The dragon's harem

Arad teleported to the castle’s main gate, staring at the crumbling portcullis. He stepped forward, looking at the side and spotting blood trailing down the white snow, an armored arm poking from white fluff. “This was a battlefield,” Eris looked at the snow, “Tens of soldiers died when Vlad attacked.”

“It’s not just soldiers, almost everyone living in the capital got killed. Only the lucky ones survived,” Arad walked through the gate with Eris slowly trailing behind him, “Should we bury them?”

“Of course,” Arad replied, “When we get out of the capital, I’ll use my void to suck all the corpses and we can then bury them one by one,”

“Our catacomb would get filled quickly,” Eris sighed, “I can’t believe that we haven’t even built the castle, and we’re already burying more people than a city does in five years,”

“I can get more land from Baltos in our catacomb isn’t enough. I’m sure he won’t mind, considering that the capital just got blasted,”

“He’ll probably shift the capital into another city. It’ll take years for the kingdom to heal, and it’ll be an easy target for invasions,” She looked at the several corpses scattered on the snow, “Without the capital, it’s a headless kingdom,”

“Let them come,” Arad looked at her, “I’ll blast them at the borders. I doubt anyone would get as threatening as Vlad,”

“That depends on when and how they attack, we aren’t the only ones with adventurers, s-ranks, and monsters,” Eris stared at him, “Remember that Alcott and Nina are S-ranks, other high-ranked adventurers could be dangerous if they joined a war against us,”

“Blatos isn’t dead and he’ll keep ruling out of another city, and with me still around, I doubt anyone would dare mess with us after we killed Vlad,” Arad sighed, “But I’m sure some idiots would think this is a good time to strike after we’re exhausted.” They walked through the main keep door, went through the hallways, and headed toward the basement.

“This is where Baltos said it was,” Arad pushed the door open and looked inside. The room looked normal with a ton of old, dusty furniture, weapons, and piles over piles of junk.

“This place is a mess,”

“Charlie said it’s purposefully left like this to hide the entrance,” Arad walked around looking for any traces of magic. “There it is.”

At the corner of the room, he could see an old tattered doll missing an eye, sitting on a box with its robe ripped apart and cotton leaking out of its back. It looked as if a dog had ripped it apart.

“Is this the doll?” Eris gasped, staring at the thing, “‘It’s weirder than I expected,” She looked at Arad, “Are you sure this is it?”

Arad approached the door, “Open the library, I know you can hear me,”

The door remained silent.

“We must have the wrong one,”

“No, we have the right one,” Arad approached the door and grabbed it, staring at its one eye. “Open the library, Baltos told us you’re the only one who could do that. And if you don’t…” He started squeezing it in his fist.

For a few seconds, the door remained silent until something cracked inside. “PIKYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” The doll’s mouth ripped open as it screamed, the sheer loudness of the scream ripped Arad and Eris’s eardrums out, shattering half the windows of the castle as the horrid screech was heard from the capital’s walls.

Arad stared at the doll unfazed, “It’s your fault for not replying,” He tightened his grip. “I can do this all day.”

“Sorry! Sorry! Stop, you broke my spine!” The doll cried, “For real! Can’t you have a joke?”

Eris blinked twice, seeing the doll move but not hearing anything besides the painful ringing in her ears.

“Vlad attacked the capital, I killed him but Baltos was injured. He gave me permission to use the castle’s library.” He glared at it, “Open the library,”

“I’ll do it! Put me down, I only wanted to scare you a bit. That’s all,” the door sighed, wiggling and trying to escape Arad’s palm. “Thought it would be funny seeing a big guy like you jump up startled.”

Arad put the doll down and it turned around, “My back…” She walked toward the wall and lifted her hand, “Open,” She said and a magical white door appeared on the wall, “Teleportation gate, this will lead you to the library burned underground,” She looked back at Arad.

At that time, Eris had already healed her ears. “Buried underground, so it’s not here?”

“Even I don’t know where it is,” The doll replied, “King Baltos paid Alice Dagon to hide the royal library and so she did. She also made me act as a gatekeeper.”

“So you’re a golem?” Arad stared at her.

“You can say that, but I’m quite different,” The doll replied, “I’m a human soul bound to this doll as a punishment.”

“What kind of punishment would lead you to this?” Eris sighed, staring at the little doll with a confused face. She had never heard of such a strange punishment.

“I was an alchemist who experimented on humans. Got a sentence of four hundred years and so she put me here to actually spend that time,” The doll growled, “I’m almost done, three hundred and fifty-six,”

“Why don’t you run? Or what would you even get when that time ends?” Arad stared at the doll as he approached the white gate.

“I don’t run because I can’t, she put a slave contract on my soul. And when the time ends, I can finally die in peace. But I’ll likely end up in hell, so I’m not that excited about it,” The doll sighed, staring at the ceiling, “Due to boredom, I spend most of my time asleep down here,”

^No wonder the doll is that tattered if it was here for over three centuries.^

“You’ve really fallen off from an alchemist to this,” Arad looked at her with a sad face, “You could’ve just, done your alchemy without experimenting on people,”

“Shut up, it’s none of your business. I was trying to impress the great Olivia, and I did reach my goal,” The doll growled.

“Who’s Olivia?”

“The greatest Alchemist in all of existence. What kind of muscle head fool are you to not hear of her? I heard she’s been looking for an elixir of immortality that bypasses divinity, probably for her to live for all eternity, and I found her a solution,” The doll smirked, “Philosopher’s stone, it’s made of humanoid souls to extend the user’s existence. The more you sacrifice and pile into the stone, the longer you live. It basically steals other’s lifespan.”

Arad sighed again, “Is that Olivia an idiot? She could’ve become a vampire,”

“I’m not her so I don’t know what she was thinking,” The doll sat down, “When I made the stone, the cosmic police, the inevitables, showed up out of nowhere, destroyed the stone, and chained me down. Then apparently Alice Dagon got a divine mission from the goddess of magic to punish me, and so she did,”

“Cosmic what?” Eris stared at her, even more confused.

“Large humanoid steel golems of various shapes and sizes and shapes. They hold an imaginable power and their mission is to stop anyone that tries to break the world’s integrity. From what I knew about them, only two people managed to beat them. The current overgod and current goddess of magic.”

“I can understand the overgod as he probably rules over them, but what did the magic goddess do?” Arad asked.

“Alice said that the magic goddess was targeted by them as she was a mortal for centuries, but each time they came for her, she beat and turned them into maids serving her. That kept until the overgod appeared and gave her the title of the magic goddess after she killed the previous magic goddess. Have you never read her scriptures?” The doll glared at Arad with a confused face. “Every mage should know this,”

“I don’t,” He replied, looking toward Eris, “Neither I, where did you read it?”

“As I said, the magic goddess scripture?”

“Never heard of that,” Eris stared back at her.

The doll facepalmed, “How ignorant the world has become in the past centuries. It matters not, go to the library before the gate closes.”

Arad and Eris walked through the gate and the doll sighed after they left. “What kind of monster is that man? He’s terrifying,”

****

Arad and Eris walked through a white walkway until they reached a small portal, going through it led them to appear in a large dark room.

“Here we are,” Eris lifted one finger and conjured a tiny ball of purple glowing plasma, illuminating the place. It’s true that both of them can see in the dark, but that won’t be as good or as comfortable as seeing normal. Discerning colors with dark vision is a real problem, and reading books could be a major issue.

“Let’s look around for anything that might help,”

Updated from