[Beast continent]

Standing on the balcony overlooking one of the training halls beneath Bator's lair, Darganth looked down into the room. There, at its center, laid Inrad, his legs, and neck bound by heavy chains that were anchored deep in the walls and kept him in place.

Lost in thoughts, Darganth suddenly turned around when he heard steps from behind him.

“Here you are.” Allaire said as she walked out onto the balcony, “We thought you would just quickly make sure that he was secured and then return.”

“I just needed some time to think.” Darganth replied.

“Do you still need more time, I can wait.”

Shaking his head, Darganth stopped leaning against the railing and walked toward her.

“No, it's fine.” He said simultaneously.

“Good to hear. Besides, Bator just returned so you wouldn't have had much more time.” Allaire said.

“He's searching for me, isn't he?”

“He at least asked whether I know where you are.”

“Then let's join the feast Tahas and his siblings have been talking about since we returned, at some point Bator will go there too.”

Nodding at the idea, Allaire turned around and walked back up to the main part of Bator's lair with Darganth by her side.

Making their way through the passage leading away from the hall, they passed by a few junctions where multiple equally massive tunnels merged with the one they were using before they reached the exit. Stepping out onto the plateau that protruded from the mountainside opposite of the Crimson Scale Clan's settlement, they were greeted by the sight of a small village.

“Seems like the celebrations already started.” Darganth remarked as he immediately noticed the largely empty streets.

Normally the settlement was crowded with draconians and dragon-blooded individuals of all kinds, though of the former only a small number were allowed to live in the village itself. The rest would travel there from their homes in the beastmen tribe's settlement whenever they had business there.

But since Bator announced the beginning of his reign, both these draconians and the roughly two thousand permanent inhabitants of the village no longer accounted for the total number of individuals traveling its streets daily. In addition to them, more than a dozen powerful fire dragons from all across the continent had arrived since then and were staying as guests in Bator's domain, often accompanied by some of their subordinates or close allies.

“If the streets are this empty then I'm starting to dread how densely packed the town square will be.” Allaire said as the two walked toward the village.

“Probably. But to our fortune, we can just get a spot overlooking the crowd and don't have to push through it.” Darganth said, prompting a relieved nod from Allaire.

“Want to fly on your own or should I carry you?” He asked a moment later.

“Gladly.”

Stepping into his embrace as she spoke, Allaire placed her arm around Darganth's back and held on tight by his shoulder. In turn, he moved his arm around her waist to secure her further.

A moment later he rose into the air with her holding on to his side.

Slowly accelerating toward the town, Darganth and Allaire soon started hearing the gathering. Mixing with the music that was being played, at least hundreds of voices spoke and shouted wildly over each other.

Growing intenser as they drew closer, the two found themselves practically deafened by the noise once they passed over the last row of buildings and reached the town square.

Stopping and hovering in place as both let their gazes wander across the crowd, Darganth quickly spotted Jennia and Serania standing atop of the stairs leading to the largest building in the town.

Protruding out from the mountain's stone wall, this building served a complimentary role to the one built on the exit of Bator's layer that was on the opposite side of the mountain. Instead of having a throne room and permanent living quarters, it served as a leisure palace.

In spirit with this intended function, the elevated stone floor in front of it has been re-purposed to serve as a separate, exclusive, area. For this purpose, a row of tables had been placed near the edge of the stairs. Spanning from one of the statues at the corner of the platform to the other, this banquet table allowed those seated at it to easily overlook the rest of the celebration while keeping them separated from the densely packed crowd.

Floating toward these stairs, or more accurately the statue atop them against the base of which Jennia and Serania were leaning, Darganth and Allaire quickly drew the attention of the crowd below them.

Noticing their presence one by one, a wave of movement spread through the crowd as they turned to look up at Darganth. In its wake, it left a near-total silence that was only broken by whispers, with even the music stopping for his arrival.

Landing next to Jennia and Serania, Darganth reciprocated their hugs before briefly turning to the crowd.

“I'm just here to enjoy the occasion, you can continue.” He said, mainly directed at the group of beastmen and draconian bards that stood on a small stage.

Hesitating, they looked at Bator for direction. Seeing him simply shrug his shoulders, they exchanged a glance between them before slowly starting to play again. Enhanced by the wind elementals hovering around the stage, their music was carried across the plaza, slowly restarting the party.

“Any reason you're standing here at the side?” Darganth asked as he turned back to Jennia and Serania.

“I thought that we should wait for you two.” Serania told him.

“And managed to convince me.” Jennia added immediately.

“Then let's quickly find a spot.” Darganth said.

Walking ahead with an eager nod, Jennia let her gaze wander along the tables and quickly found four empty chairs. Noticing that they weren't used despite being situated right next to Bator, she correctly assumed that he had kept them reserved for them and walked over there.

Taking the second free seat next to Bator, Jennia flinched back when palates and cutlery appeared before her amidst a gust of wind.

“It's been a while since I've seen air elementals being used as servers.” Darganth commented as he sat down on the free spot between her and Bator.

“Yeah, it's quite convenient. Sadly minor elementals lack the intelligence to be used this way but artificially creating lesser elementals costs me a negligent amount of mana and most readily agree to serve me for some time.”

Nodding at the explanation, Darganth let his gaze wander across the crowd before them as they waited for the elementals to bring the next wave of meals.

There the rowdy crowd was teeming around in between the long tables that were scattered across the area. Drinking and feasting to their heart's delight, the largely draconic group didn't seem to have any inhibitions, with both shows of affection as well as small fights and quarrels being visible throughout the crowd.

These wildly different scenes happened all throughout the crowd and often directly next to each other or transitioning from one kind to a completely different one amongst the same individuals. Whether it be a pair heatedly kissing before fighting each other with a smile on their faces or the opposite, nobody was bothered by it.

Even when one or multiple participants of such a fight were thrown into the surrounding crowd there weren't any complaints beyond those over the loss of their drink. Instead, it seemed to draw an even larger part of the crowd to join the circle around the happening and start cheering.

In a similar manner, there were next to no reactions, and pairs and even groups of people were sharing their affection for each other, kissing wildly and letting their hands roam into places that most humanoid civilizations would consider inappropriate in such a setting.

“A draconic party, how I missed it.” Darganth said with a smile when he felt a group of wind elementals appearing a minute later.

Flying to the tables and rushing along them, they placed down slabs of food, mainly meat, and refilled the empty barrels with new drinks. Within seconds the humanoid masses of swirling wind completed their tasks and disappeared again without leaving even a gust in their wake despite essentially being compressed tornadoes.

“The food or the action?” Jennia asked with a smile.

“Both. But when it's just me and the women in my life then the action becomes the main part without question.”

“Nonetheless interested in a dance later?” Jennia asked flirtatiously.

“Of course.” Darganth answered, planting an affectionate kiss on Jennia's cheek.

Smiling in excitement, she wasted no time and dug into her food. Forgoing the knife and fork, she used the claws on one of her hands to cut through the piece of meat on her plate before impaling it with a claw and bringing it to her mouth.

“If you two also want to go a round it's of course the same.” Darganth said past Jennia and to Allaire and Serania.

“You know my opinion of large crowds, but maybe another time.” Allaire answered.

“I'll also pass for now, I don't want my first time dancing to be this public.” Serania said between bites.

Accepting their answers with a nod, Darganth leaned back with a relaxed smile. At the same moment, a portion of everything that was part of the serving that had been brought to the table hovered onto his plate. Moving not a bit as his magic cut off a piece of meat and dipped it into a sauce before it toward him and into his mouth.

“Show off.” Jennia grumbled as she watched the display from the corner of her eye.

“If I can then why shouldn't I.” Darganth told her with a grin.

Narrowing her eyes and accepting his challenge, Jennia leaned back and tried to recreate what Darganth did. Also forgoing the use of hand movements as an aid, she tried to use space itself to cut the steak in the same way he did.

After a second of concentration on

her part, a clean cut sliced through the meat. Though with it, her attempt also cracked the plate in two, much to Darganth's amusement.

Rewinding time on both the steak and the plate, Jennia ignored his as well as Jennia and Serania's chuckles and tried again with a determined look.

Leaving her to it, Darganth used the moment to turn to Bator with a serious look.

“Just a quick question, have you ever heard of a place on this continent that had traces of both demons and angels close by?” Darganth asked.

“No, not that I'm aware. Why?”

“Inrad. When I questioned him he mentioned this place as a large part of why he resisted against your rule, or more accurately my rule through you as a proxy, but he had no recollection of where this ruin was. He couldn't even accurately recall if it was on this continent or on the central continent.” Darganth said with a frown.

Furrowing his brows, Bator took a moment to think over Darganth's a second time before still turning to him with a confused look.

“How are these connected?” He asked.

“It wasn't the ruin itself but rather the knowledge contained in it. Specifically what the two groups had to say about gods and their, admittedly often quite poor, treatment of their believers. The thing is, neither Visuria nor Nemoress are innocent of all the things they claim about them. And even with this inflated count of grievances, their part is quite short despite at least some of the others lacking things I know for sure these gods did.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. And honestly, I can't fully fault him for coming to the conclusions he did considering all that. Dragons authority is a powerful tool and he isn't the first of our kind that was worried by the uncontested control I could enforce over draconic beings. And I now realize that with the changes I intend, this topic will resurface.”

“And even if you show the equally numerous cases where gods helped their believers, a few will always focus on the negative examples. And in the end, gods are just exceedingly powerful people so there will never be a lack of such examples.” Bator said with a growl.

“Yes. And I'll have to take care of that but not today so let's end this topic for now.”

Readily nodding in agreement with Darganth's proposal, Bator looked at the crowd with a smile.

“I'll be joining them.” He said after a second of deliberation, vanishing a moment later after Darganth just shrugged with his shoulders before returning his attention to Jennia's continued attempts.