Demonic Dragon: Harem System - Chapter 735

Capítulo 735: See? I was right.

Strax moved forward.

Each of his steps sounded like the deep rumble of a mountain walking—an ancient, inescapable, and utterly unstoppable weight. The gigantic egg resting on his shoulders seemed to require no effort at all; it was as if it were part of his body, as if he had been forged to carry it to the ends of the earth. The icy mist that enveloped the entrance to the tomb of the Ice Dragon Empress swirled around him, recoiling with primal fear.

Ahead, Mercedes raised her hands again, her breath already quickened, her face etched with growing frustration.

“STRAX, STOP!” her voice echoed, reverberating with magic.

He didn’t stop.

A beam of ice sliced ​​through the air, cutting like a blade. It struck Strax’s chest—and shattered like fragile glass. He didn’t even blink. He just kept going, his expression one of absolute focus, his gaze fixed on the enormous gray door of the tomb.

Mercedes growled, advancing. The ground beneath her shimmered, and with a crack, ice stalactites sprang forth like spears, piercing him. Strax crushed them with his body, walking through the shards as if they were grains of sand.

“I SAID STOP!” she screamed, and this time the magic took the form of a glacial whirlwind, engulfing him completely.

The biting wind whipped his skin, the temperature plummeted until the surrounding stones screamed. The ground froze beneath his feet—and for an instant, just one, Strax’s ankles were trapped.

Mercedes gasped, seeing a chance.

“Stay… on the… ground!” She pressed her hands against the air, and the freezing air rose up his legs, attempting to trap him completely.

A heavy silence filled the passage.

The ice creaked.

And then—CRACK!

Strax simply… took another step.

The ice shattered like wet paper, flying in shards that glittered in the air before disappearing. The whirlwind of freezing wind didn’t even deflect from its path; instead, it was pushed back as if the world were yielding to the movement of that living wall.

Mercedes bit her lower lip, desperate. She raised both hands, conjuring arcane circles that expanded into cerulean layers. Pure, dense, powerful magic—the kind capable of toppling fortresses.

She unleashed it all at once.

The impact illuminated the corridor with an icy flash, the explosion echoing like thunder. The snow swirled violently, the air trembled.

And when the light dissipated…

Strax continued walking.

Gently. Steady. Unchanging.

He exhaled—and a stream of dense fire erupted, biting the tomb walls. The frozen runes melted instantly, opening a path to the entrance, which creaked as if fearing his approach.

Mercedes stumbled a step back, incredulous. Sweat and ice mingled on her skin, and her breath came in ragged gasps.

“Why…? Why don’t you fall…?”

Strax didn’t answer. It wasn’t stubbornness, nor pride, nor anger.

It was destiny.

He advanced once more, and each step carried the absolute certainty that nothing—not magic, not pain, not the world itself—would stop him from taking the egg to the Empress.

The wall Mercedes faced wasn’t just strength, it was much greater.

The corridor finally opened.

Ahead, the enormous arch carved from eternal ice revealed the Empress’s Garden—an inner valley enclosed by the tomb itself, where crystalline trees grew like living sculptures and ice flowers opened petals that breathed blue vapor. The filtered light seemed to come from nowhere and from everywhere at once, as if the sky had been trapped inside.

Strax entered without hesitation.

The egg rested firmly on his shoulders, radiating a gentle warmth that made the frost on the ground evaporate beneath his steps.

Mercedes appeared behind him, breathless, her heart pounding so loudly she could barely hear her own thoughts.

“STRAX!” she yelled, her voice breaking in despair. “You need to stop! You don’t know what happens if you… if you wake her up like that!”

He didn’t turn. He didn’t slow down. He didn’t speed up. He just maintained that steady, unbreakable pace.

Mercedes narrowed her eyes, bit her lip—and cast another spell, this time condensing pure ice around her hands before hurling it in the form of chains.

They coiled around his torso—and broke instantly, crushed by the simple act of him continuing to breathe.

“It’s impossible!” she gasped, taking two steps back. “You… you could finish me off with a single blow. But… you don’t even try. So why… why don’t you stop?!”

Strax walked between the crystalline trees, whose leaves tinkled with the heat emanating from the egg. He didn’t even look at Mercedes, but his presence was so relentless that it seemed to distort the air around him.

Mercedes pressed her hands against her head, panic growing. Her gaze darted from Strax to the small ice bridge leading to the central altar—the heart of the garden, where the Empress’s tomb lay.

Each of his steps made her tremble more.

She raised her hands again, drawing power from her own heart, raw magic that burned in her throat. A turquoise glow exploded in her eyes—and pillars of ice rose from the ground, trying to surround him, crush him, halt his march.

Strax slammed into the first pillar.

The pillar shattered.

He slammed into the second.

The ice cracked as if struck by an earthquake.

He passed through the third without even flinching, as if he were wind.

Mercedes stumbled backward, her lips trembling.

“Absolute Force…” she whispered, feeling reality slip through her fingers. “He… he has no limit.” He doesn’t have… a switch…

She looked at her own hands—so small. She looked at Strax—so much bigger than any obstacle, any magic, any opposing will.

“I… can’t stop you… can I?” she murmured, and this time her voice came out weak, almost a plea.

Strax inhaled, still moving forward.

And in that instant, Mercedes realized something that made her stomach truly churn:

He wasn’t ignoring her.

He was… protecting her.

He refused to raise his hand against her.

He could have knocked her down with a single gesture.

But he didn’t.

“You…” her eyes widened. “You really don’t want to hurt me…”

That’s when despair turned to pure terror—because, if Strax didn’t want to hurt her, then all that relentless advance meant only one thing:

There was no power in the world capable of stopping him.

Mercedes staggered backward, her legs finally giving way to the weight of the realization.

The ice beneath her feet cracked, not from the cold—but from the tremor that ran through her body.

She watched Strax continue, each of his steps echoing like a divine decree in the Empress’s Garden.

She tried to raise her hands once more…

But her fingers wouldn’t obey.

The spells didn’t appear.

The will… dissolved.

Her voice came out weak, almost a whisper torn from the depths of her soul:

—…I can’t stop you… I can’t…

Strax passed by her like a colossal, calm shadow, the warmth of the egg making the air ripple around him. She felt his energy—intense, unwavering, not aggressive, but inescapable. A river of pure force that nothing could contain.

And for the first time since she met him, Mercedes lowered her arms.

She lowered her head.

And she gave up.

And of course, Strax just kept going.

The sound of Strax’s footsteps echoed across the garden to the ice bridge. Each tap of his boot made the ground vibrate, as if the kingdom itself recognized the approach of the inevitable.

Mercedes lagged behind, breathing unevenly, her eyes still fixed on him with a mixture of fear, respect, and… something she didn’t want to name.

When Strax reached the monumental tomb door, a circular portal of ancient runes, everything around fell silent.

And then—the world trembled.

A deep vibration coursed through the ground, making the crystalline trees hum. The ice flowers suddenly closed, as if fearing what was about to awaken. The bridge creaked. The garden walls shimmered with fissures of bluish light.

The egg… began to pulsate.

An intense glow erupted from within the shell, as if a small sun were about to be born there. Strax lifted the egg a little higher, as if proud—or as if presenting the little one to the world.

Mercedes brought a hand to her mouth, startled.

“N-No… it’s already reacting…?”

Strax just laughed.

A low, satisfied laugh, full of the confidence of someone who always knew what they were doing.

He turned his face just enough for Mercedes to see the confident smile.

“See? I was right.”

The tremor intensified. The runes on the tomb lit up, one by one, like eyes awakening from a millennia-long sleep. The air grew heavy. Magic seemed to hold its breath.

And then—

FOOOOSH

The tomb opened by itself.

The colossal doors of eternal ice slid open without Strax touching them, responding to the egg’s call. A blast of heat and glacial wind escaped from within, as if two opposing forces coexisted in that sacred space.

Strax adjusted the egg on his shoulder, discreetly cracked his neck…

And began to enter.

“I’ll go take this little one,” he said, with the naturalness of someone simply placing something in a cradle.

Mercedes, kneeling on the floor, felt her heart stop for a moment.