The dragon's harem

While almost everyone looked skeptical or confused, unable to fully grasp what Lilia meant, Merlin was the only one who looked genuinely terrified. She took a step back, looked around the guild, and then summoned a massive staff.

“What did you just say? A war?” Nina asked, and Lilia whispered with a smug smile. “It is on the door; I declare a wizard war.” She giggled and then flew around Nina for a few laps before floating toward Merlin.

“Don’t blame me, the war is inevitable. I’m just declaring it early so no one gets surprised when wizards start killing each other and everyone around them.” When Merlin looked into Lilia’s gaze, she could see an endless abyss of freakish madness, crazed insanity, and unadulterated lust for arcane power.

“Like how fish would have to adapt, kill, and eat each other if the salt level of the sea or temperature changed suddenly and drastically. The wizards of the universe would have to either change or get killed by natural selection.”

When AO repaired the weave of mana and revived the universe, allowing it to spin again, it was like the murky waters of a long, still lake finally seeing a flow, and thus, change was bound to happen.

“The density of mana and its flow would slowly increase from now, allowing wizards to cast more spells and recover their mana faster. What I mean by that is that a wizard who could only cast three fireballs a day before might now be able to cast five or six, and only need to rest for an hour to recover his mana instead of a full night’s sleep.” She lifted one hand, created a spark of pure mana, and then turned it into a haze of azure light.

She then looked at the adventurers in the guild and asked herself a question. “Well, but if the mana is getting stronger, doesn’t that mean the monsters would grow stronger as well?” She giggled.

“Wait!” Nina stared at her. “You mean to say that monsters that could use magic instinctively would suddenly grow stronger?”

Merlin took a deep breath. “That shouldn’t be a big problem around the capital, but it might cause a lot of deaths in the smaller cities and villages. If the monsters started to grow stronger suddenly, then we need to update everything.”

Lilia nodded, “Well, about the wizards’ war. There are wizards who belong to the tower, those who are independents, but among the independent wizards is a group that freely abuses their power to experiment on both monsters and humans.” She shook her head. “I know that all wizards lack mortals, but there are some who are more disgusting than the others.”

She clapped her hands. “Wizards who have a blue aura belong to the tower, so I take responsibility for any problems they cause. Those with a pale grey aura are independent and are responsible for their own magic.” She then smiled, licking her lips. “But those with a red aura are the ones we must fight, those who the goddess of magic sees as a threat to the stability of the world.”

The old wizard beside them, Glintlock, rubbed his beard and asked with a calm tone. “So, how could we see that aura? Does it appear with magic detection?”

Lilia nodded. “Indeed, the aura is placed by the goddess of magic herself after evaluating each wizard independently. It can be easily revealed to wizards.” She pointed at Glintlock with a grin. “Your aura is pale grey, meaning you’re an independent wizard that isn’t evil and doesn’t follow the tower.”

He looked a bit sad. “I see, so the aura only shows if the wizard belongs to the tower, is evil, or neutral.” Then looked at her with a serious face. “But, if the goddess could mark them all, then couldn’t she just smite those evil red wizards? I believe she is powerful enough to do that.”

Merlin glared at him. Glintlock didn’t know that the goddess herself was talking to him, so he might not have realized that his remark might come as an insult.

“Ah, I asked her the same thing!” Lilia smiled, “And do you know what she told me?” She pointed at him with her staff. “She told me that she doesn’t chew my food for me, she doesn’t wipe my ass, and she doesn’t comfort me at night, so I should be able to take care of my own problems on my own. For the advancement of magic, crisis and tribulations that force innovations are a must, and since the goddess doesn’t artificially create those for us mages, then she won’t solve those that face us naturally.”

She swung a staff that was longer than her body, and then pointed at the crowd of adventurers. “So, as I said. The Wizards’ war starts now. Hunt the red wizards like bandits.” And with that, a flash of light burst from the tip of her staff and blasted away a group of adventurers in the back of the guild.

As the other adventurers ran away, the smoke cleared, and Glintlock could see an elderly man standing there with a crystal orb floating by his side. Upon a closer look, he could see it, the red aura Lilia talked about.

“That’s a red wizard?” Glintlock growled and Merlin stared at the now terrified wizard.

“Indeed.” Lilia floated forward, and her staff disappeared. “We can’t have nasty wizards getting stronger in the coming power surge, so we have to eliminate them all, and the faster we do it, the better.”

“Hold up!” The red wizard growled. “What is the meaning of this? I’ve never heard of such magic before, and even if you call yourself the goddess’s messenger, you can’t just kill people without a proper reason.”

Lilia stopped, sighed, and then scratched the back of her head. “The crimes committed by wizards are many, so the goddess had to set a baseline for red wizards… by the way, serial rapist and murderers are below that line and still counted as neutral wizards.”

She glared at the red wizards. “The goddess isn’t undermining the gravity of those crimes, but those who she marks are red far, far worse than any mortal could imagine.”

The red wizard jumped back and growled, swinging his staff toward Lilia with an enraged face. “I see, then I’ve got no more business here.”

[Bone Shatter]

As the waves of magic flashed like a lightning bolt, they hit Lilia directly and seeped into her flesh like water in a sponge. Glintlock paled, lifted his staff, and was about to start assisting her when he heard her bone shatter.

Bone shatter is a horrifying spell that targets someone’s bones and shatters them. Most wizards could only use it to target one bone, which is useful when trying to disable a monster or an enemy, but to be able to use it on someone’s entire skeleton was unheard of.

But to everyone’s surprise except Merlin, Lilia was somewhat fine. All of her bones had shattered, since she won’t reveal her true nature to mortals.

Lilia smiled as blood dripped out of her mouth, and her eyes stared at the red wizard with a grin. “Ten hells, Nine heavens, eight deaths, rupture and repentance.” Her shattered hands moved, and clapped. “I cast! Internal Reverberation!”