The dragon's harem

That day, the Merchants’ Union fell, and it wasn’t Arad’s hands but Gojo’s. The black dragon of the north wiped the entire ruling merchant divisions, publicly executed their leaders, and shattered their influence over the region and the people. Tempo and Zeus, who came here for a peaceful diplomatic talk, found themselves having nothing to do as Gojo threw all peaceful talks out the door with the corpses of the merchant representatives and singlehandedly colonized the entire union in a day.

None in the Union had expected Gojo to be like that, a titanic black dragon that was far more capable with magic than an entire army of archmages, and one that didn’t take a no for an answer.

He dispelled all of their slave contracts, which caused a quarter of their army and supply chain to crumble in seconds as the newly freed slaves rebelled. So, when Gojo’s actual magic started, they found themselves baffled.

The sky turned black, the stars burned brightly, and the holy magic of the gods failed to reach them. The soldiers’ own suits of armor came to life and turned against them as they fought against their own comrades, unable to tell friend from foe.

The ground quaked as starlight fell from the heavens, flames roared, and rain blew sideways as the buildings grew feet and ran away, displacing the entire capital. The horses seemed to stand on two feet and shoot arrows, and the water came to life as great serpents of raging water that dragged and drowned anyone who fought back.

There were no large fireballs or lightning strikes; there were no regular spells either, as Gojo never used anything the Union’s wizards knew how to handle or counter; in fact, he even turned their wands and staves into snakes and limp pieces of wood.

“There you are!” A large buff man shouted, and the wizards around him all pointed their hands toward Gojo, who was standing right outside the meeting hall with his eyes burning dark blue.

“A magic-less knight and his loyal wizards. You ditched your armor and came here to face me directly.” Gojo spoke, and the man glared at him with furious eyes. “You twig! What did you use to attack the Union? I am the great general of the armed forces.” He pointed his sword forward, and Gojo gave him a smile.

“Gojo Orion. Your representatives here taught me something important.” He pointed at them. “They taught me that if you don’t agree with someone weaker than you, you can just enslave them. Now I’m testing that on you.”

The general didn’t waste a second and flew at Gojo, swinging his sword, only to get weaved, grabbed by the hair, and kicked across the palace’s yard. The wizards unleashed a torrent of lightning bolts the moment the general was thrown away, but Gojo didn’t even bother to move.

With his bare hands, Gojo caught the lightning bolts as if they were ropes and then looked at them with a grin. The wizards were horrified, and half of them even turned around to run away. Not once in their lives had they seen someone capable of touching, let alone grabbing it like that; it didn’t even make sense.

The general had recovered and tried to attack Gojo while he was busy holding the lightning, but he couldn’t expect what Gojo did next. Gojo didn’t dodge, deflect the general’s slash, or even show any hostility.

Gojo stood still, and the general’s sword bounced off his skin as if he were made of stone. When the blade shattered, the general cried, and Gojo gave him a sad look.

“Your sword broke!? I’m really, really sorry about that!” He approached, “Come, I’ll give you a hug so you can feel better. I usually only hug women, but I’ll make an exception for you.” In Gojo’s arms, he still held all of those roaring lightning bolts.

The general tried to run away, but Gojo was faster and caught him in a bear hug, frying him to a crisp.

After the general’s fall, it didn’t take the Union’s army long to fall as well, since all of the soldiers were stuck fighting their own armor suits, which now were moving with Gojo’s magic, never feeling pain or exhaustion.

As the entire union fell, Gojo was relaxing on the palace’s roof, bathing in the sunlight. Zeus and Tempo were already far away to deliver the news to all the small cities of the union, so he was left all alone, waiting for the news.

It was then that he felt a bare foot on his face. He didn’t even need to open his eyes. “A small foot, so it can’t be Liliana or Gug, and since I don’t feel any sharp nails, it isn’t Lucy either… Was this a part of your plan?”

Yog glared down at him with a grin on her face. “Who knows? Congratulations on expanding your land.” She pushed down a bit too hard, and he finally opened his eyes, staring up at her.

“You’re the one who informed Merida about this, and even if those were wizards, you couldn’t just show them up… Was it really the Union who sent them, or was it you who did it to bait me down here?”

“It was the Union who sent them. They saw Arad as an immature, new emperor who can’t possibly have the skill needed to run an empire, so they wanted to cause him trouble, send an advisor from them to solve the problem, and then slowly gain influence in the empire to spread their business.”

Gojo smiled. “Well, they were right that he is immature for an emperor. I’m immature for a king as well. But that’s why we already have people to help us with that. I can’t believe that they didn’t see that his wives were holding most of the political power.”

She sat on his chest and crossed her legs. “Women in the Union aren’t allowed to occupy any ruling post, so they must’ve thought that Arad’s wives are nothing but toys for him to have fun with. They never considered for a second that Arad would burn their entire Union for Merida alone.”

“Are they just a bunch of idiots? Everything aside, Eris is a goddess, and the entire world knows that. They should’ve expected that something was off.” She immediately tapped him on the face with her foot. “But merchants love taking risks. They knew there was something off, but tried anyway.”

“They are dumber than moles.” He sighed, and Yog laughed. “That’s an insult to moles. But it is true that those Merchants relied too much on their common sense. They expected that even if their plan got exposed, they could wash their hands of the necromancers and throw all the blame away. They never expected to be attacked directly like this and without a chance to even explain.”

He sighed, “Okay, this is the reason you tell everyone. But… why did you set this entire thing in motion?” As he glared at her, she became silent for a second and then smiled from ear to ear like an eldritch nightmare.

“Do you know where the gate of forbidden knowledge is?” She asked, and he pointed at her. “Inside you.”

She giggled. “You can check my insides all you want, but you’ll never find the gate.” She then stood on his chest. “The gate isn’t a physical object, and it isn’t a magical one either.”

“Then what is it? Where is it?”

Yog swung her arms. “The gate is knowledge, and knowledge is the gate. It is the boundary between reality and the unreal, between what is and what was, what exists now and what couldn’t exist.”

“I don’t get it.” He sighed, and she stepped on his face again. “That’s the point, you don’t get it. If you understood that, you’d already be standing in front of the gate. Short story is that I know it, I know how to get to it, and in the land of this Union, we can achieve that.”

“Ok, you want me to reach it?” As he spoke, Yog glared down at him. “Are you that stupid? Think of another answer, or I’ll piss on your face right now.”

“You don’t want me to find it?” He lifted an eyebrow, and she sighed. “No, I want you to find a way to lock it up, to make sure no one reaches it… especially Arad. Never let him get close to it no matter what.”

“Why him?”

“It’ll be bad for his health, and… he is fated to get lost behind the gate. He can break that fate with ease; the only problem is that he needs to go behind the gate to break it, so it’s a loop.” Sitting back on his chest, she sighed. “It’s a fucking painful loop.”

“Loop?… a painful loop…” Gojo’s eyes opened wide. “Wait… don’t tell me you’ve been…” But before he could finish, she was already up and pissing on his face. “Shut up! You fool! How many times have I told you not to babble nonsense!”

Gojo stood and swung a fist at her, but she dodged him and wrapped her legs around his face. His anger had washed that last thought off his memory, and she only needed to make sure he didn’t try to remember it.