[Ouroboros' End]
Even from a distance, Darganth could see that the town, or rather city considering it had enough inhabitants despite not having the official title, had changed in their over half a year of absence. The most significant of these changes was the towering dome of energy that now obscured the skyline, with only the vague outlines of buildings visible beneath this all-encompassing shield that radiated outward from the light-spending tower.
And with this source of artificial sunlight blocked by this shield, the previously idyllic area around the town was now cast in the shifting lights of the universes passing by above. Still, this only managed to replace a fraction of the light the tower had emitted, casting the land into the same shadowy darkness that permeated the wilderness.
Or at least it cast the grasslands leading up to the wilderness into darkness. Because in contrast to this, the walls that stood to both sides of the town were illuminated by a flickering red glow that originated somewhere behind it. Reaching all the way up to the towering battlements, its edges licked on the very top of the wall, casting its shadow for hundreds of meters.
As their group marched through the darkness toward the town, Darganth's gaze drifted toward this sight. For the others, the darkness around them made it difficult to see, with even his draconic eyes not being able to see well in the visual spectrum. Though between the other facets of sight, like thermal or mana vision, that his eyes offered when transformed into those of his true form, and the acuteness of his other senses, he had little trouble compared to some others in their group. Guided only by their mana sense, Allaire, Jennia, Melidra, and many of the ogres walked only slowly, constantly feeling out with their feet to get a picture of where they were placing their next step.
Thus, Darganth had plenty of time to focus closer on the top of the walls. As he did, he noticed small spots amid the red glow that were brighter than the rest of it. Briefly raising his hand and lightly tapping his fingers against the side of his head, he further enhanced his eyesight with a spell.
Upon doing so, the sight before his eyes sharpened drastically. To his enhanced eyes, the towering fortification wasn't a monotone gray stone wall in the distance anymore, with every last rise and fall in the battlements now being perceivable to him. When he focused on it, he could even make out where the individual stones in its structure ended or see the expressions of the soldiers currently marching on top of the wall.
And it was precisely this latter part that drew his interest as he spotted hundreds of men sprinting along the wall with terror in their eyes. Shifting his attention toward where they were running from, he soon found why. Simultaneously, he found the explanation for the smaller spots of light as he watched a roaring inferno engulf one of the towers that dotted the length of the wall. Even before the bright orange background, which Darganth started to suspect was caused by even more fires behind the wall, these flames burned bright and high, with their heat being enough to start melting even the likely enchanted stone of the battlements.
Though the sight only made him pause briefly, his surprise didn't escape those walking next to him. Turning toward him, Cehlya was the first to react, "What is happening?"
"Not entirely sure." Darganth said before turning toward Scalladras a moment later. "Scalladras, can you sense anything?"
Engrossed in his conversation with Alicia, the primordial of fire initially turned toward Darganth in confusion. However, as he turned his head toward Darganth, he also put enough of his attention onto his surroundings for him to finally process the cascade of information his magical senses were taking in at the moment. Physically recoiling from the surprise, his eyes widened as his gaze froze halfway on the way toward Darganth, leaving him staring toward an area just left of the town.
"I'll take that as a yes." Darganth commented in response.
"Yeah. Whatever happened here, this place is an inferno right now." Scalladras said.
Hearing this, Cehlya grimaced slightly. "Let's hope that it's only outside the town and didn't also engulf your estate." She said toward Darganth.
Not really worried about those possibilities, Darganth shook his head. Unless one of the three overlords were to act themselves, Neandra wouldn't even come close to losing to anything in the entire realm fragment. And if a fight between ascendants had happened, the damage would've been far more extensive than just fires, no matter how large they were.
"I'm more curious how the town overall is faring. If this is due to some attack from the wilderness or another outsider, I'm not worried. But if it's what I suspect, then it'll depend on how much support the smugglers have among the people." Darganth said.
"You think Neandra might've already set the plan in motion?" Allaire asked.
"We'll have to see. And I would rather do so sooner than later." Darganth said. His words were followed by a series of responses as those in his group agreed with his assessment. While they had refrained from lighting torches or conjuring light magic so that they'd attract less attention from both the creatures in the wilderness and the patrols atop the wall, this was no longer the main priority as it was also slowing them down by effectively blinding parts of the group and most of the ogres.
As such, Darganth turned backward once he heard the agreement of the others, "Everyone, something is happening ahead, so light your torches, we're picking up the pace to check it out. But conserve your mana, we don't know what to expect."
Following his words, the presence of their group surged. With the mana of hundreds of individuals no longer being restrained, it mixed into a dense, almost palatable wave that rolled out from their group in a massive surge of power.
At the helm of this formation, Darganth and Yldra quickly took the lead. With even Venrie and the two gods among them conserving their mana, their natural ability to fly without expending magical energy came in handy. With their wings extended, they lay horizontally in the air as they shot across the grassland that separated them from the town, weaving in between the low hills that dotted its landscape to make themselves harder targets should anyone on the walls notice them.
With this speed, it took the two not long before they arrived at the base of the dome that covered the town. Rotating upright and slowing down by spreading their wings, Darganth and Yldra came to a stop mere meters away from the cascading wall of bright yellow energy that formed the dome-shaped barrier.
Briefly pausing to inspect it, Darganth probed the barrier by reaching for it. Feeling his hand push through with ease while his defensive spells didn't even activate, he turned to Yldra.
"Ready to see what Neandra has been up to?" He asked.
"Considering the state of the surrounding area, I'd bet on fighting a war without feeling the need to tell us." Yldra said with a roll of her eyes.
This theory was one that Darganth could only agree with. Apart from their leader, the smugglers were likely not even enough of a threat to her that Neandra felt the need to warn them of the battles, not to mention asking for them to return faster to help. As such, he guessed that Neandra had decided to take care of it herself, likely in response to some form of provocation.
With that in mind, Darganth wasn't all that surprised when he floated through the barrier a moment later. The first thing he noticed upon doing so was that, as expected, his group's house hadn't been affected by the fighting.
In fact, it was even in a better state than when he had left, with the efforts of Vagha's group of dragons clearly visible in the state of the property. All across it, the buildings had been restored to their former glory, with white stone bricks no longer being covered by vines and other plants, and roofs no longer being marred with holes both small and large. Furthermore, the magical defenses in and around the property now stood strong with newfound power as old runes and formations had been restored and new ones had been created.
However, the untouched state of the estate was the exception. Beyond it, the town itself was a shadow of what it had been when Darganth first arrived in it, with buildings being marked by both improvised reinforcements to harden the walls and scars where spells and other attacks struck. Similarly, the streets in between them were marked by craters and small walls, each one barely large enough to provide cover for two people standing side by side.
The further Darganth directed his gaze toward the other side of the town, the worse this scene became. Unmarred walls were replaced by shattered remains of the same, craters grew deeper and longer until they could only be described as gashes instead, and empty streets filled with armed men and women.
Towering above this chaos was the unmistakable form of Neandra. Sitting perched upon one of the less damaged houses, she had shrunk her full true form to its base size, meaning without the boosts from her high mana cultivation, and was surveying the soldiers moving about below.
Quickly spotting her there, Darganth motioned for Yldra to follow him before accelerating toward Neandra. As he rose further above the town's buildings in the process, he was surprised to find still ongoing pockets of fighting. Despite Neandra's looming presence being focused on them and pressuring them, the ragtag group of invaders was still struggling against the city guards' advance, only slowly giving ground even while scattered and surrounded.
Surprised by the sight, Darganth let his gaze linger on the fighting for a few more moments as he continued flying toward Neandra. When one of the mages among the men the town guard were fighting then suddenly became clad in aura and rushed forward, Darganth reacted almost instinctively.
"Spatial collapse." Raising a hand as he spoke, he sent out a pulse of spatial magic that erupted right in the man's path. Immediately, reality itself seemed to crumble in on itself, with matter tearing apart and its atoms scattering into all directions.
Reacting faster than Darganth expected, his target barely managed to avoid sprinting into the spell. However, even though the man pivoted quickly and threw himself to the side right when the spell manifested, he didn't manage to fully escape its effect as the implosion that followed the collapse yanked him toward it.
The town guards didn't miss this opportunity. Already having prepared their attacks as their opponent had dashed out of their encirclement, the first attacks struck before the man could recover.
Confident that his intervention was enough for them to regain control over the situation, Darganth shifted his attention away from the fights. With his display having announced his arrival to Neandra, he was then greeted by her gaze as he turned back toward her.
The moment she saw him and Yldra, a smile crept onto her lips. Though it had been expected and a cost for their plan that she could live with, not seeing them for half a year had still been a drag on her mood. Thus, their arrival was a pleasant surprise, especially as they had been mentally prepared for the excursion to take a year or even longer.
"Missed us?" Yldra asked with a beaming grin as she saw Neandra's reaction.
"More than you can imagine." The wyvern replied, her form briefly blurring as she transformed into a humanoid shape before opening her arm. Dashing forward, Yldra then disappeared from Darganth's side and fell into Neandra's embrace.
Following shortly behind her, Darganth came to a halt, floating a meter away from them.
"How are you?" He asked.
Lifting her head out of the crook of Yldra's neck, Neandra turned toward him before answering, "Quite good. Been a bit chaotic for the past week, but I've enjoyed the chances to let loose a bit."
Happy to hear this, Darganth nodded along when Neandra added, "And with you? Successful with everything?"
"Great, it went better than I had hoped. We not only managed to open a path for Melidra and recruited some allies from the wilderness as expected, but we've also encountered two unexpected allies from beyond the realm fragment. They're with the others, I'll introduce you in a moment." Darganth said.
"Ascendants even?" Neandra said, surprised as she let her mana sense sweep across the vicinity of the town in response to his words.
"Even better, but you'll see in a moment." Darganth said. Sensing Cehlya arrive at the dome shortly after he spoke, he then turned around and watched as their group entered the town one by one. And while the ogres and Melidra's undead stayed at the edge of his estate, those close to him rose into the air and floated toward where he, Yldra, and Neandra were waiting for them.