“Maybe, but this is still easier, isn't it? Besides, I doubt it was cheap to hire these three so just stop with this facade. I know your situation, you won't be able to trick me into a disadvantageous deal.”

Just as the man wanted to scoff at Darganth's claim, he was stopped by the woman standing behind him. Seeing her confirming Darganth's words with just a glance, he was left speechless but nonetheless trusted her judgment.

“Then what do you want?” He asked, his previous outrage gone.

“Better.” Darganth said with a smirk, “Just let me use one of your forges for a bit, I won't even need materials.”

“Then fight for us. Your destruction of these traitors is enough for me to overlook the damage this fort sustained and a bit, but not enough to give you access to the forges.”

Sighing, Darganth looked towards Jennia and Allaire for confirmation on what to do next. With Jennia just shrugging her shoulders while Allaire nodded approvingly the decision was made quickly.

“We will help you two weeks.” Darganth said.

“Two? You mus be joking” One of the two beasts said in disdain but was quickly shut up by the woman.

“Six.” The dwarf offered.

“Four and we get the forges before we help you, that's the most I will offer.” Darganth said, not interested in a drawn out discussion.

While the dwarf fell into though, considering the offer, Darganth could see the annoyance bubbling in both beasts. And while one of the two remained professional about it and tried to hide it, the other was just a step from exploding after being ignored.

“Are you really considering such an insane offer, to value the help of this mere human as similar to ours?” The beast asked, offended by the notion.

“And you better stop talking nonsense or I will make you.” He threatened, “Hmfp, another weakling thinking too highly of himself.”

Seeing this the other beast just sighed as if he had already seen this happening dozens of times. The woman was meanwhile a bit more careful, already planing to move and stop her subordinate.

She had noticed the extend of the damage that the walls had received early on and was thus wary of the three of them. Just as she was about to berate the man for his actions, Darganth spoke up.

“Weakling?” Darganth retorted in an insulted tone, “I dare you, repeat those words and I will let you feel what it is to be a weakling.”

With those words his dragons fear exploded outwards without holding back.

The dwarfs who weren't mana users just instantly fell over unconscious. Their leader's reaction wasn't as extreme, with him still remaining conscious but unable to move.

The effect on the two beast was just barely weaker despite both being mythical ranks, even though they achieved this only recently, as their instincts screamed at them to just hide. Still, their reason prevailed enough to allow both to transform back into their true form, though shrunken.

But the hardest hit was the woman who just froze up before turning back to her true form in its full size. In an instant her body broke the nearby wall as the space became occupied by an over a hundred meters long drake like body.

Not even registering this, her two subordinates were taken by surprise when her front legs descended on them and she pinned them to the ground with her claws. Just as they were about to ask what what was happening, they saw Darganth's illusionary true form behind him.

While their thoughts simply stopped, Darganth completely ignored them and focused on the draconic being before him. While he had felt the dragon mana, it was too well hidden for him to associate it with a species but now he could clearly identify her.

Standing before him with a body even bulkier than that of a drake, scales of the same coloration as his but only silver highlights around the edges and without wings, he was confident that she was a drake turned draconian. Or more specifically, a drake turned draconian by a member of the Locis clan.

A draconian's body would differ from which species they were turned, with most species having a unique look while all humanoids shared the same. Most would only identify the latter as a draconian, leading to the wrong assumption that the transformation ritual could only work on humanoids.

“Not so confident now, are you?” Darganth asked mockingly.

“Who. Are. You.” The draconian asked with great difficulty, fighting against his command.

“First, can you keep these two in check?” He asked, receiving a slight nod after a moment.

Dropping the dragons authority, Darganth waited a moment for the atmosphere to calm down. Being the first to get out of her stupor, the draconian returned to her previous humanoid form.

While the group was still recovering from what happened, Jennia and Allaire walked closer.

“Been since that idiot son of Gervas that I saw you reacting this extreme.” Allaire commented.

“He just ticked me off. And unluckily for him I can order his boss around and a peak fourth rank draconinan can even win against someone like him. Though any mythical rank that deserves the title would be a problem, to our luck these two aren't ones.”

“Guessed so.”

“Maybe the beasts just use those that are useless in a fight as diplomats, would at least most of their problems in that regard.” Jennia added with a provoking grin.

“What did you-” The man in question shouted before a glare from the drake caused him to keep shut.

“Just stop.” She said with a sigh.

Leaving a second of pause till her subordinate shrunk back from her constant glare, she turned to Darganth.

“Now that that is dealt with, what are you doing here? I don't believe for even a second that you would come here for something this simple.” She asked.

Her tone carried a confidence as if she wasn't completely at Darganth's mercy, something that amused him.

“Believe what you want but that's it.”

Not bothering with her stare full of suspicions, he turned to the dwarf leader. Snapping his fingers a few times to get him out of his unmoving state.

“W-What?”

Jumping up with those words he looked around cautiously before his eyes stopped on Darganth. Despite shaking slightly, he tried to keep up a brave front.

“And?” Darganth asked.

“Yes, of course. Four weeks.” The man quickly replied.

“Great.” He answered with a smile.

Just then he remembered the men that passed out from his dragons fear, prompting him to add, “Right, they exist. Don't worry, just give it some time and they will recover.”

Choosing to ignore the indifferent tone with which Darganth treated his men, the leader just nodded.

Seeing that their conversation had stalled and with nothing more to discuss, Darganth sat down together with Jennia and Allaire while they waited for the group of dwarfs to recover..

After some time the drake walked towards them, prompting Darganth to paused and turn towards her.

“I've been wondering, who are you that you can freely leave the dragon peaks? Even my lady can't do so freely so I doubt a nobody like you could.”

“Nobody?” Darganth asked perplexed.

“For your kind.” She clarified.

“But who said that's the case?”

“Please, I would know of prominent Locis that are barely a decade old.” She scoffed.

“And I don't know that one of Irsyr's children created a draconian. Some knowledge just takes a bit longer to spread.” Darganth replied.

This shocked her and not just due to the confidence with which he stated that she was transformed by a child of Irsyr. It was also due to the fact that his voice didn't contain the usual reverence at the mention of the name that was common when referring to dragons of such standing.

At the same time, Allaire and Jennia were trying their best and barely managing to keep their laughter from erupting due to the conversation they were witnessing.

“How did you know?” She asked in shock.

“Who else would he allow to act this freely? Though I wonder which of them it is, the youngest or one of those that I know.” He mused with a grin.

These words caused the woman's brain to short circuit for a moment. Simultaneously Allaire and Jennia could no loner hold back their laughter, adding on to her confusion.

Processing what was happening with disbelieve, she took a while to come out of her stupor.

“Yldra, the youngest.”

“Would have guessed so. Probably gave her some task to let her gather some experience.”

This caused her curiosity to overflow and she could no longer keep herself from asking away.

“Who are you?”

“Wouldn't it be reasonable to introduce yourself first?” Dargnath said.

“Sarkia, right hand of Yldra”

“Darganth.” He just answered before adding after a short pause, “Yes, the Darganth.”

This caused Sarkia to just freeze up, thrown back even beyond the previous stupor. This came from her thoughts starting to constantly wane between denial and disbelieve, something that reflected in her expression.

Cutting in before she could express her doubts, Darganth transformed his right arm that glowed with the usual color pattern.

“Enough to believe me?”

“Yes.” Sarkia answered absentmindedly.

Hearing her answer Darganth left her to her thoughts. For minutes she just stayed standing around, processing what had happened just now.

“Now I understand why you simply used dragons authority, what do you care if one of them complains.” She whispered to herself after a while.

Overhearing this, Darganth let out a small chuckle at her ignorance. While her words were true and it is considered rude to exercise control over the subordinates of another dragon like he did, it was still commonplace. Though this in turn lead to certain ways to mitigate this danger, though all held certain limitations.

“More like it allowed me to even do it.” He said, having decided to clear up her misunderstanding.

“What?”

“Thanks to Yldra you are largely immune, don't know why she didn't tell you.” He said.

Prompted by her confused expression he gave her the explanation about her misconceptions concerning dragons authority.

“So she used one such method to keep me safe without me knowing? How?”

“Her own authority. While it doesn't hold indefinitely, orders given can last month's at a time. This leads to an easy method to protect ones subordinates. Just give them an order that doesn't influence them and it will cancel out when the person is affected by another dragon's authority.” He explained.

“Of course it has shortcomings, mainly that it doesn't last long under constant exposure. But it's safer than artifacts and the like as it can't be turned against you, so it's popular.”

While this explanation answered her questions, it also brought up many questions for her.

“It seems that you really trust Yldra.” Darganth said after a bit of silence.

“Of course, but how could you tell?”

“You didn't doubt whether your thoughts were controlled like most would.” He answered, “And before you ask, yes you would know if it had been the case. Both orders cancel each other out so neither would affect you during their contest. Though in my case my order overruled the other, causing it to become inactive and only reemerge once my authority vanished.”

“Even though I never doubted her, that relieving to hear.” Sarkia said.

Following this exchange their conversation started to die down somewhat. Sarkia asked Darganth about the other methods to resist dragon's authority and he gave limited explanations, mainly leaving out those that would affect even him.

Soon the dwarfs had somewhat recovered enough for them to make their way to the capital city of the mountains. While they still flinched every time Darganth looked in their direction, they largely followed their leaders orders and didn't become dominated by their fear of him. With none being mana users, Darganth couldn't help but be impressed by this.

Like this they soon walked through the portal that Sarkia had conjured which brought them as close to the city as she could. Thanks to the high affinity towards the space element she gained from being a draconian of the Locis, this was actually further than the current Darganth could have teleported.

Standing before them was a cave entrance of monumental size, with a tunnel that lead further down on the other side.

Around them towered the crown of the montains, its tall peaks stretching high enough that they didn't just scrape the edge of the chaotic mana current. And while their bases were plastered in enormous fortresses that were large enough to easily let even a mythical rank through their gates, most of their height was empty, at least on a first glance.

Though upon a closer look Darganth couldn't help but smile, feeling the unmistakable presence of dragon mana in the air. And while the few presences he could sense were only fire dragons, they still matched the dwarfs in power. Adding to that the fact that his authority could reach most of the caves, he just gained another invaluable card.

While these thought flashed through his mind, their group was making their way into the cave. It didn't take long for them to encounter the edges of the city, with a wall from ground to ceiling blocking their path.

Despite this they continued onwards, the manned weapon emplacements and embrasure's with crossbows pointed outwards completely ignoring them.

When they came close to the gate it opened automatically, though only a fraction when compared to its size. Still, this nearly five meter wide slit allowed them to easily pass through and reach the other side.

As soon as they did, Allaire and Jennia gasped in awe while even Darganth became impressed by the sight stretching before them.

Sprawling before them in a giant, dome like cave with a ceiling hundreds of meters up was a city. And even though they stood at ground level, the large straight street directly before them made it easy to estimate the massive scale of the city they stepped foot in.