The dragon's harem

Chapter 1278: The Nine Barriers

The Volcanic Titanʼs kingdom was surrounded by several barriers and arrays to protect it from foreign invaders. The first barrier was the massive mountains forming the craterʼs outer walls, and the second barrier was the lava pool itself.

There was also the lava Bloop, the ancient guardian monster that lived in the lava. He was the third barrier, and the fourth barrier was a deadly wave of searing heat that was powerful enough to vaporize flesh and bones.

If someone managed to scale the mountains with a large and strong enough ship to sail the lava pool, then somehow managed to bypass the lava bloop and endure the waves of deadly heat, theyʼd be faced with the fifth barrier.

The fifth barrier was the conflagration of lighting that emerged from the depth of the lava pool, generated by the currents surging across the endless veins of molten metal seeping from the planetʼs core. Those arcs of lightning burned like fire, ripping the air to pieces and evaporating anything that dared get close with high voltage and current.

The sixth barrier after that was a result of the fifth barrierʼs devastation, an area that lacked all oxygen, spelling doom to all living creatures who somehow made it to this point.

Then there was the seventh barrier, which was the first one to be directly built by the Titans. A simple transparent magical wall that blocks the path to the kingdom and makes sure those who try to invade it never manage to get out of the sixth barrier. The barrier wasnʼt indestructible as it didnʼt need to be. It only needed to last long enough until the invaders suffocated to death in the sixth barrier.

Since the lava Bloop lived in in the lava pool, then he had to have something to eat. The eighth barrier was a swarm of farm-raised, titanic lava Krakens that would attack and drown anything that got past the seventh barrier, all while the ninth barrier fired down a barrage of magic missiles to sow devastation.

Most of the spells cast in the ninth barrier were ice magic, which contrasted with the deadly heat of the lava pool, destroying anything that had heated up by rapidly cooling them.

Arad and Tempo walked past the Bloopʼs massive, floating corpse which was several kilometers long, and then reached the fourth barrier of searing heat. This was almost nothing to them as they were both highly resistant to heat and so they just walked through it.

Soon, they reached a barrier of great lightning, which wouldʼve been deadly for Tempo. This is where heʼll have to stop. But that wasnʼt necessarily the case, especially with Arad being with him.

Tempo shrank back into a human size and hid in one of Aradʼs mouths to not get evaporated by the lighting. Arad on the other hand took a step forward, nonchalantly walking into the blinding conflagration.

The lightning exploded into a cacophony of horrid rumbles and explosions as it assaulted Aradʼs body, trying to rip it apart. Washed by the primordial lightning, Aradʼs flesh melted and healed instantly. Step, step, then another, the lightning grew harsher and harsher, but Arad still walked through it unfazed.

Arad was receiving a lot of damage, in fact, more damage than he expected. The lightning was a natural phenomenon of the world itself, it was far greater than anything a mortal walking the earth could hope to achieve through magic.

Even if Arad could destroy the whole world, if that world was allowed to fight back, he might have a hard time standing his ground. It was a humbling experience, and soon he realized something. Isnʼt Gaia the spirit of the world? Mother earth herself?

He looked at the lightning. ^Donʼt tell me she could pull this whenever she wants.^

Damnation stared at Arad approaching through the lightning in horror. ”Damnable paladins, I donʼt know if they are stupid or wise. To think that foolish woman believed Kali would protect her to the point of just walking into death like that. At least, this is bound to take a huge toll on her body, even if Kali used her portfolio to prevent her from getting destroyed.”

Damnation thought that Arad was using Kaliʼs destruction to resist the lightning and prevent it from destroying him, but that couldnʼt be farther from the truth. He was tanking it head-on, letting his flesh burn and repair itself. After becoming an adult, Aradʼs first goal was to learn and understand the limits of his body, what could he endure? And what if he canʼt? What if he was stuck in a world that was about to explode and be destroyed? Can he swallow all of his wives and tank the explosion? Can he survive and protect them? Like what he did when saving Zephyr from the cube? But that left him as a corpse.

As Arad walked out of the lightning barrier with an earth-shattering crackle of lightning and a thunder clap, he found himself walking on the lava, heading deeper into an oxygen-less area where he couldnʼt breathe.

This was supposed to add salt to the injuries of anything that managed to survive the lightning. But Arad was a bit special, he was a void dragon, a dragon that was native to the vacuum of space. He can make his own oxygen and thus, this barrier is harmless to him. He can make his own oxygen to breathe or even breathe from the air trapped inside his stomachʼs small world.

The one that would be facing a huge problem is Tempo, which still needed air. To not strain his small world, which was already full of countless people that needed what little air he had, he decided to make his own air and call Zephyr inside his stomach to fill the small world with breathable air, which even Tempo could use.

Nar watched as Zephyr flew in through the entrance belonging to Aradʼs incarnation in the Storm Titan kingdom and started filling the small world with air.

”I canʼt believe youʼre actually stepping this low, Wind Queen. To serve a mere mortal, and waste your energy on a small world.”

Zephyr looked at her with a smile, ”Said the one addicted to my wind.”

”There is a difference between a spirit queen and a mere mortal. I might be willing to lower myself to you, my peer, but you on the other hand are lowering yourself far too low. Youʼll live off dog food, but itʼs not right to do that.” Nar sighed, ”So? When will you explain what the hell youʼre thinking about?”

Zephyr looked at her with a smile, ”If I said you should do the same as me and live in this small world as its spirit queen, what would you do?”

”You want me to humiliate myself like youʼre doing? No thanks.” She then glared at her, ”Will you stay in this world then?”

Zephyr thought about it for a few seconds, ”If I stayed, would you stay?”

Nar immediately replied. ”I would, not just me, the other two would stay as well. Youʼre our leader and have earned our trust. The only reason Iʼm sitting here is that I know youʼre hiding something from us. Something about that brat Arad.”