The dragon's harem - Chapter 1786: The Failed Spirit Queen

Chapter 1786: The Failed Spirit Queen

The beam of plasma reached Aloe in the blink of an eye and clashed with her hands, no, with the thin and highly compressed barrier of air she formed in front of herself. She clearly couldn’t withstand the hit head-on, but deflecting it should be possible.

Seeing the flash, Arad had already deployed several barriers to protect the maids in the bath and to make sure the others weren’t caught in the chaos. He didn’t mind them fighting, but not here, and not with the fragile maids around.

Putting all of her back and power into it, Aloe screamed and angled her palms upward, causing the barrier she formed to tilt and the beam of plasma to splash upward in a blinding flash. She could feel her muscles tearing, her demonic magic draining, and all of her energy being poured into simply deflecting this attack. If this were her old self from when she challenged Zephyr to a fight, she would’ve been evaporated on the spot.

That one move had consumed a lot of her spirit and demonic magic, but she was fine. She didn’t know whether this was Zephyr’s strongest attack, a secret art, or a trump card, but this was the first time she saw a fairy able to create plasma just with air pressure alone.

Even though she hated Zephyr and wanted to dethrone her, she was well aware that Zephyr wasn’t sitting on the throne without a reason. Zephyr was powerful, far more powerful than anyone expected, and all fairies understood that well. But Aloe also understood that everyone has their limit, and she only needed to find where Zephyr’s limits are to win.

Zephyr should’ve lost a lot of her spirit magic after that attack, so this was Aloe’s prime time to counter. She flew as fast as she could, blitzing through the heat and fire left by the plasma to reach Zephyr before she could catch her breath, and immediately swung her fist.

Thanks to becoming a demon, and a demon lord at that, both her endurance and resistance have greatly increased. She can take more abuse than Zephyr, and this allowed her get back into the fight while still ignoring the burn of exhaustion and mental strain.

All of Aloe’s instincts kicked in at the last moment, and she canceled her attack to duck down and dodge. A wind slash flew right above her head, almost cleaving it clean. “Too slow?” She couldn’t believe how fast Zephyr had recovered.

But Aloe knew that might be a desperate attack to keep her away, so she pressed even further, rushing in past two more slashes until she reached Zephyr and started swinging. While Zephyr used the faster and more precise slashes, Aloe loved to use impacts more. By compressing air between her fists right before an attack lands, she could create a violent shockwave that deals bludgeoning damage in a wide area, perfect for catching someone as fast as Zephyr.

But this was Zephyr, and the air around her felt so heavy that the shockwaves barely had any power in them. Zephyr swatted Aloe’s arms away, kicked her kicks aside, and easily accepted her challenge to a physical brawl, and won.

What caught Aloe off guard was when Zephyr stepped on her toes, pinned her in place, and rained on her with more punches than should’ve been possible. On top of that, Zephyr had retracted her sharp nails. She could’ve used them to cut Aloe’s guts open, but she decided to take her time and slowly beat her down.

With one hand, she slapped Aloe’s hand aside and moved to her side, swinging a palm down and unleashing a wind slash.

Aloe jumped back and screamed, causing a massive burst of air to fly out of her mouth directly at Zephyr’s face. But as expected of Zephyr, she dodged the surprise attack and flicked her fingers at Aloe, unleashing a barrage of wind slashes from the tips of her fingers.

Aloe growled as she barely dodged those slashes, and one of them even cleaved her right ear off. “You monster! I’m five times stronger than when we fought last time!” She flew upward and summoned a whole tornado to try to suppress Zephyr’s wind control. “How much power are you still hiding?”

Zephyr looked up, seeing Aloe resting in the eye of the tornado, where she mixed the regular air with her toxic demonic winds. “You getting stronger doesn’t mean I’ve gotten weaker or stayed the same. Even if I grown weaker, you still are nowhere near a queen’s level, let alone mine.”

Zephyr lifted her hand, and the entire tornado froze in place as if time stopped. Aloe gasped as her eyes opened wide, and she quickly paled like snow. With one move, Zephyr had stolen control over the tornado from her and fixed every single molecule of air in its place, causing this horrifying scene of a frozen tornado that halted spinning.

^While she could control wind, she had no way of controlling my demonic wind, so she used the regular wind to hold it in place by force. What kind of monster is she?^ Aloe gulped and steeled herself. This fight, she might lose it as she did before, but she won’t go down without a fight.

But in reality, what could she do? Zephyr didn’t have an obvious weakness, and Aloe had no prep time. Kali had called her into the meeting and, in a few hours, had found herself face-to-face with Zephyr.

Zephyr lifted her arms, about to strike Aloe down one last time and finish this fight. But then, a shadow engulfed her. She stopped and looked up, seeing Aella glaring down at her. In the sky, Arad had also caught Aloe in his fist.

“What are you doing? I’m pretty sure Merlin asked you directly not to mess with them.” Aella reached down and grabbed Zephyr by the wings, lifting her up close to her face so she could get a clear look at her.

“I know, but I had to teach that lass a lesson. If I don’t, she’ll think too highly of herself and might think it’s a smart idea to start playing games.” She pointed up at Aloe, who was in Arad’s hand. “She is the Demon Lord of Betrayal, and that’s why I should take care of her.”

Aella sighed and let Zephyr go; no matter what they thought, Zephyr knew spirits better than any of them, so trusting her decision was the best choice.

Above them, Arad stared at Aloe for a long moment, but he wasn’t going to blame her for this. Zephyr is the one who attacked first. The same could be said about Merida attacking Sally, but in that case, Sally did intend kill Merida and steal her power eventually.

“Calm down, Aella stopped her. You should be safe from now on, but next time, don’t summon such a massive tornado anywhere you want.” He pointed at a bunch of maids who were hiding inside a barrier at the edge of the bath. “They are the ones who helped you wash, didn’t they? At least consider their lives when fighting.”

“That is Zephyr’s point, Arad.” Above his head, Nar appeared out of nowhere and glared down at Aloe. “This one tried to fight Zephyr before and steal her throne. In their fight, her attacks killed thousands of fairies, and she even wiped out several human cities. She is a traitor who betrayed the wind spirits and turned on her queen.”

She floated down, sat on Arad’s wrist, and glared at Aloe, who he held in his palm like a little bird. “She doesn’t understand the value of lives besides her own and the lives of those who serve her directly. That is why Zephyr was giving her a beating.”

“That is a problem.” Arad sighed, and Nar smiled. “You don’t have to worry. Just let Zephyr take care of it.” She then turned to Aloe. “You already know this, but Zephyr isn’t the only one here. Don’t worry, we won’t kill you, we’ll just torture you for fun.” She rubbed her foot on her face, then shoved her toes in her mouth. “Learn to behave, unless you want to spend the rest of your life suffering. And we aren’t asking much, just value the lives of those weaker than you.”

As Aloe growled, Nar giggled. “If you don’t respect those weaker than you, then don’t expect those stronger than you to respect you.” Nar pulled her foot out of Aloe’s mouth, looked at Arad with a smile, and then flew away. “Give her to Zephyr. She’ll teach her.”

“You’re really a handful.” He sighed, and she glared at him. “You’re a dragon as well; you should understand it better than them. You won’t go around slaving your life away for kobolds!”

Arad blinked. He has kobolds living under the castle; they are thriving and are the source of the empire’s most prized jewelry.

“I do in fact have kobolds that I helped, with my power, the slightest effort, like granting them a safe space to live in and a source of income, had allowed them to thrive and prosper. You don’t need to do much, just care and show a little empathy and humility.”

As Arad landed and let Aloe fly down from his hand, Zephyr was standing there. Aella had already left since she was busy, and even Zephyr won’t stay here for long. Aella needed her help after all, and this is why she came looking for her.

“Here you are, little rascal.” Zephyr looked at her with a grin. “You can’t defeat me, Arad, or most of his wives.’ She then pointed back with her thumb. Kali was sitting in the water behind them with Diana, waving their hands at Aloe. “She is here as well.”

Aloe growled, and Zephyr patted her on the shoulder. “We’ll keep an eye on you. But I’ve got a nice surprise that you would love.” She threw a glance at Arad and winked.

He shook his head. “Fine. I’ve got a world inside my stomach that I need spirit to maintain. I already have a Fire Spirit Queen called Salamander, a Water Spirit Queen called Undine, and even a Plant Spirit Queen called Plum, but I still need at least a Wind and Earth Spirit Queen to help.” He pointed at the sky, “You’ll take the role of Spirit Queen there.”

Aloe frowned. “You aren’t a god, that world isn’t real, but a fake one you made with magic, and you think I’ll lower myself like that?”

Zephyr looked at her with a deadpan face. “Yes.”