Chapter 1092 — From Tarronde

There had once been a dragon kingdom mightier than all the nations of Loren combined, a Tarronde safer than all of Loren. It had stood for one million eight hundred seventy thousand years, its history far exceeding all the ages known to mortals—and then it was gone.

Gone within a single day.

In the indescribable silence, some among the delegates gradually roused themselves from their astonishment. Their reactions quickened, their thoughts stirred, and many soon connected it to the war between Typhon and Cecil—in certain internal reference documents, the inside story of that war had been partly disclosed. They thought of the passages describing the God of War's loss of control, of the appalling truths they had gathered through their own intelligence channels, truths that had once seemed dubious, even repellent. Yet now, at this very moment, the news from Tarronde lent powerful support to those terrifying reports.

Many minds ranged further. They looked back now and thought of the images shown on the holograms around the Oathstone Ring, and a dread like the chill of belated realization seized their hearts. Some national delegates grew grave and sank into thought—but others darkened, and it seemed not merely with worry and reflection.

Gao Yang took in every shift of expression on every face, and he noted those delegates whose looks were especially complicated. The relevant files surfaced swiftly in his mind, and he realized that most of those delegates came from kingdoms where the Church's influence ran strong, where the gods' hold had sunk into every corner of society—so their reactions were only to be expected.

But to the very end, not a single delegate stormed out in anger or rose at once to object, which matched Gao Yang's earlier judgment:

Even in the nations where the Church held the greatest sway, those sent to this conference were mostly secular leaders—and the empress of the world's greatest theocratic empire, the Silver Empire, had long since stood on Cecil's side.

"We thank the ambassador of Tarronde for her words."

Gao Yang's voice broke the silence of the hall. Only then did everyone seem to come back to themselves, and applause rose here, there, and everywhere, growing from few to many. Metzen Pernia returned a brief salute and went back to her seat. The applause gradually died away; Gao Yang rose and swept his gaze around the hall, and only then continued.

"This is Tarronde as it stands today. It must have surprised many of you, but there is one thing I must still make clear—though Tarronde's civilization did indeed suffer the same catastrophe as the Gondor Empire seven hundred years ago, just as with humanity in those days, no small number of dragons survived this genocide. The surviving dragons have now formed a provisional government, and Miss Metzen Pernia comes to us on behalf of the present Dragon Council.

"As things stand, the dragons have won their freedom. As a whole they are willing to live in peace with the other mortal nations of the world, and even to become a member of our future alliance—but they need help first, help such as the remnants of Gondor needed seven hundred years ago. On the other hand, not all dragons have kept order since the war. Communications across the Tarronde wasteland are cut off, and an unknown number of dragons remain isolated from civilized order. Miss Metzen and her people are doing everything they can to bring these compatriots of uncertain condition back into civilized society... but their strength is still limited.

"Those dragons are beyond the control of the provisional government, bound by no order, and may already have turned to violence. And one day in the future, they may come to our continent."

Gao Yang's voice fell, and he left the delegates ample time to think and react. Soon someone came to his senses; a delegate from the Northern City-State League could not help but rise, eyes wide. "You mean the dragons might attack the human world?!"

"Not only the human world," Gao Yang said calmly. "It includes the lands of the grey elves, the dwarves, the fey, the spirit folk—every mortal land. No one can remain untouched."

"Tarronde deeply regrets this. We bear some responsibility in the matter, but our strength is limited now," Metzen said with a sigh, her expression one of genuine apology. "We can only guarantee that the compatriots under the Council's control will keep the order. But those dragons cut off by the wasteland... our social administration is already overwhelmed."

A murmur of discussion rose at once in the hall.

The disasters previously shown through the holographic projections had been terrifying, yes, but they still felt somewhat distant from everyone—the visceral impact had not been that intense. But the crisis suddenly exposed at this very moment was one truly looming over all their heads: who knew how many ravenous, reason-stripped dragons were prowling in the darkness, how many city-state-destroying dragons were already on their way to plunder the human world... This was a sword hanging overhead, and its blade was gleaming bright!!

The representatives of some small kingdoms in the north of the Loren Continent were the first to feel the crisis. Anger naturally surged in their hearts—yet they soon discovered there was simply no outlet for that anger.

They looked toward the dragon ambassador seated beneath the red banner with gold patterns, only to find they did not even have the courage to glare at her...

The image of the dragon flock descending from the sky was still deeply seared into everyone's mind. Anyone with a shred of sanity had by now realized the reality: Thalund's glorious civilization might be gone, but the dragons remained—and these innately powerful beings... so long as they lived, they were far stronger than many an isolated small kingdom.

The dragon ambassador had not come here to plead for sympathy... In fact, her coming here to warn the nations of the continent at all was already a considerable show of responsibility.

"Then how should we respond?" Finally another representative rose to his feet, his tone thick with worry.

"The dragon race has never shirked responsibility. If any of our kind have committed wrongful acts... they too should bear the responsibility they deserve," Metzen said heavily. "The Thalund Council has already reached a decision: any dragon who disobeys the Council's authority, launches unprovoked attacks on the nations of the Loren Continent, or violates the Community Alliance Accord shall be stripped of dragon status. All other member nations of the Alliance, as well as Thalund itself, shall have both the right and the obligation to shoot them down after three warnings."

Silence fell within the Oathstone Ring. From the dragon ambassador's grave words, the representatives sensed a certain iron-like will. They were moved by the spirit that will embodied—but soon, many of them realized another fact, one that stirred them even more deeply:

Shoot down a dragon... my ass!

Those were dragons! When they descended from the sky just now, everyone had seen it clearly with their own eyes—they could sweep across an entire stretch of city wall just by spreading their wings, and the magical fluctuations radiating from their bodies seemed capable of setting the very sky ablaze!

For great empires like Cecil and Typhon, possessed of powerful aerial forces, it was all well and good—but what of weak, impoverished border kingdoms? With what were they supposed to bring down such creatures? Gather a bunch of battle mages and lob great fireballs into the sky? Or launch the king up there to move the dragons with moral persuasion?