The dragon's harem

Leaving the priestess and nuns to feed the awakening angel, Arad and Eris left the dark hall and headed deeper into the bowls of earth, making their way toward the lowest cavern of Eris’s lair. This was where the main branch of her cult hid from the eyes of the people, and it was here where all of the murderers were getting sacrificed to empower her.

This was the place where the empire carried out all of the secret executions it needed for the most rancid of people that could be found across the lands. Those murders were dragged here from the far reaches of the elven empire and all down to the edges of the dwarven’ golden mountains.

As Arad and Eris walked in through the door, a tiny, disfigured imp emerged from the darkness and greeted them with a giggle. “My Lady, My Lord, welcome to Pin’s… comforting hideout.”

She approached Eris, looked at her with a smile, and then jumped onto her shoulder. “We’ve already processed hundreds of murderers. I bet you’ve been feeling the power.”

Eris smiled and then asked with a straight face. “We’ll eventually run out of murderers to execute. What’s then?”

Pin froze for a second, then threw a glance at Arad.

“You could always ask My Lord here for help. Pin is sure you got more than one way to convince him. Unlike Pin, My Lady got a pretty body after all.” She giggled and then turned toward Arad. “My Lord would be going to many worlds soon. Pin says he can harvest more murderers for us from there.”

“I can do that, but it’ll be inconsistent. We want a way to grant Eris passive divine power even when everything else fails.” Arad crossed his arms, and Pin jumped to sit on his shoulders.

“If that is what My Lord wants, then Pin got an idea, a great idea.” She shivered, “But… sadly we can’t… Pin is too weak, Pin is too small, too… fragile.”

“What’s that idea?” Eris glared at her, and Pin looked scared for a moment.

“I’ll speak; I’ll speak. Pin always speaks.” She then sighed. “Pin is an Imp, and I can go to hell and murder sinners there. They are immortals, so they’ll never run out. The problem is… that Pin is a weak, ugly, little imp. I cannot kill those sinners fast enough.”

When Arad heard her, he was honestly surprised that he hadn’t thought of that. “Can we like… get a domain in hell and hunt sinners there? Maybe even the ones we murdered here?”

“Oh, we can. But we’ll need permission from the Lady of the hells, and then from the lord of whatever lair we’re going to use.” Pin giggled. “Getting the permission of the Lady of the hells is going to be easy Lady Eris knows Amaterasu, and Amaterasu knows the Lady of the hells. But… the lords of hell are a problem, and we can’t just beat them.”

“Why?” Eris looked at her, and Pin shook her head. “The Lords of hell manage the souls that get sent into their layers, and they do a lot of work. We need them to keep doing that while giving us a cut.”

“So we’ll need to strike a deal with them. Got it.” Arad smiled, “I’ll find a way to make it happen.” He then threw a glance toward Pin. “But, you said you were too weak to hunt those sinners.”

“Yes, Pin is weak, too weak to survive alone in hell.” She wiggled her thin and shrivelled arms. “Pin can’t do it.”

“I’m sure there is a way to make you stronger, right?” Eris approached her, and Pin’s eyes opened wide. “There is a way, indeed, but… Pin won’t dare still the Lady’s food.”

“Food? What food.” Eris lifted an eyebrow.

“The sacrifices, the divine energy they give off. The same way it can make you stronger, it can make Pin stronger. But… it’ll take a while, as Pin isn’t as efficient as you, my Lady.”

Eris sighed, “Should’ve told me before. Switch all sacrifices to empower yourself instead of me, and try your best to grow stronger. When you’re powerful more than needed by a bit, we’ll look for more imps to serve you and form a hunting squad.”

“What… but My Lady, the power is yours… not Pin’s.”

Eris patted Pin on the head. “From today onward, the cult’s priority is to gain an infinite supply of sacrifices using hell.”

Pin jumped from Arad’s shoulder and landed on the ground with a thud, and then stretched her arms. “Pin will do as the Lady Orders, Yes! Yes! Pin will do it…” She then turned toward Arad with two glowing red eyes. “Pin will become a Pit Fiend no matter what.”

Arad knelt down and tore his left forearm, handing it to Pin. “Well then, I’ll give you this so you can become one. Take this as a symbolic gift, and become the Pit Fiend you want and deserve to be.”

Arad’s forearm was too heavy for Pin to carry, yet she easily lifted her up as she felt all of her cells screaming with power. As Arad said, it was symbolic at best, but he knew well now that his words and will carry weight, and handing Pin the Left Forearm of AO would surely cause something.

“Pin Thanks the Lord, Pin will do her best, Pin won’t disappoint!” She took the forearm and ran away into the centre of the hall, where she disappeared into a puddle of blood.

Arad’s forearm healed, and he turned around to leave with Eris. They had finished what they came here to do, and the rest relied on Pin.

In a tiny hole in hell, Pin appeared in her hidden lair, far away from the prying eyes of other devils and sinners. She lived like a mole, hidden deep underground in the first layer of hell, where Tiamat ruled.

She set the forearm standing up in the middle of her lair, and stared at it for a long while. “The Lord granted Pin his left forearm… he trusts Pin… Pin shall not disappoint.” She bowed to the arm, and then turned around to prepare her bone weapons to go out and try hunting something to get a feeling for how things would.

But, she wasn’t that lucky this time, as a group of devils was camping right outside the hidden entrance of her lair, and so she couldn’t get out without getting spotted and killed. She sat tight for hours, but they never left, and soon, she was about to give up and go back to the Mortal world for now, but then, a dark void started seeping from the forearm’s still bleeding wound.

Black tentacles of nothing started emerging, and when Pin looked at the forearm with a terrified face, she saw an eye glaring right back at her from the open palm.

As Pin stood still, sweating, the tentacles exploded outward in a flash, and the entire mountain range got flipped upside down. The devils standing outside were killed and torn apart alongside all nearby devils and sinners, leaving Pin alone in the middle of the devastation.

“What…” Pin cried as she rolled across the shattered stones and could see the arm spilling absolute darkness out like a well of infinite nightmares, and in the next moment, the worst possible happened. Tiamat herself landed nearby to investigate the disturbance in her land.

Pin immediately rushed toward the arm to grab and hide, but before she could, Tiamat’s massive claw landed in front of her. “What a strange thing, this severed arm.” The Titanic, multiheaded Drakaina glared down at the arm with eyes burning with fury, “Such strange power… no, this smell!”

The eye in Arad’s palm glared right back at Tiamat, and that sounded nothing like Arad growled from the forearm’s bleeding wounds. “You dare defy the hand of the Lord, lizard!” And in the next flash, Tiamat’s talon was severed cleanly off as she flew back, and the black tentacles pulled Pin to the forearm.

“You… you’re not Arad… You’re different than Baal.” Tiamat growled as her talon healed. Before, Arad’s will had turned a devil into an Archon, but today, it was different.

The forearm didn’t reply, but Tiamat flapped her wings to fly away. “Fine, do what you will, Left Arm of The Lord. That little Imp can live freely and grow here, keep her safe.”

“Pin… Pin is…” Pin looked back at the arm, but in the next moment, the arm turned into a mass of darkness and seeped into her body and flesh, causing a third eye to grow on her forehead.

“I am the yoke for your growth, little devil.” A voice rang in Pin’s head.