The dragon's harem

"The metallic queen," Arad looked at Mary standing in front of him, "I see now," He smiled. Unlike the other dragons, she felt vastly different, her very mana burned the air around her, being several times denser than his. Even standing there without much effort, she's emitting more magic than he does when about to unleash a [Ho-white Nova]

^That since she's maintaining the steel fortress afloat,^ He started walking around her like a prowling animal, keeping the same distance while staring at her.

"Can you travel in time?" He asked.

"It doesn't work like that," She replied, "But you can say I travel in time. The results aren't that different," She turned toward Nina, "I'm glad you know when to stop."

"The metallic dragon queen? Why did you come to me that day?" Nina growled.

"Since you didn't listen to me now." She stared at her, "What I'm saying is that I can go back in time and kill you when you're weak. Albeit, I don't really need to do that."

"I wonder about that," Nina growled, her axe flying out of the capital and landing in her hand, "Why did you interfere, why did you stop our fight?"

Mary stared at her with glowing golden eyes, "You're a hard-headed one," She smiled, "I wanted to show you that trying to fight me is useless, but I'll beat some sense into you now if you want." She turned toward Arad, "Dragons could be as hard-headed as barbarians as well,"

^[Don't fight her. We can't win, not today, not in a decade. Even if I had my body and items, I'd still doubt my chances,]^ Doma warned Arad.

"Probably not," He pointed up at the flying fortress, "If you can lift that, I doubt I'll win a fight."

"Albeit being a descendant of her, you're quite reasonable," Mary stared at him with a passive face.

"Descendant of who?"

"The chromatic dragon goddess, void dragons came from her, and the light dragons came from the chromatic queen. Time dragons are my descendants," She replied, "I thought you'd have a higher temper than her," She pointed at Nina.

"As I said," Arad sighed, "I'm not stupid. Even though my expansion can't fit that fortress, I'm clearly outclassed. And you don't look like an enemy,"

"You're right, I only came here to stop a disaster," She smiled, "Feel free to visit the steel fortress. Only make sure not to cause trouble there, Kinryuu is a nice dragon, but I can't say the same for the other metallics,"

"I thought the metallic ones were good, didn't they?" Arad stared at her with a smile, "I guess it's Kinryuu carrying the goodwill,"

"No specific race of dragons is good or evil, we're all arrogant monsters of destruction. The only difference is the target of our destruction." Her eyes flashed with a golden light.

"With such powerful gravity magic and time travel, I can see where that destruction could come from,"

"What do you call time travel is an innate ability I have, not my draconic magic. And the gravity magic is something I learned from scratch like everyone else, that's my draconic magic," She pointed at the steel fortress.

Arad looked up with his void eyes, and his face paled, "Wait!" He gasped, glaring at her, "No you aren't,"

"Steel creation magic," She opened her wings and started floating with gravity magic, "All dragons are born strong, even wyrmlings can change the ecosystem of their environment. That power only grows when the dragon ages, and then stops at the great wyrm stage, where dragons stop. And at that stage, they reach the limit." She stared at Arad, "Don't get arrogant, those who surpassed the twilight are few, but they are to great wyrms, what great wyrms are to ants," She flapped her wings, flying into the fortress.

^[I read about the theory of twilight before. It's the stage of rapid deterioration that dragons enter upon reaching the end of their life span, it's then that they grow old and frail and eventually die. But, some speculated that if a dragon managed to push through that stage and not die, they'd achieve a height of power that the mind of mortals can't imagine. That book also said that the two draconic queens have surpassed the twilight,]^

^Do you think that's her expansion?^

^[I can tell how much mages exert themselves when using magic. I didn't feel like she was using any magic,]^

^All of this is nothing to her,^ He sighed, looking at Nina, "Seems our fight was cut short."

"I'll kill her one day," Nina sighed, plunging her axe onto the ground.

"Don't try, you'll get killed," Arad approached her, "Let's get back to the capital for now."

"ARAD!" Merlin and Ginger rushed toward them, "Who was that woman half-dragon? I saw grey wings."

"It didn't feel like a normal woman," Ginger landed and Merlin remained flying on her broom.

"What took you so long?" Arad looked at them.

"Our magic stopped working when she appeared," Merlin replied, "Did she use any anti-magic spell?"

"No, I didn't feel anything," Arad looked at the steel fortress in the sky as it got camouflaged once more. "Who was she anyway?" Ginger asked.

"Mary Asgorath, the metallic dragons' queen," He replied.

"Wait! The queen came down? I never heard of her leaving the fortress!" Merlin gasped.

"People are going to freak out about this," Ginger sighed, scratching her head.

"I don't care," Arad sighed, "I'm tired, let's go back to the city and rest a bit. We're heading out after tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, but are you alright? You look pale," Merlin approached him and stared at his face.

"I'm not. Told you I'm tired." He walked and extended his hand to them, "Want to get a ride?"

"I won't say no to teleportation," Merlin smiled and touched his hand. Ginger and Nina did the same and Arad teleported them back to the side of the church with [Void Step]

****

Beneath the snow, Arad sat on a bench outside and stared at the sky, "How do I drop that thing down,"

[The fortress? You should be able to swallow it in your expansion when you grow old enough, but that would be like dropping a hornet's nest. The queen will be a hard fight even if you're a great wyrm.]

"That time travel thing is something else. Can I stop her from doing it?" He mumbled, watching the snow falling.

[I don't know, I never heard of it being stopped.]

"Doma, what do you think?"

^[Don't fight her. Even if you matched her in raw strength, she could go back in time and kill you when you were weaker. She's someone to be avoided, not fought or beaten. No wonder she sat on the dragon's throne for thousands of years,]^

"If this is the metallic queen, what about the chromatic one?" Arad asked.

^[Her name is Lola, but doesn't have a family name. Legends say that she and the overgod rebelled against her father and killed him and that is why doesn't carry a family name. She's also the progenitor of the light dragons. A tall woman with rainbow-colored hair, eyes, and scales signifying her mastery over all the chromatic dragon elements.]^

"So she has all colors, another broken monster," Arad sighed.

^[She's known to have a snotty brat attitude and laugh maniacally a lot. Even though she can't have a conversation without insulting the chromatic dragon goddess Tiamat, she still seems to be able to take a humanoid form and master divine magic,]^

"How about magic dragons? Do we have a king or a queen?"

^[Not that I know about. There are a lot of powerful magic dragons, but no one was able to claim the top as an absolute power. You can try doing that, and you might stand equal to the queens.]^

Arad smiled, "The throne is empty for those strong enough." He stood, cracking his neck. "I got a new goal for now,"

"Arad!" Eris called him, "Mind coming here for a moment?"

"What is it?" Arad turned and walked toward her, "Is there a problem?"

"I won't call it a problem, but do you mind helping us clear the street from debris? We need a clear road to get the wagons here to carry people," She pointed toward the street. The battle with Vlad has left them filled with rubble, blood, and ash from the burned houses.

"It'll only take a minute," He smiled, walking alongside her.

"Merlin was talking about the metallic queen showing up. How was she?" Eris asked.

"The steel fortress is made and maintained by her steel magic and levitates with her gravity magic and she can teleport. Since she said she's the daughter of Bahamut, I expect her to have a fair amount of holy magic so a crap ton of smites and regeneration. To add salt to injury, she seems to be able to time travel freely and has a near-infinite supply of mana," Arad stated what he knows, clearly annoyed.

"How can someone fight her? Can she even be beaten?" Eris gasped. Any one of those powers would've been a game over, but all at the same time.

"I don't know. I can't think of any way to hit her, let alone injure or beat her. She can just go back in time and kill me right after I hatched," He sighed as they reached the road that needed cleaning.