Chapter 50 — The Audacity of a Fragmented King

Twenty-one days of systematic psychosis.
Jay hadn't just mastered magic; he’d turned his own existence into a franchise. Three weeks of cellular mitosis where he peeled off layers of his soul like dead skin to create clones. It was a circus of utility. Some iterations of Jay were busy playing house, tying knots with the harem in a blurred montage of white lace and legalities. Others stood like living pillars, holding open dimensional rifts so the desperate dregs of the kingdom could crawl toward the ruins of the old world. Then there were the grunts—clones who did nothing but bleed and sweat, training in a feedback loop of perpetual exhaustion, bypassing the need for sleep through sheer autistic focus.The Real Jay? He spent that time being a father. A brief, quiet sanity before the sky broke.Then Draco arrived in the capital, radiating enough pure ego to poison the atmosphere. He was pissed, a god-tier lizard looking for a playground. Jay didn't hesitate. He met the beast in the stratosphere, suspended in the thinning air.
Draco hovered, wings beating with the heavy thrum of a tectonic shift.「You must be Jay Vin Lancer. Correct?」Jay didn't even blink. He looked like he was waiting for a bus.「Yah, that’s the name. Don’t wear it out, lizard breath.」Draco narrowed his eyes, his senses sweeping over Jay like a radar. He frowned.「You... your mana. It’s a mess. Leaking everywhere. You’re scattered.」「Yep, sure am,」 Jay said, his voice terrifyingly casual. 「Currently evacuating a whole-ass kingdom. Give me a few minutes to pull myself together and I’ll be at full power.」Draco let out a dry, rattling scoff.「And how is that relevant to me? I came for a slaughter. I don’t give a damn about your 'condition.'」Jay’s lips curled into a sharp, jagged smirk.「Wow. Honestly? I never thought you were like that.」The Dragon King paused, genuinely curious.「Like what?」「A bitch,」 Jay said plainly.
In the ruins of the old kingdom, the magic projections flickered, casting the scene in high-definition glory. The harem watched in a state of collective cardiac arrest.
「Ain't no way,」 Iris muttered, her face a mask of annoyance and disbelief. 「He is literally trying to rage-bait a dragon. Does he have a terminal illness we don't know about?」Liani let out a high-pitched, nervous chuckle. 「I mean... It's Jay. It might actually work.」
Back at the Azure Capital, the air grew cold.
「Did you just call me a whore?」 Draco growled, the offense vibrating in his chest.Jay waved a dismissive hand, backtracking with the grace of a chaotic neutral bard.「What? No. Look, I meant 'bitch' as in a coward, not a sex worker. Huge difference. I actually support all whores in their line of work. Total respect for the hustle. Female empowerment and shit, you know?」Draco went silent.He processed the logic with the slow, heavy gears of an ancient mind.「Oh. Well, if that is the case... then I shall wait for you to reach your peak. A King does not strike a crippled man.」Jay chuckled, his eyes glinting.「Thanks.」【Got 'em. Use that draconic "honor" against him every time.】
Back in the ruins, the audience was floored.
「Ain’t no fucking way that worked,」 Iris snapped, throwing her hands up.Rina laughed softly, the tension breaking just a fraction. 「Well, at least he bought time for the civilians. He’s a tactical idiot, but he’s our idiot.」「I guess that's good,」 Saalin added, though her eyes remained glued to the screen.
The moment of relief was shattered when little Lena walked up to Iris, pulling at her sleeve. Clara was right behind her, both wearing expressions of wide-eyed, terrifyingly naive innocence.
「Mama, what’s a 'bitch'?」 Lena asked.「And a 'whore'?」 Clara added.Iris felt a collective shiver run through the harem. She forced a thin, pained smile. 「Don’t worry about it, okay? Those are just... grown-up words for people who don't follow the rules.」
The girls nodded, seemingly satisfied. 
Lisa turned to the other women, her eyes burning with a very specific kind of maternal fury.「We are in agreement to make sure he regrets teaching them those words, right?」「Agreed,」 the other four hissed in unison.
The sky over the Azure Capital was a theater of looming violence.
「So,」 Draco asked, 「how long until you’re whole again?」「Ten minutes tops,」 Jay replied. He crossed his arms, floating effortlessly. 「But I gotta ask—why you? Why would a Dragon King bother hunting the Tyrant Wyvern instead of just scrapping with your own kind?」「Each Dragon King has a corresponding Tyrant Beast,」 Draco explained, his voice like grinding stones. 「The power cycles. We must hunt them every century to maintain the hierarchy.」Jay stroked his chin. 「So, let me guess. The 'Tyrant' is a transient power. It hops into a creature for a hundred years, and if you kill it, you absorb the DLC for your own stats?」「A crude way to put it, smart one, but yes. It is a necessary evolution.」Jay sighed, his gaze hardening. 「I see. Now I have a question.」「I’ll answer to the best of my ability.」「What happens if the opposite were to happen?」 Jay asked, his voice dropping an octave. 「What if the Tyrant wins?」Draco burst into a booming, thunderous laugh that shook the clouds.「Please! That would never happen. The idea is beneath contempt.」Jay didn't laugh. He just stared, cold and focused.「Alright then. Let’s make it interesting. Let’s make a bet.」「A bet?」「Yeah. If I win, you will become my familiar. My personal pet.」Draco’s amusement didn't fade; it sharpened. 「Fine. And if I win?」Jay didn’t hesitate. He knew exactly what a dragon craved.「I have a method to make you ten times stronger than you are now. On top of the Tyrant power you’re hunting. You’d be an apex among gods.」Draco’s pupils slit. The air grew heavy with the weight of a binding contract.「Alright. We have an accord.」Jay blinked, a bit thrown off. 「You believe me that easily? No contract? No blood oath?」「Considering you’ve split your very soul into hundreds of pieces just to save a few ants,」 Draco said, his voice turning deadly serious, 「your word holds more merit than most. You are many things, Jay Vin Lancer, but you are not a liar.」Jay chuckled, a dry, raspy sound. 「A dragon with a code. That’s a first.」「It could also be your last,」 Draco countered, the predatory amusement returning to his eyes.Jay scoffed, his mana beginning to swirl as the clones across the kingdom started to dissipate, returning to the source.「We’ll see about that.」