[Dragon peaks]
Sitting at the end of a large hall a few days after his return, Darganth overlooked the crowd that had gathered before him from his throne. In it, hundreds of dragons, draconians, elves, and beasts stood on both sides of a path extending all the way to the exit, with a small number of dwarves and various other species also among them.
Chief among these were Meliel and representatives for the dwarves on Avelyn. Having also traveled to the central continent together with Alicia, the latter had spent the past days in one of the draconian cities that were scattered across the artificial plateaus that separate the part of the dragon peaks that is occupied by the Locis and the one that the solar dragons live in.
Similarly to the former, they were intent on learning more about Darganth's intentions before making the decision of whether to fully join up with him or not. As such the king even went so far as to send one of his sons, the second prince, on the journey, leading to constant glances from the central continent's dwarves that were in attendance.
But even as millennia of tensions silently fought in the hall, Darganth remained focused on the beastmen emperor who sat before him in chains. With him, the few dozen soldiers that had refused to surrender until the end had been forced onto their knees in front of the crowd and were looking up to him on his throne.
"Now then, does one of you still have anything to say?" Darganth asked.
The moment he finished the question, a string of insults was hurled at him by the men to Rezal's right. Almost immediately, the other soldiers the dragons had captured at the end of the battle all joined in, with only the beastmen emperor himself continuing to seethe in silence.
"Well, that isn't productive." Darganth murmured and snapped his fingers.
With the gesture, the runes inscribed into the collar each prisoner wore started to glow, resulting in all air being pushed out of the vicinity of their faces in one quick burst. And though the aura users, and to a lesser extent also the mages, could survive longer than normal without it and would thus be fine with just the air in their lungs for minutes, the lack of air around their mouths meant that the sound of their voice was fully muffled.
A few moments into this, Rezal finally spoke up, "Keep your pity for yourself, we have no need for it."
"It's not pity, it's mercy. I give you the chance to have me look past your past actions if what you're offering is worth it."
"Then just kill me, I have no intention of ever helping you even in the slightest way."
Not having intended to have him leave the hall in any other way as he didn't believe there was knowledge in this universe worth sparing him, Darganth wasn't too bothered by this. But what did annoy him was that the other captives were sharing this sentiment. Hesitating only briefly, they soon followed Rezal's example and dropped their heads forward one by one.
Letting his gaze sweep across the row of soldiers, Darganth leaned back with a silent sigh. He studied each face carefully, hoping one would falter or reconsider, but his patience quickly wore thin. After a few more moments of tense silence, he realized none of them would change their stance.
And though it would make his plan to improve the poor perception the general population had of dragons more difficult, and by extension his effort to raise his own reputation among them, this also sealed his decision.
"Then so be it." He said and raised a hand.
With his gesture, green temporal energy gathered before his palm before coalescing into numerous small darts. Spreading them into a quarter circle by stretching his fingers to the sides, he briefly turned to Venrie and nodded in her direction before unleashing his attack.
Flying out, the small projectiles scattered and struck the prisoners in an instant. Not leaving any physical wounds, they went completely unnoticed by most of their targets up until the captured soldiers started dropping forward. Before they even struck the ground, the affected men and women's consciousness faded as they couldn't muster the mana to contest the temporal energy that accelerated the flow of time in their bodies, causing them to age rapidly and ultimately taking their lives as their organs started to fail.
Simultaneously, Venrie reached out before twisting her palm, causing a small tree trunk to burst out of the ground beneath Rezal and embed itself in his chest. Quickly coiling around him with its branches as he already started bleeding out from the wound in his torso, the small plant started to siphon off his life force, drain the water from his body, and eat away at his flesh until only a skeleton was left in his place.
"It is regretful but they've chosen their fate." Darganth announced as Rezal joined his soldiers in death, "Does anyone wish to add something to this matter?"
Letting his gaze sweep across the crowd with his announcement, Darganth was met with a tense silence from many of the non-draconic attendees. Shifting their eyes between him and the withered corpses multiple times, even the beasts and elves among them remained stunned by the rapid series of events that had transpired. Those that weren't included mostly those that had already met Darganth after the battle at Ilnori or otherwise knew of his position as a leading figure among dragons.
The others meanwhile were surprised to see an, to them unknown, individual decide the fate of an emperor. As such their eyes started darting between him, Venrie, and Nenadra in an attempt to make sense of the situation.
Seeing these confused reactions before himself, Darganth correctly guessed these thoughts. Letting them linger and foster briefly until the suspense reached its peak, he wordlessly commanded the over a hundred dragons that were present to step forward.
This sudden motion startled many of the other attendees, with shouts of indignation and surprised yelps echoing across the crowd as they moved forward. Noting that some of the men and women the transformed dragons pushed past flared their mana as their shoulders bumped against each other amid the densely packed crowd, Darganth took note of their appearances. Though simultaneously he smiled softly at the hesitancy and fear that he saw on these individual's faces once they recognized the would be victims of their attacks as dragons.
But these people weren't the only ones recognizing the dragon's identities, with the rest of the crowd closely following their movements. In their gazes, Darganth could see the nervousness that often dominated interactions between dragons and members of other species.
'That is something I'm going to have to resolve sooner rather than later.' He thought to himself in response to the sight.
Moments later these thoughts were again pushed to the back of his mind as the dragons finished pushing through the crowd, with the last one arriving soon after and taking his place in the orderly lines that had formed before Darganth. Once done, each row dropped to their knees in unison, causing confusion and shocked gasps in the crowd.
"Your Highness, you called." The dragons called out to Darganth, ignoring the commotion behind them.
"I did." Darganth answered while letting his eyes scan over their kneeling forms.
Refraining from abusing his dragon's authority, he used the moment his eyes met theirs to study their expressions and reach a final decision on which of them he would choose. For this, he first removed those of whose loyalty he wasn't sure as well as those that were too fanatic from consideration. At the moment he simply didn't see the upsides of the second group as worth it in the current situation when considering the clouded judgment that often accompanied it.
Based on this and a few more minor factors, he soon narrowed down the original thirty dragons he considered as recipients to only six. However to his regret, between himself, Yldra, and Enilla the available crystals had already shrunk down to the planned four, forcing him to narrow it down even further despite believing all six worth of the reward.
The first decision was nonetheless done quickly, even if it hurt to effectively punish one of his kin for their success. But compared to the other five his greater power meant that the boost provided by the crystals equaled fewer days of growth through training and efficiency was currently an important consideration for him.
Letting his gaze sweep over the dragons a few more seconds after this decision, Darganth soon noticed the growing anticipation among them. Not wishing to leave them in suspense much longer, he ultimately settled on chance and let a stealthily conjured ten-sided dice pick one of them by assigning two numbers to each.
"Noiro, Xerla, Ladnar, and Nomir, please step forward." Darganth announced a moment later.
Watching the four do as he requested, Darganth briefly addressed the other two of the original six, "Anthalor and Triast, I'm sorry that I couldn't include you among them, you'd have deserved it just as much. But there are only four of these left so I have to ask you to be content with the knowledge that you've done an excellent just, at least for the moment. Once I acquire something of similar value you two will be given priority."
"I understand." "Of course."
Sensing the tinge of disappointment in their voices but also recognizing their acceptance of the situation, Darganth smiled in relive.
"Thank you, I promise it will be worth the wait." He again said to them before turning back to the four chosen dragons.
"As for you four, I similarly applaud you for a masterful performance during the war. Whether it be feats of personal might, leadership, or bravery, you've all done something you can be proud of. As such, take these so that you will reach new heights of power." Darganth said and let the four remaining exemplars of Ikrus' channeling crystals appear from his personal pocket dimension.
Keeping them telekinetically suspended in the air, he floated them over to the four wide-eyed dragons.
"That's- That will-" The one female one, and one of the two fire dragons, among them, muttered in shock.
"As I said, you'll reach new heights of power. I will need strong and dependable fellow dragons in what is to come so this benefits us all. And don't worry, I can assure you that while these contain much energy, it is within the limit of what all of you can safely absorb." Darganth said.
Hearing his reassurances, the other fire dragon became the first one to accept his offer. Shifting his completely human form to that of a draconian to fit the entire crystal into his mouth, he gulped the powerful object down in a single bite.
Seeing this, the others then followed suit. Just like him, they had previously been worried whether they could fully absorb the crystal's energy as while dragons could temporarily hold near endless amounts of energy, when using too much foreign power to expand their permanent pool of mana their energy can become unstable.
In the worst cases, this can even go beyond temporary drops in power and physically harm the dragon, similar to how many other species experience chest pains or worse when expanding their mana pool too quickly. Though the dragon heart's theoretically boundless potential to hold mana makes dragons immune to the latter when merely absorbing ambient mana, the instability of using foreign mana to push past the limits of one's mana pool is an exception to this.
This was seen in the male fire dragon who happened to be the weakest among the four chosen dragons. Toward the end of the absorption process, his presence started to randomly spike ever so slightly, together with the low amount of mana he constantly emitted ever so briefly vanishing completely from Darganth's senses only to become twice as intense the next moment.
Noticing this himself, he focused inward as the last bit of energy was extracted from the crystal. With it, his mana pool expanded and the mana inside it was compressed to a new level of quality, followed by the remaining mana from the crystal that even his increased reserves couldn't store being radiated into his surroundings.
Once the process was finished, the dragon's presence also stabilized, though it would still take weeks before the new space inside his mana pool was fully assimilated by him. In that time, any mana inside his reserves would be ever so slightly influenced by the energy from Ikrus' crystal, making it more difficult for him to control. Furthermore, any growth from foreign energy absorption, like what he just went through, in that time would only worsen the problem and bring him closer to being injured by his own mana.
But despite how close to danger he was, Noiro focused mainly on his increased power. Letting his mana flow through his body as aura, he felt ecstatic at the strength he felt and only barely registered the doors of the hall swing open.
Only when the crowd of dragons behind him parted in the face of the new arrival's presence did he and two of his fellow chosen dragons turn their attention toward the group. But despite this, they weren't any less prepared for the strength of the leader's mana when his presence slammed into them, forcing them back a few steps.
This left the fourth of the dragons that had received one of Ikrus' crystals as the last one standing between the group and Darganth, with his newly strengthened presence managing to hold out against the power exuded by the group's leader.
Unfurling his wings and letting flames roar to life in his hands, Nomir readied himself for battle when another dragon pushed through the crowd. Having stood at the side, Anthalor similarly held steady under the pressure and joined his fellow solar dragon a few meters in front of Darganth's throne.
Though impressed by this and somewhat interested in the outcome, Darganth intervened at that moment, "Let him through, he is welcomed here. At least for the moment."
Hearing his words, the two dragons stepped to the side, though Darganth could sense that Nomir was disappointed that he couldn't test his new strength yet.
"Oknar Ironarm, though you are invited as emperor of the central continents dwarven kingdoms you should know that unleashing your presence unprovoked isn't appreciated in such settings." Darganth said as the ancient-looking, gray-haired dwarf came into view.