The dragon's harem

A massive white dragon loomed over the frozen sea, slowly approaching the ice. She slowly landed and looked around, “This is the place.”

The drakaina was Kory, Gamond’s daughter, and Isdis was on her back with ten pallets of empty heat crystals. As Kory shifted back to her humanoid form the pallets neatly fell aligned on the snow and Isdis jumped down, shivering. “It’s already this cold.” She still wore her heavily padded armor.

Kory looked at her, “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you back if you fail. This is where you’ll be filling those crystals. It’s easy to fill them with a heat source, but it’ll be extremely hard here where everything is far too cold.”

“I can tell. How am I supposed to get this much heat?” Her bones were already freezing, she could only feel depression when she looked at the massive pallets.

“You can do it.” Kory extended her hand toward Isdis, “Now, I’ll be taking all of your clothes with me. Please take them off.” This goofy passive face. Isdis was certain that Kory either didn’t feel how cold it was here or that she was just that stupid.

Isdis stared at her for a second. “Are you sure? Isn’t this place already a bit colder than expected?” She could barely feel her toes.

Kory shook her head, “It’s in fact a bit warmer than Her Majesty expected.” With a flick of her finger, Kory conjured a massive pallet filled with ice cubes. “I’ll be taking your underwear as well, and you’ll have to eat from those frozen cubes.”

Looking at Kory’s face, Isdis wanted to punch her. She is getting the distinct feel that Kory is enjoying this, she finds it amusing to torture her like this. But in reality, Kory was just that dense and followed the orders as written.

“You aren’t just trying to kill me.” Isdis couldn’t figure out how this might be possible, but all she could do now was try. After fully stripping down and handing all of her clothes to Kory, she had already started shaking like a newborn goat. Her lips already turned blue and her whole body started stinging and slowing down.

Kory reached into her pocket and pulled out an apple-sized black sphere. “This is a fire crystal. It can’t be used to fill the heat crystals, but it’ll instantly warm you up if you decide to give up.”

“Why give this to me?” Isdis took the sphere and looked at it for a second.

“You look a lot like Her Majesty, and seeing you naked and shivering like this is funny.” Kory smiled and Isdis glared at her. “I guess I can take that in exchange for this…thank you, I guess.”

“I’ll be close by to make sure there are no storms and keep any living thing from getting within a hundred kilometers.” Kory giggled, “Not that I have much work, there are no living beings in over a thousand kilometers around us. This place is deserted, inhospitable to life.”

Kory shifted into her draconic form and flew away, leaving Isdis alone in the middle of the ice.

Isdis approached one of the pallets, barely able to walk, and sat beside it, feeling her hips almost ripping apart from the cold. She can’t even use fire magic, filling all of those…she might end up dying here.

****

Kory watched from afar as she called Isbert. “Your Majesty, aren’t you a bit harsh on her?”

“If she was any ordinary woman you might be right. But she is Arad Orion’s wife.” Isbert replied in a passive voice, “Don’t underestimate the woman lying in the monster’s bed. And you’ll be getting punished for giving her that fire sphere.”

“Sorry…” Kory sighed, the queen seemed to have been watching them.

“Speaking of Arad…mother went to find him. Do you have any news about her?” Kory wanted to change the topic before Isbert started talking about her punishment.

“It’s only been a few hours, she still didn’t find him. And for your punishment, You’ll be cleaning all of the maids’ rooms on your own.”

That wasn’t such a bad punishment, better than getting smacked on the butt with all the other maids watching.

“Do you think he’ll match up to her? Does he have a chance?”

“Gamond might surprise him with a hit or two…but I’d say she’ll definitely lose, especially if he sets his eyes on her. And after she is secured, he’ll come sniffing for you. That’s why I’m not smacking your butt before everyone, he’ll need it soft and pale with no marks.”

“Can we stop talking about my punishment?” Kory looked down with a sad face.

“Then I’ll ask him to smack your butt. You should enjoy that, won’t you? I’m sure your mother would like it.” Isbert giggled.

Kory giggled, “Nice one, but I’m not that easily scared. Mother won’t lose.”

“I am not joking. Your mother is Gamond, she raised you by my side your whole life, and above all, your father was a powerful red dragon. If he’ll not take you as a wife, then as a concubine to Isdis, and if not you’ll be his maid or servant.” Isbert knew more than Kory or Gamond knew, “You’ll be able to refuse, the decision is in your hand.”

“And what do you think?” When Kory understood that Isbert wasn’t joking, a sense of doom washed over her. “Should I refuse? I’m not that thrilled about being with someone I don’t know, let alone if he’s already mating with mother.”

“You can try fighting him, but if your mother can’t beat him, you’ll never will, especially with your current power. I’d say you should go with him and see for yourself…wait, I have to go. some guests arrived.”

“Guests? Who…”

“Some…annoying people.” Isdis cut the call and looked forward.

“Calling us annoying, aren’t you a rude one?” The large muscular blond man stared at her with a smile, “You’ve hurt my little pure heart.” The man was Lucifer, the primordial archangel created by AO alongside his siblings. He was the youngest, coming right after Asgorath the first dragon, Yggdrasil the world tree, and Adam the father of humanity.

“Can’t blame her, can we?” The man beside him was even larger, standing at almost eight feet tall with oak-colored skin, and a thin beard decorating his sculpted jawline. “This is the ninth time we bring bad news to her.”

Lucifer sighed, “Older brother, she’s your daughter-in-law. I doubt she should address you like that.”

Isbert stood and approached the man, “Uncle is right, I should apologize.” The man standing before her was the overgod’s father, the reincarnation of Adam the first human, his name was Chad. He’s the being known as the human god.

“We investigated Nyar’s recent appearance. He seems to have sat some of his goons to scout for any strange signal.” Chad waved his hand, “I’m sure a powerful abomination would spawn the moment Cain’s dead heart is triggered.”

“We informed Hati about the increased risk…” Lucifer shook his head, “I tried to convince brother but he says that we shouldn’t worry.”

“It’ll be fine…don’t worry about it.” Chad looked at Lucifer with a smile and shifted his gaze back at Isbert, “Increase the security of your world just in case. I’ll watch over everything from above.”

“Having you two around would be reassuring, Kayden should also be around so things should go smoothly.” Isbert smiled.

“Sorry…” Lucifer spoke, “I won’t be around, someone has to keep fighting on the frontlines. But brother would be around, you can rely on him.”

“If Kayden is free I’ll go train him a bit. That’ll also give me an excuse to check on little Serin and see how she’s doing.” Chad and Lucifer disappeared as quickly as they appeared and Isbert returned to her throne with a tired face.

“This is going to be a lot of work.”

****

Back at Hati’s mansion, someone knocked on the front door. Mira who was working in the workshop with Mora to make another weapon for Arad looked over and saw a large man standing there. For a second she has almost mistaken him for Arad if not for the beard and tanned skin.

“Who is that?” She asked Mora, “Ah, that one. Don’t worry, he is an old friend of mine. Probably has some business with Hati.”

Astrid opened the door and gasped, seeing this massive man looking at her with a passive face. “AH! Grandpa, it’s been a while.” She jumped at him and soon all of Hati’s daughters rushed in upon sensing that their grandfather had come to visit.

Tina who was walking in the hallway froze in place the moment she saw him… “You…what are you doing here?” She took a step back.

Chad looked at her with a smile, “I came to see Kayden. But thought that I might as well check on Serin.”

A few years ago when Tina was still with her husband they were traveling to a new city as she was pregnant by Serin. It was then that bandits attacked them. Tina managed to escape but not after taking a spear to the stomach.

While slowly bleeding out beneath a tree in the woods, Tina cried. Not fearing for herself but for the unborn child inside her. With this spear piercing her, the child is most likely dead and she’ll soon follow it.

^It should’ve been me…not you…you still haven’t even seen the light of day…^

It was then that a large man riding on a majestic horse stopped by and approached her. That was Chad, “I found you, he said.”

Tina passed out the moment he got close, but when she woke up the spear had already disappeared and she was healed. Chad who was there beside her looked at her with a passive face. “I’ve given you a few more years and blessed the child, Serin shall be her name.” He leaned forward and looked at her face, “Get her to him, you’ll know who I’m talking about when you meet him.” He stood.

Tina could hear the bandits still looking for her in the woods. She looked at the man, “Wait! You can’t leave me here, they’ll catch me.”

“Better than getting eaten by the wolves.” He darted away on his horse and left her alone. The bandits quickly came afterward and captured her. She ended up sold as a slave and eventually ended up in Rita, where Arad took her in.

****

As Tina stared at Chad, Astrid looked at her, “You know Grandpa?”

“No, I’ve just met him once.” Tina glared at him, “Would you care to explain what you did to me that day? I’m sure a spear was stuck in me.”

Chad smiled, “You know already, don’t you? You should be already feeling it now, your bones rattling, your flesh growing weaker and your skin getting colder.” He approached her, “I do not create anything, I merely change them.”

He walked past her, “If you want a solution, ask Arad, he’s more suitable for that than me.”

“We’re not done here yet! The plan was to look for you with Arad, but now you’re here, we don’t need to look anywhere.” She grabbed him, “What did you do to me that day? And how could we reverse it?”

“You want to reverse it? Then it’s simple, kill Serin.” Chad looked at her with a smile, “But I’ll kill you before you do that, a parent must die for their children.”

“Do you really think I’d believe this sick joke of yours? What did you do to me?!”

“I guess…you aren’t as smart as you look.” Chad patted her head, “That day, the spear killed Serin. For her to survive I took the spark of your soul and gave it to her. Now the older she gets, the more she grows, the more you’ll wither away and die.” He looked a bit sad.

“You two only have enough life force for a single person, by the time she can speak, you’ll be dead.” He looked at the ceiling, Serin was asleep in the room above them. “I gave her divine magic so she won’t consume that much lifeforce, but that seems to have only bought you a few years.”

He walked inside to look for Hati. “It was your wish to die for your child to survive, and I made that true.”