Orion had to admit, the Sapphire Dragon had some serious nerve.

His demigod-level Curse Avatar was standing right there, watching, yet the old dragon was completely focused on its dispute with Leonidas's World Dragon.

He had to have an ace up his sleeve.

The thought spurred Orion to scan his surroundings with renewed intensity, searching for a second, hidden demigod. But no matter how thoroughly he probed the area, he couldn't detect a single suspicious aura. He even ran a fine-toothed scan over the cannon fodder clashing on the battlefield below, but came up empty.

Something's not right. What am I missing?

The question nagged at him. He fixed his gaze on the two dragons locked in aerial combat, his attention zeroed in on the Sapphire Dragon.

Suddenly, he noticed something.

The Sapphire Dragon and the World Dragon were fighting entirely with their physical bodies. There was no clash of cosmic laws, no expenditure of their true power.

In other words, both Leonidas and the old dragon were holding back.

So, am I just window dressing here?

Orion suddenly recalled something the Deputy Commander had said, and Leonidas's own words just moments ago.

Bro, got my back.

He realized, with a jolt, that his only purpose here was to be the muscle. He was the unspoken threat, the reason the negotiation could happen. Because Leonidas clearly had no intention of letting him join the fight. This wasn't a battle; it was a parley.

It felt like a negotiation. Orion suspected Leonidas had kept something from him, likely because he wasn't entirely sure how it would play out himself.

And he was right.

***

A hidden place: the Dragon Soulscape.

It was a mystical realm accessible only to true dragons, for only a dragon soul could pass its threshold. Here, a Sapphire Dragon and a Violet-Gold Divine Dragon soared through the ethereal space, their forms twisting around each other in a deadly dance. Both were demigods. Without a true life-or-death struggle, neither could gain the upper hand.

"Old-timer, what's the point of dragging me in here?" Leonidas's soul-form demanded. He knew exactly where he was. The moment he had ascended to demigod and evolved into a Gold dragon, he had gained the right to enter this space.

"I merely wished to know if you were truly a dragon," the Sapphire Dragon's voice rumbled, ancient and deep.

The statement was perfectly logical. Without a dragon soul, even one who possessed the body of a World Dragon was not a true dragon. Orion, Arthas, Edward, Alexander—even if they successfully hatched their World Dragons, they would not be one of them. Only a being like Leonidas qualified.

"And now? You have your answer. Don't tell me this was all just to satisfy your curiosity."

The two dragon souls broke apart, facing each other from a distance. Every movement they made here, their physical bodies mirrored in the real world.

"Since we are of the same kind, there is no need for us to continue this fight," the Sapphire Dragon declared. "If you want the territory to the south, it is yours."

The offer gave Leonidas pause. He had anticipated a possibility like this, but not one so direct, so simple. He had leverage, of course. The demigod-level power the Champions Alliance had displayed in the last war was beyond that of any normal faction. Including the Curse Avatar and himself, they had fielded eight demigods: the commander, his two blade-wielding guards, the Deputy Commander, Arthas, Alexander, himself, and the avatar. That was nearly double the force the Cult of Four had committed to the Silverwood Realm. On top of that, the Demigod of the Moonwell in Staghelm City seemed to have sided with them as well.

The Sapphire Dragon might be a loner, but he wasn't a fool.

"What's the catch?" Leonidas's soul-form unconsciously scratched its head. This was all going a little too smoothly.

"In truth, the moment your war with the Cult of Four ended, I knew the Moonlight Continent had no room for me anymore," the old dragon explained. "It is not cowardice. It is simply that I know the appetites of your organization and the Cult. Whichever of you won the war would inevitably swallow the entire continent."

The Sapphire Dragon's voice was ancient and powerful, imbued with a deep, weary wisdom.

"My original plan was to expend a demigod phantom and fight you to a standstill. Fight until the heavens shattered, perhaps even sink a portion of the Moonlight Continent in the process. Don't look at me like that. As a fellow dragon demigod, you know I have the power to do it."

Leonidas's eyes narrowed. The threat of sinking the continent put him on high alert.

"However," the Sapphire Dragon continued, "sensing your true nature gave me another option."

This time, it was the old dragon's turn to stare intently at Leonidas.

"Don't look at me like that, either," Leonidas retorted. "I'm not into other guys. My tastes run more toward the little female dragons who know how to shake their tails. The proactive ones are the best."

It was crude, but to the Sapphire Dragon, Leonidas's appetites were perfectly normal. Dragons were creatures of lust and avarice, and their power gave them the right to indulge.

"If you are willing, Xanajar could be your paradise."

Leonidas went quiet, processing the new information. He knew they were finally getting to the heart of the matter.

"Paradise?" he scoffed, his expression dismissive. "Does a place like that even exist in this world?"

"Nowhere is a true paradise," the Sapphire Dragon agreed. As demigod dragons, apex predators at the top of the food chain, they understood the empty promise of such a word better than anyone.

But then, the Sapphire Dragon's tone shifted.

"Xanajar, however, is different. It is a small paradise for our kind, one we built for ourselves. A world that belongs exclusively to dragons. I, Fafalarri Digence Drogon, formally invite you to join our Domain of a Myriad Dragons. You are a dragon demigod. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you are now one of the pillars of all dragonkind. You have earned the right to join us."

It was a sincere, heartfelt invitation.

"Of course," Fafalarri added, "you can also consider this the condition for taking the southern territory."

The invitation was followed by the negotiation, the persuasion. For all his irreverence, Leonidas was dead serious when it came to matters like this.

"Sorry, but I'm already part of an organization," he said, his refusal polite but firm. "And as you've seen, we're quite powerful."

He had no intention of becoming the kind of two-faced, backstabbing bastard like the clown.

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