Prince Saros had full powers and Volkor had no legitimacy yet other than a regent emperor.

But even with the best will, nothing was simple.

Tiamat began negotiations and had hidden plans in the corner of her head, but Enka's aura and omnipresent terror made her think twice.

They were in a room that looked like a living room, and Tiamat was human with her horns but she was afraid of the prince because something was wrong.

Tiamat "So, if I understand correctly, the fleet that my lover destroyed was more of a police and ceremonial fleet than the one you have now... Yet the Repressior made short work of Tyran's ship."

Saros: "Do not underestimate our technology. We have mastered portals and temporal lenses that allow us to cross immense distances, almost instantaneously. And in the absence of his father, Arnold will have access to the best educators in the empire and we will help him develop his infinite powers."

Tiamat: "That's all well and good, but for the moment, I'm the one who educates him and sees to his safety, I also consider him my child, in any case, I play his role of aunt.. Family is sacred in our house."

Saros: "But for your safety... the Winged Lion is drawn to the death of his master Tyrant and he is coming back with great speed... You miraculously survived his golden death ray and for your survival, Arnold will have to make a contract with this divine beast."

Tiamat: "Yes, but we serve the darkness while you serve the light.."

Saros: "No offense to your deity, but Arnold, divine of Light, what fate have you reserved for him? When he has matured and begun to master his divine powers of light, do you think his Enka Divinity will stand by? Will she resist devouring him? We all know the reputation of the Destroyer and even better the Devourer... They are personalized hell... Do you think this is what your lover Hans would want? "

He set his wine glass down on the crystal table.

"Beautiful piece of art."

Kate: "My husband loved anything close to crystals."

Saros smiled. "Yes, too bad he's in one now..."

Tiamat sweated and thought back over and over when she was in the mirror.

"I was treated there" she retorted.

Saros: "Yes... this time... But don't forget that lately, ice is used a lot..."

The Hydra that was Tiamat felt the acidity in the Prince's words, bordering on sarcasm. but it was also a form of warning.

Tiamat: "I will think about your proposal but I am sure that Enka will refuse or even punish me."

Saros: "Only a contract with the Sacred Lion, his last name... Midas..." will be able to stop him and when he arrives here... everything related to Enka will be pulverized... even we could not do anything..."

Tiamat had drops of terror beading, the pain vivid..the tearing and even the antimatter and interdimensional shield being like a piece of sheet metal, having barely deflected the death ray.

"But believe in our sincerity.." He looked out the window at the Doom..

"What a magnificent Ship!!! I wonder how a group of space castaways could with a handful of humans build such marvels rivaling our biggest ships."

Meanwhile, the Vespalian fairy had arrived and was following part of the conversation

The Prince greeted the fairy with all the respect of.

Then the fairy turned into the Vespalian queen..

The prince widened the eyes of terror by seeing a monster made of teeth and scythes.

Waspy : "I come from the Doom. I built it with STAR! And we were going to devour you!" There are thousands of us, but we can become millions very quickly!

The prince bowed... "I am sorry on behalf of the Ummite Empire for all the suffering you have endured at the hands of our predecessors..."

Sarah: "I believe we all stand to gain by making peace and starting anew.

The prince contacted his emperor via a special accessory to report on the situation.

After two hours of private debriefing, the dragons and humans were engaged in heated discussions, not about developments and opportunities, but about the fact that both sides were in control of portals and that three of the children were in the clutches of the Electrons and vicious Dinosaur dragons.

In a separate wing of the Ummites, where they could not hear, the meeting was hot... humans, dragons, elves and a nightmare were on the verge of a fight.

Darkia:" We have Enka! She won't let it happen! After all it is now her world and our goddess...and also Mom..."

Tiamat: "You are a nightmare but you are dreaming on your feet. We are stuck.

We have our enemies throwing themselves at our knees...so waging war on them makes no sense... What about you Kate? What do you think?"

Kate began to whine... "I...I'm just a former human..a mom and a dragon mom...It's complicated and I'm scared.... Do whatever you want but save my little ones."

Bello: "Yes, Kate is right. We fought with Hans and we owe him everything. And he fought for the little ones and now it's our turn to fight for them.

Sarah: "You talk about armies, war, fighting... but we don't have to go that far... Anyway, Hans is tired and can't take it anymore. And leading has never been his priority. Yes, he did it with carnage behind him...but maybe with ...yes..well...we had no choice.. I also worship Enka and we all follow his will."

Tiamat: "That should not stop you from being vigilant because a tragic fate may await us all.."

Bello: "What do you mean, your majesty?"

Tiamat: "I have been "frozen" and I have seen things that I do not like.. I fear Enka and. with good reason. but I am also afraid of this Nikolai, but mostly for him..."

The dark dragoness Darkia was unnaturally irritated, defending Enka.

"Mom is not like that!"

Tiamat: "If the Devourer comes here, it's with good reason!"

Kate: "How about we just go meet them? get to know them. After all they are dragons too...I could go negotiate.."

Tiamat: "Kate...I'm sorry but I hope you'll survive on your own...But did you hear what you just said? I might as well throw you in the dungeon immediately! And the Electrons? They are the scum of the galaxy! They spread death and destruction, and those they don't kill become slaves and are exploited to death. Then, they are raptors! not dragons with a humanistic soul or close to it. They are sentient, dragonified apex predators.

They will tear you apart and at best rape you to death and then devour you alive just for the pleasure of hearing you suffer."

Sarah:" I still propose a meeting, remaining neutral. and we will have to negotiate with the Ummites"

Tiamat: "I have my powers back and I will try to summon my son's fleet.

Darkia: "Not in front of the ummites!"

The group of dragons and humans then joined the prince and his guards on board.

The dragons went back to bed so as not to frighten the Ummites any more than necessary, and a non-aggression pact was signed the old-fashioned way between Sarah, the Chancellor and Prince Saros as a first step towards establishing relations.

The goal was more to buy time and prevent any initiative that could harm Arnold and the other "hostage" children.

No shooting or show of force was necessary and the prince left with permission to go to the land for supplies and trade with the survivors.

Some lamented the loss of loved ones and the prince regretted it.

Reincarnated kobolds even went to whine against his cloak, explaining that they died and returned as kobolds pledging allegiance to Enka to survive.

It was heartbreaking and cruel.

Especially since one of them, a former elf was a cousin of Saros and Volkor.

He complained that he was a prisoner of Enka in soul and flesh and lived in constant fear and terror of the Destroyer Enka.

Saros took the former Elf knight aboard his ship without asking and when he was in orbit... to their relief, nothing happened.

They feared that the goddess, jealous, would make her deserters die. But, obviously, no... Enka was not so bad... but it was not necessary to hide the face, it was and remained a monster.

The little Kobold discreetly sent a prayer to Enka: "Thank you, Goddess of Darkness... Thank you for freeing me...and giving me back my life..."

The prince was ordered to stay nearby in the neutral zone and that a few ships would be sent to protect Arnold if necessary.

Tiamat and Sarah did not object as long as they did not interfere.

But a surprise awaited everyone.

A lost ship of human origin had just sent out a distress call. Sara pleaded with everyone to go and save them.

Sara: "Lord Tiamat, don't you think Emperor Nicolai would have humans with him? What if his world, a land before the cataclysm. If we all went there to join the other humans... It is a green hell for us and..we have ... no, .. we suffer from a form of melancholy to see our own again.."

Tiamat: "Since the time is not the same, there are no paradoxes and the technology is on the same level more or less... but wouldn't that be betraying Hans and Enka?"

The humans who heard her words had a moment of sadness and despair.

She then turned one of her large heads toward Bello :

"I don't approve of Enka, but... don't forget... you are high humans here... You do not age and even, you get younger... You have like us dragons one important thing: time! Now, think about what you stand to lose. I don't know if Enka's blessing will still work in another world, but don't tempt the devil. Humans will come, and faster than you think! And cities, businesses and leisure will return in its time!"

At these words everyone calmed down.

Then Tiamat got out of the ship with Darkia, to face the sidereal void, the cold and the void as well as the rays not being able to harm them.

Then, she opened like a rift by squeezing with her powerful jaws a spatial irregularity that she had just invoked.

Then she pulled, pulled and pulled again with her long necks and a "hole" appeared.

"I summon the army of the Demon Lord and his general Zaar!"

Ship debris appeared. The supercarriers were broken into many pieces, extinguished and empty. Then a cloud of scrap and tangle of broken ships appeared

Inside... a piece looking like a dragon but not really a... a mixture of a plane and a dragon: a Helldrake! And this one was special.

Like the rest, it was tangled with scrap metal but Tiamat's white head spotted the plane's undeath.

Tiamat cried for the first time... She felt that Zaar was no longer there...

"Tsss.." She thought of something that cast doubt...

"I summon Blanche and the pseudo-Tiamat hydra Marcus..."

And ... nothing.......

Panic set in...

"Marcus... no... not him....that's not true!"

"I invoke my Son Ivan"

Same thing...

"You beast!" she screamed into the void.

Then she summoned the Hammerhead ship with Baron Zergalor as her AI...

Nothing.....

Then she turned her heads to look at Darkia...

And she jumped on her to hug her...

"I'm scared, Sis..."

It was the first time she called her that...

Then Tiamat returned without saying anything and went to a corner of the ship to cry.

She sobbed and wanted to rebel but she looked at her legs and her heads pushed back...

"Why???? Why????"

Darkia joined her instantly. But Tiamat was crying, as if cut off from the real world

Darkia : "Tiamat??? what's going on? Tell me, finally???" but the only answer was a cornered animal cry.

She dived into the dream world to find out more about what was going on.

She first arrived in front of the Sphinxes but something had changed... the air was different. The Sphinxes were smiling and their golden eyes were ruby red.

She flew to the Storm Coast to reach her palace and take stock of the situation, but something had changed!

The ruin of the forgotten castle... was no longer a ruin. It had been restored to its former glory, but it was Tiamat who interested the nightmare dragon.

Darkia entered her eternal palace and lay down in her nest of skins and put her paw on her crystal ball which served as a focus for her concentration and she saw the terrified goddess in a crystal dome.

It read in large Draconic letters "Hall of Heroes" and on another "Descendants..."

Tiamat stood at the edge of a pedestal, facing other copies of herself, all taken from the ice.

On one of them you could read: Marcus... then in the next room... "Tiamat the cruel" and it was a body on the verge of death, frozen in time forever.

You could see Tiamat crying and whining... "Sorry... you were right..I should have listened to you"

Then in another dome: "Tania dragon/Raptor/MI6/Hakumen" and a Zergalor base deployment sphere was on a small pedestal next to it. further on, a human with a butcher's hook in his jaw next to it: "Georgy" and again next to it: "Iseult and her egg", a human holding an egg on her lap.

There was also an H-bomb in the ice and other dragons. On the other hand, one base was empty: "Alban, Helldrake".

Tiamat was crying for them all...

Then in the descending room, there were empty pedestals...and...Hans..

Tiamat was crying out...then next to it, a pedestal...with the name: "Darkia"

The shock was so violent that she immediately found herself aboard the Repressor.

Fear overcame her.

Kate came to find her and was shocked to see Tiamat in this state.

"Darkia??? what do we do??"

Not knowing what to do... "Send the Doom to the distress signal. Say goodbye to Waspy, you never know... and we're heading for the Midway, full power...

Sarah: "What's going on? And why are you hiding in the engine room?

Darkia reflexively let out a squeak of sadness, melancholy and fear, as if her existence was no longer guaranteed and she missed life...

"IIIIIII...