[Ouroboros' End]
Darganth let his gaze drift from side to side as he walked through the dark corridors that stretched throughout the inside of the wall. Along the walls, half-circles of metal prongs that curved upward protruded from the otherwise uniform stone in regular intervals, their surfaces covered in the soft, barely noticeable glow of spell symbols. However, in each set, one prong was bent or broken, causing this prong to lack even the faintest traces of this glow. Consequently, the light or small flame that should've floated at the center of the prongs was missing in all of them, casting the corridor in total darkness.
In all likelihood, the retreating smugglers had done this under the assumption that they were facing a conventional army. Then, the lack of light would've at least marginally slowed their soldiers down while also allowing some of the smugglers to hide in the dark corners and ambush them from behind.
However, just like the undead in the levels above and below him, Darganth didn't need light to see. Thus, as he leisurely made his way through this section of the wall that they had newly liberated, he rarely ever slowed down. Only occasionally stepping into one of the firing positions that he passed from time to time, he made sure no stragglers remained in these small rooms that dotted the length of the wall before continuing along the main corridor.
When he reached the next stairway that connected the different levels with one another after over a kilometer of this, he paused as he felt Allaire's presence descending from above. Soon, the light she had conjured appeared on the walls of the stairway, shortly followed by her stepping into the corridor and joining Darganth at his side.
"And?" She asked.
"Nothing on that stretch." Darganth said.
Seemingly, the boredom he felt from that fact had still crept into his tone ever so slightly as Allaire responded with a slight frown.
"One of us can take over for you if you want. Well, maybe not Yldra or Jennia, but Venrie, Serania, and I all have less of a problem with these monotone tasks than you three have." Allaire offered.
Smiling warmly, Darganth nonetheless shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, but no. One of us needs to be here, ready to intervene, and we agreed to take turns with that. I'm not going to ask any one of you to take over my work just because I dislike it."
Hearing his words, Allaire nodded. After a brief pause, she then pursed her lips in thought before her expression turned critical.
"We should've had Vagha's group accompany us. Not that I'd want to exploit their help any more than that of any one of us, but they'd probably gladly take over any work you don't want to do.
This made a small smile flash across Darganth's lips. "That they would. However, having them join us would be overkill, so their strength is better used where they are now."
Allaire didn't argue with that. They had already discussed both the possibility of staying together and splitting their group into two with the others back when they had set out, so even though she had been in favor of the former, she didn't dwell on the matter any further.
With that, the topic of their conversation shifted.
"By the way, why did you come down here in the first place. There isn't a problem on the battlements, is there?" Darganth asked.
"I would've led with that. Though ot be precise, there isn't one unless you count the tense silence that still occasionally occurs between Jennia and Cehlya whenever the two are in the same conversation."
Hearing this, Darganth let out a sigh.
"Still that bad when I'm not there?" He asked.
"At times." Allaire said, pausing briefly before adding, "Before you worry, it didn't get worse, they're still only trying to avoid one another. And that also isn't why I'm here."
Seeing Darganth briefly tense up at the first sentence, Allaire gave him an apologetic smile for the misunderstanding. Quickly changing the topic, she then continued with her original reason for joining Darganth on his patrol.
"Alicia and Scalladras spotted the first smuggler camp on the protected side of the wall when they scouted ahead earlier. It was still abandoned, but only recently, so it seems like we are closing in on the front line where the town's guard has managed to stop the smugglers' advance."
This news brought a smile to Darganth's lips. A moment later, he nonetheless paused abruptly, halting mid-step and turning to Allaire with a raised eyebrow.
"Wait, my sister and Scalladras discovered it?" He asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Just confirmed a suspicion of mine." Darganth hummed with an amused grin.
Furrowing her brows, Allaire took a moment until she started to understand what he meant. Once she did, her eyes shot open in surprise and she abruptly spun around toward Darganth.
"Are you sure?"
"That at least Scalladras is interested in her, yes. Whether Alicia is too, no idea." Darganth said.
"And?" Allaire asked.
This was met with a puzzled look from Darganth. Raising an eyebrow questioningly, he prompted Allaire to elaborate.
"Are you going to do anything with that information? Telling Alicia, for example." She said.
"Why? The only purpose I can see for that is either helping Scalladras' chances or hurting them, neither of which I'm interested in doing. If they get together, good for them. But if not, it's also fine by me. Though if I see that the first scenario becomes likely, I'll have to have a friendly talk with him about remembering that Alicia lived the majority of her life till now in a world with significant cultural differences." Darganth said.
Allaire stared at him for a moment longer than necessary, her surprise plainly written across her face.
"Honestly, I thought you'd have more against that." She said.
"Why would I?" Darganth asked. When this was met with a puzzled look from Allaire, he asked, "I would consider myself both a mentor and a friend to Irsyr, yet I sleep with Yldra. If I had anything against being in the same position, it would be rather hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?"
Thinking about it for a moment, Allaire had to agree.
"Never saw it from that angle." She murmured. "Still, isn't it weird? And what if they have a falling out?"
"I wouldn't say so, no. As for if they have a falling out, what does that affect me? While it's a general cultural thing for long-lived races, in a century or two, you'll also learn that only the most extreme cases warrant staying angry at someone forever. So even if something happens between them that affects me too, which I already doubt, it's unlikely to last long compared to how long we'll live."
"Somehow that feels both sensible and unbelievable to me. Though it is certainly a relief to know." Allaire said.
Nodding along with a slight smile, Darganth was just about to respond when a massive mana emission atop the battlements lit up on his mana sense. Briefly glancing up with a hopeful look, he quickly deflated again as he saw what was happening on the top floor of the wall.
There, a bit over a kilometer ahead of Darganth and Allaire, a small group of smugglers was caught in a battle with over a dozen skeletons. Likely having hidden in one of the lower floors and noticed the skeletons patrolling that level, they had rushed up the stairways to escape. Whether or not doing so while still in the area of the wall held by Melidra's troops was on purpose, Darganth couldn't definitely tell. But considering that the three men and two women were almost immediately overwhelmed by the undead the moment they emerged, he leaned toward thinking that it wasn't.
Seeing him sigh when he realized that the situation wasn't one that warranted his intervention, Allaire turned to him with a compassionate smile.
"Still annoyed by the ease of our progress?" She asked.
"Yeah." Darganth said with a frown, "Fighting the aura user had been exciting, but the past few days really dragged on. Frustratingly, most of the smugglers don't even run. A part of me finds it insulting how little fear they have of me."
Nodding, Allaire agreed with this sentiment. Or at least with the portion about it being frustrating that almost all of their foes seem to be intent on making a last stand when caught. While Darganth found it frustrating that he had to spend his time punching down against foes far weaker than him, something he found no enjoyment in, Allaire was frustrated that these common soldiers threw their lives away even when she offered them the chance to surrender.
While these thoughts went through her head, the conversation between Darganth and Allaire fell silent as he also let his thoughts wander. Noticing this, Allaire left him to his pondering and continued to walk at his side silently, simply enjoying the moment between just the two of them.
Over a minute had passed in silence like this when Darganth suddenly looked up ever so slightly. Focusing for a moment, he then warned Allaire, "One of the group ran back down the stairwell, watch out for that."
"Got it." Allaire confirmed, though neither of them made any outward movements to get ready. Instead, she let her mana sense expand outward and joined Darganth in tracking the mage's movements, knowing full well that knowing where he was was everything either of them needed to deal with the smuggler the moments they deemed it necessary.
With that, Allaire steered the conversation toward what was on her mind, "I didn't want to interrupt you, but care to share what made you zone out just now?"
"Was I that deep in thought?" Darganth said, more voicing his surprise than actually asking her, "Well, I was again thinking about the timeline of our plans. I'm still not sure if the resources of the wilderness will be entirely enough, so I'm going through a few alternatives."
Allaire nodded in understanding to this. The fact that Darganth had stopped growing faster than would be normal for dragons had caused some problems for their plans. It meant that he'd be hard-pressed to reach the level of power he had estimated for himself at various critical points where they were expecting fights.
Though there was some good news in this. When he had Cehlya look at his soul to confirm that his aging had truly slowed to the usual rate, she had discovered that deep within its core, it still contained his power from before his death. Slowly but surely, this power was flowing back into his soul and body. And while it was slow, this process wasn't affected by the limits of draconic aging and growth despite also growing his body in the same way. Or rather, returning the growth he had experienced in his first life.
But in either way, knowing that this was happening made Darganth think about whether there were ways he could aid the process to increase its effect. And with it not being bound to the time-stream of universes, or multiverses for ascendants, like draconic aging was, there were quite a few ideas he had that might work. However, most required extremely powerful time magic. So powerful in fact, that even Neandra couldn't help with it, at least not for an element she is rather unskilled with. As such, Darganth was already considering changing the priorities in their plans for a few days, with his mind wandering toward the idea repeatedly over the past few days. Though, at least for now, he hadn't yet come to a decision.
While he was thinking about this, Darganth soon sensed the lone smuggler reach the floor he and Allaire were on. With their mana signature kept to a minimum, the mage then promptly chose to step into the corridor ahead of them, believing it to be empty and thus his best chance at escaping.
Mobilizing his mana, he simultaneously let out a sigh due to having to deal with yet another low-ranking foe. "Let's hope this one sees reason."
With that, Darganth clenched his fist and let his spatial magic close around the smuggler with a telekinetic grip. Immediately, his target stiffened as the movement of his limbs was stopped, shortly followed by him being lifted a few centimeters off the ground and dragged toward Darganth.
"Should I try, then you can finish your patrol before anything more happens." Allaire offered.
"That would be great." Agreeing with her idea, Darganth dispelled his spell just before the smuggler mage reached them, sending the man tumbling to the ground as his lift suddenly disappeared. Stepping past his prone form, Darganth continued to move through the corridor as Allaire stopped, looming over the mage with a dagger in one hand and the list of everything they already learned over their opponents' operation in the other.
"It's your lucky day because I got the best deal you're gonna get in such a situation for you." She said, with her authoritarian tone causing Darganth's lips to curl up fondly as he walked away.