The dragon's harem

Arad sighed, looking out of the window with a deep frown. Haru slowly approached him from behind. “See? I told you. Asmodeus would help in the end. She can be a bit… late at times, but she always shows up.”

Unlike what most people expect, Asmodeus rarely spends time in her throne room. Usually, she is traveling between the nine layers of hell to inspect, empower, and assure all of the devil lords are following her commands. If she doesn’t do that, they’ll start going rogue quickly.

Arad looked back at her. “By the time she arrived, Agnar was dead and had turned into a devil, and Obelisk was at the verge of death as well. Yuwaku only remained unharmed because dealing with her beauty was hazardous even to the devils.”

The situation was definitely bad. It was a stroke of luck that Agnar ended up as a devil instead of a sinner. If he became a sinner, he would’ve had to wait until Arad came to save him. And looking at how Mira’s father ended, Arad wasn’t sure a kid like Agnar could endure hell for too long.

She smiled, smacking him on the back. “This means from now on, they have to plan for big fights like this. A dose of pain every now and then is always helpful.”

Arad wasn’t even talking about the fight. The devil was indeed far above what Agnar should’ve been allowed to fight, but Arad was more concerned about hell itself.

She leaned on the window beside him, barely fitting in with how wide he was. “Humanoids need stimulation to grow. If there is no danger and no pain, they’ll remain stagnant.”

Arad was the best example of that. At the start of his life, he had been getting beaten and crushed left and right, and each fight ended with him almost dying.

She turned her face toward the ground as if looking at the snow. “If you had everything in the world, then you wouldn’t do or enjoy anything.”

The gods have experimented with this concept in their heavens. If their believers were granted everything they wanted in heaven, they ended up just sleeping. They ate the best food just a couple of times, then got bored, played, lived their lives and dreams, then lost all motivation and put their heads down, falling into an endless slumber.

What surprised the gods most was that when they picked the most lustful of men and women and granted them everything beautiful that they wanted, they just… didn’t do anything. Some gods expected them to fall into depravity, but the opposite happened.

It was as if they got paralyzed by the endless choices, and then ended up not doing anything.

The gods concluded that mortals need an equal amount of resistance and reward to live happy lives, grow stronger, or achieve anything.

“I don’t know…” Arad looked at the frozen forest. “My image of danger and acceptable risk doesn’t include dying in hell. I’m aware that I’m the weird one here. But Agnar shouldn’t need to fight to the death like that when he’s just a kid.”

He fully understood what she wanted to say, but still didn’t think the risk was worth it.

“You’re the last one who should say that.” She giggled and turned around, “Let’s move. The preparations are ready.”

He watched her turn and walk through the room, pick up her small bag, clothes, and several items before reaching the door. The way she moved, how her legs hopped from one corner to the other, how her hands and her head moved along her body.

She might be blind, but she is far more aware of her surroundings than he is.

“To the ruined city.” She looked at him with a smile. But strangely, since she is a devil, that smile wasn’t cute at all; it looked sinister and ominous, just like Sara’s smiles.

“When the devil smiles, you know something went horribly wrong.” He approached her and patted her on the head.

She frowned and punched him in the chest. Her tiny fists did no damage, but were enough to make Arad laugh.

“That’s only if I had a contract with you.” She then giggled. “Well, we’re stuck in Limbo, so things did go wrong. I can’t deny that.”

Arad and Gojo couldn’t stay in Death’s warm house for too long. Surviving in this deadly world was nearly impossible, and this house’s purpose was to just give them a better and more reasonable start.

Still, leaving this warm and cozy place felt sad. Even though they knew both Life and Death were living under the same roof. But at least they got some useful supplies.

Now that they have clothes and equipment, it is time for them to head out and find whatever trials Entropy made for them. Not to pass them, but to buy enough time for Yog to do something about her.

Yes, that little Goddess is out there trying to find and convince Entropy to let them out peacefully. She looked confident, so Arad and Gojo are determined to survive until then.

And they got a decent party going on. Arad was a powerful fighter, with a bit of talent for spells. His role is simple: to jump in and hit things as hard as he can. Of course, his size and strength made him look more like a giant than a human.

Gojo was the party’s wizard, with white hair and all, sadly, no beard. His talent for magic, on the other hand, didn’t lose to any old wizard. Even when limited, he was still a harrowing wizard who could spawn a small island out of nowhere. His role was as simple as that of his brother: Fireballs go Boom!

Haru was the party’s seer, giving them a bit of fighting chance in this chaotic world, and she was also able to cast some basic healing spells. Understated, but she was the most important one in their party. Her role was complicated: To make sure they never run into a situation they can’t survive.

Liliana was the party’s skillful rogue, and its main healer as well, since she was a cleric of Kali. Sadly, since she worshiped Kali’s aspect that protects and blesses orphans, she didn’t have that much access to destruction. But she could still heal their wounds, which was far better than raw damage, as Arad and Gojo already took that role. Her role was to track and find monsters before they found them.

Walking out of their room for the last time, Arad looked back at the cozy insides, thinking about the coming days they’ll spend sleeping in the frigid snow. He wasn’t worried for himself, but for the other three. Unlike him, they were not all built for the cold.

As they walked down, they found Gojo and Liliana already waiting in the living room. “You two are finally ready? I, too, don’t want to get back into the cold, even though I love ice magic.” Gojo smiled, and Liliana approached Haru.

“I need to ask this one last time. How good can you fight?” Everyone fell silent, and Haru took a few seconds to respond.

Liliana had asked this question before and was told that Haru can’t fight. Which was manageable, but she should at least be able to hold a knife.

“It depends. Physically, I’m as powerful as a regular woman and blind. So I’d rather stay back and out of any fight.” She then turned aside and pointed at Arad. “But… if push came to shove. I can beat him.”

That was both true and wrong, depending on what ’beat’ means.

Liliana giggled. “That never fails to make me smile. He’s three meters tall and can probably slap a bear and make it cry. You think you can take him down?”

Arad looked at Liliana, “She can, even if I had my full power. I’ll end up on the ground at least once.”

Gojo smiled. “So it’s never zero… right?” Unlike Liliana, he understood what being a Seer meant.

Haru nodded. “I’m a seer and I can see the future. It doesn’t matter how powerful Arad is. There has to be a future where he loses, and I can look for that future and grasp it.”

Arad shrugged. “Of course, it puts a lot of stress on her. So even if she drops me to the ground once, I’ll stand up and smack her away.” He patted her on the back. “So, she can’t fight normally with us. But she can handle herself if needed.”

Gojo looked around.

“So Arad takes the front, I take the back, Liliana and Haru in the middle.” He looked at Haru with a smile. “You’re our navigator, and Liliana is the scout; you two should work together just as well as I’ll be working with Arad to fight whatever monster we face.”

Haru nodded and looked at the door. “We have to leave and hurry. If we move north, we’ll arrive at a ruined city in three days, right before a massive storm.”

“What kind of monsters will we face?” Liliana looked at her, and Haru shook her head. “That I don’t know. I don’t exactly pick what I see, unless it’s of the immediate future.” She pointed at her eyes.

Liliana smiled. “Then it’s my job as a scout to find out. Good.”

Arad stood and carried the biggest bag on his back. “Shall we move? I’d rather have some sunlight when chopping wood for a shelter.”

Haru looked at him. “Two shelters, far apart.”