Dragon Gods Reign

[Bral Kingdom]

Flying high above the column of wagons and people, Melidra barely paid any attention to the villagers. Instead of paying close attention to the skirmishes happening a few kilometers around them, she made sure that her undead wouldn't be overwhelmed at any point in the defense.

This defense stretched quite far out to keep the undead away from the normal people as she wasn't too keen on the discussion that would likely follow their revelation. This was especially the case with the newest addition she had gotten after the necromancer's death, with around five thousand of the kingdom's soldiers having been kept below his base.

Upon learning of them from the two wolves, Melidra needed only a moment to consider what to do with them. Those who had already died in their cells were directly reanimated as a part of her army while she gave the rest a painless death before raising them.

Their release was something she didn't even consider for a moment and not just due to the fact that they knew about her. With their death and subsequent reanimation serving to increase the chances of her family's survival, she wouldn't hesitate especially when they were practically guaranteed to die anyways. Only if she were to accompany them all the way to the next city would that change, something she doesn't have the time for.

Whenever these soldiers encountered any enemies, with it being mostly beasts and monsters, she would send some of the animal and beast undead to reinforce them. Under the command of the two wolves, these would aid the humanoid undead led by Julius.

Having established this separation as a rough command structure allowed her to keep her own tasks to a minimum and focus on relaying to these three direct subordinates where their troops are needed. To help herself with this she took one of the bird type beasts that had been killed and raised under her direct command.

After a moment of consideration, she did this with each of the flying beasts, leaving Virion and Deidra to only command flightless beasts. This left the pair to command mainly beasts and animals of related species, a structure she decided to keep as it worked quite well. By sorting her troops like this each unit excelled at roughly the same task, increasing the effectiveness with which they can be commanded.

Of course, this also had its drawbacks but considering that the amount of different creatures her army would consist of would only continue to rise, this was the best she saw to keep some sort of structure.

Choosing the bird like beast she initially planned to use as her mount to lead the flying beasts, she started enhancing it to fit her needs. But instead of just blindly flooding it with death energy to expand its core as she had done with Julius, she experimented with controlling the direction this took.

After experimenting with it for a few days, she noticed a pattern with which the energy traveled from the core through the body. Observing it for hours without rest, she slowly became of practically invisible pathways that stretched through its entire body. And whenever she strengthened the undead, these pathways became more durable, allowing more death energy to flow through them and strengthening the connected body parts.

And as Melidra was utilizing them to selectively strengthen her mount's wings and brain, Deidra shared an interesting discovery with her. Having noticed these pathways in her own body after watching Melidra, she felt their similarities with the paths her mana took. But compared to them, these undead-specific ones were more intrinsically linked to the body, giving rise to the possibility of new opportunities.

The one they were most interested in was the idea that this may allow them to connect new limbs to undead bodies and perfectly integrate them. And considering that skeletons can be raised from piles of bones this possibility wasn't too low.

Upon realizing the possibilities this discovery brought they nearly completely forgot the disadvantages their rigid structure compared to mana pathways meant. Even if they couldn't be changed without changing the body, this offered even more versatility at the cost of fewer finer adjustments.

With this idea now in her mind, Melidra spend nearly every moment she didn't watch the battles below from the eagle's back thinking about it.

“My queen, there is a matter that requires your attendance.” Julius suddenly said, ripping her out of these thoughts.

“*Sigh*, what now?”

“We've spotted a large human army marching ahead of us.”

Julius's words caused her eyes to instantly snap open fully. Hastily standing up, she already rushed out of the tent before even continuing to question Julius.

“How long till contact?”

“Currently never, they would cross our planned path ahead of us. But I am not confident in keeping their scouts from spotting us, especially if they have mages with them.” He reported.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Melidra broke out into a sprint as soon as she left her tent. Crossing the nearly hundred meters to where the eagle she was using as mount lay in just five seconds, she swung herself on its back.

“Sable, we need to hurry.” She said at the same time.

A moment later the beast took flight, it's over ten meters wide wings lifting them both as well as Julius off the ground with ease. Ignoring the sound of trees crashing to the ground as Sable's hastily lift-off knocked them over, the three flew southwards.

Looking down at Julius who was using Sable's talons as a foothold, Melidra finally took the time to ask him the exact details.

“Which flag did the fly?” She asked.

“The southern dukes.”

Hearing this answer she breathed a sigh of relief. Compared to the other dukes he had shown to be the most reasonable in these chaotic times, only fortifying his borders instead of attempting to grab as much territory as he could.

“At least this means the situation didn't just become even worse.”

“If I may ask, how is it any different? We undead will be hunted by the living no matter who it is.” Julius asked.

“Because it means that his territory is at least still safe from the other dukes.”

Leaving it at that, they continued on in silence until reaching their destination not long after. Looking down at the long columns of soldiers marching below, Melidra couldn't believe her eyes as she started estimating their numbers.

Feeling over two hundred thousand life forces down below of which multiple thousands were mana users she couldn't help but gulp nervously. Though she knew that most humanoid species incentive having many children, armies this large were still rare outside of full-scale wars as mana users would generally be enough to deal with most problems.

So although the population of nearly all humanoid species in Ikrus exceeded those in other universes of a similar size, large armies like these were still rare and often pointless. Instead, they relied on this larger population also producing a proportionally larger amount of talented individuals, consequently allowing them to be more picky about who to train in the usage of mana.

To support this large population it was common to use low ranking mages and aura users for all kinds of tasks, some of which she could currently see in person. Under enhancement spell and with the help of aura users that cleared the path, this army was currently making its way through the dense forest with speeds that would be impossible without mana users as support.

Even the carriages were enhanced, with aura users letting their aura flow through the horses. Though this shared boost was far from what they could achieve themselves, it allowed these horses to easily drag even heavy carriages. In addition, there were also aura users inside the wagons, enhancing them like one would do with armor to keep them from crumbling under the combination of speed and weight.

Letting her gaze wander over all of this, Melidra's eyes stopped when she saw a small group of around twenty riding in formation. Seeing that they were using beasts as mounts instead of normal horses she deduced that they are likely to be a part of the army's command structure.

Taking care to keep extra distance from them to reduce the chances of being spotted, she continuously circled above for hours. Unsure what to do, she continued observing them while still keeping an eye on the villagers through the flight-capable parts of her army.

Deciding not to take the initiative to change this lackluster situation, Melidra waited for a chance that would come later the next day.

Seeing one of the individuals she had managed to identify as an officer separating from the rest of the army she didn't hesitate and ordered Sable to swoop down. Dropping rapidly, they stayed out of her estimates for the army's detection range until they reached the treetops.

Catching their descent by spreading her wings, Sable took sharp turns as she expertly maneuvered through the forest. Taking care not to lose sight of his life force, she used it to guide them toward his position.

This allowed them to arrive at his position before he could react despite managing to sense them, allowing Sable to quickly overwhelm him. Slamming against him from behind, she pushed him to the ground with her claws.

“Watch out that you don't accidentally kill him, that could lead to trouble.” Melidra reminded her as she jumped down.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Sable just kept the man pinned down. Walking over to him, Melidra leaned down to him.

“Now, now, seems like quite the catch, doesn't it?” She asked with a smile that sent shivers down his spine.

Staring back at her in shock, the man was just about to open his mouth when Melidra suddenly held it shut.

“Just so you know, this can either go the easy or the hard way depending only on your words. So pick them carefully, one of the two options will be better for you in every aspect.”

Letting go of his jaw, she allowed him to speak.

“Do you even know who you are attacking? I doubt it because if you did you wouldn't spot such nonsense.”

“Tsk, why did I expect more.”

Without giving him a second to process those words, Melidra's hand became hued in death energy before leaving a rather deep cut in the man's shoulder. Ignoring the screams of pain this elicited from him, she changed the death energy to life energy before presenting him with an offer.

“How about now? I don't even want much, just tell me who leads this army, why it is here, and where it is heading. In exchange for keeping your life that shouldn't be too much, or?” She asked him.

Upon hearing her words the man lifted his head with a defiant expression, but as soon as he saw the life energy around her hand this changed. Looking at it with greed as well as hope, he completely ignored the pain the death energy-infested wound caused him as it continued to dig deeper into his flesh.

Initially conflicted as to whether he should do as she said, the man's lips suddenly curled up into a smile.

“Maybe you should turn around and reconsider our deal, miss.” He said.

At the same time, Melidra's instincts shouted at her to dodge, something she promptly did by jumping to the side. Watching a sword pass by the spot she had just stood at, she felt a small cut opening on her hip just a moment later. Despite this she was relieved as had she not dodged, the attack would have likely cut off her legs.

Turning around a bit further, she saw a woman in highly ornamented armor as well as a horse-like beast behind her. Tensing up at this sight, Melidra's felt her mana only to find even the armor's energy alone to be more than just a match for her own.

“After trailing us for this long how about you tell me who you are and who send you?” The woman asked.

At her words, Melidra was struck by a realization and she momentarily glanced at the officer.

“He was bait, wasn't he?” She asked.

Seeing her opponent smiling in confirmation, she realized that she had underestimated the capabilities of higher ranking mana users.

“Now, how about you tell these two to stand down and peacefully come with me? Because just like you said to him, there is an alternative but one of the two options is far better for you.”

Thinking for a moment about whether she had any alternatives, Melidra quickly realized that escape wasn't an option. Just the fact that she could feel more mana from her than she did with the necromancer shows what kind of power her opponent possessed.

Still, she wasn't about to completely give up without a struggle so before the woman could react, she spread the life force from her core throughout her body. Furrowing her brows at this act, her opponent didn't even attempt to stop her.

A fraction of a second later this gathered energy exploded outwards in the form of a quickly expanding spherical wall of life energy. Washing over the woman and the officer without doing damage, instead even healing his wounds and adding an ever so marginal amount to her lifespan, it quickly reached Julius and Sable.

But instead of erasing them as one would expect with undead exposed to life energy, it flooded their entire bodies and gave them a momentary boost. Using this, Sable quickly followed the order Melidra had given her and took to the skies together with Julius.

At the same time, Melidra was deliberating for a short moment whether to use the opportunity to attack her opponents but decided against it. Though the fruit of her experiments, the ability to give undead the power to survive contact with life force, had shocked the woman, Melidra was sure that it wouldn't be enough to win.

“Fine by me, I doubt that someone of my worth will be held captive for long.” She finally said.

Internally frowning as she had no idea what her words implied, the woman nonetheless brought her back to the camp.