The dragon's harem

SPLASH! Arad's massive claw extended from the water, grasping into the sandy open beach. He emerged, looking at the water beneath his legs, "So the sea has a drop point after going a few meters into the water. If someone swam too far from the beach, they could suddenly find themselves drowning." He started walking toward the beach, shaking the water off his scales like a dog.

"Arad!" Eris rushed toward him, followed by Nina, "Is it her?"

Arad shifted into his humanoid form and pulled the stone cube from his stomach, "Yeah, she's locked in here. It's similar to the one Vars locked brother inside,"

"A seal?" Nina stared at the cube, "We should get Merlin to look at it,"

"How did Gojo get out?" Eris asked, "Can't Zephyr do the same?"

"I bet brother has a higher concentrated damage than Zephyr. He was able to pierce through the seal's barrier," Arad replied, "And don't forget we're void dragons. We have it easier dealing with extra-dimension barriers like this."

"So," Eris looked at the cube, "If she still didn't get out, that means she's either unable to get out on her own or has spent too much energy fighting Vlad and now has nothing to eat inside and replenish her power."

"Can you break it from here?" Nina looked at Arad, "By biting it like a nutcracker?"

"I don't know if that'll work, and I might end up hurting her," Arad shook his head, "It's better we take a careful approach. He looked at the cube, "But we also can't waste time."

Arad sucked the cube back into his stomach and lifted Eris and Nina to his back with Gravity magic.

He slowly turned, looking at the smoke rising from the ground. The whole island had been devastated, burned, and crushed by their battle. "The harbingers of doom, now that descriptions make sense for us. Wherever there is a conflict involving us, the land ends up destroyed," He remembered the forest where he fought the young dragon, the red dragon that Alcott faced, Riverside, Vlad's kingdom, and now the capital.

"I do leave a trail of destruction and doom wherever I go," Arad sighed, "I'm supposed to be nothingness, yet here I am being destruction, I'm death." He flapped his wings, flying toward the capital's harbor.

"Arad, it isn't your fault," Eris looked at him, "You never started the fights,"

"But," He mumbled, "I'm the one who blasted the island."

"That doesn't matter," Nina looked at him, "Vlad would've done more damage if left alone. Hundreds, if not thousands of people around the world were dying from the vampire's rampage, but killing Vlad stopped them."

"You're right," Arad replied, "But I feel like this happens a lot," He could remember walking back to Alina with the villages of Riverside, and even the time he brought the barbarians after blasting their forest fighting Shi, the half-tarrasque.

Arad reached the harbor and looked around for a safe place to land, he quickly saw a patch of destroyed land, seemingly a part of the harbor that was blasted with a powerful spell.

He slowed down and tucked his wings on his back, using gravity magic to slowly descend and land.

Eris and Nina looked at the city from Arad's back, seeing most of it as he was too tall.

Arad did the same, but his senses were far stronger. From where he stood he could see the impaled corpses decorating the street, hear their blood dripping on the ground with the stench slowly washing away along the sea breeze.

No one could hear it beside him, but his ears were clearly picking up the cries and groans of people hiding beneath churches, bleeding and dying from their wounds. Countless last breaths are being spent even now that the battle already ended, and he can't do anything about it.

"This is," Arad sighed, taking a step forward, "Isn't funny,"

"You okay?" Eris climbed over his head and stared at his eyes.

"Yeah," He replied, "But the capital and its people aren't. We lost so many lives, so many futures." He stopped, looking at the impaled corpse of a child in the corner of the street.

"Humans are so fragile. That kid could be ten times older than me," He sighed, "I can understand what both the chromatic and metallic dragons want,"

"You're right," Kinryuu flew down from the sky, landing beside Arad in his humanoid form, "The chromatic dragons just don't want to deal with this. If they don't see humans as something important, they won't feel what you feel. And they won't have to care. We on the other hand,"

"Are far dumber than them," Arad stared at him, "It isn't the humanoid's fault for being weak. It's the world's fault for having monsters as strong as us,"

"So you understand it," Kinryuu sighed, "You've grown faster than I thought,"

"The humanoid's civilization is hanging with a thread, they can't survive the world on their own. Our existence has pushed them to the brink, they've started living in walled cities like cattle, but even that didn't save them this time."

"Walled cities and fortifications are to protect themselves from the cruel, monster-infested world. There are the random outliers powerful adventurers, but you can't judge the who race by the rare few. Humanoids are mostly too weak to face any monster," Kinryuu waved his hand and pulled a long white cloth, covering the child's corpse. "I assigned a battalion to come and help with the clean up. They'll put everyone to rest as best as they can."

"Humanoids need a safer world, something they can handle on their own," Arad looked at the night sky, "I can't cage them in walls like cattle. They already did it to themselves, and it doesn't seem to work,"

His eyes dilated as he got an idea, "The stars,"

"The what?" Kinryuu stared at him.

"The metallic fortress floats in the sky, and it's as massive as a continent," Arad looked at him, "What if we lift several more like it to the sky and have humans live there, away from the monster-infested land? It'll be the same as how continents float on the sea, but now it's on air."

"Continent doesn't float on the sea. It's one massive..." Kinryuu sighed, "Forget it. No need to explain geology here. Your idea is simply impossible in practice. Even our queen can barely lift our fortress, and you want to lift several? Can't you make them a bit small?"

"The peace would make them grow weaker with time," Kinryuu replied.

"We can put animals and weak monsters there, probably slowly raise the strength of monsters to give humans enough time to adapt and evolve."

"They aren't as fast as you, it would take them several generations. Even if we could achieve everything perfectly, it might take them several thousands of years to slowly grow stronger, if not more." Kinryuu shook his head, "It's impossible,"

"It's worth a try," Arad looked at him, "For them, it'll be better than living each day not knowing whether a vampire king is about to skewer them the next day or not,"

"That should be left for them to decide, and I can assure you there is no gravity magic in the world that could live such mass to the sky." Kinryuu looked at the streets.

"For now, we can't do anything. But give me a century, a thousand years even. I might be able to figure something up with gravity magic." Arad smiled at the sky, "Tens of continents floating in the sky, a near limitless land in the blue sky floating between the snow-white clouds. Limitless blue,"

Arad blinked, remembering the vision he saw with Doma's future foresight when he was fighting the demon lord of fungus Zuggtmoy. ^Those countless islands floating in the sky, the chants of those weird priests,^

He smiled, "I can achieve it. I'm certain of that."

"Where is that confidence coming from? Is it the dragon's arrogance, young blood?" Kinryuu smiled, "I thought you were less hot-blooded than the rest of the youngins,"

"I keep my word," Arad looked at him with a smile, "I have a vision of a better world, and it'll come to reality."

They walked across the street until they reached the largest church in the capital. Arad stood and looked at the cracked, blood-stained wall. This is where he got married several weeks ago, and now it's a mess.ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ N(o)vᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt

"Arad!" Alcott called from everyone sitting behind the church, "We're here,"

"I can see you," Arad turned around the church with only a few steps, stopping for Eris and Nina to step off his back.

"What happened to Vlad?" Meryem stared at Arad.

"Dead," Arad replied.

Kinryuu pulled the ball of ash and sent it floating toward Ginger, "Probably I should give you this for a second,"

Ginger looked at the ball of ash, "Father," She looked at Arad, "You could've left something for me to burn,"

"Didn't want to risk him regenerating," Arad replied, but he then stared at her, "But can't you feel it? The blood inside you?"

"I do," Ginger sighed, "Why did you leave it to me?"

"I didn't. It's bound to blood, and you're the only heir to the throne," Arad sat down, looking at Alcott, "She's the current vampire queen. That would make the vampire king,"

"That doesn't sound good," Alcott sighed, "But at least we can keep an eye on the vampires,"

"The war is over," Merlin said, staring at the sky.