The dragon's harem

Watching Aella finish her turn with Arad and Mira starting, Isdis’s mind started to relax. The colder her flesh got, the slower metabolism moved, and the faster her soul sank into the cold embrace of her own blood.

She had wanted to stay awake, but she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Her soul was resting on the edge of a border, the border between those who rule and those who are ruled. Upon falling asleep, she saw a dream, a horrifying nightmare, spelling the struggles of the progenitor of her bloodline.

Black hair, bright ruby eyes, and hands so cold they felt like they belonged to a corpse. The famished, abandoned kid huddled alone in the frozen street, buried by the merciless snow. Many have died, yet he lives.

It had been snowing non-stop for as long as he was alive, and the people of the small town were already suffering. The crops died, the beggars froze to death, and all trade routes had been blocked by the snowstorm, turning the people’s lives into hell.

Isdis had seen life through his eyes, felt his pain, and despair. Both of his parents had long since died. His mother gave her life for him, and his father followed her days after. The church had taken him as this town wasn’t big enough to have an orphanage, yet his life only got worse as snow kept falling.

The first to fall were the charity-based establishments, and the church was one of them. Slowly, food ran out, the kids died, and the nuns followed them, freezing to death in the empty hall where no one prayed anymore.

Yet, he lived, surviving against all odds. He had starved until he became nothing but bones and thick blood, fuelled by spite and his will to live. The cold shall not take him, the hunger won’t put him down, and his eyes never lost their ever-burning flame.

Living through his memories, Isdis almost went mad from the cold, pain, hunger, and pure agony. The kid had not eaten for two months, yet his heart refused to stop, his mind still burned strong, and his soul was big enough to stare at death with disdain.

One day, the gates of hell opened above the city, drawn by the people’s sheer malice. The people have resorted to cannibalism to survive; they murdered and ate each other raw, howling like vile beasts in the raging cold. Hell had come to claim them, and the devils poured out. Not just in the town, but almost everywhere else.

This entire world was suffering, freezing, and drowning in an ice age where heat is currency, and the burning hell looked like heaven. Many had embraced the devils and their flame to survive, but when an imp approached the dying kid, the flames weren’t as alluring as they seemed.

”I’ll give you flames, heat, warmth, and relief from the suffering. The gods have abandoned this place, but we shall not.” The imp extended a hand engulfed in flames. ”Give me your soul, and I shall let you get reborn in hell.”

A few seconds later, a vile scream boomed across the entire city. The bells of the end toll, causing both devils and humans alike to stare in the scream’s direction.

A devil flew toward the scream and landed in the snow, staring at the harrowing scene with a horrified face. The imp was gutted alive, still squirming as the kid munched on his guts. Then, from the vile guts, the kid produced a burning, bright soul. That was the imp’s soul, and the devil paled when he saw it.

The kid swallowed the soul whole, and when he did, the blizzard engulfing the entire world roared. ”What are you!?” The devil growled as he flew at the kid, swinging his spear and stabbing him in the guts.

As expected, the kid took the hit; he was too slow and weak to dodge or block. ”What trickery did you use?” He pulled his spear so the kid could bleed to death, but not a single drop of blood fell. The wound was frozen shut.

”What?” The devil gasped, and the kid moved. From the snow, a blade condensed, and before the devil could realise what happened, his stomach was slashed open, and the kid’s hand was already deep within his chest, ripping his soul out.

”Slowed... by the cold...” The devil growled as his eyes faded, and the kid swallowed his soul whole. One after the other, the kid went around the entire town, killing every devil that he came across and consuming their souls. It only took him three hours to finish them all, and the last devil he killed was the plaza.

The strong devil was with his guards, standing over the last remaining survivors of the village. This was a remote place with not that many human souls, so almost all the devils sent here were weak, but the strong devil was better than the rest. A volley of ice spears flew out of the alleyways, and the strong devil and his guards all died before they could even put up a fight.

The kid emerged from the snow and approached the dead devils. The people of the city stared at him in terror, but he didn’t even look at them. He silently gutted the devils open, pulled their souls, and consumed them.

”Silver!” A young blond girl, a bit older than him shouted. She knew him, he used to live in the alleyways across from their home. As he glared at her burning blue eyes, she shivered in fear and backed away.

”Reina Ruris...” Silver growled. He, too, knew her name; she used to bring him food without telling her parents. If not for her, he would’ve long since died. ”Do not be afraid, I only eat devils’ souls.”

From that day, Silver had gone on to slaughter all the devils he could find and consume their souls one after another. With each soul he consumed, his power grew, and his fate got shaped into a storm. But even then, he was still far too weak. As the devils of hell invaded the world to harvest its sinners, their numbers were great, and the powerful ones never ventured far from the gates. Even a whole year after Silver started his journey, he hadn’t met anyone stronger than a lesser devil.

He didn’t know where his powers came from or how to control them yet, but with each fight, each soul, and each near-death experience, he got stronger, became more vicious, and eventually, the devils started to notice.

The mortals called him the hero, and the devils named him the Slayer. But to the world he lived in, he represented the ancient will, the power binding the entire fabric of the universe. Devils aren’t supposed to invade the mortal worlds, and so... when they did, Silver became the cure.

Isdis saw hundreds of battles, countless devils die, and a storm so violent that it shook an entire world. But what she had noticed, not even the young silver had seen. His soul wasn’t human. It was something else, something ancient, something abominable.