[Beast forest]
Following Sarkia through the forest, their group soon arrived at their destination. Before them, the trees gave way to a large artificial clearing that opened up in a cone shape before culminating in a circular opening around a stone formation over a hundred ters high.
Carved into this stone was a small ledge at around five ters from the ground as well as a throne atop it, though it was veiled in an illusion that made it nearly impossible to see anything else atop it. Trying to break through it with his eyes, Darganth quickly noticed that even when enhancing them with mana, his dragon eyes failed to see through the illusion.
Instead, his mana sight showed him what was essentially a smoke screen as the area was so saturated with mana that he couldn't discern anything.
This initially intrigued him, but he quickly rembered that the dragoness that Sarkia serves is likely to be present, breaking his interest. Paying little heed to the transford beasts standing at the edges of the clearing, the four of them walked down the path it ford.
When they started coming close to the throne the illusion slowly started to fade, revealing the figures of three won.
Atop the throne and between the other two sat Neandra, the beast empress. Clad in sowhat barbaric-looking fur and leather clothes that left everything below the midpoint of her thigh, her abdon as well as her arms free, she presented an imposing sight.
Over this initial layer, she wore a series of cloth and fur pieces that hung down from her waist and down her legs while still being flexible enough to not hinder her movent. Lastly, over her left shoulder hang a cape-like piece of clothing made entirely from scales, though it was thrown back.
All of this combined well with her muscular, slightly toned physique and gave her an air of power even when hiding her mana. Rounding this out were her long silvery gray hair that made her nonetheless seem like nobility as well as her dragon-like eyes that clearly identified her as a beast.
On her right stood a person that looked out of place, an elven woman entirely clad in expensive cloth robes that practically glowed under Darganth's mana sight. These robes hid most of her figure, leaving only her head uncovered. Keen-eyed observers would also see the sword hidden in one of the folds of the robe.
Just like most elves she had an otherworldly beauty, with striking green eyes and glowing silver hair. In contrast to Neandra's, it didn't even have so traces of gray mixed in it, making it look as if it were made from pure silver and emitting an illuminating glow as long as she stood in just dim light.
The last woman of the three had many features that were familiar to Darganth, her lean build, pitch-black hair, the two black horns growing from her temples as well as her facial features holding many similarities to those of Irsyr's humanoid forms. Even the habit of keeping scales over parts of their skin to form a pattern across their bodies was the sa, though the executed pattern differed.
Irsyr had a small stripe of scales down his arms and legs that closely followed the skeleton, with so artistic variations added, that then trailed up the spine before spiting at the neck and ending at the bases of his horns.
She instead used them as a dragon's unique version of jewelry instead of his war-paint-like version. With so scale next to her eyes to highlight them, a necklace-like muster just below her neck, and a continuous line down her upper body right between her breasts as just so examples, she used them to give her flawless appearance an exotic touch.
Only her attitude differed radically from his, with her leisurely laying on a roman style couch, holding a glass of wine in her hand. Enhanced with mana to overco the resistances of mana users, it would probably kill a normal human with a single drop.
This laid-back attitude is also reflected in her clothes, wearing a loosely fitting toga that barely covered her breasts. Despite this none of the beasts dared to stare, either learning from the mistakes of another poor beast or, more likely, not being allowed to look through the illusions.
And even though there were also so other differences, he nonetheless was sure that the woman was one of Irsyr's daughters as these features closely resembled those of Irsyr's wive.
As if to confirm his thoughts, Sarkia walked forward until she stood right below the ledge before kneeling.
“Princess, I've fulfilled my task.” She said.
“I didn't expect anything else from you.” The dragoness said with a smile before adding after a short pause, “And you can rise, nothing changes even with his presence.”
Only then did she change her focus on Darganth, eying him with so interest. In response, Jennia and Allaire narrowed their eyes, staring her down until she started to chuckle slightly.
“The primordial dragon, huh? Definitely can agree with most of what my siblings said about you, though I don't understand how they don't see your similarities to my father.” She said with so amusent.
“You're the only one who ets when I am not at my peak.” Darganth answered flatly.
“Your situation certainly isn't well suited for a less serious approach to life, probably even Azeal would find it in him to focus for once if he were to switch with you. I nonetheless had expected a bit more arrogance from you.”
“I know how to adapt to the situation.”
His answer elicited a slight chuckle from her. A mont later she stood up from the couch she was lying on in one swift movent before letting her glass vanish.
“This probably isn't the right setting for any dragon, one of my family especially, to et their god, so how about a change of scenery?” She asked and Darganth couldn't agree more.
“You two want to co too?” She asked Neandra and the elf, adding after receiving a positive answer from both, “Venrie dear, can you give the three entrance?”
“Of course.” The elven woman answered her.
With her words, Darganth felt a spell attempting to read his mana signature. Already familiar with these types of formations and having directly confird that it used only the superficial signature, he didn't resist the attempt. Compared to the so-called 'true signature' this one only serves as a nearly unfordable token of identity, while the latter can be used to target a person with spells and similar even from great distances.
As soon as the spell finished, all six of them, with Sarkia being left in charge of the beasts, were enveloped in spatial energies that teleported them away.
Arriving at the destination, Darganth found himself surprised as he felt the presence of a mana tree close by.
“Alright, I should probably introduce myself now.” The dragoness said a mont later.
“I am Yldra, youngest daughter of Irsyr, but you probably already knew that.”
“There aren't many Locis dragons to begin with and your family stands out, so it's not that hard.”
“As for them, Neandra, the beast empress, and Venrie, the elven empress.”
The first part of that introduction was what Daranth already expected but the second part surprised not just him but also Jennia and Allaire.
“And I've wondered why this house looks elven in design.” Darganth said.
Turning his attention towards the opening in the wooden wall that served as a window, Darganth's gaze fell on an enormous city that stretched for kiloters. Instead of the densely packed buildings humans, dwarfs, and even beastn built, this city was far more spacious.
A part of this ca from the fact that it was built in the middle of a forest, with the buildings being built around it. This was a typical thing for Wood elf cities, though this one had many aspects that weren't, resulting in a fusion of Wood elf, Ar, and even so high elf designs.
Just like wood elves, this city was built deep in the woods and around a mana tree, though only so of its buildings were made from wood and even fewer stood atop the trees. Most of the remaining influence ca from the Ar, the most human-like elven species.
Similarly to how they are the elves closest to humans, their lifespan as well as their affinity for mana and the elents being low for elves, their cities mostly mimicked human ones in their general structure. The finer details were anwhile vastly different and inspired by high elves, with them preferring a more spacious and more open style that allowed mbers of a community to interact easily.
Though here, just like with most Ar cites, it was easy to see that it wasn't built by high elves even if the community buildings and rounded buildings made it seem like it. The reason for that was that despite these buildings being built to look elegant and certainly did, they lacked the arrogance and glow from high-elven designs as they simply didn't have the latter's overabundance of mages to enchant each part of a building with spells that only served an esthetic purpose.
The only exception to this was the palace below the massive mana tree in the center of the city, with its silvery glowing walls being the most visible from his position. And from the amount of mana around it, he was sure that this wasn't all, with so of the more popular choices he knows of being moving designs on the ground, ceiling, or the inner walls, floating furniture, and many theatrical effects.
“Surprised by what I build?” Venrie asked him from his side.
“Certainly. Just seeing wood elves mingling with other species is rare enough by itself. Allowing a city to be built around a mana tree with anything but their style? Never heard of it.” Darganth said, genuinely impressed.
Following his praise, her lips curled into a small smile as she also let her gaze wander across the city.
“Though I've been wondering, what is a high elf doing here? Because apart from you I haven't even heard of any living in this universe.” Darganth asked after a few monts.
“Well, it's not as if the gods were always forced to stay out of this dinsion. And between then and now are only a few generations for high elves, allowing my ancestors to keep the bloodline they valued so much pure. Back then they served under Raellae, a lesser elven goddess of nature though not necessarily a famous one.
As a divinity of this type is common among elves she had to stand out to not be rembered as just one of the hundreds of elves of the ti that had nature as their divinity. That was why she wanted to use this universe to build a strong base of followers. Though in retrospect she should have been happy to have even gained a divinity but so people just always want more.
So after conquering this universe from the handful ascended that ruled it previously, everything went smoothly for a few decades. Together so other gods also arrived around the sa ti as she did, she was a part of the five that managed to establish their control here.
But when the Locis relocated here all of this ca crashing down, though until recently I didn't know it was them. Initially, each of the five gods received a ssage that their presence at so sort of eting was expected. Believing it to be just a sixth lesser god who wanted a piece of their price, they agreed despite the ssage being delivered by high-tier dragons, sothing that should have warned them.
From there I don't know much, only that the five gods started a fight against Irsyr, a fight they predictably lost. And that even though they were powerful for lesser gods, with three of the others having divinities similarly powerful as nature, while one of the others even had a divinity based on an elent. God of the lakes it was, from what Yldra told , had he just waited so ti he would have had a chance to beco an elental god.” Venrie told him, chuckling slightly at the misfortune of the god.
This story slightly surprised Darganth who let his gaze wander across the city for a second ti to confirm his suspicions.
“When your ancestors were here for this long, how co no religion to any of the great elven gods exists? Even with this comparatively few people, over ti they would have started noticing you and I doubt that your ancestors were fond of being trapped here.”
“No idea, but there seems to be so thought behind it. Even I and the other high elves of today don't even learn the nas of any of our kind gods, though so are still recorded in our books. And most of my fellows seem to be content on the elven continent, each subspecies holed up in their own territory’s and only projecting a unified front to the outside.” Venrie said with so apathy.
This new information ca as sowhat of a surprise to Darganth, but he didn't particularly care about the situation there.
Just as he was about to continue the conversation, Yldra interrupted them.
“I'll butt in here before you trigger Venrie's rant about the rest of her kin as that wasn't why I wanted to co here and back with the beasts there is still an ongoing conflict.” She said, overhearing the pause in their conversation during her own conversation with Neandra, Jennia, and Allaire.
Before Darganth could answer her, Venrie herself said, “Probably better, kinda forgot about all that.”
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