The Mythos Crystal

A Postapocalyptic Harem Story

Chapter 1 by dracone dracone

I don't know when it all started, but much of mainland Europe and Asia became so devastated that the human population dropped by over seventy percent. I'm talking about the plague known as the Drake Virus, a pathogen of unknown origins that turns those with active infections into real dragons. Some people had a natural resistance to the virus, my ancestors were resistant carriers. It's been almost three hundred years since the virus broke out, and it is still afflicting us. The virus provides its carriers and those afflicted by it much longer lifespans but usually makes them more volatile. All the prior high population areas across the globe were hit the hardest by the rampaging dragons that were once human, prompting a more medieval societal structure and deliberate large agricultural areas to ensure that the assaults from the tyrannical dragons did not devastate our food bases. Now if you're wondering about the major religions that existed before the virus struck only 5 survived while the rest were effectively wiped out, the 5 that survived were minor denominations of the Christian faith, Shinto, Neo Norse, Neo Celts, and Buddhism. These power vacuums led to the formation of hosts of new religions; like the church of Grand Unifying Love. The major religion of Microsol is the Church of IEN, founded around the ruins of the company you knew as IBM. The Gygaxian Empire's biggest religion is the Church of Gary Gygax, their emperor is also the chief religious figure of their society. The Gygaxian Empire has a twelve-day week and all weekends are 3 days long and dedicated to all manner of games, many of which survived the collapse of what you would call modern human society. The Gygaxian Empire and the Kingdom of Microsol rule over North America, I really don't know what the rest of the world has in the way of political structures. My home community is on the border of the two nations, which means I’m effectively living in a neutral or disputed zone.

That's all I've been told, my name is Randal. I'm a 20 year male human with green eyes, red hair, a skin complexion that has been described as being a cross between Scandinavian and Mediterranean, and I've had a curiosity streak since I was eight. The story I will... I am sharing with you started to happen a little over a year ago. The small community that I lived in was part of the northwest of the former United States, now it's part of the neutral ground agreed on by the Gygaxian Empire and kingdom of Microsol, the village is called Circuit Hold. I've learned metallurgy from the time I was 6, and have been a full guild recognized master blacksmith for the past four years. I have been asked to craft farm implements and weapons from time to time. This story really starts a year ago when I was out in the woods near my smithy, it was the first day of a week-long holiday where I was not allowed to have the forge active, when I happened upon a hexagonally shaped river blue crystal with crimson veins running all across it loosely embedded in a naturally felled tree that looked about as old as the Draconus plague as some of the older generations liked to say. When I managed to pull it out of the tree it felt cool to the touch, despite the beating heat of late summer, and while I examined it closer thinking of how I could integrate it into a ceremonial armor for festivals I felt it shock me and tried to drop it only discover it clinging to my right hand when I let go. When I tried to remove the crystal with my left hand I saw a series of river blue veins that mirrored the crimson veins of the crystal stretch out across my hand just before I blacked out.

When I awoke it was night and all I could think was how much trouble I was going to be in for missing the opening ceremony of the holiday we called Summer's End. I brought my hand to my head in these thoughts and noticed a bump that was not there before I blacked out, I rushed back home to use a mirror and assess the damage, thinking it was just an ordinary bump. When I arrived back in the town I found that almost half the town had been razed, but my home and workshop were untouched. I asked what had happened and was told that Marsha had turned into a towering pink dragon right in front of everyone while in the middle preparing for the festivities and in her less than lucid state had belched fire all across the town before heading for the mountains to the north, in the hysterics nobody had noticed the change I was about to uncover of myself. I rushed back to my home and what I saw in the mirror surprised me, a near duplicate of the crystal was embedded in the middle of my forehead and two more were in my arms along with one in my waist which was in the formation of a thin belt-like structure, I have since discovered how to hide these features.

Due to the devastation brought on by Marsha's untimely transformation most of the town up and left, the only ones who didn't were me and five women my own age. The five were Sasha, the owner, and operator of the Fallen World tavern, as well as the towns primary agriculture coordinator; Lina, the town's primary hunter, and butcher; Margret, Marsha's sister, and the town's herbalist and head lumber harvester; and Tammy, the town's head carpenter, and constructor.

Sasha was a voluptuously built 4'9” woman with a southern Italian complexion, bright orange hair, crystal blue eyes, and a pair of E-Cup breasts; Lina was a 4'6” woman with a North Pacific complexion, onyx shoulder-length hair, ocean blue eyes, and a pair of A-Cup breasts; Margret had a dark Caucasian complexion, light blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and a pair of CC-Cup breasts; Tammy was a woman with southern Irish complexion, with crimson-colored hair, forest green eyes, and a pair of size B-Cup breasts. I say had because of what happened later that week. With most of the town gone, we really couldn't take part in the festival, the reason we all stayed was because we felt too attached to the place.

Now, the following 2 days were uneventful, after all, nobody was coming through and even if they did I was treated more like a general blacksmith than an armorsmith. However on the third day while I was out by the mines about a half hour's hike from the town getting more materials for my craft, the small mining village built around the mines had heard about the incident days earlier and they were willing to give me the wagon load I requested in exchange for new mining picks, shovels, and helmets; had a half forge on site and I was more than happy to convert the thirteen percent they had set aside into new equipment, fortunately, I could work fast with quality and it only took me half a day to make them 9 new helmets, 14 new shovelheads, and 14 new mining picks. This was the business arrangement that we had agreed on years ago. As to the gender of the miners, I really don't know, they all wore protective metal suits that I repaired every 4 to 5 months which also made their voices resonate with such great metallic reverberation that determining their gender or age was next to impossible, and all them having gender-neutral names didn't help much either. When I got back, the ladies had already departed for the nearest supply town, a four-hour journey to and from so I had a few hours of minding no contact with any humans or animals.

About an hour and a half into my restarting the forge fire, which was a pain without assistance, a towering black dragon with pink highlights across its body along with a pair of slicked-back ice blue horns landed right outside my shop and started roaring. For some reason, I felt a need to go out and confront the monster, my usual response was to do whatever I could to escape notice. Stepping out into the open, I said, “You stop that noise right now, ya hear,” and to my surprise, the dragon stopped roaring and then brought its muzzle to my forehead, where if you recall there was a vestige of the strange gemstone I had come in contact with earlier that week, then the dragon started to glow the color of the gem and shrunk down to 8'4” in addition to assuming the form of a female humanoid with a pair of NN-Cup breasts while still keeping her tail, horns, and wings, all scaled down to fit her new size. When she stopped glowing she still had her scales, along with their pattern, and horns were also present, granted the horns had undergone a slight change as well. I just stood there with a confused look as the now naked humanoid female dragon inspected herself with as much confusion as I was showing on my face. Finally snapping out of my shocked state I asked her what her name was and why she was in the town.

She gave me some odd looks with her bright green-yellow cat-like reptilian eyes, then tested her jaw and tongue before saying in a slight Welsh accent, “My name is Aisha, I have been a dragon from the time I was 7 years old, I was here because I am now 19 years old and have reached the point where dragons a physically mature enough to mate. What happened to me?”

“I have no idea,” I told her straightforwardly, “a few days ago I found this weird crystal in the woods and it somehow merged with me, as far as I can tell it allowed me to control you when you were towering dragon and when you touched one of the crystal pieces visible on my skin you underwent a transformation into a humanoid state.”

Taking a closer look at my forehead she said, “You touched the Mythos crystal, my father kept records about the time before the drake virus became an epidemic, one of his books said that the scientists of that time created a crystal-like material that was intended to nullify the virus.”

“I'm guessing the people responsible for its production were terminated before they could get any conclusive results,” I said.

“That would be correct,” she said, “I have nowhere to stay, surprisingly I'm not craving a mate at the moment.”

“Maybe the transformation offsets your need to breed a bit,” I said, “you can stay with me for the time being, when the innkeeper returns we can work something out in terms of living conditions. As for now, I don't want you attempting to breed with anyone or anything for the next 9 hours.”

“Seems reasonable to me,” she said, “when is the innkeeper returning?”

“About 5 or 6 hours, I think,” I said.

Story Continues

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