Dragon Gods Reign

[Royal palace]

When Verid landed before the palace not even half a minute later he was instantly greeted by roughly half a dozen spells flying toward him. Suppressing the urge to act as usual and flaunt his power by just tanking them, he calmly moved out of their trajectory.

Sensing them readying a second volley he let himself drop to the ground and as soon as his feet stomped down, a crack in the form of a small line spread toward their formation. Under their feet it then broke open, impaling them on a series of earth spikes that grew upwards.

Just as he was about to continue onwards and step through the gate, he noticed the absence of bodies in the wake of his attack. In the same instance, a new wave of attacks flew towards him from his right and forced him to expend even more valuable mana to dodge.

Punching toward the direction of that group, he looked past the small rock bullets that shot up from the ground and followed after his aura projectile. Instead, he kept his gaze on the mages without blinking, he watched as his projectile cleaved a line through their formation while the projectiles scattered, striking the remaining ones.

But instead of bodies falling to the ground, the mage's images simply faded as the illusion became useless and its caster stopped supplying the spell with mana. Frustrated that he likely fell for the same trick twice, Verid was just about to rush into the palace to try and find Karrazil when he saw the mages standing before the entrance.

Seeing the number of defensive spells each had deployed he frowned while looking for an alternative way of entry. Seeing each window being sealed by an uncountable amount of enchantments and knowing how robust the walls were he realized that this was the best way.

“Step aside and you will live.” He told the mages, hoping to prevent having to spend unnecessary mana.

But despite being faced with a mythical rank, the group of third ranks held firm, answering him by casting even more spells. While he was slightly puzzled by this reaction, Verid no longer hesitated and dashed towards them with all his strength.

With the world blurring around him as his eyes could not keep up with his speed, he kept the situation in mind and struck towards where the nearest mages should be. But instead of feeling his fist impact against flesh, it encountered no resistance, something that was impossible even if he considered a mage's weaker body.

And just a moment after he saw the reason for this when his body came to a halt. Instead of seeing the insides of the castle as he had expected, he found himself a few hundred meters behind his initial position. Barely catching a glimpse of the portal closing behind him, he realized that there were enemies that could exploit his weaknesses even better than Rulic.

“Sixty-eight seconds, does that tell you something?” Darganth asked from his position inside the palace.

Hearing his voice echoing from inside the palace as if to confirm his suspicions, Verid's fear started to resurface. He himself couldn't make such an accurate estimate of his remaining time in the boosted state, only being able to pinpoint it with about five seconds deviation. And while there was the possibility of it only being a guess, the fact that it matched nearly perfectly with his estimates concerned him.

This single sentence caused him to hesitate a second before continuing his assault, wasting some of the little time he had. When he did continue forwards he had to be careful lest another portal opens up before him.

Thus he reached the palace only when he had sixty-one seconds left, having counted down from the time Darganth had named. This time there were no mages that obstructed his path, leaving him free reign to step into the palace.

Preparing himself to face an onslaught as soon as his perception returned, he was instead greeted by only a single aura user. But despite this he frowned when he saw this, standing still with a complicated expression on his face.

“Hello, father.” Tyren said with seemingly no fear.

“My traitorous son, what a coincidence.”

Ignoring the irony of a rebel calling him traitorous, Tyren stared his father in the eyes. Instead of seeing any of the fatherly love he had hoped to find he was met with eyes filled with disappointment and determination.

“You don't have to do this, you will only complicate things.” Tyren nonetheless tried to argue.

“You had better ideas in the past. Step aside son, I won't give you more than that.”

“And I have seen you in better states, where did you leave your arm?” Tyren replied, hoping to stall for a bit longer.

Ignoring his son's answer, Verid stepped forwards, knowing that the time he still had before his boost ended was limited.

“Why are you insisting on doing this, have you truly lost the last bit of empathy for others? Because I remember a time before you saw your own soldiers as simple numbers, when you were not just ruthless but also fair.”

Ignoring his son's words, Verid just walked past him and towards the entrance to the throne room. Even when Tyren flared his mana and punched him, he simply ignored it even though the poison weakened him enough that he felt it.

Pushing open the door, he saw nearly a thousand dwarfs cowering at the hall's walls. Despite this number they barely covered a tenth of the space, giving the small group of aura users and mages standing just below the throne enough room.

Ignoring the civilians for now as he could still deal with them even when he is weakened, he tried and failed to find Karrazil in the group.

“So the prince has abandoned you but you still fight for him. A laughable bunch, that is what you all are.” He said, his voice booming across the room.

Still, the group held firm. Seeing the familiar faces of the mages that brought him his previous troubles, he started to smile in delight.

'Fifty-two seconds.' He thought, thinking of the most amusing way to deal with them.

“Not as brave now that you can no longer hide behind those pesky illusions. Who of you was that, tell me and I will give you a quick death.” Verid said, carefully watching their reactions.

When two seconds later he saw no obvious glances to one of them and with none taking him up on his offer, he prepared to just give them all the same treatment. Just as he was about to rush towards them he saw Tyren push past him, now armed with a sword.

Positioning himself between Verid and the group, he stared at his father in defiance while holding his weapon in a defensive posture. Verid was just about to just ignore him again when he started speaking.

“It was mother right?” He said, causing Verid to freeze mid-action.

Slowly his expression sank but Tyren nonetheless continued, “You can't stand the fact that she, a woman without any strong background, surpassed you. Not just that, she dared to go towards the emperor's capital even though you told her not to. Ever since you had that fight you were never the same, you just couldn't accept the fact that she achieved your family's goal before you.”

At these words, Verid's anger slowly started to grow. Compared to the indifferent look that he had previously given Tyren, he now was fuming with rage.

“Do not mention her in my presence son, though I can see the resemblance. It seems that I am cursed with a family that betrays and turn their backs towards me.”

“Betrayal? Just because she succeeded where you failed?”

“That should have been my spot, without her I would have gotten it!” Verid shouted back at him, barely keeping from lashing out.

“And now you will never get there and with it, the title 'best of the worst' will remain stuck to our family.” Tyren taunted back, causing Verid to fully lose his composure.

At this Tyren couldn't help but smile slightly, his plan having succeeded. He knew that his father hated that title, it being a constant reminder that while their family was famous for being the top powerhouses in these mountains for generations, they never managed the jump into the emperor's direct service.

Thus he exploited this to get his father to waste mana and with it his remaining time, unconcerned for the danger this put him in. Watching easily ten seconds of Verid's boost vanish as his mana spread throughout the room without effect, he didn't even care for the aura projectile that flew towards him while trailed by a concentrated mass of wind.

As soon as the attack hit him he was flung against one of the walls before the wind forced him back toward the center of the hall. Crashing to the ground while coughing up blood, he felt his father's foot stopping him before pressing down on his chest.

Slowly his vision started to fade as the air was pressed out of his lungs but his mind was only filled with his regrets.

'Sorry Edra, I won't keep my promise.' He thought while his consciousness started to fade.

The last thing he saw before everything went dark was an unidentifiable figure rushing towards his father while swinging a sword. Following this, he still managed to feel the pressure on his chest vanishing and the figure saying something to his father, though he was unable to hear the words.

Meanwhile, Verid was looking at the woman that forced him to delay his son's death with some annoyance. More precisely he was looking at the swords she was wielding, recognizing it to be one of the weapons Kheduil personally crafted.

“Don't you dare take a single step towards him!” She said, the sword glowing green across its entire blade.

Recognizing it to be merely a healing spell of plant magic that is engraved into the weapon, Verid was just about to swat her aside when he felt the poison acting up again. Barely catching himself to keep from falling over mid-run, he took a second glance at the spell only to find a small tether of mana latched onto him and fueling Tyren's recovery at the cost of his own health. While only

a temporary weakening, it allowed the poison to quickly spread.

“So my son now has to rely on a woman to protect him, how pathetic.” Verid said while destroying the tether.

“He didn't learn how to treat his partner from you so I will gladly stand by his side no matter when.” The woman, Edra, replied.

Hearing this, Verid broke out into laughter. Sizing Edra up without care for the time limit he was on, he sneered in disdain.

“It seems so, otherwise he would have gotten himself a woman with either more worth or at least a more beautiful one.” He said before walking towards the two.

“But good that you arrived and even woke him up, I will enjoy his expression when I kill you.” Verid said with a hateful glare, his words causing Tyren to stir slightly.

Hopefully glancing to his side just to see the group of mages and aura users too fearful to intervene, he tried to force himself up. Seeing this struggle, Verid started to laugh while approaching them, mentally counting down his remaining time, though now only estimates.

'Twenty-seven. Fuck, I shouldn't have used so much mana.' He thought.

When he arrived before the two he just slapped the sword out of Edra's grasp, before lifting her up by the throat despite her best attempts to resist.

“Such a weakling, I would have found it shameful had my bloodline mixed with hers.” He said, unconcerned for Tyren who by then managed to get himself onto his knees.

Hearing his father's words and seeing Edra gasping for air, he managed to call upon the last bit of his strength to lift himself fully off the ground. His mind racing about what to do, he slowly started to panic and thus did the best thing that came to him.

Reeling back his fist, he punched against the wound on Verid's abdomen with as much aura enhancement as he could draw upon. The instant his fist connected Verid reeled back, his missing right arm preventing him from acting effectively without letting go of Edra.

Just as he was about to snap her neck to free up his hand, Verid's second strike hit him right at the wound on the right side of his chest.

Pain incomparably greater than before assaulted his senses, the shock making him step back and allowing Edra to free herself from his grip.

Stepping back behind Tyren while coughing, she frantically searched for the sword. Finding it a few meters from them, could only frown and give up on reaching it. When Tyren then started to wane, having exhausted his entire energy while freeing her, she caught him before he fell and positioned herself between him and Verid.

Slowly backing away while he was still distracted, she barely managed to make it three meters before he recovered and his gaze snapped toward them.

“Where do you think you are going?” He growled and Edra already considered their lives forfeit. Thinking of all the people they saved in return, she smiled while closing her eyes and accepted what was coming for them.

But the expected pain never set in, instead, she suddenly heard a thud and Verid growling in anger. Opening her eyes, she nearly jumped back in panic as she saw Darganth standing before them with Verid falling before him as if he was kneeling.

“Now this is a posture from you I can accept, though it won't save you.” Darganth said mockingly, a wide grin on his face.