The dragon's harem

As the angel massaged Isdis’s back, Merlin closed her eyes and sent her consciousness back to the Arctic North, where Lucy had been struggling to keep up with all of the pigeons roaming the sky. Of course, she couldn’t analyse any of the data and simply collected everything for Merlin to go through, which was already far more work than any singular wizard could do on their own.

Even if Merlin looked to be harsh on Lucy by having her handle all of that alone, the fact that Lucy managed to keep everything running smoothly only showed how monstrous her talent was. Gojo was right to keep her by his side and train her, for as bratty as she got, Lucy was still an undisputed genius.

Compared to Merlin herself, this little girl was far more horrifying, especially considering her age and current power. She was already a powerful wild magic user, but then became a divine goddess and even trained under the ruthless Gojo, who turned her into an absolute nightmare to face. Her divine body could be stated to have near-endless mana due to how much she can just pull from her faithful or from feeding, and the level of calculations that her godly brain can do far outclasses all mortals by several orders of magnitude.

Even while drowning in work, Lucy had still managed to develop her own way to control Merlin’s magic and make it easier for herself. All of the pigeons were technically alive, and since she managed to make one of them poop on Liliana’s head, that meant they still needed to eat and feel hunger.

Tracking each pigeon by their hunger was far easier for her than using the already established magic network that Merlin created, and this was exactly what many wizards do, changing spells to better suit them.

As Merlin stepped into the throne room, what she saw wasn’t a little girl sitting on the golden throne, but a true divine using their power to surpass the mortal limits. Lucy’s always greatly changeed while she is using her divine power, mainly because she still can’t focus on both maintaining her form and using the divine magic all at the same time.

Her eyes were closed, yet Merlin could tell how fast her pupils were twitching as she shifted her gaze from one pigeon to another hundreds of times each second; it was to the point that her head would suddenly jolt a bit faster than sound, leaving a blur. Lucy was living and seeing the world through countless pigeons all at the same time, and handling it better than the best master puppeteers could.

Her finger nails and toe nails had growled into long sharp opal claws and dug into the ground and the golden throne, acting as anchors and pathways for her divine power to get injected into the system that Merlin already created, and just achieving that was horrifying as the golden throne was supposed to be nearly indestructible, since it was made from the same gold that Kali’s divine heaven is made from.

Her body, on the other hand, now looked a bit too thin and anorexic, as she embodied hunger the same way Kali could embody her divine portfolio and appear as an orphan. But even if Merlin knew that Lucy was fine, seeing her made her a bit pale, knowing that for her to take that form, one of her faithful had to have felt such hunger.

"You’re back... Everything is fine for now. I can somehow handle all of the pigeons if I don’t try doing anything complicated. Alcott’s group is almost at the Flame’s Temple, so you should probably take over since I won’t be able to assist them like this." Lucy spoke, and her voice echoed through the entire hall like the roar of a titanic beast. Remembering how Lucy’s true body is a titanic, moon-like living creature that can consume pretty much everything, that deep and rumbling voice was understandable.

"I didn’t think you would be able to handle everything this well." Merlin walked toward her golden throne and sat on it, quickly taking everything back into her control, allowing Lucy to finally relax a bit. As expected, the moment Merlin took over, Lucy’s eyes opened wide as she sighed and jumped from her throne.

"Finally! I got numb sitting on that hard throne." She quickly glared at her golden throne as she rubbed her butt, unable to feel anything. "Can’t you make it from something soft, like... I don’t know... every other sofa in the world."

"It isn’t made for comfort, but for function. This gold is the best material I found for channelling all types of mana. The difference might not be apparent to you, but to me... even this still lacks a bit." Unlike Lucy, Merlin’s used far more mana and at variable speeds and outputs. Her golden throne was a must if she wanted to control her magic with the best efficiency and accuracy.

Moby appeared behind Lucy almost immediately. "You called me?" Lucy had just sent a message to Moby calling her back so they could play a bit. "I did indeed. Aunty Merlin is back, so I can play a bit." She grabbed Moby by the hand and pulled her toward the golden throne, where she sat and gave her a grin. "Get ready, you’re going out immediately."

Back at the snowy hills and endless black forest of the Arctic North, Alcott sat in the driver’s seat as the two muscular warhorses drew the carriage faster than a normal horse can run. Thanks to that, they were about to reach their destination in record time, if not counting what someone like Arad could achieve.

"We should slow down; this place is infested with Briders." Neil warned them, and Alcott just smiled. "Those spiders? I don’t think I ever fought one before." He looked around with a smile. "How do they look? Are they edible, like the crab variant we have in Ruris?"

Neil paled, "No, they aren’t edible. Everything about their flesh is highly toxic to humans. They look like a giant spider, but with a humanoid torso growing out of their heads." He gulped, "They are fast, deadly, and can sometimes ambush their prey, or even hunt in groups."

Alcott pointed forward at the distance. "Ah, you mean something like that." What he was pointing at was a small, sheep-sized bump in the otherwise flat snow covering the side of the road. The moment Neil noticed it, he cried. "Stop the carriage!"

Alcott laughed, "Impossible, these horses need to slow down first." By the time he finished that sentence, they were already rushing past the bump, and it exploded into a giant set of arachnid fangs that aimed directly at the horses.

Neil was already trying to pull his axes out, but Alcott had beaten him in speed, having already cleaved the spider’s human torso from the arachnid body before it could harm the horses. The Brider was confused as it couldn’t see what happened, and it only noticed when death was getting near.

Alcott, who had his sword out, approached, looking down at it. "Nice tits, but sadly, I prefer butts."