The dragon's harem

“I finally got it.” Zeus looked at Arad with a smile as lightning poured out of his eyes, illuminating the dark cavern in bright azure radiance.

“Then we’ve got no time. Most monsters are dead, so all you need to do is fly out with Zeus’s body if you could. If you can’t leave him here, carry him, then leave him here and find a way later with the Titans.”

Arad turned into his draconic form and expanded his wings. “You remember Zenia, say that you resurrected her using the last drop of whatever potion that Raptur Abomination left.”

Zeus nodded, “Indeed, and I’ll make sure to claim that it was all thanks to Tyal beating her up so badly that she regained her consciousness and came here to assist me take down Cronos. But is she really alive? She has been dead for a long while, hasn’t she?”

Arad shook his head. “The time limit is probably related to both the condition of the body and the soul. Zenia’s soul was in pretty good shape, albeit she won’t live without scars. I’ve got her soul, I’ve got her body, I’ve got plenty of healing magic, and a makeshift way of tying someone’s soul back to their body. Of course, the assistance of that potion. Sadly, that potion only seems to be able to repair the silver chain linking someone’s soul to their body, not repair the soul itself.”

Zeus stared at him silently for a few seconds and then sighed, “How come you know more about like and resurrection than me, who is a demi-god now. No, how could a mere mortal understand all of that?”

Arad looked at him with a smile, “Knowledge isn’t limited to the gods. It’s easy to know things. It’s far harder to act on them. Besides, do you think you can beat me in a fight, if that’s what you were thinking?”

Zeus burst laughing, “Nah, I’d lose.” He went silent and stared at Arad, “But not before taking at least an arm down with me.”

Arad shook his head, turned back into a human, lifted his left arm, and chopped it down with his right arm.

Zeus stared at him with a baffled face and became bewildered as he saw Arad’s arm grow back out in the blink of an eye.

“I’m sorry, Zeus. But if only cutting an arm was enough to kill me. People underestimate my power a lot, except those abominations, they seem to know well what I am capable of.” A faint smile sat on Arad’s pale face, his eyes sparkled with faint purple light as the shadows of the whole cave danced and twisted, space and time themselves seemed to twist and contort as Arad took a step toward Zeus.

Zeus could feel it, the overwhelmingly heavy pressure of Arad’s magic. It far surpassed anything he had ever seen in his life. And it then dawned on him, Cronos, the Titan of time, was perfected by Raptur, and both of them reached a new realm of power. But they were crushed and driven away by Arad, and without blowing the whole Titan kingdom into ash.

The world won’t survive Arad, let alone its inhabitants, demi-gods or not.

Arad smiled and then looked up at the chasm. “Gale is overestimating my power from the act I showed him. But even his overestimation is a great underestimation of what I am capable of. Tyal knows, you know, even Zenia knows, but that’s what matters now.”

Arad took a deep breath, “I’ll help you make an entrance. It already took you a while to absorb the lightning portfolio, so I guess it’ll take you even longer to get accustomed to your new powers.”

Sparks of lightning flashed through Arad’s wings, and his eyes burned blue. He opened his maw and unleashed a massive lightning breath that pierced the chasm and blasted its way right to the surface.

Arad’s incarnation up on the surface roared, warning the soldiers to get away from the chasm, but he wasn’t so lucky and got caught in the lightning breath alongside Tyal. Of course, that was by design. He needed one last push to cement his presence as a power the Titans shouldn’t underestimate.

For a second, it seemed like Arad and Tyal both evaporated into the blinding pillar of lightning, but then, the lightning split apart as if it was a river of water that hit a massive boulder. Arad flew right through it and roared, unleashing his breath.

Arad’s breath and the lightning pillar clashed in a blinding show of pure destruction. The Titans had to run away and shelter themselves from the blinding light and heat, praying to the gods that whatever was happening wouldn’t cause an explosion powerful enough to blast the whole mountain range.

Soon, both the lightning pillar and Arad’s energy breath faded away, canceling each other out. Arad landed on the ground, and a pale old man with a long and bushy white beard and a bare muscular torso landed in front of him.

Zeus had returned.

Zeus and Arad glared at each other, their mere presences enough to mask any imperfection in their acting. The Titans, of course, recognized Zeus, and they gasped; he was supposed to be dead. Their hearts clenched in terror, thinking that his body must’ve fallen prey to the vile Cronos Raptur.

The Titans now had their hopes on Arad and Gale, who should’ve killed Zeus before. Those two should be able to stop Zeus safely, right?

The moment the Titans thought about safety, they recognized something.

That lighting pillar must’ve been Zeus’s doing, but such power wasn’t something he had in life; no, it wasn’t something that mere mortals should hold.

Gale’s thoughts were different, but similar to the other Titans. He thought that the Cronos Raptur had managed to get to Zeus inside the sealing mountain. His poor father was chained; he must not have been able to even resist or fight back the monster.

That was a massive oversight. He should’ve put several people guarding the place. The impenetrable wasn’t so mighty in front of a horrific monster like the Cronos Raptur.

“WAIT!” Tyal screamed above Arad, “Something isn’t right!”

Hearing her words, the two froze. Arad slightly lifted his head, and Zeus looked at Tyal and smiled.

“Tyal! My little girl, what are you doing on this monster?” Zeus spoke with a grin, “He isn’t taking you for a sacrifice, is he? We Titans don’t play by the human and dragons rules after all, do we?”

Before Tyal could reply, Arad’s voice drowned the sky, “I see, you’re the old man who lost that fool of a Titan, Gale. You don’t smell rotten at all, you’re not a corpse, are you?”

“Smell? I hadn’t had the chance to take a bath in a long while, but I shouldn’t smell that bad.” Zeus combed his beard, “On the other hand, a civil dragon, how rare.”

It was then that Tyal jumped down.

“Both of you, stand down.”