The dragon's harem

As the paladins lowered their weapons, Ginger approached and looked at Akasha’s face. ”You just... what did you do?”

Akasha shrugged as she rested her fists on her hips. ”Just cleared the room. Nothing more than a few minutes’ job.” She smiled, and Ginger sighed.

”No, I’m not talking about that. You just stacked two Elemental Expansions on top of each other. I thought one could only use one at a time.” She waved her hand and summoned a ball of blood.

”It’s complicated to explain, but it’s something that not everyone can do. It requires both a lot of mana, skill with magic, a pure bloodline, and a lot of training.” She smiled. ”Not even Arad can do it... Well, at least for now. With how absurd he can be with magic, I bet he’ll pull it off sooner or later.”

Akasha then swung her fingers in the air, writing with her blood a simple script of how to combine, balance, and maintain two elemental expansions at once, and just looking at it made Ginger’s head hurt.

In short, there were three keys that one must have. The first was that it was indeed the case that a soul can only command one elemental expansion at once, so the second two keys were a direct workaround for that rule.

The second rule was about how those two elemental expansions would always try to cannibalize each other, so the caster must be constantly mending them, which requires both immense focus and casting speed. That would usually mean the caster won’t be able to move, speak, or react when casting.

Then there was the nature of the elemental expansion itself, since the more complicated it is, the harder it will be to stack with other expansions. This also directly links to the soul’s nature and the caster’s bloodline, meaning that only suited elemental expansions can be stacked. So someone like Ginger with has an affinity for blood magic, can only caste blood related elemental expansions and stack those.

”Did Merlin see this?” Ginger could tell at a glance that what Akasha had just shown her was something that stood at the height of magic, something that someone like her wouldn’t be able to learn even in a century.

”She did...” Akasha scratched her chin. ”And... that woman is a monster.”

”Don’t tell me she can already do it...” As Ginger gasped, Akasha laughed and shook her head. ”No, she can’t. But her Labyrinth already mimics a similar effect, so she counted this technique as unnecessary for her. Her Labyrinth has more control and flexibility, while the regular method has more raw power.”

”So only you can use it...” All of the paladins and nuns sighed. For some reason, they were relieved that Merlin was still somewhat normal and wasn’t a monster that could just pull off a move that an ageless former Blood Lord can. But their relief only lasted for a second or two as Akasha immediately replied.

”No, I’m not the only one.” Akasha spoke with a grin. ”Sena can do it, but she is so bad at it that she probably will never try it unless forced. But... I was surprised to find out that someone else can... Betty has already developed her own version, and she might be even better than me at it.”

They knew she was powerful; they knew she was fast, but what they didn’t understand was the scope of her knowledge, skills, and mastery over everything related to magic. Because no matter how powerful Betty was, she never showed that power or skill to anyone, as her light speed easily allowed her to solve everything and anything.

”Betty can?” Ginger gasped, and Akasha nodded. ”Yes, I once had a heated debate with her and wanted to show this to flex on her... but she ended up lecturing me on how to balance the two expansions.”

Akasha then pointed back. ”Shouldn’t we get moving? I know you all want to hear about what Betty explained and what she can do... but I don’t want to remember the embarrassing, eight hours lecture she had me sit through. Literally, I tried to run several times, but she would just put me back in my chair before I could even leave the room.”

Ginger tapped her on the shoulder. ”I’ll have you explain that later, and I’ll talk with Merlin and Betty about it as well.” She then looked at the Accursed Spirit. ”And... what about her?”

Akasha smiled. ”I’ve been looking forward to having a personal servant, and she will fill that role perfectly. She is powerful, smart, quite durable, and most importantly, looks decent enough that I don’t think Arad would reject her.”

The two then stared at the Accursed Spirit, Causing her to flinch. ”By the way, how do you want us to call you?” Akasha asked and Ginger blinked. ”She doesn’t have a name?”

”She might’ve had one.” Akasha shrugged. ”She had forgotten it long ago before dying. I don’t know the reason, but I found no related memories when I sucked her blood. So, she doesn’t have a name.”

The Accursed Spirit looked back at them with a worried face. The reason she doesn’t have a name isn’t that she forgot it, but because she had discarded her early life centuries ago. She was a witch, a spirit witch and as a part of her witchcraft, she had once detached herself from her past.

”I was once a fairy living in a lake...” She then shrugged. ”I’ll leave the name to you.”

Akasha looked at her for a long minute, and then shook her head. ”I’ll think about that later when we get back to Eris and Arad. For now, let’s clear this place out. I’ll call you Spirit for now.”

She then looked at Ginger. ”What’s next? What are you looking for here exactly?” She then shifted her gaze at the door to the next room.

Ginger smiled. ”To our luck, there shouldn’t be that many dangerous rooms after this one. We’ll most likely only see rooms with serpent guards from now on.” She walked toward the door and looked at the dark hallway.

Looking through the darkness with her vampiric vision, she could see the next room at its end. ”That’s the AGENT room.”

She looked back at Akasha and the rest of the vampires. ”Basically, there is a huge statue called the AGENT, and it’ll peacefully let us through if we finish or solve a problem. Most of the time it’s a quiz, but sometimes it can be a magic test.”

One of the paladins smiled. ”So, no dumb natives?” She moved to Ginger’s side and looked through the darkness. ”Should we expect any attacks? Or will the tasks just be normal?”

”No, it should be safe.”