Demonic Dragon: Harem System

Strax broke through the upper layer of the desert only seconds before the passage collapsed completely behind him. The explosion of sand followed his emergence like a solid wave, striking his wings, filling the gaps between his scales, and reducing visibility to only a few meters. He continued climbing without slowing down, using White Fire to clear space around his body while Black Ice spread across the most damaged parts of his wings, preventing the compromised joints from giving way beneath their own weight. Below, the center of the dunes sank in broad, irregular circles, as though the entire region were trying to accommodate something too large to remain buried.

The presence of the golden eye continued following Strax even after hundreds of meters of sand and stone once again separated them. It was not direct surveillance like that of the adaptive network. The entity did not seem to depend on sight, mana, or any sense he recognized. It was as though the contact established inside the chamber had left a temporary mark on his existence, allowing the buried thing to know exactly where he was. Strax felt the pressure at the back of his mind, no longer trying to dominate him, but searching for an opening through which it could reach memories, relationships, or names.

He reinforced his consciousness with draconic energy and continued moving away from the central region. The crystal attached to his neck vibrated several times before managing to establish a stable connection. Monica appeared first, her voice accompanied by the noise of soldiers, mounts, and orders being transmitted in several directions.

"I can see you. You are leaving through the northern sector."

"Do not allow anyone to enter the area of darkened sand," Strax replied as he gained altitude. "The entity can use the ground as an extension of its own perception. I do not know the range, so keep the teams on stone or ice until we are completely outside the desert."

Monica immediately repeated the order to Cassandra. In the background, Strax heard the commanders beginning to alter the withdrawal routes, redirecting groups crossing sections of dunes and ordering Mercedes to create frozen corridors in the regions where there were no rock formations. The operation had ended successfully in military terms, but no one was treating it as a complete victory. The outposts had been destroyed, the adaptive creatures were disorganized, and the false dragon no longer existed, but now everyone knew they had merely removed the most visible layer of the problem.

Strax descended several kilometers north of the center, where Monica, Frieren, and Cassandra had established a temporary position over a formation of dark rock. Mercedes remained farther away, creating an ice road wide enough to allow the last groups to withdraw without direct contact with the sand. When he landed, Strax maintained his draconic form for several moments, observing the surrounding region and checking whether the underground presence reacted to the proximity of the others. Only after confirming that the pressure remained concentrated on him did he begin transforming back.

The process revealed the extent of the damage. Part of his shoulder remained open from the false dragon’s bite, the arm used to tear out the core carried deep burns mixed with frozen areas, and several dark lines remained beneath his skin, remnants of the filaments that had tried to connect to his body. Regeneration was already working over the wounds, but the tissue was not rebuilding at its usual speed. The buried entity’s energy continued interfering subtly, as though the mark left by the contact made every attempt to return to his previous condition more difficult.

Frieren approached without asking permission and seized his arm before Strax could cover the injuries with clothing. She examined the dark lines for several seconds, used three different spells, and frowned slightly when none of them produced the expected reaction.

"This does not belong to the network."

"I know."

"It is not an ordinary curse either."

Strax looked at the lines extending from his wrist to his elbow. "It tried to establish authority when it opened its eye. Perhaps this is only residue from the contact."

Frieren did not seem satisfied with the explanation. She removed a small blade, made a shallow cut across one of the lines, and watched dark blood emerge for several seconds before returning to its normal color.

"It is not merely residue. There is information trapped here."

Monica approached while Cassandra kept the soldiers away from the conversation.

"Information about what?"

"I do not know yet. It may be a recognition mark, an attempt to locate Strax, or some mechanism for learning through him." Frieren cleaned the blade and placed a temporary barrier over his arm. "Until I discover more, he must not approach Vex."

Strax turned his eyes toward her.

"That is not going to happen."

"I am not asking."

The elf’s direct answer made Monica observe them both before intervening.

"She is right. The entity showed Vex to you and then left something inside your body. Until we know whether those two things are connected, we cannot risk carrying the mark directly to her."

Strax disliked the conclusion, but there was no responsible argument against it. His immediate reaction inside the chamber had been to go north and place himself between Vex and any threat, but doing that without understanding the mark could create the opposite result. He closed his hand and felt the dark lines react to the movement, adjusting themselves around the mana channels like roots searching for a stable position.

"Then discover it quickly," he told Frieren. "Because she already felt the seal react."

Mercedes returned several minutes later, leaving the final sections of the frozen road under the soldiers’ control. Her face remained controlled, but the pressure released by her body showed that she had heard enough through the crystals.

"Vex woke before you left the chamber. The maids said she began speaking while still asleep."

Strax became completely alert.

"What did she say?"

"First, she asked someone to close the door. Then she began repeating that there was sand beneath the bed." Mercedes tightened her fingers around her own wrist, containing the cold naturally appearing in her hand. "When she woke, every window in the room was covered in blue ice. She does not remember the dream, but she is still holding the pendant you gave her."

Monica opened the ancient map across the rock. The seven revealed layers remained visible, although the destruction of the outposts had erased the entire outer circle. Closer to the center, seven cold symbols appeared across regions very distant from one another. One rested in the far north, directly over Mercedes’s territory. Another seemed to be located beneath an eastern mountain range. The rest crossed seas, ruins, and regions that no longer belonged to any known kingdom.

Frieren pointed toward the northern symbol.

"When Vex reacted, this point became stronger."

Mercedes remained beside her.

"Then she really is one of the structures shown on the map."

"Not a structure," Frieren corrected. "The inscriptions beneath the pattern do not use the same word applied to the pillars or chains. The term is closer to crown, authority, or living anchor. The exact translation depends on the language that created the first layer."

Strax analyzed the other six symbols.

"Are there other people like her?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps every crown possesses a different form. Vex may be the only one born as a person."

Monica traced a finger around the seven positions, comparing them with the layers of the seal.

"The entity called Strax a key and showed Vex attached to a chain. That suggests different functions. She is an anchor. He may be something capable of opening, closing, or replacing parts of the prison."

"I have no intention of testing any of those possibilities," Strax replied.

"Neither do I," Monica said. "But we need to understand what the entity believes you can do. It did not choose that word without reason."

A vibration passed through the rock beneath their feet. It was not strong enough to knock anyone down, but every communication crystal lost its glow at the same time. The sand near the rock formation began moving against the wind, advancing in thin lines until it reached the road frozen by Mercedes. When the grains touched the ice, they did not retreat. They remained accumulated along the edge, forming symbols too small to read from a distance.

Strax walked toward the edge of the rock, but Frieren caught his shoulder before he could descend. Instead of approaching, the elf enlarged the image with magic. The sand had formed seven circles, six closed and one open. The incomplete circle was oriented toward the north.

Mercedes understood before the others.

"It is showing which chain it intends to attack first."

"Or it is trying to make us believe that," Monica replied. "The entity knows Vex matters to us. It may be using that information to direct our forces and leave another crown unprotected."

Strax observed the circles for several seconds. The buried thing had demonstrated patience, intelligence, and the ability to extract information through minimal contact. Treating it like a monster reacting only through instinct would be a mistake. It wanted them to see that symbol.

It wanted to produce a decision.

"We are not moving everyone north," he decided. "Mercedes returns to Vex with half the available forces. Monica coordinates protection of the routes and sends discreet groups to investigate the other six positions. No one touches the crowns, and no one enters any ruins without authorization."

Monica nodded.

"And you?"

"I remain away from Vex until Frieren removes this."

The elf looked again at the marked arm.

"I may not be able to remove it without understanding how it was placed."

"Then isolate it."

"That may not work either."

Strax turned toward her, but Frieren showed no fear.

"I could freeze your mana channels around the mark, cut away the skin, and destroy the tissue. However, if the information is connected to your name or your draconic energy, the body will simply recreate the same structure during regeneration."

Monica observed the dark lines and formed a less direct idea.

"The entity tried to read Strax through the connection created by the network. He answered by sending energy in the opposite direction. Perhaps the mark does not belong entirely to it. It may contain part of the bond he forced."

Frieren remained thoughtful.

"An incomplete channel in both directions."

Strax understood where they were going.

"We can use it to observe the entity."

"Perhaps," the elf replied. "But if you open the channel, it may observe you again as well."

He looked toward the center of the desert, where the dunes remained sunken after the collapse of the facility. The buried thing had not returned to sleep. It continued searching for the weakest flaw in the seal, and waiting for it to move first would only give them less time to react.

"Then we will do it carefully."

Monica shook her head.

"Not here. First, we remove every force, confirm that no organism from the network escaped, and establish an isolation zone around the desert. Then Frieren analyzes the mark inside a prepared facility, with enough barriers to sever the channel if something goes wrong."

Strax did not argue. The difference between caution and hesitation was knowing exactly what one intended to gain from the time. Monica was not suggesting that they flee from the problem.

She was preparing a place where they could control it.

The final teams reached the rock formation during the following hour. Samira carried part of her destroyed armor, Daniela had a deep cut across her face, and Beatrice arrived accompanied by knights covered in black residue, but there had been no significant losses. Every outpost had been destroyed, and the creatures that lost their connection to the network began dying or attacking without coordination. Asgard had won the counterattack with a result better than any commander could have expected.

Even so, no one celebrated.

When the withdrawal began, Strax remained at the rear. The mark on his arm pulsed whenever he looked away from the center, as though the entity were trying to remind him that it remained there. He did not allow the sensation to alter his pace, but kept part of his energy concentrated around his own name, instinctively protecting something he had never before considered vulnerable.

Atop a distant dune, sand began rising without wind. It first formed the silhouette of a child, then lengthened until it became a tall figure wearing a broken crown. None of the soldiers noticed.

Only Strax turned his head.

The figure had no face, but slowly inclined itself toward him.

Then it pointed north.

Strax released White Fire over the dune, destroying the shape before it completed any further message. The flame passed through the sand and fused the surface into glass, but the mark on his arm responded with an almost satisfied pulse.

The entity was not trying to hide its next move.

It was inviting Strax to follow.