”Not that we don’t appreciate the reinforcements, but what the hells are you doing here? And why don’t I know you?” The white-sashed Lord demanded, looking straight at Dee. Strictly speaking, one of the green-sashed men at her side was the general assigned to this area, but the white-sashed woman had seniority due to many other factors. So while the general still gave the orders officially and kept things running, the white-sashed woman was the one making the big decisions.

“You don’t know me because you didn’t need to know before now.” Dee replied confidently, leaning into the secretive reputation of the red faction.

The white-sashed woman made a sound of frustration and exasperation. She had faced enough reds in her time to know this was exactly how they would act, which ended up being reassuring in a weird sort of way. Not that it made the secrecy any less frustrating. “You didn’t answer my main question.” She pointed out, not letting the point slide.

“Before I answer that…” Dee made a small gesture and a small golden dome of holy energy surrounded the six of them. The dome made eavesdropping much more challenging, and Dee’s ability to see the flow of power pretty much guaranteed that no one would be able to sneak their way through with a spell. The three Lords didn’t react as they had somewhat expected something like this. They were standing on a wall after all, so measures against being overheard by the dragons were logical. “Are you aware of the plan concerning Io?”

One of the green looked confused, but the general and the white-sashed woman had a clear look of knowing what Dee was talking about. She continued. “I see that at least some of you do. Good. Our presence here is due to that plan. We need to make a splash to show that our group is no longer at Io. Someone forgot to inform the local general about the bigger plan and he defended Io a bit too effectively.”

A look of amusement crossed the white-sashed woman’s face. “The general performed an effective defense, and you get sent here to show that the defense is no longer in place. Would that not mean that you were the lynchpin of that defense? So in actual fact, someone forgot to inform you?” It was clear that the woman took delight in the fact that a red was cut out of the loop.

“You’re not entirely wrong. The part where someone forgot to inform us is wrong because it’s hard to inform someone whose existence you are unaware of. I know it’s heretical for someone like me to say something like this, but too much secrecy can become a problem. Anyway, we already lifted the siege on one fortress in a very blatant way and now we are here. While the previous fort may have been small enough to escape the notice of the right draconic forces, this place should be different. The idea is to make it seem that the circumstances have pulled us away from our earlier defense.” Dee blatantly showed that she was taking no responsibility of what had happened at Io. It was all an act of course, just to maintain her identity as one of the reds.

“Well…lifting the siege here might be a problem, but with you here we at least have a chance to make some moves. The enemy side has four rank twelve combatants, while we had three before you arrived. The bastion kept us fairly equal but didn’t allow us to attack out. The Golden Dragon leading the enemy forces is, unfortunately, stronger than me, so we may still be at a disadvantage.” The woman said with some consideration.

“Leave the Gold Dragon to me.” Dee stated with confidence. “My friend here can also rival one of the lower level dragons of the twelfth rank.” With three of the dragons being at roughly the level of the previous leader of the Five Winds, Moirai could make a pretty good showing. She might not be able to kill one in a short amount of time, but it would be a fairly even match thanks to her abilities being a good counter against dragons. Or at least as good of a counter as one could have against dragons.

The white-sashed woman, who revealed that her name was Sareash, questioned Dee’s confidence and the two were locked in the social game of seniority that the Lords played. Aurelie had given a rundown on the main points of how the game was played, and Dee was now rather proficient in it. Partially because she lied shamelessly. She had taken no part in some of the little rituals and events that were so important for the game, so she made things up as she went along. This was doubly effective because almost no one lied when it came to the game. Most of the details were too easy to confirm, so there was little point. But, as Dee was shrouded in secrecy, she also had something of a free pass to lie, as everyone that heard her would assume, that at least her red sisters would out her as a liar, even if she hid everything from the other factions. Outing such liars was part of the duties that the factions took on and lying to the reds was a very bad idea. As the only part where Dee was lacking concerning the game was connections within the Assembly, Dee easily secured the seniority from Sareash, but with a thin enough margin that the two were basically the same rank for now.

With the seniority established, they could get to the point. “So what’s the situation exactly? We just arrived here, and while I can guess most things, I’d rather not.” Dee prompted the others.

The general took up the explanation as strategy was more his forte. “Well, we have a relatively secure position currently. The Dragonflight holds the inbound gate, but our emergency teleportation methods are allowing us a certain limited access as you yourself can testify. The outbound gate is within the bastion, so the scaled bastards are trapped here for now. I would imagine they will soon enough be able to rig the other gate to at least allow return to the world they came from.”

“I can confirm that.” Araqiel interjected. “I got a quick look at their work just before we were whisked away, and it seemed fairly close to completion. Admittedly the look was so fast that I might be wrong.”

The general nodded. “We suspected as much, but it’s nice to get confirmation of sorts. Anyway, the flying bastion keeps us out of the reach of most of the Dragonflight ground forces, though a large portion of the Dragonkin can fly. It’s pretty hard to assault a flying fort by normal means even if that’s the case, so mostly their flying mages are a problem. Aside from the dragons of course. The dragons have no problem attacking us, but the bastion’s defenses have been a great help in rebuffing those attacks. Our construct forces are at full capacity and optimized to combat airborne enemies, but they will be of limited use against the larger dragons. We can arm the constructs with the ability to hurt those dragons, but that doesn’t mean much if the dragon can simply dodge the attacks in the air. We have thirty Lords of immortal rank present, so the dragons have the edge in numbers.”

“The bastion defenses have kept us secure for now, but those defenses are steadily being worn down.” The other green-sashed man supplemented. “Before you showed up, I would have estimated that we’d be forced to land the bastion in roughly a month.”

“Will the bastion be of use when assaulting a wing of dragons?” Dee asked.

“To a limited extent. The bastion is mostly designed to secure the gate, but it has weapons to use against dragons of course. The problem is that those weapons have limited range and the dragons can distance themselves from the bastion if we attack them. We tried that once before. The bastion isn’t exactly designed to be quick and nimble. Any forces we send out will most likely start the battle with support from the bastion but will soon find themselves out of range of that support. Assuming the dragons stick to the same strategy they did before.” The general replied.

“That hardly matters in the long run though. We all know this battle will be resolved by the fight between us and the four dragons. If we win, even if the immortal dragons join forces, it will be only a matter of time before we can bring them down.” Sareash stated.

“True.” Dee agreed confidently. “Still, I’d rather battle the Golden Dragon without being harassed by the rest of them.” Dee tapped her chin in thought for a while. “I could always draw the dragon away. I doubt it will be able to resist a challenge.”

The others shrugged. If the rest of them tried to keep the fight closer to the bastion, then the whole thing might work. The pride of the dragons was not unwarranted, but it could be used against them as well. It was far from a perfect plan, but they could always retreat back to the bastion if it didn’t work.

-----

Neiveoss had told the rest of the dragons to prepare. He had sensed the arrival of some reinforcements for their enemies. The number of reinforcements was not large but one in particular had given him a dangerous feeling. Even from a distance, he could tell that the female demon had given him a look he was very familiar with, though usually he was the one giving that look. It had been the look of a predator finding a worthy prey. He did not like being on the receiving end one bit.

Neiveoss was a powerful and majestic Gold Dragon, and his kind were only second to the Platinum Dragons among their metallic kind. In his less than humble opinion, the Platinum ones didn’t really count as they had divine blood in their veins, which made his kind the greatest really. Neiveoss had a sagacious look on his old face with flexible whiskers rarely seen on other dragon types. His horns swept back from his brow and had twin frills on his neck that he thought made him look mighty fetching. The large sail-like wings started from his shoulder and extended all the way down to the tip of his tail, giving his flying a unique rippling motion. He knew that he was proud, but in his mind he had every reason to be, something he confirmed once again as younger female dragons gave him sidelong glances.

‘Maybe it’s time to show the younger generation a thing or two again. The young hatchlings certainly won’t know how to conduct themselves.’ He thought idly, entertaining thoughts of nesting with some young and trim female dragon in the future. Maybe that fancy silver one looking at him right now. Looking at him with a slightly odd look?

His thoughts were interrupted as a burst of energy exploded against the dome of protective energy he had erected to defend himself while near the bastion of the Assembly. ‘Someone dares to interrupt my daydreaming?!’ He looked towards the source of the attack and saw a weird being floating in the air. The being looked like a kitsune in her fox form, though in this case one almost as large as a small dragon and with twelve tails. The kitsune also had a pair of white angelic wings and what looked like a pair of halos.

Neiveoss growled in anger and flew towards the being, while at the same time that being seemed to have a taunting expression on its face. Even though the sudden assault had angered him, Neiveoss was not stupid. The being was clearly the same woman that had given him a feeling of danger earlier, and he knew he was being baited. On the other hand, the being was baiting him away from the bastion so he was less cautious. Still, he still remembered the look the being had given him and signaled some of the other dragons to follow along.

To his annoyance, the kitsune held a constant distance from him and kept retreating away. He tried increasing his flying speed and seemed to be gaining, but still he never quite managed to reach the being. Gold Dragons weren’t the fastest of flyers due to their hefty size and build, but they were still dragons. Even if the being had angelic wings, she should not be able to get away. As the chase got more heated, Neiveoss lost sight of the fact that the other dragons had been left behind. He had not considered that his sheer level of power allowed him to move faster over longer distances compared to the other younger dragons. The chase had also forced him to focus so much that he didn’t notice that the other dragons got peeled off to do battle by the immortals of the Assembly. His prey was so tantalizingly close!

Suddenly the chase came to an end as the being seemed to somehow take distance and turned to face Neiveoss. “Did you finally admit to yourself that there’s no point in running away? With this distance, you won’t be able to escape back to your little safehouse.” He taunted.

That was one of the reasons that he had been willing to chase so far in the first place. Every time he had faced the annoying white-sashed immortal, she had retreated back inside the bastion as soon as the battle turned disadvantageous. From this distance, the being in front of him could not escape to safety. The being might have thought about luring him away and then using one of the emergency teleportation spells to rush back, but if that was the plan then he had a nasty surprise prepared for her.

“No, in fact the opposite.” The being said. “Now we are far enough that the other dragons will not be able to interrupt our little fight.”

“How bold of you. You think you can challenge one of our kind.” Neiveoss stated with confidence. Some of that confidence was just to assure himself, as he was still shaken by the look the being had given him. Maybe he should play for time just in case? The other dragons should arrive sooner or later.

The being gave a small sigh. “That’s the problem with your kind. You always think there’s nothing above you. Well, time to see if that’s true.” And then the being boldly flashed forward as if she had become a beam of light, moving much faster than she had before. Still, Neiveoss was a Gold Dragon and he had fought against many powerful Blue Dragons and even Fairy Dragons. Even if the being was faster than those, he was able to track her movements accurately. There were ways to fight against a faster opponent. One of those was using the sheer difference in power and defense. Fast beings almost never had the strength and durability of those bigger and slower than them. All you had to do then was to force a head-on confrontation.

The Gold Dragon was not entirely incorrect. Even with all of the improvements Dee had, she still lacked some of the sheer mass of the enormous dragon, which made a straight-up match of strength difficult. Even though she could punch out an Azure Dragon, that was in a circumstance where she was not pitting her own strength directly against that of her enemy. Even in her kitsune form, a contest of pure strength would end up in a tie if she didn’t utilize her Domain to weaken her enemy. Which she did of course. She also layered a dozen empowering holy spells and Croestia’s power to force the Gold Dragon back. She might lack mass but she didn’t lack supportive spells.

She also flew around the dragon, utilizing the wing that had turned back to black as the disguise was no longer necessary. The feathers of the black wing had the power to slash through the golden scales as if they were made of paper, though that didn’t last very long. Neiveoss realized his disadvantage as soon as the Domain surrounded him, and re-formed the defensive bubble around him. The black wing was much less effective against the magical powers of a dragon, even though it was not completely ineffective. Neiveoss moved on to the second way to fight a faster enemy, which was to turn the battle into a fight with magic. Spells that you didn’t need to aim didn’t care about the speed at which one dodged.

The dragons had their own forms of spellcasting, though fundamentally the effect was similar to the way mages used mana. The difference was that the magic of dragons was not made of the carefully constructed spells weaving strands of power into an intricate whole. Instead of a precision instrument, the magic of dragons was more of an instinctual control over the powers of the universe. One of the resulting differences was that Dee couldn’t just counter the draconic spells by striking at the weak points. She had to match power with power. Luckily for her, she had plenty of power to throw around.

In an interesting twist, the magic of dragons was somewhat similar to that of psions in that both of the two combatants were less concerned about precision and more concerned about sheer power, as psionic blades the size of dragons cleaved explosions of pure arcane energy in two. Neiveoss was doing much better than he had in a physical confrontation, but he was still being pushed back due to Dee’s Domain restricting his abilities.

‘Well, if she’s using her power as an immortal, it’s about time I use mine.’ Usually he preferred to keep his power as a secret, as it could be an extremely powerful trump card when utilized at just the right moment. Unfortunately, his enemy was not giving him the opening he wanted, so he had to settle. His vision suddenly changed and all the magical items, enchanted equipment, and items with other powers were laid visible to his eyes. Gold Dragons had the nasty habit of indulging themselves by eating treasures. For most Gold Dragons that meant gold coins and maybe gems, but for some it went further. They often developed the ability to increase their power by consuming powerful items. Neiveoss had taken that ability just a tad further with his totem.

Suddenly Dee felt her grasp on her psionic powers waver as the dark metallic halo above her head shattered. She had enough control and practice by now that she didn’t really need the halo even in her kitsune form, but the momentary loss of control still caused her abilities to go haywire for a short time. Several of the psionic abilities she had hurled forward suddenly exploded, sending a shower of wild power at both of the combatants. Some of the Gold Dragon’s attacks managed to slip through the gap that had appeared and impacted on her armor of light. Luckily that one was not affected as it was a holy spell.

‘The dragon has the ability to destroy magical items!’ Croestia suddenly screamed in panic inside Dee’s mind. Croestia could sense a danger to her existence. Destroying her would be much more difficult than the halo, but it was not entirely impossible.

‘Can you protect yourself in some way?’ Dee also asked flustered. This was far outside her expectations.

‘Yes, for a time at least, but I’ll have to dedicate my power to that instead of supporting you.’ Croestia replied, and Dee felt Croestia’s support being withdrawn. It had been a long time since Croestia gave no support to her at all, as nowadays it was almost automatic to both of them. That felt true even in everyday life, as much as everyday life existed for Dee.

Neiveoss noted the sudden look of panic in his adversary’s eyes and misinterpreted it slightly. He had planned on saving his ability for the time his enemy tried to escape and savoring the sudden despair at the emergency teleportation not working. So he naturally assumed the look had something to do with that realization, or perhaps at losing the weird artifact he had just destroyed. His thoughts were thrown into disarray as a sudden look of clear anger surfaced on Dee’s face instead.

The loss of the halo stung a lot, but threatening Croestia brought a whole new kind of anger to surface. Croestia was one of her oldest friends and the last thing she had of her time with Selvaria. Dee’s form twisted as she took on a more appropriate form. “I was planning on sparing you and using you as a messenger after putting some mental blocks inside your head. I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to tear you apart and feed your remains to some Kobolds. One of your miserable underlings can carry the message instead.” She knew dragons hotly contested the claim that Kobolds were degenerate cousins of dragons and feeding the dragon to their kind would be a desecration of the highest order. Even the twisted Black Dragons didn’t make that threat.

Her now draconic voice was filled with pure malice, and her dragon form was bathed in the black flames that gave Neiveoss a feeling of dread. That feeling was not necessary as he stared in horror at the combination of the hated and feared Abyssals and the carefully avoided and enigmatic Astrals. ‘Not good! Not good at all!’ He managed to formulate a thought and made an item of his own appear out of storage. The Gold Dragons may eat treasures, but they also hoarded them. Especially those that could save their lives one day.

Dee’s black flames met empty space and she gnashed her fangs in anger as the Golden Dragon disappeared. She could sense that the dragon had vanished from the entire planet and not just this battle. She roared her frustration out, even if she knew it was a futile gesture. Still, there was some dragon in her and it was rare for a prey she had set her eyes on to escape. But the facts were as they were. The Assembly was not the only faction to have developed spatial magic tricks for their own use and Dee was too inexperienced with the War in Heavens to know better. Otherwise she would have found a way to prevent spatial magic in a myriad of possible ways.

Nevertheless, she had a battle to finish and unknown to her, it would not be the only fight she had to face today.