Narith sensing a change in the child's mana used his transformation and suggested they move to the banquet hall for discussion.
"Igris, I should look at the child. It appears our land is already effecting him. To think such a youngster could last for almost an hour."
"Let us hurry, we have much to consider after Saphira's words. I expect you can heal the child until he becomes acclimated?"
"Ya just gonna keep calling the sap, child?" Apep said with an amused expression.
Igris looked over sharply, he wanted to name the child but a naming is a very serious decision for the Dragon race. If he doesn't follow traditional laws he risk a bigger uprising than what they deal with on a regular basis with the wild dragons. Apep for his part understood all of this however his personality left much to be desired in adequate.
"Now is not the time." Was all Igris had to say aloud.
Upon entering the tower the building provided some relief to the humans weaker constitution to mana. Narith for his part began healing immediately noting that it would not take much time for the little one to adapt to the environment in controlled exposures. Needless to say all the Elders were more interested in hearing more about what Saphira had seen when using her power. They all took their respective seats around the table while a quick responding servant offered filled glasses of chilled blood. This was like wine to a dragon's pallet with virgin blood being top shelf supply.
Saphira of Time and Space had two main abilities associated with the time aspect of her power. First she could look into the time of an individual or object be it past or future so long as she could lay eyes upon the target. The second aspect of time Saphira could speed up, slow down, or even pause her target for as long as her eyes remained on the target of her power. She had used the first aspect upon the child while the argument on the towers top took place. This was the first time she had felt intimidated by what she saw even though she used the ability on humans quite often for amusement. It should be stated also that Elders powers did not effect each other with the exception of Igris' Order or absolute rule as it's often called.
"As I stated earlier this human has the potential to rival our power. I see a great struggle with a dark force maybe a demon or even one of the fallen."
Of the many peaceful races inhabiting this world demons were not one of them. However demons were not stupid enough to venture out of their domain while the Elders rule stood firm. Long ago they once had a Monarch that challenged the way of things and even was able to wound Apep. This like all other ways though proved fruitless with countless casualties to their race making them abandon their monarch to his fate.
The fallen refers to a specific type of celestial, which are demigods. The celestial who dip their hands into black magic become a corrupted version of their race and are banished from the country in a hasty manor. Typically they are then hunted and killed by the four Heavenly generals, but in some cases the fallen does get away wreaking havoc along their path until they meet their ends by various means. When this happens it's normally due to the fallen having a short time to live once beginning the usage of black magic. In most races the use of black magic means your death counter begins as demons are the only race capable of withstanding the corruption that comes with the magic almost feeding off of it instead.
"So it is unknown what comes for the human but we are here so does it matter?" Astarot posed the question knowing full well most beings wouldn't last five minutes battling an elder.
Saphira shoke her head. "Unfortunately I see only him facing the unknown entity. I cannot see any signs of our presence, and I cannot verify this due to our power restrictions."
"It would be better if we prepare with the assumption that we are not present or could not be present." Igris continued. "As such Saphira, please tell us everything." He then looked to the Elder of time and continued. "We need to know how old the human appears to be, if he can triumph, and what you think we can do to help."
"He appears to be an adult young in years but old enough for hair to start growing upon his face. His struggle does not appear to be victorious, as the last image of him I see is laying on his back, left leg and right arm missing, his left arm stretched to his opponent releasing a devastating blast of mana." Saphira pause although used to battle it appeared the just the sight of the magic released made her tremble slightly. "If indeed we cannot be present he will need comrades of his own able to fight by his side."
At this all parties present fell silent in thought, for a brief moment Astarot and Apep voiced rejection to the idea they would not be able to fight for some reason or another. Narith quickly reprimanded the two commenting, "It's not the time for protestes we need solutions.". After some time had passed Narith again was the first to break the silence to offer said solutions.
"We train the human....."
"He cannot survive in our lands while training." Apep shot back.
"I will keep him alive"
"Saphira said he fought the entity, so what does training him change." Said Astarot not opposed to the idea of a human in their land, but not convinced it would change the outcome.
"Why don't we gather the best of the other races new offspring and train them all then?" Igris asked. After listening to everything that was said he was under the impression the outcome would change with aid from the other races.
"You undoubtedly have gotten senile in your age haven't you?" Apep spat. "When was the last time all races worked together." He paused for a moment to add dramatic effect to his argument. "Oh right, Never ....Never have the races of this world worked towards a unified goal."
Astarot spoke up. "I hate to agree with Apep but the best that's ever happened in the past was one or two races working with us. Even so, they left the majority of the matters to us at those times." Narith cut off Astarot before he could continue. "They would not simply volunteer or allow us to take children either."
Igris was fully aware of all of the formentioned issues as a ruler would be. "Tomorrow I, Igris the Golden Monarch of Order and Chaos shall pen a letter to each of the races kingdoms. In the letter we shall warn them of the coming threat, and make our request. We will reward any who answer our call and allow us to choose a young child from their nation with riches and protection that will be enforced for the next 100 years. We will also grant our blessings upon ten individuals in their kingdom should they allow our full authority in choosing the candidates we train, for ourselves".
This statement from Igris shocked the other four. To grant riches is one thing but to grant protection for a century is another. This was among the highest gifts offered by dragons the highest was a dragon's blessing. With a blessing from a dragon the powers of an individual would grow exponentially often being able to easily crush low ranking dragons like drakes or wyverns, sometimes even rivaling the mid tier wild dragons. This was how important Igris found Saphira's words. His gut was screaming that something truly horrific was coming in the near future. With that no one dared say anything else on the matterband the meeting quickly came to an end.
After the meeting Astarot and Apep left to hunt and deal with any wild dragons raising a fuss in their lands. Saphira sat on the balcony lost in thought and enjoying some tea although not a delicious as blood it was calming and she felt that was what she really needed. Igris was sitting in the throne room with the kid on his lap thinking about the letter he would pen, and Narith was with them tending to the child as was his job until it was decided otherwise.
With everyone having heavy minds it made quite an earlier night than normal with the four still present at Igris' tower he arranged rooms for the two elders. The next morning Igris awoke to Narith yelling. He quickly made his way to the top of the tower, however on his way up he peered out a window while he passed. His jaw hit the floor. The human child had walked off the edge of the tower and while giggling was falling head first towards the ground far below with Narith following behind trying to catch him.
Igris destroyed the tower wall and transformed pushing himself to his limits he passed Narith and caught the young lad with inches to spare by the back of his clothing. After checking to make sure he wasn't injured Igris turned to Narith, a scowl clearly painted on his face. Narith looked away stating he had only let the child out of his sight for a mere moment.
"Why was he on the roof to begin with?"
"We followed to see Saphira off, she took quite a liking to the human this morning."
"Did she say where she was headed?"
"Only that she had a few things to attend to but would return this evening to await your decision on what we will do."
"First I need breakfast and a pipe to calm my nerves. Afterwards I shall pen a letter for you to read. When Saphira returns we will have her use her powers of space to deliver them across the land."
"What shall I do with this menace while you're busy?"
"Keep him on solid ground for starters. How is his condition?"
"Surprisingly he shows struggle only every few hours, the average human would last maybe a third of that time."
"Keep me updated if anything changes."
With that they finished making their way back up the tower and parted ways. Narith took the human into the banquet hall while Igris headed to his study. Later that day Igris emerged with multiple people carrying hundreds of letters. Each were written by either Igris himself or one of the many servants accompanying him. Saphira, Narith, and Igris now sat at the table while the Elder of space sent the letters through miniature portals throughout the world to each and every ruler.
"We must make preparations, summon the Earth dragons have them build a structure that can shelter those who answer our call. It must reduce our mana environment effects we do not want to spend all our time healing the afflicted. Also Narith, if you can please find the old relics we used when the elves used to visit. I believe we will need the complete negation of our environment for a few as I offered the other races to send some adults and servants along with the selected candidates."
As Igris was wrapping up his discussion with the two other elders Apep returned. After catching up and voicing a slight reluctantly to have so many of the other races close to their king in the center of their lands Apep asked about transport. Fearing Igris would have them become mounts he wanted to know if he should disappear for awhile. However, Igris quickly let them know he would not allow such to take place. He added that he hasn't figured out the details yet but it could be either teleportation stones or lesser dragons like drakes being used to bring all the races to their land.
A voice spoke from the doorway. "Might you tell us what it is you wrote." Astarot questioned.
"Ah you have returned as well, and yes though the message varies for each race I shall give you a brief summary."
Igris grabbed his notes and began reading.
IGRIS RULER OF ORDER AND CHAOS, KING OF THE LAND OF DRAGONS DECLARES CALAMITY CONCORD IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE ANCIENT TREATIES SIGNED BY YOUR FOREFATHERS.
Greetings to you fair rulers. I Igris, king of dragons, am writing this missive to inform you that we have recently discovered a grave threat to our world. Myself and the other Elder Dragons cannot stand against this treat alone. We have used the power of time possessed by one Elder to confirm for some reason we will not be present in this upcoming battle to our great dismay. I bid every race, every kingdom, join us in this fight. We ask permission for courtesy alone to show our respect but not matter the answer we will do what's necessary to protect our world and all races. We will pay visit to each land scouting the best young talent to train within our lands which are rich and abundant in mana. We ask if any volunteers are willing to come aid the chosen candidates and provide instruction about their own race. If you decide to answer our call the kingdom will receive Ten dragons blessings, and numerous riches. Once the training is completed all will be returned to their respective countries if they so choose the rest will join the fight against this unknown enemy. Be warned should you hinder our efforts your kingdom will meet ruin rather than prosperity. I hope you will consider my words before replying, in two months we shall send envoys to each continent at these gathering points.
Land of humans - Royal capital Mercia
Land of darves - Mount Hyd - Kli's pass
Land of elves - Holy Tree Alvertice
Land of celestial - Holy Temple of Vireo
Land of Fae - Spirit Lake of Aquari
I hope to see many people answer our call to arms. We will scout the candidates, select from amongst the volunteers, and establish a training grounds between now and one month after gathering.
Sincerely,
King Igris Fania Dragel
"We shall see who answers our call. When it is time I will go to the humans myself, Narith to the Elves, Apep to the Darven lands, Saphira the celestials, and Astarot please handle the Fae. Any issues with anything or are we all in agreement?"
One by one each of the Elders gave an affirmation of approval they all recognized that this is bigger than any one of them. Astarot had his doubts wether or not the other races would cooperate with the Dragons, however he would support Igris to the full extent of his ability.
Meanwhile in the demon continent the Demon Lords gathered in a ruined temple.
"The time approaches."
"Kaa ha old people sure sleep long."
"Careful what you say, They can still hear you."
"Wh-wh- rea- reallyyyy?"
"Bwahahahaha"
"Shut up"
"You scared"
"NO!"
"Don't lie"
"ENOUGH!"
"We did not come here to give them a comedy show. Begin."
They started chanting pouring their malace into a magic circle in the center of the temple. It slowly began to glow a purple color with red lightning emitting from the center. As they finished they turned to a woman leaning in the crumbled doorway. The woman walked over.
"Let's get it over with I already cast the spell, when they arise I shall be born again."
She stepped into the center of the circle. The eight lords drew their weapon and pierced her from all sides. As the blood flowed down to the circle it slowly traced the lines of the magic circle until it covered every part of the glowing ink. Just as it completed a jet black pillar of fire erupted high into the sky. As it faded a man with horn on the side of his head, wings like a bat, and legs similar to that of a goat stood holding a beautiful pregnant woman in a red dress she had smaller horn and wings but otherwise looked like a human other than her skin tone.
"Kneel"