The dragon's harem

With everyone in, Kali shifted the other matters she wanted to discuss in this meeting. The entire reason she wanted to get those demon lords on board was to expand Arad’s dominion in the abyss and make it easier for him to open trade routes with the demons.

There are countless rare minerals, plants, and powerful monsters to hunt in the abyss for exotic materials. As even the bugs in the abyss are around C-rank, it is a place that humanoids can’t survive in. So, to get those materials, the humanoids would have to rely on the demons to do the hunting, and the demons would, in exchange, also be able to trade back with the mortals.

Another goal of this meeting was to find a suitable layer to allow humanoids to build a city that would be their embassy, and that was a harder task than anyone could even fathom.

First, gravity here was almost twice as strong as in the mortal world, and it only got stronger the lower the layer. Then came the toxic air that is filled with countless pathogens, psychedelic compounds produced by the local fauna, and copious amounts of carbon monoxide that replaced nitrogen in the air, and twice the concentration of oxygen, which made it toxic to most living beings that aren’t used to it.

Arad suggested forming a barrier around the city’s location to insulate it and create an environment suitable for humanoids to survive, but Kali shot that idea down quickly. While it’ll work as a temporary solution, with time, the abyss would naturally dissolve the barrier and try to return the city’s area to its natural state. They shouldn’t forget that the Abyss itself is alive.

Besides that, the barrier would’ve consumed too much energy to be maintained by humanoids. It was an easy job to colonize the Abyss; wizards would’ve already done it. But this place is as deadly as hell.

Lunara asked the Demon Lord of Betrayal, who was a former wind fairy, if she could use her spirit magic to turn a portion of her layer into a habitable zone for humanoids, but sadly, even that was impossible. She had lived in the Abyss for such a long time that her wind now belongs to the Abyss, and is toxic to most living beings besides demons.

To their surprise, the last one they expected to be able to help seemed to have already figured out a solution. The Demon Lord of Lust pulled one of her servants and showed her to Arad with a proud smile. “Look at this beautiful girl, she is a human, and is still alive here.” Licking the woman’s face, she grinned.

“Shadow magic?” Arad could sense that the Demon Lord of Lust was a powerful shadow user, but he was still wrong. What she did had nothing to do with shadows.

She smiled, stood, and approached the throne. “I might not look like it.” She looked down at herself. She was naked, dripping wet, and looked like a perverted exhibitionist, which she was. But still, she had one other talent.

“I learned medicine from the Mother of All Life directly, and she is also the one who taught me shadow magic. I’m quite skilled with diseases, infections, alchemy, and have several thousand years of experience in the field.”

She then pointed at her belly, then at her chest, then at one of her servants. “All mortals have billions of small bugs that live inside their guts(Talking about bacteria, viruses, and fungi). All we need to do is replace what they have in them with what is found in the abyss. Those bugs would cleanse the air for them, and when they return to the mortal world, they’ll die due to the less rich air.”

What she was trying to say is that by replacing the bacteria in a humanoid’s guts with ones from the Abyss, those bacteria would then eat the carbon monoxide, other pathogens, and toxins in the Abyss’s air and neutralize them. They’ll also consume the excess oxygen, making it more suitable for humanoids.

When those humanoids return to the mortal world, those bacteria would die due to the lack of food.

“I get it. Then how do we achieve that? You clearly made it happen since those girls are alive.”

As Arad asked, she shook her head. “Don’t get your hopes up. I don’t have anything that would easily achieve that.” She looked back at her servants, then smiled. “I discovered this by accident, and then used it to get them here.”

“Explain.” Arad sighed and she shrugged.

“In short, and without any flare. For months, I had them lick my entire body, and I even used them as a toilet. Some of them died, but those who survived managed to get my bugs.” Waving her hand, she summoned a large leather scroll. “Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, short FMT. Everything I got on the process, but I still need a lot of study and testing to make sure it is safe for humans.”

She kissed the scroll, causing it to fly toward Arad encased in a black heart of shadows. “I hope you don’t mind giving me a few months to research a bit and get things safe for use. For now, the goal should be to make it a drinkable potion, and then I might even find a way to turn it into a simple and stable pill.”

Arad gave the scroll a look and then sent it into his stomach for the vampires to create copies and store it safely.

“I got a wife who is a Green Drakaina, she is extremely skilled with diseases and alchemy, and I also got another who is a doll, but a master alchemist as well. You should work with them to accelerate the process.” He spoke and she smiled.

“Ah, by any chance, do you mean Ancient Claug and crazy doll Aisha? I know them.” She giggled. “To think those two ended up by your side as well.”

Arad blinked, “How do you know them?” But the answer was clear. Demonic deals.

“Claug needed shadow flesh buds that only grow in my layer so I gave her some in exchange for a cart of gold, and Aisha needed powerful Succubus blood, so I gave her a bucket of mine in exchange for a humanoid doll and a fake guild card that I used to have some fun in the mortal world.”

“I see…” He nodded, and Kali stared at The Demon Lord of Lust.

“Do I need to warn you?” She asked with a smile, and the Demon Lord of Lust shook her head.

“You don’t. I won’t let anyone else besides him touch me from now on. And with his powerful lifeforce, just one time is probably enough to leave me full for days. Good to focus on research.” She then licked her lips. “But what about ladies?”

Kali glared at her. “Why do you ask?”

“My wish was to eventually get a chance to play with you a bit. Can’t have that turned down now.” She then looked at Arad, “Do you mind if I lick her once or twice?”

“Kissing her feet is as far as you’ll go.” And hearing him, she shivered. “Well, I’ll be fine with that.”

When the Demon Lord of Lust returned to her spot, Kali called to the Demon Lord of Betrayal. “We’ll get a few spirits working on the project as well. So, you’ll be dealing with them, and Zephyr will be among them, so behave yourself.”

The Demon Lord of Betrayal looked away with a grunt. “Fine, I’ll behave myself. For now.”

With that part explained, now the only remaining thing was the location of the first city. Lunara looked at Arad and spoke. “I wanted the city to be in my layer, but I believe the safest place would her layer.” She looked at the Demon Lord of Carnage.

The Demon Lord of Carnage scratched the back of her head. “Really? Mine?” She then sighed. “I guess we kill any demonic monster that shows up for fun, so if the demons don’t attack the humanoids, then nothing would get them beside the Abyss itself.”

“Hold up!” The Demon Lord of Wrath called up and stepped forward. “Her layer is good, but mine has a dead sapling of the World Tree. Elves could settle better with me.” She then pointed back at the Demon Lord of Illusion. “Halflings would find her layer better.”

“Dwarves would be happy to explore my ancient mountains.” The Demon Lord of Bursts added with a grin.

After discussing each location in detail for over two hours, Arad decided to give each race a starting location where they can build their first city and expand. Of course, each demon lord would be ruling the cities built in their domains. He also allowed the demons to find locations in his empire to build cities and settle down, of course, under the order of forbidding harm.

This would be a long project that would take years, maybe even decades, but it was worth it. Arad knew well that the demons were chaotic, evil, and destructive by nature. They shouldn’t be able to coexist with humans unless an overwhelming force is forcing the two sides to behave.

He glared at everyone, then asked. “Let’s say one day I died, and Kali died as well. What will you do?”

They all looked at each other, then the Demon Lord of Beasts spoke up. “Do we need to tell you? Since I would’ve gotten into the a world, then I’ll start hunting all humanoids to enslave them and dominate the world and increase my power.”

The Demon Lord of Harpies looked at her. “If Lunara is alive and she asked us not to, we’re going to probably return to the abyss without causing trouble.”

The Demon Lord of Bursts smiled. “Her Lordship? Dead? Ah, we’ll be killing each other to determine who’ll rule the Abyss. Humanoids won’t need to worry about us for a while.”

The Demon Lord of Lust giggled. “An entire world of food? I’ll enjoy myself and pillage the entire world. Those who don’t strike my fancy would go to the experiment cages.”

The Demon Lord of Hope looked down. “If her Lordship dies, then I don’t have a reason to live anymore. I’ll die too.”

“I’ll kill all of your wives first.” The Demon Lord of Betrayal glared at Arad. “Starting from Zephyr.”

The Demon Lord of Illusion sighed. “Don’t listen to them, we’ll end up fighting among ourselves for dominion over the world. In the end, the Mortal world would be fine, because the other gods would come down to smite us.” She lifted her arms and did a spin. “See this body of mine? Yog did this to me. Even to this day, I don’t know why she let me live.”

Kali blinked. ^Yog let her live, she probably knew this day would arrive… Gotta keep an eye on her for now.^

The Demon Lord of Rot looked at Arad, worried about speaking up, but she then opened her mouth anyway. “Depending on the situation, I might either go kill that fungus wife of yours, or ally with her.”

Lunara giggled beside Arad, leaned on his chest, kissed him on the cheek, and then turned to the other demon lords. “Realistically, whatever is powerful enough to kill you and Kali would’ve already wiped them out.”

As the meeting wrapped up, Kali sent the demon lords to Arad’s private quarters to get acquainted with the place there, and most importantly, talk with Isdis about trade deals with the abyss. Merlin had put all of them through the same test as Roa, and they all passed one by one. The one who got closer to blowing up was the Demon Lord of Bursts, and the one who surprised Merlin was the Demon Lord of Lust, who loved the treatment.

In the end, the nine of them ended up in the bath together, staring at the starry insides of Arad’s stomach. But just when they thought it was going to stay peaceful for a moment, trouble came to them.

“My senses are tingling.” Merida growled, suddenly appearing behind the Demon Lord of Rot in the bath like a deadly wrath.