The dragon's harem

Chapter 1649: Wormhole

Amaterasu glanced at Eris with two glowing golden eyes, burning like radiant suns. A smile covered her face, and a deep rumble boomed from the depths of the Gravastar.

”It’s a void kid, and I won’t make a shell for you. You have several years to learn, so make a shell for him. If you can’t become that strong, that quickly, you’ll end up benched like everyone else.”

Arad was growing stronger by the day, and his enemies kept growing more appalling and destructive at the same speed. It had become harder and harder to survive in his fights, let alone help.

Out of all of Arad’s wives, Eris was the only one who almost matched him in the scale of raw power. As a sun, she could grab the entire mortal realm and swing it around using gravity. No one there could match her, but Arad was different. He could expand his void to a massive eight-thousand-kilometer-wide sphere, which was larger than her sun. It was also possible for him to resist her heat, radiation, and even gravity using his own magic and the tiny black hole.

Nothing had changed; even as a goddess, she could still see him defeating her, the same way he defeated everyone else who dared stand against him.

Unless Eris wanted to be left behind by Arad’s rapid rise to power, she had to grow just as fast as him, if not faster, if she wanted to reach or keep pace with him.

This was probably Amaterasu’s way of helping. She wanted to push her into a corner and force her to grow, using the life of her child as a driver.

Eris didn’t know where Amaterasu’s genuine will to help and her manipulation started, but she was certain that whatever it was, she wouldn’t just sit and watch her child die.

Her plan going forward was simple. Make a second sun, make it as big as needed, then crush it down to form a gravastar that could be used as an egg.

”I got it. So, what should we do next?”

Amaterasu looked around with a smile. ”I found a few abomination traces around, but they seem to have already bolted away long before we arrived. We won’t find anything here, so we’d better go.”

Ever since they arrived here, Amaterasu had been searching and inspecting the entire void with her divine magic. Eris had noticed that long ago and realized that while Amaterasu had brought her here to train her, she also used her as a distraction.

The abominations were usually quite determined and willing to die fighting, but today, they seem to be playing a game of cat and mouse. But the fact that they ran away means they were trying to hide something here.

Does it lead to where Arad is? Eris couldn’t tell, but she was at least certain he wasn’t anywhere near this place.

”So, what were they trying to hide here?” Eris asked with a worried face, looking at the darkness and trying to peer into it’s bottomless shadows. She was a goddess as well, so she tried to search like Amaterasu did, but ended up not being able to look through much.

Amaterasu smiled, noticing Eris’s efforts. Eris lacked the raw divine power needed to spread around and search, so she was only able to cover the gravastar’s surroundings.

Eris had just been through a massive fight, and she didn’t want her running out of steam, so Amaterasu had to explain what she found to her.

”They came for Lucifer’s chains. The ones that started hell’s chains that bind the sinners.” Amaterasu looked up. ”They stole a few loops, but can’t control them without Stillness’s power. So that part explains why they went for her.”

She giggled, amused at their efforts and laughing at their lack of knowledge. ”That’s good. It means their plan failed.”

Eris stared at her. ”Their plan failed? Aren’t those chains what make the sinners immortal? Stillness keeps turning them back to how they were before, so the abominations wanted that immortality?”

Eris was both right and wrong. While those chains had that power, they were already used here in hell, and the abominations didn’t even take them all; they only took a couple out of hundreds.

Amaterasu leaned forward, her red lips curling into a faint smile. ”Think again, something is missing. The chains are the tool, and Stillness is the one giving them a property. They lack a power source.”

Eris paled, finally guessing the part Amaterasu didn’t say. ”Wait, you! Twin Asmodeus are your Archons, so you’re the one powering hell. So, even if they got Stillness, the chains would remain useless?”

Amaterasu clapped her hands. ”Exactly, and they can’t substitute the power source either. It has to be me.”

The abominations only managed to get some of the chains before fleeing. Their plan for Stillness failed, so if they want to make use of those chains, they have to strike again. Stillness is still in danger, but so is Amaterasu.

Or so would everyone think. Stillness is one thing, but Amaterasu isn’t in danger. She is the danger, and the abominations would have to take a massive risk and be utterly reckless and stupid to attempt capturing her.

There was a reason why all of the abominations avoided her like the plague. This beautiful, lazy-looking, soft woman getting pampered by her angels 24/7 is as stunning and radiant as the sun in the blue sky. But even if she looked like that, the true nature of a sun was that of unimaginable violence and madness.

Deep beneath Amaterasu’s flawless skin and great figure existed enough nuclear fusion to make Arad’s explosions look like firecrackers. And even if she acted carelessly all the time, in reality, she was just as violent and unhinged as the fire burning in her heart.

”It’s time for us to head back home.” Amaterasu clapped her hands three times, and the gravastar disappeared from beneath them. Light flashed, and threads of radiant golden divine magic formed a large tarp above them.

As Amaterasu wanted to stand, the archon got her face away from her feet and slowly stood, prompting the other archons to do the same. It was time for them to move.

Amaterasu turned toward her archons and approached the one who had her face on her feet. She grabbed the archon by the face and caressed her cheek, looking at her eyes with a lovely smile.

”Thank you for the hard work.” She gave the archon a light peck on the lips, then patted her on the shoulder. ”Let’s go, we’ll finish things later.”

The tarp twisted and folded around itself, forming a cone that stretched for several hundred meters into the distance.

Amaterasu floated toward the cone with her archons, and Eris followed them, looking at the divine magic and trying to figure out what it was. Zia, on the other hand, has given up long ago; she won’t try to wrap her head around anything that Amaterasu does. But she looked at Eris, asking with a worried face.

”You won’t become like her, would you?”

Eris lifted an eyebrow. ”Amaterasu? Hell no. I’m nowhere near her. I can wish as much as I want, but I’ll never be as strong or free as her.”

Zia sighed, looking both glad and disappointed.

When they flew through the cone, space shifted around them, and Eris could see the whole nine layers of hell flashing behind them. Then, in the next second, they all appeared inside a massive cathedral.

The place was familiar; Eris knew it well. This was Amaterasu’s church which they recently built inside Arad’s castle. Zia quickly glanced forward and spotted one of the nuns praying; they were standing right beneath Amaterasu’s statue.

”She sent us back home?” As Zia gasped, the nun heard her and opened her eyes, looking up with a puzzled and confused face. ”Divine Eris... Huh?”

The nun froze, and Eris could see something strange reflecting in her eyes. An ornate golden palanquin carried by nineteen beautiful women was behind them, surrounded by shimmering light and halos of golden sunshine.

The inside of the palanquin was hidden behind stained glass and veils, but Eris could tell who was sitting inside. Amaterasu didn’t just send them home; she came with them to the mortal world. But one of the twenty archons was missing, the woman Amaterasu kissed earlier.

Eris’s face twisted into a worried frown. ”She... came with us.” She rushed to the palanquin and looked inside through the window. Her face quickly froze.

Amaterasu and the missing archon were sitting around a table, sipping on tea and going over several scrolls.

”Are you sure about this? Coming here?”

Amaterasu looked at her with a smile. ”Of course. I’ll just stay here for a while and see if the abominations take the bait.” She looked at the archon. ”What’s the chance of them attacking me?”

The archon looked at the scrolls. ”One in a hundred thousand.”

”Heard her. Pretty unlikely, but I’ll give them something to think about. Better than me staying at my heaven and doing nothing.” She giggled, looking at the archon’s eyes. ”I’ve got enough things here to have fun, so I’ll be fine.”

After a while, she returned to Zia and shook her head. ”I can’t do anything about this. She is insisting that she must stay here for a while.”

The nun approached them and asked with a worried voice, her eyes stealing glances at the palanquin. ”May I ask, who’s in there? Carriers like that aren’t allowed inside the cathedral.”

She quickly shook her head. ”But...! But if you say it, then we can allow them. I’m not here to argue with a divine being. Please forgive me if I sounded rude.”

Eris shook her head. ”I don’t mind. You know, I was just a mortal like you until recently.” She turned toward the palanquin. ”For who is inside, you can’t tell her what to do, especially in this cathedral.”

Eris looked at the nun with a stern face. ”That’s Amaterasu in the flesh sitting there. Make sure no one looks inside, or they’ll get blinded. And those women carrying the palanquin, they are archons.”

The nun just fainted, so Zia had to carry her away.