The dragon's harem

Arad himself couldn’t believe what he was hearing; the heart had enough power in it to make him an adult dragon. At long last, he can now see what a void dragon is supposed to be like.

Granted, after becoming an adult, he still has to grow to a mature adult, then an old dragon, an ancinet, a wyrm, then a greatwyrm, face the twilight and survive to reach past it and achieve the peak of his kind.

Arad could feel it; his bones, flesh, and even mind had started transforming into something else. Adult void dragons aren’t supposed to remain in the mortal world, but the system, not this pale angel, is the one allowing them to stay.

Of course, Arad didn’t forget to ask the important questions, but the answers he got only opened the door for more questions. He asked about the Dracorage Mythic, the meteor that is supposed to drive all dragons mad.

The Dracorage Mythic exists, and it is approaching the universe itself. Soon, all dragons in all of the worlds inside it would be driven mad. There is a bloody war raging outside the universe between the abominations and the gods. The abominations are protecting the Dracorage Mythic meteor, and the gods want to destroy it.

Currently, Arad is still too weak to join the war. Nyar, the abominations’ father, is currently severely weakened and injured; the power he showed doesn’t even match what the healthy generals are capable of doing, and those are entangled in war with the higher gods.

In short, Arad doesn’t need to worry about the Dracorage Mythic yet. What he needs to worry about is another thing: his job. Usually, void dragons are sent to the frontlines, and the females are left to carry the small worlds inside their stomachs and protect them.

The job Aria gave him instead of sending him to the frontlines is that of a liberator. He should search for small worlds just like his own that have been overrun by abominations and free them.

Whenever he frees a world, he can then swallow it into his stomach and assign someone to be the world’s god, and thus save it. Those worlds would grant Arad more power, and the more of them he collects, the quicker he can grow.

This meant that Arad had been hasty in trying to create a small world inside his stomach. Apparently, it was now his job. But when he asked Aria, she told him that usually the gods give the void dracaenas worlds that the angels liberated to protect. He, on the other hand, has a much larger stomach than most and would be able to contain more worlds, and this is his job now.

Aria also mentioned that inside his world, only two Prison Cubes are remaining. One is with Gojo, his brother, and the other is with Altair. The Dracorage Mythic is a weapon made by Nyar to make sure the void dragon population drops. The whole goal of it was to reduce the number of void dragons.

He asked about his brother, and she told him that Gojo’s job is to seek the arcane wave of a long-lost time. If he found it, he’ll probably be able to build a weapon powerful enough to shatter the Dracorage Mythic meteor.

Altair’s position surprised him. Aria said that Altair would have been granted a world by her, but things changed. She is now with him, and he is responsible for her.

First, he is the one who should give her a world to protect. And second, with them being able to interact, Aria expects them to focus on making more void dragons. And while he is liberating the worlds, if he happens to find any stray void dracainas, he should do the same with them. Altair’s cube should be enough to allow him to approach them.

And of course, even if she didn’t think that mentioning it was necessary for Arad, she still made it clear that he should employ common sense and decency while dealing with them. Most of them aren’t strong enough to pose a threat to him, but many are capable of taking a limb or two down with them, at least the head of one of his wives. The most dangerous part is that he’ll be planting the seeds of his death.

Of course, he asked about what he should do with any void dragons, and Aria said that the army always needs more soldiers. So they’ll be sent by her to safe worlds to grow.

There was only one detail that Aria stressed a lot. He can’t use his full power in the worlds he is trying to liberate. Because he is there to kill the abominations living there and save those worlds, not destroy them.

Arad was quite worried about the prospect of having to clear whole worlds from one side to another, killing thousands and thousands of abominations. That can’t be an easy task, and if those worlds don’t bring him any benefit, saving them might be… a tall ask.

It was then that Aria informed him that saving those worlds, in a sense, was growing his power. The void dragon’s power relates directly to how much matter they have stored in their stomachs.

Whole living worlds would provide him with mana for magic, and the dead worlds would fuel his nuclear engine. Even barren asteroids can be useful, so he shouldn’t pass on them if he has space in his stomach.

Arad looked at his hands. Inside this dream, he can’t do much but listen to Aria explain things. This dream should be happening while he is asleep and evolving.

“Say, so if I understand it right. I should fly up, leave the world, eat asteroids, find a new world infested with abominations, kill them all, and swallow that world to protect it, and then repeat.” He lifted an eyebrow, “Do I get that right?”

Aria looked at him and nodded. [That is your job, yes. It won’t be easy.]

“Where do I find those worlds? I’m not flying alone in the middle of nowhere for years with my wives stuck here… in the world, our world?” He shook his head, “So? Anything to help? Otherwise, find someone else for the job. I’d rather spend each night with my wives.”

[At least it’s better than being sent to the frontlines. You might never see your wives again if that were the case.]

Arad stood, glared at her, and lifted a hand. “You might be misunderstanding something. Do you know why I fight? I fight to be able to live with my wives and children. On the front lines, my enemy isn’t the abominations; it’s the gods who aren’t letting me get back to my home.”

[You’ll turn against the gods?]

“Another misunderstanding, I’m not the one turning against them. They are the ones turning against me by sending me there.” He looked around, “So? I’m not going to the front lines, but cleaning the worlds inside the universe. Good, got a way to keep my wives close?”