[Southern duchy]

When Darganth finished speaking, Melidra and the woman who was with her looked at him with their mouth agape. Even Serania was somewhat shocked, though her time spent with him and around beings such as Bator helped her to shake it off rather quickly

For the other two though, gods were still a mysterious existence whose existence they couldn't fully grasp. So to hear the extent to which Melidra's connection with one went overwhelmed them, while the idea that a god would need a successor confused them.

“Her what? Why?” Melidra stammered, finally managing to bring words over her lips.

“Her successor. When an elemental god loses their position it will, in all likelihood, be given to one of his or her elemental lords. There have been a few cases where Vunreon chose someone else, but given that it is an all-around better option from a resource perspective, it mostly chooses one of them.”

Staring at Darganth for a second before closing her eyes and sighing, Melidra felt irritated by his answer. Taking a moment to calm her mind, she reiterated.

“I got that, but why me? I may not be the absolutely least suited option, but I'm also far from suited for that. Until a few seconds ago I didn't even know gods might even have a need for a successor.” She complained.

“Because he asked her.” Allaire explained before Darganth could do so, motioning toward him as she did.

Blinking rapidly as she looked at Darganth with a stupefied expression. And for a moment she was left too stunned to react to it as she only slowly came to grasp the meaning of this, to her, an absurd statement.

“Wait, it was you intended to make me an elemental lord? If so, how should I have anticipated that? I thought you meant something more normal when you asked me whether or not I want power.” Melidra said a couple of seconds later.

“In the situation back then I had no other way to save you, so yes, it was intended. And I didn't expect you to anticipate that, nor do I see a reason why it would have made a difference. You wanted power and that rarely comes free, so having to live with the comparatively very lax restrictions of an elemental lord is far better than what the catch would have been in a deal with many other beings.

Besides, I wouldn't think much about the successor part. There's a good reason why the position of god of death in Vunreon was only ever held by Cehlya and that's unlikely to change soon. I know her well enough that I can confidently say that nobody will manage to kill her and the likelihood of Vunreon taking away her position is only barely higher.

So unless she wants to retire one day you'll stay an elemental lord, which honestly might even be a better deal. It's the closest one can get to becoming an elemental god when the chosen element already has one, giving you many of the perks of that position with only a few drawbacks.”

As soon as Darganth finished those words, he heard Allaire sigh behind him while Melidra's expression sank almost simultaneously. Confused, he paused for a moment to figure out Melidra's reaction.

Turning to Allaire a moment later still without an idea, he was just about to ask what happened when she noticed his intent and spoke.

“I think you two have been talking past each other a bit and though it isn't totally what I believe you hope for, it's close. While yes, you'll have to deal with Cehlya having some leverage over you, it is far less than what you fear. And in turn, you won't be thrust into a situation that's over your head, which I suspect is the main reason why you reacted to the succession news as you did.”

Listening to Allaire's words, Darganth realized that he might have misunderstood Melidra's misgivings. And considering that she relaxed to a visible extent, though still not fully, he was quite sure that Allaire's observation was correct.

“To further add to that, not only does she barely have any power over you and it's in her interest to be on good terms with you, coming into conflict with one of their elemental lords is likely to cause non-negligible damage to a god. Nothing so debilitating that they would have to tolerate everything mind you, but enough that they let many things slide they wouldn't normally ignore.” Darganth added after a short pause, hoping to further reinforce Allaire's point.

Following his words, internally debated for a moment before quickly coming to the decision that it wasn't worth it to remain upset.

“If it's like this then I can learn to live with it. Though I would like to know how exactly she can restrict me.” Melidra said after a few seconds.

“She can't control you if that is what you worry about. She can't even fully take your power, only weaken you. To be precise, she can suppress the lesser copy of her divinity that you have, making you temporarily lose the benefits of an elemental lord but not your power.” Darganth told her.

Sighing, Melidra didn't need to deliberate at all before she nodded in acceptance, even if it was with some reluctance.

During the ensuing pause, the woman next to her finally found the opportunity to speak, having previously remained silent as she digested Darganth's revelation.

“I don't think we've met before. I'm Helenia, princess of this nascent kingdom and Melidra's ward.”

Introducing herself with a respectful bow, Helenia paused when she looked back up and noticed the look in Jennia's eyes.

“Ah, I thought you looked familiar. How's your father and brother, last time we met they looked quite pale.” Jennia said with an amused smile.

Furrowing her brows as she failed to recall meeting her, Helenia let her gaze wander over Allaire, Darganth, and Serania as she tried to remember meeting them. Still coming up empty, she momentarily stared into the emptiness before suddenly turning to Darganth a second time with wide eyes.

Staring at him for a moment, she abruptly stepped back as her eyes lit up in realization.

“The army.” She whispered, though strangely doing so with admiration clearly written on her face.

“Not the reaction I was expecting.” Jennia muttered in response.

Looking up at her, Helenia shook her head in disagreement.

“Why? On that day you two started the path for me to become who I am today.” She said with a proud smile.

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Darganth quickly glanced at Jennia and found that she had expected this as little as he had.

“Usually the reaction goes the other way.” Darganth said after another moment.

“Of that part I'm less proud, but yes, I also initially had some, in retrospect, foolish ideas. But luckily I was shocked out of that phase, otherwise I probably wouldn't have met Melidra under remotely similar circumstances.” Helenia said.

“Well, I'm glad it happened. Without you I wouldn't have been this successful this fast, not to mention continuing with my further plans.” Melidra said in appreciation.

“Oh, are you already planning to expand beyond the peninsula?” Darganth asked out of curiosity.

Momentarily hesitating at the unexpected question, Melidra soon nodded in confirmation.

“Yes. Waiting for a complete unification would take years even if I were willing to use military force and you hadn't objected to it. Not only are Andra and its sister cities massive compared to the other cities on the peninsula, but they are also some of the dozens of cities built by the initial settlers on this continent and stood since then for good reason. The difficulty that arises from many of its districts being built literally on top of each other would probably be the least of an invader's worries.” Melidra explained.

“Right, what's up with that actually? Compared to the other cities we've passed by, Andra wasn't that much larger.” Serania

“Magic and a disregard for the comfort of the population. The White Fang Tribe has the fortune that there are mana users among them so they could stay on the surface, but there are few civilizations where mana users make up even a single percent of the population. And without any territory outside the walls, these individuals had to be housed somewhere.

So those that would normally live in one of the many villages that surround these cities had to go somewhere. Normal cities of such size don't exceed five million, so having thrice that is certainly a rarity. For example, this city has what, three million inhabitants?” Darganth said.

“A bit more, but not much. And though there are larger cities in my father’s kingdom, none are so by much.” Helenia replied with a nod.

Thinking back to the former capital for a moment and estimating its population at that time, Darganth agreed with her a moment later.

“And I take it that the rest of the continent is similar?” Melidra asked him in response.

“At least among beastmen and humans. This universe simply lacks the magical progress for anything larger or more densely populated.” Darganth said.

“That is possible?” Meldira asked shocked.

“Yup. Ascendents aren’t just powerful, if they set their mind to it they can create wonders you couldn’t even imagine right now.” Darganth answered her.

Melidra was just about to press further in the hopes of learning even a snippet of the knowledge when she felt the protections around the castle abruptly break. Immediately her eyes widened in surprise and she moved to storm out of the castle, only to notice Darganth calmly shake his head as he turned around.

Stopping out of confusion, Melidra followed his gaze just in time to see a man teleport into the supposedly shielded room. Staring at him in confusion as she failed to even sense his presence while he stood just a few meters away from her, she was left too stunned to react.

Only when the man’s eyes started looking around the room and landed on her was Melidra freed from her shock. Feeling like an open book under his gaze, she had to wrestle down the instinct to shrink back and gather her energy instead.

Shakily stepping forward with her fists cloaked in death energy, she was just about to speak when the man bowed toward Darganth.

“My lord, we have a problem.” Irsyr said.

Hearing the seriousness in his voice, Darganth's easygoing smile instantly dropped.

“What happened?” He asked.

“Vunreon called the dragon gods together, two new ones joined our ranks.” Irsyr reported.

At this Darganth’s expression dropped further and a tense silence descended.

“Shouldn’t that be great news?” Jennia asked confused, breaking the silence after a few seconds.

“It’s suspicious. Ever since his death no new dragon god rose, now two managed to do so on the exact same day, the day of his rebirth. It’s just a matter of time till the three primordials start realizing that it’s unlikely to be a coincidence. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are suspecting something since the meeting.”

“They were there?” Darganth growled outraged.

“Yes.”

“Tell me everything.” He ordered and Irsyr started recounting.