[City of Andra]

Purposefully standing a few meters away from the crowd that had formed around Allaire, Darganth watched her reunion with Elstan and the rest of the White Fang Tribe. Having presented the remains of the basilisk to them, she was being showered in gratitude by them.

Suddenly, Darganth felt an intriguing presence flare up outside the city walls, causing him to abruptly turn his head toward it. With it, his eyes became more draconic and his vision expanded, piercing buildings and even the wall to reveal the small group walking outside of the latter.

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he pulled his focus back and moved his eyes through the room searchingly. Spotting Serania a moment later, he made his way over to her.

Standing at the edge of the crowd, she was listening in as Allaire was doing her best to answer as the tribe was asking for guidance amidst their praise.

Stepping behind her and snaking his arm around her in a hug, he leaned his chin over her shoulder before speaking.

“How is she doing?”

“Apart from being slightly overwhelmed, good. And especially her insight into aura seems to be helpful to the tribe, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if they could turn into a force to be reckoned with.”

“That's probably her intent. After all, they are the closest still living blood relatives she has, and at least Elstan and a few others aren't totally unimportant to her.” Darganth guessed.

“Understandably. I also didn't want my entire former tribe to depend on me, but I let it happen until they were safe enough.”

Humming in acknowledgment, Darganth listened in for a couple of seconds before continuing.

“I have to quickly check on something. It'll probably be a few minutes but I don't know for sure, so just in case Jennia or Allaire ask-”

“I'll pass it on, of course.” Serania said before he even finished.

“Thank you.”

Giving her a quick peck on the lips, Darganth vanished from the building they were in a moment later.

Reappearing high in the skies above Andra in his true form, he unfurled his wings and let them carry him to where he felt the draconic presence from. Using what few clouds were in the sky to obscure his approach, he already scouted ahead by sweeping his gaze along the top of the wall.

Finding it to be abuzz with activity but not spotting his target, he quickly followed it up by searching the flat grasslands immediately outside the wall. During this, he felt the usage of death energy by the woman in the group which made him find them with ease.

Dropping out of the clouds, he let out a thundering roar to announce his presence and dove toward the gate.

This was promptly answered by a second roar echoing out from beneath him, shortly followed by a burst of dark gray, almost black energy from which the figure of a dragon barely over seventy meters long emerged.

Landing with a thump and forming a crater beneath him, Darganth blew the debris away with a beat of his wings and stared at the dragon before him with narrowed eyes.

With only a faint red coloration on the center of his chest and back, the spots closest to his heart, remaining from his identity as a fire dragon, the zombie dragon before him was a sorry sight.

His body was trapped in a constant cycle of decomposition and regeneration, with multiple wounds, both small and large, being visible on his body nearly at all times. Whenever his regeneration would catch up at one spot and overcome the constant rot that ate away at his flesh, there would nearly always be at last one new place where this affliction was visible, with any respite in between being rare.

Only the same spots where his scales still carried some of their red coloration remained spared from this, his dragon heart being so close there that this area always had enough energy to fight back against the rot. But otherwise, his entire body suffered under this, with it only remaining functional due to his bones that remained in place even as all softer tissue vanished around them and the dark gray, nearly black muscle-like fibers that replaced the functions of muscles until they grew back.

“I hope for Melidra's sake that she or whoever of her subordinates raised you didn't bind you to undeath without your agreement.” Darganth said after a couple of seconds.

Hearing his question, Nyriod broke out of his stupor and shook his head with closed eyes, clearly in disbelief at what he was seeing.

Momentarily confused as he shouldn't be identifiable as more than a member of the void lineage right now, Darganth quickly remembers that the Locis clan's presence isn't known to fire dragons. Thus, he sighed but nonetheless patiently waited the couple of seconds Nyriod needed.

“As lowly this undead form of mine is, yes, I chose to be subjected to it. If not I would have long returned to the halls of eternal dragons, as even Melidra, as much as I have to admit to the impressive extent of her power, couldn't keep me bound to my flesh.” Nyriod stated, a boasting undertone accompanying his words.

Pleased to hear that, Darganth calmly nodded before turning his attention past Nyriod. Observing as the woman softened her descent from the wall with two gray wings of pure energy that she conjured on her upper back.

Walking up to the two dragons, she threw Nyriod an imploring glance, prompting the zombie dragon to return to his humanoid form in another flash of energy.

“I'm Lara, can I assume you're the benefactor lady Melidra mentioned?” She asked Darganth as she came to a stop before him.

Not answering immediately, Darganth at first stayed silent and inspected her with an intrigued look. Only after a couple of seconds did he even react to her words, transforming abruptly into his humanoid form before speaking.

“She's growing quick, how amusing. And yes, at least if you mean whether or not I was the one that freed her. If you mean whether I gave her her powers, then no, that was all Cehlya. I just created the contact between them.”

“No, you understood me right. And with that, I would like to invite you to the capital in Melidra's name.

Perking up, Darganth deliberated for a moment and was just about to answer when Nyriod interrupted.

“Wait, you introduced her to Cehlya. Are you related to Irsyr or Azeal or how did you manage that?” He asked perplexed.

Chuckling under his breath at the outburst, Darganth paused and let the scene before him play out once he noticed the woman's expression.

“Didn't you tell Melidra that the void lineage is extremely revered and has only very few members? We kinda assumed that that means that even a goddess would at least listen if they have a request.”

“I meant few when taking into account the size of the multiverse. When compared to just this universe then there are certainly more of either species than the total number of fire dragons on all four continents, with probably at least a handful more being born every decade. Even a god as closely allied to their kinds as she is would at most listen to the request of an Ascendant Voidborn.”

As Nyriod finished, Lara could only stare at him in disbelief, unable to comprehend the scale at which the multiverse seemed to operate.

“It doesn't happen often in the first place but I don't think she ever rejected the request of an ascended Locis or Tempust without hearing it first. Still, you're right that the status as one of their kind isn't enough for her to even pay attention. And while you are also technically right that I'm related to those two, though you got the wrong conjunction and are probably also a mistake in how we're related.” Darganth said with an amused grin.

Smiling even more as Nyriod froze up as he processed those words, Darganth used the pause to continue where he and Lara had left off.

“As for your original question, gladly. But I would like to know what your, and I assume by extension Melidra's, plans for this city are. Because no matter how justified any action against them may be, the beastmen tribe my wife was born into lives here so I won't allow large-scale destruction in the city.” Darganth warned.

Internally surprised by this, Lara nonetheless didn't have to think for even a moment before agreeing with his demand.

“I can't promise that we'll leave the city entirely intact as I still haven't gotten their answer but I never planned for a general attack on the city, that was Nyriod's job if my way failed. Though I doubt that he'll still follow through with that now.”

“And your plan would target?”

“The adventurer guild and maybe parts of the wall. But my task here is only to prevent further damage to Meldra's forces, something that up until now was always done by adventurers, so the former should be enough.”

Grinning at her words, Darganth didn't hide his joy over her choice of targets.

“If you ask I could even take care of the adventurer guild myself.” He said with a laugh that made Lara unsure of whether or not he was joking.

“It's the first mission I'm leading so I would prefer to deal with it myself.”

“If you say. But I'll still have a quick talk with at least some among the city leadership about how they should react, just in case.” Darganth said, turning to look up at Marcus and Reinold at those words.

“As for the invitation, we probably won't stay for more than a day or two so we'll just find you again.” Darganth as farewell.

Signaling her agreement to the idea, Lara immediately felt a gust of wind as Darganth moved onto the wall with a few beats of his wings, much to the defender's surprise.

'Maybe he has more luck convincing them.' She thought as she motioned for the three undead accommodating her and Nyriod to leave.