Demonic Dragon: Harem System-Chapter 430: Little Information and Many Questions

"Now, Strax..." the man turned with a calm, almost feline movement, as he brought the cup of tea to his lips. The steam rose from between the horns and disappeared into the soft light of the temple "The question is no longer who I am. The question is: who will you choose to be after this?"

The silence between the two lasted a second longer than necessary. And then the man smiled in a corner, with an expression that mixed sarcasm and ancestral weariness.

"I'll be honest with you... after taking a peek into your life, I was a little disappointed."

Strax frowned, his fist clenching on instinct.

'That bastard... Did he come to help me or judge me?

"Both, probably," the man replied, as if the question had been asked aloud. And then he added, with a mocking sigh: "Seriously, your story so far... it's a real bore. You've killed your brothers, left some alive, dragged yourself through cowardly decisions, turned into a Dragon that looks more like a pumped-up lizard and - icing on the cake - become dependent on a failed god like Hades."

He shook his head slowly, with the expression of someone watching a bad play at the theater and not knowing whether to applaud out of pity or leave at the interval.

"Do you really need me to explain why I decided to intervene?"

Strax narrowed his eyes, feeling the anger rise to the surface. "Are you... reading my thoughts?"

The man raised an eyebrow, taking another sip of his tea before replying.

"You said it out loud, genius. Have you forgotten? Your conscience is here. Not your body."

He gestured with the cup like someone explaining something obvious to a child. "Here, everything you think, you feel. Everything you feel, you emit. A cruel place, isn't it? That's why I don't leave anyone here."

Strax took a deep breath, trying to contain the impulse to advance. But it was no use. The presence of the other was suffocating. Not in power - although there was plenty of that - but in... dominance. He was at home. And Strax was just an angry visitor.

"You don't know anything about me," he muttered, his jaw clenched.

The man laughed lightly, his eyes twinkling with amusement - and perhaps, a little sadness.

"I know more than I'd like to," the man muttered, and then - unlike anything Strax had ever experienced - a screen appeared in the air. It didn't float. It didn't materialize. It simply existed in front of them, as if it had always been there, waiting to be noticed.

He casually turned to her, like someone looking at their cell phone notifications.

"There you are. You."

The screen expanded, revealing a kind of vivid report - but nothing like the cold status menus Strax knew. It was organic. Detailed. Personal. There were moving images, scenes from his life replicated with absurd precision. Intimate, violent, lonely moments. Expressions frozen like photos ripped from time.

"I must admit..." the man commented, tilting his head with real interest, like someone appraising an artwork, "Hades did a good job trying to copy the System Matrix. Just by looking at it, he understood a lot."

He laughed scornfully, his eyes still locked on the screen.

"But let's be honest... he's just a street artist trying to imitate Da Vinci. The real System... this one..." - he tapped the corner of the projection with two fingers, and the image shook like water - "is a pillar of reality. It shapes worlds. It tests souls. It corrects existential mistakes."

The screen flashed. An image of Strax as a child, meeting Beatrice. Then another - older, when he woke up as Strax, when he met Samira, Monica, Cristine, everyone... Then him with Scarlet... smiling.

"This isn't just a system of skills. It's a universal scale. And frankly... you've been living as if it were just a badly programmed game menu." Elee spoke as the screen disappeared.

The man let out a long sigh, the kind of tired exhalation of someone who has seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall.

"You wanted to be the strongest in the world, didn't you?" he asked casually, as if recalling an inside joke.

Strax was slow to answer. It was... familiar. An old dream, buried under layers of losses, battles and poor choices. A childhood desire, almost forgotten. Something that had lit his heart when there was still fire in his chest - and not just ashes.

But now? Now it seemed so far away...

"Don't worry about your wives. I stopped time before they actually died... I think," the man said, shrugging as if he were talking about a glass of water about to fall.

Strax immediately turned his face away, his eyes wide. frёeωebɳovel.com

"You think?" he growled.

"Oh, relax. Everything's fine for now. And anyway..." he said, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees, with a slight smile "you have the power to bring them back, don't you? Hades gave you the key, right?"

Strax didn't answer immediately. His silence was not one of doubt, but of regret.

Yes, he could bring them back. But at the cost of what they were.

Turning them into demons. Corrupt their souls. Destroying them to rebuild them into something else.

The man saw the conflict in his eyes and laughed softly.

"Of course, of course... you can, but you don't want to. The old curse of free will. You want them to live. Not as demons. Not as echoes. As themselves."

Strax looked away, his fist clenched.

"You don't understand."

"Ah, Strax..." his voice dropped a tone, low, charged with something reminiscent of an old disappointment "But in the end... whatever. Do what you want with your life." He shrugged with theatrical disinterest, as if the whole thing was just an episode he already knew the ending to.

Strax narrowed his eyes, still trying to understand where the conversation would lead. But the man didn't wait.

"Actually, I have more important things to deal with, so let's cut the drama." He raised his hand, palm open. A scarlet glow began to pulsate in the air, as if he had pulled a sun from within his very soul.

Before Strax could react, he felt it.

Something began to be pulled out of him. Not just mana. Not just power. But deep energy, the foundations of what made him up. As if the very system that ran inside him was being hollowed out, forcibly sculpted.

He staggered backwards, gasping. "What are you doing?!"

"Taking out the excess." replied the man with absolute calm, without even facing him. "You were about to explode. Literally. Your body wasn't ready for the next stage of the transformation. You would have become a walking bomb. You were going to kill your wives without even realizing it. And honestly? That would be such a... predictable end."

The flow of energy stopped. Strax fell to his knees, panting, feeling lighter... but also more naked, as if part of himself had been ripped off by the fingernail.

"There. That's it. No more freaking out and cutting people up in berserk mode." He snapped his fingers. "When you come back, your body will complete the mutation. You'll become a True Dragon. And if my reading is right - and it is - not only that... You'll emerge as a True Demon Dragon."

He turned around slowly, as if he were ending a business meeting.

"Be careful with that force, Strax. Really. Being a potential god isn't the hard part. The hard part is continuing to be someone afterwards."

Strax clenched his fists, but his voice still came out hesitant: "What about the system? Hades...?"

The man stopped. He took a deep breath. "Hades is dying, Strax. Dying from keeping the core of his planet stable. For feeding his system with his own divine body. He's drained. Drained by trying to sustain something that should never have existed the way it did."

He turned at last, his crimson eyes glowing like embers under the shadow of his long eyelashes.

"This 'system' of yours? It's going to collapse. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. But it will. And when it does... you'll be the only one left. No crutches. No shortcuts. No excuses."

A smile formed on his lips, this time without mockery. It was... sincere. Almost brotherly. "That's when you'll find out who you've always really been."

As he finished his words, the man smiled at him and laughed, "I'll see you when you're the strongest in your Sector. I hope you correct your carelessness with your power and your wives." He spoke before raising his hand.

"Wait! Tell me your name at least-" He didn't even have time to speak, a sharp blow cut him in half and then everything went dark...

As soon as Strax's soul disappeared into the cosmic void, calm briefly returned to the temple between dimensions. But it didn't last long.

A soft, warm presence appeared behind the man, enveloped by a sweet scent and a breeze of ancient energy. Delicate, feminine arms wrapped around his body intimately, and a velvety voice whispered close to his ear:

"Our little girl has just assassinated the Emperor of Demonic Chaos... and now she wants to see Daddy."

He let out a low laugh, turning slightly to face her. Her hair, bright red like liquid fire, shone in the supernatural light of the temple. She nestled into his chest as if this place were her natural home.

"Hm... She's really growing up fast." he said with a smile full of pride. "Ardhelia really is our daughter."

"Obviously. Cruelty needs technique, but that little theater on the battlefield? That was pure charm inherited from her mother." She glanced at him, her eyes sparkling with malice.

He leaned in and kissed her softly, and she accepted with a satisfied smile... but not before letting out a tease:

"But tell me, why are you helping a being from such an inferior sector like that? I bet some fragment of the multiverse is going to start boiling over with that."

He gave a slightly mirthless laugh, scratching the back of his head before turning one of the system's floating screens towards her.

She looked... and then burst into hearty laughter, the sound echoing through the empty corridors of the temple.

"Hahahaha! Now I get it. What delicious chaos. This is just like you, honestly."

"I found the situation... curious, shall we say." He shrugged. "Besides, I didn't start it. She asked for it."

"She?"

"Ophis Prime asked for it. It seems that the one in that guy's sector is disconnected from the whole. It's acting too autonomously."

She narrowed her eyes with a certain disinterest, but then stretched like a cat in the sun.

"Anyway... I, Valentina Scarlet, demand a little attention. I'm bored. And needy. And naked under those clothes, in case you're curious."

He smiled with mischievous charm, taking her by the waist and lifting her with ease. "Fufufu... Well done, my needy lady. Let's have some fun-"

But the air was cut off by an intense presence. Cold as the void between the stars. A third figure appeared in the middle of the temple, wrapped in a magical robe that rippled with arcane power. Time seemed to hesitate around them.

"No. You're not going." The two turned together.

"Ah... Hello, my beautiful and much-needed wife, Morgana," he replied, in a tone that was trying to be relaxed, but which let slip a twinge of guilt.

"Have you forgotten something, Mr. Supreme Demon Emperor?"

"I-I? What?" he blinked.

She crossed her arms, her expression as cold as it was sharp.

"Selvaria's birthday. It's today."

"But... wasn't it last week?"

"It's been a year," she replied, her voice firm and threateningly calm.

Valentina let out a muffled laugh against his shoulder, still leaning on his arms. "Love, you really are a disaster as a father sometimes..."

Dante sighed, defeated, raising his eyes to the eternal heavens of the temple. "Multiverse, give me strength..."