Harpy Core: A Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Noah Layton

  That very same fury began to rise in my own body. They wouldn’t stop chasing me until I was dead, and I couldn’t outrun them forever. They were keeping up with me, some even gaining.

  An idea suddenly took a hold of me. It was a cocktail of the anger that had surged up within me and the adrenaline of the battle. Roughly translated, it was the stupidest idea that I had ever come up with in my entire life.

  I ascended sharply, using the chimera’s speed to rise in altitude over the battlefield. The drakes continued to pursue me, and for some fucked up reason I wanted them to.

  The air thinned as I rose hundreds of feet through the air, arrows whipping past, some even striking the chimera until it could go no higher.

  Like a plane, it stalled in mid-air before sharply turning back and dropping out of the sky. I held on tight as we turned around, descending at an almost vertical angle back towards the battlefield, straight towards the drakes that had been pursuing me relentlessly.

  This would kill me. I had little doubt about that. But if it meant saving the harpies from the wrath of the drakes, I would take that chance any day of the week.

  My rage peaked, and I raised my hand, producing the gladius.

  Armed with the Saviour’s Blessing, the Warrior’s Rage exploded from my lungs. My vision red and my sword glowing blue, I yelled into the sky madly.

  Arrows and spears continued to fly my way as the drakes continued to batter me with a volley of attacks, but we weren’t stopping. An arrow struck me in the shoulder, almost sending my falling from the beast’s back.

  There was no way I was going down.

  The last thing I saw was the terrified faces of the drakes as they realised that there was no way of stopping me.

  The chimera smashed into them at a hellish speed. I swung my sword hard with no technique or grace. It was pure fury that coursed through me as I swept the blade back and forth, cutting through drakes as the chimera pushed us onwards, slicing through my enemies like they were nothing.

  My senses became a haze of yelling and blood and chaos, and as I was knocked from side to side by each impact I lost my balance and slipped from my place atop the beast’s back.

  The gladius receded into my hand. I lunged out, grabbing hold of one of the chimera’s feet as it screeched out and spiralled down towards the ocean, returning to the sand island. It had lost control over itself and was heading to the ground too fast.

  I jumped from the chimera just a few yards from the ground, hitting the sand hard and feeling a sharp explosion of pain through my legs as I rolled to the ground, eventually landing on my front in the hot sand.

  Checking my legs quickly, I realised that I could still stand. I had strained or twisted something, but I could still move.

  Sand had kicked up from the ground in dusty waves. I covered my eyes, holding my sword before me as it settled and I finally regained a view of the situation.

  The chimera was dead. The impact had broken both of its necks, and now its huge husk of a body was splayed on its side, motionless. I looked overhead to see many of the drakes fleeing as the harpies started to take back the skies. A plethora of drake bodies were scattered about in the waters in the wake of my rampage.

  The same couldn’t be said for Aurelius. He suddenly appeared across from me on the other side of the island, much as the beast had done, holding his spear and staring me down.

  For a moment he did nothing but look at the chimera’s body. Then he spat on the ground before him, looking around at the failing attempts of his drakes and shook his head.

  ‘This is a fruitless endeavour, pilgrim.’ A smile rose to his lips as he scoffed lightly. ‘The days of the harpies are over.’

  ‘Doesn’t look like that to me,’ I called over to him breathlessly. ‘To me it looks like you and your guys just completely fucked. Surrender, and I might tell the harpies to go easy on you.’

  Aurelius laughed again.

  ‘You think that this is the extent of the power that I have at my disposal? This is but a conservation of resources. The bare minimum necessary to bring your people to an end.’

  ‘Looks like you underestimated.’ I couldn’t help but feel a little smug. The adrenaline had gone to my head a little.

  ‘I underestimated you. Without you the harpies would have fallen here and now. It is only through the sheer luck of your arrival that they live to fight another day. But from now on, you will be the focus of all my attentions. I’ll see you soon… And next time I won’t hold back.’

  Before I had a chance to respond, Aurelius turned and took off sharply. Screams of fall back! Roared through the skies from the drakes, and in response the sweetest sound came to my ears.

  ‘PUSH THEM BACK!’

  Evelina’s voice was unmistakable, and as she raised her spear into the air towards the fleeing drakes, Ariadne let out a high war cry and led a group of harpies in an effort to take even more of them down.

  There was no mercy – that was how it had to be.

  I crossed to the chimera, examining its huge, limp body before moving to stand atop it’s back. I don’t know what motivated me to do it, but standing atop the body of this beast felt right. The battle had been won, and overhead the silhouettes of the harpies circled, victorious and living to fight another day.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Passing the Mantle

  After the battle had ended we retreated to the citadel, but out of no sense of defeat; there was already talk of retaking Caros. Such a task could wait, though, because even if the harpies had not only survived the battle but royally triumphed, there was only one thing on my mind – what happened next.

  I had lost track of Evelina and Ariadne in the wake of the victory, and standing upon the sand island atop the chimera’s body I felt like a revolutionary, carrying the flag and pointing it to our next destination. Hundreds of harpies circled the skies, slaughtering any remaining drakes who dared to fight and warding off those who we couldn’t catch up with. My two girls were amongst them; without them I had no way to get back to the citadel. But even if that wasn’t my priority right now, the rest of the harpies had that covered.

  Ever since the matter of me leading the harpies had been brought up by Queen Athina, I had been caught on one hell of a fence. Maybe I was the right guy for the job, and maybe the queen, Evelina and Ariadne thought that it was a decent idea, but how the hell would the rest of the harpies be convinced? Some stranger without wings comes into their society and a few days later he’s appointed the new king? There was no way.

  Now, though, as I stood upon the chimera and the harpies descended upon me, I realised that their faith in me had been lifted to heights I never thought possible. Five arrived, bowing their heads to me, then another five, then ten after that. Together they surrounded me before lifting me up by my legs upon their shoulders and collectively flying up from the ground towards the citadel.

  I felt like a heavyweight champion being carried by adoring fans and crew members. Raised by them hundreds of feet into the sky, we headed towards Aries Island as I scanned the surrounding area. The sun had risen and a new day was ahead, but as all things begin, others must pass.

  Touching down in the citadel, every harpy held out a hand to me. It wasn’t in lust; there was something ceremonial to the practice, each harpy smiling and pressing a hand to my battered armour as I made my way through the streets. During my staggered walking, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. It was only then that I remembered the arrow that had hit me – it was still sticking out of my skin in the gap of my armour.

  I reached for it, wrenching it out with a cry, and threw it to the ground. The pain was brutal, but in the still pumping adrenaline it quickly subsided. I could deal with it later.

  There was a lot to do, but it could wait. I hadn’t been able to find the girls, and I thought I knew why.

  Rushing up to the queen’s tower, I found the door already open. The girls were both stood by the queen’s bedside, and on the other side of the bed I cou
ld see the cleric kneeling. Fearing the worst, I rushed over to find Queen Athina smiling lightly. The girls, even Evelina, remained strong; neither shed a tear, only listening carefully to the queen’s final words.

  She had moments left. I knew that they hadn’t said a word about Aurelius, but she had something to say to me.

  ‘Wonderous things…’ The queen breathed, ‘I’ve heard… Wonderous things of your conduct… On the battlefield…’

  She coughed again, raising a frail hand to her mouth. It would likely have been much more violent if she had had the energy for such a motion, but that possibility was fast fleeting.

  ‘I must have an answer, Kit…’ She continued. ‘It has been discussed… Will you take on the mantle as the leader of the harpies…?’

  I looked between the girls and gulped, before nodding.

  ‘I’ll do it…’ I said slowly, ‘but I need Evelina and Ariadne by my side. You might think I’m some awesome warrior, your highness, but I wouldn’t have survived anything over the past few days without the help of them.’

  ‘The king needs a council, Kit… I’m sure they would consider it to be an honour… And so will the others that you ask to join in the future…’

  ‘Others…?’

  The queen smiled. ‘Two women is hardly enough for a king…’ She let out a final laugh, which quickly materialised into another frail cough. ‘This is a beautiful place to call home… But now I go to one even more beautiful… To be with my son…’

  The queen closed her eyes for the last time, her body seeming to sink deeper into the bed, before a final breath left her lips.

  We stood in silence, looking down at her body. The cleric brought her fingers to the queen’s neck, checking her pulse, before nodding to us and taking the edges of the sheet that covered her and lifting it up to cover her face.

  ‘I’ll give you some privacy… Your highness.’ She said the first part to the three of us, but the second to me alone as our eyes met. I watched her leave as she headed from the room and closed the heavy door behind her.

  ‘Are you two all right?’ I asked the girls.

  ‘It was a noble way to die,’ Ariadne said. ‘She held on much longer than any other I know of who had been stricken by such a poison.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Evelina agreed, ‘This is a time to grieve… But not a time to shed tears. She would not want such a thing.’

  At first I was taken aback by how steady the pair of them were, but once again I reminded myself of their ways. Death was commonplace and staring it down and facing it head on was the best way to deal with it. They weren’t the kind to cry. It wasn’t in their constitution or their way of life, and it wasn’t in mine either.

  But Queen Athina deserved our respect and she would receive just that.

  ‘She’ll see her son, y’know?’ I said, looking down at her covered body.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Ariadne asked.

  ‘I know that we met him out there on the sand island, and I know that he’s still out there now, but that person isn’t her son anymore. It seems like whatever good part of him there used to be is long dead, and this twisted, alternate version of him is the only thing left over. We’re not fighting the ex-heir to the kingdom. We’re fighting an entirely knew enemy. This is the start of a new war, and it’s one that we’re gonna win.’

  Evelina smiled over at me.

  ‘See, it’s when you say stuff like that that it shows me you’re the right person for the job.’

  The funeral took place in a garden just outside of the citadel the following evening. There were no crypts or underground mausoleums hidden beneath the city. It was the harpy way, as Ariadne told me, for them to be buried where they could see the sky.

  Her death had come as no surprise to the hundreds of citizens that made up the population of Aries; the queen’s absence for the last few days had been enough of a warning, and knowledge of her ill health had circulated widely amongst the harpies. All attended, some standing within the garden while others hovered overhead, the collective force coming together for the second time that day as the sun began to set over the archipelago, the land awash with deep orange.

  After the ceremony was over, death became something new. Evelina announced to the harpies that it had been Queen Athina’s wish for me to take the role of king, and that she would be taking an advisory position by my side instead of taking the crown herself.

  Back on Earth this would have been the political scandal of the century, and even after reminding myself of the loyalty for me that the harpies now possessed, I still looked out at them all with a quiet fear. I didn’t dare show it on my face, of course, but it was still there inside of me, no matter how deeply hidden.

  But the respect they had shown me at the end of the battle was reflected now; they all knelt before me, even Evelina and Ariadne. The craziness of it was almost too much for me. There was no ceremony to be carried out; their sign of loyalty was the most official way of indicating that the mantle had now fallen to me, and that the weight of the kingdom rested on my shoulders.

  I was just the figurehead of a much bigger unit, though. I needed Ariadne and Evelina at my side. From here we would take back the kingdom, one island at a time, and the harpies would rule the archipelago once again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Path Ahead

  The next few days were a hive of activity in the citadel. The battle between us and the drakes may have been won, but we couldn’t simply rest and await another attack.

  After my wounds had been tended to, especially the one at my shoulder, we took to figuring out our next steps.

  Together with Ariadne and Evelina, we had drawn up plans to take back Caros. The drakes had been using it as an outpost since the harpies had been pushed back to Aries, but now that they were considerably weakened we had a perfect opportunity to take it back. They may have still been occupying Wildak, but tactically it made sense for them to fall back. Perhaps a few would still be left over, but nothing worth having came without a fight. We planned to lead the harpies in reclaiming it by the end of the week.

  After exploring the citadel and mapping it out in my head, as well as visiting the injured harpies and ensuring that they were being taken care of, I returned to the place that I now somehow called home; the palace.

  It seemed wrong to renovate Queen Athina’s quarters and to use them as my own, so we instead decided to leave them exactly as they were. The harpies may have been able to take on a new leader easily, but she had led the people through a war and kept them alive when everything seemed lost. It was the right thing to do.

  The only thing that I did choose to take were the papers – the parchment and the documents on which details of the other Harpy Cores were written. She had mentioned that the information surrounding them was passed down from ruler to ruler.

  Within the recesses of the palace I called a new chamber my home – it was a large area, around the size of the tower quarters that the queen had occupied, but much closer to the royal bath chambers. I had only spent a few days occupying them and calling them home, but I couldn’t imagine life now without them. There was no better way to relax after a battle.

  The new chamber was situated with a large, comfortable bed, a living area and a large desk, as well as a hidden storage vault behind a huge map of the archipelago that sat opposite the bed. Ariadne and Evelina had helped me make the place a little cosier and lived-in, decorating it with various ornaments and pictures. It had been dusty and dark before after being unused for so long, and they had wondered why the new ruler, who had an entire palace, would choose a room so remote.

  ‘Two reasons,’ I said. ‘It’s private, and it reminds me of the place that I used to live in.’

  I would never be able to go back to my normal life, and considering that there wasn’t a whole lot awaiting me back there it really didn’t worry me that much; this place was brighter, more exciting and held way more opportunities. But damn if I didn’t miss that apartment, and a
ll the stupid memories I had of my grandpa and I laughing over some late night special at Christmas.

  If he could see me now, he would probably tell me to stay here. He had only wanted the best for me. Being the leader of a group of harpies in an archipelago filled with monsters, enemies and hidden artefacts probably wasn’t what he had in mind, but I imagined he would approve.

  My life on Earth was nothing compared to this place.

  Returning to the palace, I made my way to my quarters for some much-needed rest. It would take time to get into the rhythm of carrying out all of my duties and I was still recovering from our battle with the drakes. Only now had my muscles stopped aching, although a twinge was noticeable now and again.

  Due to the secluded nature of my quarters, lanterns were in constant abundance. This time, though, as I entered, I found that there were only a few lit up. The flickering flames cast swimming shadows up against the walls.

  ‘Hello…?’

  By the bed, which was barely lit, I heard a giggle ring out. Smiling and shaking my head, I crossed to the end of the bed and cast my eyes on one of the most perfect sights I had ever seen.

  Ariadne and Evelina were both wrapped up together, their hands exploring each others bodies delicately, but focusing on one area in particular.

  ‘You two really did make up, huh?’ I said, feeling myself becoming instantly harder.

  ‘Sex and death put a lot of things into perspective,’ Ariadne said.

  ‘Truer words have never been spoken,’ Evelina agreed, running a hand over her large, naked breasts and eyeing me seductively. ‘I’m guessing that you’ve managed to overcome your weariness of our ways by now, Kit?’

  ‘I think that I’m getting there,’ I said sarcastically, unable to drag my eyes from their perfect bodies.

  ‘Well,’ Ariadne continued, looking me up and down, ‘I’m sure we can help you along with that.’