The dragon's harem

Chapter 1482: Tina’s Advice on Dragons

Sylph slowly moved, glancing at Arad with one eye. Her wounds started healing, the ruptured muscles grew back as wood fibers and vines, coiling and contorting to reform her shattered jaw and fix the holes covering her body.

”This is a draw.” Sylph said with a smile as she took a step toward Mathilde, ”I don’t think so. I’m even giving more divine magic than before. But look, she can’t heal quickly enough.”

Mathilde fell from the wall, her wounds smoking as they slowly healed, ”This is what happens...” Mathilde growled, ”When a person abandons their mortality, their humanity, their elvish pride, honor, and creed. Becoming a monster.”

Sylph smiled, ”You’re calling me a monster?” She giggled, her eyes burning with a disturbing red flame. ”Come on, they aren’t as bad as I.”

While everyone saw Sylph and Mathilde standing face to face, what Arad saw made more sense. A massive, bushy tree with endless thorns and vines whipping around a mass of writhing feet.

Mathilde’s true form was harrowing, but Sylph was even more scary, massive, and eldritch. She drew power straight from Yggdrasil, unfiltred, primal divine magic.

”You two can stop fighting. It is Mathilde’s loss.” Arad stood and jumped into the arena. ”Sylph filters Yggdrasil’s divine magic before sharing it with the angels.”

He stood between them, ”The more of that power you use, the faster you’ll turn into whatever Core had turned into, right?”

Sylph smiled, shutting down all of her divine magic. ”Well, as long as I keep to a normal level, around what she can do.” She pointed at Mathilde, ”I’m fine, but going further, slowly accelerates my transformation. Or you can say that I’m like a filter that is slowly getting clogged.”

He looked at Sylph, back at Mathilde, then threw a glance at Cerilla, ”I see, so there is a golden time when you can stop, get all the benefits of Yggdrasil’s power without turning into a monster.”

Sylph shrugged, ”That’s why I must retire, Cerilla would have to retire as well when the time comes.” She looked at Mathilde, ”Sorry, but as Arad said, the more we fight, the less time I can give to Cerilla to get used to the divine power.”

”That explains why you didn’t fight on the frontlines in the past century.” Mathilde stood and cracked her neck, trying to set some of her bones straight.

”I mainly torture abominations for information lately. I’ve taught Elis how to do it, but she is quite sloppy, which strangely enough makes her better.” Sylph started floating, ”And sorry for this, but I have to leave if we don’t need to fight. I need time to stabilize and rest, and Elis has some humans who need help talking. I’ll see you later.”

As Sylph disappeared, Mathilde sighed, ”Damn it, so I’ve lost.” She looked at Arad for a second, ”I already knew she was holding back, but not why. I expected the effect to be just tied to time, not how much power she uses.”

Arad looked back at Cerilla, ”That’s one answer for you, and many questions for me.” The two of them flew back to the seats, and Arad landed beside Cerilla. ”It seems that our job here is done, mostly.”

”You’re talking about Plum?” Dalla asked, and Arad shrugged, ”She is slowly moving her real body to my small world. I’m talking about you, Cerilla.” He looked at her, and Cerilla flinched.

”Me? I’m fine, I think. The itch from eating that lemon didn’t fade fully, but it should do with time.”

”I’m not talking about that. Talk with the angels that Sylph gave you, make sure that you also talk with Jasmine and find a way to locate the cult, we can’t count on Elis and Sylph to solve that, because it is our problem as well.”

Cerilla nodded, ”Yeah, we can’t just pray and wait, we must take action.” She smiled, ”And I’ve already got a plan to bait them out. For extracting information, I’ll count on you.”

They had finished everything here, and Sylph made Cerilla her replacement, Yggdrasil got Plum to live inside Arad, and Jasmine had gotten what she wanted. He even managed to get Yggdrasil to help Tina by sending her and him into a world where she can be helped.

Now, Arad knew that the next place he had to go to should be either the Star Mountain or the Flying Fortress.

The Chromatic dragons, or the Metallic ones. That was the question, and knowing how those two see each other, it doesn’t matter which side he picks; the other would get mad. And he only got three incarnations left to use.

Should he send one to each kind at the same time, or should he just pick one? Dealing with humans, elves, or anyone else is far less complicated than dealing with dragons.

Even though sending one incarnation to each dragonkind seemed like the clear option, Arad knows very well it could end badly. He can’t spread himself too thin, not when dealing with dragons, and not when dealing with the Queens.

Mary, the Metallic Dragon Queen, is casually lifting a steel continent, flying it across the sky while camouflaging it so that not even he could tell until crashing into it.

The other one is Lola, the Chromatic Dragon Queen, also known as the Rainbow Dragon of the world’s end, because the last time she fought, people thought the world was about to end.

Arad had even heard rumors that Lola had enough raw power to fight all of the Spirit Queens at once, which was terrifying since he had met the queen before at Alina, but he didn’t sense any power from her.

”What are you thinking about?” Arad blinked and looked at Cerilla, who wasn’t the one who spoke. He closed his eyes and opened them again, finding himself looking at Tina across the dinner table.

”The Draconic Queens, it is time I went to them.”

Tina frowned. ”Dragons aren’t easy to deal with.”

Arad smiled, ”I know, I’m one after all.”

Tina looked at the bowl in front of her, running her spoon across the edge. ”You’re a different kind of dragon, a cunning one, but a one that cares. Something about you doesn’t make sense, it is as if you’re not a dragon, but a human wearing a dragon’s skin.” She stared at Arad’s burning purple eyes.

”You’re different from someone like Claug or Gamond, even Eris feels more like a dragon than you.” She blinked, ”They see us humans as lesser creatures, even though they are consciously aware and actively fight against that.”

”How would you know that?” Arad looked back at her, and she smiled.

”They act normal around us humans, but they raise their guard when with other dragons.” She pointed at him, ”You used to glare at everything, you don’t care if it is a human, a cat, or a dragon, you look at them all the same. Even now, you’re glaring at me with your eyes glowing purple.”

Arad tried to relax his face, ”I can see that I’m the problem, not the other dragons. Should’ve told me before that I glare at things too much.”

”No, when dealing with a dragon, that is a good thing. It means you’re taking us weak mortals seriously; you won’t drop your guard even against me.” She smiled, ”It means you’re noticing me, you’re noticing us, you won’t forget about us when you fight.”

Arad froze and Tina kept talking, ”If Claug was forced to fight near Alina, she’ll kill a lot of citizens as collateral damage without even knowing. It is easy to say that ants have rights and avoid stepping on them when they are obvious, but when in a fight, no one will check the ground beneath their feet.”

”I’m sure Gamond could...” Arad was about to say something, but remembered that Gamond had killed her entire world, with all of its people. Claug was known as the plague drakaina for a reason, and even Eris is a vampire and a demigoddess of murder.

”The queens will see you as an equal, but never trust them with anyone else. If not from malice, then from ignorance, they are dangerous.”