Chapter 34: Chapter 33: Elves

[Near the city of Regor]

Standing on an elevated position tens of kilometers outside the city, Jennia stared at the walls around Regor in marvel. Towering nearly four hundred meters, they dwarfed everything she had ever seen. Even her mother's new form would look small in comparison.

“So we simply make our way around it?” She asked Darganth.

“Yes. They have already captured a dragon, whatever the duke knows isn’t worth the time.”

“After we dealt with that issue I want to tour the city. I have never seen something this imposing.”

“As you want.” He said with a warm smile.

Hearing his promise Jennia finally tore her gaze from the city. Turning towards the extensive forest lying in front of them, she sighed. While the initial trees looked similar to earth, the deeper one went the larger and more robust they became. As plants also benefited from mana, though very slowly, this scaled with their age.

Even from their current position she could feel that some of the trees were strong enough to be capable of blocking her path. With her large body she would have trouble making her way through these parts as she couldn't simply knock down bothersome trees. Seeing her look towards the older parts of the forest, Darganth gave her an apologetic smile.

Making their way back down the hill, they walked towards Allaire who was waiting for them.

“I still don't understand why you hate cities so much.” Jennia said to her.

“Too cramped.” She said with a shrug, much to Jennia's disbelieve.

Shelving the topic, they soon made their way through the forest. With Jennia following the two they encountered no beasts that attacked them as even at the third rank a hydra was already a great deterrent.

I took them a few days later they reached the deeper parts of the forest, with Jennia cursing out loud increasingly often due a tree blocking her way. While Allaire had initially joked about this, by now this changed into sympathy for her situation. They had tried to find a way around the forest, but the immediate vicinity of the city was the only gap for thousands of kilometers. Even with magic they would have taken over a week longer, so Jennia had decided to push through.

“Do you want us to take a break?” Darganth asked her after Jennia collided with another tree the could endure her strength.

“No, I can still keep going. Though I would love to just destroy this entire forest, none of us are capable of that.” She said bitterly.

“Yes, being powerful enough to destroy a thousands of years old forest comes before being powerful enough to teleport across its entirety, especially for the literal god of space.” Allaire said sarcastic.

“On that mention, when do you have enough mana again for us to teleport?” Jennia asked, ignoring the comment.

“It will still be a while, that's why I proposed a break. While it will take a bit longer, we could only rely on teleporting to cross these parts of the forest.”

“I know, but what about that dragon? We don't know what will happen in the meantime.” She said concerned.

Just as Darganth opened his mouth to reply, he felt something behind him. Turning around abruptly, vines burst from the bushes in that direction, just to met with a wave of flames from him. Before the flames even subsided, he followed them up with small rock bullets flying through them.

Reacting with nearly no delay, Allaire became encased in an aura armor, while Jennia bent the space around them to form a dome like shield. Looking at the space where the rocks hit carefully, they waited for their attackers to get out of cover.

“Is there even anyone there? And who?” Allaire asked after a few seconds of nothing happening.

“A group of elves on the tree branches.” Darganth answered her, deliberately raising his voice enough for the other group to hear him.

Soon after over a hundred people emerged on the tree branches, spread out about a third of a circle around them. Despite nearly all of them being armed with a bow while having a massive height advantage, in addition to their numbers advantage, they were clearly nervous. Soon a man stepped forwards, keeping a nervous eye towards Jennia.

“You aren't welcome here. While we condemn the treatment of beastmen in the kingdom, this is a refuge only for our kind. Especially if you are accompanied by a human.” The man said sharply. Giving a short glace to Allaire as Darganth felt it would be best if she spoke, Darganth took a step back.

“Yes and we don't seek a refuge, we are just trying to make our way through the forest.” Allaire said.

“Then choose another route. This is elven territory.” The main insisted.

“Other routes take far longer. Wouldn't it be in our all interest for you to just let us through?” She asked, letting her aura flow through the bow and arrow she was holding.

“Third rank or not, you aren’t worthy of stepping further.” The man said. His choice of words drew Darganth's interest.

Letting his eyes return to the reptilian appearance to enhance their effect, he looked deep into the forest. Ignoring the elven mages standing a bit further back as well as the elves making their way towards them, he searched for their city. Soon he found the first elf with a natural mana flow, making him likely a civilian.

Continuing his search into that direction, he soon found the city he had searched for. While the wooden wall and its enchantments limited his sight inside greatly, it couldn't hide the massive mana signature in the form of a tree. A smile crept onto his face and he turned his focus back to the current situation.

“Well, the nice way didn't work, so coercion it is.” He said, stepping forward. This caused the elves to turn towards him.

“Coercion? You have no leverage so stop spewing big words unless you want to end as a target for our arrows.” The elf said arrogantly.

“No leverage? I would imagine that the threat of exposing a mana tree, no matter how weak, to the kingdom is quite the leverage.” He said with a smile.

His words shocked the surrounding elves. Their focus shifted from Jennia to him, with some even drawing the bows they had previously only aimed loosely towards them. While this caused some older ones among them to look at Jennia warily, they didn't say anything. The elf that had previously spoken to them had meanwhile started to look at them in rage.

“How do you know? Tell us now and you will at least get a clean death.” He shouted, much to the shock of those that had already eyed Jennia warily.

When Darganth didn't react with the fear as he had hoped, he looked at the other elves in confusion. Seeing the wary looks towards Jennia, he quickly came to a conclusion. Letting go of the arrow that he had already placed into his bow, he drew a new one. Instead of the plain design of the previous one, this one was heavily decorated and had dozens of runes and symbols running along its length.

“You probably thought that that hydra has scales strong enough to block our arrows, but you better ditch that thought. We may lack power, but this arrow could even pierce the hide of a fourth rank beast, so a third rank hydra won't be a problem.” He said with a condescending smile.

Seeing the arrow Darganth's expression turned serious. Seeing this shift the man's grin grew even wider as he thought that this was due to fear. Without forewarning he suddenly felt his mana drain at an extreme rate. Before he could even react, his entire second rank mana pool was emptied and he found himself standing directly in front of Darganth.

Once his teleportation spell had taken effect and the elf arrived before him, Darganth grabbed him by the throat before returning to his true form. Slamming him to the ground during this, the elf soon found himself lying on his back with Darganth towering over him and one of his paws on his chest. His claws were also extended, piercing into the ground a few centimeters from the elf's face.

“No!” Some of the elves above suddenly shouted and at the same time about two dozen arrows impacted Darganth's scales. As the elves didn't reinforce them with aura in their shock, they simply broke upon contact.

“Where did you get that arrow from.” Darganth growled into the man's face, ignoring the others.

“W-We are p-protected. If you k-kill us he won't let you go!” The elf shouted in return. Seeing this change in attitude, Darganth nearly burst into laughter.

Just as he wanted to ask the next question, the mages managed to come out of their stupor, causing nearly two hundred spell to converge on their position. Narrowing her eyes at this, Jennia focused her space shield at this area, causing the spells to crash into it. Once the salvo subsided, the shield still stood while not having let past a single spell.

Before the mages could fire another volley, a man that had suddenly appeared between them waved them to stop. Looking around in confusion for the reason why the mages stopped casting, the elf in Darganth's grip saw the man and started laughing.

“Lord Vagha, kill that insolent bastard. He dares to attack us despite being under you protection.” Hearing the elf's words, the man scoffed in disdain.

“Stop embarrassing yourself Intevar. The day I kill one of my own kind for you will never come.” The man said, shocking the elf in Darganth's grasp.

Realizing the implications of this after a short moment, he started pleading with Vagha, “B-But you said you would protect us.”

“Against humans, yes. I even defended you against beasts and other threats out of my own volition, but against a dragon? A member of the void lineage that you started a fight against no less? He can kill you for all I care, I am just here to ask for mercy towards the rest.” Hearing his supposed protector abandon him, Intevar's face fell. Looking at Darganth in horror, he saw the latter completely disregarding him.

Throwing the elf in his paw, Darganth returned to his humanoid form, though this time with elven features. Looking at the dragon opposite of him with a raised eyebrow, he waited for him to jump down from the tree.

“Do you know?” He asked, once Vagha landed on the ground.

“He is my brother, of course I do.” Vagha answered, immediately understanding the meaning of the question.

Hearing this, Darganth's dragons fear burst fourth, though only with the same intensity as a member of either the Locis or Tempust species would have. While the elves were forced to their knees by this, Vagha only showed a short twitch.

“Then how come that this kingdoms capital still stands?”

“Because I am too weak, its defenses would simply repel me. Those enchantments hold more power than one would expect from this region.” Vagha said in his defense.

“So what? From what I know is that the strongest fire dragon in the steel mountains lived for at least ten thousand years. Even without any training, he would be capable of crushing those formations.”

Seeing Vagha's hesitating to reply to this, Darganth quickly realized why he hadn't called for help.

“You put you pride above the live of one of your own?!” Darganth shouted, now unleashing his full dragons fear, forcing Vagha to his knees.

Widening his eyes in shock due to being affected by dragons authority despite being a high tier dragons, the dragon took a few seconds to understand who stood opposite of him. Shocked by this revelation, he could only look at Darganth in a mixture of fear and reverence.

This situation continued for over a minute, ending only when Allaire calmed Darganth.

“Now explain yourself.” He said to Vagha, having calmed down significantly.

“Yes, I didn't seek help from Orynth because of my pride, but it isn't as if I planned to leave Siurin to his fate. That is actually the reason why I am here, these elves still owe my quite a lot for my protection over the years.” He explained with a lowered head.

“These elves?” Allaire interjected, waving her hand towards the surrounding ones with a frown.

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“Yes?” Vagha said, slightly unsure what she meant.

“How can a bunch of second ranks be of any use?”

“Oh, they have stronger people, they just rarely leave the city. While I admit that the display of them just now wasn't the best, they aren't normally as helpless as they were. Besides I never wanted to do a frontal attack, if we are already inside the formations will be less effective.”

“That is at least slightly better, though I still doubt that getting the elves into the city will be that easy.”

“Yes, but it is something we will manage. My greater concern is the safety of the city if even one strong fighter is missing. I spend years watching and protecting them as they build it up from a small town and I would regret to watch it crumble this soon.” Vagha said in a melancholic tone.

“I hope its not like the human cities?” Allaire asked with a frown.

“No, the only ones similar would be from high elves. Here you will mainly find normal elves and wood elves, though some high, ice and dark elves are also present. And as it was originally a wood elf settlement, it takes mostly after their cities, with it being centered around the mana tree.” He explained.

“On its mention, how come its this young? From my knowledge a mana tree in this environment would take far longer to reach this power. Trees that reach that power while still being this small would normally be somewhere with mana ten times as dense.” Darganth asked.

“I had noticed it too, but I don't know it is the case. After observing it carefully for nearly ten years without an answer I gave up.”

“I will see whether I can find something once the walls no longer block my gaze, but I won't invest much time into it. We still have your brother to rescue.” Darganth said, receiving Vagha's agreement.

“The walls are you creation I presume?” He added.

“Yes.”

“Thought so. Mana tree with rune magic, always a great combination. Though I like to add some magic circles in between, though it just a matter of personal priority.”

“Never considered it, might try it.” Vagha said, falling into thoughts.

“While I am not one to spoil your little talk, but don't we have someone to save?” Jennia asked.

“Even if we get ready a few minutes earlier, the rest isn't ready yet and I doubt that any one of you could tear through the city's defenses.” Vagha said.

“I could, the only problem would be the fact that it would leave me with no mana left.” Darganth said, startling the rest.

“Wait, you could? Then why didn't you tell so beforehand?” Vagha asked.

“Because while it would destroy most defenses, it would still need about four or five being of around your strength to get inside and I don't see some of those.”

“Yes, there are none here, but I know some. My brother and I weren't the only solar dragons who moved here, there are eight others.” He said, surprising Darganth slightly.

“Right, my mother told me of you guys. You arrived during the time she was trying to convince Orynth to let her cross the steel mountains.”

“Your mother? Ah, your the daughter of Enilla. Wheres you mother, she could also be of great help.” Vagha exclaimed.

“Making her way to the dragon peaks.”

“Oh, how come? Thought the deal wast that he would make an exception for the same person only every hundred years.”

“Yes, but he no longer needs to make an exeption for her.” Jennia said, pointing at Darganth with a smile. This made Vagha give Darganth a surprised look, though the latter just shrugged.

“I take it that the others are still there?” She continued to which he nodded.

Just as Vagha wanted to continue speaking, Darganth interrupted.

“Let me get this straight, you are currently nine solar dragons in that group and you tried to get help from the elves with that infiltration plan? Why not directly ask them?” He asked in disbelieve.

“I did. But they found it to be beneath them to use such methods.” This answer shocked Darganth.

“They though it to beneath them? And here I was thinking that your reason would be the dumbest one I would hear today. At most I thought they would have the same one, but that makes yours seem great in comparison. And your reason was already far beyond stupid.” Darganth said in disbelieve.

“To be fair, Averyla did agree to my idea.”

“Alright, but what about the rest? Because if that was truly their entire reason for not helping Siurin was that they are lucky that I didn't learn it while they were there. Because my current opinion could hardly sink lower and they better hope the reverse to be true before I meet them.” He said, remaining threateningly calm. This made Vagha pity the others.

Thinking for a moment whether to try and defend them, he decided against it. After all, they were responsible for it themselves and he was happy enough that Darganth's anger at him subsided rather quickly.

“How about we go to the elven city and wait for them to arrive. Even if I contact them now, they will probably take about two days to get here.” He proposed.

Agreeing with the idea, Darganth, Allaire and Jennia followed him to the city. Soon they found themselves standing in front of a series of trees with wooden walls between them. Around the trees hung massive structures, serving as guard towers. Between them stretched walkways, creating a connection somewhere further in the city and between the different trees. Some few also went away from the city, going to similarly build trees a few hundred meters in front of the wall that served as an early defense platform.

“Now that I see this, is it really alright for me to go into the city?” Jennia asked.

“Its alright. Some of the more eccentric mages regularly walk around transformed into animals.” Vagha's answer made her eyes shine with excitement.

“You have someone that knows transformation magic? Can you teach me?” She asked.

“I doubt a day or two won't be enough to learn it, but I can ask them to give you a collection of everything important. It will likely take longer, but you can take the book with you.” He offered.

“That would be great. I don't care if it takes longer, at least I can finally learn how to transform.” She said exited.

 

[Royal palace, Salin]

Standing inside a small council room, six men sat around a table.

“Duke Wallace has retreated with his army.” One of them stated. This news shocked the others present and caused them to murmur amongst them.

“Silence!” The man shouted after a few seconds, prompting an instant reaction from the rest.

“Your majesty, with all due respect, are you sure? Duke Wallace always followed orders to the end, that such a man would ignore one you yourself gave is something I can't believe.”

“Then you better start believing it duke Lannings.” A newcomer suddenly said.

Turning to the voice and seeing a middle aged man entering most of those present frowned. Ignoring this reaction, he walked closer to the table and placed a small stack of paper in front of the king before sitting down on the last free chair.

“Zeril, nice that you decided to finally grace us with your presence.” One of the men said with a venomous tone.

“Quite with this attitude Vincent. Jannal here had to attend to some important business for me and thanks to that we know what happened with the good duke.” The kings said in a happy tone. After making sure that he has everyone’s attention, he resumed speaking.

“There are reports of eight dragons flying away from the dukes camp. While I don't doubt that he would gladly throw away his life for his honor, both of his children were present.” This made some of them frown.

“So much for you genius plan demon, now the dragons probably know that we got one of them.”

“Yes, but not from this. They knew it the moment we caught him, they just can't act. Why do you think I told you to stay in the capital?” Zeril said with a calm smile.

“What? Why didn't you tell us?” One of them shouted.

“Because you didn't need to know. And if had told you, how long until it became a rumor everybody knew? A week? Two? I guarantee you that in under a month a dragon would have lay waste to this city.”

This made the every one of them besides the king look at him in confusion. After a few seconds one of them started laughing at this, with the laughter spreading to the rest.

“I wouldn't have expected more from your kind, you don't even know of the formations. That dragon failed while attacking a nearby city and failed due to them. They can try all they want, we will simply wait and once you did your job we will show them what supreme power looks like.” Duke Lannings said in disdain.

This made Zeril break into laughter. Irritated by this reaction, those in the room looked at each other in confusion.

Then he suddenly stopped laughing and appeared next to the duke without warning. Slamming his head onto the table, his appearance slowly started to change. His skin turned ash grey, his fingers became claws and he grew to nearly four meters. Looking around the room with his glowing red eyes, he relished their looks of fear.

“You believe that you will gain supreme power? You summoned me to transform you into a dragon, that is far from some supreme power. Yes they are powerful, but it seems you bunch lost yourself in you delusions. Barely winning against dragon not even a century old and you think you could take on old monsters like the one sitting at the dragons peaks? You are insignificant in the larger picture and even after this you will remain it.” He snarled at them.

Pressured by the mana he emitted, the gathered humans lowered their head slightly. Only then did Zeril reign the mana back in, before letting his gaze wander over those gathered with a smile.

“Now that we can finally be productive, lets discuss how to continue.” He said in a calm voice, earning him fearful nods of approval.

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