The dragon's harem

Climbing over the hill, Gojo looked toward the horizon and could spot the ruined city. Baldator, the lost late capital of the Arctic, the treasure land that was erased from existence by the white dragon Eraena.

It was circular, hundreds of meters wide, and filled to the brim with houses, massive buildings, and towering spires.

The entire city was surrounded by a titanic wall of black steel, massive watch towers, and gates so massive that they made most human castles look small.

From where they stood, the city walls looked to be at least a hundred meters tall and a couple of dozen meters wide, making it nearly impossible to imagine such a city getting erased from the map.

Looking at it reminded Arad of the metallic dragons’ flying Steel Fortress. It didn’t look like anything that mere humans could build.

But, they couldn’t keep staring at the massive city in awe, because soon they saw something even more distressing walking on its strangely wide streets.

“What… is that?” Gojo gasped, spotting a titanic monster of steel and lightning lumbering through the streets, billowing smoke from its massive shoulders.

“A golem?”

Liliana looked at the city beside him. Since Gojo was a human now, she had better sight than he did, so she had to take a look and see for herself.

What she saw was both strange and unbelievable. Those walking titans of steel were massive, each standing at least ten meters tall and five meters wide, resembling apes as they walked using their arms for support.

What’s more, their bodies looked to be made of several steel plates with lightning crackling between the gaps, heating the titans’ bodies enough that snow never stuck to them or the streets they walked on.

In fact, some of the titans were so hot that the buildings beside the streets were already bent and twisted, having slowly melted over the past years.

Yog just created this place, so Liliana didn’t understand how time passed here or how all of this was possible, but she could only guess that the annoying goddess just copied the entire Arctic Lands with every little detail and mistake being accounted for.

Whatever that goddess did, she certainly didn’t try to make this place friendly at all.

“It looks humanoid in shape, but I’m certain its entire body is made from metal. Those joints aren’t natural, and that smoke coming from its shoulder, it’s probably a chimney.” She frowned, counting how many more monsters were in the streets.

“I guess they are powered by lightning magic and those chimneys are to vent out smoke… but, there are too many of those monsters within the streets.” She turned toward Gojo with a worried face. “We would burn just by getting close.”

There wasn’t just one titanic steel monster, but many of them, all walking mindlessly through the streets like patrols, and they weren’t alone; metallic beasts ran around them like guard dogs, all keeping watch on the long-dead city.

Those small metallic beasts were manageable, looking to be no bigger than a large ram or a small calf, but still, they were probably more nimble and able to chase prey into the buildings, where the large titans can’t.

“Gojo, those don’t look like normal monsters.” Arad pointed, “And sorry to tell you, but I don’t think I can punch or push steel now.”

Arad was strong, and if it were just one titanic steel monster, he wouldn’t mind trying his chance to see if he could take it down. But with more than a dozen of them around the streets, a victory wasn’t on the table.

Arad, even with all of his physical power, was nowhere near the harrowing might of what those creatures could be capable of. He couldn’t tell how massive they were, but they looked to be as tall as the buildings, making them too massive to deal with. Even one of them is a problem, let alone that many.

“Then we just have to evade them and reach the massive spire in the center of the city. I’m certain we’ll find something useful there. Like ancient tomes and scrolls, maybe even how those golems were made.”

That sounded simple enough, but it was anything but. The titanic monsters were one thing, but the small steel beasts would be a pain to deal with. It would take more than sneaking skills to get past those monsters.

Besides, Arad wasn’t known as the sneaky type. He could try, but it probably won’t work.

Gojo was right, but Arad still didn’t agree. Evading those things would be extremely risky, and he is too big to sneak around. Besides, they could end up trapping themselves in that city with those monsters.

Arad and Gojo weren’t even alone; they had Haru and Liliana to worry about. Arad didn’t know about his brother, but he won’t be willing to put Haru in such danger. He won’t be willing to put any of his wives in such danger, let alone one that can’t fight for herself.

“Going in there without having a plan or a way to deal with those things is a bad idea. Don’t tell me we’re not going to encounter any problem.” Arad spoke and Gojo sighed with a sad face.

“You’re right. We can try to sneak inside, but a fight would happen. To deal with them, we have to rely on magic.” He scratched his head.

There were even more problems with that. Even a single fight could alert all of the other steel creatures and end up with them being surrounded, so they had to either be able to face the steel creatures or never set foot in the city.

It didn’t make sense to take such a risk. Gojo did play a lot of risky games, and he was even a user of wild magic, but this wasn’t a bet he should be putting his life and the life of his brother on.

“Surviving there won’t be easy. So for now, let’s get down from this hill and find a place to camp in before night falls.”

Liliana stared at him with a tired face. “Surviving there won’t be easy? It’ll be impossible. One mistake and those things would tear us apart.” She leaned on his shoulder.

“I’m sure you can kill one or two with spells, but then you’ll be drained, and we’ll just end up dead.” She smiled, “But, I’ve got something that might work. As you said, let’s find a shelter quickly. I want a quiet place to work in.”

This was a walled city, and it had to have some built-in siege defenses. If she could just find and crack them out, find out how they work, she might be able to use the city’s defenses to fight the steel creatures.

Arad looked at the sky, and the sun was indeed far past the middle of the sky. “Days are too short here. Didn’t we just wake up?”

“Welcome to the Arctic Lands.” Gojo patted him on the back, walked a bit forward and pointed down. “There is a cave over there, you should be able to see it form here. Let’s settle there for the night.”

He looked at Liliana with a smile. “I’m counting on you for the city.”