The dragon's harem

Chapter 1441: War Dancer

When Dendron finally reached a small crack in one of the larger inner branches that they could hide in, Arad was already knocked out cold. ”If there is a time to sleep, it’s now. You cleared the whole area. Look at all that blood.” She looked back, and her jaw dropped.

What she saw was even more terrifying and disgusting than the flood of the roiling blood and torn guts that Arad. It was so bad it made her want to puke. The scene of the clean branches, the golden bark, and the non-existence of anything blood-related around.

She slowly turned back, looking at Arad with a terrified face. He had absorbed it all, corpses included. That sea of blood, all of the powerful monsters. What would happen to a vampire if they were fed so much power?

As Dendron slowly came to realise that Arad didn’t fall asleep due to exhaustion. But probably since he is now processing all of that blood, like a food coma, she now had to get answers and quickly.

She sat Arad down, made herself smaller, and flew into his mouth, making her way down to his stomach. As she reached all the way down, she appeared inside the vast and endless void of Arad’s stomach.

”To think I’m getting here on my own.” She growled and then flew all the way to the small world.

As she landed, she found Cerilla waiting for her. ”How is Arad doing outside?”

”Asleep, he swallowed all of that blood. Can any of you check what’s going on with him now? Is he evolving, or is he doing something else with all of that blood?”

Dendron had many reasons to be worried, and the biggest one was blood madness, as she called it, the violent outburst vampires and werewolves tend to experience after gorging themselves on too much food. She already got beaten by Arad once, so she knows how bad it’ll be to have him trying to kill everyone in sight.

”He is fine.” The one who replied was Eris. She had felt the surge of power in Arad’s blood, the massacre he caused, and all the deaths that came with it. It gave her a huge spike of power, both divine and blood-related.

”Are you... How in the nine hells is a vampire a divine paladin of Amaterasu and demi-goddess of murder at the same time?” Seeing Eris had to be the strangest thing she had seen in her whole life.

Normally, the sun is the vampires’ biggest enemy, so to see one of their kind being blessed by Amaterasu and even given the powers of a paladin, it was baffling to say the least. And it even took Dendron a second to notice that Eris was also a plasma drakaina, which made her existence even weirder.

”Arad isn’t trying to use that power to grow stronger; he’s storing it to use later as a healing tool, or feed the countless vampires living inside his blood.” Eris walked past Dendron with slow steps, slowly lifting her hands up and drawing circles of red blood magic in the air.

”He is a Blood Lord, the ruler of all vampires. To get stronger as a vampire, he must consume other Blood Lords, like he did with her.” She was talking about Akasha, who stood just a few meters back.

Dendron flew up. ”Either way, I need him awake soon. The last thing we want is Sylph’s Messenger angel coming and finding him asleep.”

”I know, you’ve already explained that. But Arad needs to digest the food. If that angel came, they’ll have to wait.”

Dendron frowned. While waiting won’t be a problem for most angels, there is just one of them that wouldn’t be pleased. She knows better than anyone that angering that one is a death sentence, or at least a ticket straight to pain land.

”Listen, among those angels, there is one Archon that can fight Sylph and win. An angel equal to a god in raw fighting power, and if that one were to come here, the tree won’t survive the clash.”

Eris looked at her with a smile. ”Do you think Arad would lose?”

”No, I think they’ll burn the tree down before any of them could win.” She approached Eris. ”When talking about elves, what’s the first thing you think about?”

”Emerald, feet, and living for a long time.” Eris replied with a puzzled face.

”What’s the emerald doing there?” Dendron tilted her head, and Eris pointed out that the majority of the elves have green eyes, just as the majority of humans have black or dark brown eyes and hair.

Dendron sighed, violently rubbing the back of her head. ”For being half-elf, you lack a lot of knowledge about... forget it, haughty, all elves are haughty, prideful by nature.”

She flew around. ”Something moved beside Arad. I’ll go check, and you better pray it’s not the court dancer.”

When Dendron flew out of Arad’s mouth, she froze in place and paled, for the one thing standing on the other side of the crack was none other than her worst fears. The Court Dancer of the Elvish Heaven.

Dendron could do nothing but slowly freak out, for the dancer wasn’t standing in her usual weird stance or trying to show her emaciated body with outrageous moves. She just stood there, menacingly glaring at Arad with an emotionless face.

Inside Arad’s stomach, Diana, the harbinger of destruction, stood with a worried face. ”Shit, it’s Mathilde.” She was about to fly out of Arad, but Kali stopped her.

”Calm down, calm down, the bloody war maniac is patiently waiting for Arad to wake up. Show up, and he’ll end up washed up in your battle.” She looked at her with a smile. ”Besides, Mathilde is smarter than most. And know more than you do.”

”Are you calling me dumb?” Diana looked at Kali with a sad face, but Kali shook her head. ”No, I’m just saying that Sylph loves to torture her angels with knowledge they are better off not knowing, while I’d rather not see you burn yourself worrying about nothing.”

Kali was right. As Mathilde glared down at Arad with a serious face, the knowledge of her standing in front of AO was slowly eating at her mind.

Sylph had given her a mission, a sacred mission that she couldn’t trust to an angel any weaker than her. To test and escort AO up the tree branches. That mission includes her fighting him to see how much of his true power he can call upon.

Knowing how far Arad is down the path of being AO was of utmost importance to all gods, and to Arad himself. Because that would allow them to work around him, provide him with a safe path forward, and create hard counters for any trickery that Nyar might try to pull.

A minute later, and called by the burning power standing close by, Arad opened his eyes, seeing the elvish woman standing around ten meters away from him. She was fair, tall, blond, and her emerald eyes burned with unimaginable divine light. She only wore a pair of strip-like, golden underwear, and her medium bust was barely held in place by what looked like a thin strap of gold cloth.

Arad could immediately tell at a glance that the woman standing before him was an Archon, and one at the same level as the Harbinger of Destruction, Diana.

Dendron gulped down. She could sense that Mathilde was here for a fight, but didn’t dare speak a word, because she knew the angel would kick her out of orbit if she opened her mouth.

But, the ancient fairy had to make a bet: Who’ll win? Arad or Mathilde. She quickly came to a conclusion: the angel was always strict and cruel, so she would love to see her cry at least once.

”She is a kicker!” Dendron spoke, but in the next moment, she was vaporised by a kick from Mathilde, sent back to the inner core of the World Tree to get resurrected later.

”Ancient Tree Spirit, please don’t interfere. Rest in the warm embrace of Yggdrasil until my business here is finished.” Mathilde gracefully waved her foot up and jumped back, landing where she stood without making a sound.

”Lord Arad, she is fine. That spirit cannot die as long as the World Tree is alive. In exchange, I’m here to offer you an accord. I offer a straight path to the upper branches, in exchange for showing me your power.” She gently bowed, and Arad slowly stood.

Arad’s eyes slowly looked around, stopping at the fairy dust left behind by Dendron. ”I had two Dark Elves with me. Would you kick them like you did her?”

Mathilde slowly lifted her head. ”If your Lordship brought them, I won’t dare lay a finger on them. There is no one worthy of claiming a stance about your decisions, and I’m not going to be the first fool.”

”Sylph says they can’t be here, and you’re her angel. Won’t you be disobeying her orders?” Arad smiled, and the angel nodded, ”I would be doing that, indeed. But it won’t matter. I’m sure she sent me here as a test of some kind, either by her to you, by you to me and her, or by myself to my own creed.”

Mathilde slowly lifted her right foot, set the five toes on the hard ground, and leaned forward, slightly bending her knee. ”I’m only looking for a short dance. Would you entertain me?”

”Sorry, one of my wives said no.” Arad shrugged, ”Guess you’ll have to try another time. Ask them first.” Arad didn’t expect her to oblige; in fact, he thought she’d leap at him with a deadly kick.

”Now, that’s a problem.” The angel stood back up and looked a bit worried.