The dragon's harem

Chapter 1580: Who Won?

Arad returned to the throne room and found everyone waiting there for him. Malina had already lined up all of the thousand Metallic drakainas and had them ready to leave.

Alcott seems to have gotten a few of the queen’s scales to use for a new weapon as a sign of peace, and even Kinryuu had managed to get into contact with some commanders to live in Alina.

The first to look at Arad and speak was Malina. She was worried, waiting for him to return.

”How did it go?”

Arad spoke and said.

”I lost.”

Linda, at the same time, also opened her mouth.

”He won.”

The two looked at each other, then remained silent, each of them more confused than the other.

”Who won?” Malina approached.

Linda pointed at Arad, ”In our fight, he managed to knock me out of time, so he won. Sadly, as an adult void dragon, he is still too young to have any power potent enough to kill a time dragon. We’re a bit special, you see. It’s hard to harm someone who exists in the past, present, future, and multiple timelines at once.”

Linda giggled with an evil grin, ”We’ve got a lot of dirty tricks, all dirt cheap to deploy.” She reached with her hand to the ground, touched her own shadow, and then pulled another incarnation of herself.

Each magic dragon has a power that breaks nature itself. Void dragons can hold an entire world inside their stomach, possibly having infinite space.

Light dragons can move at light speed from an early age and can generate infinite energy using their limitless radiance.

Mana dragons have direct access to all the mana of the world. Their magical potential is as limitless as their imagination allows.

Time dragons are timeless and aren’t bound by age or timelines, which means that each time dragon is the same being across the infinite timelines. To kill a time dragon, one must kill an infinite number of time dragons across all of the timelines, erasing them from existence.

The only being besides the fates, powerful gods, or the overgod that can kill time dragons is Arad’s mother, by sucking them into her void form and erasing them from all reality. Arad is currently too young to digest an elder time dragon. He would have to wait until he becomes an elder himself to do that.

It didn’t matter how powerful Arad was if his draconic body wasn’t old and powerful enough to match the same influence an elder dragon could. Simply put, when two magic dragons clash and their powers over the laws of the universe collide, the older one overrides the younger one. If they are the same age, the most skillful one wins the tug of war.

There are limits to that. Arad could compete with a mature or an old magic dragon, but anything older than that would be a pain to deal with, especially elders who have surpassed the twilight.

Arad sighed and turned toward the thousand drakainas lined behind Malina. He still doesn’t know how to feel about this win; it reminds him a lot of the fight against Rey and Ray, an utter mix of emotions and uncertainties.

But for now, he must keep his head cool and think about the present and future. Unlike Linda, he doesn’t have to remain attached to the past.

”So? Do I need to fight any of them?” He looked at the drakainas, not knowing how absolutely horrifying it was for them to find out he had fought Linda and managed to get her to admit defeat.

One of the great wyrms gathered all of her courage and took a step forward, looked at Arad with her glowing golden eyes, then back at Linda. Sweat ran down her skin; not many things could make a great wyrm silver drakaina like herself feel fear, but this was one of them.

”How... did you survive her spawn killing you?”

Spawn killing, a term that time dragons are infamous for. They are known for traveling back in time to kill their enemies right after they were born. There are even tales of time dragons masquerading as nurses ending great villains right as they came out of the womb.

”Spawn killing?” Arad knew of the concept. Queen Mary had once used it on him and Nina, but she didn’t kill them; she just proved a point.

Linda, standing in the back like it’s not a big deal, waved her hand, ”I tried it and failed, couldn’t kill him. Too complicated and not worth the trouble.” She didn’t elaborate any further, and no one dared ask for details.

Looking once more at Arad, the drakainas there saw something else. A monster that couldn’t even be killed by an elder time drakaina when he was born.

Knowing that he had married Kali, the Demon Goddess of Destruction, it should’ve been obvious that they are dealing with something beyond what dragons consider normal expectations.

The talk about him having an entire world inside his stomach didn’t seem too alien now; it was probably an easier feat than dodging death in the shells.

”I don’t have any other questions... and I think we could skip the broken bones.” She looked back at the other drakainas. She didn’t want to fight Arad, but some might still be stupid enough to try.

As expected, many still wanted to fight. While fighting usually left dragons injured, it was a part of the courtship that many loved and would not skip. To dragons, that first fight is their version of a romantic night out, or a honeymoon. It could be a pain to set up, cost a lot of money, and both parties know they don’t need it, but it’s a core memory and a precious experience they want to have.

The first one to approach Arad for a fight was an iron drakaina. She was a bit short, barely reaching 1.6 meters {5’3’’}. Her hair was long, dark, and painted with red stripes, complementing her furious red eyes, and... she didn’t even introduce herself and lunged at Arad immediately, ending in her getting a front kick right into the face that sent her flying back.

When she hit the wall, she was already unconscious. Arad only then had the time to figure out she was just a young adult whose blood still flowed a bit too hot to consider reason.

”We aren’t going to fight here. Do you want to trash her throne room?” Arad pointed back, but the Metallic Queen was already sitting on her throne, munching on popcorn. ”No need to worry, this place can handle more than you think.”

Malina approached Arad, ”Isdis already got all of their information, and we’re ready to set off. Injured dragons, after they get healed, need to eat a lot to recover the energy lost, and Isdis would skin you alive for getting her a thousand hungry dragon maws.”

Arad nodded. He’ll beat them, but without injuring them, so they won’t need to eat a lot.

From the crowd of drakainas, a tall and thin drakaina wearing a wizard’s robe walked forward. She looked strange.

The drakaina stood at around seven feet tall, which was a lot. She was thin with long arms and legs, a beautiful face, and short, silky black hair with a flower on it.

She looked at Arad for a second with her dark eyes, started shaking, then turned around and pulled a cow leg and started munching on it, sweating like a hog. ”What... what should I do... I did walk forward, but what can I do now?”

Arad lifted an eyebrow and approached her, ”What’s wrong?”

As she saw Arad approach, she cried and jumped back to her feet, shaking like a newborn goat. ”Sorry! I... just... ” She then cried and turned around.

She mumbled to herself; almost no one could hear her, but Arad could hear her thoughts, and they were strange.

She was contemplating being a great wyrm, which makes her impotent and useless in that case, as well as her being a failed mage who can’t even cast basic spells.

She was right about the first part.

Dragons are only fertile in specific stages. Those stages are young adult, adult, and mature adult, basically, the entire adult phase. Old dragons are still fertile, but to a far lower potency. Ancients, wyrms, and great wyrms are impotent. And only recently did Arad find out through Gamond that dragons who surpassed twilight, also known as elders, are fertile once more.

But the drakaina in front of Arad couldn’t have become a great wyrm without having some power. A power that Arad knows won’t be easy to deal with.