Chapter 52: Chapter 51: End of the fighting

[Hillcamp]

Waking up the next morning, Darganth remembered the past night with a fond smile. After a short rest they had continued for hours, only stopping deep in the night. And even then they did so only because there were still things they planned to do later this day.

While thinking about whether to already start his plans to create magic potions or continue his collection of ingredient first, he noticed Allaire stirring on his left.

Giving her a light kiss on the cheek, she cuddled herself against him.

“Good morning my love.” He said in response.

“Good morning.” She answered, still half asleep.

Only after a few more minutes of silence did she wake up fully. The sight of Darganth lying there with her on one arm and Jennia in the other made a small smile bloom on her lips.

Sitting up and stretching for a moment, she remembered the past night with a smile. Internally debating whether she should get up or not, she took a moment before deciding to lay down on Darganth's chest.

“So what's today's plan?” She asked him after a quick kiss.

“Haven't decided anything yet so I am all ears if you have something. Otherwise I would wait till we have asserted what happened in the rest of the forest.”

“Then what do you think of staying in bed?”

Considering the idea for a moment, Darganth was just about to answer when Jennia interjected with a murmur, “We can do that when there nothing better to do.”

Her words surprised Darganth slightly as he hadn't felt her waking up. Turning his head towards her, he gave her too a quick morning kiss.

“Then lets hurry and finish up here before nightfall, then nothing stands in the way of my idea.” Allaire said determined after a short moment.

This made Jennia roll her eyes in an exaggerated motion, before answering with a sigh, “I am quite sure I told you multiple times already, but you are really becoming more and more of a sex fiend.”

While Darganth chuckled at her words, Allaire just smiled before retorting, “I am aware. But its not like you are much better, you just try to hide it more.”

Forced to agree with those words, Jennia kept silent. Instead she cuddled closer to Darganth, before trying to divert the topic.

“I take it that you will start making the potions today?” She asked.

“Yes.” He answered, already half sitting up.

“Then I will join you later.” Jennia said, giving him a deep kiss.

Slowly making his way out of the mangle of limbs, Darganth soon stood next to the bed. Turning around, he just wanted to ask Allaire whether she wanted to come with him when he noticed her already having pulled up the blanket again.

Answering the question without even having to ask, he made his way towards the exit. While walking he let his usual set of clothes form, soon stepping outside fully clothed.

As soon as he fully left the tent he became shocked at the state of the surroundings. While the hill and the immediate vicinity was left untouched, with the warding formations not even activating, the area beyond that was completely scorched.

From his elevated position he could clearly see the damages done to the forest, with large parts of the its area he could overlook missing. And even after the point where the trees grew too large for him to be able to look over them there were signs of a damage.

This made him sure that they weren't spared from the fighting's aftereffects, even though he couldn't see the damage.

There also lingered the heavy smell of burned wood in the air, coming from within the woods and bringing with it small clouds of ash. But despite carrying an intensity as if one stood directly before the fire, there were no outward traces of it.

This stood in contrast to the formerly grassy planes that stood around the forest, where the black streaks of burned grass sprung into the eye.

Where there was previously a seemingly endless sea of green with just a few small bushes, there was now a picture of pure devastation. Patches of black were scattered all around the endless green, some more elongated while others were more circular.

Looking at the paths of flaming destruction that were likely carved through groups of beastmen, Darganth noticed that some of the damage wasn't done by flames.

Arriving next to one of these places in a flash, he reached down to the ground with his hand. Touching the dead grass, he felt a slight burning sensation on his fingers.

“Swift and decisive, you did better than I had expected.” He said after a few seconds.

This caused his seemingly empty surroundings to distort slightly, soon revealing Ilashas standing next to him.

“How did you notice?” He asked.

“I didn't sense a Wyvern last time I looked at your army and this is clearly the work of one. Though I wonder, did he use a treasure to hide or did he only travel here for the fight?”

“He traveled.”

“Flying from battlefield to battlefield I take?”

“Yes. But still, how can you be so sure that he was successful, I doubt that even you could see the beastmen camp, or what’s left of it, from here.”

“No, I can't. But I am quite good at evaluating a person, which is why I know you wouldn't use your trump card needlessly, combine that with at least two dead peak fourth ranks due to him and I easily got an idea of what happened here.”

This analysis from Darganth shocked Ilshas, making him look over the battlefield in an attempt to find out what made him come to that conclusion.

Quickly finding the spots where the two died, he tried to find any indication to that. Taking a few moments, he saw the accumulation of poison in the ground around these spots. Focusing on it for a bit, he sighed in defeat.

“I thought I cleared everything, guess I still need to learn.” He said.

“Wyvern poison is powerful but also easily identified so if you want it to stay a secret you should hide it better. And from what I can gather you tried to destroy all reminents of the poison, something I wouldn't advise you to. Try using another similiarly strong substance and disperse it over the area, Wyvern poison is easily bonds with other similiar substances.” Darganth advised him.

“I know, but I never though about using it like that. But when a alchemist mixes it it's nearly untracable, so it would be a obvious idea.” Ilshas said with a mix of awe and regret about not thinking of this himself. 

Nodding in acknowledgment, Darganth left him to his thoughts. Standing there in silence for a few minutes, Ilashas went over the rest of his plan to make sure that there weren't other similar weaknesses.

While the chances were small to find a mistake, if it exists, now, after having already worked on it for months, he did so anyways. They may not care whether the overarching plan would be discovered later, but keeping information about some of the more talented beasts in their ranks from leaking was crucial.

His thoughts were interrupted a few minutes later when Darganth spoke again.

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“I meant to ask at the beginning, but why are you even here? There shouldn't be anything here that draws your attention and I doubt you waited for me.” He said.

“Hm?” Ilashs said, “Oh, I actually did want to meet you. Wanted to give you this.”

At those words he threw Darganth a small pouch. Catching it and sensing its contents, he raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Noticed you gathering magic ingredients so I decided to give you a hand.” Ilashas explained.

“Why?”

“It’s nothing difficult.”

Not satisfied with this dodging of an explanation, Darganth continued glaring at him. This made him try and avoid eye contact, confirming Darganth's suspicion that it wasn't the full reason.

Continuing with his glare, Darganth waited for a bit until Ilshas had enough of the pressure.

Sighing in acceptance, he said, “My father told me to establish good terms.”

“This certainly helps with that. Though I have to wonder, what does he hope to get out it?”

“He probably wants your kinds protection.

“As long as he doesn't go against me your father will be safe.” Darganth reassured him.

“He already expected this, it’s someone else he wants protection from. And before you ask, I don't know much so it would be better for him to explain.” Ilshas answered.

While this drew Darganth's interest slightly, he didn't bother asking further. Whatever it was would become clear later anyways so it didn't matter.

“Then I will gladly come back to that offer, maybe this is even the start of a more permanent cooperation.” He said with a thankful smile.

Seeing Ilshas surprise at these words he added, “What, did you expect that I would pass on the opportunity to forge a connection with talented beings just because they aren’t true dragons?”

Hearing his words, Ilashas looked at him with a complicated expression.

“Well, I assumed it because many true dragons look down on other species, though I seem to have judged you too hastily.” He said.

Hearing his cautious explanation Darganth chuckled lightly.

“It seems like I have to have even more to chastise the dragon of this world for.” He said with a slightly annoyed tone.

“It seems that the upheaval will be even greater than I expected, at least for my kind.” Ilashas murmured, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Darganth.

“Of course. As much as the sentiment seems to be lost in this world, the main focus of the term lesser dragon should be on the dragon part. You are a part of dragon kind, so changes that affect all dragons will also affect you.” Darganth said.

Hearing those words Ilshas tried to remain composed but couldn’t keep a smile from forming on his lips. It took only a few seconds longer for him to burst into laughter.

“Oh, how much I would love to see the faces of some of those dragon’s ones they learn that the void lineage values lesser dragon to this extend. Only the Empresses reaction to this could come close, so I shouldn’t miss it.” He said amidst his laughter dying down.

Darganth was meanwhile waiting for him to calm down while staying silent. He could guess how much importance this held for the lesser dragons of this world so he didn’t want to interrupt Ilshas happiness.

Though when he spoke of the Empresses reaction, his interest was piqued.

“Oh, how so?” He asked once Ilshas finished.

Taking a moment to understand what he means with this question, the latter answered, “Of all lesser dragons she is probably the one that hates the way many true dragons treat us.”

“That’s surprising, after all she should be older than many Fire dragons. And while not stronger many of them, from what Orynth told me she is quite talented and does good in building on that.”

Hearing the respect a well-known Fire dragon like Orynth has for her as well as the slight bit that he noticed in Darganth’s words momentarily stunned him. Though after a moment he got out of his stupor, instead having a bright smile on his lips.

Just from this alone Darganth could see the amount of reverence he held for her.

“You seem to idolize her quite a bit.”

“Of course, nearly every lesser dragon does so. Even when she received push back form some true dragons she wasn’t swayed away from her ambitions, not even by promises of power. And while they may be slightly selfish of her, should she ever achieve her goal we would all profit from it.”

Hearing Ilshas unwavering tone, Darganth’s interest rose. Thinking about them form a bit, he soon got an idea what he means.

“Beast of Legends?” He simply asked.

Instantly understanding the meaning of this question, Ilashas simply nodded before adding, “And its divinity.”

This addition shocked Darganth quite a bit and made him reevaluate her once more. Compared to his previous assessment he had to admit that he underestimated the extend of her ambitions quite a bit.

Despite this he quickly collected himself again.

Talking a few more minutes with Ilshas, they soon separated and Darganth made his way back to Jennia and Allaire. While on his way he couldn’t help but think about what he learned about the Beast Empress and her ambitions, after all no lesser dragon ever managed to archieve a species divinity despite quite a few transitioning from being a beast to a being of legend and this had a very good reason.

A species divinity was an outlier amongst divinities as a whole and to an even greater extent than the War element was amongst the different elements. Compared to the latter that was still without question a part of the elements even though it lacked a true physical representation that bundles the concepts it represents like the others, species divinities were often debated to even be divinities.

Instead many considered it to be more of a guardianship role, similar to how the relationship between the people and government was supposed to work. In exchange for some authority over the rest of the species, the holder of the divinity would protect them from external threats and trying to mediate internal ones.

Of course it held many other benefits for its wielder, something that makes them hard to acquire. For one, only species of legends could truly gain such a divinity, with others having to rely on a weaker and more primitive form of it. Compared to the true one multiple people could hold it simultaneously and it was far weaker, but it was easier to acquire and could be used even by non-legendary species.

The other large hurdle most fail at was that it required the aspirant to be the strongest of its kind and to simultaneously be at least accepted by enough of them. Though the second part of that seems easy, it being weighted by power was the true hurdle. Most of the stronger members of a species would try and keep another one from gaining the position in the hopes of one day acquiring it themselves.

And while this made it already complicated enough, for lesser dragons there was an even greater hurdle and that was the fact that these requirements also factor in closely related species, though with less stingy hurdles.

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