The dragon's harem

Crawler reached toward her lower back and pulled multiple long, thin, and black threads of silk. Between her fingers, the threads looked fragile and weak, but soon, she weaved them into a strong cord and handed it to Liliana.

That wasn’t what Liliana expected. What Crawler handed to her looked like yarn, not silk, but she could tell just by touching it that it was smooth, strong, and dense with magic. It can’t be used to make silk clothes, but it could be used to knit some warm clothes similar to cotton or wool.

“Can’t you make it thinner?” Liliana liked the thick, wool-like threads, but she wanted something thin and nearly invisible to use in her traps. And just seconds later, Crawler handed her a string thinner than a hair, sharper than a blade, and stronger than steel wires. Just touching it was enough to give Liliana a small cut on her fingers, and her skin was harder than that of normal people.

Seeing that, Liliana understood that Crawler can also change the properties of her silk the same way she does to her poison. She had limits, of course, but nowhere near what normal spiders have.

Gojo looked at them with a smile, and then went into his bags, pulled a few pieces of dried meat to eat, and watched the two work. Crawler made the silk, and Liliana used it to weave nets, treads, and wires for her traps. She even asked Gojo to make her some knitting needles to make a few mittens and hats.

What surprised Gojo more was that Crawler saw Liliana knit one hat, then copied her and made a hat on her own using her fingers in less than a minute. This only proved one thing to Gojo, and it was that the only reason Crawler didn’t act human was that she never had any contact with humans.

Crawler will eventually learn how to behave and speak; she may even be able to socialize well. She was much akin to Meryem, the ant Queen that Arad had.

Hours passed, and Gojo rested enough to be able to move well. He didn’t recover his mana yet, but he was itching for a warm dip in the hot spring, so he headed out and left Liliana to keep playing with Crawler.

On his way, Gojo picked Arad, and the two of them made their way deeper into the cave. Haru, on the other hand, joined Liliana and Crawler to see what those two were up to. She was surprised to see them getting along pretty well, even though it was a bit twisted. Crawler was still a bit terrified of Liliana, since she was with Gojo, and Liliana still only saw Crawler as a useful pet, like a sheep or a hen.

“You two… we need to get dinner going and go to the spring. Move it.” She tapped Liliana on the shoulder and then took a deep breath. “And, stop abusing her too much. She is still starving, in pain, and should be resting.”

Liliana sighed and stood, and so did Crawler. Haru was right, the two of them had to stop working and focus on something else, which had just happened. “Her briders are back.” Haru pointed, and Crawler rushed out, seeing a small mountain of monster carcasses outside. Her briders were there waiting for her, and one of them was missing; it probably died in the hunt.

Without wasting a second, Crawler shifted into her large spider form to start eating. She couldn’t do that before when she was injured, but now that Haru and Liliana healed her, she could transform just fine.

Seeing Crawler’s true form, Liliana took a few steps back and gasped. This was nothing like any brider she saw before. Crawler was massive, dwarfing the other briders. She expected Crawler to just be a unique brider, but she seems to have been wrong.

Crawler was the true monster, and the briders were nothing but lesser creatures that spawned from her. It was the same thing with wyverns, drakes, and dragons. A dragon isn’t a shiny, rare wyvern or drake; they are the true monster, with the other two being lesser beings of the same general family.

“When you finish eating, come back inside. We’ll visit the hot spring.” Haru dragged Liliana inside, and they let Crawler eat in peace.

Half an hour later, and deep inside the cave, Arad stood and left the hot spring to find something to eat. Gojo, on the other hand, decided to stay a bit longer to recover more mana and warm his aching bones.

He was left alone in the hot spring, and so he closed his eyes, relaxing for the first time in a while. He had exhausted his mind too much today and needed to turn it off for a while, and so he stayed motionless for several minutes, thinking about nothing.

It was then when he felt something soft fall on his lap, and he didn’t even need to look to know who it was. “Yog, what are you doing?”

On his lap, Yog relaxed in the hot water as if she owned the place, which she did. This entire continent was made by her after all. “I came to check on you.” She leaned on his chest and he sighed.

“You’re naked, get off me.” He tried to push her away, but she felt heavier than a boulder and refused to budge. “Forget about me. I finished negotiating with Entropy, and I can get you out of here whenever you two wish.”

Gojo opened his eyes with a smile. “Really? Then you can give us our power back?”

Yog shook her head, “So you can storm that city in seconds. No. One of the conditions was that I couldn’t mess with anything in Limbo without her approval. You have to ask her, not me.”

Gojo growled. “Yeah, that won’t happen.”

Yog chuckled. “She knew you would want your power back, and she said she’ll let you use it freely here if you apologize and kiss her feet for blasting her throne room.”

Gojo froze for a few seconds, then smiled. “That only include me, then give Arad back his power. I’ll have him storm the city.”

Yog leaned on him. “Do you think Entropy is that dumb? No, she won’t allow that.” She looked around, then turned and reached into his ear to whisper. “Listen, you can’t do anything from here, but nothing prevents you from returning here with your full power later on. Of course, you’ll have to find this continent in the limitless plane of Limbo, but with me marking the place with mana, it should be possible.”

Yog’s body then disintegrated into pure mana, leaving Gojo alone once more.

“That rascal…” He growled, stood, and headed out of the hot spring to find Arad and inform him that they could leave.