The dragon's harem

Arad stood in front of everyone, staring at the darkness with two burning purple eyes. His face betrayed any emotion, but they could sense that he was about to blow up. Unlike when the darkness got pushed back by Lydia’s divine magic, now the darkness itself is keeping away at a distance to avoid him.

His eyes followed Lydia who danced in the darkness and clashed with the abhorrent monster. He could see the ugly thing, a mass of horrid flesh, deformed bodies, and psychic magic. It was powerful, far too power for it to be anything normal. But it not the thing that he should rip apart, its not where this darkness is coming from.

Arad’s eyes slowly moved and looked at the ground. Almost immediately hell shuddered, the dark clouds surrounding them froze like an animal trying to avoid a predator. But it was already far too late, he could see them, three massive souls buried beneath the ground.

A soul so dark it bleeds true darkness. A soul that derives pleasure from pain, and a fragmented soul of pure madness. The remnant of three old gods, forgotten to the ages, and left here to suffer and repent.

Arad could see their souls twitching and writhing with power, far bigger than his soul by a lot. Their eyes were fixed on Matilda, her void blood might be strong enough to withstand their corruption, turn her into their avatar in the mortal world, the same as that abhorrent mass of flesh Lydia is fighting.

Can he win a fight against them? Probably not. Does it matter? No.

Lydia, who was swinging her sword at the abhorrent avatar, suddenly came to a halt. She gasped, and her body got flung back toward Arad, where she stopped at his side. “I’ll take it from here.” And before she could reply, Arad sucked her and everyone into his stomach.

Everyone fell on the soft grass, heard the faint murmur of water and gasped for air. It was clean and clear unlike the rotten stench of hell. The two minotaur devils looked around with puzzled eyes. “Where are we?” They gasped as they wounds bled. They were just fighting the massive bats and were about to end up dead.

Thud! Lunara fell on the ground with an impact and smiled, “Arad is here… we can rest.” Her demonic release started slowly fading away as she relaxed a bit. Gamond did the same and fell at her side, the ice protecting her body shattered and she took a deep breath.

“Bad luck for hell.” She chuckled.

“Who…” Haru mumbled, “Who was that?” She turned her head around and looked at everyone through Matilda’s eyes and listened to them through her.

“My dragon.” Gamond replied and then paused for a second, “Our dragon.” She corrected herself with a giggle, “That poor darkness… Its about to get violated beyond reason.” She could feel the burning pain of her ripped wings.

Gorigore approached with a confused face. “That darkness hid true horrors. You must tell him to run away. Sorry to break it to you, but even a god might not survive fighting whatever is there.”

Lydia looked around for a few seconds and then started by healing Gamond. Sara took care of Lunara as they thought about what was going to happen outside. They are now inside Arad’s stomach; he should be able to hear them. If they could just talk some sense into him, he should be able to teleport away and run…

But he won’t do that, and no one understood why better than Gamond. As she looked at the darkness of his stomach, she sighed, “They had to come and rip my wings off. Now he won’t let whatever inside live, even if hell makes them immortal.”

“No… it doesn’t matter how powerful he is.” Haru gasped, “That which lives in the darkness will resurrect over and over. It’ll kill and bind him to hell. Winning is impossible.”

Gamond looked at her with a stern face. Haru seemed to have heard Gamond’s words before she even said them. “They ripped my wings off. They dared touch his wife, not even the gods are going to calm him down.”

“This is madness!” Flabrony growled, “Sara! You know this white drakaina, get her to talk some sense into her dragon. He’ll get himself killed and bound to hell.”

Gamond looked at him, her face sombre and cold, “What will you do if someone ripped your wife’s nipples off?”

Flabrony froze, blood rushing to his head. Gamond sighed, “Exactly.”

****

Outside, hell was going to witness hell.

Arad remained still as the three massive souls beneath the ground quivered. Then he lifted his hand, forcing a massive wave of gravity to rip the ground apart. As massive chunks of stone and bone floated into the black sky, the three souls buried beneath the ground pulsed.

The chains of hell rattled, and their ancient energy flew down like floods of black curses. Hell itself was a massive curse generator, and its curse is to keep everyone inside it alive by force. Death just can’t claim anyone here.

Arad waited, letting the tree ancient souls fully resurrect. And the darkness around him started twisting and moving. The avatar that Lydia fought disintegrated into ash as its power returned to the souls.

Soon, three skeletons started forming in front of Arad, all of them chained with black ancient chains that predate most of the world.

Organs filled the skeletons, followed by flesh, blood and skin. In the matter of a few seconds three figures were standing in front of Arad. Two women and a man.

The first of them looked like a porcelain doll, her skin pale, her eyes like two pools of endless darkness, and her long raven hair dangled as low as her hips. She looked at Arad with a smile, her gaze unable to shift away from the endless darkness in his eyes. For a moment, her cheek turned red and she giggled. “How lovely, I have never seen such an attainment of darkness before.”

The other was a bit shorter than the darkness one. She had long auburn hair, pale skin filled with scars and bruises. Instead of looking at Arad, she was busy clawing her skin and moaning in pleasure. For a second, she spared Arad a glance, saw him towering over her at three meters, and twitched. She licked her lips and spat on him, “Next time, I’ll skin her alive instead of just ripping her wings.”

Arad didn’t bother wiping the spit from his face. This woman clearly is taunting him to hit her. And judging by looking at her soul, she’ll get stronger the more pain she feels. He’ll give her pain, but in a second or two.

The third of them, the hunched, slender man, didn’t even notice Arad. He was looking at the ground and mumbling to himself. His pale skin was already dirty, his hair looked like a bird’s nest, and his mind didn’t seem to be stable at all, pure madness.

Arad took a step toward the darkness goddess and slowly lifted his hand. She looked at him with a gentle smile, “Call me Golan. I was a goddess of darkness until… You see.” She looked around but was immediately distracted as Arad gently pushed two fingers into her mouth.

She gasped with an excited smile, but in the next moment, he ripped her jaw off.