The dragon's harem

Arad was sitting in the large reception hall of the main keep, faced with Kinryuu. “The copper dragon was Valromdor, a former bombarding sweeper. His job was to fly down and blast the ranks of the Chromatics with explosive magic. The last time I saw him was three hundred years ago, when he dropped to the ground after getting hit with a blast to the head.”

Kinryuu looked at the papers in front of him and sighed, “His brain was scattered like rain. At that time, he was a great wyrm, and I thought we lost him.”

Arad frowned with both of his hands crossed, “So he found a hole to crawl into and survived the fatal wound, by surpassing death and becoming an elder.”

“I don’t know if that can be possible. The death that dragons need to surpass to become elders is natural death, not being killed.”

No matter how Kinryuu thought about it, it didn’t make sense. Did someone find Valromdor and heal him? Did he survive on his own and evolve soon after? What was the cause, and what was the effect?

Did he survive because he evolved, or did he get a chance to evolve because he survived? That was the question.

Even before death, Valromdor was known for being extremely durable, which was why he was a bomber. Besides his natural lightning and sleep magic, he was a master of explosion magic and defensive barriers. All powers that should’ve grown tremendously after he became an elder.

Kinryuu wanted to find a motive, a reason, and an explanation for how Valromdor ended up. Sadly, someone had just erased everything out of existence.

This wasn’t a problem that Kinryuu had ever expected to face. A whole elder dragon getting erased in the blink of an eye before he could even get to speak a word. Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveI-Fire.ɴet

The mystery of Valromdor’s case and motives might remain unsolved forever now, but Kinryuu had a second problem.

In front of tens of powerful dragons, Arad had wiped out an elder in the blink of an eye. Magic dragons are known for being stronger than Chromatic and Metallic dragons, but not like this.

Kinryuu honestly didn’t know if he should’ve expected less. He already knew that Arad had assaulted Sylph’s heaven on his own. He knew that Arad bagged an elder drakaina as a juvenile, and he knew far better than anyone that Alcott’s son was going to be a bigger problem than his father.

On top of that, Arad wasn’t just Alcott’s son, but he was also the child of that drakaina, the Void Empress. This new news explains a lot of Arad’s power; he came out of two rabid monsters known for pissing on reason itself.

Arad was the son of a man who stood above most dragons, and a drakaina who stood above most gods.

They knew of Arad’s harrowing power beforehand, but seeing it in person was far more terrifying.

“I’ll figure Valromdor’s story later. For now, you’ve gone and scared every soldier I have. No one wants to stand anywhere near you; they are even willing to guard Alcott instead.”

Malina smiled beside Arad, “They know that guarding Arad makes no sense. No amount of bodies would be able to stop him.” She leaned on Arad’s shoulder.

Many of the soldiers looked weirded out that she was staying with a dragon that was the child of Alcott and had many Chromatic drakainas as wives, but now, who is laughing? She might’ve been lucky to be at the right time and place to be with him, but luck is a part of life.

Those dragons might fear Arad; they might hate him, but they can’t deny his power, and they can’t deny Malina’s rights as his wife. Why does he have too many drakainas around him? Why did Linda decide she wanted to live inside his stomach? Because he was too powerful, and he had proven it by erasing a whole elder in the blink of an eye.

Kinryuu sighed, “They aren’t there to protect him. The soldier’s job is to keep up with Arad and make sure whatever he does doesn’t destroy or harm the civilians. You saw how the castle got destroyed. We don’t want that kind of raw power in the middle of a city.”

Kinryuu was right; he and his soldiers weren’t Arad’s enemies. They just didn’t want him starting a fight in the middle of the fortress and causing a lot of collateral damage.

“I make sure no one is around.” Arad looked at Kinryuu with a passive face and got a sigh as a reply. “But you still destroyed the castle and turned the area into a boiling crater. I know no one used that place, but come on, don’t just blast places to ash.”

Alcott, who was sitting on his own couch to the side, shook his head with a smile.

“Come on, old friend. You don’t honestly think that brain-dead lizard would’ve peacefully surrendered. He would’ve blown the castle anyway, and you might’ve even had casualties among your men. Arad just kept the damage to a minimum.”

Alcott was right. Elder dragons aren’t something that can be underestimated. Gamond was able to kill her entire world; she had forced an ice age into existence and wiped all life from the surface. No one can tell the extent of damage that an elder copper dragon could bring, and the fact that Arad killed him without sinking the whole fortress down was a miracle.

Arad’s actions would’ve been rash if Valromdor were a great wyrm, but he was an elder.

Loki returned seconds later with several more papers for Kinryuu. “Valromdor had disappeared, nothing. His body had been evaporated, and the clerics say that Bahamut doesn’t have his soul.” Loki’s eyes shifted toward Arad.

“Bahamut says that you gave the soul to Kali.”

Arad nodded, “Of course, she is the one who told me about that bastard and asked me to kill him. I’ll send the soul to her. Why would I let it go to Bahamut?”

Kinryuu stood, “Wait, you snatched a soul that was headed to Bahamut? You can do that?”

By the second, the extent of Arad’s power keeps getting more appalling and terrifying. Not even Valromdor’s soul survived the encounter, and they didn’t know that Arad could chase his enemies to hell.

“I can sense and interact with souls. Touch, shatter, and snatch them. Of course, the extent of what I can do depends on the power of the soul I’m trying to manipulate. Powerful souls are massive and tough, hard to manipulate, and weak souls are too fragile and would shatter the moment I touch them. So I can only work safely and efficiently with souls in the middle.”

Arad wanted to discuss the matter of souls with Kinryuu for a while and see what else he could learn from the old man, but sadly, they didn’t have the time for that.

Mary the Metallic Queen was already sitting on her throne and waiting in the throne room.

When Arad walked through the gate, he found himself standing in a strange place. One knock after the other, the hums of an anvil filled the air, sending pulses of magic across the air.

He froze, his eyes dancing rapidly and trying to find where the sound was coming from. Alcott and everyone else didn’t seem to have heard it; he was the only one aware of its existence.

“Another failure, I knew I didn’t have enough time to make anything of value.” The Metallic Queen, Mary, stood with a passive face and looked at the blade resting on the anvil.

It was a large sword without a handle, just a burning, red-hot hunk of steel, faintly glowing with power. She reached down and lifted it with ease, giving the sword a disappointed stare before throwing it away.

The blade spun in the air, hit the ground with a loud ring, and bounced toward Arad.

Arad reached forward, throwing his hand to catch the sword before it could hit anyone, but the blade passed right through his hand.