Dragon Gods Reign

[Crowned Mountains]

Standing atop the mountain that houses Curel's lair, Darganth took one more look at the changes the mountains underwent since his arrival.

While the initial fighting left the nearby mountains mostly untouched, mostly due to aura users being the main fighting force and their power being very concentrated, with the notable exception of world connection. The few mages that did participate would generally be kept in reserve, being a key element of both side's power.

The entrance of the dragons changed this in an instant. While some showed a bit more restraint, others destroyed not just their targets but the mountain below also caved under their attack.

But he didn't dwell long on this destruction his order caused, instead focusing on the dragons scattered through the mountains and valleys with a small smile. After Curel and Kheduil had reached at least the basis for a standing agreement these dragons had chosen to venture out of their lairs more openly.

And while they still received some level of distrust from the dwarfs, up until now there have been no open confrontations between them. Even with this being largely due to the lingering fear the latter's had it was still an improvement.

The dragons were meanwhile kept in line by Curel, more precisely his reputation. His endorsement of an attempt at cooperation made each and every one hesitate to act on their impulses, preventing fights from breaking out over small mishaps.

Despite this, it would still take a large amount of time before this would become the norm, if not due to the population then due to Kheduil and Karazil's fatigue from the long war. The former was considered my most close advisors to be effectively on vacation while the latter was even officially on vacation.

Despite this, the kingdom was slowly but surely recovering, their initial groundwork in the first two weeks quickly blooming into more. By now the atmosphere that Darganth was accustomed to from dwarfs mostly returned, something that was especially noticeable in the massive reopening of breweries. Now, instead of soldiers being the most common sight it were spontaneous feasts, something they were famed for.

“He truly doesn't seem to realize what a good king he is.” Allaire said from his side.

“Maybe. But don't forget that it only works like this among dwarfs, if a human king would just leave all work and the execution of tasks to others his kingdom would quickly fall.”

“But it still works.”

Nodding in agreement, Darganth thought about the way Kheduil ruled for a while, slowly seeing more and more similarities with how most gods did it. And while it partially surprised him, some parts could easily be explained.

The fact that he could just leave all work but the most important decision to subordinates for example. It was easy to deduce that it requires absolute loyalty from them, something the gods could easily get.

Both cases also overlapped in that Kheduil as well as many gods would instead focus on being more of a figurehead while still holding much power. Though while the latter mostly did so outside of his or her realm, Kheduil instead spend much time connecting with his citizens and even went as far as to personally help with the reconstructions.

Of course there were still major differences, especially in the way they treated their people. Over their time here they had noticed that he genuinely cared for them, something that stood in stark contrast to the majority of gods who focused only on the value a person offered them.

Entertaining the thought of what would happen should Kheduil ascend and the consequences it would have for other gods, he quickly shelved it. He currently had more important matters to do and didn't have the time to help in his ascension.

So while he would keep an eye on him in case he manages to reach that level on his own, he wouldn't help him for now. Should Kheduil live until he returned to his peak he may follow through with the idea for the entertainment its consequences would probably bring.

Finishing these thoughts, he turned his attention back to the present when he felt Sarkia arriving near them.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Hearing his answer she promptly conjured a portal near them. She had offered to bring them with her to the beast empresses territory, something the three gladly accepted as it was just a tenth of the distance from the dragon peaks when compared to the crowned mountains. The presence of one of the Locis clansmen there only gave more reason to visit.

As soon as the portal opened, the three felt a wave of mana washing over them. Just the part that flooded through the portal nearly tripled the mana density around them, exiting them, especially Jennia, for what awaited them on the other side.

In contrast to humanoids for whom a too-high mana concentration could even be harmful before becoming a mana user while still being uncomfortable for mana users, beasts would always seek such places out. It not only helped them grow but bough a comfortable feeling, making especially dense spot's to heavily contested areas. This was normally also the case for dragons, but for Darganth it was still quite a low amount of mana so he felt little.

“Let go before it collapses.” Darganth said, seeing the difficulty Sarkia was having with opening a portal across such a massive distance despite opening it with the help of world magic.

This was an ability of advanced fourth-rank mages that worked similarly to world connection, thus the naming similarities. But instead of directly influencing the surrounding mana for simple action, it allowed the user to prolong the cast of spells to empower it with the surrounding mana. Theoretically, it could be done indefinitely, but the difficulty of controlling the mana would constantly rise until the spell inevitably fails if not cast before.

Thus the group hurried through the portal, with Sarkie jumping after them just as it was about to collapse.

Ignoring the fading portal behind them, the group looked around while Jennia was putting half her attention to simply basking in the feeling the dense mana brought her. But she too quickly noticed something being wrong when she noticed the massive beasts in the area, each in its full-sized true form.

“Welcome to the home of beasts, the forest from which the empress rules.” She said, starting with enthusiasm but slowly trailing off as she saw the picture around them.

Having seen so no such thing through the small window of sight the portal provided them and not heard of anything happening, Sarkia was naturally shocked by this. Apart from a few outliers, most beasts would spend the majority of their time transformed or at least in shrunken forms as their true body is impractical in most aspects of daily life.

A short moment later she shook off this shock and became alert, assuming this state to be due to an enemy attack. While she could only guess who the suicidal idiot was, that was a thought for later.

Seeing her sudden vigilance, Darganth's eyes suddenly became reptilian and he carefully searched through their surroundings.

“Thirteen humans.” He said a moment later, bringing the other's attention to the spot he was looking at.

Realizing that their position was spotted, the group of humans walked out of the forest to the spot they were looking at. They were visibly dissatisfied with being found, though they showed no trace of wariness.

“What are some of your kind doing here?” She asked with disdain.

Hearing her question the group started to grin while some of the group members laughed out loud.

“Hehe, seems like we have newcomers.” One of them said.

“Lucky for us, good targets have become rare by now.”

Their words confused Sarkia even further, the idea of humans managing to hunt beasts in their forest being so impossible.

When the group of humans noticed this confusion their smiles only widened. Taking great delight in it, they walked forwards and encircled them. While Darganth considered attacking them to test his strength as an advanced stage third order in both magic and aura, he decided against it when he felt Sarkia moving forward.

“Fools.”

With only this comment, Sarkia took action. Vanishing from her position with a flicker, she instantly arrived before the highest-ranking member of the group. The woman that had previously just been silently standing in the background had no time to react before finding herself lifted up by the throat.

“I will ask once more, what are you doing here?” Sarkia threatened the terrified women.

Instead of answering she just stared past her, looking on in shock at the places her subordinates had been standing just a second earlier. Each one was replaced by a small space crack that quickly mended itself again as if nothing had happened.

Slowly ripping her eyes from this sight, the woman looked at Sarkia who was staring at her with a threatening smile. Trying her best to keep herself from shaking out of fear, she slowly started to speak.

“The beastmen wanted revenge and are willing to pay well to get it.” She barely managed to say before fainting from loss of air.

“Tsk, fragile humans.” Sarkie commented, having forgotten to adjust her strength to that of a second rank as she was still accustomed to a beast's transformation and not polymorphing.

Letting her drop to the ground, she was slightly annoyed that it answered only few of her questions. Quickly making the decision to take the woman back as a prisoner, she let her hover behind her while turning back to Darganth.

“Annoying interruption aside, we should get going. My mistress should know of my presence and I don't want to let her wait.” She said.

[Further north]

A few kilometers from the forest, a small group was making its way through the savanna. This mostly lifeless area surrounds most of the forest from which the beast empress rules,

serving mainly as a home and gathering ground for hordes of monsters.

And while to their left there was a far more pleasant area to go through, with lush grass growing in the maze of canyons surrounding the dragon peaks, none of them would dare use the paths through it to reach their target.

The seven members of the group, three beastmen and four humans, kept alert constantly, fearing an attack to come just the next second. They had prepared multiple weeks for this, but as much as they would like to claim that their plan was infallible, they couldn't.

And based on this they were invading the territory of one of the most feared beings on the planet, leading to an uneasy feeling to linger around the group. This was clearly visible despite them being completely covered in cloaks that left only their lower face visible.

But despite this, they continued on with determined steps, each one of them having their own reasons to be here.

While the beastmen all wanted to get revenge for what had transpired a few months prior, one had another motivation on top. The leading man had a more personal vendetta, one that can be guessed from his appearance and with enough knowledge about beastmen society.

His tall, muscular build that would tower over most humanoids at nearly two and a half meters in height combined with the silvery hair covering his entire face and body showed close beast ancestry. Apart from him standing on two feet there was practically no difference, a level of similarity that even intermarriage between close relatives couldn't keep for more than a handful of generations.

He even kept two tusk-like teeth from his boar-type beast ancestor from whom he also got the hair, or more accurately fur, color, and the high metal affinity. While he was glad for the strength it allowed him to gain, being an early fourth rank with the power of a weak second order one, it was also a stain on his family's name, especially considering that said beast still lives.

The other two beastmen were far less impressive, with one woman of reptilian descent and an avian man. The first has blue scales on her torso and neck as well as claw tipped fingers and crocodile like teeth, while the avian one had a feathered back up to the head and down the arms as well as two wings. While they were too small to carry him without magical aid due to his diluted lineage, this allowed him to put armor on them without loss and use them as extra weapons or shields.

The human part of the group was meanwhile far less impressive, at least on a first glance. Similarly, their motives also differed considerably, with two just being there because the emperor ordered it. Of the other two, one's background was unknown to all but the group's leader and only second order individual.

The other was part of a group of radicals whose ideology and goal revolves around human supremacy. While it follows the general tone that the continent's conquests is of vital importance for their species, it goes far beyond what those in power could openly support without antagonizing every other species. Some of these groups even go as far as to demand openly waging war against all, even dragons, showing how out of touch they can be.

The only reason why the man even tolerated the presence of the beastmen was the shared hatred for beasts that managed to bring him to reason at least somewhat. And even that was only possible due to the disproportionally larger threat that the beasts presented.

The last two, those who were there only on orders, were both more memorable. While one of the two was the group's leader and only second order, a mage even, he had a similarly normal human appearance like the other two.

The last man however was a different story. He was the most hidden by the cloak, though whenever it opened up a bit during his steps it revealed glimpses at the state his body was in. Pale skin that made one doubt he was still alive, skinny to the extent that his bones were visible and with completely atrophied muscles.

But that wasn't the strangest part. Covering his skin's every inch were strange markings, going from his hands and feet, up to his torso and even to his face. Some were isolated symbols, while others were part of a drawn-out pattern.

Amidst these, at certain congregation points of the symbols, were small patches of skin that had been changed, some looking metallic despite behaving like flesh while others just had an odd coloration. The most striking of these was his hair which was unlike the blond and brown one of his colleagues but instead bright green with a texture more like strings of plants than hair.

Only the secretive member of the groups seemed to be bothered by this, glancing towards the strange man from time to time.

In the middle of the night, this group finally reached the edges of the forest that now no longer had kilometer-long beasts towering over it. Despite this they didn't relax, knowing well that these beasts were only lying down to sleep. Using the cover of the enormous trees that could even hide some of the smaller mythical rank beasts, they searched for a good route further inwards.

“Seems like the adventurers did their part.” The leading beastmen said when he finally managed to get an overview of the area.

“But sadly they paid the price.” The secretive human responded, something that was quickly acknowledged by the rest.

Looking towards the traces of battle and the few remains that were visible just outside the forest, they spoke a silent apology before heading into the forest.

As the main force of the plan, they were aware that these hired adventurers were just cannon fodder, their job being to start low-level skirmishes to hopefully draw out some of the mythical ranks. And while the bounty on each killed beast that the beastmen emperor put up was real and they would pay it out, they doubted that many would survive till then.

Their job had started nearly two weeks ago and would go on for another one, with them sending about a third of their numbers into the forest each day. From the reports they had received before starting their own journey there were some successes, but with the mythical rank beasts now keeping watch these quickly dropped. High-ranking people entering would be torn apart while there were few low-ranking beasts in the area to begin with.

But from the look of it, the beasts had yet to retaliate against the large camp, though that would likely change soon.

Steeling their resolve for a moment, the small group soon advanced into the forest.