Chapter 401 – The Sleeping Giant

"I need to understand more about my new body," I say. "Rest with our kid."

"Yes, my love," Elora says. "Sedriresa, can you help her, or get Kou?"

"I'm already here, Princess Elora, My Princess," Kou says. "I've got a new robe for you. Glad to see the second body has a robe already. Your Mother is awake as well. The women are struggling to wake up this morning. Sorry, but they won't be able to help you. We need to get to the castle. I don't trust the dragons to be rational this morning."

Probably shouldn't have had Geta in the ritual, or maybe I should've kept Victoria near me. Or could I just stick around in here for a while? No, I need to get to my kids first. My second body can do things to help them, but it'll be better if all three bodies are there. And then I need to get to my wives. Mai, Akhae, and Ilka. Aurora and Shyla as well. And Calli. I let myself get too far away from them.

Is that what this new body is for? A body dedicated to the mothers and fathers of my kids? It could also just be another helper for my kids. I'll find out when we leave without bringing the newest Goddess along.

"Should we stay here?" I ask. "They won't hurt me in Fertility's temple, right?"

"If they're smart, but they don't seem to respect the Goddesses, if I'm being honest, My Princess," Kou says. "After all that the Goddesses expended in the ritual last night, I wouldn't trust them to do much without dragging the entire divine realm down here. Fertility can't go too far without Justice and Nature coming down, and I don't know how much better that would be for us all. They may be a bit more hesitant about attacking Space. They don't require Space to get to their realm, but it does make it easier to have her still dealing with them. It's your choice if you want to stay here, but they could just drag you out. The Goddesses are going to be weak, even in their own temples, after such a ritual."

"Then I should get away from the wives that were in the ritual," I say.

"Then come this way. Nothing is happening right now, so we can try to move quickly," Kou says. "Your Mother is ready, My Princess."

"She stays behind. Just you and me, unless you think you should stay as well?"

"I go with you, My Princess," Kou says. "That is part of my job."

"Alright, then I guess we can leave now."

Kou leads me outside and into Nanoka's arms. "Is your Mother not coming?" Nanoka asks.

"Not right now," I say. "It'll be safer in the temple."

"True. The Dragons are doing something strange. They've been busy since you completed the ritual yesterday."

"Did my second body get moved?" I ask.

"Do you not wake up together? I see you have a third body now."

"Not always," I say. "They tire and rest differently."

"Well, we moved all the kids and non-combatants to Space's temple yesterday afternoon. Come on, we can talk in the castle. I have a crazy thought about what is coming today."

Her tails wrap my two bodies up as my second body starts to recognize the temple around it. All my kids are there, Irlo included, with a bunch of maids tending to them, but that body isn't hearing anything despite all the commotion happening around me. A necklace seems to be the cause. Removing that lets me hear the babies crying and laughing around me again. Irlo is in the corner, playing with the Goddess of Destruction. Hopefully, they don't blow the temple up.

Now, appearing in the castle with my other body proves that the newest addition isn't for watching over my kids.

'Space, any ideas on the new body and what the Dragons are doing?'

'Your wives. To pamper and be pampered. Once again, not getting pregnant or making others pregnant. But you should find the new body isn't able to breastfeed anyone. The body will work best when helping your wives who are pregnant. The dragons were trying to get me to open a portal for them. The size can only mean one thing, and for that, I'm sorry, but you'll need to stay away from your kids. Even with your new protection Skills, it won't be enough for those who aren't in your womb. Not even the Goddess of Destruction can cause more destruction than the true dragon right now.'

'How do we get out of this?'

'Hope the true dragon doesn't want to kill you all. We're too weak to handle her right now without breaking every rule the Goddesses have, and Dragon isn't responding to our requests. I'm guessing that means the dragon isn't coming here to kill you. Even Dragon knows that wouldn't be fair to you. What she hopes to get out of this, I don't know, but if she does anything, respect her and obey. I'll bend some rules if I must to keep the true dragon from raping you. I'm sorry, but that is all I can do for you right now. Nakuma should be coming to you soon with Victoria and the rest of your wives who can fight. Trust them, and be ready to heal them. The true phoenixes will be the ones to face the true dragon. But they won't be enough, so the Dragon Queens will be able to get to you. Also, Nature's Champion is sticking around, likely to handle Kiyomi. Count on your wives to defend you.'

So, I'm fucked. All this, and they could've just taken me anytime they wanted to? I did all of that for fucking nothing! No, I got my revenge. I killed the worst of the women.

"Fucking hell!" Victoria says. "A few fucking weeks of break and I'm fucking getting told to fucking defend against a pair of damn Queens! Shit, Nanoka, Fluvis, and Estrella, you'd better have one of them. Me, Nakuma, and the rest of these bitches should have the other."

I guess Nanoka has teleported us back to the castle already.

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that, little one," Nanoka says.

A roar shakes the ground, and I feel the shockwave ripple through my body. The sky burns orange as magma rains down just outside the city. I can just barely make out a golden mass through the clouds. The thing must be the size of the sun, and it shines almost as bright.

A single massive red bird starts to dart around the golden mountain. The sky is lighting up in various shades of red. Spells begin to get launched from the ground as dragonkin start to pop into view. The dragonkin and phoenixkin start to fight around the giant mountain and bird.

A single paw drops down from the sky and swipes across the clouds, letting us poor peasants see her true size. She must be ten times the size of the true phoenix—the dragonkin look like ants in the sky compared to the true forms.

"What are we going to do against that?" I ask.

"Not a damn fucking thing," Victoria says.

"Hope that it doesn't want anything to do with you, Alzi," Nanoka says. "Normally, she's sleeping somewhere in the world. Where, only the Dragon Queen is supposed to know, so what convinced her to come out here, I do not know, but I doubt it is to keep you locked up. She would've just traveled down here from the beginning and taken you. The worrying thing is that the other true phoenixes aren't here to help. The true dragon is stronger than they are, so one definitely isn't enough. Especially not that one."

"How do the phoenixes fight them back?" I ask. "They have to be similar in strength or they would've been captured already."

"They've killed all the true dragons but this one. You see the mark, don't you? The one you have between your breasts. Everyone assumes she's bored with this world and has one foot in the realm of the Goddesses, just waiting for something to push her into the divine realm. That phoenix is hoping the dragon doesn't really want to be here; otherwise, she's going to die. There are two more true phoenixes, but it seems they're too lazy to show up. The phoenixes will have some explaining to do about only one of them showing up here today. The true dragon is just playing with her right now."

"Fuck, I would play with my damn food too if I had just woken up from a good fucking nap and had to fly out to a damn war," Victoria says. "I'm not about to fucking claim she won't fucking kill any bitches here. We have to kill the fucking Queens and hope she listens to Alzi and fucks off back to sleep."

"Kill us?" a golden dragonkin says. "How funny. We heard Lensa was able to beat you, Nanoka, even when you had help. So sad. You were the strongest of the old generation, and now you can't keep up anymore."

A pair of golden dragonkins and a familiar brown are flying behind them, leading a group of ten red dragons. Even their armor is golden, covering them from head to toe, leaving only their wings exposed besides the eye holes and a hole to breathe magma out from. They're just hovering over us, their wings flapping leisurely. My Aunt is in regular iron armor along with the red dragons. But why is my Aunt here?

"I can keep up," Nanoka says. "I was just making sure nobody died in that silly fight. This time, I won't care if I have a few fewer wives in a few hours. I only care about saving one of them."

"Then we'll have to take them all away," the dragonkin says. "We'll even help you out and won't wait for Yzzorres, the Grumpy, to actually start fighting. This will be over by the time she starts to kill those worms behind us."

"I don't remember her epithet being the Grumpy," Nanoka says. "I think you've forgotten who the true dragon is."

"Maybe you'll live to see the result of your mistake," the dragonkin says. "Enough talking. Protect the little traitor for a bit. Make this entertaining at least."

The dragonkin dart out of the sky. The talkative one is aiming straight for Nanoka, while the other goes for Victoria. Nakuma is forced to take on the Queen by herself while Fluvis and Estrella take on the other royal dragon. Vanya, Geta, and Elora are all missing, so Victoria's the only warrior we have. So, Syro, Elyne, and Iolena are going to have to figure out how to beat my Aunt by themselves, but they should be able to do that easily enough.

I don't know how Victoria and Nakuma are going to contain the ten guards by themselves. Is this even the right pairings for everyone?

I don't know where my Aunt got mana from. She was just as weak as my Mother when I was a kid.

Ioelena has a small cloud of rain come down on her as she tries her magic on my Aunt. Her sword does seem to lag a bit behind where it should be, helping Elyne blow it off to the side, and Syro is likely trying to worm her way inside my Aunt's mind. Thankfully, Nanoka and Nakuma are taking the other fights far away from me.

Another roar shakes the world, but the fighting continues. Nanoka and the talking dragonkin are off in their own little space, while my Aunt just keeps diving in, hoping to catch my old wife off guard. Each time, she gets a little closer to landing a blow.

'Space, what about Azula's wives?'

'They'd die in a second, since they're already drained from helping me with this portal. Sorry, I should've known and stopped them.'

'The old Queen?'

'She should be there already.'

Fucking bitch! The coward is hiding while the younger generation dies for her. Sure, fire won't be all that useful in this fight, but she has to have other Skills besides fire. Even just another blade to swing around would help here.

So far, my Aunt hasn't done much, but my old wives seem uncertain without a warrior in front of them. My Aunt hasn't used any Skills yet, just striking out with her blade, hoping to catch them between their armor. Victoria and Nakuma seem to be stuck in a stalemate with their opponents. I really wish I could see into Nanoka's fight and possibly help her. If she can win her fight, then everything should be fine. I don't know how much my old wives could help Victoria or Nanoka, so our victory has to come from our best fighters, but it took a crowd to beat Lensa.

Luck, can you help your silly Mother out?