Demonic Dragon: Harem System

Silence fell.

A heavy silence, one that not even the distant creatures dared break.

The reflection raised the blade again. The tip glowed a deep green, but it wasn't just energy. It was something intimate, a thread of Daniela's own soul molded into steel.

She felt it.

If that sword cut her, it wouldn't be just flesh or scales. It would be her essence—what remained of the woman behind the beast.

And, for the first time, the dragon took a step back.

The reflection smiled calmly, as if it had already won. "See?" the voice reverberated, echoing in Daniela's gut. "You are fire, fury, and emptiness. But when you face me... you tremble."

Daniela pressed her claws against nothingness, green cracks spreading beneath her feet. Her heart pounded like a war drum, but inside her chest was more than hatred.

There was fear.

Fear that this was true. Fear that, in the end, she would be nothing more than a reflection of her own need to be seen.

"I don't…" Her voice was low, but reverberated with bestial layers. "I'm not you."

The reflection laughed. A cold laugh, without anger, without pain. Just certainty.

"That's exactly what makes me stronger. I don't pretend. I don't hide. I am what you never admit to being."

The blade glowed brighter. "I am the scream you swallow when you smile beside him. I am the hatred when they look at your sister. I am the emptiness when you think your mother's name."

Daniela roared, more in pain than fury. The flames exploded around her, engulfing nothingness in dark green flames, dissolving hordes of creatures that merely watched the battle of titans.

But the reflection passed through the flames without even being burned.

And advanced.

The blade cut through the air.

Daniela raised her claw to block—but at the moment of impact, she heard no crash.

She heard a whisper.

Inside her head.

"What if I'm all that's left?"

The blow pierced the dragon's flesh.

The colossal body trembled, scales cracking in brilliant lines. The roar that escaped wasn't just pain—it was despair.

Daniela fell to her knees, claws sinking into nothingness as if searching for something solid to hold on to. Blood dripped in a fiery green, each drop burning the nonexistent ground.

The reflection stared down at her, sword pointed at her throat.

And smiled.

"You can deny me. You can hate me. But you will never defeat me. Because, deep down, Daniela… I am what you have already become."

Daniela's eyes trembled. The dragon within her roared, furious, wanting to destroy everything—but the woman beneath the monstrous skin felt the tears that wouldn't fall.

She was at her limit.

If she accepted… she would disappear.

If she refused… she might shatter.

And, outside, in her real body, Strax and Frieren saw something change.

The scales on her arm began to move on their own, as if something inside was trying to emerge. The flames around her skin wavered in uncontrolled pulses, sometimes black, sometimes green.

"Frieren…" Strax growled, his eyes fixed on her, his aura wavering like a star about to collapse. "What's happening?"

The mage didn't answer immediately. Her eyes were wide, her hand still resting on Daniela's forehead.

And finally, she murmured:

"…She's fighting herself. And if she loses… it won't be Daniela who wakes up anymore."

Within the void, Daniela gasped.

With each breath, dark green smoke escaped from her fangs, but it was irregular—as if the beast within her no longer obeyed her will.

The reflection looked down at her, the sword poised against her throat, firm, confident.

And Daniela noticed the detail that made her shiver: the eyes of that other Daniela weren't filled with hatred.

They were filled with conviction.

That was what hurt her more than any blade.

"You think you fight for yourself…" The reflection tilted the blade, pressing lightly, making the green blood run in thin lines, "but everything you do is to prove you're no one's shadow."

Your mother's toy. A scumbag next to your sisters. A burden to him.

The dragon's roar echoed, but it sounded hollow, lacking the same force as before.

Daniela closed her eyes for a moment. And what she saw weren't monsters.

They were faces.

Cassandra, Bellatrix. Always together. Always the two of them.

Scarlet, bloodied, laughing at the whole world while Daniela was just "the remaining daughter."

Strax, with the weight on his shoulders, always trying to keep everything okay, always the monster, and she... what? A secondary character? A name forgotten between greater battles?

"No..." she murmured, but her voice trembled. "I'm not..."

The reflection leaned its face closer, so close that Daniela could feel her own breath returning against her.

And whispered:

"You're just an echo."

The blow landed.

The blade pierced part of the draconic neck, not enough to kill her, but enough for blood to cascade, burning, scorching the nothingness around her. Daniela howled, staggering, her throat on fire.

Outside, her body arched.

Her right arm distorted, bones cracking, the claw beginning to form as if the transformation were trying to drag itself into the real world.

Kali took two steps back, eyes wide. "Is she… is she going to transform out here?!"

Strax's aura exploded like a contained storm, forcing everyone to take cover. He gripped Frieren's shoulder tightly, nearly breaking it.

"Then get her out of this now!"

Frieren resisted, her blue eyes shining even brighter, her voice firm even under the pressure of Strax's aura.

"If I rip her out by force, Strax… it won't be Daniela who comes back. It will be the thing trying to be born!"

Strax gritted his teeth, fangs bared, his face furious.

But he didn't answer.

He just stared at his wife, as if trying to bridge the distance with his gaze.

Within the void, Daniela still bled, her knees buried in a nonexistent ground.

Her reflection stared at her with that same cold contempt.

"Giving yourself to me isn't weakness. It's liberation." Her voice sounded almost... serene. "With me, you'll never be forgotten again. You'll never be 'the other one.' You'll never be anything but power again."

Daniela looked up, and even amidst the blood and flames, she smiled crookedly.

A dirty, defiant smile, the same one she wore in battles where she knew she would likely die.

"And who said... that I want to be remembered only for power?"

Her reflection frowned.

It was the first crack in the mask.

Daniela laughed, spitting emerald blood even with the blade still embedded in her flesh.

"You're just a part of me. The part that screams, that struggles, that bites. But I... I'm more than that."

She gripped the blade with her bloodied claw, the flames burning around her again.

"You think you're my hatred. But I'm also the fury that protects."

Her hand gripped the sword tightly, the metal trembling. "You think you're my emptiness. But I'm also the hunger for life."

And her eyes glowed an incandescent emerald. "You think you're my pain. But I'm also the laughter after the fight."

The reflection tried to pull the blade away, but Daniela wouldn't let it.

Green-black flames exploded from the claws, burning the sword.

The reflection screamed for the first time, its voice distorted.

Daniela leaped to her feet, her wings spreading like walls. The dragon roared, but with the roar were words—not from the beast, but from the woman within her:

"I am Daniela!"

She sank her teeth into the reflection, not to devour, but to fuse it. The two voices screamed in unison, the entire void contorting as if torn to shreds.

And outside, Frieren gasped.

"She… she's not fighting it."

Her eyes widened. "She's trying to absorb it!"

Strax felt his heart pound like thunder, his aura wavering.

And for the first time, he murmured softly, almost like a prayer.

"Then win, Daniela… Win, damn you."