Even with their power enchanted and Arad weakened, Astrid and Frida still failed to effectively massage him. Their arms gave up after just a few seconds of work, it was as hard as trying to massage a tough piece of hard rubber. Even with how low Mira’s healing magic output is now that she’s trying to condense it into her hands, the twins still failed to keep up. “Aren’t you two supposed to be some powerful Fenrirs? How come that you can’t even massage him in this situation?” Merlin looked at them with a smug smile on her face.

“He’s the problem!” Astrid cried. She was right, they were powerful, far more than anyone in that room expected, but Arad was just on a whole another level. Tough muscles, hard bones, and rigid scales, even his magic was dense enough to kill someone just by standing close. Merlin waved her fingers and conjured two massive steel beams almost two meters above Arad’s back. “Get up, push down with your legs. You must move that holy magic before it starts clogging his magic circles.” Even if Arad can still be healed with holy magic, he’s a vampire, if that holy magic isn’t managed properly, it could cause more damage than it heals. Astrid and Frida jumped above Arad and started pushing on his back with their knees and feet, but even so, they kept having to take breaks. And as they worked, Merlin kept testing her spells on Arad, checking what worked and what didn’t.

She asked Arad and he didn’t have a problem. She tested all of her spells and effects, confirming several things that were surprising about Arad.

What Merlin tested first was if her seduction could work, and that had resulted in more aggression. Since Arad is a dragon, fighting for mates is natural and if she tried to seduce him, that would only end up in her getting beaten even harder.

Arad can be mind-controlled as proven by Vars in the past, but it’s gotten significantly harder than last time. Merlin had tried to mind-control Arad, but she suddenly found herself dancing naked in the middle of the room, Doma had cursed her to dance for 5 minutes or until she begged her. Trying to control Arad is a risky thing, especially with Doma there.

Merlin tried to rob Arad of his draconic powers as it had happened before in her labyrinth, but due to the massive size of his current power, she ended up receiving a backlash. It was like trying to fit something massive in a small space, her body almost split in half. It was nearly impossible to achieve without a massive labyrinth to spread his magic.

After half an hour with Astrid and Frida standing on Arad’s back and massaging him, they finally stopped and sat down to rest for a bit. Isdis brought them cold wine and some of the black blood wine that Arad had bought.

“I’m exhausted!” Merlin sighed, sitting on the ground, “I can’t find any reliable spell to win, I would lean toward using holy magic, but you’re getting used to that, right?”

Arad sat up, “I can counter holy magic with curses. But what about you? I didn’t know you could use holy magic.”

“Not just me, all wizards have access to holy magic. The goddess of magic exists.” Merlin closed her eyes and sat with her legs crossed, she almost immediately started floating up with her staff orbiting her. “But, she’s quite the fickle one and messes with us when we ask for holy magic.” She pointed her hand toward Arad, Heal

Merlin’s hand flickered with light and the spell activated, it wasn’t practically strong, but it seemed to have worked on Arad.

Merlin blinked twice, “Strange, nothing bad happened. I usually get jolted or something like that.” The goddess of magic was known for messing with wizards every time they called upon her power.

“Yeah…” Arad looked at her with a tired face, “Nothing happened…” He seemed a bit disappointed.

{You aren’t going to tell her about that?} Doma said inside his head, barely holding her laughter. ^No, I’ll pretend that I’ve never seen that.^ Some of Merlin’s private memories seem to have been shared with Arad, memories that Merlin probably would never admit.

The goddess of magic growled on her desk, unamused as her prank had failed. She honestly expected a better reaction, at least better than nothing at all. Her body started floating as she waved her fingers, flashes of magic sparked from her eyes and long red hair. She was determined to make sure it worked.

Arad suddenly felt his head stink, his mana reserve had dropped to o out of nowhere and Doma started rolling inside his mind, feeling as if her head was spinning inside a barrel rolling down a massive hill.

Merlin froze in place, seeing Arad watching her memory. The goddess of magic did then showed her how he refused to react to what he saw. Her face turned bright red, and she almost flew out of the room screaming.

The other girls stared at Arad and Merlin, wondering what happened to them. They both looked shocked and stressed for no reason. “What’s up? Are you two, okay?” Mira asked, thinking that one of Merlin’s spells might’ve failed somehow, she wasn’t wrong.

“This is…” Arad growled, “That goddess…It’s an awful feeling.” It’s been a while since his mana had dropped to o, Luckily he won’t pass out like other people since the moment it reached o, he absorbed some mana from the air to make it a 1.

Merlin held her face, “I’m…really…really sorry about that… both…”

“I don’t care…really…” He shook his head, “Just, don’t use her holy magic. I now understand why mages avoid her.”

Arad had seen parts of Merlin’s memories, a sensitive one involving her, and a statue of him not being in a ‘Presentable’ situation. Arad had thought she got rid of all the statues of him that she made, but she seemed to have kept some for personal use.

As they were talking, a knocking came on the door. Merlin stood and approached, “Who is there?” She asked.

“It’s me, Roberta. I’ve finished all of the papers. I wanted to discuss them quickly with Isdis to make sure everything is right.” Roberta replied with a worried face. She was told by one of Hati’s daughters that they were busy inside, but her work must be done before tomorrow.

With a single wave of her fingers, Merlin opened the door and let Roberta inside without a second hesitation. She wanted something to change the topic and get her mind off what just happened.

Roberta walked inside, “Lady Isdis, I’ve….” She froze, seeing Arad sitting naked on the ground. She dropped the pile of papers in her hand and screamed, “Why is he naked?”

“Why you ask?” Arad looked at her, “They were massaging me, that’s the whole thing of this.”

“Who opened the door? It was you, Merlin, this room is protected by your magic.” Roberta glared at her.

“Yeah, but Arad doesn’t mind.” Merlin looked at Arad, “Do you mind her seeing you naked?”

“I don’t mind. But they might.” He looked at Mira and Isdis, “Do you mind it?” “Well…” Mira scratched her chin, “Roberta had gotten too close to us already, and she’s helping us finance the whole castle building and stuff…can’t really tell her off even if I mind it

a bit.”

“Same for me. The whole kingdom’s money relies on her. I would love to keep her close if possible.” Isdis looked at Arad, “Marry her as well. She’ll be useful.”

As Roberta looked at them with a stunned face, Arad sighed. “Is it all about money?”

“No.” Mira replied, “Money isn’t everything, but as Mother says, money is 90% of everything. That’s pretty much important.”

“And what’s that 10%?” Arad looked at her and then at the still-frozen Roberta.

“That’s between her and you. We’re your wives, we can agree with someone becoming an additional wife, or refuse them. But we don’t get to choose who joins or not, we can only make suggestions.” Mira smiled.

Isdis giggled, “Yeah, I’m not going to manage all of your hoards and how to spend every copper to make your domain better. You either hire someone trustworthy and reliable or

marry them.” Isdis looked at Roberta with a grin.

“What are you talking about!” Roberta rushed at her and grabbed her by the shirt, shaking her

in place. “What are you talking about?!”

Isdis couldn’t stop laughing, “I get it! I get it!” She tapped Roberta’s shoulder, “I’ll find a smother way, calm down. Let me see what papers you brought.”

As the two argued, Arad stood and laid back on the table so Frida and Astrid could start the treatment again. Merlin sat silently for a while before reluctantly returning to her experiments, while she’s powerful, she hasn’t fought Arad seriously before and would love to be able to provide him with at least some resistance.

****

Far away, in a long-forgotten land, a vampire lord approached a noble with a smile on his face. “How is she doing? I’m certain an immortal like her would be quite the fun toy.” The noble grunted, “This is no fun. It’s a necessary evil, and you spawn as much of a filth as you are.” He looked back at the carriage filled with tools that rode past them. “We have to test those new methods on something before applying them in the field. Otherwise, we won’t know if the torture would work or not.” The noble pulled a bag of gold, “Here you go. Scram!” He threw it at the vampire lord, the man caught it and disappeared. He had sold the noble one of his spawns.

Deep beneath the noble’s castle, inside one of the dungeon cells guarded under the heaviest security, the woman was chained, having lost everything, she had nothing else to fear now. “I…plead…to…” She mumbled and the guards looked back, feeling a shiver down their spines, “The blood of origin, to they I sacrifice my blood, and seek others blood to be spilled. In a rusted iron spike, I shall die, impaled…” Blood magic started gushing from her body as she performed a forbidden ritual.

“I call thee!” A spark of blood magic rushed, seeking Vlad.