The dragon's harem

While Arad and Cain intertwined in a heated fist fight, each bleeding more than the other, the true chaos was burning around Doma and Inanna.

The hellish infernal flew through the battlefield like waves of lava, her ghostly visage fazing through the thin white threads without harming them, all while her fire lunged at Doma with vengeance.

Doma focused on making more and more white threads, filling the whole cavern with them and making it harder and harder for Inanna to use her flames. And soon, Inanna gave up and sucked all of her fire into her body.

The flames condensed and solidified into black obsidian. Soon, the chitinous body of a woman covered in large patches of black stone, fire burning from inside them, was running toward Doma.

“You look like a doll, a hellish doll of volcanic rock and molten stones,” Doma said with a large grin on her face as she dodged a punch from the enraged infernal.

“Dismiss those threads! Do you even know what will happen if one of them snapped?” Deep beneath Inanna’s faceless head, a sense of dread lingered. She knew how dangerous those threads were, far beyond the scope of this battle. She wasn’t even sure why Cain didn’t do anything to get rid of them.

“I do know. And that’s why I need them to suppress your flames.” Doma dodged the barrage of fists thrown at her by the raging infernal, and soon retaliated with punches of her own, each of them held enough power to crack Inanna’s obsidian body.

One tends to forget that beautiful body of hers, those slender arms, the gentle and lovely face, the long silky hair, the thick and plump legs, and the gentle voice. It was all but an illusion of [Virgo]. Doma used [Gimini], Arad’s clone, and those punches held as much physical power as he did.

The battle between the two lasted only for a minute, and throughout the whole time, Inanna was always a step behind Doma. She could swear that Doma might be a better brawler than Arad or Cain… but that was also an illusion of her power, of her curse.

Inanna tried her best to keep up with Doma, but without her flames, she was at a massive disadvantage. She was an infernal after all, one whose flames were so mighty and hot that some mistook her for the goddess of fire. But with those flames sealed away, she was reduced to a clumsy fighter trying to fine-tune her bearing outside of her comfort zone.

What made things worse, Doma’s curse, the curse that made her see her future with Arad, the one that had led her all of the way here, all of her suffering. She seems to have turned into a weapon. Her glowing pink eyes can gleam some fragments of a shattered future, which helped her predict Inanna’s moves before they even happen. This wasn’t something that an inexperienced brawler like Inanna could deal with.

Soon, Inanna had fallen. It was her loss.

As if not satisfied, Doma kicked Inanna toward Cain. “Catch her.” Inanna shifted into her sword form, and Cain caught her in his hand, glanced at her, and smiled. “Rest well, you’ve worked hard.”

In the next moment, he stored Inanna away into his soul and looked at Arad. Both of them looked fine, but that was only thanks to their incredible regeneration. No wound would last long on either of them.

“So?” Cain smiled as he inspected Arad. Something had clearly shifted inside Arad’s soul.

Arad, on the other hand, his face was calm, but beneath it, exhaustion was taking hold. He needed to save energy for Zephyr’s extraction, and here he is now wasting it on this stupid fight. And as if he read his mind, Cain spoke. “You’re worried about something?” He looked above, “I see that fairy, she smells of Mei.” He scratched his head, “Oh!” A large smile covered his face, “I get it! I see… that’s why you aren’t willing to go all out.”

Cain nodded to himself several times and then looked at Arad, “Well, I guess I can’t really push it too much. That black form isn’t something that all void dragons can achieve.” He waved his hand and created a large magic circle. “Currently, to use it, you need three things.”

The first requirement was to be near death. Like how humans’ fight or flight work, they can’t really draw on adrenaline power at will.

The second requirement was a stable mind, because even if it was pulled on instinct, it still was a great form of void magic and needed a lot of brainpower to achieve.

The last requirement was adequate void control skill; the void dragon must master its void first. If someone never learned how to walk, then they’ll never be able to run, no matter how close to death they were pushed.

What Arad lacked now was getting close to death, and age; he just isn’t old enough. He can force through his limits when pushed to his limits, but he can’t really force it at will. “So… it’ll probably take a while for you to be able to use it. How about we try this another day? After you get that fairy out of the box?”

But Cain’s lesson had to abruptly end. Doma thrust her arm through his back and pulled the heart out. “You talk a lot for a corpse.” She glared at him with cold, indifferent eyes.

Cain looked at Arad, “One last advice. You can trust her.” He pointed a thumb at Doma, “But never let your guard down around her. As women go, this one is a real viper.”

And soon, Cain’s body faded away into a sparkle of light, leaving Doma alone with the heart in her hand. Arad approached and gave her a sharp stare. “What did he mean?”

Doma looked at him, “Simply put, you know that I can see the future, right?”

Arad nodded.

“I’m doing my best to achieve results that you would love, to help you. That’s the part you can trust me with. The part where he said to never let your guard down around me, he probably means that I might use methods that you don’t approve of.” She looked at the heart, “Like sneaking him like this. I’m sure you would’ve preferred an honest battle.”

She threw the heart at Arad, “But… You’ve already wasted enough energy, you’ll need it after saving Zephyr.”

“You saw that future?” Arad took the heart from her head.

“Yes.” She approached him and smiled, “I really, really want to tell you move… but that might cause the future to change more than I can predict. Right now we’re on a decent road, and I don’t want to risk making it worse by trying to make it better.”