Demonic Dragon: Harem System

The main hall of Strax's mansion was large and imposing, with carved columns supporting a high ceiling decorated with ancient symbols and flags worn by history. The fireplace in the corner burned with low flames, casting flickering shadows on the sturdy furniture and worn tapestries. The sound of the wind outside made the windows rattle from time to time, as if the world itself were breathing anxiously.

"I want to go!" Beatrice's voice cut through the heavy silence, trembling with emotion. She rose from the dark leather sofa, her gaze fixed on Strax. "I can help, Strax. I'm not useless."

Strax, standing by the fireplace, didn't even have to turn his face. His response was cold, firm, and final.

"You're not going," he said simply. "Like I said, I'm only taking the strongest dragons among you. There's no need to make a fuss."

Beatrice stood motionless for a second, her fist clenched, her eyes burning with frustration.

Cristine, sitting on the windowsill with a half-empty glass of wine, looked up. "I understand wanting to take the strongest... but don't you think you're being a little too harsh? You're warning us about a real danger, but you're treating us like children."

Strax slowly crossed his arms, his gaze now more serious. "Because you still are."

Before silence filled the room again, Scarlet stepped forward. She was leaning against a pillar, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed like blades. Her presence always seemed to cut through the air, as if the atmosphere became denser just because she was there.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation," she said, her voice impatient.

Samira, who was standing near the bookcase of old books, turned with an arched eyebrow. "What gravity, exactly?"

Scarlet uncrossed her arms and took a step forward. "That we're going to the fucking Dragon Kingdom," she said with sharp clarity. "Do you know what that means? Do you have any idea what you're getting yourselves into?"

She walked slowly across the room, her gaze passing over each of them like a silent judgment. "You're not ready. None of you. Not even close. You've gained draconic bodies, yes, but you haven't learned how to use them. Not even how to control yourselves."

Monica, who until then had been leaning against the fireplace, tried to protest. "You're again—"

"You're going to die in one of my attacks." — Scarlet interrupted her, dryly. "And I'm not going to try to avoid it."

The tension spread like wildfire. The silence was filled only by the crackling of the wood burning in the fireplace.

Strax sighed heavily and ran his hand through his unkempt beard. "Enough," he said. "I've made my decision. I'm only taking Tiamat, Ouroboros, and Scarlet. Period."

Samira tried to say something, but hesitated, bit her lip, and backed away. Strax approached her, lowering his voice.

"You need to stay here and take care of that woman on the second floor," he said firmly but gently. "Make your sister tell the truth about why she's here. I don't believe this story that she just wants to take you back home. And please, Samira... don't do anything that will cause us more trouble, okay?"

He smiled and ruffled her hair with his hand, almost brotherly.

"...Okay." Samira replied in a low voice, her eyes fixed on the floor, feeling his touch with a shy warmth rising to her cheeks.

Strax then turned to the rest of the group.

"What about you guys?" he asked, looking at Rogue, Bellatrix, Daniela, Cassandra, Frieren, Xenovia, and Kryssia, who were scattered across the sofas and cushions, fiddling with wine glasses, cards, or simply deliberately ignoring the conversation. "Why are you so quiet?"

Daniela raised her eyes without lifting her head, lazily fiddling with a throwing dagger. "We've already realized that you're not going to listen. So it's fine." She then looked directly at him, her sweet smile fading in an instant. "Continue your meeting."

The air seemed to freeze for a moment, even inside that heated room.

Strax swallowed hard, confused by the sudden change in her tone. "D-did I do something wrong?"

"I don't know. Did you?" — a voice cut through the room sharply, coming from the highest window.

Everyone looked up.

There, framed by the moonlight passing through dense clouds, Nyx was perched in her Black Phoenix form, feathers glowing with a deep blue and violet, like mystical embers in motion. Her eyes, two golden embers, stared at Strax with an expression of almost divine judgment.

"You're not forgetting anything, are you?" she asked, with a calmness that was worse than a scream.

Strax slowly turned his eyes to the window, where Nyx's figure hovered. The silhouette of the Black Phoenix was imposing against the silvery moonlight, her half-closed wings pulsing with a dark and ancient energy. The flames dancing on her plumage crackled at a slow pace, but there was a clear tension—as if she were restraining herself from setting the entire room ablaze.

He sighed with a weariness that seemed to come from centuries.

"It seems that... I forgot to give you a body," he said, his voice low, almost resigned.

Nyx slowly raised one of her wings and slammed it against the stone parapet with a dull thud, black sparks flying from the impact.

"Wow. We have a genius here," she replied, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. "Does anyone give an award to this enlightened monster?"

She tilted her head, her eyes burning. "You don't want to keep me trapped for another thousand years? How interesting. That'll be great. I can spend another century watching you stumble through stupid decisions while burning any ties you still have here."

The silence in the room was suffocating now. Everyone watched, some clearly uncomfortable, others fascinated by Nyx's incendiary presence. Scarlet watched from the corner of her eye, without interfering. Daniela slowly twirled the dagger between her fingers, but her eyes were fixed on Strax, as if waiting for the outcome.

Strax took a deep breath, his gaze still on Nyx.

Strax let out a long sigh, deeper than the previous ones, the kind of exhalation that seemed to carry years of accumulated frustration. The sound reverberated through the room like the warning of a storm about to break.

Without saying a word, he reached out into nothingness—and from the void in front of him, something glowed with a faint bluish flash.

[Inventory]

With a firm pull, he materialized the homunculus. It was a pale, lifeless body, androgynous and unfinished in appearance, with golden lines running through its exposed veins like living circuits. The creature seemed to breathe slightly even though it was asleep, and its translucent skin emitted a faint glow.

Without hesitation, Strax threw it onto the stone floor with a dull thud, which echoed through the room and startled one of the poorly closed windows, which creaked as it banged against the frame.

He walked slowly toward the window, his heavy footsteps echoing on the marble, each one firmer than the last. His eyes were cold now. There was no patience. There was no sympathy. Only determination.

Nyx shrank her wings slightly, hesitating for the first time. Her voice came out lower, with a note of warning:

"Strax... what are you—" Need c.h-ara#c@t#er^ sh!e!ets and gl#os^sa+r@ie!s? V$i%si^t# MVLEMP+Y-R.

But he didn't answer.

With a sudden movement, he grabbed the Phoenix by the neck, his hands enveloping the incandescent glow as if holding a living torch.

"Didn't you want this shit?" he growled, his eyes locked on hers.

The heat around them rose instantly, but he didn't seem to care. Nyx's feathers sparkled with unstable energy, and she struggled violently, her eyes wide with panic.

"It's going to be very painful. So you learn to keep your mouth shut."

And then he brutally threw the Phoenix against the homunculus on the floor.

Nyx screamed, not a human scream, but a primal sound—a distorted song of pain and magic, as if a hundred souls were being pulled at once.

The homunculus's body trembled. Its translucent skin absorbed Nyx's black flames as if it were hungry for them. The golden veins began to glow, then burst into flames. Cracks appeared across the artificial body, but instead of breaking, it began to pulsate with life.

Strax knelt beside it, tracing runes in the air with both hands. Arcane symbols danced and dug into the ground around the body, creating a triple sealing circle with forbidden inscriptions that writhed like luminous serpents.

"Let's go," he murmured, and the words seemed to reverberate off the walls of the mansion as if the stones themselves trembled in response.

Nyx screamed from inside the changing body. The phoenix slowly disappeared, swallowed by flesh. The flames became nerves. The feathers turned into strands of hair. And the eyes... Nyx's golden eyes opened in the new face, terrified, enraged—alive.

Strax finished the last rune and sealed it with blood. A crimson glow ran through the circle, then disappeared with a sharp crack.

The silence that followed was total. No sound, not even the wind. The fireplace itself seemed to respect the moment, partially extinguishing itself.

In the center of the circle, Nyx's new body lay naked, trembling, gasping like a being who had just been reborn... or torn from himself.

Scarlet watched him, motionless, but did not intervene.

Daniela stopped spinning the dagger.

Samira covered her mouth with her hands, frightened.

Beatrice took half a step forward, but hesitated.

Strax slowly stood up, wiping the blood from his finger with a black handkerchief he took from the inside pocket of his cloak.

He looked at the newly constructed body, now gasping for breath, trying to lift itself up on its elbows.

"You asked for it. Now deal with it," he said, without any compassion in his voice.

Nyx, on the floor, replied with a hoarse whisper, between tears and hatred:

"I... I'm going to kill you."

"You won't have time for that. Now form the flesh and your appearance. Didn't you want this shit? Deal with it now." Strax spoke with an icy stare.