The academy was still standing and became the central seat of the kingdom.

Mandrake had returned as a great sage.

Thousands of people of all races and species, so as not to shock anyone, stood at the foot of the academy.

Arcadians and Arcadians. The anger and the time for settling scores was over. If you don't get organized, hunger and famine await you and that is the worst war.

Starvation and disease have killed more people than any war...

The world has changed and we have been punished. We have paid a heavy price. You've all noticed that everyday life is hell without magic.

No more light at night, no more heating or cold to preserve food and, above all, no more care or healing.

The whole structure of our society was based on magic and it is lost.

I tried to warn the council, the nobles and the king and his entire clique.

They were deaf to my warnings.

I told them not to touch the dragons.

Let's not blame them, and the more innocent the dragons are in this story, the more innocent they are. They are the victims.

They were hunted, tortured and exterminated.

They were never the monsters the nobles and royals portrayed us as.

They were part of races like the Argonians and the KAjits and the elves. They paid a heavy price for our racism, and they served as a pillar to support the magic. Their great bodies had to hold that power and distribute it.

Now that they are gone, the earth is drying up, dying! drained of energy.

The dragons could very well live in harmony with humans, they had to be given the chance. Look at Profondeville, Sombreffe and Ombreville. They had Aqua and Fuchur, and they escaped into space. We're gonna miss them. The locals, some of whom are here, can tell you that. They mourn them, and a lot of the girls were in love with Fuchur. They cry silently now. Yes, humans could have children mixed with dragons.

That's why the king and his noble clique went to great lengths.

You, the people of Arcadia, have a right to know the story of Ignar the Madman.

His father was human, and he had a child with the king's grandmother who was a queen at the time.

His half-dragon offspring should have ruled instead of the king but the queen's brother killed the human dragon hybrid, finally 1/4 dragon it drove the queen mad with grief and Ignar was accused of eating the child. After slaughtering half of the palace guards he ran away to join his father at the Black Fortress and swore revenge on the kingdom. He trained shadow dragons of blood and poison against the kingdom and attacked the trade routes and farms to weaken the kingdom, but that was without counting allies and magic. Everything turned against him and the campaign of extermination began.

Again the nobility and kings sacked the world.

But I had two treasures. Charming Wyvernes who looked after an old blacksmith until he died.

But Vermithraxa and Auberone, my two brightest pupils, despite being Wyverns, did not abandon us. I think they left with their hearts torn between staying and leaving but Profion pushed them to flee for good.

Even though the magic has stopped, I was able to get one last communication from our dragons on board the ship.

They said they were civilized, human and from the same world as the Nazis in the Black Fortress. They gave very useful information, without betraying their benefactors and thanks to them and their notes and the artifacts and discoveries made at the fortress that we, the ex-mages are investigating, they left us an immense knowledge that will be able to save us.

This is the light of Vermithraxa:

He plugged in a battery and connected it to a mana stone and it lit up.

Our mages who have lost everything are going to come here to the academy to study the science that these formidable creatures have bequeathed to us.

But don't rejoice: The magic is well and truly over here. And science will help us survive, but the Golden Age is over.

But there's another big problem:

The oculus, the observatory, fortunately it worked on physics and not magic and we managed to reactivate it and the visitors are still here and it's a threat as well as an opportunity.

Vermithraxa told me about the invasions of their world, the conquistadors and cowboys who had technological superiority. The Indians were eradicated. Pure and simple.

Not by armies, but by a war of attrition between settlers who had formidable weapons and the Indians, bows, arrows and swords like us.

We lost our only advantage: magic.

But a nation in history has been able to resist colonization despite being 1,000 years outnumbered and technologically inferior.

Here we are 2,000 years apart."

The crowd was full of hope and fear and the terrible hubbub

"Dear Compatriots, as I was saying, Japan, a society very similar to that of the kajit with the ears and tail missing, could serve as a model.

What the Indians have lost is centralization and concentration of power. Once the head was cut off, an assassination and everything collapsed.

We must have a communist-style military civil society. The good times when everything grew by itself are over.

We're going to do crop rotations with fallow land...

The gigantic land properties and small plots of land for the rest are over.

Land is redistributed in this way: Everyone must have fertile land to feed themselves and their families.

Large areas of farmland will be converted into sovkhozes, state farms where the redistribution of crops will be fair. Farmers will therefore have to regroup and join forces.

Visitors are watching us and waiting for us to unite to meet us.

We will use communication codes from their navy to establish diplomatic relations and we will try to renegotiate the return of the dragons, but I am afraid this will only be for future generations. We'll probably never see dragons alive again.

A change is coming and it's irrevocable. "Let's make the change ourselves or control our own destiny before they decide for us."

Hooray!

Hooray!" said the people.

"But since the crops are meager the children will not be needed and like those who come to visit us, they are evolved because they have sent their children to school over many generations and look, they are sailing between worlds now. while we were beating ourselves up to see who was the strongest, they were learning to build ships and we risk becoming their slaves because we are all dunces.

Our society has to become like them: a direct democracy. And the candidates will have to become technicians in political management. We can't elect the village idiot because he's got a big mouth or because he likes girls. Study, study, study. The brain is also a muscle to be trained.

So I'll be the Supreme Wise One. I have no power, but I guide the elected representatives of a council that will be elected by its citizens. One councillor, one region. Doesn't it suit you? Vote!

Hooray!

Then school will be compulsory until the age of 14. EVERYONE will have to learn English, and know how to read and write the common language. A family management course will be compulsory for EVERYONE.

Vermithraxa has also left us in the Black Fortress, let's just say that it has spared its destruction by casting a shield spell on important books: dictionary, medical, law and science basics . She left us steam engines, but the use of wood and coal ravaged the world of visitors and she did not want this world to suffer the same fate. She left us a very, very advanced technology: wind and solar energy.

We can make energy with the wind and the sun. We're studying this science that's new to us, and if we live up to it, maybe space visitors can be our friends."

The speech was interrupted by a terrible and incredible SCREEEEEEEEEEEE.

Metanovae landed next to Mandrake:

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA nice speech for an old man! I am METANOVAE, the Blood Dragon! I am also the word and mistress of this planet.

I AM YOUR QUEEN! YOUR GODDESS. I AM ARCADIA YOUR PLANET.

I BLAME YOU FOR KILLING ME AND BURNING ME. BUT AS YOU CAN SEE, I AM IMMORTAL. I AM THE PHOENIX. I AM REBORN FROM THE ASHES.

I AM COMMISSIONED BY ARCADIA, THE SPIRIT OF THE PLANET THAT BROUGHT ME BACK TO LIFE.

GRROOOOOOAAAAAA R + Flame jets so intense that it pierces the clouds.

ARCADIA WANTS MEN TO DIE TO AVENGE THE LOSS OF THE DRAGONS!

EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!

BUT MANDRAKE'S SPEECH AND HIS WILLINGNESS TO BRING BACK THE DRAGONS MAKES ME CHANGE MY MIND.

I WANT VERMITHRAXA. I think she's dead but I also want her sister Auberone. I WANT HER HEAD FOR BETRAYAL AND SHAME ON ARCADIA and bring me Falkor! and IGNAR!

Find your own way, go to the stars or to the sun. I don't care, just go get her. For if I have to fetch her myself, when I return, Arcadia or She through me will exterminate you to the last man.

She disappeared in a cloud of ashes scattered by the wind.

Mandrake was pale and terrified.

No need for speeches. The message had been delivered.

Mandrake: "Send the message to everyone... The tragedy is worse than we thought. We're going to have to treat the visitors like gods to get them to help us."

Mandrake was all torn up. Not only did he see a Dracoliche come back to life, the planet, where the spirit of the planet is well aware and very upset against the human species. The threat is clear and terrible in its simplicity. We may even have to consider a mass exodus. or kill the planet with pollution????

And now, let's say the dragons want to go back, come back, will the visitors from Earth agree? I very much doubt it!

What a catastrophe. Anyway, nobles in this world, never again!

Somewhere, a periscope of a modernized U-boat appeared in the Sea of Arcadia under the ice pack:

Doctor Zola Gram.:" the estuary is visible. We will be able to return to the Black Fortress. My dear son Ignar, I have many gifts for you! I hope you were good and didn't make a mess!!!"....

The huge submarine no longer had the appearance of an uboat but a state-of-the-art nuclear submarine. It was a collector's item for wealthy amateurs. It was more than 150 years old but submarines were no longer built after this model and it had been restored using all the magnetized sheets of the old uboat so that it had the same characteristics as the old Uboat for dimensional travel. It took much longer but it worked. They were back on Arcadia with fresh troops.

Not Nazis, but descending from one of the branches: Hydra