The dragon's harem

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

Arad sat and lifted his right claw, pulling the cube out of his stomach, holding it floating above his palm with gravity magic as he handed it to Merlin.

The cube slowly floated to Merlin, and she caught it with her gravity magic, staring at it for a second, "Hold up!" She gasped.

"Yeah, Zephyr is inside," Arad declared, and everyone stared at the cube in shock.

"How did she end up sealed like this?" Alcott gasped.

"She's the wind spirit, how did this happen?" Ginger stared at the cube, "Father shouldn't have enough power, intellect, or magic to seal her."

"She didn't have all of her magic," Eris gasped, and Merlin's face paled, "The energy she wasted trashing the first layer of hell. She told me she's at around 60% of her whole magic before getting into the first layer. If she spent at least half of that and only spent a day or two recuperating after that...that means she might have gone to face Vlad with only around 40% of her magic, 50% at best,"

"30% of her power to destroy the first layer of hell? You must be joking. I bet she spent the whole 60%, at least 50%," Alcott argued, "That means she faced Vlad being even weaker, 20-30% at best,"

"That doesn't matter now," Arad looked at them, "I bet Vlad tricked her into using her expansion by the promise of victory, then sneaked her after her guard was down,"

"What could even make a person like her drop her guard?" Eris stared at Arad.

"The people," Kinryuu replied. "Zephyrus Anemoi Enlil of Mei, the kindred wind spirit. People rarely give her credit, but out of the great spirits, she is the only one who truly cares."

Arad turned toward him, "All that power..."

"She could've ruled the land with a fist of steel like the other spirits. She could've taxed everyone from humans, dragons, and plants for the act of breathing her air, but she didn't. She gifted her vast lands to the humans and dark elves to live in, allowed the whole world free access to her air, calmed the frequent storms and tornados, and even starved herself for decades and centuries so she wouldn't harm the natural order."

"What do the other spirits tax? I never had to pay anything when lighting a fire," Eris stared at Kinryuu.

"Fire requires fuel. You always have to sacrifice something to ignite it. It also regularly consumes the land in violent wildfires that could eat forests and cities. Don't you know that even cremating corpses is an offering to the great fire spirit? You were a mortician, right?" Kinryuu stared at her.

"I never heard of that," Eris gasped.

"Elves' lives are short, and humans even shorter. I don't expect you to know the old ways," He sighed, "The ground eats back the plants that grow on it, eats the corpses buried in it, and even splits apart to swallow those who don't appreciate it. Don't get me talking about the sea and the massive waves it drives to shores. Those are but a fragment of what it consumes from ships and the animals of the deep sea."

"Are you crying?" Arad looked at Kinryuu who started tearing up.

"Our whole kingdom flies in her domain by her grace. The queen's magic might be lifting us up, but trespassing on another being's land is a sin, and yet she's letting us roam free. It's unforgivable to let this slide," He growled.

Arad could feel a cold sweat dripping across his back, an almost infinite wave of bloodlust washed over the capital as the metallic dragons camouflaging around the area and in the air shifted back. Thousands of wyrms and greatwyrms were glaring toward the cube, enraged.

"It's unforgivable! We won't stand for this, and each passing second is a disgrace." He lifted his arm, "Don't you think so? Steel fortress?"

The night sky disappeared from above them alongside the moon and a pitch-black darkness swallowed the world, only the faint ember light from the torches spread across the capital remained.

Several spotlights shined from the sky, pointing to where Arad and the rest stood with the cube. A massive chunk of steel and cannons emerged in the sky, covering almost a quarter of the whole continent.

"One cannon is as big as the capital itself?!" Eris gasped.

"Is this how it looks from below?" Merlin looked up, sweating, "I only saw it once from above,"

"You did?" Eris stared at her.

"Alcott, I and Nina got teleported there once before to have a talk with a copper dragon alchemist. It's when we were trying to figure out if the potion I fed to Alcott and turned him into a woman was something permanent." Merlin quickly explained. "With such firepower, they could probably whip the entire continent in minutes,"

"Arad Orion!" Kinryuu growled, "It's not only our problem now. It's not us the dragons alone who lived in Zephyr's grace. Soon the Titans, Devas, dwarves, elves, arachnoids, insectoids, tieflings, fairies, other spirits and everyone else would seek her return. They shall not stand silent,"

As Kinryuu growled, the tides of the sea started shifting and Arad could feel an immense concentration of magic several times bigger than his own approaching from the sea. He stared, seeing a massive blue-haired woman larger than anyone he had seen. If a great wyrm is a crocodile, she'll be a human.

"That woman," Arad growled, "The guild master, Alice Dagon?!" He only met her projection before, the woman called Five who's directing the guild. At that time, Alice explained to him that she was a titan living in seclusion and that she controlled ten projections.

Kinryuu smiled, looking back, "To think your lazy ass walked all the way here, I thought you hated going outside and could barely bear the company of other people,"

"All of my projections got destroyed and then I could feel the wind spirit's magic fading," Alice replied, her void crackling like thunder in the sky, "Where is the bastard who did that?" She growled, her hair spiking out with lightning and magic, sending a wave strong enough that anyone could feel it.

"Calm down," Kinryuu sighed, shifting into his massive draconic form and standing over the capital, "It was the vampire king Vlad, and he's now dead, as well as ash and sealed thanks to Arad over there. The unfortunate part is that the great wind spirit Zephyr had charged ahead on her own and got tricked and sealed by the fiend."

Alice's eyes shifted down, glaring toward Arad. She paused for a second, "AHH!" She cried, taking a step back and falling on her butt in the sea, sending a massive tsunami to the shore.

"Be careful," Kinryuu growled, raising a massive barrier of magic and blocking the water. "You can't handle being around people that well, get back to your island and we'll talk in detail about magic,"

"Don't drown the humans," Kinryuu stared at her,

"What happened to the seal?"

"A fist-sized dimension cube, gray in color and oozes with magic, feint, but Zephyr's magic leaks out a bit," Kinryuu looked at Merlin who sent the cube flying into the sky.

"I see," Alice stared at it from the sea, "I read about something like it in an ancient tomb. I suspect they were a weapon created by the agents of the gods and provided to key people around the world so they could seal powerful abominations and wait for someone capable of slaying the beasts to arrive. A device to buy them time is the best I can describe it,"

"The important part, can you crack it open?" Kinryuu asked.

"I can crack it," Alice stared at him with a worried face, "But, I might end up killing or severely harming Zephyr inside. It's like trying to open a safe with one of your cannons, you can't expect the money inside to survive the blast."

"How did they even manage to open them in the past?" Arad looked at Alice. "They didn't need to open them, right?" Arad looked confused.

"I don't know whether you're a genius, an idiot, or simply lucky with words. I hope it's the first," Alice giggled, "You're right, those things can't be opened, they aren't meant to be opened. You seal the abomination inside, and when someone strong enough comes, they blast the whole thing and destroy it with the beast."

"A cage designed to be thrown into the fire," Kinryuu sighed, holding his head.

"We might be able to figure something out," Alice looked at Arad, "You're the mediator of the dragons. It'll be best if you kept Zephyr, that'll be better than having every race and their mothers fight over her."

"I'm keeping her whether they like it or not," Arad stared back at Alice, "Zephyr is contracted to my wife, she taught me a lot and I won't leave her to anyone else,"

"So everyone here, each of the major races is indebted to her, especially the long-lived ones, the Titans and dragons." Alice smiled, "They'll fight over her as hard as you'll do,"

Arad looked up at the metallic dragon's fortress, ^One shot from those cannons and they'll evaporate my body, I can regenerate or teleport out of the way, but I can't take the barrage of all those cannons firing at once. Even my expansion is only 40km and this fortress is well over 1000km in diameter.^ His eyes shifted toward Alice, ^She has more magic than me, and probably spent centuries perfecting spells while I only had a few months at best. I'll probably get sealed in a wine bottle before I can realize it if we fight.^

The void started crackling from Arad's claws, slowly sucking matter from the ground and melting it into energy absorbed by his body, ^I am no longer a baby, I'm a juvenile, yet still too weak for the world,^

With his body glowing purple, and eyes burning, "I am no longer a baby, I want power!"

Kinryuu smiled, ^This kid is aware, unlike the rest of the juvenile dragons. Usually, when they reach the juvenile stage and feel their power showing, they get arrogant and think they can do anything, and that is what usually gets them killed or hunted by adventurers. Arad on the other hand is aware that whatever power he holds now, it's not his best.^

He giggled, ^Calling me and the metallic dragons to help with Vlad just in case something went wrong, is a testament to that. He realizes his growth and never overestimates it. He'll survive and grow even stronger,^