The dragon's harem

Chapter 1653: Ice Empress

“Plum! I’m having a little problem here and could really use a couple of white dragons. Can you manage getting me three or four of them?”

Undine’s voice came a bit shaken, the echoes of her clash with the other queens radiating through the magical communication. She didn’t want to ask Plum for help; she knew how much pain she was in, but at this rate, they’ll lose, and everyone could just die.

Arad isn’t here to save them after all.

“No matter how much you ask, I can’t get Gamond here. My arse would rip open.” Plum’s voice returned just as shaken, garbled by her shaky breath.

Right now, her whole body was burned, the skin of her thighs torn clean off, and she felt like two spiked, burning hot rods were inserted through her spine. The only reason she wasn’t crying was because her two assistants were standing by her side and she didn’t want to embarrass herself.

“Who asked for her? I mean, I could use her, but just a couple of adult dragons would do. Didn’t Arad bring a bunch of drakainas a while ago? Some of them have to be white, right?” Undine gasped for a moment, and a loud boom echoed in Plum’s head. She could hear every blast echoing.

Even if Undine was keeping up well, many of the queens’ attacks came so close to hitting her inside the Walking Glacier that it was terrifying.

“I won’t last long enough for whatever Claug is doing. I’m running out of mana quickly, and I need those dragons to reinforce my presence.” She deflected a whole mountain and cried. “That almost crushed me! I know it hurt, but get me something! If I fall, they’ll come for your tree.”

Dragons naturally twist the world to their elements. The first dragon Asgorath, was created by AO to battle the abominations and remediate the contaminated land. There is a good reason this abomination killed all of the dragons; instead of overtaking their bodies, they were a problem.

If Undine could get a couple of dragons flying around and basking in her presence, they could act like air filters for mana, helping her both recover some mana and fight the other queens.

There was nothing more majestic and mystical than a Walking Glacier towering over the clouds, with a couple of harrowing ice dragons nesting on its daunting shoulders, basking in its frigid storm of malevolence.

Spirits take the natural mana and project it as it is; they don’t interfere with it, but amplify it. Dragons, on the other hand, subjugate natural mana and morph it to their own nature. That’s why spirits tend to look for a land suiting their element to settle in, while dragons settle wherever they want and spawn their own domain.

The army of spirits reached the battlefield to assist Undine, but they could only watch from afar. The weakened Queens were still far above the regular spirits in both power and dominance over the elements. It only took Nar a glance to make all of the fire spirits grovel to the ground, crying as they felt their heads near exploding.

Them getting close to the queens’ battle was like a foot soldiers trying to interfere in a shootout between tanks.

They had long since seen Undine and Salamander as inferior to the Queens of the mortal world, which was true. Undine was far weaker than Rilyeh, and Salamander couldn’t hope to reach Nar’s heat.

A moment before Nar’s will could tear the fire spirits to pieces, Undine’s soothing cold washed over them, severing the dominance of their queen. But since they were fire spirits, Undine’s cold and water still hurt them.

The spirits looked up in terror, their eyes and bodies slowly freezing from the cold. What they saw was a scene from the end of the world.

Gaia spawned and threw titanic mountains left and right. Undine would punch those mountains away using the massive arms of her glacier, only to have them explode into a roaring inferno. Then, before that inferno could melt her ice, the eternal blizzard of her presence would drown and snuff those flames.

Rilyeh would summon massive waves, and they would freeze. Salamander would try to sneak-attack Undine from the back, only to get swatted down like a fly.

But strangely enough, most of Zephyr’s attacks seemed to miss their marks or fail to launch. Undine seemed to notice that and always made sure to smack Zephyr to the ground whenever she had the chance.

Looking at Undine’s towering Walking Glacier, they could only imagine one thing. Arad, that’s goofy giant getting scolded by his maids. He had once defeated this titan.

Only if he were here, the fight could’ve been easier.

The spirits had gathered their courage to come all the way into this battle to help Undine save their queens, but it seems that traditions were true all alone. When the queens move, the spirits must sit down and watch, because they aren’t powerful enough to make a difference.

But then, a flash of crimson flames pierced the clouds, drew a line through Undine’s eternal blizzard, and exploded at Rilyeh and Salamander’s faces.

The slowly freezing spirits looked up, through their dried, nearly frozen eyes, they could see a massive shadow slowly landing on the Walking Glacier’s head. A massive white drakaina with a few red scales here and there, on her neck sat a silver knight, clad in heavy armor and holding onto the drakaina with a thick steel chain as a harness.

Isdis slowly lifted the visor of her helmet, glaring down at the battlefield with glowing, cold blue eyes. The spirits felt her gaze, and it sent shivers down their spines. Not because she was scary or powerful, but because they knew she was no stronger than they were, and that if she were to get harmed here, Arad, the one who defeated the Walking Glacier once, would rip their wings out.

Isdis, who sat on Kory’s back, holding a longsword in her right hand, closed her visor with a clank.

“We’ll deal with Rilyeh and Salamander.”

Isdis shouted and pulled on the harness, prompting Kory to fly right down at the two queens with a loud roar. Then from the cloud, five more white drakainas flew in and landed on the Walking Glacier to bask in its presence. With them around, Undine could finally breathe.

“Plum! Good job, but why are Isdis and Kory here? Do you want Arad to kill us?” Undine was happy to have received help, but Isdis was one of Arad’s delicate wives. She didn’t want any of them to get harmed because that would put the spirits in a bad spot.

When Plum’s voice returned, she was already crying, “Gamond recommended her… so shut up…”

The spirits watching stared at Kory with terrified faces; they weren’t afraid of her, though, but appalled at Isdis’s presence. She usually spends her whole day sitting in her office, handling the empire’s paperwork and dealing with the political landscape. They heard she is a capable fighter, but have never once seen her wielding a blade.

There was another problem: the difference between a capable fighter and someone who could interfere in a war between the Spirit Queens is as vast as the world itself.

She wasn’t even a fighter or a wizard; she was a bard, a singer, and a dancer. Songs, even if magical, aren’t going to be enough to hold back two Spirit Queens.

Some of the spirits there were direct servants of the queens and had once had access to Arad’s bath alongside their queens. One of them, who worked for Zephyr, even remembers Isdis dancing and singing naked in the bath to entertain Arad and the other wives. Not the exact image of a tough and powerful fighter.

But when Kory landed and Isdis jumped out of her back, Rilyeh and Salamander stopped moving. Isdis’s blue eyes glared at them from behind her silver visor, flashing like two brilliant stars.

Even with the heavy blizzard obscuring the view, Isdis’s silver armor was as clear as day, and even with her heavy armor, her feet never sank into the thick layer of soft snow covering the ground. She looked like a frigid wraith that had just emerged out of the frozen expanse of Undine’s presence, followed by an immense drakaina.

Salamander lifted her palm and suddenly unleashed a massive torrent of flames, as vast as a small hill of infernal heat and fire. It easily dwarfed Kory’s draconic body and engulfed the whole area, flashing with blinding light and searing heat.

But then, the flames faded away, allegedly killed by the daunting blizzard of Undine’s presence. But soon, Salamander and Rilyeh looked forward with passive faces, while the spirits watching from afar gasped.

Isdis stood in her place, now her sword drawn in a guard and smoking; nothing behind her was touched by the flames. Then with a single swing, the fire was born once more, exploding with even more violence and heat, washing away the two spirit queens back several hundred meters.

Before they could stand back up, Kory was already upon them, now supporting two muscular necks out of her torso, each ending in a different head. A red head for fire, and a white head for cold. A breath of fire hit Rilyeh, and a flash of cold washed over Salamander, engulfing them both in elemental energy.

The spirits knew that Arad was a monster; they saw his power and believed in what he could achieve. None of them doubted that if Arad were here, this fight wouldn’t have even started. But what they failed to believe is something that their queens once told them.

That while Arad was scary, his wives were just as terrifying as he was. Isdis here, while having very little mana, had already learned Temperature magic from Isbert, and also had Kory with her, a rare two-headed drakaina fighting by her side.

A Temperature drakaina, with a Temperature rider, both fighting a fire and a water Spirit Queen. It was a good match.

The spirits could only watch in silence as Isdis absorbed another of Salamander’s blazing attacks, flew right through the inferno, and stabbed her in the chest, then stomped her face into the snow.

Rilyeh tried to help Salamander, only to get blasted with the flames that Isdis absorbed, then pinned down by Kory a fair distance away.

“The one with dark blue eyes is Rilyeh, and the one with bright orange eyes is Salamander.” Isdis looked back at Kory. “The one with green eyes is Zephyr, honey brown is Gaia, and the one with crimson red eyes is Nar. Keep that in mind since they all look the same.”

Kory had already figured that out, but she was glad that Isdis confirmed it. While using both heads, Kory tends to get distracted a lot; she can’t think that much, so she would rather someone else do the thinking for her, at least until she grows old enough to think with her two brains at once.

That was the whole reason she got a harness and a leash so Isdis could ride her more easily and safely. It also allowed Kory to focus on fighting and leave command to Isdis, who was smarter than her.

Isdis then looked down at Salamader with a cold glare, pushing down on her face with her foot. “What’s going on, abomination. Can’t you get smaller like they can do and escape?”

Salamander’s eyes burst into flames, and her whole body sparked into a blazing storm. She directed all of that flame up, trying to burn Isdis alive.

Isdis remained indifferent, pushing harder with her foot. “The harder you struggle, the colder I’ll freeze you.”

Isdis and Kory’s job was simple, to keep Salamander and Rilyeh busy and away from Undine. But if they just defeat them, that would be better.