The dragon's harem

In the middle of the throne room, a large round table was brought out and covered with a sheet of silk. The chairs were made from the finest wood cut from Plum’s great tree, and even the sitting pads were carefully picked up.

All that care was for one reason: those chairs were going to be used by the most powerful of spirits of all. The Queens had arrived in Plum’s hall. This is the first time she has to entertain them while dealing with a serious matter.

Plum’s right-hand fairy understood the weight and potential they could get by clearing this world of abomination and conquering it. She also knew that the only reason for Plum to call the other Queens was that she lacked either power or leadership skills to win the war, which was understandable because she had only recently become a queen.

The last thing they want is the other spirit queens to be uncomfortable and end up refusing to help, or ask for a higher margin and cut.

Plum’s right-hand fairy went as far as to search and find what each of the Queens likes and hates to tip the scales a bit. She had prepared a room for each of them with servants, food, their favorite drinks, and even more.

Zephyrs love strong red wine, so giving her a large barrel enough for her to swim in would be best.

Nar loves Zephyr’s air, so giving Zephyr a second barrel of wine so she can give some air to Nar would do the trick.

Gaia has this ancient table game that she loves to play, so getting that and putting some servants to play with her might help.

Rilyeh loves sleeping, so allowing her to just nap in her room as long as her troops help would be best.

Salamander loves music, dancing, and nuts, so making sure she get all of that would help a lot. Besides, she is one of the Spirit Queens of Plum’s world.

Undine loves frozen fish, so finding some for her would make her happy enough to help.

Sadly, the Spirit Queens never went to the rooms that Plum’s right-hand spirit prepared. They instead sat in the throne room and waited for the war table to be put.

When the round table was prepared, the fate of this world was in Plum’s hand and her ability to convince the other Queens to help.

As expected, the Queens agreed to help, but on several conditions. But before getting to that stage, they had to understand the situation and viability of this world, and whether this invasion is worth it.

Sitting around a massive round table, the Spirit Queens discussed their attack plan and changed it as more information about the abomination emerged.

The world they were in now was vast and uncontrollable. They tried to establish their authority over its elements but failed, which only meant that the abomination already blocked that.

They weren’t facing a mindless monster, but an alien mind that had probably spent thousands of years hiding from the gods’ gazes and waiting for Nyar’s orders. If they are to defeat it, they must surpass whatever its eldritch mind can conjure.

“I’ll be easy if we just bring this to the god’s attention. But then, we won’t get to reap the benefits.” Zephyr looked at them. “If we clear it, it’s ours; if they clear it, it’s theirs. So I say we try first, if we fail, we’ll call them.”

All of the Queens agreed. The only reason they are bothering with this world is that they want it. Not necessarily Zephyr and her Queens, but Plum, Salamander, and Undine wanted it to expand their power and the land their fairies could live in.

Worlds and land is free for the taking, for anyone powerful enough to clear it. The harrowing abominations and their appealing, horrid powers aren’t something easy to deal with.

Rilyeh yawned and looked around, rubbing her tired eyes. “First, Gojo calls me to the Arctic sea, and now this. I can’t get a lick of sleep.”

Nar looked at her with a grin and stretched her arms. “You’re growing lazy, aren’t you, Rilyeh. How about I give you a hug, you’ll wake right up.”

“No thanks.” Rilyeh waved her hand and put her head on the table, almost falling asleep.

Gaia threw a glance at her, then turned toward Zephyr, “So boss, what should we do? Can I just go out and rampage there?”

Gaia had a large smile on her face as the muscles all over her body tensed. She almost never gets any action back in the mortal world, but here, she can stretch her legs a bit.

Among the Spirit Queens, Zephyr is the deadliest, Rilyel is the most dangerous, Nar is the most destructive, and Gaia is the most terrifying.

Zephyr controls the wind, all of the air in the world is her domain, and if not for her mercy, not a single living being could breathe. Life could only exist thanks to her presence. That’s why she is the deadliest.

Rilyeh is inside you, all the time, always, and anywhere. She is in your veins, eyes, skin, and guts. Living beings could be up to 70% water, and that’s her domain.

Nar is fire, and fire burns, consumes, and hurts; it’s unstoppable, and when it starts, kingdoms are devoured by the ruthless wave of immolating blaze.

Gaia, on the other hand… just look beneath your feet, that’s her face. No matter how powerful a man can be, how arrogant and dominant a ruler is, or how many blessings they have. Their fists would never shatter the very ground they walk upon.

Zephyr shrugged. “Who are you calling the boss? It’s her who called us here, ask her.” She pointed at Plum.

Plum flinched in her seat, sweat slowly building on her forehead. Without air, her plants won’t grow. Without earth, her roots won’t take hold. Without water, her plants would die. And without fire, her forests would grow so big that they would consume themselves.

Plum knew that she didn’t stand a chance against any of the other Spirit Queens. She is the youngest, weakest, and least experienced.

Plum glanced at Zephyr and then cleared her throat.

“I called you here for a reason. You can’t expect me to figure all of this out myself. I’m the youngest here, so you all should have more experience than I.”

Undine laughed and looked at her.

“They sure do, but we’re no better than you.”

Undine agreed with Plum even though she had been a Spirit Queen for far longer. Zephyr’s Queens are just another breed of monsters. She had tried to fight Rilyeh a few days ago, and the result was pathetic.

Rilyeh took control of Undine’s water, turned her powerless, then turned her into her personal chair for days.

Salamander nodded with a growl. She had confronted Nar before, but instead of fighting, Nar introduced her to Zephyr’s compressed oxygen like a drug dealer.

Now, both of them are addicted to it, so she doesn’t want any trouble with Zephyr or her authority.

Salamander leaned forward and looked around.

“We know almost nothing about this place, our authority means shit, and even normal magic isn’t working. What did that bastard leave for us?”

They all looked at each other for a while, then Zephyr leaned forward. She was the only one here that everyone would listen to, no matter what.

“Fine, I’ve got several plans. But we can’t do any of them.” She jumped on the table and looked at everyone.

That was pretty disrespectful, but it was Zephyr’s way of saying. “I’m going to take the lead, and you probably won’t like many of the decisions I make. But, since I took the lead, you have to put up with them.”

If they aren’t going to endure a bit of disrespect, they probably won’t stomach a rough war decision.

As expected, the other Queens looked happy to see Zephyr jump on the table. Now, they could relax and let her do the thinking and take responsibility for everything. They only have to blindly follow her orders.

“The first plan is simple. Use Plum’s power to kill that thing. I’ll carry her seeds and spread them across the whole world. It’ll take a while, but we’ll give her a powerful enough network to work with.” She turned toward Gaia.

“We’ll then use her roots to teleport our troops all over the place and kill every vessel until that monster shows up. Then we behead him and it’s over.” She sat and took a deep breath.

“The problem is that it will take a lot of time, and our casualties would be immense. Nar, Rileyh, and Gaia know this about me, but I hate getting fairies killed. The only reason I fight alone most of the time is that I don’t want to throw my soldiers into their death for someone else’s benefit.”

Gaia smiled. “So, that plan is scrapped. When is the part where I go out and fight?”

Nar laughed. “As always, our armies would stay back to defend our base. Can I go out and rampage like Gaia? But, I would do better if you gave me some air before.”

Zephyr looked at her with a grin. “You’re just looking for an excuse for me to feed you. You don’t have authority in this world, you’ll run out of energy in a week.”

Rilyeh giggled. “Nar thinks she is Arad.”

Nar pointed at Zephyr. “I just want to suck on her air for a bit.”

As the older queens laughed, Salamander and Undine looked at each other for a second. Riyeh’s comment was interesting.

“What would Arad do in this case?” Undine asked and looked around the table, her eyes stopping at Zephyr.

That was indeed a good question. Arad is the one supposed to be going around liberating worlds just like this. So what will he do in this situation?

“Just what Nar said, he’ll go around and kill every abomination vessel until that monster shows itself.” But then, Zephyr stopped.

“No, wait. He won’t kill them. He’ll probably just blow the planet and use it as fuel to grow his inner world.”

As they were talking, a fairy burst into the room through the window, shouting at the top of her lungs.

“I’ve got an emergency message from the front lines! The women are growing stronger!” She crash-landed beside the table and barely managed to pick herself up.

Patting the dust off her clothes and fixing the flower she had on her hair, she stood and looked at them with a smile. “That’s all.”

They all stared at her, confused.

“What do you mean they are getting stronger? Details, what is happening?” Plum stared at her, and the fairy scratched her shin.

“That, I don’t know. The moment the command noticed them getting stronger, I got sent out. More fairies should arrive later with details.”

Nar pointed a finger at the fairy, and the fairy panicked, jumping a few steps back. “Wait! I’m a messenger; I only do my job. Don’t shoot the messenger, shoot the command!”

But Nar wasn’t pointing at her, but at a small dot that she saw out of the window, approaching.

As she was sparking, they all could hear something approaching them at high speed, like missile, and a second later, another fairy burst through another window. This one hit Zephyr right on the face, and the two of them rolled past the round war table, hitting the hall’s wall.

“They aren’t growing stronger, stronger clones are showing up, the more we kill the weak ones. The east front got overwhelmed, so we retreated to the inner fence of trees.” She shouted, and her mouth was right beside Zephyr’s ear.

“Get off me!” Zephyr pushed her aside with a growl. “Plum, at least build them a landing platform. Or do my face look like one to them?”

Plum cried in the back. “I did! It’s up on the higher branches!” She stood and was about to scold the two fairies, when a third one crashed through the third window and hit Gaia on the head.

“It’s raining fairies.” Rilyeh yawned.

But this time, the fairy was the one to scream in pain. Gaia didn’t move an inch; the fairy instead found herself with a cracked skull and several broken ribs, as if she hit a stone pillar.

Gaia was as hard as a rock, if not harder.

Even though the fairy was bleeding and her eyes spun backward, she still delivered her message.

“The more we kill, the stronger they get. If we kill two wizards, another wizard with their combined power would show up later.” And then the fairy lost consciousness.

Zephyr flew out to catch any other messengers, and Plum rushed to her throne. In the meantime, fairies came in to drag the injured messengers out and treat their wounds.

Whatever was happening outside, it didn’t sound good at all.

Plum could use her power to survey the whole battlefield, but there was a problem. The abomination had somehow managed to block everything and anything that could trigger the gods’ attention. That also meant blocking mana, so Plum and the fairies were working with their limited mana supply.

Once they run out, it’s their loss, unless they find a way to replenish it.