The dragon's harem

Chapter 821: Tempus Vobiscum{Time be with you}

As the girls headed deeper into the neighboring kingdom of Asphal, Arad was spending his time inside the secluded cave re-reading the book of gravity magic that Merlin gave him in the past.

Gently lifting his claw, he lifted a small stone and then looked again at the book. ”Left then right and let it go, but reduce the mana input.” He tried that and the stone slowly fell down like a feather.

Arad was experimenting with his magic, playing with it as he had nothing else to do but wait. He thought he had all the time in the world, but he didnʼt know what the near future had in store for him.

The near future, the coming seconds, counted on one hand, a thin man in his early thirties wearing a white lab coat appeared before Arad. He had a troubled look on his messy face, it seemed that he hadnʼt shaved in days, and his eyes were already dark from the lack of sleep. ”Hmm, where I am? This should be a city.” The man slowly turned aside and saw Arad. Arad returned the puzzled look and quickly lifted his claw. ”Idiot! The curse.” He covered the strange man with a thick barrier. ”Iʼll teleport you out, see help...”

”No need to panic. This that you call curse canʼt harm me.” The man lifted his hand, ”Iʼm perfectly, 100%, always, and completely fine.”

”A human canʼt.” Arad glared at him.

”Ah, human, yes. Sorry about that...” The man smiled and Arad gasped. ”You were hiding it, youʼre a dragon...and not a normal one.”

”John Darian Uzziel, a greatwyrm time dragon. You call me John.” His eyes looked around, ”But this is quite the small lair, void dragon kid.”

”I didnʼt tell you that, but I guess you can tell just by looking.” Arad smiled, ”Did you need something from me?”

”Not really. I wanted to warp into a city to resupply before continuing my journey, but there seems to be a huge shift in time-space. Several days ago, a huge monster from the outer world got released and his mere existence had caused a lot of shifts and troubles.” John scratched his head. ”Thanks to that, my usual route had gotten all jumbled up.”

”Do you mean Vorvadoss?”

”You know about the Space Lord? Yeah, it was that bastard. By his nature, he twists the threads of space, those also pull on the thread of time attached to them which is troublesome for everyone, not just me.” John nodded.

”I did face him. In fact, his seal was about to break, so I released him to kill him. Our fight extended to the outer world, I did manage to beat him, but this weird man wearing a yellow coat saved him.” Arad explained.

”So it was you who caused all that mess. Well, it doesnʼt really matter. It was destined to happen; time wouldʼve done its deed even without you.” John looked at Arad. ”Donʼt feel bad about ruining my one hundred years plans, void kid.”

”You sure arenʼt making it easy.” Arad sighed, ”So, what do you want to do now?”

”To you? Nothing, as I said, he wouldʼve gotten out sooner or later. Now I have to re-plan all my trips again, but at least I donʼt need to count the uncertainty of Vorvadoss.” He gave Arad a thumbs up. ”Nice Job, kicking that bastard away.”

”Say, can you accelerate time on my body? Iʼm recovering here, and I want to get out as soon as possible.” Arad asked.

”Let me have a look.” John extended his hand to Arad, ”I see, a soul injury, and a sever one at that. AH! You seem to have a large disease inside your body besides the injured soul, Iʼll pull it out.”

”{You bastard! You know Iʼm alive!}” Doma shouted at him.

”I mean, Iʼve heard of you, queen of curses. But Iʼve only heard bad rumors, if youʼre possessing and cursing this childʼs body, Iʼll have to pull you out.” He stared at Arad with a suspicious face.

”Sheʼs my wife, leave her alone.” Arad said, staring back at him.

”Marrying a curse witch? Todayʼs children are wilding all over the place.” He scratched his chin, ”But, technically Iʼm from this age...no, that should be different.”

”Forget about Doma. Can you accelerate my time?”

”Hmm, I can, but itʼll take a lot of time, and Iʼll need to know you very well, like your whole body so I wonʼt mess up anything crucial. Time is fickle, I wouldnʼt trust myself if I were you.” John pointed a finger to the side and tens of magic circles appeared out of nowhere. ”Do you understand this?”

”I can understand itʼs time magic, but I canʼt even comprehend the first circle. There are over fifty of them.” Arad looked at the magic with a stern face, focusing on it as best as he could. ”This is whatʼs needed to accelerate your time by a minute. Youʼre one massive and powerful dragon. Itʼs quite complicated to manipulate your time. Especially since youʼre a void dragon, youʼre ability to twist space is holding time firmly around you.” John waved his hands and conjured a massive entertained, three-dimensional net.

”You can imagine the threads of time and space to look something like this. They are connected, so when someone pulls on space, it moves time, and the reverse is also true.” He smiled, ”You void dragons manipulate space and thus get a weak time manipulation with it. We time dragons are your opposite, we manipulate time, and this gets a weak space manipulation with it. Thatʼs how I wrap around and why itʼs hard to accelerate your time without you understanding time magic and cooperating with me.”

”Then I need to study time magic.” Arad sighed.

”I donʼt suggest that now. Learning time magic takes a long time, even for talented dragons.” John sat in front of Arad, ”Remember how I said Iʼm of this time? By the count of normal time, I should be around thirty-five years old. But as you might guess, Iʼm far older than

that.”

”Cultivating by eating souls?” Arad nodded.

”Wrong, I havenʼt eaten a single soul since I was born. I reached the greatwyrm stage while traveling across timelines, my total age now is over fifty thousand years. I can freely travel between the past, present, and future, but Iʼm also tied by the laws of causality, so I canʼt do much without causing disasters.” John smiled.

”You came here on the wrong warp, are you sure you should be talking with me then?” Arad asked with a worried face. ”You arenʼt going to change the future or something?”

”I have an innate ability to detect that. Whatʼs your name, dragon?”

”Arad Orion.” Arad replied.

”Hmmmm...” John started thinking for a while... ”That name rings a bell, but Iʼm sure when I heard of you. Mind if I did a bit of investigating.”

”What kind of investigation?” Arad asked with a suspicious face.

”Iʼll be stalking you across time. Trying to figure out what you are.” John smiled.

”{No! Donʼt.}” Doma growled.

”He can do it anyway. Better let him do it with us knowing than not.” Arad looked at him.

”Youʼre free to do that.”

”{Arad! Heʼs dangerous.}”

”What Iʼm saying is that heʼs dangerous either way.”

”Of course, the curse queen doesnʼt trust me. Neither you should, I donʼt even trust myself as I said before.” He waved his hand with a smile, ”See you in a second.” He disappeared and appeared back again one second later. ”That was one hell of a trip...hooo!” He sighed and sat back down. ”Iʼve seen some things. To you, it mightʼve been a second, but to me, it was over

five hundred years.”

”How long did you stalk me?”

”Long enough.” John smiled, ”Arad Orion indeed is a name that rings one massive bell, but I shouldnʼt tell you more than you already know about yourself. And let me be clear, it was you, or should I say will be you, the one to tell me to keep everything a secret.”

”My future self? I too donʼt want to know.” Arad sighed.

”But, as I said before as well, I was looking for supplies.” John smiled, ”Want to trade? I know you have food and goods with you. You told me after all,”

”I didnʼt.”

”You did, not in this timeline, but in others.” John pulled a large purple book out of nowhere. ”Iʼll pay you with this. A magic book about gravity magic, and Iʼll tell you some secrets about your void. Those are the things that wonʼt change much in the timeline.”

Arad thought about it for a second, ”Deal. What do you need?”

”Hereʼs a list, Iʼve already written it.” Strangely enough, Arad had everything that John

wanted.

”This is the book, read it when you have time. But since we donʼt have time in this conversation, Iʼll be telling you about the void now.” John waved his hands, ”Void magic controls space itself. The nothingness that keeps the world together.”

”I can teleport, I know that.”

”What you donʼt know is that the threads of space themselves hold energy, if you rub them

together, they release a bit of that stored energy, and void dragons can change that energy into matter. Which means you can create matter out of nothing, well, the threads of space to be exact.” John showed Arad a diagram of void magic. ”Simplified, but this means that if you drew too much energy from the threads of space, theyʼll rip apart and create a hole with immense gravitational energy that sucks matter in, all in hope of repairing themselves and replenishing the energy they lost.”

”So I can pull energy out of the empty space, but if I do it too much, I cause a disaster.” Arad

nodded.

”Itʼs called a black hole since it looks like a black hole.” John waved his hand, ”Thatʼs why I suggest converting already existing matter into energy instead, leave the thread of space alone unless itʼs an emergency.”

”Iʼm already doing that.” Arad smiled, ”So Iʼm a bit ahead.”

”I already knew youʼre doing that.” John pointed at Arad, ”Youʼre kind can literally turn iron

into gold. Albeit... What can you make now?”

”This.” Arad lifted his claw and a gas started gushing out, cold enough to create a small white

cloud.

”Oxygen, number 8.” John nodded, ”Iron is number 26. Silver is 47 and gold is 79.”

”How much are there?” Arad asked.

”Around 103, Iʼm not sure myself.” John smiled, ”What you should aim for is the element

number 92, thatʼs the cursed metal that feeds your kind. If you become skilled enough to

make it, youʼll have a near-infinite supply of food and energy to use. Imagine turning dirt into it, thatʼs a load of power.”

”Thatʼs still a long way ahead. But I can make breathable air for myself.” Arad smiled.

”But, this isnʼt where the void power stops.” John lifted a finger, ”Those elements also

interact with each other. For example, the last element you made; That gas. If you burned it with the first element you made. Youʼll get water.”

”Burn one and eight together?” Arad created both and burned them with a spark. From the

pale blue flame, a gust of steam gushed out.

”Water vapor? Youʼre right, those two together made water.” Arad gasped, ”Is this

drinkable?”

”Yes, but it has no minerals. Youʼll soon be able to make these minerals to make your water

better.” John stood, ”Train your void to create the elements and learn alchemy to be able to use those elements effectively. Learn the laws of space, time, and motion to be able to use your space manipulation to its fullest.”

John burst laughing, ”Which means you must master all the laws of the world, if you managed such a feat, the world itself would be your playground, molded at your clawtips.”

He pointed a finger at Arad, ”See you later, old friend. Tempus vobiscum{Time be with you}.”

He disappeared.