The dragon's harem

Arlo flew at Arad like a bolt of black lightning, swinging his spear with one hand, aiming right for the throat with a powerful stab. But at the last moment, he shifted his weight to the side and transitioned into a diagonal slash, landing two direct hits. One hit was a stab that hit Arad’s throat, and the other was a slash that aimed at the same spot.

The black spear groaned against Arad’s flesh and bounced back with a powerful shockwave as the ground itself crumbled from the sheer, harrowing force. Arlo was by no means weak; he was terrifying. But he was facing the wrong opponent, Arad, who is an even nastier monster.

One thing was clear: he was going to lose, and there was no chance of victory. But... would he just give? No, he is an orc, a soldier, and most importantly, the most spiteful bastard in the entire world, no, the entire twelve orcish worlds. If he is to die, he’ll drag Arad down with him with all of his might, and if all odds are against him, he’ll bend them with his sheer will.

Arlo stopped moving for a second as the burning void of his bloodline started steaming out of his skin, and his green eyes burned with a dark purple flame. ”I’ll kill you.”

It was a simple world, said with an even tone, but for some reason, Arad could feel deep within his soul. Arlo’s words weren’t empty; they carried power. Darkness started burning out of his back, and in the next second, he leaned forward like a limp corpse.

ZON! Arlo disappeared, and Arad could still track him with ease. He teleported behind him, and the attack was easy to block, so Arad did. Arlo’s spear hit Arad’s massive arm and was forced to stop. ”The same attack won’t work twice.”

Arlo’s face remained calm, and in the next second, it was Arad who was surprised as Arlo’s spear phased through his arm like a ghost of pure darkness. He was forced to jump back and avoid a second slash, but this was nowhere near enough to stop Arad.

As Arad landed, he looked at his own arm and found it limp, numb, and already dead. ”What did you do?” Arad asked with a curious smile, and Arlo looked a bit horrified at the sight.

”Monster! How are you still alive?” Arlo growled, and Arad shook his limp arm. ”Well, I’m alive... your attack cut right through my soul and killed my arm. Is this some kind of death magic?” His arm bulged, the veins in it flashed with light, and he clenched a fist. ”Back to life, and as good as new. To kill me, you gotta hit me here.” He pointed at his chest.

Knowing that he was about to die, Arlo had made a deal, a deal with Death itself. In exchange for his life, which was already going to waste, he would wield Death’s will for a short time. What Death herself told him was that one touch can kill anything and anyone, no exceptions, and that it was Death itself that was speaking. It didn’t make sense that Arad survived, even if he only hit his arm.

^That isn’t what you said... it didn’t work on him!^ Arlo growled in his mind, and Death whispered back. ^Worst possible opponent, he has Tarrasque bloodline and is immune to death. But I’ll grant you even more power. He stole a soul from me, so I want him to cry a bit.^

Arlo finally smiled as he felt the power rushing through his entire body. ”How nice of you. Finally, it is time to kick some ass.” And in the next moment, his entire body turned into a black mass of void and shadows, all swirling together like a violent storm.

Death, shadows, and the void... they all exploded outward in a deadly storm of pure violence, and Arad found himself alone in the middle of it all. The shadow and void tentacles swung at him with deadly force, and there were hundreds of them, each carrying the same Death touch of Arlo’s spear. But the horrifying part was his own will, cracking the fabric of reality through his void, making each attack hit twice at the same time, the same strange property that his void had.

The shadows are strange; they are supposed to be just the absence of light, but in a world of magic and gods, they held a higher authority. Everything cast a shadow, even the intangible and transparent; those shadows were just of a different, invisible type of light. Arad had a shadow, Arlo himself had one, and every flake of snow had one.

All of those shadows were alive, watching, listening, and counting to the end of life; they were the gateway that Death herself used to reach everyone and anyone to reap their soul, and they were also the same medium he was using to gain Death’s power.

To kill Arad, he had to target his shadow instead, because that would be a weak spot. Arad was busy dodging the spear with horrifying grace and speed, and Arlo could clearly tell that the bulky man still didn’t take him any more seriously than a kid throwing a tantrum. He was far outscaled, to the point that it wasn’t even funny.

Arlo’s endless attacks grew stronger by the second, and he was watching, slowly closing in and trying to find a clear opening to strike at Arad’s shadow and kill him. If Death had known what he wanted to do, she would’ve stopped him at the spot, because unlike Arad himself, his shadow was far nastier and unhinged as all shadows were.

The shadows of people were usually the exact opposite. If someone were nice, their shadow would be mean, and if someone were always angry, their shadow would be the calmest of them all. Arad, as violent as he was, was far more tolerant and patient than many. His shadow, on the other hand, only knew violence.

After half a minute, Arlo finally found his opening, a small gap in Arad’s defences that was created when Arlo shifted the attacks of his tentacle to just one side. He had a clear path, and it won’t last for long. Moving like a ghost through the darkness, Arlo flew in without hesitation, and his spear flashed right toward Arad’s shadow.

The only thing he could hear at the last moment was Death screaming in his mind, ^Don’t!^

She was too late to notice, and Arlo’s spear hit Arad’s shadow cleanly, delivering a flood of death’s will, enough of it that it could’ve killed a god. But... Arad’s shadow wasn’t any normal shadow; it was the shadow of AO.

A steel fist hit Arlo’s groin so hard that his testicles shot out of his skull, and his chest got instantly ripped open by two bulky black hands. It all happened in a fraction of a second that he couldn’t even feel pain, and that wasn’t the end of it.

At the depth of the abyss, the Shadow Kingdom of the Succubi, where Death and Life ruled, life was going as normal with succubus doing what succubus do best. Which was to live a relatively normal life like humans, work through the day, and get back to their families at night. Even if only succubi lived here, through the blessing of life, they didn’t have any problem procreating on their own.

And that peaceful life abruptly came to an end when the shadows of the entire kingdom grew darker, and Death could feel hundreds of succubi dying all at once.

Death stood from her throne, ”Did he slip in?” As she growled, the answer came to her, because in the next fraction of a second, the titanic shadow was standing in front of her, taking the form of Arad. She froze, and the shadow glared at her with two burning white eyes.

”How did you get in here?” She growled, but the shadow didn’t answer for a long moment; it just stood there, menacingly thinking. She knew why he was confused: he was AO’s shadow, and even without memories or power, it innately understood that it had power. How did it get here? It was simple; it swam through the shadows of death that she gave to Arlo and came here.

After a few seconds, an angel of death that was nearby flew in with her scythe, aiming at the shadow’s neck, but the shadow grabbed her by the leg and split her body in half from the groin up. ”Next time you touch me, AO’s shadow. I’ll make sure you give birth to a new Death.”

”You remember yourself?” She didn’t even bother looking at the dead angel; even she can’t help her while this monster is here. This was the oldest shadow in existence, the one that was born from AO himself.

”I do, but you’re the one who seems to have forgotten its place. You’re Death, my janitor. Your job is to clean the mess of souls I left out of my lab and to clean the lives of mortals I created.” He immediately kicked her in the face and sent her flying to her throne. His attack wasn’t powerful enough to harm her, but he had made his statement.

She won’t get a second chance. If she is to touch him again, to have her power encroach on AO’s life, that would be her end.

”Stop right there! How did you slip in here?!” One of the archons, an archangel who was a tall woman clad in a black robe, landed, looking as horrifying as death herself, as even her face was hidden behind a skull mask. She glared at the shadow and froze for a second as he approached her.

”Azrael, I don’t ever remember you pointing your weapon at me.” As the shadow growled, the archangel immediately spun around and pointed her weapon toward Death herself, and so did all the other archons follow her lead. The angels who were much younger, on the other hand, were confused to the bones, unable to understand what was going on.

”ORDERS!” Azrael spoke in a cold tone, and the shadow patted her on the back. ”It’s been a while; keep working under her. I’ll be taking my leave.” And with those words, he disappeared, and Azrael spun around, ”My Lord! Wait...” But he was already gone.