The dragon's harem

The servants were ready when Arad and everyone returned from their short trip. Jasmine found them all sitting inside the guest hall with their bags and belongings. They’ll live in Arad’s castle with her for a while now.

“It seems they are ready. Can you send them to the castle? Isdis already knows about them and should’ve got some servants there to prepare a quarter for them.”

Cerilla looked at them, “The castle is massive. Isdis said she’ll cut a quarter for each of the queens and give them enough rooms for servants and guards. But don’t expect the same space as living in your own castle here.”

“I can always bring them here in a second.” Arad approached the servants. “Grab my hand and you’ll get teleported to the castle. Don’t worry, everything around you will turn black for a second, and you’ll feel like you are floating in water.”

Using his stomach as a medium, Arad swallowed all of the servants one by one and spat them out in his castle through the incarnation he left there. In a couple of minutes, the hall was empty and silent as it was before.

“And with that, everything here should be done.” Jasmine looked at Arad, and her eyes stopped at D, “As you guessed, I’m taking you with me as well. You’ll be my bodyguard, and it’ll also give you a chance to exchange notes with the empire’s archwizard Merlin.”

D sighed, “Fine, you’re the boss.” She looked at Arad, “But don’t blame me if I hit him with a spell or two.”

“Why hit me?” Arad lifted an eyebrow, and Jasmine nodded, “Hit him as much as you want. But keep in mind, he can hit back.”

As they were talking, a green flash of light sparked above Arad’s head, and a mushroom grew out of his hair. That mushroom then bloomed like a flower, and Plum yawned inside. “Are we there yet?” She rubbed her eyes and looked around.

“Not yet, we’re about to head there. We just finished the matters in Jasmine’s kingdom.” Arad replied, and Plum flew from his head and sat on his shoulder.

“Another one?!” D pointed at Plum with a terrified face, and the two queens behind her nodded.

“There are many more spirit queens living inside him. This one, the water queen from before, two fire queens, and Zephyr, but she mostly stays inside his other wife, Aella.” Jasmine patted D’s shoulder.

“Just give up.” Cerilla patted her other shoulder.

Dalla approached Arad, looked at everyone else, and then back at him. “We should go; no reason to stay here any longer.”

“True.” Arad and everyone walked to the carriage, got inside, and drove away. Minutes later, when they were out of the city, he called an incarnation and carried the carriage into the sky, flying directly toward the Elvish Kingdom.

On his way, Arad almost broke his neck as he smacked into something solid in the middle of the open air. The carriage shook, everyone inside stumbled, and Arad’s draconic form outside recoiled back, barely managing to get his balance back.

Arad rubbed his bleeding nose and looked ahead. “Damn it, what is this. No, it’s that thing.” When looking closer, Arad finally noticed that he flew right into the Metallic Dragon’s flying Steel Continent. That thing used so much illusion magic and camouflage that it was almost impossible to detect or see unless someone was actively looking for it.

A second later, a massive golden dragon crawled out of the flying steel and looked at Arad, “Magic identified, Emperor Arad Orion. I’m the captain of the southern wing of the Steel Fortress. Mind if I ask? Are you blind?”

Arad looked at the Great Wyrm gold dragon and sighed, “I’m not blind. How do you expect me to notice this invisible thing in the middle of the empty air?”

“Did no one give you a key? Can’t you see it?” The gold dragon waved his fingers and showed Arad a glowing blue crystal.

“No.”

The gold dragon growled, “They should’ve given you one. What was General Kinryu thinking? Here, take mine. I’ll get another one issued for me. Keep it with you and you’ll be able to see the fortress when you get close enough.” The dragon threw the crystal to Arad and crawled back into the steel fortress.

Arad caught the crystal, looked at it for a second, then everything around him was engulfed in shadows. He looked ahead, seeing the titanic fortress blotting the sky and casting its massive, harrowing shadow over half of the continent.

Now that he could see it clearly, the fortress was far more impressive than he expected. A flying island, no, a whole continent that’s at least four thousand kilometers wide, made entirely out of shining steel. All of its weight is carried by nothing more than the Metallic queen’s gravity magic.

The Metallic Queen is a steel drakaina just like Malina. But she had the power to make this massive thing, and even spent time mastering gravity magic to be able to lift it like this for thousands of years. How much of her power is she spending to keep this thing afloat?

Only when he could see the fortress clearly did Arad notice that it flew with a constant speed and was carefully controlled through intricate weaves of gravity magic. That meant one thing: it could fly much, much faster.

Arad used a void step to teleport beneath the fortress and then once more to leave out of the other side. He wanted to take his time flying to the Elvish kingdom and let his wives enjoy the ride, but it seems now that he had already arrived there. The Elvish Capital was just a few flaps away.

Jasmine looked out of the window with a tense face. She could see the massive, glowing World Tree taking up the entire sky with its leaves and branches. As she expected, she couldn’t hear the tree’s call, but she could sense its power from here.

Cerilla smiled, “Ah, it feels great to be under the tree once more.” She leaned back on her chair, feeling her magic power growing stronger the closer she got to the tree.

The World Tree shares its power and life force with all of the elves that serve it. As long as they are close enough, they gain the tree’s blessing.

The tree’s blessing was simple but effective. More mana, magic resistance, and passive healing.

It was time to climb the World Tree.