[Distant universe]

A few minutes later, after talking through the remaining matters and finishing their reconciliation, Irsyr and Azeal sat down on the lowest rung of the steps.

“What do you think we were called for?” Azeal asked as he leaned back on the seat.

“If you didn't do anything then the only thing I could think of is that Krezegor did.” Irsyr said with a light laugh.

Chuckling a bit in response, Azeal nodded and stared into the distance with a smile as he reminisced for a moment.

“Ah, those were good times.” He added.

“Not sure if I would say good, but they certainly didn't lack in interesting developments.”

“Some say this, some say that. What matters is that I had my fun, the rest is secondary.” Azeal said with a shrug.

Shaking his head at this familiar nonchalant attitude, Irsyr just accepted it and switched topics.

“Vunreon would probably disagree, but you do you. Though that reminds me, where is its avatar? Usually, he's already here when I arrive.” Irsyr said, looking around slightly bewildered.

“Probably just busy somewhere, I don't doubt he has it stressful right now. Besides it's not like the others will arrive soon, the last time we had to wait for eight days.” Azeal said unconcerned, knowing full well that Vunreon wouldn't be facing any dangers within its bounds.

“Busy enough that he isn't here for a meeting he himself called? Moving throughout the universe is instantaneous for him, so whatever is happening, has to be extremely disastrous. And if so then I absolutely want to know it as early as possible.” Irsyr said.

Pausing in response to those words, Azeal grimaced as he realized how right Irsyr was. Groaning in annoyance, he was just about to rise from his seat when a roughly three-meter-tall portal sprung to life before them.

Narrowing their eyes nearly simultaneously and becoming alert, both dragons focused their mana sense on and through the portal. Piercing through the spiraling swirl of colors that made up the inside of its circular shape, they were stunned when they found a familiar face making its way toward the portal.

“Seems like we won't have to wait as long as usual.” Azeal commented as he leaned back again.

“Yes. And it explains why Vunreon isn't here yet, even it can't descend in two places simultaneously as an avatar.” Irsyr said, also relaxing again.

After the two finished their short exchange, they only had to wait a few seconds unit their fellow dragon god arrived. Stepping through the portal, the dragoness's presence seemed to warp the perspective of onlookers as it caused an illusionary manifestation of her true form to appear, creating the appearance that her massive dragon body managed to fit within the crater they stood in without making it appear smaller.

This caused her towering size to be full on display, with the length of her body being great enough that she too would eclipse the universe of Ikrus if next to it, though to a lesser extent than Irsyr does.

However if one looked past her sheer size, it would be quite noticeable that she was very lean for a dragon. And unlike the minuscule difference between Locis and Tempust dragons where there are multiple individuals whose build closely resembled the respectively other species, the difference between her and the average dragon couldn't be covered by the rather limited deviation in build among multiple dragons of the same species.

Despite this, it was obvious that she wasn't weak by any means, with her powerful yet compact muscles being noticeable by the joints. This also helped to further solidify the elegant impression of her appearance, creating a more rounded, curvaceous form. This even extended to the midpoint of her wings which was rounded and smooth, unlike the claw that Darganth and all other members of the void lineage had there.

The membrane of her wings was closer in appearance to most dragon species, though still with its unique traits. Instead of its outside being covered in scales, a film of light, almost neon green energy covered the wings on both sides, with small stripes in it making it look like a series of independent strands.

Most of her scales were similar in coloration, though their coloration was noticeably softer in coloration. Furthermore, the scales on her legs and tail also started losing this neon green tinge as one looked further away from her torso, becoming similar to grass or leaves in tinge.

One exception to this was a pattern of ethereal-looking light blue that looked a bit like an illuminated water stream. Starting about halfway down her neck, it expanded to cover most of the underside of her body before narrowing again and ending completely proximately a third down her tail.

The other exceptions were the scales on the base of her horns and a few patterns on her head and neck which instead had a light blue, crystal-like appearance. The same coloration was on the two simple, backward-facing horns that grew from her head with a slight downward curvature.

For a moment this draconic form stood motionless in place as its source became affected by the universe's laws, only to then be rapidly compressed into a form about two hundred and twenty meters long.

“Getting ferried here by Vunreon now, are we?” Azeal joked as the transformed dragoness's humanoid body became visible in the shadow of her true form.

She appeared as an enchantingly beautiful human woman in her twenties with fair skin and long, green hair and wearing rather light clothing. Her medium-sized chest was covered in a green fabric top with white decorations on it that left both her belly and arms uncovered.

Her legs were meanwhile covered in tight-fitting white shorts that reached about halfway down her thighs. Above this, she wore multiple pieces of green silk one could partially see through, with multiple of them overlapping to create a full cover. The longest of these went all the way to her lower leg, though most stopped at her knees.

“Aren't you the one that mainly complains that he has to wait so long for the rest of us, so what's the problem?” The dragoness replied in a teasing tone.

Opening his mouth to retort only to freeze up when he realized that he had nothing clever to reply with. After all, he regularly teased the others, especially Idaia, with the time it took them to arrive.

“She got you there.” Irsyr said with a chuckle.

“Are you growing soft, it was never this easy to leave you speechless.” Idaia added.

“Seems like it. Hopefully, I return to form as things continue as it seems right now and the situation among us gets back to normal, or at least close to it.” Azeal admitted with a laugh after a moment of pause.

“Take your time, this is an amusing change.” Idaia said, moving to take a seat next to Azeal.

Relaxing while still standing, she let herself drop backward toward the same step he sat on without hesitation. As she did, flexible wood branches grew from atop it, anchored in the stone despite causing no crack in its smooth surface. Rising up tens of centimeters in a fraction of a second, they intertwined to form a comfy chair of soft wood and leaves that caught her in the air.

Lowering back down again as soon as she fully rested on it, she soon sat just above the stone bench and with her back leaned against the halfway reclined backrest.

“Now then, what did you do that caused Vunreon to call us?” Idaia asked Azeal.

Turning to her with a questioning look over the accusation, he voiced his indignation.

“Why is everyone assuming I am responsible? I really didn't do anything.” He asked.

“I didn't hear anything about destroyed universes so it's unlikely to be Krezegor. And with him ruled out you're the prime subject when one of us does some fun shenanigans.” Idaia admitted.

Looking to Irsyr for support only to find him nodding in agreement, Azeal leaned his head back with a groan.

“What did I expect, of course, you agree with that.” He mumbled.

“Not fully.” Irsyr corrected, causing Azeal to perk up in interest.

“Unlike her, I think your actions usually fall somewhere on a spectrum between childish, minor annoyance, and over the top, with only a couple of amusing ones.” He immediately clarified with a grin, causing Azeal to deflate again.

Holding in her laughter, Idaia tried her best to smile in compassion instead of amusement.

“Personally I found it wildly entertaining when you permanently de-aged that one annoying lightning god into a child.” She said.

“On that, we can agree. Though I am slightly surprised before you never cared when we joked about stuff like this.”

“Yes, because I had done the stuff I was accused of, unlike this time.” Azeal said.

Stunned by surprise, Irsyr looked at him in silence for a moment after Azeal finished speaking. Contemplating for a moment, he was just about to apologize when the latter's lips curled into a smile.

“Though it did help me trick you by overreacting, which I think is a fair trade.” He said with a laugh.

“I shouldn't be surprised, so why am I?” Irsyr responded with a sigh.

“No idea. There are so many worse things I was falsely accused of and even then I didn't care. It's a minor annoyance, nothing more.” Azeal said.

“That doesn't make-” Irsyr started only to be interrupted by another portal opening in the center of the circle of steps.

Turning toward it together with Azeak and Idaia, Irsyr didn't have to wait long before their fellow dragon god stepped out of it. And unlike Idaia's, his arrival wasn't accompanied by a projection of his true form.

Instead, he appeared as a slightly tanned, broad-shouldered humanoid man with body builder like muscles that made even Irsyr look thin in comparison, not to mention Azeal whose musculature closely resembled Darganth's athletic build. His light brown hair was kept very short and he wore simple pants and a short, sleeveless robe that reached to the thighs and left much of his chest bare.

Furthermore, his features were from a mix of multiple different humanoid species, with the four arms, the correspondingly larger torso, as well as the two fangs protruding up from his lower jar being only the most striking ones.

“What a bother.” Krezegor grumbled as he stepped out of the portal.

“Nice to see you too.” Idaia replied sarcastically.

“Not you, being woken up because Vunreon needs some shit from us.” He said.

Walking toward the stone circle and greeting Irsyr with a nod as he passed him, Krezegor sat down to his right. Without further comments, he closed his eyes and leaned his chin on his chest to rest.

“Seems like someone had to be thrown out of bed, no wonder it took so long.” Idaia commented in response.

“Not surprising, if he were to sleep just a bit more he would probably be known by a similar title to Salypios.” Azeal joked.

Amidst the small chuckle from Idaia that followed his comment, another portal opened before them despite the one Krezegor had used only vanishing half a minute before.

“Oh, that was fast. But nice timing.” Azeal said with a laugh.

Watching silently for Salypios to step through it, they weren't at all surprised when he still didn't do so after ten seconds. Soon Irsyr started impatiently tapping the stone bench he was sitting on, clearly not amused by the wait.

Only after nearly a full minute did their fellow dragon god finally appear, lazily stepping out of the portal without a hurry.

His appearance stood in stark contrast to Krezegor's, being essentially the total opposite. Instead of extremely pronounced muscles, the form Salypios chose to transform into was that of a thin elf with an almost albino-like skin color and long, white hair. His clothes were extremely unremarkable, consisting of comfy trousers, a simple shirt, and a cape that reached completely around him and down to just below his knees.

"Nice day, isn't it?" He asked as a greeting.

Before anyone could answer him, the next portal opened a few meters next to him. Immediately after it opened, a blinding bolt of lightning came flying out of it, striking the fourth row of the stone steps and creating a small explosion that sent rock pieces flying in all directions.

"Missed me?" A female voice asked from the point of impact.

Instead of answering all dragons present turned to her with an annoyed expression.

"Up until now." Irsyrs said dryly.

As he said this the dust around her also settled enough to reveal her, allowing the dragon gods to watch as her demeanor turned from excited to surprised.

With it, they also got a look at her current appearance which was that of a young woman with shoulder-long, windswept blue hair who wore a metallic silver-colored armor out of hardened leather that covered her entire torso. From her hips downward she was covered by a leather armor skirt and a longer fabric one below that. Lastly, she had a small blue cape hanging down her back from the right shoulder.

"Oh, did I interrupt?" She asked into the silence after taking a look around her.

"It's alright." Salyios answered her, already on his way to take a seat to Idaia's left.

"Still, sorry." The woman said, climbing down to the rest with less fanfare than she arrived with.

Waiting until she arrived and walked toward Krezegor to take a seat next to him, Irsyr greeted her.

"How are you Edriza?" He asked as she hopped down the half meter from the lowest level of the stone to the ground.

"Alright, and you?" Edriza answered.

"Could be better." Irsyr said.

Momentarily looking at his questioningly to which he shook his head, Edriza didn't press further and instead sat down along the circle.

Relaxing a bit and conversing with each other, the six present dragon gods passed the time as they waited for the last one of them to arrive.

Finally, after nearly two minutes, another portal sprung to life amidst the half-circle they sat in. From it, a man wearing lavish noble clothing walked out, holding one hand on the pommel of the highly decorated sword he wore on the left side of his hips.

"Always a sight to behold." He said as he took a look around.

"Especially now that you're also here Cirgan, in these times it's too rare for even two of us to meet." Irsyr said and rose from his seat.

"Now then, if Vunreon would also appear then we could start." He said.

"Yes, we can start." A new voice said out of the nothingness, immediately followed by Vunreon's avatar appearing before them.