[Dragon peaks]
Watching the dwarven emperor ignore his words and continue walking closer to him, Darganth raised his hand to signal the dragons to stop before they could lunge at the man. Letting Oknar thus reach the foot of the steps leading up to the elevated section of floor his throne stood on, he didn't even react as the emperor roused his mana and formed an elevated throne that raised him to eye height with Darganth.
"Are you finished?" Darganth asked with an over-exaggerated annoyance in his tone.
"Do not demean me further, your so-called invitation was already insulting enough. Just because those two accept it and your opposition is dead, you don't get to treat me as your subordinate." The dwarven emperor grumbled in response.
Narrowing his eyes, Darganth was briefly taken aback by his hostility. Though the manner in which Oknar had arrived had already hinted at it, the hostility the dwarf's words showed was nonetheless surprising. Especially because when they had last met at the emperor meeting, he had gotten the impression that the man was content with remaining a neutral party as long as he wasn't bothered.
"How should I take that?" Darganth asked with narrowed eyes.
"That under my rule, the dwarves will not acknowledge your empire. The central continent has always stood independently, even against our various homelands, and to us, you and the new dragons you brought along are outsiders." Oknar stated.
Furrowing his brows at the man's proclamation, Darganth still couldn't entirely understand what led him to this outburst. While he could certainly understand it if the dwarves were wary of being the next species to be conquered, Oknar's behavior ran counter to this theory. Even the loss of business that would undoubtedly come from him ending the endless conflicts on the continent didn't seem like a good enough reason for Darganth to understand his antagonism.
Amid these thoughts, his attention was drawn past Oknar as he caught movement from the representatives of Avelyn. Shifting his gaze as the dwarven prince among them stepped forward, Darganth watched as he rose to hover a few meters next to Oknar. During it, he noticed the latter's twitching fingers, making him rethink a possibility he had deemed too illogical to consider.
As if to reinforce his thoughts, Oknar turned his head toward the prince a moment later and ordered, "Do not meddle in this, you are just as much of an outsider."
"That's even more of a reason to intervene in your affairs, it might finally introduce some competence to your rule. And considering that our people are the only species where more people migrate toward their home continent than there are leaving it for the central continent, I'm not alone with that thought." The prince provoked.
Sighing as he watched the exchange between the two, Darganth wasn't entirely sure what the prince was trying to achieve. While his words were fundamentally true, anyone who was familiar with dwarven politics knew that this state of affairs wasn't Oknar's fault and did in fact precede his rule, going as far back as at least four generations of dwarven emperors.
And rather than being caused by a policy decision made at the time, it was a result of the dwarves' position as the weakest of the major species on the central continent. While none of them have launched a full invasion of the dwarven lands in recent memory, it was still a precarious situation, even before considering the dragons living overhead and monsters that regularly overran outposts and managed to decimate the more remote cities often enough for it to be a major fear among the people.
As such, only two groups of dwarves generally chose to live on the central continent if they had the option. For one, nobles who didn't have enough possessions for the third or fourth sons to inherit anything of value generally sent these children across the sea in the hopes that they would manage to stake a claim to some of the central continents' still unsettled lands. Additionally, smiths capable of forging weapons for mythic ranks are far more in demand, leading many of them to move their business there when they get the opportunity.
But Oknar didn't seem intent on speaking these facts out and correcting the prince's claim, instead choosing to flare his mana and let it come crashing down onto him. Upon seeing this, another member of the delegation stepped forward and unleashed his own mana. Colliding around the prince, the two invisible waves shook the room and caused the dwarf to grimace in pain as the two forces clashed around him.
"Enough, both of you." Darganth growled and unleashed his dragon's fear.
Surprising the two clashing men, his authority briefly pushed through their respective presence and overwhelmed their resistance. Paralyzed as its dread came crashing down on them, Oknar and the prince's guard were stunned long enough for their clashing presences to disappear in one last burst of power.
Turning to Neandra, Darganth asked into the resulting silence, "Are the two dwarven empires always this confrontational?"
"No idea, they tended to stay out of each other's way. But if they are and continue this petty squabble, I'll reduce the number of dwarven empires in this universe to zero." She said.
The reaction to these words was almost immediate. Spinning around toward her, all three dwarves' eyes widened once they saw in her expression that she wasn't joking. And while the prince and his guard immediately stepped back in caution, Oknar threw her an annoyed look but also stayed silent.
"Thank you." Darganth said, pausing for a moment to calm his frustration over the situation, "So, apparently I'm dealing with children right now because if I'm reading this situation correctly, you're lashing out because I invited representatives from Avelyn."
"I'm not lashing out. You're styling yourself as an entity equivalent to the emperor meeting, something I'm not going to tolerate without resistance." Oknar asked.
Raising an eyebrow questioningly, Darganth followed the emperor's gaze as the latter glanced toward his attending subjects. Standing somewhat unified near the middle of the crowd, the various dwarven kinds avoided meeting their eyes.
Realizing what he meant a second later, Darganth groaned in annoyance. Moreover, his decision to rethink the plans concerning the dwarves of the central continent was vastly accelerated by the knowledge that Oknar's actions were purely due to the perceived insult that inviting the dwarven kings directly was.
When he then also sensed a shift in the world around him, his response came without hesitation, "Didn't you get the message, the old era of the emperors is over, and its traditions have gone with it. That means that if they don't want to go along with your self-destructive decisions, they can always join on their own." Darganth said, directing the second sentence more to the dwarven kings than to Oknar. And from the shifting expressions he watched among them and on Oknar's face, the meaning behind those words was clear.
Meeting Oknar's glare as the dwarf turned his attention back to him, Darganth calmly leaned back before continuing their conversation, "So you can decide, calm down and be a part of the future or continue like this and lose everything."
"As if my people would surrender so easily to your threats." Oknar scoffed, though his expression betrayed his doubts in his own words.
Sighing, Darganth let his gaze sweep over the group of dwarves until he found the familiar face he was searing and called out, "Kheduil, how are you?" He asked the dwarven king he had met and helped on his journey to the dragon peaks.
Uncomfortable with being singled out, the comparatively young dwarf hesitated before ultimately stepping forward and making himself seen amid the crowd. But before he could speak up, Oknar already realized what he was going to say from the look in his eyes and interrupted.
"I stand corrected, most of us have the backbone to not bow before you." He said.
Briefly hesitating, Kheduil solemnly shook his head as he responded a second later, "With all due respect, it isn't a question of courage or integrity. The conflict you seem intent on starting is neither worth it nor winnable for us, so I see no reason to partake in it. I've seen the wrath that dragons can unleash, so I have no interest in being on its receiving end."
Following his short speech, the dwarven king then shifted his gaze toward Darganth and, prompted by the scheming grin of the latter, stepped away from the other dwarves. Not even walking far, he only moved a few meters through the crowd, though this was enough to demonstratively distance himself from the closely grouped dwarves of the central continent.
And with him taking the lead, the hesitancy among the other kings vanished only a few tense seconds later. Having previously been kept in line by the overwhelming power of Oknar, ambition, dissatisfaction, and opportunism swelled up in almost half of the kings once he didn't immediately respond with overwhelming might, prompting them to abandon their lord and his clearly disadvantageous position.
Chuckling in amusement as he watched Oknar seethe at the sight, Darganth didn't bother hiding his glee in the slightest.
"Oh, how you miscalculated. This could've gone so much better for you if you hadn't interpreted a threat that didn't exist into each of my actions. I was even going to let you keep your meaningless crown once you would've inevitably joined my empire, but you've forced my hand. As for how exactly I'll carve up your kingdoms-" Darganth said while turning to the dwarven prince, "Bram, tell your father I'll add Oknar's territory and those of the dwarven kings who are currently still gathered in support of him to the deal my sister presented him."
As Oknar heard these words, his last bit of patience broke. Without thinking, his mana surged and called forth one of his mana-bound weapons as his hand snapped forward, with his motion stopping just right for the crossbow that appeared to be pointed directly at Darganth.
With one finger already on the loaded weapon's trigger, Oknar was just about to fire the enchanted at Darganth when a sudden impact struck him from above. Pushing him down, the invisible wave of force catapulted him through the throne and stone pillar he had formed beneath himself, shattering the structure as he was sent crashing into the floor.
Sinking to his knees but still catching his fall, the dwarven emperor let out a pained wince before quickly jumping back to his feet. Letting his mana surge out of every pore on his body, he formed an aura armor around himself while aiming his crossbow back at Darganth.
But despite his defensive effort, the retaliation came crashing down on him again. Striking even earlier than during his last attempt, the invisible force crushed his aura armor as it encased him from all sides, freezing him in place before his weapon even rose above the height of his own hips.
Barely having a moment to process the shocking ease with which he was overpowered, Oknar's eyes widened just as his body was abruptly pulled forward. Sailing through the air, he could only watch helplessly as he was dragged up the stairs in front of Darganth's throne and toward the group of figures that teleported onto them in the same instant.
A moment later, a woman at the center of them reached out and caught him by the throat, dispelling the pressure around him with it and causing his body to jerk to an abrupt stop. Digging her clawed fingers into his neck, she tightened her grip as she lifted her arm and slammed him down onto the floor at the end of the stairs.
Immediately after, over a dozen presences locked onto Oknar, pushing him down until the floor beneath his back cracked. Lying there immobilized with only enough freedom to turn his head toward Darganth, he watched as the figure standing next to the woman walked toward the second stairway that towered on the elevated floor on which Venrie and Neandra's thrones stood.
Letting a massive crystal shard appear above his palm with a flick of his wrist, the man bowed before Darganth before he spoke, "It is done, my lord."
"I've felt it, good work as always." Darganth said as he rose from his throne.
Telekinetically grabbing the shard of Ikrus' core that Irsyr presented to him, he theatrically rose into the air while addressing the crowd, "Now then, the finale. The last symbol of the final relevant opposition to my rule, the universe will's core-"
Making a dramatic pause, Darganth clenched his open fist, tightening his hold of the completely drained remains of Ikrus' core. Briefly letting it quake under the pressure, he then tensed his muscles and let the telekinetic grasp surge in strength as he spoke again.
"-shattered." With this exclamation, the crystal broke into thousands of tiny pieces.
Before the first pieces of the resulting shower of crystal shards even touched the ground, the Locis dragons that had arrived with Irsyr and Edylia had already dropped onto one knee and bowed. Seeing this, the fire and solar dragons in attendance followed shortly after, with Neandra and Venrie also rising from their throne and bowing, though not dropping onto one knee but only lowering their heads.
Seeing this, the elves and beasts were then the first ones among the crowd to follow the dragon's example. After them, the movement of people dropping onto one knee spread throughout the crowd like a wave for almost a minute as members of every species, from giants to beastmen, started kneeling before Darganth.
By the end, even Meliel lowered her head in a similar manner to Venrie. And while the dwarves of Avelyn didn't join their elven allies, Darganth knew that the prince simply didn't have the authority to make that decision without consulting his father.
The scattered few outliers from various species and the third of the central continent's dwarves that stayed loyal to Oknar meanwhile didn't benefit from that excuse. As such, they became Irsyr's targets, with the dragon god committing their faces to his memory before he let them disappear in a surge of spatial energy that teleported them back to their homes to be dealt with later.
Once they were dealt with, Darganth then let his presence flood the hall, causing an illusion of the void to replace the space around him, with the image of his true form before his death flying around between the streams of temporal and spatial energy.
"Today, my reign begins once more."