The dragon's harem

Arad looked at the city getting ripped out of its base and then mended together. The magic Alice used to carry it was a derivative of gravity magic, and one that is similar to what the Queen of the Metallic dragons, Mary, uses to lift the Iron Fortress.

Arad did want to learn it and intended to ask the Metallic Queen about it, but he never expected to see Alice using it, or at least, a weaker version of that magic. She was nowhere near the Queen in terms of magic capabilities.

Merlin had managed to create the labyrinths. Those were entire dimensions filled with life and riches, pseudo-worlds. That was an astounding achievement, and Alice is here showing another level of power that wizards only dream of.

Alice had once told Arad that Yog, the goddess of magic, is very serious about her limitations and rules. If she said that magic can’t be used to do something, it shouldn’t be used to do that thing. All wizards have to play by those rules.

Even Arad himself had felt them. For example, he can try to focus his magic in a small area, but a magical limit stands in his way. He can’t overwork mana to the point of destroying it. He can’t create mana out of souls or out of nothing. He can’t cast a spell that’ll destroy the fabric of time and space here in the mortal world.

Arad could remember the spell Gojo cast inside Betty’s inner world. That [Yarn Ball], Yog would prevent him from casting it in the mortal world for an obvious reason.

All of the rules of magic seem to be built around two main things.

The first is to preserve the fabric of magic and its stability, while the second is to protect the world itself.

Alice told him that while Yog doesn’t allow her to break those rules, the same way she doesn’t allow other mages to break them. As her cleric, she was taught a few secret loopholes in the rules by the goddess herself.

For example, while mortals aren’t allowed to play with the most powerful magic and spells, Yog herself can. She sees the exceptions to her own rules and can use them.

That means that if one willingly calls Yog to watch them cast magic and allow her to observe and take hold upon their very soul, which is casting the spells, she might just allow them to play a bit behind the red line.

Right now, Yog was watching Alice cast magic.

The repair magic Alice used to fix the city, [Be repaired], was such a spell. It worked by reversing time on the damaged object. At the scale Alice used it at, the fabric of magic itself was severely damaged.

Normally, Yog would’ve snatched Alice’s life before she could damage the weave of magic like that. But Yog knew that such damage, while severe, could be fixed by her if she was ready. And thus, when Alice cast that spell, Yog immediately started repairing the fabric of magic.

Arad could see the threads of magic weaving themselves into reality from nothing, manifesting into a tapestry of bright, spiderweb-like light.

Arad could only gaze upon the fabric of magic, not touch it. Only Yog could interact with it. One day, once he becomes a great wyrm or when he surpasses his twilight, he might be able to directly bend the threads of magic.

Now, all he can do is look back at the endless chasm and blast as many monsters as possible. His other incarnation was down in Cronos’s cavern with Zeus, preparing him for his inevitable appearance.

And while this war was burning like hell, Arad’s third incarnation was back at the university.

****

Sitting at the bar’s counter in the middle of Croc’s city, Arad looked at the bartender and ordered a refill. Jack was sitting beside him, a bit tired after a long work day.

Jack’s past days were busy.

“And that’s how it works… what do you think?” Jack sighed, and Arad remained silent for a few long moments.

“You’re asking me as if I’m an expert in divine magic.” Arad looked at his empty mug of beer, lamenting that he couldn’t get drunk no matter how hard he tried. He’ll need to drink a whole lake of the strongest liquors to get tipsy.

“And that’s why I’m asking you. Lydia isn’t much help at all. Her power works only because of her faith; if a mortal believes in their god enough, that god would be able to manifest divine power for them to use. Not me, though.” He turned to his side and glared at the fancy blond man sitting beside them, sipping wine as if he were at a fancy dinner.

Abel looked at Jack with a smug face. “I’ve told you, what Lydia uses isn’t Amaterasu’s dark side. It’s Asmodeus’s rot curse. Asmodeus is Amaterasu’s fallen archon, and Lydia can draw power from her on top of Amaterasu’s divine sun magic. The catch is, since Amaterasu has both an evil and a good side, she allows Lydia to do that.”

Jack sighed, “You’ve already explained that to me, and it doesn’t make sense. If the rot curse isn’t Amaterasu’s eclipse side, then what is it? If I had faith, I would’ve already known. But now I’m stuck, I can’t manifest the power. And I can’t train it.”

“I KNOW!” A loud voice almost shattered the windows, and Tempo closed his mouth with both hands. “Sorry…” He whispered.

“Did you get an idea?” Jack looked at him with a hopeful smile.

“No, but isn’t an eclipse just the sun being masked by the moon? Your power might be related to what Amaterasu’s dead younger brother had, Tsukuyomi.” They remained silent for a while, prompting him to explain.

“Tsukuyomi, a former god of the moon. The current goddess is Luna, the daughter of Selune. Selune had retired almost a thousand years ago, but no one knows why.” Tempo scratched his head, “Or… you might have power related to Susanoo, her other younger brother, whom she killed. He was the god of storms, but she ended up splitting his power apart and gave one to Zeus, Talos, and probably another god whose name wasn’t recorded.”

Jack sighed, “So you’re saying that I should look into those gods as one of them might hold a clue to my power.”

Jack pulled his wakazashi and looked at it. “I wonder how long it’ll take.”