Dragon Gods Reign

[Royal palace]

Having watched the fight from the room where he and Karrazil were overlooking the battle above the city, Darganth waited till the last moment to intervene. More precisely he hoped that Tyren and Edra could keep Verid busy long enough that he doesn't have to intervene.

Frowning, he teleported down into the hall and instantly cast about a dozen different formless spells at Verid. Instantly his movement turned sluggish, being faced with their full effects as he had no mana to spare to block their effects. When the psychic spells started messing with his perception this got even worse, going as far as causing him to drop to the ground.

Ignoring the mocking words that Darganth said to this, he pushed himself off the ground before accustoming himself to the spell's effects. Within a second he had a clear overview of the level to which his strength dropped and he turned his attention to Darganth.

“What did you hope to achieve, even now I can squash a little mage like you with ease.” Verid said before dashing forward and instantly arriving before Darganth.

Punching towards the latter’s head, Verid watched with wide eyes as his fist missed its intended target. Simultaneously he felt another impact at the wound on his abdomen, though this time he only gritted his teeth and went on.

But Darganth wasn't finished yet, enhancing himself with a mix of time, light, and lightning aura to reach a speed at which Verid in his current state couldn't react despite being able to follow him. Landing strike after strike while weaving through the attempted retaliations, he quickly started to push him back though at a massive mana cost.

Then, after over fifty hits, he saw the opening he had been trying to create. In an instant, the color of his aura seemingly lost two colors while the time element's emerald color lost some of its gleam. While this massively reduced the speed of his movement, he was already too close for Verid to react.

With a protrusion not so dissimilar to that used by Rulic growing out of his forearm, he pierced into the still-open wound and ripped it open even further.

While Verid let out a low howl when the pain from this registered, Darganth's lower speed allowed him to swing his left arm right on time to push him back.

Along with the arm impacting against his shoulder, Darganth felt the spike snapping and some of his bones cracking. His mimic did not even twitch from this pain, instead he used the strike against his shoulder to create distance between the two of them.

Glancing down at his arm, he momentarily considered turning back to his true form to regain the full capabilities of the limb. But upon closer inspection he noticed the damage to his arm being less than he had thought, prompting him to just help his natural healing with a spell.

At the same time he changed his transformation to get rid of the remaining traces of the spikes, no longer seeing a reason to keep them. Especially considering that both regenerating them and growing new ones wasn't worth it.

Adding limbs, and even just smaller additions like these spikes, with the help of polymorph was always a mana-costly use of the ability that was to be used cautiously, especially when compared to the near zero cost that inured when transforming with the same six limbs or less.

While he was making this decision, Verid was barely keeping on his feet while pressing his hand onto the wound. Compared to before his complexion, that had already suffered from the initial poisoning, was far worse.

“Some lesser world serpent, wasn't it? Never bothered to learn how to differentiate between the classification but it seems that this trick nonetheless worked.”

“What have you done?” Verid asked him with slightly fearful eyes.

Compared to before the poison inside his system nearly doubled in strength, sapping most of his remaining power. Forget a fourth rank, he currently wasn't even sure anymore if his power was above that of a third rank aura user, even with his boost still active. And seeing Darganth, of whom he knew that he was a mage, using aura, his hope for victory fell sharply.

“I boosted the poison's effect with another one, what else. By itself it would barely have any effect, but it is very compatible with world serpent poison and boosts its effects. Seemingly this is also the case with the poison of its lesser descendants.”

“Another bastard that knows nothing of honor, detestable. Fight me fair and square instead of with these pesky tricks.” Verid demanded.

“You still haven't learned your lesson, have you?” Darganth said but nonetheless, he rushed towards him.

Instead of using aura as he had done previously, he conjured a sword made from silvery space energy. With this weapon in hand, he closed the gap before slashing toward Verid.

Each of his strikes was executed flawlessly, evading his opponent's left arm that was covered in aura armor, while leaving deep cuts with each swing. Even Verid's superior physique didn't help him, the now negligible advantage he had being easily nullified by Darganth's far superior skill.

With each attack, Verid backed away further while Darganth's strikes became far more aggressive. With it, the grin he had since the beginning of the fight also widened until it slowly morphed into amused laughter.

Soon Verid was pressed back far enough that his back hit the hall's wall, the civilians that were there previously having scattered as soon as they neared. Feeling this, he didn't attempt to block Darganth's next attack and instead tried hitting him one last time.

Pushing himself forwards, his fist descended on Darganth while he was just about to swing his sword. Calling upon the remainder of his mana to increase his chances, Verid reinforced the aura armor around his fist while also adding a series of spikes at its knuckles.

But despite these attempts his attack failed, with Darganth just stepping back and watching as he collapsed with the momentum of his own swing.

“Ah, that was more fun than I expected but sadly I had delayed too long. A minute ago this fight could have been far more entertaining.” He said, looking down at Verid's broken and battered form with some regret despite having an amused smile on his lips.

“Then this is how it ends, huh? Me dying at the hands of a nobody after all these generations of my ancestors perfecting our bloodline.” Verid said, not even attempting to stand up.

Even under normal circumstances, he would be greatly weakened after his technique ran out, now with the addition of the poison he could barely move. But despite this he still had a smile on his lips, rolling onto his back while staring at Darganth with hate-filled eyes.

“Enjoy your victory while it lasts.” He coughed, his grin slowly widening as Darganth's expression sank.

And while he thought it to be caused by his word, Darganth's abrupt change from being elated to wariness stemmed from his own instincts. Perceiving an unknown danger and not knowing its source, his vision instantly shifted.

The first thing he noticed was that he was completely fine, though his body was staring at the dead form of Verid with pure rage. Ignoring this he turned his sight from himself, the sight in the remainder of the room causing his gaze to harden. Instead of the thousands of civilians that were sheltered inside the palace, he saw just as many rotting corpses.

This made him sneer in disdain, the act of purposefully targeting them is as unnecessary as it was cruel. While he generally saw mana less individuals as beneath his notice and rarely cared for their presence, he never specifically targeted them. He may be doing this because of how little they mattered to him and he may not care if they are caught in the crossfire of his fights, but this was a low even he witnessed rarely.

But this was far from being all and as soon as he turned around he saw the group of mana users including Tyren and Edra in a similar state. While their bodies were still in slightly better condition, they had died just the same.

With this Darganth instantly realized what was happening, a death magic spell that burned through the target's lifespan. This also explained his state, with the spell not inducing death but aging it had no effect on him.

But as soon as he realized this his eyes widened and his vision shifted once more. Instead of finding himself in the same spot as he had done previously, he now stood inside his room.

There he found Jennia and Allaire, both having been affected by the same spell. While Allaire was in a similar state as the mana users in the hall, Jennia looked the same but he still felt the lack of life in her.

In just the short instance that he saw this scene his rage boiled over and the future sight spell he was using came to an end. Standing back in the exact same position as he had been previously, his face twisted into pure rage.

Keeping himself together to use another time spell, he chose the future he had just seen as the source to determine what causes led to the event. Using his extremely sped-up thoughts to review the picture flooding his mind while the world stood still, he saw each and every decision that lead to the event starting from the ones closest to it.

Before his eyes, a mythical rank death mage of the rebels used a large-scale spell with the help of world magic, the second order great mage ability, to bring death to tens of thousands. Then he saw him receiving the target with the help of a magical item. And finally, he saw Verid activate it along with his final attack, as well as its location on his body.

Without hesitation, his sword struck there, easily cutting through Verid's body, the magical item as well as the ground as the strength he used was too great for him to stop his own swing.

Only then did Darganth allow himself to be consumed by his rage, his dragon's authority spreading out along with his roar.

Verid, who was already shocked by him destroying his last option, only stared at the illusionary form of Darganth's true body while muttering incoherently.

Then Darganth's head snapped towards him and before anyone could react his clawed arm held Verid up by the throat.

“I will enjoy this victory, but I assure you, you definitely won't.” He growled, his hand slowly starting to glow red.

“ARGHH!”

Along with this howl, smoke and the smell of burned flesh started coming from Verid's throat. Flailing around with his remaining arm, he tried to somehow get out of Darganth's grip. As soon as he attempted this, Darganth's other hand shot forward and grabbed the arm.

Ripping it off with brute force, Darganth lifted him up before slamming Verid into the ground with as much force as he could muster. Letting go of the throat, he cast a spell to slow the poison's effect before raining a series of punches onto Verid's face.

Ignoring the pained groans from him and the horrified looks the surrounding civilians were giving him, he continued on until a single punch more would rob him of his consciousness. Instead grabbing him by his face, he watched in delight as Verid flailed from the pain of the burns.

As soon as he grew bored of this, he let go. Just as Verid was about to sigh in relief, Darganth started swinging his claws at his chest. Ripping away large chunks of flesh and sealing the wounds with the burning heat coming from his arms, he just let his rage free reign for multiple minutes. By the end of this Verid was no longer recognizable and barely alive.

“Let this be a lesson to you to never touch a dragon's mate, even if you only did so in the future.” Darganth said while slowly straightening his back, his reason slowly returning after having vented at least some of his anger.

Waiting until he felt Verid's relief through a psychic magic spell, Darganth's expression twisted into an evil smile.

“And don't think that this is all I have for you, only your torture as a living person has ended. Now begins the true, eternally lasting fun. Just wait patiently till I visit you and don't worry, I know who will be your company in the meantime and also how good they are.” Darganth said with an amused laugh, feeling the fear now radiating from Verid.

“Please, I didn't cast the spell. I will do anything to-” He started to plead but Darganth cut him off.

“No chance, but if it helps, I will send him after you. But hey, be honored. Normally I just destroy my enemy's souls if they go too far, but that would be far too nice for you two.” He said.

After a short pause, he added, “Oh, and tell Cehlya that Darganth said hi."

With these closing words Darganth's spell took effect. Engraving his soul with a special method that Cehlya gave to only a few dozen individuals, he marked him to tell her subordinates in the realm of death on how to deal with him. As soon as this process was completed, Verid was swallowed by total darkness.

 

Awaking after an unknown amount of time, he shot up in a panic while feeling out his face. The shock of finding no traces of wounds there was only short-lived, surpassed by the one from the presence of his right arm.

"I am healed? I am healed!" He shouted, jumping to his feet in joy. Though this lasted only a few seconds as a voice interrupted him.

"You are dead idiot, the healing part is just to ease our job. Having to drag around every soul that lost limbs is just way too annoying." The man said.

He was just about to scoff at this when he started looking around him. While the pure stone ground was familiar, the endless darkness above it wasn't. Even stranger was that somehow was light around that allowed him to see, but he couldn't find its source nor were there shadows anywhere.

Then, slowly, the man's words sank into Verid's mind and his expression started turning from disbelieve to shock before finally settling at despair.

"I have failed. I, Verid, have failed in a mission." He stuttered, voicing his thoughts out loud.

"Fuck, another one of these." The man said annoyed, finally prompting Verid to look at him.

As soon as he did his mind stopped for a few seconds, struggling to comprehend the picture he was seeing. Instead of a humanoid man, as he had assumed due to the voice, he was faced with what he would assume to be an animal that failed its evolution to become a beast. Just like most of these often mindless monsters, his form only barely resembled that of an animal and instead was an amalgamation of multiple different ones.

The creature stood at nearly six meters high, with over double that in length. While Verid tried to identify what animal it originally was, the best he could do was estimate it to be some type of cat, fox, or maybe even wolf. The reason for that was that instead of fur, its body was covered in scales.

Only the head was an exception, though only due to the skin missing completely and leaving the hollow skull bare. Its tail was meanwhile similarly strange, it being covered in thousands of spikes along its entire length. Additionally, it was all but short, easily reaching around the being's entire body, with the end simply lying before the creature.

Letting his gaze slowly wander up its body, unsure what else to do, Verid froze as soon as their eyes met.

"Also death denial, seems like you are trying to check all the marks." The being said, its jaw never moving.

As soon as it finished those words its eyes flashed red for a second, quickly followed by Verid collapsing while screaming.

"Aaaahhh. Don't don't. Stop. Not me." He shouted incoherently, rolling on the ground.

"Not a nice death it seems. Well, few who deny parts of their last moments had, but you are quite far even among them." The being commented uninterested, not doing anything as Verid continued to scream and shout.

After about a minute his shouting ended, though having felt like far longer from his perspective. Lying on the ground in a near fetal position, he started to constantly repeat the same words.

"Darganth, Darganth."

Slowly his voice started to grow louder until the being started to also hear his words. Its head shooting up, it stared at Verid. First, it did so in confusion but as soon as it was sure that the words it was hearing were right, it did so in pity.

Confirming its thoughts, it scanned Verid's soul before breaking out into laughter.

"Haha, you have tough luck. Had you kept it to yourself you would have had rest at least until you got to the judges but now? Fast pass directly to the queen it is." It said.

Slowly standing up, the creature grabbed him with its lizard-like paws before throwing him into his maw. There, its lower jaw acted as a kind of prison, its back being fully sealed while the interlocking teeth prevented any escape outwards. And while the upper jaw was too low to allow him to stand, the few holes upwards that it did have were too small even for a dwarf like him.

Then the being instantly turned around, dashing through the stone arch behind it, and took off along the path on its other side. Soon there came other paths, each one either merging into the path they were on or their path merging into another. And the further they went the more people they encountered.

They all had different forms, with there being all species of humanoids, countless different beasts, monsters and more among them. Along their way, they even passed a dragon. Apart from them, nearly every last one of these beings walked along the path without a problem. Only a fraction didn't, most of them attacking fellow wanderers.

But no matter what they did, the soul of their victim would just reform as if nothing had happened. And whoever continued with this would soon find themselves beset by a mass of black smoke that would appear out of the ground before being dragged away towards the path's end. The same fate befell anyone who lingered too long, no matter whether they did so on purpose or lost their way.

But the being that held Verid in his maw just ignored all of this, sprinting past the ever-growing masses. Whoever failed to vacate the landing spot of one of its jumps would turn into paste, only to regenerate a moment later.

A while later they reached a massive building, easily the size of a continent, into which the stream of people flowed through hundreds of doors. Slowing down, the being calmly stepped through one of these before looking around for a moment.

Finding its target, it rushed past thousands of large, bare, black gates, each one with a different person standing before it and working through the souls arriving before him. But instead of taking one of these, it stopped before a gate that shared the other's colors but was decorated with some of the finest art Verid had ever seen.

And while he was busy marveling at it, having recovered from the shock of his returning memories during the easily hours-long journey, the creature carrying him simply strode towards it. As soon as it stepped near the gate, it opened and revealed a seemingly endless city. And while it wasn't truly endless, the black smoke that obstructed one's vision beyond a certain distance made it seem like that.

Walking through this city with haste, they soon found themselves atop the massive stairway before an imposing castle. Inspiring both awe and fear in Verid, he shuddered as the black doors swung open to reveal an entrance hall followed by another open doorway.

As soon as the creature made its way through the second door, a feminine voice carried itself across the large hall they stepped into.

"Torat, what are you doing here?" The woman asked.

"I received a soul that was marked for special treatment." The creature, Torat, answered.

With those words, he opened his maw and with a slight shake of his head, he threw Verid onto the ground. Disoriented by the sudden fall, he took a few seconds to take in his surroundings.

As soon as he started doing so he grew unnerved, feeling a judging gaze on him. Trying to locate its source, he found a woman sitting on a throne at the other end of the hall. As soon as he did he regretted it, feeling the anger emanating from her.

"Auria, it seems you have a new guest." She said into the nothingness, quickly followed by a pale woman appearing below the throne.

Even across the over a hundred meters distance between them, Verid could easily recognize her as a vampire.

"I may not be particularly fond that Darganth has given me sisters but that doesn't mean I will tolerate an attack on them. So no need to hold anything back, I will ensure that his mind doesn't take any permanent damage." The woman said and the vampire's grin widened.

"It will be done, my queen." She said before suddenly disappearing.

Arriving before Verid, she grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air. Licking her lips in excitement, the look in her eyes caused a shiver to run down his spine.

Before he could do anything to react, she vanished once again, taking him with her. This time she didn't reappear inside the throne room, leaving Torat and Cehlya along with hundreds of others that quickly picked their work back up.

The woman on the throne was meanwhile absentmindedly staring into the air, taking a few seconds to notice that Torat was still present.

"Right, outer guardian." She said with a sigh when she noticed his hopeful expression.

"Here, your reward." She said, waving her hand towards Torat and causing the power inside his body to grow massively.

And while he was still left in shock by the extent of his growth, she stood up and turned to leave the room.

"Still, return to your post. The end of your shift is still some time away, isn't it?" She said before vanishing from the room.