Demonic Dragon: Harem System

The eleventh response disappeared beneath the group’s feet, but the ground did not return to its previous state. Smaller vibrations continued traveling through the region at regular intervals, crossing one another like signals transmitted through a network that had just detected interference. The old map trembled between Monica’s fingers, and the lines revealed by the heat no longer looked like simple markings made by some imperial cartographer. A dark glow advanced through them, starting from the destroyed observatory and moving toward the center of the desert. Frieren brought the measuring crystal close to the parchment and watched the instrument respond with the same pulse, confirming that the object did not merely represent the network.

Somehow, it was still connected to it.

"Move that away from the creature," Frieren ordered, turning toward the soldiers carrying the captured specimen.

They obeyed immediately, but increasing the distance by several meters made no difference. The body held inside the containment matrix began contracting violently, pressing its plates against the magical lines and modifying its own structure whenever it encountered resistance. The creature was no longer trying to break the seal in any specific direction. It created spikes, membranes, additional joints, and small organs that died almost immediately, as though testing dozens of possibilities in search of a form capable of answering the underground call.

Frieren reinforced the matrix before one of the lines broke.

"This is not merely communication between the outposts. The network is trying to recover everything it considers part of itself."

Monica looked at the creature and then at the map.

"Then we cannot take it to Asgard."

Strax immediately understood why. If that thing functioned like a beacon, transporting the specimen into the city would be the same as offering the network a precise direction. It did not matter whether the creature remained sealed or unconscious. The underground organism could sense its position, and after everything they had seen, no one could guarantee distance would prevent a response.

"We cannot leave it here either," Cassandra said, keeping the soldiers in formation while watching the cracks spreading across the slope. "It learned from all of us. If the network absorbs what exists inside that body, the next group may be born already knowing how to respond to our techniques."

Monica did not need long to decide.

"We will transport it to the old quarry in the north. It is an isolated depression, with no nearby villages and surrounded by solid rock. Frieren will establish a temporary containment field while we send a specialized team from Asgard. No one will take the specimen beyond that point until we understand how to interrupt this connection."

A crash from the observatory interrupted Frieren’s response. The tower held by Mercedes’s ice tilted several meters and finally collapsed over the main wing, throwing a dense cloud of stone, wood, and dark dust across the slope. The fall should have buried the underground opening, but the movement that followed pushed the debris upward. Stone blocks rose as though they weighed nothing, and a black line appeared across the hill from top to bottom, dividing the terrain into two sections.

Cassandra raised her voice before the first creature appeared.

"Defensive formation. Shields forward, carriers in the center. Do not pursue them if they retreat."

The cracks began releasing small structures the size of dogs, formed from dark plates and excessively thin limbs. They had no defined heads. Only small sensory cavities scattered across their bodies and circular mouths opened along the underside. Dozens emerged from the slope without attacking immediately, spreading around the group and touching the ground with the ends of their limbs.

Frieren was the first to realize what they were doing.

"They are searching for the specimen. Do not watch only the front. Some are digging."

Mercedes struck the ground with one foot and spread a layer of ice across the entire area, not to attack the creatures directly, but to make any underground movement visible. Three raised trails moved beneath the frozen surface toward the soldiers carrying the matrix. Cassandra shifted the formation two steps to the left and waited until the organisms emerged.

When they broke through the ice, spears descended from different angles, pinning two of them to the ground. The third dodged, widened its front limbs to gain momentum, and tried to jump over the shields, but a gravitational alteration from Frieren pulled its body sideways and threw it against a rock.

The remaining organisms reacted at the same time. Some thickened their legs to cross the ice, while others flattened their bodies and began distributing their weight over a wider area. They were not as resistant as the creature faced earlier, but compensated with speed and numbers. More than forty had already surrounded the group when Strax advanced several steps and released a short wave of draconic pressure.

The impact carried neither fire nor ice. It was only concentrated force, enough to throw the first line against the slope, breaking limbs and plates without offering an elemental pattern they could absorb.

The fallen creatures did not remain useless. Those still intact ran over their own kind, tore pieces from the damaged bodies, and pressed the material against their own plates. The tissue fused almost immediately, reinforcing joints and creating additional layers over vulnerable areas.

Monica watched the process while retreating with the map protected beneath her cloak.

"They waste nothing. Even dead organisms continue serving as material for the others."

"Then we will not give them time to collect it," Cassandra replied.

She divided the soldiers into two groups and ordered every fallen creature pushed into the area frozen by Mercedes. The Ice Monarch lowered the temperature until the plates stopped contracting, isolating the remains inside separate blocks. Adaptation still occurred along the edges, but much more slowly.

That confirmed the old records.

Cold did not destroy the organism, but drastically reduced its ability to reorganize.

The group began descending the slope toward the mounts, maintaining formation around the specimen. The retreat remained organized, but the small creatures continued emerging through every crack. None of them seemed interested in the soldiers beyond what was necessary. They attacked only those blocking their path and immediately returned toward the matrix.

That worried Strax more than indiscriminate aggression.

They were not enraged animals.

They had a clear task and shared information quickly enough to adjust the behavior of the entire group.

Then the smaller organisms stopped.

The interruption happened simultaneously. All of them compressed themselves against the ground and retreated from the central area of the slope, opening a corridor between the observatory crater and the expedition. The change was so orderly that Cassandra stopped the soldiers before anyone interpreted it as an opportunity to attack.

Strax also remained still, feeling the pressure rising from underground. It could not be compared to the enormous system breathing beneath the desert, but it possessed density far greater than the creatures surrounding them.

"Something larger is coming," he warned.

The hill opened from the inside out. The observatory debris was thrown aside as a white structure crossed the ground and emerged completely. The creature possessed six thick limbs, overlapping bone plates, and a body long enough to occupy almost the entire road. It did not have the unstable shape of the captured specimen. Its anatomy was organized, built for speed and strength, with protected joints and a wide opening in the chest lined with dozens of small filaments.

Monica immediately recognized several details described in the report from the Western Coast.

"It is similar to the second creature."

"More developed," Strax corrected. "And it came to retrieve the one we captured."

The white creature ignored everyone around it and advanced directly toward the center of the formation. The soldiers raised their shields, but Strax appeared in front of them and blocked the first limb with his forearm. The impact sank the ground and shattered the layer of ice for dozens of meters. Before the second strike reached his head, he turned his body, seized the joint, and threw the monster aside.

The creature used four limbs to absorb the force, slid across the stone, and returned to position without showing significant damage.

It also did not try to attack Strax in the same way again. The front plates moved to protect the joints he had used as leverage, while the body lowered and distributed its weight in a manner that would make another throw far more difficult.

The adaptation had happened in a single movement.

"Do not repeat the contact," Monica warned.

"I know."

Mercedes launched two ice spears at opposite sides of the body. The creature dodged the first and allowed the second to strike a bone plate, using the impact to rotate and advance along the side of the formation. Cassandra intercepted the movement with a chain secured between two shields. The monster broke the first link but lost enough speed for Frieren to alter the gravity beneath its rear limbs.

Instead of increasing the weight, she reversed the direction for a fraction of a second, making the body rise when it tried to advance.

The creature lost contact with the ground, and Mercedes froze only the exposed joints. Cassandra pulled the chain, moving the body away from the carriers. Strax then struck the opening in its chest with a short blow, not to penetrate it, but to force the filaments to retract. The organism was thrown several meters and struck the slope, although it was already adjusting its center of mass before it even fell.

"It is different from the others," Frieren said, keeping the gravitational field prepared. "It is not trying to learn everything. It is ignoring information that does not help with the mission."

Monica understood.

"It was produced for a specific function."

The opening in the creature’s chest confirmed that conclusion. The filaments launched at once and crossed the distance like living cables, not toward Strax or the soldiers, but toward the specimen contained within the matrix. Frieren strengthened the seal, but the filaments did not try to break it.

They attached themselves to the external lines and began transferring something through the magic.

The imprisoned body stopped struggling for an instant.

Then every plate opened simultaneously.

"It is sending the specimen’s information into the network," Frieren realized.

Strax seized the filaments and released White Fire only at the ends closest to the creature’s chest. The organism severed its own appendages before the flames could reach the main body, but the few seconds of contact had already been enough. Beneath their feet, the ground answered with a new pulse, far more precise than the previous ones.

The smaller creatures began modifying their bodies at the same time. Some developed pale plates, others thickened their limbs, and several opened cavities resembling eyes.

"It transmitted part of what it learned," Cassandra said.

Monica looked at the quarry marked on the map and realized the withdrawal plan would no longer be enough. Even if they took the specimen, the network possessed too much information about its position and protection.

They needed to interrupt the signal before moving.

"Frieren, can you cut this outpost’s connection to the others?"

"Not without reaching the core beneath the hill."

"How long?"

"A few minutes. Perhaps more."

Strax looked at the white creature, the smaller organisms, and the cracks continuing to expand around them.

"Then open the path to the core. I will hold this thing."

Monica did not like the idea of leaving him alone against something capable of adapting to every contact, but she also knew there was no other quick option.

"Cassandra stays with you. Mercedes takes Frieren to the underground entrance. Four soldiers accompany them. The rest protect the specimen and retreat one hundred meters. No one leaves formation."

The division happened immediately. Mercedes opened a passage through the debris with a concentrated wave of cold, freezing the smaller structures before breaking them into blocks. Frieren and the soldiers followed her inside while Cassandra took position on Strax’s right side.

The white creature noticed the movement but did not pursue them.

Its objective remained the specimen.

It advanced again, this time using all six limbs in different patterns to prevent any simple reading. Strax did not try to block it. He dodged by only a few centimeters and struck the ground with his palm, releasing Black Ice through the cracks. The cold rose from below and trapped three limbs, but the creature broke its own outer plates to escape, abandoning part of its body and creating a new layer beneath.

Cassandra attacked during that exact interval. Her sword entered the exposed joint, turned, and cut part of the musculature before the plates closed. She retreated without attempting a second strike against the same point.

"It can abandon any damaged section."

"Then we will make it abandon more than it can rebuild."

Strax alternated attacks without using the same element twice. Draconic pressure broke the plates along its side. White Fire burned the exposed tissue. Black Ice blocked circulation between the limbs. Cassandra worked through the openings he created, striking each area only once before changing position.

The creature continued learning, but it was forced to spend matter at an increasing rate. The white body began to thin, and some plates no longer rebuilt with the same thickness.

Even so, it kept advancing.

Every movement brought it several meters closer to the specimen, and Strax realized the organism accepted losing its own body as long as it completed the mission. It possessed no fear, survival instinct, or need to live beyond that objective.

When only four limbs remained functional, the chest opening widened and began consuming the rear plates, transforming all remaining matter into a single mass of filaments.

"It is going to attempt another transmission," Cassandra warned.

Strax gathered White Fire in one hand and Black Ice in the other. The two energies remained separated for an instant, reacting violently to their proximity, until he compressed them against his own chest. The fusion created an unstable layer of pale and dark energy around his arm, so dense that the air began to distort.

Instead of launching the attack against the creature, he waited for the filaments to fire.

The instant they crossed the distance, Strax cut all of them with a single movement.

The fused energy did not merely burn or freeze.

It severed the connection between the tissues, preventing the separated parts from continuing to share information. The filaments fell to the ground without moving, and the white creature stopped as though part of its existence had been torn away.

Cassandra drove her sword through the opening in its chest, and Strax released the remaining energy inside the core.

The entire body lost its form. The plates detached, the muscles collapsed, and the creature fell without managing to begin another adaptation.

At the same moment, an underground explosion traveled through the hill.

The dark lines on the map disappeared at that point, while the other eleven connections remained active. Frieren and Mercedes emerged from the passage only seconds before part of the slope collapsed behind them. The elf carried a cracked black crystal removed from the outpost’s core.

"I cut the connection," she reported, breathing faster than usual. "But before losing contact, the core received a transmission from the center."

Monica approached.

"What did it say?"

Frieren looked at Strax, then at the remains of the white creature.

"It was not a message made of words. It was a sequence of biological instructions."

She raised the crystal, where rapid images appeared between the cracks. Bone structures, wings, scales, muscles, and a core divided between heat and cold appeared in succession.

The network was not merely trying to recover the specimen.

It was using everything it had learned to create something new.

At the center of the desert, far beneath the dunes, the response began to take shape. A cocoon larger than any found in the observatory contracted for the first time, while two structures resembling wings slowly grew against its inner walls.

Inside, a newly formed heart alternated between impossible heat and a cold capable of freezing the stone itself.

The network had studied Strax.

Now it was beginning to build something prepared specifically to face him.