The dragon's harem

As the dead returned to their graves and the people followed Eris back to the church, the procession was coming to an end. From this day onward, this empire would have a divine goddess among its queens, and the people could barely fathom how that would shift the balance of power among the queens.

But nonetheless, having a divine goddess watching over them was a good thing, and especially since she was a woman who was with them from the start, from before Arad even started gathering people in his territory and slowly building up the early village.

Out of all of Arad’s wives, Eris was especially respected, and not due to her power or beauty, but because she was the one who gave the dead comfort and put them to rest. Due to all that respect growing rapidly after she became a divine, Eris already had a huge following of fanatic zealots who didn’t shy from chanting her name above all else.

While Mira’s followers numbered just a couple of thousands, Eris’s cult had already grown into the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands if the vampires were counted as well, rapidly fuelling her with more divine power than she could ever hope to use. But what made it even more potent was the fact that the entire world could now see her purple sun dancing with Amaterasu’s sun in the sky, spreading her existence to even the people who didn’t know her name.

The Purple Sun, Violet Flow of the sky, the small sun, and the radiant shaker. Those were just a few of the names the people who didn’t know her name gave her, and she could sense them all.

The power she was receiving was quickly rising, and it had spiked today to its peak, meaning that soon, Eris’s low skills as a divine would prevent her from limiting her power and visiting the mortal world in person. While that was sad, to leave those people and live in her heaven, Eris was optimistic about one important detail: Her heaven was inside Arad’s stomach, so she could still live in the private quarter.

As she stood with Arad beneath her statue in the church’s main hall, she looked back at the people watching, turned toward Arad, and smiled. “It is time I left for now.”

A blinding divine ladder of pure light descended from the ceiling, and Eris looked at it for a second before two dozen angels floated down. “We came to get you, Divine Eris.”

She looked back at Arad with a grin. “What do you say?”

Arad shrugged, “I’ll see you in a couple of minutes, but… if you want me to try and stop you. I’ll do it.” Arad reached toward the blinding ladder, and his skin started burning, but that wasn’t going to stop him as his massive and thick fingers grasped tightly, and then, a loud and ear-piercing groan of metal boomed across the entire church as he ripped the entire ladder.

Most of the people couldn’t fathom the magnitude of such a thing, but the moment they saw two of the angels looking absolutely horrified to the bones, they quickly got that whatever Arad just did, it wasn’t something that should happen.

“Oh, my…” Eris reached toward the scattering golden dust of the divine ladder, and smiled. “It shattered…” Throwing a glance toward one of the angels. “From what I understood, this ladder, it is called Jacob’s ladder and is a divine manifestation of the raw will of the world to reject the divines and send them to heaven.”

The angel nodded. “What Lord Arad has just done… it means his will and power surpass that of this world itself. I’ve heard that Loci, the spirit of this land, had granted him ownership of this region, but this now means the world is also granting itself to him.”

Another angel gulped, “For mortals, it means he owns everything by the world’s will. Any land, sea, air, or life in this world is his property.” She looked back at the people with a worried face. “Not just this empire, all other kingdoms and nations in this world are now built in Emperor Arad’s rightful land.”

While that in itself sounded impressive, Arad was certain it wasn’t just the will of the mortal world, but the entire universe, as they acknowledged him as AO. And this had proved it, he is that ancient and horrifying being.

As the people started exchanging whispers, Eris started floating with a divine light engulfing her body. “I’ll be going now, even without the ladder’s help. See you later, Emperor Arad. Do not drown in conquest and bloodshed, leave those things to the fools who want them.”

Arad chuckled, “Well, I certainly don’t need any more wives. I’m running out of space, and I got all the space I want.” He shrugged with both fists resting on his hips. “See you later.”

With that, Eris disappeared alongside her angels, and Arad himself left for the church’s back rooms immediately, leaving the people to pray in peace. As he walked through the hallways, the nuns and priests followed him. “Lord Arad, the back rooms are for the priestess’s personal use.”

Arad looked a them, “I know, go back and help the people, I’ve got a few things to do there.”

All the priests and half of the nuns returned, and Arad was left walking with just six nuns following him with hurried steps, even if he was just walking slowly. With such a massive body, even his walking speed was as fast as a human jogging.

As they reached the priestess’s personal room, Arad grabbed the handle and pushed it open before the nuns could stop him, and what they found inside made all of them gasp as Arad smiled. Eris was sitting on the priestess’s bed, and the priestess herself was sitting on the ground, getting scolded by Zia.

“You didn’t go to heaven?” One of the nuns cried, and Eris looked at her with a smile. “You six came with him… well, walk in and lock the door, you won’t be going back out anytime soon.” She flicked her finger and the door locked on its own.

“You told us to lock it!” One of the nuns cried, and Eris giggled. “Sorry, I just did it so you won’t run. You and this rascal would be serving in a special squad, and since you’ve dedicated your lives and bodies to me, this shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Zia stared at the nuns and frowned, “Of, you there with the blue eyes, you’ll get ten whips for heresy later, but now, all of you get on the ground like her.” She stomped on the priestess’s head, and all the nuns got down.

Eris glared at them, and they stood, stretched her arms, and then approached Arad and leaned on his chest. “Well, those six followed you here to hide the priestess’s mess, since they are her accomplices. Like all gods, I too require chastity from the people directly in my service, but for the priestess, I did allow her to play around. The problem is that I didn’t give her permission to flaunt my name or allow those six to play around as well.”

She smiled, and Zia stomped on the priestess’s back one more time, “I’ll shove a bright white iron rod inside you later on. If Eris gave you special privileges, you can’t abuse them. Do you know how hard it is for her to control her divine magic? Even more experienced gods would find what you did hard to fix.”

Arad sighed, “So? Those are what we got here?”

Zia looked at him. “Simple and plain, seven holy whores, and we can’t just replace them since we lack hands here.” She then smiled, “Well, we can always send them down.”

Eris nodded, “The Saintess should’ve fully awakened now and is starving. Sent those three to be her first meal. If they survive, they’ll spend the rest of their lives as her escort and food sources, and if they die, then I’ll forgive all of their deeds and rest them in heaven. You seven should let that soak in instead.”