Both Soea and I shot through the air at high speed, rocketing through the clear skies, Soea's flight speed had almost doubled and she could now keep up with me when I wasn't pushing myself.

Well, if I tried, I was still much faster than her.

Whatever I was now still had higher specs than her, even though she was now a child of an Ascended race.

Going by age, she was closer to a baby, since Dragons were one of the species that wouldn't even leave the egg for twenty to thirty years, depending on the species.

Dragons, and therefore Dragonoids, were essentially biologically immortal, their lifespans had no limits.

From what Master said, Dragons weren't considered Mature until they were one thousand years old, Elder at five thousand, and Ancient at ten thousand, though they became deities at either Mature or Elder depending on their species and the thickness of their blood.

Dragonoids took a variable amount of time depending on which form they spent more time in, what species they mutated from, and how well they could utilize their power.

We travelled back home at high speed.

What took an hour and a half the first time, took us only fifteen minutes on the way back.

Soea obviously enjoyed herself as she flew at high-speed, making happy sounds and following my movements closely, so I deliberately pulled some rather fun and advanced high-speed manoeuvers.

Her giddy laughter and squeals of joy made her sound like a child riding a rollercoaster for the first time, I found myself smiling along and changing the manoeuvers to add some extra excitement.

But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we arrived at the castle.

I easily flared my wings as I crossed the castle walls, stopping on time and executing a perfect landing in the courtyard.

Soea, however, made a strange noise. She didn't managed to stop in time, but I easily stepped into her the path of her flight and caught her, embracing her and spinning in place to absorb the impact.

She looked at me with a slight blush, she was embarrassed because of failing her landing.

With a smile, I ruffled her hair.

"While still holding Soea I looked around. There was the body of a Thrall laying dead on the ground nearby. I had almost forgotten that the Thralls would only die, their remains still stayed, waiting for me to clean them up. With a sigh, I quickly formed a Sigil, casting a spell that would turn all of the Thralls' corpses into dust. Though the spell would also have the side-effect of turning most of the nearby small animals, such as mice and birds, into dust as well; it was easier than having to wander the castle and locate each corpse."

Soea glanced up and saw what I had just done, she looked happy, narrowing her eyes, and then went back to leaning into me.

She seemed a little more touchy than before, but I found that I liked it.

After a few minutes, and with a sigh, I carefully pushed Soea back, it was time for me to get to work on the defenses for the upcoming combat.

The first thing I did was remove the Salamander King from my pocket, placing it onto the ground.

Now came the Magic.

As well as the specialized Demonic Wards that I had chosen before, I decided to set up some Soul Wards.

The Soul Wards that I was planning to set up would rip out and consume the souls of any living beings who crossed the boundaries, as long as I didn't register them as an ally.

Unfortunately, while it would work on people with weaker souls than mine, which was most people, since I was trained as a Soul Mage; so it wouldn't work on people with Divine protection, like upper level Priests or Paladins, and of course, Heroes.

Before I began setting up the Wards, I unfroze the Salamander King.

When the lizard saw Soea, identifying her as a Dragon, it submitted and rolled onto its back, exposing its white and unprotected stomach.

Soea walked up to the Salamander King with a quiet giggle, she reached out and stroked its stomach, the Salamander King made some sort of growling noise and reached its now tiny clawed hands into the air. It looked like a dog that was enjoying having its stomach scratched.

Soea knelt down and began tickling it.

They were so cute playing together.

"My Lord, can we keep it?" Soea looked over at me with puppy eyes, and strangely the Salamander King did the same. I knew that the lizard Monster had intelligence, but it was this smart?

"Sure, though I will need to restore it to its large size for the upcoming fight."

Both Soea and the Salamander King looked happy.

Soea went back to playing with the miniature lizard, speaking to it quietly.

On the way back, I had seen the enemy army that was approaching my home, a veritable river of steel and flesh marching through the grassy plains.

Extending my senses carefully, I probed them.

It seems that luck was with me, there were no Heroes among the expedition force.

With that, my victory was all but guaranteed.

The only way I could lose is if Arre decided to descend himself.

I would be using the fields outside my castle as the battlefield, because I had many Area of Effect spells that could wipe out thousands of people at once, and I could also save a lot of my reagents for any unforeseen circumstances.

The only problem being that if I was too flashy I would probably draw Arre's attention, which if that happened, the next expedition would have a fully prepared Hero, not one that had just been summoned. Which could cause a real threat, even for me.

Arre could summon a Hero into a space with a different space-time, allowing them to train and come to this world fully prepared, making them much more powerful than a newly summoned Hero.

However, it would be safer for us if I used Soea and the Salamander King to do most of the fighting, staying nearby in case they start to struggle.

I would be laying the Wards, both Demonic and Soul around the castle, as a stronghold, where I would keep Soea if things went badly.

The most important thing was to make sure that none of the enemies got away. If that happened, both the Empire and the Church would be riled up, and I wasn't at the point where I could properly declare war on them all.

Mainly because if either of those were threatened too much, Arre himself would step in.

I disliked it that deities actually actively interfered in this world.

It was also possible that the Salamander King would evolve from an Elder Monster to a low grade Ancient Monster.

When some Monsters were lucky, and strong enough or old enough, they can evolve and change into a more advanced version of their species.

The Salamander King could become a Lava Emperor, or if it was very lucky, a lesser Lava Dragon.

So, just in case something went wrong, I still laid the Wards around the castle, even though Soea and the Salamander King would be out and fighting.

It didn't take long, because of my talent with multitasking and specialization with both Soul and Demonic Magic. Of course, while I could lay the Wards with my base Mana, I decided to use supporting reagents to raise the Ward's innate power.

Master always said that if I wanted to do something well, I should add all the buffs and backups or contingencies that I could possibly imagine.

Since I was using a Soul Stone, I used the old Umbra Gem.

It was weaker than the other Soul Gem, the one that manifested out of nothing, and not as singular or as unique.

I have never seen any records, or let alone heard rumours of that happening before.

So I decided to keep the special gem as an object to research, or something I could use to bribe another Shureen or even a deity if they found it interesting.

By the time that I had finished my spells, I could finally see the silvery armour of the soldiers glinting in the fading sunlight when I jumped up onto the walls so as to look out and check the situation.

They were surprisingly quick.

Though it was likely to change, the current plan was to ride on the Salamander King while watching over Soea as she learned to fight, practicing in live combat.

Of course, if Soea looked like she was in any danger, I would jump in straight away. There was no way that I could stop my protective urges and slaughter the enemy.

I know I should let her learn how to fight, like a parent teaches their child to ride a bike, staying back and only interfering if the situation turned truly dangerous.

I would also have the Salamander King rampaging around.

If I wanted a normal mount, just for riding, there were creatures that I could capture that would look a lot more imposing or impressive, but they didn't have combat capabilities.

Turning back towards Soea and the adorably miniaturized lizard, I cast a Heat Resistance Rune. When applied to Soea and I, it could block an incredible amount of heat, even a full force Dragon Breath at least once.

I don't know if Soea needed it anymore, since she was a Flame Dragon mutation, a Flame Dragon Dragonoid.

But I did it anyway, a force of habit.

"Soea, come here."

She patted the lizard once more on the head and walked over to me.

There was a definite bounce in her step.

As she stopped in front of me, I didn't fight the urge and reached out and stroked her hair, she pressed her head into my hand, in a way similar to the Salamander King did when she patted it.

Like an adorable puppy.

After playing with her hair for a few seconds, I looked towards the Salamander King, it was time for him to grow.

With a simple chant, I restored him to full size.

He emitted a pleased roar.

It seemed that the Salamander King was both happy to be full sized again, and that he was as loud as he was before he was shrunk.

When Soea walked over to him and patted his massive, car-sized head, he still seemed to worship her. Which was understandable, because he was descended from a branch of a Dragon family, and she was a pure blood Flame Dragonoid.

I followed her over, and when the Salamander King saw me, it acted terrified, and submissive. He could also smell my scent on Soea, he was smart enough to realize that I was both her mate and her companion.

He really was a smart one.

We both climbed onto the lizard, who, after seeing that we were comfortable, raised his head and let out a roar.

Without warning, he turned his head and licked Soea.

She made a strange noise as the massive tongue, which was longer than her whole body, rubbed against her. She was drenched in lizard spit, which dampened her dress, pressing it tightly against her body in a strangely alluring way.

"Hey, she is mine to lick... Not yours!" I spouted some nonsense as I bopped him on the head.

I had glanced at Soea behind me as I spoke, she blushed and leaned forwards and wrapped her arms around my waist, "My lord, lick me whenever you want...please."

As she whispered these words into my ear, her warm breathe tickled my ear. She apparently decided to lick me too, she slowly ran her small, warm, tongue down the outer edge of my ear. Not finished with just that, she sucked my earlobe into her mouth and nibbled it, all the while teasing it with her tongue.

"Jump over the wall, time to attack!" I ordered the lizard.

Soea giggled behind me, she could tell that her playing around had an effect on me, my voice shook slightly as I spoke.

With a loud roar, the Lizard jumped upwards, easily clearing the walls.

When it had expanded back to its full size, the Salamander King barely managed to fit into the courtyard, so for it to jump over the walls, which only came up to his chest in height, was easy.

Standing up on his back, I peered over his large head.

I could see the massive army arrayed before me.

They had finished entering their formations, standing on the grassy plains in front of the castle.

For some reason, they didn't try to encircle the castle.

Maybe it was because I had left the castle to face them head on before they got the chance, or they were shocked by the castle-sized Salamander King that appeared.