The dragon's harem

So, looking at Arad once more, Merlin felt that she should’ve put more filters on her power and the entire private quarter. She had never expected that someone could force their way in when everyone was out. The Private Quarter itself was safe, and no one could destroy it from the outside unless they caught Arad or Merlin herself, but it was very much possible to use the capital as a hostage to force the vampire guards to let them in, as Kossuth did.

From what she just heard, Kossuth had manifested from the torches in the castle’s hallway, meaning she had access to all flames. But even with that, Merlin doubts that Kossuth could manifest out of the flames inside the Private Quarter, as she was actively blocking everything, even Lilia and Yog.

She sank into the water, closed her eyes, and focused harder on her body. She could feel the mana seeping into her bones through her skin, and that was too slow for her liking. It would take her about ten days here to recover, and she wouldn’t wait all that time. She wanted to get out in less than ten seconds.

[Move Away] A divine voice rumbled from beneath the water surface, and all of the maids who were standing there to make sure Merlin stayed in jumped back, getting away as quickly as they could. A skill that all the maids had to fully understand and master was the ability to balance order priority.

Arad had ordered them to stay close to the water and make sure Merlin stayed in there. His word was above everyone else, and if a maid was working purely on his commands, that maid could even step on his wives. But there was a limit to that, of course, and it all related to how serious the opposing order was.

When Merlin spoke in a divine voice, the maids understood that she knew of Arad’s order and was seriously ordering them to ignore it and obey her instead, which they quickly did. This is what gives the maids their efficient flexibility.

The surface of the water glowed faintly with magic, and Linda, who was busy trying to keep the thirsty Kossuth away from Arad, looked back, noticing a huge shift in the fabric of time around Merlin’s pool.

To recover quickly, Merlin had pulled just enough mana to restore her link to the labyrinth the entire Private Quarter is in, singled out the space of the pool she was in, and started using time magic to accelerate time on it.

Many just used time magic to slow or stop time, but it was also possible to accelerate time. That is what Merlin did, aging the pool with herself inside by ten days, causing herself to fully recover in just a few seconds, which is an absolutely horrifying recovery speed for someone of her power. People would usually avoid such a thing because it reduces their lifespan, but to Merlin, who is now an immortal abomination, ten days were worth nothing.

Her body silently floated to the surface of the water, standing upright, and the moment she showed up, all of the mana in the water got sucked into her body, turning the pool into a mundane bath. Her entire body regained its pale color, and the bolts of mana that usually cracked from her fingernails to her toenails turned into a faint, white aura that illuminated her lustrous skin.

Her eyes were all white, glowing like neon lights due to how much magic and power burned inside her skull, and all of that light had caused her long white hair to start dancing on its own, growing infinitely long as it linked into the fabric of mana of the entire Private Quarter and Arad’s inner world.

If it ended up at that, Merlin would’ve been fairly normal, but her power and link to the entire place kept growing larger and larger until the very fabric of the entire reality of the Private Quarter and Arad’s inner world started glitching in and out of existence as her consciousness merged with every little droplet of mana.

When the amount of mana she started controlling surpassed several times what she could usually use, her body burned into white light as she melted into the entire reality, and everyone could feel the mana around them violently vibrating.

Merlin’s soul moved out of her own body and flew deep into the darkness of Arad’s stomach, reaching the centre where AO’s great soul was, and almost immediately it started orbiting it like a moon, siphoning energy directly from it.

Merlin could feel every single drop of mana inside the Private Quarter, Arad’s inner world, and the mini-universe that Lilia gave her. Even if she wasn’t a goddess outside, here, those planes of existence were now under her mercy as she ruled as their sole Mana Divine.

That alone was such a titanic work to handle, and to keep everything running smoothly, she had to start quickly forming several automated spells to repair the fabric of mana and preserve the natural balance, only to realise something that almost made her go insane.

While the mini-universe that Lilia gave her was somewhat self-sufficient and could last without her for a few months, even years... Arad’s inner world and the Private Quarter both needed constant monitoring and control over the mana flow to prevent the labyrinth from collapsing, and in the time she was out, there should have been no one to handle that. Usually, Lilia would’ve been the one handling that as the goddess of magic, but now that she pulled her influence, who managed everything?

The answer was Arad himself, which was far more horrifying than it looked at first. To maintain everything, Merlin used several complicated spells and techniques to handle the load. It was like using leverage, geometry, and physics to move something very heavy without needing that much force. She was the one who designed, made, and is now operating a crane to do the heavy lifting.

Arad, of course, couldn’t use that crane, and no one besides Merlin herself could. So what did he do? He manhandled all of the mana at once, forcing it to move with sheer force. It helped that this entire thing was inside his stomach, but it still didn’t change the fact that he was basically doing the job of a god.

As everything got under her control, she reformed her body back inside the bath from the mana there and landed right in front of Arad’s pool, staring at him with glowing white eyes. As her eyes returned to normal and the glow engulfing her body faded, she sighed. "I took back control; you can relax."

Arad looked at her for a second, and then nodded. "Well, here it goes." As he closed his eyes, the entire place violently shook for a second, but then everything went back to normal, and Arad’s body started steaming with sweat and got hot enough that Aella, who was by his side, almost got burned. He should’ve taken his time slowing down. As he suddenly halted the mana circulation he was managing, the friction of it coming in and out of his body rapidly heated him up, and if Isdis and Kossuth here didn’t suck all of that heat out, he would’ve incinerated the entire place.

Kossuth leaned on him with a smug smile. "Aren’t you glad I’m here? Otherwise, all of them would’ve turned into fried fish." As she looked at everyone, Isdis grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back. "I sucked most of the heat, and I’m not the only one who could’ve stopped there. Kali could’ve done that as well." She pointed at Kali, who was running around the bath playing with the maids.

"Let’s forget about that." Merlin dropped into the water. "We’ve got better things to worry about."

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