A few weeks later after we had more time to train and rest from our previous encounter the sister and I were following uncle to meet with the beast men's king.
Shortly after I had started to tap into my power of domination we figured out that it was indeed the case that I could only command living things that had less mana capacity than me.
but this begged the question, if I could only command sentient things then why was I able to do so with the environments mana. My only conclusion was that the mana all around us was alive in a sense, otherwise why would it heed my commands.
Another thing that I discovered was that it was much easier to issue a command to an element that I already held sway over. Meaning it was much easier for me to command fire now than it was earth.
I still have not been able to command the pillars at all, the reason for this I did not know just yet but I assume it was because I still did not have a full grasp as to what it was I was trying to issue a command to.
While the base elements were easy enough to understand it was much more complicated to issue a command to something as abstract as destruction even though I had quite a high affinity with it.
I had yet to try this power on any of the mortal races so I don't know how they will react to it, I could only guess that since it seemed that they did as they pleased, including slaughtering us. That they were in some way or another immune to its power.
But I digress, as we flew Delmar ensured that we stayed unseen as much as possible by taking a longer route to our destination.
We had already left the mountains that he had taken us to and were now over a forest, whether this was the same one with his tree I didn't know but it seemed different somehow. The natural mana was significantly less dense that before and instead of the massive trees that occupied his forest these seemed like more of an average height.
As I was lost in thought trying to discern where we were Corentine banked left to come closer to me. Noticing her presence I turned my head to acknowledge her, and once she saw that she had my attention she asked me a question.
"Brother, when do you think that we will be ready?"
Her question though short was actually full of meaning, in my mind what she was really asking was when will Uncle deem us strong enough to fight, but also wanting to know how long it would be until we would go after our sister.
"If only I knew sister. But we should endeavor to be ready as quickly as we are able."
I turned my head to look at her, and saw that a sad expression had come over her face. Clearly there was more on her mind, but if she did no feel like talking to me about it, who was I to pry it open right now. If she needed me I knew that she would ask.
After flying for a few more hours the edge of the forest came into sight. Where the forest ended I saw a massive white marble platform with a blue dragon that looked similar to Uncle painted on its surface.
As I suspected Uncle began to descend to land on the platform so naturally we followed. Past the platform and the forest was a landscape of grassy hills as far as the eye could see.
As soon as we landed Uncle walked over to the middle of the structure and started to imbue mana into a hidden spell circuit with in it. The middle of the platform immediately started to glow before slowly fading away.
Uncle then laid down in a way so that he was facing the open terrain, then said to us "Rest all we must do is wait for a while and they will come."
Not knowing exactly what he meant by this I decided to just do as he said since I needed to rest my wings for a while anyway.
Corentine and I laid next to each other on the side of the platform closest to the forest, so that Delmar was in between us and the hills. I could hear the faint sounds of monster cries from the forest behind us but I could sense that they were not nearly as powerful as the ones near Uncles tree, so I paid them no mind.
The only thing that these sounds did was make me realize that I was getting rather hungry, but I knew that Uncle would not allow us to just wonder off in search of food.
We waited there for about a week, with us just resting while I would try to see if I could call on any destruction mana outside my body sometimes, mostly I just slept.
At the end of the sixth day while I stared over the horizon I caught sight of a few flags starting to peak above the distant hills. Just as I saw this Uncle said "They are here."
It took a couple more hours for them to reach us, when they finally stopped about 50 yards from the steps that lead up to the top of the platform I saw that our guests numbered at about a hundred.
The flags that I had seen earlier bore a golden lion on a black background, each and everyone of the knights present wore solid black armor with golden trim on the edges.
As it was the first time seeing what I could only assume to be the natives of this continent, the beast men. I was quite curious about their appearance, they seemed to be many different kinds, some looked like lions that stood on two legs while others looked like foxes, and many other animals, the only similarity between all of them was the fact that they looked like animals who had evolved to stand up on two legs.
All of the knights present proceeded to dismount of their rather large horses and stood in columns three wide in front of the door to the only carriage present in the convoy.
As soon as they had arranged themselves one knight opened the carriage door and a beast man looking similar to a lion stepped out of the doorway.
Without waiting he began to walk towards the steps with none of the knights moving and inch. In fact they were all so still that they could be mistaken for statues.
When the beast man came to the bottom of the stairs he dropped to one knee and immediately all of the knights followed suit. Then he said in a well projected voice "We greet the guardian of the great tree and have come to his call!"
Knowing what I did about how these people had once hunted my kin made this display leave a slightly bad taste in my mouth. To me it seemed like they were groveling for us to forgive all of their past transgressions.
But I stayed silent and let Delmar handle them as it seemed that this was something he had done before.
"Greeting King of beasts, I am grateful for your quick response to my summons."
As Uncle spoke I could see that all the mortals present except for the supposed beast king was ever so slightly shaking.
"Once summoned it is my duty to answer your call with all due haste guardian." The beast king responded.
Hearing this response Delmar silently nodded then said "I have need of your aid, if you are willing."
"Of course guardian, all that is under my command is at your disposal. What do you need of us?"
"What I require is simple. All materials that your nation holds that was once taken must be returned. You understand what I mean yes?"
"Lord guardian this task will not be as simple as you say, many of these items will take much time to gather. And others have been lost to time."
My uncle narrowed his eyes at this response before continuing "You have one year to collect all that was taken or you will bring my wrath."
The king shuttered under my uncles sharp gaze before bowing deeper than before and saying "I will do all in my power to bring to you what we are able to collect, but you must surely understand that over the last few hundred years some of these items have been taken as trophies of war by the humans."
"As long as every item I seek that is still within your grasp is returned then I will ensure that our agreement is upheld, my continued protection is what you still desire is it not?"
"Indeed, I would wish for nothing more than that as per the agreement my forefathers made."
"Then we have an understanding, all of the items will be brought here when found posthaste. Remember you have exactly one year, and if you try and hide any of them I will know. That is all I need of you, you may leave."
The beast king slowly stood before bowing once more and walking back to his carriage. Before long the convoy rode off into the distance.
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Hello readers I have decided that when we reach 100 collections I will do a whole week where I publish a chapter every day!
I would really appreciate it if you all would leave a comment or review for some feedback!
Also this is the end of volume 1 the introduction arc the next chapter starts volume 2 called "Wrong side of Heaven"