The dragon's harem

As Tina stood beside the bed, Arad finally pulled out of Merlin. The wizard’s body convulsed as a white stream escaped her, followed by several twitches, moans, and groans. She spared the wizard a quick bow and immediately turned to Arad, ignoring the several maids who rushed from the walls to clean both Merlin and Arad.

“You called me.” She said, and he nodded, “Just stay still, I’ll look into something.” Arad’s eyes flashed with a purple light, and suddenly, Tina felt a bit uncomfortable.

“This…is a bit strange.”

“I’m looking at your soul. Powerful souls won’t even feel it, but weaker souls will.” Arad replied, and Tina nodded.

“A sense of dread, fear, and impending doom. It feels as if I was suddenly stripped down against my will.” She stood still, looked around, and noticed one of the maids looked at her with a tired, pale face.

Arad looked at the maid, and she approached. “He tested it on me earlier, I have to agree. Even if I don’t mind stripping here… that just felt terrifying.”

“Souls are vulnerable, the people’s truth and weakness. It’s something that you’ll want to hide more than anything else.” Arad kept looking at Tina, “Unless you’re strong enough.”

The maid returned to her post, and Tina nodded. “This feels awful, so please hurry. Me willing to let you look at my soul or not, I still can’t shake the dreadful feeling.”

Soon, Arad finished looking at her soul. “I’m done.” And Tina felt a deep sense of relief when he closed his eyes to the point that she felt on her knees, shivering.

“So…” She looked at him with a pale and worried face, “What did you see?”

Arad reached forward, “Not here.” He put his hand on her head, and she suddenly disappeared in a gust of black smoke. Arad, who was sitting on the bed with two maids cleaning his lower side, closed his eyes.

Tina found herself standing on a patch of grass, staring at the night sky. But the more she looked at the stars, the more disturbed she felt; something about them was wrong. Suddenly, Arad appeared beside her, “You’re inside my stomach.”

Tina jumped as he had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. And when she caught her breath and looked around, she finally asked, “Those aren’t stars, are they?”

“No, they are masses of energy, [Ho-white Nova]s. Each can blow a city to ash.” Arad looked at the sky with a smile, “I used all of my reserve in the Beastland, so I’m building more.”

“I see…” She then turned toward him, “So? How is my soul?”

Arad crossed his arms, “Honesty, bad. Shattered into many small fragments, I can’t even figure out what’s holding your soul together.” He looked at her once more, and the dreadful feeling assaulted her mind; this time it was several times stronger, and she cried.

Arad immediately stopped looking at her soul, and she gasped for air. Being inside his stomach with nowhere to run only amplified the fear caused by Arad staring at her very being.

“Are you okay?” Arad asked, and she nodded, “That was… strangely horrifying.” She looked pale, exhausted and utterly spent. But she still managed to sit and looked at him. “Please explain what you say, and… don’t look at my soul here. I might die of a heart attack next time.”

Arad sat down in front of her. “Imagine a lot of shattered glass shards all pressed into a ball; that’s how your soul looks.”

Suddenly, several empty wine bottles appeared in front of him. He shattered them and then pressed them into a ball with gravity magic. “Just like this.”

“A normal soul should look smooth, right?” She asked, and Arad silently nodded.

“I once had my human soul cleaved in half by that abomination Vorvadoss. But yours is shattered, as if smacked with a hammer.” He scratched his head, “I can think of several ways to repair it, but none seem promising.”

“Like what?”

Arad went on and explained all of his theories.

The first was that if Tina was a succubus, feeding several times would’ve fixed her soul. The same if she were a magic dragon, cultivating some souls would’ve made it easier for her soul to recover. But those solutions were out of the question. She is neither a succubus nor a drakaina.

Another solution would’ve been to turn her into a succubus, at least to something close. Merlin had managed to mix succubus blood into her own. But that probably was only possible with Merlin’s powerful and healthy high human soul. Tina might end up dead.

Turning her into a vampire or a werewolf might work, but he fears that due to the damage to her soul, she might end up going insane and turning feral. That’s a risk they shouldn’t take.

He could also give her the divine portfolio of the four seasons, or at least one of them. But he bets that such a transformation would put a huge load on her already fractured soul and might kill her.

Tina grew paler and paler with each theory, but soon Arad smiled, “While I can’t find a way to fix your soul right away. Since I can see souls now, that only means that I should be able to manipulate them soon.”

“If just you looking at my soul is this scary, I doubt I’ll be able to handle you fondling it.” She threw her head back and then looked at him, “When that time comes, even if I look scared, just do it. It’ll be over anyway.”

Arad nodded.

Outside, Arad opened his eyes. The maids who were cleaning him were already standing in their spots at the wall. He threw his hand forward, and Tina appeared out of nowhere.

“How did it go?” Merlin, who lying on the bed beside Arad, asked.

Tina looked at her, the two frustrated Horrors beside her, those two clearly didn’t get to enjoy anything. “As well as expected.” Arad sighed, and Merlin smiled at Tina. “We’ll have to keep looking. Don’t worry.”

Tina shook her head, “No, I would’ve have asked for more.”