Chapter 61: Resolution

As the sun shined its light upon the city of monsters, a sudden black aura shrouded the people within. The dragoness was at first startled but then came to understand that it was a healing aura. In a matter of moments, the thousands of residents in the city slowly regained their healthy glows and their heavy wounds were healed in an instant.

As the recovering goblins hugged their loved ones, they felt a passing flicker watch them from high above. It was Scitus who had gained some control of his muscle enhancement, he was hopping back to his former position.

Noticing that his people were beginning to heal, he noted that it was highly likely that the Dragoness stopped all hostile actions.

“Human.” the Dragoness spoke in a soft voice but her eyes betrayed her calmness, she wore a ferocity that was difficult to describe but if Scitus had to put a single word to it, it would be, “Abhorrence.”

“Dragon.” He responded calmly, somewhat surprising the Dragoness, she had thought Scitus would feel some fear, but she couldn’t detect anything of the sort. Whenever the Dragon looked at the small human, all she could see was an ocean of indifference. There was no glow in his eyes, no beating pulse, everything was calm and quiet as if everything that had happened before was irrelevant to him.

Hera ran to her father with a worried expression. She hadn't had time to react to the sudden attack but was happy to see her father was still alive. She hugged him tightly, taking Scitus by surprise. Then he remembered that both she and Thoth, although they rarely showed it, saw him as their father. Scitus calmly patted the back of Hera's head and said, "its alright, I won't die so easily." Hera quickly detached herself from her father and smiled, "of course father!!!" she gave him a lighthearted thumbs up before bowing her head looking at her father with eyes that asked, "May I return to my duties?" Scitus gave a firm nod and Hera went off to check on the destruction of the city and began rallying all the citizens for help with the city's reconstruction.

Sia rubbed her eyes trying to numb some of the lingering pain from the sudden burst of mana. Scitus walked up to her and asked what had happened, he found it hard to ignore the dozens of houses destroyed by the logs and the fruits spread across everywhere. "yeah, just a second please." Sia said trying to force her eyes open, arcane blindness was an ailment beyond Scitus's understanding so although his healing was assisting Sia, he couldn't completely heal her like he had the others. Sia was a strong mage however and found it simple to heal herself. After recovering her eyesight, she walked up to Scitus with a serious expression. She looked mildly angry and somewhat concerned.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a divine vessel,” she said angrily and then grabbed on to his shoulder and began to spin him around in place as if inspecting for any injuries. “I’m fine” he responded to her trying to end her spinning attack on him. Scitus then walked towards the center of town and cast a divine spell.

“REPAIR!!!” he shouted, and only a moment later the world burst full of colorful pinks, reds, and blues. The destroyed buildings sprouted from the earth like rapidly growing trees, the many strewn about logs flew above the sky like a flock of birds before crashing into the city walls and splintering into a new set of fully constructed walls and archer towers.

"that never ceases to impress me," Sia whispered to herself and Eleka, who was nearby, heard her words and couldn't help but nod in response. Even the dragoness's eyes for a moment flickered brilliantly in surprise: Never in her life had she seen such fantastical magic casting, it was like watching a marvelous performance, enthralling, surprising and enchanting.

Scitus turned to Sia, "I don't know what a divine vessel is." Seresa, who was still shaken by all the recent events, finally got off her brother's arms and ran towards Scitus. She still worried about what had happened but after a brief exchange she calmed down and then left to help Hera with her duties. The group had silently agreed to have their meeting some other time after all that had happened. William, Robin and Maximus soon after left to assist with smaller repairs that Scitus's ability did not cover.

After dealing with his subjects, Sia took the opportunity to explain what a divine vessel was only to be rudely interrupted by the dragoness. "A divine vessel contains a part of the magical power and soul of a god and when the god dies, this vessel casts a full revival spell allowing that god to return to this world." Scitus turned to the Dragon and nodded as if acknowledging her explanation. Sia turned to the dragoness mildly angry and gave her a contemptuous look. The dragoness had caused a huge mess in the city and had then begun acting nonchalant wandering around in her Dragon form.

"Hey dragon, can you at least try to take up less space."

The dragon looked around and noticed several frightened goblins working around her, the only reason, they weren't frozen in fear, was because Robin was guiding the people nearby. The dragon grunted with dissatisfaction: She didn't really like her humanoid form, it brought back bitter memories but considering all her transgressions and considering her friend was defending the human, she decided that it was the least she could do.

"Fine." She angrily responded to Sia's fiery question. The dragoness's body glowed a bright white as mana particles slowly encompassed her dragon form. The particles soon melded with her scales and then as if she were disintegrating her scales turned to magic dust which then flew a few centimeters from her before vanishing; this continued until she was the size of an orc at which point the bright light completely covered her body. After a few more moments her body was fully revealed. She had long brown hair that extended down to her waist, her eyes were a sharp auburn color, she had a charming brown scale covering the bridge of her nose almost like a bandage. Scales covered her elbows, some parts of her cheekbones and her belly. The back of her legs had thicker scales covering them; and near the center of her chest, just where someone's heart would be, was a large scar, the only blemish on the beautiful woman in front of them.

"couldn't you have put clothes on first," Scitus muttered with discontent, even he had clothed himself before entering the city. he had unfortunately lost all his clothing during his attack but fortunately, Sia had taught him a clothing spell.

"When I was younger, the number of times this spell saved me from the embarrassment of walking to the castle naked are innumerable." She had explained that after a certain degree of power, clothing tended to tear easily, Sia however no longer had that problem since her clothes could regenerate based on her magic ability.

The dragoness quickly clothed herself with a small spell, she had decided to wear something similar to a servants clothing but instead of a black and white aesthetic, it was dark brown with red laces, they fit her body very well and exuded a seductive charm.

Many goblins and kobolds, despite their fear, stole glances at the woman. The woman was around eight feet tall, she walked towards Scitus and extended her hand. "No hard feelings right?" she arrogantly said as she looked down on him all the while she spread her mana in the air creating a small swirl of wind around herself.

"right," Scitus's cold response got the notice of the many citizens nearby, he hadn't even bothered to take the Dragoness's hand. Their eyes met and everyone nearby could feel an intense fire in the dragoness's eyes; though just as hot as her gaze was, Scitus's gaze was as equally cold.

"Get out of here, dragon. This my land." Scitus spoke in a domineering tone and looked away from the dragoness as if she was not worth his time. The dragon lowered her hand and clenched her fist. She walked closer to Scitus and lifted him off the ground with her other hand and forced him close to her face. "Don't overstep your bounds little god, the only reason I didn't kill you is because you are acquainted with a friend of mine." Scitus, without changing his expression, grabbed hold of the Dragoness's wrist and recklessly strengthened his hand beyond what he was capable of and easily crushed her wrist. The Dragoness immediately released him and clutched her own wrist though not once did she wince in pain.

The dragoness smiled as if understanding his intentions. "You don't have the ability." Scitus coldly responded. The hearts of nearby citizens couldn't help beat faster in anticipation though it was not fear they felt, it was excitement. Even a dragon could not freely enter into their small city and wreak havoc. The dragoness looked at Scitus's arm, his muscles had been torn to shreds by the sheer force he placed upon them, his flesh was barely holding his muscles from falling right off his bones but soon enough a small black aura shrouded his muscles and his flesh returned to its previous state as if nothing had ever happened.

"That looks, painful little god." She said still clutching her wrists then suddenly realizing the pain was gone. The aura had also healed her, she began to laugh. The god didn't see her as an enemy.

By that point Eleka flew towards her two allies, she had hoped that everything would be quickly settled but suddenly Scitus became uncharacteristically aggressive.

"Fine, I'll leave." Before Eleka could say or do much of anything, the Dragoness was already halfway across the city.

Scitus closed his eyes in thought. It was good that the dragoness left as easily as she did, Scitus had taken a gamble but he had hoped that Eleka and the dragoness's friendship was deep enough for her to at least return without causing further problems. It was also fortunate that Scitus scouted the situation with his divine sight before returning to the city, this was how he discovered that Eleka and the Dragoness had some prior relationship, one strong enough to at least stop her rampage in his city.

though if the Dragoness had not backed down, he would have been ready to use all of his ability to fight her.

"Why did you do that Scitus?" Eleka asked concerned about his behavior. The harpies had attacked Scitus when he first encountered them but even then, he did not raise his hand against them. "I can't allow my people to see me as weak."

Eleka looked around, the goblins, Kobolds, Minotaurs, and ogres were calmly working. This was only possible because they believed in Scitus's might; if that belief were to collapse somehow, the people in his city would be too afraid to do anything, they would return back to those days of living in deeply forested areas always in fear of some imminent attack from a monster or other race.

Even though their city had been attacked by a dragon, even though they were injured and even though many lost their precious items, despite all that, Eleka didn’t see a single frown on any of the faces she encountered.

Because in the Kingdom of monsters, "we are safe." Seresa calmly explained to a small kobold child who was hiding behind her mother and father. "our god will protect us." She said with a sweet smile. The little kobold boy nodded his head still clutching his mother's long skirt."

“he got rather frightened by that dragon.” The kobold mother said with a warm smile as she softly patted her sons head. “but I know as long as God Scitus watches over us, everything will be ok.”

Seresa smiled and promptly left to check the resources the kingdom had lost.