The dragon's harem

As Arad’s clone helped Merida study her scroll, a massive ant sprawled on the ground a few hundred kilometers away.

The ant looked at the desolate mountain range surrounding her with exhausted eyes. She pushed her body up with all of her strength and tried to stand, but sadly, her legs gave up, and she fell back to the ground, shattering the stone beneath her.

“That… was…” A pained groan escaped from her mandible as her whole body dissolved down. “A bad idea… I admit.” A large human figure appeared and fell to her knees. Meryem had never felt this exhausted and destroyed. She rolled on the ground and lay on her back, looking at the blue sky.

Beside her on the massive stone boulders sat a black dragon with obsidian scales and a shadow so dark it looked like he could devour the world. Far smaller than his full size, Arad today was no bigger than Meryem’s titanic ant form.

Arad looked at her in silence for a few seconds and then sighed, “I told you. But… Who am I trying to convince? You rarely listen.”

She lifted an eyebrow, “Me? Rarely listen? Come on, I’m the most obedient ant ever!” She pushed herself up with her arms and sat. “Next time, I’ll be more prepared.”

Arad shifted into his humanoid form and appeared sitting beside her, “There is no next time. Aella warned you, and you didn’t listen, just like Merlin.”

Meryem burst laughing, “You don’t need to compare me to her, I’m not that soft.” She then threw a glance at him. “And now, how about another one? Like this?”

Arad stood, put his hand on her head, and they both teleported away. In the next moment, she found herself on her stone bed. “I’ve got more things to take care of now. Once a time is enough.”

Meryem tried to stand and catch him, but he had already disappeared, and she couldn’t even move that much now. Giving up, she fell back on her stone bed and looked around. Her daughters were already swarming in like a tidal wave and bringing with them countless dead monsters, food for their queen.

After resting for a second, Meryem sat up and turned into her ant queen form. She slowly turned and sank her sharp mandible into the monsters her daughters brought. As she ate, her daughters swarmed behind her and got ready to retrieve today’s batch of eggs.

Today, she had learned a painful lesson. “Be careful of what you wish for… How did Aella even know?”

****

Up in the castle, it was decided that at least Zephyr and Alice would follow Arad in addition to Tyal. The trip’s excuse was simple: if Arad is to marry Tyal, he needs to see her father first. The plan would have to change based on the situation there.

While they can just teleport there as Arad did before, he’d rather keep to a mortal level of power and not show what he is really capable of. Using what Tyal knew about him, they were able to determine the scope of expectation the Storm Titans have of Arad.

First, they expect a hundred-meter-long obsidian dragon with lustrous scales and eyes as bright as a purple moon. His wings resemble the night sky, and his whole body shimmers with tenebrous clouds. For the man himself, they expect a two-meter-tall, muscular man with silky black hair and a muscular build.

Power is what mattered most. The Storm Titans expect Arad to be able to blow whole cities with a single breath, be able to teleport freely for a distance up to 50 Km, and they expect him to be an extremely silent hunter.

Tyal described how her people expected an attack from Arad to be. He’ll fly silently through the night sky high above the clouds. When he gets in range, he’ll use his 50km teleportation to appear above the city. Bomb it down with a single breath, and then teleport away.

To them, he looked like a stealth bomber. Which didn’t worry the Storm Titans at all, they were confident in their ability to kill him if need come to be, especially if they used their storms to spoil his stealth bombardment. What they feared most about him was his strong connections to the elves, humans, and the major powers of the world.

Arad sighed, “So? The Strom Titans aren’t afraid of me, per se, they are afraid of the people that support me?”

“No,” Tyal shook her head, “They are cold. They only see that being an ally with you is worth more than trying to be your enemy or taking a neutral stance. I saw it the same at first.” She sighed, looking at him with a somber face. Her lips got pressed together, and her eyes narrowed.

“I honestly thought that you were weaker than I. I can summon a storm of hail, lightning, and a violent wing that can span over a hundred kilometers and kill anyone inside it.” She leaned back on her chair, sweat rolling down her forehead. “I didn’t expect to throw myself at such a monster.”

Tyal now knows what Arad’s true power is. He can’t just teleport up to 50 km; that was old information, even that information was wrong for its time. He was limited to 40 km before. Now, he can teleport up to 4000 km.

Arad also can’t just blow a city; from the accounts of his wives, he can blow the whole world. Tyal was inclined to think they were lying until Hati, the ruler of the beast lands, testified. Nothing can run away from Arad in this world, mortal power can’t shackle him anymore. What horrified her more was that he had just snatched her grandfather from the Rumbling Mountain Seal… that was supposed to be able to trap even the gods.

The Rumbling Mountain Seal was a relic that her race created over thousands of years with the help of several lesser gods that wanted to use it in the future to seal a powerful deity… but then it was left when those lesser gods died before their plan bloomed. The whole mountain is a divine relic.

Tyal threw a glance at Arad. She isn’t even sure if they could kill him even if a god took action directly.

There was something else that pushed Tyal beyond the edge of despair. The information they had on Arad had just been a few months old at most… which meant that his power had soared in such a short time.

Tyal finally understood what all of those women around Arad are doing and why some even them were even grateful to be just mere servants. He is like a ship sailing beyond the mortal realm. Those women and their families don’t want to be left struggling here on the dirt of the mortal world.

Tyal threw a glance at one of the maids. Most of them were the daughters of rich nobles, valiant knights, and powerful mages. Those women would usually look down on people and scoff at the mere idea of wearing their clothes on their own. But all of that arrogance had faded away when standing in front of a real monster.

^This harem is bound to implode sooner or later…but not before its members reach what they want.^