Dragon Gods Reign Chapter 206: Aftermath

[Temple of the gods]

Returning to the surface and stepping back out of the temple, Darganth was greeted by the sight of Neandra calmly leaning against a pillar to his right. Holding one of the crystals through which Ikrus had been channeling its power into its avatar before her eyes, she turned it in her fingers as she studied it.

Spotting him as he stepped outside, she pushed off the wall and let the crystal disappear into a personal pocket dinsion with a flick of her fingers. Moving toward him as he continued to walk onto the open plaza in front of the building, she soon joined him at his side.

“Considering the avatar’s reactions I take it you were quite successful.” Neandra said as she ca close to him.

“Only in keeping Ikrus from intervening for the mont. Sadly it seems like Irsyr will still have to destroy Ikrus, hopefully making way for a more amicable successor. But at least you were successful in dealing with its avatar and Arkuns.” Darganth said.

“They won’t cause any new problems. Even if he had anything prepared in case of his death, nothing short of a god of death could revive him now so it shouldn’t work.” Neandra confird.

Nodding, Darganth was happy to hear of this conclusion. While it wasn’t a total assurance, with magic few things were, and that included death. And in the grand sche of things Arkuns was insignificant, so he doubted any god would take interest in his soul anyway.

“Speaking of success, how is your haul of artifacts?” Neandra asked after a short pause.

“Haven’t looked over everything in detail but from what I looked at it seems to mostly be similar to the emperor artifacts. After we get back to the battlefield and announce Arkuns’ death I’ll take a closer look.”

Humming in satisfaction, Neandra looked forward to it. Even before she ascended there were few artifacts that held any worth to her, both in terms of power and whether their design even allowed her to wear them in her true form. And while the latter could be overco, individuals capable of crafting treasures powerful enough for her were exceedingly rare.

Furthermore, among these craftsn with the necessary skill, only the few elven ones would even create an artifact for her. The human ones anwhile were forbidden to sell both artifacts and magic items to beasts in general, while the dwarves always kept their most powerful creations among themselves to prevent their greatest advantage over the other races from disappearing.

Ascending then only increased this problem by reducing the number of craftsn to zero, at least as long as once discounted the Locis clan. But even among them, the number who could create such artifacts was both small and filled exclusively with so of the oldest still living ones, aning they were often busy. And even when they weren’t, they were also quite stubborn and difficult to convince to craft sothing for her, resulting in her having had no success in that regard.

“Don’t get your hopes up too much, all of the gods were humanoids so I’m not sure you’ll find sothing that fits.” Darganth warned her.

Shrugging indifferently, Neandra didn’t show much reaction to his words. She made do without powerful artifacts for years so getting so was rely a bonus for her, certainly nice but not exactly vital.

“Then I’ll just have to continue asking among the Locis.” She said.

“Tell if you want to help you with that.”

Nodding in acknowledgnt, Neandra didn’t accept his offer. Seeing this, Darganth wasn’t particularly surprised as this wasn’t the first ti he had made this proposition. Rather, he expected it as Neandra was intent on building her fa among Locis through her own work and not through her association with either him or Yldra.

With this, the question of the artifacts was answered for the mont, prompting Darganth to finally turn his attention to the remains of Ikrus’ avatar.

“On the topic of spoils of war, do you have any more of the avatar’s crystals?”

Surprised by the sudden topic shift, Neandra answered slightly confused, “Yes, why?”

“Because the energy they contain isn’t a too different variation of mana for dragons to be unable to consu them, so I would like to give out two or three as a reward. At least if it’s alright with you, they’re your spoils.” Darganth said.

His words surprised Neandra even further while also piquing her curiosity. The energy Ikrus used to fuel its powers had already intrigued her during their fight, so hearing that it was closely connected to mana increased her interest in it. Furthermore, it might an that they weren’t entirely worthless to her, though she still saw the point in Darganth’s idea.

“Make a list, I’ll think about how many of them will get one. Though I would also like to hear what the energies similarity to mana ans.” She said.

“Well, calling them similar isn’t exactly accurate as technically it consists of mana, at least in part. You might rember that mana and the shapeless essence that forms reality and onto which the elental energies imprint their attributes co from the sa source and are only different parts of this superior energy.”

“Yes, you ntioned sothing like that shortly after I ascended.”

“Good. Because what’s contained in these crystals is effectively just so of the remaining parts of this energy along with a fusion of mana and shapeless essence. But neither energy is in its complete form, making them just an extrely inefficient storage for anyone who can’t manipulate this energy that is unique to universe wills.” Darganth explained.

Frowning with so disappointnt, Neandra summoned her personal pocket dinsion and let one of the crystals she had stored inside drop back into her hand. Staring at it for a mont, she flicked it toward Darganth who then caught it.

“I still have eight more that are intact. I’d say you and Yldra take four, then we have five to distribute.” She said.

“Four to distribute, I would give this one to Enilla.”

Piquing up at the ntion of her na, Jennia’s mother turned to Darganth. Having previously been standing together with Vorthos near the central fountain on the court that Darganth and Neandra were walking toward, she hadn’t been following the latter two’s words over her own conversation.

“Is anything?” She asked while walking toward them.

“I’ll explain later.” Darganth responded.

Seeing Enilla shrug indifferently in response, Darganth then finally turned his attention to their return to the battlefield. Summoning an artifact he had prepared beforehand, he took but a mont to change the coordinates of the destination before tossing it to Neandra as he was unable to supply it enough power to function.

Catching the small device, Neandra then imdiately started channeling mana into it with practiced haste. Though capable of spatial travel herself, the magic item Darganth had created with Irsyr’s help had long since been their group’s favored thod as it not only used up less of her mana reserves but also provided a more pleasant journey with none of the characteristic fluctuations inherent to an inexperienced practitioner of the elent.

Due to this, a perfectly circular portal sprung into existence a brief mont later. Through it, the familiar sight of the crater around which the emperor’s fight had happened revealed itself to Darganth and Neandra on its pristine surface.

Taking the device as Neandra held it out to him while walking past, Darganth stored the magic item back in his pocket dinsion before following her through the portal. Feeling no physical change or disruption as he stepped through as if rely walking through a doorway, Darganth only felt the change in location with his mana attuned senses.

Through them, he also imdiately noticed the almost complete calmness that had fallen over the battlefield since they had left. Only a few lone fights broke this peace, with the tyrannical presence of Neandra’s ti clone quickly falling over them and annihilating the involved humans and beastn.

As such, when the real Neandra’s presence also fell over the battlefield, the attention of ally and foe alike shifted toward them. Rising into the air to be more visible, she shifted her form back to its true appearance, shortly followed by Darganth flying up to her side in his full draconic form.

Just when he arrived next to her, Neandra started to speak. Opening her maw, her voice carried across the field of grass for kiloters as she shouted with unwavering confidence audible in her voice, “Arkuns is dead!”

Following her initial words, there were imdiate gasps of shock and disbelief audible from the crowd. When Neandra then let the human emperor’s iconic sword appear in her hand, an outcry erupted among the humans present, with furious shouts intermixing with ones filled with uncertainty or outright fear.

Amid this shouting, Neandra continued her speech, her voice easily drowning out everyone else, “And with him, the position of the human emperor cos to an end. There will be no more artifacts given out to the universe’s chosen successor, there will be no more independently anointed individuals for you to rally around, and there will be no equal standing for you. Only our will and decree will be the law from now on, so kneel!”

Unleashing her mana in waves of suffocating pressure that swept across the battlefield, Neandra forced tens of thousands of humans and beastn to drop to their knees. Each further pulse then pushed thousands more to the ground, with mages and a few aura users plumting from the skies as the leverage of their flight was crushed under her overwhelming power.

After re seconds, barely a few thousand of their opponents remained on their feet, with even less still managing to stay in the air. Radiating a glowing beacon of mana as they strained against Neandra’s presence, these n and won tried rallying their fellow soldiers behind themselves with shouts of encouragent.

Watching their attempt with a sight, Darganth unleashed his own presence before their counterattack could get any montum. And though it was completely drowned out by the pressure emanating from Neandra and went unnoticed by most of the beings present, his authority fell over the dragons circling in the skies. Under his commands, their scattered groups swooped down in a coordinated wave.

Unleashing flaming breaths and brandishing their claws, they tore through hundreds of those who foolishly resisted. Forced to fend off the onslaught of two or three dragons while still being pressured by Neandra’s presence, these targeted individuals fared extrely poorly, and almost all suffered heavy injuries within the first few monts of the attack.

Watching their fellow soldiers being torn apart like this, hundreds more let themselves sink to their knees, leaving only a few dozen humans and beastn to stand defiantly. And though so still shook in fear, Darganth found their resolve impressive.

Sweeping his gaze across the scattered crowd with one corner of his mouth curled up, he soon ordered, “Capture them.”

Following his words, the crowd of dragons that were already rising back into the sky split, with those closest to their still-standing opponents diving toward them and turning into humanoid forms in a shower of flas.

Again approaching their targets in small groups, they disard their opponents by ruthlessly slashing through their arms, severing muscles, and at tis cutting off entire hands. Not letting up, they then grabbed these n and won by their shoulders and forced them to their knees. Those that still resisted were t with claws that sunk into their sides, weakening them and soon leading to the last human sinking to his knees.

Letting his gaze wander across the nearly a hundred transford dragons kneeling together with the various prisoners they had taken, Darganth showed a satisfied smile as he spoke, “Good. Take these prisoners to the dragon peaks, they will be judged along with the beastn emperor in the coming days.”

Following his words, the captured soldiers’ eyes widened in fear while the nervousness among the others rose even further. Attempting to struggle against the dragons holding them down, the forr was then dragged into the sky, with the latter group watching with trembling eyes as they and the dragons carrying them vanished into the clouds above.

At this sight, panic started to spread among especially the humans, though before it could lead to any impulsive actions Neandra continued.

“As for the rest of you, you’ll follow the instructions of our soldiers and offer no resistance to your imprisonnt. Should soone ignore this and cause so much as a shallow cut on one of our soldiers I will ensure that that person will regret ever being born. In return, I will ensure that no harm befalls you and personally punish anyone who violates this order with the sa severity.

This imprisonnt will last until the last rebellious province swears of its previous lords and submits to our rule, at which point you’ll be free to return to your hos. From that point, the vast majority of you will be under no more restrictions or sanctions, with only those deed to be too powerful and volatile being stripped of the magic items in their possession and possibly forced to wear a power-suppressing item for so ti.”

As she finished her speech, Neandra reeled her presence back in with a dramatic flare of her wings. Imdiately, the elves and beasts surrounding the defeated soldiers closed in on them while officers rose into the air to quickly organize the gathering of the prisoners.

Though by then, Darganth was already paying only minimal attention to this. Instead gliding toward the edge of the nearby crater, he turned back into his humanoid form before landing by Allaire’s side.