The dragon's harem

As Merida sat on her throne in the abyss, she felt something poking her chest, and she had to shift her focus back to her body in the mortal world. When her eyes opened up, Arad was standing right there in front of her, poking her.

”What’s going on?” He asked, and she took a deep breath, trying her best to stay focused on both sides. The majority of her mind maintained control over the demonic fungal hivemind, and the other, lesser part was left to speak with Arad. It was like trying to talk with someone while driving at high speed and focusing on dodging obstacles on the road.

”Some paladins showed up in my layer; I don’t even know how they made it there. They aren’t that powerful, but before you get any idea, they have divine magic similar to that of the goddess of peace.” She looked down at herself and found that the seamstresses and maids had finished dressing her up.

Arad closed his eyes for a second as a part of his void sank into Merida’s shadow and appeared inside her throne room in the abyss. ”I see... that is indeed a strange divine magic.”

The moment Arad showed up, all of the demons kneeling for Merida felt as if a mountain of burning steel was dumped on their heads. This power, that aura, that magic, and that oppressive violence, it was several orders of magnitude sharper than anything Merida had ever shown them.

This was the God of Destruction, the husband of their demonic goddess. Some of them almost forget that their demon lord Merida is married to the same man as their goddess. The rumors weren’t just true; they were far less than what Arad deserved.

”How is the fight going?” As Arad asked, Merida closed her eyes, sent her full consciousness through her throne and into the ground, spreading it across the mycelium to encompass the entire layer.

”The paladins are maintaining their formation without much trouble. My lesser fungal demons are getting destroyed left and right, but that’s just a drop in the bucket. I still got a lot of them, and they aren’t even alive, so I can reactivate them with my fungus.”

Hearing her answer, Arad closed his eyes and extended his senses outward, trying to find the paladins and see what they were capable of. Soon, he could sense them at the edge of the layer.

”Strange... you were right. That doesn’t look like divine magic.” As Arad tilted his head, Merida waved her arm. ”Garathos, bring him all of the records!” The cow demoness gasped as she ran out at full speed, not wasting a single second. The last thing she wanted was to make Arad wait and then have her head ripped off.

After a minute, she brought them all, tens of large, human-skin bound leather books that held records written in blood. But there was one problem: they were written in the demon language, so Arad couldn’t read them. He had to rely on the Garathos to translate.

The books mentioned several cases where beings of great power tried to replicate divine energy and/or mimic it. It was a strange technique that required the powerful being to have a lot of mana, on the scale of a god, and then try to shift it upward toward divine magic by extracting curses out of it.

From what Arad understood, mana is the neutral state of the universe’s energy; divine magic is when that mana shifts up toward goodness; and curses are what come out when it shifts downward toward profanity. For regular gods, their portfolio is what transforms mana from the bodies of their praying subjects into divine magic, and since the portfolios were made by the ancient primal god, they are perfect. The divine magic that comes out is smooth, silky, and pure.

So, looking at those paladins’ divine magic, it was clear that it wasn’t made by a portfolio, but by some other method, probably that shifting technique mentioned in the books.

”Good thing those paladins weren’t massacred yet. I don’t think they know the divine magic they are getting is fake... so most likely, the goddess of peace isn’t in control.” Arad looked back at Merida and she stood up.

”I’m more inclined to believe that she is working with someone else.” While Arad thought the goddess could be a victim in all of this mess, Merida believed the opposite, that the annoying divine woman was a traitor.

”If she were working with someone else, she would’ve still used her divine magic to keep that person’s whereabouts hidden.” Arad cracked his neck. ”How about we pay those paladins a visit and hear from them directly?”

”I doubt they’ll talk.” Merida touched Arad’s back, and the two of them disappeared into the ground. In the next second, they appeared just a few hundreds of meters away from the battlefield, and Arad cracked his fists with a smile. ”So, who’s going to knock them down?”

Merida smiled. ”How about a contest to see who knocks out the most of them?”

”Oh? I like a challenge, but can you keep up?” As he smiled, she pulled her sword out. ”The winner gets to do whatever they want with the loser. It doesn’t matter if I win and have my way, or you win and mess me up; I’ll enjoy myself either way.”

Merida flashed forward, silently flying through her demons and quickly reaching the paladins. Before they could even notice her presence, twenty of them were already smacked to the ground.

Arad watched as the paladins panicked and were unable to even follow Merida with their eyes. They were like children getting picked up by a tiger, unable to even reach or fight back. How did they even think that invading the domain of a demon lord with such a tiny number would be smart?

Then, as Merida knocked half of them down, Arad instantly activated his gravity and knocked the rest, smacking them to the ground all at once. The demons were shaking as they felt their lord and Arad fighting, and the paladins had it worse as they were all unconscious now.

Arad clapped his hands with a smile. ”How surprising, I guess it was a tie. What shall we do?”

She smiled and kicked her lips with a grin. ”I guess we both win. I’ll have Linda work overtime to elongate the night.”

She took a step toward Arad, and behind her stood a pale, beautiful man with snow-white hair and radiant blue eyes. That face was harrowingly similar to Gojo’s, but it wasn’t him; it was the other one, Cain Lisworth, the white mage and former overgod.

Cain’s hand flew as fast as light could go, flashing right toward Merida’s neck. Arad saw it, but was too slow to move in time. His body couldn’t react fast enough, and just when Cain’s hand was about to grab Merida’s neck, a fist punched it upward.

”Hands-off, pale ass!” Nyar’s avatar was fast enough to react in time, and he immediately grabbed Cain by the face and threw him away. ”What are you planning, crazed bastard!”

Cain landed on his feet as he slid back, ripping hundreds of demons apart like an unstoppable train. ”Lighting the fuse to cause him to snap, then drag him into madness.” Cain’s smile, his glowing eyes, and pale face- one thing was clear... this mad man still had a conscious mind and was planning.

Tentacles burst from beneath Nyar’s coat. ”Arad, take her and run. I’ll slow this bastard down.”

Cain’s smile grew wider as black tentacles and dark goo burst from his back. ”It’s been a whole since I’ve beaten one of you.”

Tentacles exploded everywhere into a storm of violence. Merida only managed to cut two of them down before Arad snatched her and teleported away. He might be able to stand in the fight and survive, but she won’t.

”Kali will be here in ten seconds; stay close to me.” As Arad growled, Cain was already behind him, with Nyar’s avatar following right after, ”Stop ignoring me!” The avatar growled.

One second had passed; nine left until Kali to show up.