The dragon's harem

Merlin sat on the chopped stump of the tree from yesterday as Arad swung his axe at another tree. This one was a bit thin but extremely long, a sprouce tree. With each swing, a large chunk of the tree’s trunk cracked, flying away in splinters.

“That tree is crying,” Merlin said as she looked at him, “Don’t you think your axe is overkill for such a thin tree?”

Arad looked back at her, “Are you joking? This tree is wide, my axe is just too big.” He swung his axe again, “I don’t just cut trees that normal people can’t, I’m a lumberjack, so I’ll chop anything that must be chopped.”

By that time, the tree was on its last leg, another strike and it would fall away from Merlin. Even if the accident from before repeated itself, Merlin is at least ten meters away, and she’ll be fine.

Arad wound up his axe, took a deep breath, and swung with all of his strength. But at that moment, something strange happened. His eyes flashed golden, the veins on his muscles bulged, and his heart rate soared into the sky. His boots dug into the ground as the axe smacked into the tree with enough force to cause a shockwave.

Arad could feel something strange; the woman from the dream was hugging him from the back. As if time slowed down, he could see the massive tree jolt away. The lower part where he was chopping flew away, carried by the impact, it swung upward, spinning the whole tree.

Arad’s eyes followed the spinning tree, noticing that the bottom had flipped in a whole circle and was now coming down at Merlin’s head. He turned around, trying to jump to save her… but his body felt weak, the power that had just surged through his whole body had disappeared, now replaced with an agonizing headache.

Merlin couldn’t even react, she didn’t even notice what happened until the tree was already above her head. It happened so fast that she couldn’t get away, and as Arad watched, the tree came crashing down on her skull, burying her into the ground with a splatter of blood.

“MERLIN!” Arad screamed his lungs out, and the whole village heard him.

But in the next second, the ground tumbled, and the sun in the sky flashed on and off, the trees around him looked like a mirage, and a torrent of memories exploded in his head. Who he was, who Merlin was, who the woman in his head was, and what he should be doing here. But… Merlin is dead…or so he thought, and he was right; she died. That is why the whole Labyrinth shook and lost its grasp on his mind.

A large purple magic circle appeared above Merlin’s corpse, radiating with powerful magic. Her body was pulled from the ground. Skull shattered open like an eye, chest ripped apart, and her spine erect out of her back with viscera spilling out of her open abdomen.

White flames rushed out of her crushed stomach and engulfed her whole body. Her blood stopped spilling, and her organs got pulled into her body; the flesh that was ripped apart evaporated, and new tissues grew in its place. The shattered bones merged together, forming anew from the shattered splinters.

A loud, pained scream gushed from her throat, followed by a dying moan of suffering, but her eyes flashed back to life, and her body was restored. Merlin fell on her knees, shaking uncontrollably from the sheer pain, and soon threw up, barfing shards of broken red glass…no, that was no glass, but the shattered remains of a magic crystal.

“Merlin!” Arad rushed toward her, but she lifted one hand. “The upper floor.” She swung her palm down, and a wave of magic snatched him away, sending his body flying through the sky and through a portal that opened right beneath the sun.

Merlin growled, coughing a mouthful of blood, and glared up at the sky with a sweaty face. Soon, the villagers were surrounding her, holding swords and pitchforks, their eyes all glowing red.

“I’ll admit, you got me.” Merlin barely managed to stand, leaning on the tree. “But… I won’t fall for the same trick twice.” Her clothes burned with magic, changing into her mage robe, and her staff appeared in her hand. She stood, holding the staff with one hand.

“This place is mine! You’ve no power over it.” She growled, but one of the villagers looked weird, his head twisted and turned madly, and he glared at her. “This place is me… I’m no slave, and you’ll not control me.”

In the next second, the village’s head got slashed with a sharp wind blade. All of the villagers charged at Merlin, but in a flash of light, the whole forest burst into flames. “Let’s see who owns the place then.” She flew into the sky and waved her staff, shattering it. This whole area was nothing more than a floor, one of the many floors of the whole maze.

As Merlin flew through the countless layers, trying to reach the highest floor, she checked her magic storage. I’ve lost my extra life… damn it, that crystal took ten years of make. I should’ve made more of it.

Crying about it won’t change anything. That blood crystal was her most prized possession, an artifact capable of both healing and having a slight ability to rewind time on an object. She set it to be active on her body the whole time and surgically had it implanted close to her heart. While Merlin is alive, the spell won’t do anything since she is a living being, but when she dies… her flesh would turn into an object and trigger the spell to revive her.

Of course, reviving like that without the soothing of holy magic was extremely agonizing, but she had her fair share of botched surgeries. To her, the pain was a small price to pay in exchange for a revival.

Soon, Merlin reached the top floor and broke her way into the labyrinth’s control room. “Rebelling against your mommy the moment you were born? What a naughty little thing you are.” She waved her staff, and magic surged around her. “Return Arad’s power to him, or I’ll disassemble you piece by piece.”

****

Arad fell in an open field and gasped for air, the pain in his head had long since faded, by his power was nowhere to be found. Like the last time, he was now limited to the might of a normal human being… or so he thought. The labyrinth had stolen all of his powers, but one thing stubborn refused to leave his soul. The true essence of life force, the one being won’t actively and intentionally disrespect death and mock it by just existing. A mere fragmented shard, but that alone was enough to put a crack into the labyrinth’s control and give him and Merlin a chance to fight back.

^Shi?! You’re awake?^ Arad called in his mind.