Dragon Emperor 11: From Human to Dragon to God

by Eric Vall

  “So, what are all their powers?” Nike asked with a glint in his silver eyes.

  “Precognition from the Sundex,” I replied as I ticked them off on my fingers. “Automatic healing and swiftness from the Eternal Flame, and target precision from Karys.”

  “Amazing.” My fellow noble nodded his head in appreciation. “Those skills will most certainly be useful to you on the battlefield, brother.”

  “Each time I assimilated the abilities, I used them against the next opponent,” I replied with a grin. “It pissed them off, but it worked for me.”

  “So, what about these things now?” Aaliyah wondered and pointed to the artifacts.

  I leaned down and picked up the Sundex. I no longer felt the cold dread that had accompanied the relic before, and I turned it over in my hands to ensure the artifact was safe now. Then I gazed at the inscription for a moment before I handed it to Alyona.

  “Pretty sure I’m the only one they matter to now,” I replied. “But I don’t want to take any risks. Let’s keep the relics separate from my spiritual sea for now.”

  “Yes, my lord.” The princess nodded and slipped the Sundex into her spatial storage.

  I leaned down and grabbed the Flame and the Bow, and she stored them away as well. I knew the relics didn’t bother her like they’d bothered me, but I’d still feel much better once they were safely tucked away in the egg vault.

  “What do we do now?” Alyona asked.

  “I think we should still put them inside the vault,” I answered. “Plus, I want to see my father and talk to him about everything, so we should get back to Hatra as soon as possible.”

  “He will be so happy to see you.” The princess nodded knowingly. “I’m sure Valerra and the others will be, too.”

  “Well, Valerra is going to be hit or miss,” I chuckled. “But I know one part of me she’s missed for sure.”

  The dryads giggled uncontrollably, though Naomi looked confused for a moment before she blushed and turned away.

  Valerra was the only member of my harem who hadn’t accompanied me on our campaign across Rahma. She was home in Hatra, though she was pretty pissy about not getting to stay in her beloved canyons. She’d been caring for her sister’s egg since the mage killed Valerra’s family before the egg hatched, and now she took care of our egg as well. She also claimed she only wanted to have sex with me to continue the dragon race, but I quickly figured out she’d been pregnant after our first encounter, so she’d enjoyed the many times we’d fucked afterward just as much as I did, though she hated to admit it.

  “And we can check on your egg!” Miraya pointed out with a smile.

  “Yeah, I need to see how little Junior is doing,” I agreed and chuckled. Valerra hated when I called our egg Junior, so I did it as often as possible. “And I can see Ilya and Ilyushina.”

  “Oh, how they must have grown!” Alyona gushed as her amethyst eyes sparkled. “When should we pack our wagon?”

  “Before we start packing, my lord,” Ravi started as she shifted shyly from foot to foot, “could I ask you something?”

  “Of course, Ravi,” I replied and focused on her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing at all,” the phoenix said, but then she blushed and ducked her head. “I was just wondering if I could stay here in Kana and help. They have a lot of rebuilding to do, and I think I could be helpful with my knowledge of the desert.”

  “We were thinking the same thing,” Polina sighed. “We’d hate to leave them all alone to do so much work.”

  Trina and Marina nodded with sad expressions.

  “I think that’s a great idea,” I answered before I frowned. “The only part I don’t like is leaving any of my women here without a guard.”

  “I can stay,” Nike offered. “I can help, too, if that’s alright. You are my brother, and I’d be honored if you would trust me to keep your women safe.”

  “You don’t mind?” I asked as I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure?”

  “I don’t mind at all,” the noble said with a shrug. “I’ll always do what is needed for you and for Rahma.”

  “If you’re staying to guard the city, could I go to Hatra?” Naomi asked suddenly. “Would that be okay with you?”

  Several heads whipped around to look at her in surprise.

  “You want to go?” I asked, and my mouth fell open slightly.

  “Well, I’ve really only been on my magical book searches and then returned home,” the lizard mage explained. “I’d love to explore another city.”

  “Yeah, of course,” I replied. “You can come, see my city, meet Valerra--”

  “Oh, I don’t want to intrude on the Crimson Dragon,” she interjected as she waved her hands quickly. “I’ll just explore. It’s okay.”

  “Nonsense,” I chuckled. “You’ll be fine. Everyone will want to meet you.”

  “Everyone?” the lizard mage squeaked, and her face clouded with second thoughts, but I wasn’t about to let her stay here now.

  “If only half of us are going, I can create a portal,” Alyona suggested. “We would get there much faster.”

  “And it would keep anyone from following us,” I agreed. “Let’s do that, but first, we have one other important matter to handle.”

  “What’s that?” Aaliyah asked as a concerned frown creased her face, and her long tail flicked back and forth behind her.

  “Lunch,” I declared as my stomach rumbled.

  Everyone laughed, and I rubbed at my belly as I thought about how soon we’d be going home. It had only been a few hours since breakfast, but it had felt like days in my spiritual sea, and I was fucking starving.

  Probably from kicking ass all morning.

  Vallen scurried ahead of us to tell the kitchen staff to start on lunch, and the rest of us walked behind him and up the stairs into the castle. As we headed down the hallway, I could already hear pots and pans banging around the kitchen as the cooks rushed around to prepare food, and by the time we sat down at the table, two servants were setting down baskets of bread and bowls of sweet honey butter.

  “Oh, yessss.” I grabbed a roll and bit off a chunk to settle my angry stomach as we waited for the rest of our meal.

  “Lord Vallen, where do you think we would be most useful in our efforts to help you?” Nike asked as he picked up a roll and tore off a piece.

  “I think we should start with homes,” the lizard leader replied, and he rubbed his chin in thought. “We have done several temporary repairs to ensure the buildings are standing, but if we get any sandstorms soon, those homes will not stand up to the wind.”

  “We can figure out which houses are more likely to be affected by storms and work our way down,” Nike said, and I could practically see the gears of his strategic mind turning. “I do think the fields will be a high priority, as well.”

  “We can start there!” Trina volunteered as she bounced in her seat.

  “Yeah, we’ve already started some work on them,” Marina agreed.

  “It won’t be too hard for us to expand on it, so the crops flourish,” Polina said with a grin.

  “The people of Kana will be so grateful,” Vallen commended them. “As will I. The rebuilding will take quite some time, though I do believe the citizens will be happy to help where they can.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” I agreed as the servants brought out the rest of the meal, and I could smell the platter of boar chops before I saw it.

  The gamey meat smelled heavenly, and my mouth watered as the staff set it down on the table. It was covered in some kind of brown and red seasoning that smelled like apples, and I resisted grabbing one immediately and ripping the meat from the bone. Another tray was filled with cubes of a strongly scented cheese, and I held my breath as the servants set down the final trays of long green bananas.

  As soon as they stepped away from the table, I leaned forward and stabbed a pork chop to drop it onto my plate. Then I piled the cheese and fruit next to it and dug in. The first
bite of meat to hit my tongue practically melted in my mouth, and the sweet juices dribbled down my throat.

  I groaned as I ate each bite, and I looked up when I heard the dryads giggling.

  “Is it good, my lord?” Polina asked as she tried to hold a serious expression.

  “Delicious,” I mumbled through a mouthful of meat.

  They snickered some more, and then everyone began to eat.

  Lunch was nearly silent, though Nike and Vallen threw out ideas here and there about what to do while fixing up the city.

  “I’m going to go prepare a bag,” Naomi announced as she finished her plate. “Then I’ll be ready to go.”

  I nodded as she darted out of the room.

  “I am a bit surprised she wants to go with us,” Alyona murmured just loud enough for me to hear.

  “I’m not,” I chuckled. “She’s become a little more, ah, interested in the last few days.”

  “Oooh,” the princess sighed. “Are we expanding our family soon?”

  “Oh, yeah,” I replied with a grin. “We almost have her.”

  Alyona smiled just as Naomi breezed back into the room.

  “I’m ready,” the lizard mage announced. “Unless you don’t want me to go anymore, of course. I can just stay here and--”

  “Don’t be silly,” Alyona interjected sweetly. “We all want you to come.”

  “You do?” Naomi’s amber eyes widened at the princess’ knowing smile.

  “Of course,” my fiancée replied. “We’d love to have you, right?”

  “Mmmhm,” Aaliyah purred, and her orange eyes were hooded as she licked grease off her full lips.

  “Most certainly.” Laika’s voice was hoarse as her gray eyes fluttered.

  “We only wish we were coming now, too,” Trina pouted, and all three dryads nodded vigorously.

  “Yeah,” I agreed as my grin stretched even wider. “We would all love it.”

  Naomi’s face flushed nearly as dark as her scales before she heaved her bag up onto the table with a thump.

  “Good, ah, well, I brought some books for the trip, just in case we need them,” she said to change the subject.

  “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of things to do with our time,” I countered with a quirked eyebrow. “But they might come in handy.”

  “I’ll go ahead and start on the portal,” Alyona said as she stood up from the table. “Lady Naomi, would you like me to teach you?”

  “Oh, that would be great!” the lizard Demi-Human replied as she threw her bag back over her shoulder.

  The two mages walked toward the doorway, and Alyona began to explain how the portal worked. Then they began to murmur words together, and within seconds, a purple and white shimmer appeared in the doorway. Then it shifted and waved until a misty view of the city of Hatra could be seen.

  I could just make out the base of the Lunar Palace through the entrance, and my heart raced at the thought of being home.

  “It’s ready!” Alyona called out.

  “Let’s do it!” Aaliyah declared as she pushed her chair back from the table.

  “Wait, Aaliyah,” I said and stood to grab her arm. “You shouldn’t go through first. We didn’t tell them we were coming, and I don’t want anyone to think you’re an intruder.”

  “Ahh, yeah,” the lioness agreed as her round ears flattened against her head. “I don’t want them to send the Crimson Dragon after me.”

  “No, you don’t,” I chuckled. “I know you’re excited, though, so you and I can go through together. Sound good?”

  “Perrrrfect,” she purred and winked.

  “Lady Naomi, you can go through with Miraya,” I directed. “Then Alyona and Laika can go and close the portal after we get there.”

  “See you soon, Lord Evan!” Ravi exclaimed, and she waved excitedly from where she was seated beside the dryads.

  “Don’t have too much fun without us,” Polina teased as I grabbed Aaliyah’s hand.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.” I winked and walked through the portal with the lion Demi-Human at my side.

  We stepped into the sunlight in front of the Lunar Palace, and as Aaliyah inhaled sharply, I had to pause for a few seconds myself to take it all in.

  Hatra was incredible. As the other four women walked through the portal behind us, I gazed left to right at the buildings that hadn’t been there before, the bustling market, the dozens of new faces that now stopped and stared in awe, fear, or a combination of both. Then the whispers began to pass through the crowd as they tried to figure out who we were.

  “One of them has to be a mage.”

  “Why are they here?”

  “Someone went to tell Ruslan.”

  I quickly realized it wouldn’t have mattered who came through the portal first. There were so many new people in the city now, most of them hadn’t ever seen me in person either.

  Before I could announce myself, a head of blue hair bobbed through the crowd, and the people parted to allow a young fox Demi-Human to get to the front.

  “Lord Evan!” Afra cried out as she grinned from ear-to-ear. “You’ve returned!”

  “Afra,” I sighed with relief at the familiar face. “So good to see you.”

  “And you, my lord,” the fox replied with a dip of her head. “And milady!”

  Alyona stepped forward and embraced Afra while the crowd continued to murmur, though now the sounds were excited instead of worried. We’d been gone for several months now, and the population of Hatra had easily doubled, perhaps even tripled. I could see a variety of Demi-Humans, some dryads, a few humans, and several people with a pale pink skin that I hadn’t seen before.

  My city had become home to so many new people, and I was grinning from ear to ear when the crowd parted again for Ruslan and Julia.

  My adopted parents were the Elders of Hatra, though neither of them looked a day over thirty. Ruslan’s bright red hair gleamed in the sun, and his fox face was alight with excitement as he rushed forward and wrapped me up into a hug. Julia was right behind him with her brown hair tied back into a ponytail, and her pale blue eyes glistened with happy tears. She threw her arms around us both, and my inner dragon nearly purred with contentment.

  It was good to be home.

  “It’s good to see you, Pops,” I murmured against Ruslan’s hair, and I could feel his fox ears twitch as I spoke.

  “You didn’t tell us you were coming home!” Ruslan finally huffed as he released me.

  “I figured we could surprise you,” I chuckled, and I ran my fingers through my hair.

  “You need a haircut,” Julia teased, and she stepped back to look me up and down as she snapped open her signature fan and began to wave it around in front of me.

  “I know, Mother,” I laughed. “You can do whatever you want to it while I’m here.

  Julia clucked her tongue and then looked over to Alyona, and the two women hugged tightly. Just then, another figure pushed through the crowd, and soon Moskal gripped my forearm in greeting. The human Elder looked much like his sister, and his brown hair was cut in a shaggy style, while his pale blue eyes stared deeply into mine.

  “Lord Evan,” Julia’s brother said in a soft voice. “Welcome home.”

  “Thank you, uncle,” I replied before we let go. “The city looks amazing.”

  “Well, we had some really great plans to inspire us.” Ruslan flashed me a devilish smile as he unrolled a small stack of papers from his pocket.

  “My plans?” I gasped. “You used them?”

  “You worked so hard on your ideas, and this is your city now,” my father replied. “So, of course, we wanted to get as close as we could to your schematics.”

  “You’ve done an excellent job,” I praised as I gazed around at the buildings I could see.

  Most of the buildings here by the Lunar Palace had dragons carved into the stones or on metal plates attached to their fronts. The spiral-style roofs were tall, just as I’d designed them before, and the gray stones had been pl
aced with painstaking care. A lot of hard work had gone into rebuilding the city, and I was proud to call it mine.

  “So have you,” Ruslan joked as he finally looked past me at the other women in my party. “Who are these other lovely ladies? You seem to be missing a few.”

  “Nike, Ravi, and the dryads decided to stay in Kana,” I explained. “There is a lot of work to be done since the city was attacked by bandits.”

  “Bandits?” Julia gasped. “Is everyone alright?”

  “Yeah,” I replied, “but the town was torn up pretty badly. Buildings burned up, doors kicked down, all that shit. So, they wanted to help put things back together.”

  “Terrible,” Ruslan said as he shook his head. “But back to my original question…”

  “Oh, right,” I chuckled before I gestured to my lioness. “This is Lady Aaliyah, one of the nobles from Tikal. She helped us initiate alliances between the three houses of Tikal, and then she decided to continue with us.”

  “Lovely to meet you,” my father declared as he kissed the lioness’ clawed hand.

  “And you,” Aaliyah returned with a smile that exposed her long canines.

  “This is Miraya, the spirit of the Sword of Hatra,” I continued as I gestured toward the spirit.

  “Oh!” Julia gasped as her blue eyes raked over the spirit. “You regularly travel in human form?”

  “Oh, no, milady.” Miraya shook her head. “I have only recently learned how beneficial it is to be with my master while in my physical body.”

  “I see.” Ruslan winked and then nodded toward Naomi.

  “Lady Naomi is a mage from Kana,” I said. “First, she tried to kill me for going there, but she doesn’t hate me as much now.”

  “I never said I hated you,” Naomi interjected with a pout. “I just don’t trust people.”

  “Which is understandable,” Julia assured her. “My son, however, is worthy of your trust, Lady Naomi.”

  “He is,” she agreed, and I turned to her with surprise before she averted her gaze with another eye roll.

  “It’s okay,” I chuckled. “It’s not the first time I’ve had to prove myself, which reminds me. I need to go check in on Valerra and Junior.”

  “Well, listen, my son,” Ruslan began, and his smile abruptly dropped as his ears flattened against his head. “We need to talk to you before--”