The dragon's harem

Back in the orcs’ world, Arad was sitting on a steel bench outside the city’s main walls. From what he had learned so far, this was the portal city of Rubirus, the closest orc settlement to the rift’s opening point, which was this seemingly lifeless rocky desert.

The sky above him was dark, and the sun hadn’t shown up for a while. As he didn’t want to ask about something obvious, he had to read the mind of some orcs, and from it he learned something horrifying.

In the distant past, the orcs had managed to siphon the power of their sun using a large reflective sphere and eventually dismantled it for resources, as in their eyes, it wasn’t an efficient system. They ripped it apart, took that hydrogen inside it, and built countless reactors to fuel their civilization.

The orcs he read their minds didn’t know how such a feat was achieved, but the orcs had effectively drained their sun -suns across all twelve worlds- dry. They might just be the greatest civilization of all time, but are still one of the most foolish to think they can survive for long without the grace of a sun warming their worlds.

Learning that only made Arad even more terrified of Amaterasu, because just now, he understood that she is the start of it all. It didn’t matter how powerful a species of mortals got, how strong their gods were, or whatever; without the divine goddess of the sun, they would never survive for long, and if they lived, they’d suffer.

Sunlight is the start of every ecosystem, no matter how complicated it looks. Tiny, microscopic plankton feed off sunlight to grow, and then become food for bigger and bigger organisms. Even on land, the plants are the start of the food chain as well, and they feed off the sun.

The orcs have greatly underestimated Amaterasu’s worth in their lives and thought they could replace her grace with their engines and neon lights, which after millions of years, failed miserably and left them starving.

As he was sitting there looking at the empty sky, he frowned. ”How the hell did you get here?” He asked because suddenly a woman was sitting by his side, Amaterasu herself, and none of the orcs around seemed to notice her.

”I’m just projecting my image into your mind; I’m not physically by your side.” She replied with a smile and looked up to where the corpse of her sun should be. The orcs have even dismantled the star’s core for materials and maintained the integrity of their solar system with rock and magic.

”Do you know what the thermodynamic of cannibalism mean?” She asked, and Arad lifted an eyebrow. ”I know what cannibalism is, but never heard of the first word.”

”Thermodynamics is the transfer of heat; in this context, we’re talking about energy.” She lifted both hands. ”If you got a clan of cannibals, and they eat each other, that can never be a 100% efficient process, so the only way for their clan to survive is to always bring new members in who weren’t born in the clan to offset that loss in energy.”

Arad smiled, ”Well, shit have to be made from something.”

Amaterasu giggled, ”Indeed. So, they have to get energy from outside the clan, outside the system.” She then gave him a passive look. ”So, the worlds, they are closed systems with living beings eating each other in countless ecosystems. If we consider them all mortals, cannibals eating other mortals, where does their world get the extra energy needed to sustain itself?”

Arad smiled. ”Finally, we’re on the same page. That energy comes from you, the sun. Without that extra boost, life cannot even start, let alone thrive.” He then looked up. ”As I figured out, their civilisation wasn’t doomed when they killed their own god, but it was doomed when they rejected you.”

She nodded, ”That is correct. They didn’t just reject me once but twelve times.” She crossed her arms. ”I would love to say it serves them right, but since you’re here and since Lucy is in pain, I’ll give them a second chance -twelve second chances.”

Arad smiled, ”Any other god would’ve chosen to either ignore or annihilate them.”

She shrugged, ”I’ve ignored them for long enough, so I’m no better than the other gods. But, since you’re here, we can change a few things.”

”Like what? You’ll give them new suns?” Arad asked, and she nodded. ”Yes, but half of the infrastructure of their civilisation is located where the sun should be. They built it there to mimic the star’s gravity. So, giving them a sun would be setting them back several million years of advancement, and it would make communication between the planets in each world much more difficult.”

”So, it’ll fragment them?” Arad sighed, and she smiled from ear to ear. ”That isn’t the hard part to accept. They genetically modified themselves trying to evolve, and I would have to reset that as well.”

She pointed at a random orc woman soldier who rushed past the bench they were sitting on. ”Take her, for example; her DNA is tainted and has to be reset. I can’t have her procreate again.”

Arad grunted as he crossed his arms, tilted his head to the side, and looked at all the orcs around them. ”Only the ones with clean genetics get to procreate -accelerated natural selection.”

”Exactly, to make it clear, almost 96% of the orcs’ population is tainted and shouldn’t be allowed to procreate; otherwise, they’ll keep giving birth to a littler of 12 orcs each month like crazed bunnies, which is unsustainable.” She clapped her hands with a smile.

”Well, but that is the second worst part for them. The problematic one is that, unlike everyone else, I would need them to actively worship me to be able to monitor, support, and maintain the stability of their worlds. Of course, it would also allow me to kill any orc trying to break my rules and procreate while tainted. They’ll burn under my light just like the vampires do.”

”Worshipping you is a problem?” Arad asked with a puzzled face, and she giggled. ”They have the gods; they don’t believe in our existence and think we’re just obstacles to their advancement. I remember them killing their Orc god and shouting they aren’t his slaves any longer.”

She looked at Arad, ”Guess why they turned on him?”

”Why?” Arad tilted his head, and she almost burst laughing.

”He told them not to modify their bodies and not to dismantle their suns for materials. He warned them of this very grim future, and they didn’t believe a word of what he said. Even now, their elders and records twist facts and claim that he cursed them to be this way because they killed him, which is wrong.” She stood, walked a few steps forward, and then looked back at Arad.

”Here you go.” She then threw him a burning orb of power. ”Wait?!” He cried, ”This is...”

”The orcs’ portfolio -I’ve held onto it for long enough. Give it to any orc that you believe is worthy of leading them.”

Arad looked at the portfolio that had just disappeared into the dark void of his soul and then stared right back at her. ”I thought that only I could hold onto portfolios without merging with them.”

”I use massive stars to shatter the fabric of space and time, and then store the portfolios inside that rift where they won’t disappear.” She lifted both hands, extending one finger on each. Above the first one, she summoned a tiny Black Hole, and on the other, a Gravastar. ”To each their uses.”

”Did anyone tell you before that you’re too strong and shouldn’t even exist? How come you have a hand in almost everything?” Arad sighed, and she looked happy. ”There is a reason every other god would willingly suck my toes. Without me, none of them can function, and since I’m doing all this work for free, they cannot even complain.”

Arad rubbed his temples and then looked at her. ”Ok, so, how do we start? Isdis wants to negotiate with them.”

”Well, you can try that approach. But I would say beating them into submission would be easier.” She rested her fists on her wide hips. ”I’m the nicest and most tolerant of the gods, so when I say using force is the best way, I’ve already considered everything else.”

Arad looked at the endless orcs rushing around, and then back at Amaterasu. ”So what? I blow several of their cities to scare them?”

”Daddy chill! You don’t need to cause a genocide -or is Eris influencing you?” She waved her hands with a wry smile.

”First, destroy the centre of the solar system where most of their tech is; Then, after their planets are separated, conquer them separately by intimidating the rulers.” Hearing that, Arad looked a bit sad. ”That... is a lot of work. Going all the way to where their sun was and blowing that place off, then going from each planet to the other for negotiations...”

”If you’re worried about Lucy, I’ll handle that. I can reduce her pain to a manageable level; it won’t be perfect, but it will be better than what she is feeling now.” She turned around and started walking away as her body disappeared into a golden mist. ”I’m going to take care of my part, so handle yours with care. Make sure those orcs submit, whether they like it or not.”