When Malina finished taking her parents on a short tour through the capital, the fight between Arad and Arian had ended. The little guy was already tired and beaten to a pulp, carried by Arad like a bag.
Arad showed up behind them, and Malina's parents rushed to check on their little boy, finding him too exhausted to move but without a single wound.
Arian's mana and stamina had both dropped to zero. Arad had let the little kid go as crazy as he wanted and use all of his power to test his limits in battle, and that seemed to have a decent effect.
Malina's father couldn't believe his nose because he could smell it now. In just a few weeks, his son might go into hibernation. He had been waiting for years, even paid famous and skilled trainers and healers to check him, but one fight against Arad was enough to do the trick.
Dragons don't run, get tired, then stop to rest; they run until they pass out. Dragons won't give up because of pain; they'll fight until death takes them.
What little Arian needed wasn't to train harder; it was to push his limits and stimulate his body to grow.
"What did you do to him?" He asked, and Arad looked at Malina's father. Just now, he realised that he doesn't know his name.
"We fought, and I smacked him a few times. He broke his right arm twice, his left arm once, and his legs were shattered seven times each because of his stupid jumps. I'm also sure I broke several of his ribs; he also almost lost his head when he missed me and his blade shattered."
Arad threw Arian to his mother, "But don't worry, all of those wounds healed, and he was still able to move and fight with them for a while, so he is as tough as they come. Ah, he also broke his teeth when he tried to bite me."
Malina rushed to Arad and dragged him aside, "Weren't you a bit too rough with him?"
"What rough, he is a dragon. If he faced a dragon outside, he would've been eaten alive." Arad then shifted his gaze to Malina's father, "By the way, I still don't know your name."
"Malex." Malina's father replied, then looked at his wife. "She is Galiana."
Galiana was busy checking Arian for any wounds or bruises, but she found nothing. Arad had healed him anew; even the scar that Arian had before had disappeared.
That meant one of two things: Arad either had spent one expensive potion on Arian, or he was a powerful healer. Galiana was leaning toward the latter, since Arad is married to four goddesses, he must be able to access their divine magic.
"You healed him well; even the old wounds had disappeared." Galiana looked at Arad with a serious face.
Arad shrugged, "Got a bit of holy magic from my wives. Nothing special."
Malina glared at him, then turned to her mother, "He is lying. Both Eris and Kali have their holy gates open to him; he can draw more healing magic than the entire human church combined."
Arad scratched the back of his head and sighed, "Let's go back. I'm sure the Queen should be back soon. Besides... coming here was a mistake." He looked at the starry sky.
Malina asked with a worried face. "Why? Arian would've blown the living room to pieces."
"Not because of that. Arian has nothing to do with it." He pointed at the sky, "Now I've got a huge problem to deal with."
In the sky, something else besides Arad's power and authority moved; a huge entity of immense power was there.
Linda had moved from his shadow to his stomach with him, and she has decided to hide here now. No one could see her, not even Arad, but he could feel her presence like a stone stuck in his stomach. A massive and powerful drakaina with enough power to burst through and tear his stomach open.
"Wait! That's Linda!" Malina could finally feel it. "What is she doing here?"
"She came with me, left my shadow, now she is roaming free here." Arad sighed. The darkness of his stomach was near endless; it was the perfect place for a shadow drakaina like Linda to exist, in the cold and dark vacuum of his inner void.
But it wasn't all that bad. Kali was here, and she could beat ten of Linda all at once. That was a safety net that Arad absolutely needed, especially against an Elder shadow time drakaina with enough power to kill everyone here before they could react.
"This place." Then a voice rang behind Arad, and he knew it. That wasn't a voice he had ever heard before here. He knew immediately who was behind his back, and he turned rapidly with an arm lifted up to block whatever was coming toward him.
But instead of a hit, a hand gently pushed him, causing him to fall. "Relax, I'm not attacking you."
Linda was standing there, tall, clad in a single black dress. Arad had never seen someone like her before. She had two glowing red eyes and hair of two colors, black and white, split right in the middle.
Arad immediately stood back, and she looked at him for a second before shifting her gaze back to the stars, "This place is big and vast, it has enough darkness to stretch my wings."
Arad frowned, "That explains why my stomach started hurting a bit. How massive are you?"
Linda glared at him for a second, "Asking a woman about her size, you aren't that nice, are you?"
Before Arad could reply, Kali was already standing behind Linda, "She is massive! Like, this planet fits in her jaws. But don't worry! I got a fist ready to be shoved up her ass!" She punched Linda's butt.
"As I said, I'm not that big. What hurt your stomach wasn't me, but this little fuck spawning her golden thing here."
"What she means is that I want to live here from now on. Besides the shadow realm, you've got enough darkness for me here. The fortress is too cramped for me."
Arad took a second and a deep breath. "Then why didn't you just leave? To space or whatever where it's dark?"
Linda frowned, "Well, there is this bitch outside that smells just like you. When I was about to leave, she beat and threw me back down. I tried to slip past her in another timeline, but she just followed, caught, and kicked my ass back to mother."
Arad sighed, "I guess that is my mother. Why did she stop you? I'm sure she shouldn't do that, you shouldn't even find her."
"She was hidden well, but I'm also an elder magic drakaina like her. It wasn't that hard for us to clash." She approached Arad, "Then, would you care to tell me how someone like you wooed a whole demonic goddess of destruction?"
Linda sighed, thinking about Arad and what he could do. His mother was a literal cosmic monster; he had met her older brother, who had a goddess of destruction inside his stomach, and a whole world to boot.
Out of all the dragons she saw, fought, and killed in her life, Arad was an oddball because he possessed a power that no one should be allowed to even approach.
She frowned, "I'll be living here. Get me a house here, and I'll be flying through the void to stretch my wings."
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Arad didn't find any problem with her staying, as long as he had Kali.
"Fine. For now, you can get a quarter in the main keep until a suitable house is built for you." Arad pointed at the main building of the city. A second later, an angel flew in, saw Linda, and got ready for a fight.
"Get her a nice place in the main keep, then get a house for her, a massive one. She'll also be flying in the void, so..." Arad looked at Linda, "For rent, she'll be hauling things between the planets."
"You're treating me like a horse?" Linda glared at him, and he looked back at her, "I was thinking more like a donkey, you look like those ones found in the wild." He was talking about zebras.
Linda wanted to jump and punch him, but the moment she was about to move, she could feel a hand between her legs. "Told you, move, I'll split you open." Kali's voice rang in her head.
"You're going to ask me to let him insult me like that?" She spoke back through the telepathy link, proving her skill to Kali.
"I told him that you look like a wild donkey. Arad doesn't even know what they look like. It was a simple test to see if you'd snap or are safe to let stay here." Kali's giggles slowly faded away, leaving Linda with a deep, uneasy feeling of dread.
"Fine, I'll do that. It won't be much anyway." Linda sighed and started floating. "Then I'm going to fly for a bit."
"Aren't you supposed to be watching me?" Arad lifted an eyebrow. If Linda stayed inside his stomach, she wouldn't be able to monitor what he is doing outside.
"I've changed my mind, destroy the fortress if you want. I found a better home here." With those words, she disappeared into the dark expanse of Arad's stomach.