Rising god
Chapter 79: House of Dragons

Chapter 79: House of Dragons

In the map of the empire, the Darkan was located on the northern side with the last front, and the Lindell family as its only neighbors. Before them was the Forest of Beasts, which also led to the Outliers’ Land. Then to its west was a large valley, the trench valley that led to the Vodal Kingdom.

The kingdom was unlike any other in the sense that the ruling royal family wasn’t always the ruler of the kingdom. That kingdom was a combination of several families who served and followed separate gods. And every 50 years, a bloody contest was held to determine the next royalty.

The losing families would have no choice but to listen to the ruling family, even if it resulted in their downfall. The kingdom was also known by its other name, ’Land of Apostles.’ When a god made a follower, depending on their faith, devotion, ability to influence others, and carry out their will, their rankings varied, and apostles were the highest-ranking and were usually the heads of the families.

What made the Solaris empire different and stronger was that, upon having an apostle, who was the Pope of the Five Suns, the imperial family was the blood descendants of the Sun God.

The current ruling family of the Vodal Kingdom was the House of Astra, the supreme masters of time and space magic who served Serath, the Timekeeper, or the Spacetime God.

The same went for the western duchy, the Silver family. They were experts in the use of wind and storm, and served Aloria, the Wind god.

Honestly, it was a bad matchup for the Darkan because the Silver family used a degraded version of dragons, wyverns. Though they were mostly used as transport, they were also aerial fighters. That wasn’t all. It was also the fact that the dragons of the Darkan family weren’t much bigger than the wyverns of the Silvers, and the fact that they could also use the wind element.

This meeting explained these facts, also emphasizing the fact that they weren’t receiving help from the imperial family. Orders were disseminated. And the summary of everything was, the whole land was to enter a stage of war preparation.

...

After the long meeting, when the whole place was rather empty, aside from the five seated at the main table and Baines standing before them, their original expressions burst forth.

The four elders, who seemed to be the anchor of the family, looking with calm faces when the meeting was ongoing, were now looking with deep worry.

The Darkan’s head looked at him. ’Even now, his expression is still calm.’ Thankfully, he hadn’t been rebuked too much for the tournament incident he caused, but that was beside the point. This was about their future.

"Haa... as you can see, we are in a pickle now. So, is it possible to get some of those strange plants and weapons you use?"

The four also looked at Baines with pleading eyes for answers.

As for Baines, the moment he heard of the Vodal Kingdom, he was already determined to do anything to destroy them totally. Not just that, there was also the fact that Darkan had actually helped his brother escape at one point.

So, he figured, why not use them to destroy his enemies after rewarding them for helping his brother? Then he began by asking, "How is it that you are from the lineage of dragons, but you aren’t dragons?"

"Hmm?" Darkan’s head reacted. Even the four showed a slight reaction.

It didn’t feel like the right time to ask, but he asked anyway. "It got diluted along the way," Darkan’s head replied.

"Not possible."

"Huh? What did you say?" He looked up in shock, the four beside him slightly standing to their feet.

’Do they know something?’ Baines thought as he continued, "I am saying it does not make sense that you are not dragons."

The five didn’t know how to feel.

Smalltooth had told him on their way before he fought Wick in the Land of Slaves.

How was it that all the Darkan members had red hair, called themselves dragons, rode dragons, but weren’t? It was simply impossible.

Even if it were, some dragons would have run away by now, but they didn’t.

The situation was as simple as the family being cursed. Maybe the part that shocked him the most was that they were cursed by a past emperor of the Solaris Empire.

In his attempts to control the sole fire dragons in the world, he fought Lady Darka. It was a bloody battle that cost both sides lots of sacrifices, and unfortunately, the emperor lost after sustaining heavy injuries.

In his final days, he used his life, blood, and authority to curse her descendants. Later in the years, when Lady Darka produced her children, they turned out to be humans, and when the remaining dragons also produced, they were no stronger or larger than wyverns. That incident ended up bringing the entire fire dragon clan to their downfall. They submitted to the Solaris Empire in hopes of reversing the situation; however, the emperor who had done the deed was already dead. Eventually, her generation of dragons died, being the last actually dragons.

The story passed on since then was that Lady Darka made preparations for her descendants to control dragons.

Baines didn’t think much of it then, but when he decided to reward them, he had to. Then the thought came to him: where did those curses affect?

It surely wasn’t the physical because it would’ve been visible. No, it was ethereal, and when he tried to peer into it, he realized he was correct.

In the souls of every Darkan member he had seen today, there was a black sort of chain around them.

And as everyone knew, curses could be reversed.

"Child, what are you implying now?" one of the female elders spoke up.

"Isn’t it time the Darkan returned to being the House of Dragons?" Baines spoke confidently.

The five didn’t know how to make sense of what he was telling them.

Almost no one spoke of it or thought of it, but they, as the pillars, did. With the way things continued, in the coming years, they would have stopped calling themselves dragons. Aside from their affinity for fire, which was almost a general thing in the empire, they had nothing special aside from their dragons. It was then left to these five, as the pillars of the family, to have no other choice but to keep that façade, ’Dragons.’

However, were things about to change for them?