The dragon's harem

Chapter 1469: A Threat against a Threat

Mathilde’s disk finally stopped moving, and she lowered it to the ground, letting everyone down. Arad looked forward, and his eyes followed the draconian staircase that extended to the clouds, sticking closely to the mountainside.

”Good, more climbing.” He frowned and turned toward Mathilde, ”Let me guess, she is up there?”

”Yes, flight is forbidden from here; we have to walk out. For security.” She looked at him with a forced smile, and he sighed, ”Then we’ll just teleport up.”

”Wait...we also can’t do that. The century archers would shoot you down.” She scratched her chin. ”Their orders are simple: shoot anything that flies or teleports.”

Arad stared at her for a long moment, and then back at the mountain, ”Fine, then everyone gets inside my stomach, and I’ll pull them out when I reach the top. Walking all the way up would take weeks, so I’ll run and get it done in an hour.”

Diana looked at Mathilde and pointed at Arad, ”Do you want to tell him that what he said is also a problem, or should I say it for you? He never gets angry, but you know...”

Mathilde shook her head, ”Well, first, you can put everyone inside your stomach now. But when you pull them up, that would trigger the archers. They are blind, only sensing movement and spatial magic. They don’t care if it’s an intruder or Sylph herself, they shoot anything.” She then pointed at the stairs, ”There is also a speed limit, and that is just above how a man can run.”

”So you’re saying we can’t fly, we can’t move too fast, we can’t teleport, and I can put everyone inside my stomach to save them from a several-week-long stair climb?” He glared at the stairs, ”You want me to walk, fine, I’ll walk.”

Arad’s magic went out of control as his whole body grew larger, turning into his full draconic form. Enough magic seeped out of his body to even make Cerilla feel a bit sick; this was Arad’s aura when he isn’t consciously trying to tune it down.

”Get inside my stomach. I’ll bring my wives to see Sylph if she wants, but I won’t let anyone put an arrow to my head while doing that.” His voice was loud, deep, and already infused with enough magic that it was enough to make Mathilde’s ears hurt.

This was the dragon that Arad’s enemies saw coming, a wild ball of uncontrolled magic, destruction, and harrowing magical pressure.

”You aren’t going to fight your way in! That’s stupid, those archers aren’t as strong as I, but there are hundreds of them.” Mathilde gasped while Diana patted her shoulder, ”Now this is what I like, we’re kicking the door in.”

Arad glared at them, ”Everyone get inside my stomach. If the Sylph is going to have her men point their arrows at us, I’m pointing mine at her. We came here as guests, not hostages.”

He sucked everyone into his stomach and glared at the stairs. The archers have already sensed his magic and were aiming their bows at him; he could feel their gazes on him. Gazes might be the wrong word, since Mathilde said they were blind. But if they saw him, they might’ve never dared to aim their arrows.

Arad turned toward the mountain and set his front talon on the stairs, cracking them. At that moment, hundreds, if not thousands, of golden divine bolts flew out of the mountain like an artillery rain, all exploding on his head and back in a blinding storm of fire and lightning.

From the infernal hell, Arad’s second talon flew forward, and he took another step, walking out of the fire unscathed. The artillery barrage only grew stronger, pelting him with enough sundering firepower to turn gods into dust, but he wasn’t even flinching, clawing his way like a tank pelted by gunfire.

One of the angel archers pointed his massive bow forward, sweat dripping across his forehead. This had never happened before; usually, one arrow is enough to cripple even lesser gods. What kind of horror had walked into the mountain? The only people who could do this are Cain, Kayden, Yog, and maybe Nyar, but that abomination won’t dare get this close to the domain of the gods.

But this magic didn’t resemble any of them. Besides that, the sound their arrows made when hitting resembled the sound they’ll make when hitting Kayden’s barriers.

The whole mountain shook from the barrage, and soon, a dark wave of magic washed forward, storming out of Arad. The first archer to get hit felt it the strongest, a void roaring inside his head, ^KNEEL!^ before a deadly wave of gravity hit him like a sledgehammer, dropping him to his knees.

The angel wasn’t alone; everyone else who got in Arad’s range was hit at the same time, crushed to the ground, and forced to stop shooting.

But even though Arad had immobilized hundreds of angels at once, the barrage on him only grew stronger as the remaining angels outside his range increased their firing rate.

And then, it came, a deafening roar so powerful that the angels who heard it felt their bones almost cracking, their eyes and ears bled as their thoughts got washed away by the harrowing boom.

Whoever was climbing the stairs, they were massive, immense, harrowing, and utterly powerful to the point it was a threat the mountain had never faced before.

The mountain started shaking under the immense pressure of the barrage, and soon, Arad flapped his wings to start flying, which sent a massive wave of fire and brimstone flying everywhere, setting everything around him ablaze and incinerating it more than the barrage alone could have done.

As Arad flew up the mountain following the stairs, the bolts trying to hit him started to miss, curved away by his gravity magic, and those that hit exploded on his scales without leaving a single dent.

The angels pulled all of the stops away and called everyone else on the mountain to join them, firing all of their divine bolts, trying to drop Arad down, and their barrage finally started to scratch and dent Arad’s obsidian scales.

But they had one problem: Mathilde was their strongest, and she didn’t fare as well as she should have. They who were weaker than her, their attacks didn’t pose enough raw power to pierce his barriers, and those that did were left with so little energy that the damage they did got instantly healed by Arad’s blood magic.

The angels watched in horror as what little scratches they managed to get on Arad’s scales disappeared in the blink of an eye, and he was getting closer, his roars louder, and the pressure of his gravity magic was enough to flatten the trees and force the mightiest of them to kneel down.

Some of the angels were alive for tens of thousands of years, and this only brought back memories of the disasters of the past, mainly Kussuth’s crashout when she stormed Tiamat’s divine lair in hell.

”One dragon alone!” An angle cried a second before his face hit the floor, and his whole body bent like a snake.

”NO! Not again!” One of the older angels cried and flew toward Sylph’s throne, ”Your Divinity! RUN! It’s happening again!”

The angels who stood at the top of the stairs were firing their bolts down at terrifying speed, but all of their attacks were for naught. Arad flew straight through their death rain like a blunderer through rain, not even slowing down.

At the end, Arad shifted back into his humanoid form and landed right at the end of the stairs, sending a massive shockwave and kicking a dust storm that reached the clouds.

The angels looked at the dust in terror, only seeing the two glowing purple eyes approaching while engulfed by a dark shadow. The magic rushing out of the intruder was absolutely sickening, as dense as a wall, and would’ve been utterly alien if they didn’t recognize a whiff of destruction.

One of the angels, their strongest in Mathilde’s absence, rushed forward, holding a massive javelin of divine light. If anyone had to take the charge against this intruder, it had to be him, and angels were fearless fighters.

He moved at blinding speed and swung the javelin at the dark shadow with enough power to rip a continent in half; he wasn’t holding back, and he knew that even that might not be enough.

A hand flew out of the dark shadow and caught the javelin by its sharp tip. The angel froze; it should be possible to stop the javelin, let alone catch it. But what happened next was utterly terrifying, causing even the angels to take a step back.

Arad clenched his fist, and the javelin shattered between his fingers. That was the result of both his harrowing power and Kali’s divine destruction; nothing is undestructible when she is involved.

The last thing the charging angel saw was Arad’s burning purple eyes glaring down at him before getting flung away with a burst of gravity.

”Back away! You aren’t his match.” A woman’s voice boomed from behind the angels. Sylph, the elvish goddess, finally decided to show her beautiful face.

”Did no one teach you that you’re supposed to knock on doors, not kick them down?” She said with a smile, and Arad stared at her with a passive face.

”I was taught to blow the entire house if I saw someone point an arrow at my head from the inside, because that means it’s a trap.” He waved his hand, and his shadow grew into a massive dark cloud. Soon, thousands of blinding stars emerged behind his back.

As Arad’s countless [Ho-white Novas] burned in the sky, it was finally a threat against a threat.