Demonic Dragon: Harem System - Chapter 624

Chapter 624: Chord.

Strax walked across the devastated field.

The ground was still smoking, pockmarked with craters and dried blood. The air smelled of burnt iron and rot, and his every step made the fragments of reality shift, as if even the island was afraid to breathe too close.

Then he stopped.

His eyes narrowed, his aura instinctively wavering around his body like a contained storm.

There, lying on the ash-soaked ground, was Daniela.

Her body seemed intact, but something was wrong. Very wrong. Her fingers still gripped the sword tightly, as if even unconscious, she refused to let go. Her chest heaved in irregular intervals, and beads of sweat trickled down her forehead. But what was most striking was her closed, tense gaze—as if she were trapped somewhere other than this.

“Daniela…” Strax murmured, his voice deep, carrying a weight only someone who had destroyed worlds could carry. He knelt beside her, his hand hesitating for a moment before resting on her shoulder.

It was at that moment that Frieren approached.

The mage, her body still glowing with unstable runes from the recent draconic transmutation, knelt beside him. Her eyes lit up blue, and a subtle glow ran through her hands as she rested her fingers on Daniela’s forehead.

The silence stretched.

Frieren arched her eyebrows, as if she’d seen too deeply.

“…She’s not asleep.” His voice was calm, but there was tension in it. “She’s trapped somewhere. As if her mind has been drawn into an illusion.”

Strax frowned, the aura around him vibrating in dark waves.

“Illusion?”

Frieren took a deep breath, still holding Daniela’s head. “It’s no ordinary illusion. It wasn’t meant to deceive her.” It was meant to break her. She’s facing something inside herself… something that doesn’t belong solely to this world.

The words hung in the air like poison.

Strax clenched his fists.

“…Who dared?” His tone was low, but the air shattered around them.

Kali, Rogue, and Xyn instinctively recoiled as they felt his energy surge, as if the very emptiness they’d witnessed earlier was back, ready to devour everything.

But Frieren held up a hand, trying to restrain him. “It’s not something we can destroy from here, Strax. Her enemy is within. Forcing entry could shatter her mind.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Strax stared at Daniela as if every second of weakness were an unforgivable offense. But at the same time, his eyes shone with something else—a shadow of nervousness.

He took a deep breath, the dark flames retracting against his skin, contained.

“So… what do I do?”

Frieren looked down at Daniela, still in a trance. Her expression softened, but there was gravity in her voice.

“You wait. She has to fight alone… or she’ll never truly be Daniela.”

Strax fell silent.

Wait.

That word weighed more than any battle. He was a being shaped to destroy, not to stand by and watch. Every fiber of his being screamed to plunge into that void, tear the illusion to shreds, and drag Daniela back. But Frieren was right. He knew it—and perhaps that was what angered him most.

His golden eyes fixed on her face, so serene yet contorted by the invisible struggle. Her every expression felt like a fist against his chest.

“Daniela…” he murmured again, almost as if the very sound of the name could reach her.

Around them, the other women watched in silence. Xyn kept her hand close to her blade, as if expecting something to emerge from the darkness at any moment. Rogue crossed her arms, her expression grim, but her eyes betrayed genuine concern. Kali bit her lip, restless, unable to bear the feeling of helplessness.

Bellatrix, who had approached with the others, was the one to break the silence.

“Daniela doesn’t go down easily.” Her voice was firm, but it didn’t hide the rigidity of her jaw. “If she’s stuck like this, then she’s found something truly monstrous inside.”

Strax turned his face toward her, and Bellatrix held her breath. For a moment, the intensity in his gaze seemed to pierce her, as if the mere suggestion of his wife’s weakness were an unforgivable insult.

But he said nothing.

He simply looked back at Daniela.

Frieren, still with his hand on the unconscious warrior’s head, closed her eyes. Her magic pulsed in slow, gentle waves, like a thin thread trying to connect.

“I can feel echoes…” she murmured. “Echoes of what she faces. It’s hatred. Not that of an enemy, but her own.”

“Her own?” Kali repeated, frowning.

“Yes.” Frieren opened her eyes, and there was an uncomfortable gleam in them. “The void where she is forces Daniela to see herself stripped of all titles, all ties. No sisters, no husband, no mother. Only her. And this… is tearing her apart.”

Strax growled low, his teeth clenched.

He hated hearing it. Hated imagining that Daniela, his Daniela, was being torn apart inside while he could only watch.

But then, a detail struck him.

“No husband.”

He suddenly realized the depth of that wound. Daniela wasn’t just the warrior, not just the daughter of the mad Scarlet, or the sister. She was someone who, silently, feared she would always be secondary. Always a shadow of another name.

Strax closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the weight of that thought. The tightness in his chest wasn’t anger. It wasn’t pent-up power. It was something much more human—and therefore, much more dangerous.

He leaned a little closer to her body, his fingers brushing against the hand that gripped the sword so tightly the knuckles were white.

“Daniela…” His voice was lower, but with a firmness that shook even the air. “You are no one’s shadow. Never have been.”

Frieren glanced at him sideways, surprised by the way his words resonated. There was magic in them, even without any spell.

The silence stretched once more. But deep down, Frieren felt a slight waver. Daniela had reacted. Not in her body, but deep inside, in that void where she fought alone.

Strax, without realizing it, continued:

“Do you hear me? You don’t need to prove anything to this world. Not to your mother. Not to your sisters. Not to me.” He gritted his teeth, gripping her hand tighter. “You are Daniela. And that alone is enough to make me furious with pride.

The words echoed like thunder in the minds of everyone nearby. Bellatrix looked away, her jaw set. Cassandra sighed deeply, almost as if something had finally loosened inside her.

And Daniela…

A tremor ran through her body.

A small spasm, but real.

Frieren looked up immediately. “She’s fighting back. She’s starting to fight back.”

Strax didn’t move a muscle.

His eyes were fixed on her, as if his will alone were enough to drag her back to reality.

And in the void where Daniela stood, a faint crack ran through the infinite darkness.