The dragon's harem

Plum sat on her throne, pulling through agony and pain to teleport another helper through her roots. This time, she aimed for someone who had very little mana and talent for magic, but still held enough power to make this abomination cry blood.

A witch so ancient and powerful that she almost rivaled the spirits, being hailed as a bringer of death, plagues, and doom.

As Plum’s throne burned with viridescent conflagration, a massive shadow emerged from the tree’s highest branches. Green, angry, and overpowering. Even if it looked small compared to the World Tree’s titanic branches, the creature still drew all attention to itself with a deafening roar.

The plum forced rustled beneath her shadow, and the wet mud turned green with mold. Poisonous ivy grew between the logs, and the tendrils of thorns and vines stretched rapidly across the foliage.

Dragons naturally morph nature with their presence. The foliage, the ground, the air, and the very living beings of the world seem to bend and twist to accommodate the dragon’s power and magic. The older the dragon, the stronger that effect is.

So the moment she appeared, the world started bending around her existence.

“If you’re a disease, then I got us the best witch doctor I know.” Plum smiled as she heard Claug’s deafening roar shaking the air and felt her magic taking hold on her domain.

Usually, Spirit Queens would banish any dragon that dared to set their domain close to their land. But she would never mind having Claug around, especially when dealing with a disease abomination.

Plum was quite happy. Having Claug felt reassuring for a few reasons. She first saw her as a wise elder, someone older and worthy of not just respect, but admiration as well.

Claug sat on the branches, appalled and disgusted by what she was seeing. This entire world was sick, consumed by an incurable plague. But what horrified her more was the lack of any other dragons.

All of them had long been killed and wiped off the face of this world. They must’ve been a threat that the abominable plague wasn’t willing to deal with.

Just standing there, she could feel her dominion over the world easily spreading. There was no competition around, not even from Plum. It felt strange, and felt a bit weird. As far as Claug knew, Plum was now allowing her to walk all over her, which was weird for a Spirit Queen.

“Plum, are you okay?” Claug clawed her way down and looked through the branches, listening to Plum’s voice from the depths of the World Tree.

After a long moment of silence, Plum replied in a hoarse voice.

“As you can see, we’re losing against an abominable disease. You’re our only hope of killing or curing it. So, spread your magic as much as you want. I don’t care anymore.”

“Besides, I’m too burned and exhausted to spread my magic any further. Help yourself until I recover a bit.”

Hearing that, Claug climbed back to the top of the World Tree and got a good look at the cataclysmic fight between the Spirit Queens.

She didn’t want to get anywhere near them. Even with her powerful body, she won’t stand a chance against someone like Gaia who throws mountains like they are pebbles.

It would be best if she stayed back, watched, and attacked from range. Possibly using poison.

The plague itself was similar to her ultimate disease as well. A sentient colony of bacteria that trains viruses like hound dogs. It invades the body, then uses those tamed viruses to alter the DNA of the host, turning them into the abomination.

From what she can see from this distance, the Spirit Queens all have turned into this one looking mundane woman. So she thinks that’s either the abomination’s true face or the first victim it infected.

Either way, that didn’t matter. What mattered is that this abomination is deadly to anything alive, and the spirits beneath her are only alive thanks to the World Tree hiding them and filtering the air.

If they got out to fight, they’ll turn into the horror’s minions.

Claug could already feel the abomination trying to infect her. But, she was fine, because her own disease was fighting for her and easily dominating the abomination’s creation.

She growled. “Humph! Only Arad is allowed inside me, you filthy abomination… and since I’m breathing, Zephyr. And food, and water… and… and… doesn’t matter. I decide what gets into my blood, and you aren’t one of what I allow.”

After huffing and puffing for a few seconds, she focused once more.

Trying to look closer at the situation using her disease, Claug knew she didn’t have much time for study or experiment. She has to find a cure and obliterate this abomination before Undine falls.

That was problematic because this is a disease she had never seen before, and so experimentation and testing are needed to develop a cure. She isn’t some kind of magical priestess spitting rainbow divine magic to cure the incurable like a unicorn.

She could hear the abomination’s thoughts, and they were as mad and insane as she expected. This demented being was far different from any abomination she had ever heard about, which only made Arad’s mother’s words more terrifying.

Abominations are all unique in their own way because they are beings from before order and logic were born.

^Bacteria, we start with one…^

^Bacteria, then we become two…^

^Bacteria, now we’re four… now we’re eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four…^

^Bacteria, then we become stronger…^

^Bacteria, The world is ours!!!^

^Bacteria, for Nyar’s glory!!!^

^Bacteria, for our survival.^

Claug smiled. She then opened her wings and slowly flapped them as her heart raced, beating like loud drums. She had a plan, a simple one, but a plan nonetheless.

With a single flap of her powerful wings, she flew into the sky and opened her massive jaw, breathing a titanic green cloud of toxic gas and poison, rapidly spreading it all around Plum’s world tree.

As always, preventive measures must be taken first. Even if Claug doesn’t have anything that could eradicate this abominable disease yet, she still has many things that could slow or even prevent it from infecting more people.

“Plum! Send your toughest spirits out and have them bask in my poison. Once they get sick with my filth, that thing won’t be able to affect them. We then can assist Undine in neutralizing the queens.”

Claug smiled. “For the price of my help, we’ll talk about it later.”

Plum chuckled. “So you can gouge me? Why not?” She then quickly sent a silent message to Claug through magic.

^But really, what do you want? I’ll be broken and exhausted after this, and I won’t be able to pay anything of worth.^

Claug’s answer came shortly after.

^I don’t know yet. But the most I might ask for is you. You’re a newly born World Tree, so I want to inspect every nook and cranny of your body, I want to watch your every move and document it so it helps my research in poison and alchemy.^

Plum giggled. ^Aren’t you already doing that? Don’t think I don’t know that you’ve been closely watching me with your scrying orbs.^

Claug smiled. ^You didn’t tell me no, so I kept going. Now, I would want to make it official. If you refuse, I’ll do it anyway.^

^Got yourself a deal. But we’ll discuss the details later.^

Hearing Claug’s roar, all of the fairies and spirits hiding inside the world tree paled. As they looked at the green cloud of deadly poison, they could see the trees in it wither and die, and none of them trusted Claug enough to jump in there.

“To all spirits! Follow Claug’s orders and go save your queens!”

As the order boomed from the massive branches, all of the spirits rushed out in a single wave. They didn’t trust Claug, but they believed in Plum’s wisdom. Besides, they won’t sit down and watch their queens die.

If the fairies are to lose, they’ll drown in a sea of their own blood first.