Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Shortly after the group's altercation with Hakuria the dragon peaks became full of commotion. It was already rare to see any attempts to pass the gatekeepers so a dragon helping with it naturally drew the inhabitant's attention.

Watching the fight from the moment the first dragon's authority spread out, even the oldest dragons went through a heap of emotions. Yldra's return was already a surprise for them and meeting a Locis dragon was rare even for them. Thus this naturally elated them but even her presence was quickly overshadowed.

When Darganth forced Hakuria to obey him they were initially shocked. Not even Irsyr had such control over high-tier dragons like them, with only his status as an ascended dragon giving him any power. Without it, he could at most do what Yldra did and cause a momentary shock, something that is in no way unique to the Void lineage.

And as none of the solar dragons were old enough to have been alive in the times before Darganth's death they had never met him. So even though they knew of his presence due to Enilla they still weren't prepared for his arrival.

Not entirely sure how to react, they chose to simply wait and watch. Thus their full attention was on the group when Neandra's fight with Hakuria started.

Instantly the air atop the dragon peaks became filled with hostility. In their eyes, the previous clashes were still acceptable but daring to inflict such grievous wounds on one of their own kind went too far.

One dragon authority after the other spread across the mountains, with them soon being followed by the sound and air current from enormous wings spreading. Hundreds if not thousands of solar dragons quickly got ready to take flight with the intention of punishing Neandra for her actions.

But only a handful of seconds later these dragons froze again when they noticed that Darganth didn't just show no intention to act with them but even seemed to support Neandra. Staying in place in confusion, they hovered in a chaotic cloud that darkened the skies at the entrance that was closest to the group.

Staying like this, they continued to watch and wait for Darganth's arrival.

While this was happening, Darganth and the others were making their way up the main mountain group's slope. Flying higher and higher up, it took them a minute before they broke past the first plateau’s ledge.

As soon as they did so the gathered dragon's fury coalesced on Neandra, making her feel pressured for the first time in centuries. Gnashing her teeth and enduring the pressure that their combined mana put on her, she looked up in defiance.

Receiving only an amused chuckle as an answer, the pressure suddenly increased even further as one of the older dragons held back less. But even this didn't make her back down despite knowing that at least three of those present were her match one on one.

Instead, she pushed herself further, putting more focus on her presence and clashing against theirs with her own mana. Just as she managed to push back the pressure at least a bit, she felt it increasing again until its clash with hers became visible.

Normally this wouldn't happen as this pressure was essentially the gravitational pull of a being's mana and had no destructive power on its own. But due to the two clashing forces, it was akin to an object being dragged in two directions, with the area where their pressures met being ripped apart under the opposing forces.

When they saw this, the expression of the oldest group of dragons changed drastically. No longer looking at Neandra with disregard, their eye now showed a great deal of respect for her.

Nonetheless, they pushed her even further, with her body soon starting to tremble from overexertion while still keeping a crazed smile on her lips. Thankful that Venrie had already gotten off her back by now, she stood up onto her hind legs and put her entire might into a single push.

Roaring out loud, she let her mana explode outwards just for it to suddenly riot after pushing the pressure on her back quite a bit. Surprised by the point of collision suddenly reaching over halfway to them, the dragons reflexively increased the force they used only for Darganth's dragon's authority to suppress them a moment later and silence their pressure entirely.

Still, this small moment was enough for their mana pressure to completely overwhelm Neandra's momentarily chaotic one. This caused it to crash into her and cause her to momentarily freeze only for her pressure to return with even more force.

Along with this, the surrounding mana started growing chaotic. As if it was shaking or struggling it started vibrating. Then a bubble-like wave erupted from Neandra, instantly calming the mana everywhere it passed.

Once it fully dispersed the area was left in total silence, with most of those present looking at her in surprise. Contrary to that, Darganth's and Yldra's eyes were mostly filled with anticipation and happiness.

Slowly this atmosphere changed as the surrounding mana rushed toward Neandra in streams. Quickly refilling what little of her mana she had used, it continued rushing into her body even as her mana pool overflowed.

At the exact moment this happened another new presence descended upon them all, the pressure it exerted being on an entirely different level to the dragons present. Accompanying it was an enormous amount of mana that quickly joined in rushing toward Neandra.

“Father.” Yldra whispered as she felt this presence.

Initially turning towards Neandra with worried eyes, when she saw her struggling but still barely holding on her gaze became more complicated. A second later her emotions settled on thankful as she looked in the direction of the highest peak.

“You've also noticed it, huh?” Darganth asked her when he saw this.

“Yes, he's helping her.” Yldra answered with a light smile.

Nodding in thought, Darganth continued focusing on Neandra. Ascending under the current conditions may be one of the safest ways possible but mistakes would still have consequences. Among these, the most severe would be that she wouldn't be able to fully utilize the opportunity she now had to advance her own power, to the extent of possibly even coming out of this temporarily weakened.

Newly ascended divine beings would always be very unstable, lacking the experience to fully control their new-found power. Contrary to the simple growth they would experience previously, ascending added a whole new dimension to a being's strength.

At the same time, they wouldn't immediately receive the benefits of ascending, with transcendent mana and the other energy types available only for ascended beings being not immediately available or usable.

First the newly ascended being needs to learn either how to artificially create them or how to absorb them if they are in a region where any of these is present. Most even choose to learn both for the obvious advantages this provides. Only after they succeeded with this could they start learning how to control them, with their usage being as radically different from normal mana as absorbing them is.

The only immediate advantage that ascending offers is a defensive one, with ascended beings being near unkillable for mortals. Not just would they rapidly heal from all wounds not inflicted by transcended energies, but their survival is no longer reliant on their body. As long as an ascendant's soul survives they can reform their body around it, making them difficult to kill.

And though even normal attacks from fellow ascendants, some legendary spells as well as a handful of aura techniques can circumvent the passive healing they gain, killing the soul requires more investment. When using transcendent mana it requires barely a little extra effort compared to killing the physical body, but for mortals, it always requires the usage or at least the aid of a powerful artifact. Not even death magic can replicate this when wielded by a mortal, despite being capable of destroying the souls of mortals

But despite being essentially completely immortal against mortals, ascendents still have to be wary of these legendary spells. Reconstructing their body took time and energy, leaving them vulnerable. Just being able to use any power at all while they are only a soul was difficult, fighting against another ascended being was rarely possible.

This meant that often beings would find themselves the weakest shortly after ascending as the process was exhausting and they would take months if not years to re-stabilize their mana. If not done properly it would stay in a less extreme version of the state that ascending brought it into, making its power sharply drop from time to time.

All of this will also be true for Neandra once she finishes her ascension but she had an extra factor in her favor. Not just did she have a practically limitless amount of mana in the surroundings as Irsyr was drawing it in from the entire mountain range but she also was under controlled pressure.

When ascending one would choose to either do it inside a universe, subjecting the person to the universe's attempts to stop him, or try to find a spot where this wouldn't happen. The second of these options was safer, but the first allowed the being to use the pressure in conjunction with the surrounding mana to rapidly grow in power.

Normally this would be impossible as such a massive influx of mana would simply disperse again, with even the pressure of another being or even a universe not allowing one to break the body's limits of how fast it can grow stronger. But when ascending one's existence changes fundamentally and thus, with enough pressure, the body, mana pool, and even soul can be strengthened further.

Neandra's situation was even better than the normal case, with the will of Ikrus having no power here thanks to Irsyr, who then took its spot in the process. Compared to the universe will which doesn't want a being ascending and being able to leave the universe, Irsyr only focused on helping her.

He constantly matched the pressure his mana presence exerted on her to what she could still barely endure, something that stood in stark contrast to the erratic changes a universe's will would make. They do these to maximize the chance of a being failing the ascension while minimizing the benefit they would get from it if they succeeded.

This soon resulted in Neandra's power rising at a noticeable rate, something that normally took someone at that level decades. For minutes they all watched as her presence became heavier, eventually surpassing the strongest of the gathered solar dragons just a few moments before her ascension ended.

Right as it did and Darganth was already about to make his way over to her and congratulate her, the sky above the dragon peaks ripped open. No, it would be more accurate to say that the protections around the dragon peaks momentarily ripped open as what became visible on the other side was a hovering figure with a roughly humanoid body that glowed in a mix of silver and red.

Recognizing as the projection of the universe's will, Darganth momentarily tensed up before looking in the direction he knew Irsyr to be. And just as he expected, a moment later a dark, greyish beam tore through the skies and impacted the projection.

Right before it could impact the figure vanished, leaving the slowly dimming trail of light behind. For a moment Darganth continued watching to make sure that the defenses repaired themselves before turning to Neandra once he did.

“Congratulations, my dear.” He said with a smile.

Panting, Neandra didn't find the strength to react to his words and just leaned into his embrace. Gently caressing her back, Darganth waited for her to recover enough strength to stand on her own.

During the minute or two it took her to do so, Yldra and Venrie had made their way to them and were joining him in embracing Neandra. Jennia and Allaire were meanwhile leaning on his shoulders with dreamy looks in their eyes, thinking about the prospect of one day wielding the same power they felt from Neandra.

“Thank you.” Neandra said after a bit, slowly standing up straight before placing a passionate kiss on his lips.

“No problem, I didn't do much. And I still have to warn you, Ikrus doesn't seem happy that you've ascended.” Darganth said.

At his words Neandra grimaced, remembering how overwhelmed she had felt when the universe's projection appeared. In the past, she never even spared a thought to the possibility that she would find herself as its target and even if she had, she realized that she had grossly underestimated its power.

“Do you think it will become a problem?” She asked.

“Maybe, but you should be able to stop it beforehand. Apart from rare exceptions a universe's will isn't truly alive, it is closer to a predetermined process. They don't have emotions and the like, instead they act only based on logic and what brings them the most benefit.

Sadly it greatly hurts the universe's interest when its inhabitants ascend so coming to an agreement will likely be difficult though definitely still possible. Nonetheless, don't worry too much. Sending a projection after you isn't something it can do regularly so the worst that will probably happen is for you to constantly face the peak pressure you would have had to contend with during your ascension.”

At these words, Neandra sighed a breath of relief. Facing the pressure of the universe was something she was confident in, especially because none of the universes inside it nor the multiverse of Vunreon itself could bring their full power to bear.

This she didn't just know from the heap of knowledge she gathered about ascension as preparation for hers but also from secretly watching multiple beings ascending. What kept her from doing it herself wasn't Ikrus and the power it could display but the previously unknown threat after that she now knew to be Irsyr.

But despite this extensive knowledge, there were still some gaps, something she realized the moment she saw the projection appear as she didn't anticipate it. Not just that, based on her knowledge it was practically unheard of.

Descending in the form of a projection inside its own borders was a great risk for a universe as in return for bringing a rather significant portion of its power to bear, it also opens itself up to damage and even starts causing damage to itself when staying too long.

In comparison to that the harm done by one being ascending was more than just negligible, leading to even Dargant being relatively surprised by the reaction even if he knew it to be a possibility. This was because in the short term a newly ascended being would often even benefit the universe, with the drawbacks only coming when leaving the universe.

The reason for that was that even universes could and wanted to grow in power, though the method differed vastly from other beings. Instead of absorbing mana from the surroundings, the universe needed to deepen its anchor in existence.

To do that it needed the weight that each individual living inside it had, with more powerful beings being 'heavier'. The combined factor of all individuals and things inside the universe would then determine the speed of its growth, with the best comparison being an object sinking deeper and deeper down an endless ocean.

And as the universe grew, so did the quality of the mana it produced as well as the rate with which it did this. As long as none of the inhabitants ascended, this would create a constantly growing loop where the universe would get stronger together with its inhabitants. Over time the difficulty of leaving the universe would also rise, with many powerful ones being able to trap even weaker ascended ones.

Remembering those stories, Neandra took a moment to probe Ikrus on whether it could still keep her here. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes with a soft smile on her lips, having felt the near-total lack of resistance that Ikrus could offer during her attempt to escape its territory.

As soon as she did she found the group of dragons before her no longer showing traces of hostility. Instead, they gave her a respectful nod, confusing her a bit.

“You now have the power to back up your previous actions. Before they didn't directly attack you out of respect for me and Yldra but now you have proven to be able to stand here.” Darganth said to her when he saw this.

Seeing Neandra looking at him in surprise after he said this, Darganth added to this explanation.

“In essence it's the same might makes right believe that the beasts follow, just influenced by our arrogance. Most dragons see the act of attacking them as nothing more than hubris and as belittling our kind's power. This means that most would attack anyone who defeated a dragon, even if he didn't kill it, simply to make an example out of the person and prove their superiority.

But on the other hand, if the person has the strength to match stronger dragons, not even the strongest of the group just those with sufficient strength, they acknowledge it. As long as the person didn't kill a dragon and continues to not do so they will receive a similar level of respect to what dragons show each other.

In your case, it is a bit different from that as you are a draconic being so the requirements are a bit higher. But on the other hand, now that you've fulfilled them you are essentially a fellow dragon for them.”

Hearing Daranth's explanation, a small smile crept onto Neandra's lips as pride welled up inside her. Basking in this feeling, she looked over the seemingly endless expanse that are the dragon peaks and their surroundings with a slightly dreamy look.