The unfairness of childbirth

While Arkan was learning more than he thought that he would at the age he was which was only 2 months old at the time and because Draka was now always talking to him like his teacher when drank but understanding that he was a child and so kept his rumblings at least about the simple things about Eldier, he was getting closer and closer to the answer that kept escaping him.

He was sure that there was something that he could do to make himself stronger even though all that he could do was to cry and poop, no, not cry but cream which was how he cried.

In the capital, the queen came back out of the blue as the golem she had made fell from the sky above the capital and landed outside the First Section walls.

It shaded the layer of trees and soil that it had absorbed when it first came to be and as it did so only the houses and humans that were still inside them could be seen as it got smaller. It jumped and landed on the section where there were no longer houses because of it and then fused with the ground like it was melting and some form of buildings were left as it disappeared.

The buildings were almost the way that they were before they metalized but with all of them misshaped and lined in every direction except up. The Section Lord would be responsible for returning them to their original position.

Returning them to almost the way that they were was the least she could do for the people she now ruled. Though she was ruthless, she was still a queen, and more than any other woman in the kingdom she felt like she was like a mother to them to some extent.

Some thought it was because she was an elf. If she was Dragerein they knew that she would be as ruthless and uncaring as the past queens.

She appeared in the throne room and like she knew that she would find the king there, she bowed and then went and grabbed his indifferent face that could not be boarded by her and lifted it up, looked at him in his eyes, and then give him a passionate kiss.

Even for the ruthless king that he was, he could not resist such a fearsome opponent's love tactics. It was a war that he seemed to be losing as the years passed while married to her.

She then let him go and set on the other only sit that was in the hall, the queen's throne.

"I see that you are back to your old self."

He said and then drank from the skull that was always in his hand when sited there.

"I just took a stroll, that's all."

She said with a smirk and then looked straight at the entrance of the throne room but that looked to the capital. It was like she was looking at the people in the capital.

"They all seem stronger. Looks like the beast tides helped."

She said with a smile.

"So as you. I can feel that you are stronger than before."

The king said as he turned around and looked at her.

"I gained nothing from my stroll this time around. This is just the result of giving birth."

The king's eyebrow went up a little after hearing her words, but then he sneered in contempt.

"The unfairness of childbirth. So it is true."

The queen smiled a little and looked at him.

"Are you jealous?"

She asked teasingly.

"First, you females mature faster than us males which allows you to cultivate at an earlier age than most males, and now just giving birth strengthens your cores? It is as if the gods hate us males."

He said in an angry tone.

"Well, I am not complaining."

She said with a slight smile. She knew that he hated when she got closer to his current power level even though the two of them were vastly different.

"Maybe I should find a way to give birth too."

He said in a serious tone that made the queen burst out laughing as he had not given a thought to what he was saying. He would just do anything to get stronger.

Realizing the craziness in his words, the king quickly asked something so to shift the conversation and hopefully make her forget about this moment. He still did not know how he could not get angry at this woman as if any other person had just laughed at him like that, they would be dead in the blink of an eye.

After composing herself and planting this moment in the back of her mind and making sure that she would remind him about it every time he got grumpy, she answered him.

"It was the same as last time with some other surprising findings."

She said as she looked at the exit door again. The king took a drink out of his favorite skull again. He thought that he had gotten away from his blinder a second ago.

"One of the big dark organizations had targeted a village lord. I seemed to have come at the wrong time as the challenge would have made her stronger but something surprising happened."

She said still not being able to describe the feeling she had after that fight.

"First, they had a Teleportation circle ready, like they were waiting to see if I would find them. This allowed one of them to escape."

The king smirked for the first time, mocking her.

"Do not give me that. It was Acid Rain and it is harder to capture a Primal alive than just killing them, especially when they are sitting in the center of a Teleportation circle that might teleport you into their base if you step in it."

She said but the king was still smirking. She sighed and then continued.

"Anyways, after I captured one of them, they managed to kill themselves by managing to activate a soul sacrifice."

The king became even more bored.

"I know that anyone can learn a soul sacrifice when they reach the third circle of power, but it usually doesn't work and that is why many never try, together with the fact that you are sacrificing your own soul and it can only work if your two souls share a Soul Signature, but this was different."

She said like she was reliving the moment again.

"This felt different, my soul could feel the other person that got away soul getting stronger, almost like we also shared the Soul Signature."

The queen could still not believe her own words.

"It is simple. You must have imagined it. Anger can make you feel things that you have never felt before. Maybe your sensory ability had reached another level. The only pity is that you could not locate where he teleported to if you could sense his soul from that far."

The king said like it was just nothing. She knew that he was like this and wondered why she even told him this. She continued to other matters.

"If you say so, My king."

She said mockingly. The king turned around and just wished he could have the ability to kill this woman and her evil charms that make him to not lay a hand on her. He was beginning to think that she was a witch.

The queen continued.

"The Scriptures seem to be up to something again. Or though they don't get along to the point that if an opposing member of the Scriptures sees another, they fight to the death, four of the five were all here."

She said as she pursed for a bit.

"The Black Scripture is always up to something as they worship the Ancient Beings and want them to rule again and this time around they had even made a base in the Fourth section. Many were in other towns. I did not take them all out. Our subjects need the challenge of course."

She said as she turned and looked at the king with a slight smile while he had taken his indifferent face again.

"The Grey Scripture, Red Scripture, and Blue Scripture were also making moves, but it was more so for recruitment than anything, trying to take the strong cultivators away from us with the Blue Scripture being the more aggressive. They seem more emboldened for some reason but I could not get why. I was able to get most of the bases though but not their main base in the kingdom. The White Scripture was nowhere to be found, which is concerning, to say the least as them and the Black Scripture are the most powerful out of the five of them."

She said.

"The guilds will take care of it. So long as they stay divided, they are not a threat to even the weakest kingdom or organization."

The king said with no concern whatsoever.

"There were other organizations too, but they just were doing what organizations do, collecting valuable materials. I let them be."

She added.

"Anything about the other big organization except Acid Rain?"

He asked.

The was nothing. They were quiet, even the other kingdom's spies. It was just the usual gathering of information.

The queen said.

"Anything about Snake Eyes?"

As soon as the king asked, the queen took a large gulp of saliva.

"Only lady Boa in her store. Either than the fact that their Main base is in our kingdom with many transportation circles leading to the other kingdoms and forests around the continent which we already know, there is nothing of note."

She said. Even she called her 'lady Boa'. Arkan would learn later why everyone respected this woman even if she was in Sneak Eyes, well, except Draka who did not even know her.

The king nodded without looking at her and then talked.

"Dontas."

The King said.

"Yes, my Lord."

Dontas appeared in front of the two and kneeled. It was like he was always in the hall.

"Is there anything that happened at the Snake Eyes store recently?"

The king asked.

"Lady Boa only came out of her store for the first time in a long time to see the queen when she first went out then she went back. The only people that she talked to were Drahha and Dzagori. When asked what they were talking about they said that she had invited them to her shop, something that seems they would never consider after looking at their faces after recalling the event."

Dontas said and making the queen feel sorry for the two for the first time even though she did not know them. She would not step into that shop even if the king dragged her to.

"Before that, there was another. A man went into her store and came out after 15 minutes. The Section lord could not read his Defensive Field, meaning that he had disabled it so others could not tell how strong she was, but even so, the Section Lord could not read any mana signature and with the old seer dead, we could not do anything. The scouts that followed him lost him in the Thornswamp forest, the part that is just before the Fortress Mountains that loom over the Cursed Land."

Dontas said and both the king and queen were intrigued by this Information. After taking his time to think things through the king spoke.

"He might be a member of Sneak Eyes too. If he is a core member, by provoking him, we might be provoking Sneak Eyes too. They might be as strong as a powerful Kingdom or even us. Fighting a war with them would definitely weaken us, even though it would be a proper challenge. We have already made our intention to launch a campaign clear to everyone, even giving them time to prepare while our spies gather information and fighting an organization as strong as them would delay us indefinably and make our enemies bolder. He must have left a name at the gate, what was it?"

The king asked.

"Draka."

Dontas answered.

The name made the king lift his head and the boredom disappeared from his eyes.

He set up.

"That name was the name of the brother of Draga and was one of the weakest dragons to exist as even when he was thousands of years old, he was as weak as a dragon that was only 500 years old, only surviving because of the fear the other dragons had for his brother."

The king said.

The queen was surprised, she had not taken the time to familiarize herself with her new kingdom's history. Dontas already knew this and most of the old families, but they never named their sons by that name. It represented 'weakness'.

"Take one of the less valuable artefact in the vault and give it to Miss Boa in exchange for any information that she could give us about that person. If that fails, when he comes back, tell the First Section Lord to invite him to his tower. Tell him to be friendly but try to find out anything he can about him. I am sure a friendly dinner would not rise any alarms but if it does then let it be, I'll personally get involved if Sneak Eyes takes it as a provocation. It will be my challenge. I do need a proper challenge to stimulate my growth after all."

The king said with the boredom still not returning to his face. The queen did not know what had got him this excited all of a sudden as a name was just a name but Dontas knew why. He was sure that the person who left this name must have been close to the royalty of this kingdom and maybe he was testing the waters to see how the king would react.

'Does Sneak Eyes want a war just as we are about to start a campaign? If so, these times are surely great.'

Dontas thought with an eager smile as he nodded and then disappeared.

Remembering the name again, the king also remembered the most important thing that the queen must have been searching for.

"Did you find any new curse techniques or spells they are using these days?"

He asked.

The queen's mood darkened.

"No, there were none. I could not even find out which kingdom or organization had done this to us. The person who was able to do such must be a powerful curse user and uses Life Energy, not mana or they could not pull this off."

She said with anger in her voice.

"Those, symbols. I have never seen them before. They must be ancient."

She added.

The king was again intrigued.

"So you are saying it might have been the work of an Ancient Being?"

The king asked.

"No, they are all at a higher Circle of Power with many of them being Primordials. It might be one of their Disciples or worshipers."

She said with hate in her voice.

"The only known worshipers of Ancient Beings are the Black Scriptures and they had even made it to the Forth Section."

The king said with a smile. It was something that had not happened in a long time. It was surely going to rain that day. The Queen already knew what he was going to say.

Her only regret was the fact that she could not find any proof that it was them and destroying them without any evidence would let the real culprit get away. That was why she did not go after all the bases that they had in the kingdom.

She still had her doubts and her instincts that had never failed her were telling her that it was not them. These were the very same instincts that had told her that Arkan was dangerous when she saw the symbols all around his body and that she could feel no mana in him. She would find out later how right she was.

"Tell the Thunder Guild to find their main base and destroy them. Or better yet, tell them to find it and give the information to Sneak Eyes. I am sure that the hungry snake is dying to eat one of its enemies. This will give us leeway if we go too far with Draka."

The king said with a pleasant smile. The name seemed to have stimulated his core a little.