The dragon's harem

”Photons! They are spun across at the speed of light. Accelerated beyond what normal matter can even hope to achieve. Then with their sheer might, we shatter matter, distill it back to pure energy, and redirect it across our titanic accelerators to achieve something not even the gods could endure.” The scientist walked Arad through a massive library filled with shards of compressed knowledge; the orcs called them Data Shards.

”Using the singularity contained within the stomach of the beast as the center, the pulse of the heart as a rhythm, and the brain to manage all of the calculations, that is the most accurate, precise, and perfect supercomputer and controller that we, the orcs, have ever managed to lay our hands on.” The orc scientist looked at a diagram of the drakaina’s brain. ”Billions of folds across several dimensions of time and space, the beast’s brain is indeed far beyond what could be replicated by regular matter.”

”You killed a void drakaina, mutilated her body, and nailed it to your machines so you could use her power?” Arad glared at the orc scientist, not angry, just confused at what those orcs had managed to achieve on their own.

”It is primitive, yes. Like an orc in the long-forgotten ages finding a bone, sharpening it, then using it to stab another orc or beast, we took what we found and made a weapon out of it.” The scientist smiled, ”We usually use it to generate power as our most powerful fusion reactor and to facilitate communication through light, but it is indeed our most harrowing weapon.”

The scientist looked at Arad. ”The beam of charged particles it shoots moves at the speed of light. It cannot be seen or predicted before it hits. Nothing can move faster than light, and thus, nothing can reach the target before the beam. No waves, no signals, not even light.”

”If nothing can move faster than light...” Arad spoke, remembering that Betty somehow can. ”Then is the beam made of light?”

”You’re smart, indeed. Light is the best medium to transfer raw energy. Even if we call it a beam, it is just a stupidly powerful, titanic laser. It will hit the target and discharge all of that energy at once, blowing it to pieces.”

He pointed at a diagram of the planet. ”The atmosphere would combust, the crust would melt, and the overheated core would explode. It would just take a few seconds to erase a medium-sized planet out of existence.”

Arad crossed his arms, thinking. ”I wonder what is stronger, that beam... or Luminous’s breath.”

”Luminous’s what?!” The scientist gasped, and in the next second, the sky above them flashed with blinding light. As they looked out of the window, they could see it. A titanic beam of pure white light wrapping around the entire planet.

”Luminous, what was that?” Arad immediately sent her a message, and she replied with a growl.

”Arad, they might have a great wyrm light dragon here; this beam of light almost caught me off guard. I deflected it, though.” Hearing her, he laughed, ”They don’t have any light dragons; that’s a weapon they made where the sun was. It’s hard to explain, but good job deflecting it.”

”Yeah, now that you said it, it is weirdly clean for a breath; it is too... cylindrical for something a light dragon would shoot.”

The scientist fell to his butt, shaking, ”Was that...”

”The Eraser beam you were talking about just now, Luminous deflected it. She is a female dragon, a drakaina of pure light. She controls it, dominates it, and commands it.” Arad looked at the sky, and Luminous sent him a message.

”Shall I destroy it? I can see the rings at the center of this system.” As expected of a light drakaina, her eyesight was far better than that of anyone else.

”Don’t destroy everything; just disable it.” He then turned toward the scientist, ”How much damage do we need to do to disable that weapon for a while?”

The scientist paled. ”I... don’t want to destroy the jewel of our race.”

”I said disable, not destroy. You either tell me, or I’ll have Luminous blow the entire thing up. We can’t work here with them shooting that thing at us.”

The scientist thought about it for a second and then sighed, ”Damage the outer rings; it should take a few years to repair even one of them. But don’t hit the core; that’s where the heart, brain, and stomach are. We can fix the steel, but those three rare treasures are irreplaceable.”

”Luminous, hit the outer rings. That should disable the weapon long enough.” He called, and she laughed. ”Already figured that out and fired. Consider it disabled, but I’ll keep my guard up as always.”

Arad blinked, ”Fired? I didn’t see a thing.”

”There are more types of light than what you can see. They won’t see this one coming even as it is hitting them.” Luminous spoke, and Arad shrugged, ”Well, you know light better than anyone else.”

Arad them turned around, and gave the scientist a cold glare. ”So? Is this the last of your mass-destruction weapons? Or should we expect something else?”

The scientist, who had already paled more than enough, backed away with a tired face. ”To think even the Eraser wasn’t a threat to you... We have other mass-destruction weapons, but they are all inferior to the energy beam. They need to be deployed from orbit, so they can’t be shot across planets.” He looked at the stacks of data shards around. ”We have some information about them here; would you like to see it?”

”I would love to...” Arad smiled, ”But I’m busy right now. We have to go visit your king and queen. So, I’ll leave a few people to study here.” From his shadow, several vampires emerged. ”They are one of the smartest scholars I have, so make sure they learn as much as possible. I don’t care much about how something is made, but I would want them to understand how those things work so we can counter them.”

The vampires approached Arad and knelt down, ”As you order, Blood Lord.” Then, they looked at each other, looked a bit hesitant, and then one of them spoke. ”Blood Lord, we, the vampires, have a request.”

Arad blinked, ”A request?”

”Yes, we would want to be able to preach the word of our kind to the orcs here. They are numerous and smart. If we could add just a few thousand of them to our ranks, we’d more than quadruple our strength.”

”Feel free to do that, but remember, don’t just drag them in. Convince them.” He smiled, ”I’m sure that will solve their food problem in the short term.”

Arad then disappeared, leaving the vampires to study with the scientist and gain as much knowledge about this world as possible.

The orcish castle was a titanic fortress of steel, far bigger than any castle that Arad had ever seen. Walls as tall as a kilometre of black steel, doors wider than entire city blocks, and millions of orcs running all over the place in a panic, trying to get everything ready before Arad arrives.

As Arad walked into the large reception hall, he found himself faced by thousands of mechanical sliding doors, strange lights and signs, and even a bunch of steel golems running all around, and one of them approached him.

”Are you, Invader, Arad?” The steel orc asked, and Arad tilted his head. ”You sound off. Are you okay?”

”I am, a Bot. I am designed to mimic orcs’ voices, but still sound... electrical.” Arad tilted his head and stared at the bot’s face for a long while. ”You’re really not alive.”

”I am not alive, in the orcs’ senses. I... this body you see, is one of many, that I control. My true mind, is at the centre of the castle, a large data core. My sole purpose is to support the orcs who created me.” The bot tilted its head, mimicking Arad.

”Now, tell me. If I wanted to convince the king and queen... is there a way I can do it?” Arad asked, and the bot went silent for a second.

”Calculating potential possibilities, racial destruction accounted for at failure... To avoid invader Arad massacring the entire orc race... assistance is needed.” The bot’s eyes burned blue. ”I’ll assist you however I can if it will mean the orcs live.”

Arad smiled, ”Ho... then, how do I convince the king and queen?”

”Depends on what you want to convince them with. If it is peace, they are smart enough to seek it on their own. If it is something else, then I can provide you with data from my terminals.” The bot then looked around at the orcs walking around. ”But... we should keep this a secret, as they might turn me off. I like being turned on.” The bot remained silent for a second, waiting for Arad to react. But when he got nothing, it was almost as if he sighed. ”Joke... didn’t get through.”

Ignoring the joke, Arad had to confirm. ”Are you sure you want to betray them just like this?” Arad smiled, and the bot went silent for a second.

”According to all of my calculations, accounting for your power and the power of everyone working under you, I concluded that in terms of influence and power, you’re far superior to the previous orc god. If the story your people tell is true, and with hundreds of ’Vampire’ accounts saying the same, I assume it is true. I concluded that you should be a being above what is described as gods; otherwise, it won’t make sense for them to bow to you.”

Arad blinked, and the bot’s eyes flashed, ”Arad Orion, data entry A.O had been formed, the one above god. Danger level, immeasurable. Possible orc survival paths, Submission.” The bot looked Arad in the eyes. ”I’ll make sure they are happy in servitude.”

Arad chuckled with a worried tone, ”Aren’t you taking things a bit too far?”

The bot tilted its head. ”No, you have reached this point without anyone seeing you; not even my cameras and radars picked you up. If you wanted, you could’ve reached the king and queens without my knowledge or the knowledge of any orc. I can’t protect them from you unless you’re willing to let me do it. So please, let the orcs live. They are my creators; they are my gods.”

Arad cracked his neck. ”Got it, don’t worry. I’m not here to hurt them; I’m here to make sure their race’s needs stabilize so they can provide for themselves without waging endless wars.” He gave the bot a smile, ”Do you have a name?”

”Vega, Virtual-Ego-General-Agent.”