The dragon's harem

Arad stood and stretched his arms. “I have to go. I’ve got a meeting with Betty soon.”

Jack looked at him, “The chairman? Then go before she comes here to find you.”

The whole university and the city of Croc fell under her protective magic. While Betty might not be aware of everything happening inside, her magic would notify her if anyone mentioned her name or the name of anyone on her list of important people.

Arad waved his hand and disappeared. With a void step, he found himself standing in front of Betty’s office door. Before he could knock, she called to him from inside.

“Come in, Arad, why didn’t you just teleport inside?”

Arad opened the door and immediately got washed in blinding radiance. He had to close his eyes as he walked inside. Betty was sitting at her desk, looking at a clear crystal orb in her pale hands.

Arad closed the door and tried to look at what Betty was doing, which was already hard, but not as hard as trying to look at her Grandma Luminious.

Like usual, Betty wore her wizard’s robe, was barefoot, and had her white hair fashioned into a twintail behind her. Her diamond-like eyes absorbed the blinding radiance, leaving her skin and channeled it into the crystal orb as two beams of pure light.

“What are you doing?” Arad asked as he looked at her light and noticed that she wasn’t using any magic. That was a natural light that’s leaving her body.

“In the fight with the abomination, I was forced to keep my light speed for a long time, and something changed in my draconic blood.” She took a deep breath and waited for a few seconds. The light leaving her body quickly faded away and was absorbed by the orb.

“My draconic blood is getting stronger, and thus I’m going to suffer from the same problem Grandmother suffers from, being blindingly bright.” She put the orb away and looked at her hands, then at her glass-like fingernails.

“Almost everything in the world absorbs light and then reflects it back to show color. But we light dragons aren’t like that, we’re sources of light.” She flicked her finger, and the lights turned off.

The whole room plunged into darkness, but Arad could still see Betty clearly sitting at her desk. Her body was glowing, only her robe managing to mask the light a bit.

Betty’s body didn’t reflect light. Her skin generated light on its own to give herself color. She turned the lights back on and shifted her skin color to a pale white, a darker tone, and then orc green, yellow, pink, blue, and then a flashing rainbow that looked like the screen of an old TV.

And then, she became invisible; only her clothes remained floating above the desk.

“I know this looks like an amazing ability, but remember, this is a natural light, not a magical one. I can’t just turn it off, and it grows stronger the stronger I grow.” She jumped from the desk and landed in front of Arad.

“Grandma wasn’t able to solve this problem, so I’m not that happy about my chances of taming it.”

Arad looked at her for a few seconds and then reached down. Putting his hand on her head. “Release the light. I’ll try something.”

“Be my guest.”

Betty’s body suddenly flashed with light like a massive light bulb. Arad couldn’t even see the features of her face and clothes.

He closed his eyes and let his void seep out, covering her body, and tried to absorb the light. A minute passed, and nothing changed. “I can’t seem skilled enough to consume the extra light.” With those words, Betty’s body turned into a black silhouette. “But I can absorb everything.”

“So what’s the problem?” Betty sighed and looked at him, “Your void is able to absorb all of the light, so why can’t you absorb just portions of it instead?”

“That’s the problem. I can create a barrier that erases all light, but I’m fast enough to catch every strand of light and only remove what extra light is there that makes you too bright.” He removed his hand from her head and went to take a seat on one of the nearby chairs.

Betty looked at the crystal orb on the desk and sighed. She returned to normal, and so did the lights in the room.

“That only makes this crystal more amazing.” Arad looked at the orb. “Was it made by your Grandma?”

Betty didn’t sit on any of the chairs. Instead, she jumped on her desk and sat cross-legged, with the orb on her lap. “She did, but this thing can’t keep her massive draconic body in check, not even for a second.”

Betty caressed the crystal orb in her hands, “But for a small halfling like myself, and with how weak my light compared to hers, this orb can keep me under control for at least a week.”

“A week is a long time.” Arad looked at the crystal orb. “But we need to find a solution for you soon. Especially since you’re showing signs of turning into a true dragon.”

Betty looked at him for a second and then flicked her fingers. All of her clothes disappeared, and she was left naked. Several diamond scales were dotted all around her body.

“As you can see, I might not have that much time left before turning into a half-dragon, then I’ll have even less time before becoming a true dragon.” Her eyes shifted to Arad, “I was hoping you could suppress my light now that you’ve become an adult void dragon.”

Betty flicked her fingers again, and her clothes returned. She never took them off, just made them invisible with her light magic.

“You can’t expect me to come out fully capable of using the full extent of my power. I need time to experiment with it.” Arad looked at her and smiled, “How about setting some time to experiment with you?”

Betty looked at him with a smile. “Why not? It was just what I wanted, an excuse to spend more time with you.”