The dragon's harem

Poppy jumped back as fast as she could, all thoughts vanishing from her mind, only leaving her the will to run away and escape with her life. This bastard had managed to sneak up on her and Cain with relative ease, which was utterly horrifying. How could a titanic creature that has the raw power to nuke a planet be this silent?

Despite their harrowing power, dragons are silent ambush predators. Padded talons, color-shifting skin, great intellect, and powerful eyes and senses to track their prey. A dragon might enjoy sneaking up on a deer more than the meal itself.

The people have a twisted image of dragons brought by the frequent and infamous rampages of the red dragons. When those dragons attack cities in rage and burn everything to the ground, that isn’t how dragons hunt when they aren’t consumed by wrath.

Unless the dragon is utterly mad and consumed by rage, they usually won’t be detected until they are mere meters away from their target. There was a recent example of this, and it was when Arad sneaked into the kingdom of the wood elves, and no one saw him coming until their capital was practically between his massive front legs.

Gojo grabbed Poppy by the face before she could get away, and washed his brain clean of all the magic interference. “Got you!”

That face, that smile, and those glowing eyes were now going to stay engraved in her mind forever as the most terrifying expression she had ever seen. Getting sneak-attacked by a dragon wasn’t an experience that many survive.

She could feel his fingers digging into her face and cracking her facial bones, so she growled. “Got, the wrong one…” She tried her best to deceive him, and Gojo’s smile got wider.

“Then sorry, child. But you’ll die here anyway just to be sure.” His other arm flew and pierced her chest, ripping the heart out with ease. She coughed a mouthful of blood and growled. “You’ll… hurt a child… you heartless monster.”

Gojo punched four more holes into her torso and glared at her face with a loving smile. “Sorry, but I don’t fall for bullshit like that. We both are monsters far beyond mercy or gentle care.”

She smiled, “Then die.” Her entire face swelled up, and in the blink of an eye, she exploded into a titanic wave of burning black blood and strange magic, washing over Gojo, filling the sewers, and causing every manhole in the city to be sent flying to the clouds with a loud explosion.

Gojo had successfully managed to destroy Poppy’s real body in the sewers, so her soul escaped to the dismembered flesh golem that Arad had just torn apart a few seconds ago. The tables had turned on her so quickly that she could barely keep up, and things were only going to get worse for her.

Cain’s magic had faltered for a moment as Poppy’s body was destroyed, which he was using as a medium for his power. In that short moment, reality flew like it should have, and the horrifying reality about Arad’s capital became clear.

The capital city of Orion had become a massive, deadly wasp nest where incomprehensible horrors lived. The sun blazed in the sky, and its rays scorched all of Poppy’s blood. Violet’s void magic tore through every monster, and Yog collected every single citizen and sent them into one of Merlin’s labyrinths. Arad’s other wives spread across the entire city and secured it, and even the angels of the gods patrolled the sky and locked the space to prevent even flies from escaping.

Without Cain’s protection, Poppy’s forces only last 0.001 of a second before getting completely obliterated. The power gap was just that wide, and she just wasn’t a challenge to them; Cain himself was the challenge.

Above Arad’s head, Amaterasu floated on her cloud and looked down at Poppy’s torn body. “That’s the cute little girl? She must’ve pulled something nasty. I wonder, why didn’t I act until now…” She leaned out of the cloud and smiled. “Was it eldritch magic? It’s pretty rare for something to even affect my senses.”

“It’s not just that…” Yog emerged from the sewers carrying Gojo on her shoulders, or at least what remained of him. A tiny chunk of pulsing flesh. “She is a flesh mage, and he got hit directly while most of his brain was turned off. Probably turned it off to avoid whatever affected us all.”

The ground around Arad melted and vaporized as he glared at what remained of Gojo, but quickly calmed down as Yog quickly fixed Gojo’s body. “He should’ve died by that; you can thank Death herself later. It was only for a fraction of a second, but she neglected her work just this time.”

Death herself emerged from the shadows. “He died in the twisted reality, so I deemed it a flash death. It simply wasn’t his time.” She then threw a smile toward Yog, “But, you’ll still pay up later.” She licked her lips, and Yog just gave her a thumbs-up. “Got you!”

The attack had ended the moment Gojo managed to interrupt Cain’s influence, but the war had just started.

[Violet isn’t here, but getting Yog alone is enough.]

Poppy’s flesh golem smiled, and looked toward Arad. “You’ve got a lot of powerful people around, don’t you?”

He glared at her in silence for a second, and she just kept talking. “I admit, my plan failed miserably. I should’ve accounted for that guy a lot more. I mean, he really surprised me, especially with that face and voice.”

Yog looked at Gojo’s unconscious face. “I get you, just looking at his face is making me a bit wet.” She then threw a glare at her. “But I doubt that is what you meant.”

Yog’s eyes flashed blue, and she looked toward Amaterasu, “Careful, I can’t read her mind or see her future. This bitch still has enough fuel for one last disaster.”

Amaterasu smiled. “Well, if she is kicked out of fate, then she can either be erased or assimilated into Arad’s team. That way, she won’t get destroyed by us.”

Poppy laughed. “What did that little girl say? She was quite the unpleasant child to speak with.” She opened her mouth, and her tongue dangled out with saliva, and split, dropping from it.

“If she hadn’t stalled me and called Arad, I would’ve won. So… I’ll live, and I want her to die suffering…” She smiled, “Sorry, but I’ll live to see a whole new fate.”

Behind her severed head, a man appeared out of nowhere. Young, utterly beautiful, and strangely ethereal. His eyes were radiant blue, and his hair burned like white flames. Arad quickly recognized the face; it looked awfully like Gojo, but something about him felt off.

Yog combed her fingers together, and Arad could immediately sense her magic spiking to an ungodly level of power.

[Elemental Expansion: The Rooms Behind the Gate]

Amaterasu also moved above, and unlike how Arad saw her before, this time, it was the first time she saw her becoming serious, and with a single hand, her eyes flashed red.

[Elemental Expansion: Bang]

The sun above them flashed with light, and the entire world quaked, but what happened next was the scariest.

[World Expansion: …] As the beautiful strange man lifted his hands, black tentacles burst from his back. […Dreamless Nightmare of Isolation]

As everything faded away, Arad found himself stuck in the clash of those three.