The dragon's harem - Chapter 1988

As the shrine maidens went on about their job, Neptune was the one to guide Arad and Kory on a tour around the entire place. The pagoda was massive, and its inside was sealed with a lock that only the overseer of the shrine could unlock, which was Neptune herself.

“As you can see, the entire mountain is surrounded by thick overgrowth and countless cherry trees. The entire place is fed by Amaterasu’s divine magic, so plants don’t need water or sunlight, even though they get plenty of both.” She pointed at the countless gates surrounding the shrine, then threw a sharp glare at Arad.

“Those are called Torii gates, each one of which acts as the base of several divine seals, and the entire system is an array powerful enough to evaporate even the gods.” She then gave the gates a weird glance. “Even though they might be broken now, seeing how you managed to just stroll in.”

“Stroll in?” Arad lifted an eyebrow and then crossed his arms. “I didn’t just stroll in; I had to regenerate through the damage.”

It was the same as when he walked through the barrier sealing Vorvadoss. Arad’s sheer regeneration from both his vampiric blood and the divine magic he has access to through Kali allowed him to just brute force his way in. For how his clothes survived, they didn’t. He was only wearing his scales while climbing the stars, and only put actual clothes after the damage ended.

Hearing his explanation, Neptune had to fight the urge to faint. How could someone just heal through the damage of Amaterasu’s barrier like that? Even if Arad was fuelled by Kali, how did he manage to endure getting burned to the bones while still walking?

That regeneration must be one of the highest in the entire universe, if she doesn’t count the upper gods like Entropy, Amaterasu, Kali, and the like. In fact, it might be something that not a single other mortal got.

She spent another second thinking about it, and quickly counted that at Arad’s current healing level, he might just be spitting on Death’s face. So, for now at least, she could see why Amaterasu counts Arad as a unique and important being, but she still couldn’t figure out what makes him so special that just knowing the truth would get her sealed away by Amaterasu’s side.

“I’ll ask her divinity to empower the barrier. Next time, you’ll die if you try to cross it without a talisman.” She looked at him, and Arad smiled. “Well, I’ll give it a try then.”

It the worst case, the barrier would just destroy the incarnation Arad is using to cross it, so he can take the loss and heal later. This place might just turn into a good way to test and experiment with his regeneration.

Neptune wanted to rebuke him, but kept her mouth shut because Amaterasu did warn her that Arad was stubborn. If Amaterasu herself, the most stubborn existence in the entire universe, said that, then Arad’s skull must be thicker than his… well, he was beyond thickness at his current size.

She spent a few seconds staring at Arad’s arms and legs, before sighing and looking back. “As I explained before, this pagoda acts as a syphon that draws power from Amaterasu and filters it for your wives to use. Even though I don’t think this function was needed, it can also grow taller the more wives you turn into gods.”

If more of Arad’s wives were to become gods, this pagoda would grow more floors to accommodate them. So even if his wives aren’t a part of Amaterasu’s pantheon like Eris, they would still have access to her endless pool of divine magic in case of an emergency.

Neptune approached the sliding door leading to the ground floor of the pagoda. “The door is also sealed and can only be opened with one key.” She looked back at Arad with a smile as she grabbed the door with both hands and pulled it open.

“The key is my body, not this humanoid form, but the planet her divinity Amaterasu granted me. Each pebble, each gust of wind, and each drop of matter in that planet is accounted for, mapped, and used as a key. If you don’t have my body, this door won’t open even to Amaterasu herself.”

“How resistant is it to brute force?” Arad touched the door, and Neptune closed it. “Well, give it a try. It should be pretty durable.”

Arad grabbed the two sliding doors and then pushed them open with ease. Neptune stared at him with a puzzled face for a long moment before screaming her lungs out at the door. “Why! Is it broken as well? Is this entire place half-finished or what?”

Arad looked at her. “Calm down, the door works perfectly fine. I just got the key.” It was then when Neptune almost snapped at him.

“No, you don’t! The key is my body! Mine, not yours! There is no magic in this universe that can decode that. Do you understand, without my permission, this door shouldn’t open!” She was already stressed before, but each time Arad did something, it broke her mind to pieces.

“You are right. There is only one key, and it is your body, that large planet.” Arad then pointed at his belly. “And, I got it. Your body is inside my stomach. I can use it to open the door.”

It was then that it clicked in Neptune’s head. Amaterasu built this pagoda and mountain to help Arad’s wives, and gave him the key. She was the key, his property.

Kory approached the door, closed it again, and then tried to open it. “It won’t budge! This thing is stuck.” Even with her draconic strength, opening the door was impossible without the key.

“It probably needs as much raw strength as Mother has to open.” Arad replied to her, and Neptune had to admit.

“If it’s Lady Violet, then it might be possible.” She scratched the back of her head. “She and Amaterasu have a long history, but those two never got along. Violet was prone to rage and killing gods on her whims, and Amaterasu, who tolerated her, got a lot of hate from the other gods for that.”

Arad looked at her with a curious gaze. “You know about mother?”

“Yeah, at least as much as someone who was a guard in Amaterasu’s heaven.” She paused for a moment, “Violet’s job was to erase gods from existence for Amaterasu. Whenever someone caused a lot of trouble and killing or throwing them in hell wasn’t an option, Amaterasu would feed them to Violet. That’s how she grew so strong in just a few thousand years.”

Neptune threw a glance at Arad, “What do you know about your grandparents, Violet’s parents.”

“Not much, she never talked about them.” Arad replied, and Neptune stared at him in silence for a long while, then replied.

“You know that the Metallic Queen Mary is the mother of time dragons. The chromatic Queen Lola is the mother of light dragons, and Tiamat is the mother of void dragons. Yog is the mother of Magic dragons as well, if you don’t know…” Neptune crossed her arms. “But, when Tiamat was about to give birth to the first void dragon, he died at birth since her body couldn’t form a proper egg.”

“I heard of that. Eris is having the same problem and Amaterasu is helping her.” Arad nodded, and it was then when Neptune told him something insane.

“When Tiamat got pregnant with the second void dragon, she had Yog and the Mother of All life remove the fetus and transplant it into Amaterasu’s womb, who raised and gave birth to her. That was Violet. So, Violet has one father and two mothers, Cain, who just went insane. Her biological mother, Tiamat, and the mother who gave birth to her, Amaterasu.”

“Isn’t Sena Tiamat’s daughter as well?” Arad lifted an eyebrow, but Neptune shook her head. “No, Tiamat is one thing, and Sofia is another. Sena is Sofia’s daughter, not Tiamat. They might look the same, but those two came from different timelines and have vastly different bodies and bloodlines. One is more human, and the other holds the same body and blood of the first Tiamat, daughter of Asgorath, the first dragon.”

“So… Asgorath, to Tiamat and Bahamut, to the current Tiamat, to mother, and now me?” He paused for a second, “Am I that related to the first dragon god?”

She stared at him for a long while. “Well, I can see both Asgorath and Adam in you. By the way, your father, Alcott, is the closest to Adam in the current time.”

“Wait!” Kory stopped them, “Are you saying that Amaterasu is Arad’s grandmother?”

“Depends on how you see what she did.”