The dragon's harem

?Nina gasped, the ground beneath her feet cracking as the whole guild building shook, sending terror across all the adventurers. Everyone looked toward her. A box with the remains of an adventurer wasn’t unusual. In fact, it was common.

A ranger looked through his fingers, using a skill to peak all the way to the paper in Nina’s hand, curious as to who died this time.

[The Remain of Arad Orion of Alina, S-rank adventurer.]

The blood froze in his veins. His sweat gushed out as his skin almost turned into stone and his soul wanted to leave his body. That monster Arad died? It didn’t seem real. What could be powerful enough to drop such a being down?

“Hey, who is it?” The fighter beside him asked, poking his side with his elbow, “Jorn? Don’t tell me, that idiot Alomir?”

“I must be blind,” The ranger mumbled, not wanting to believe his eyes.

“You aren’t, who was it?” He poked him again.

“Arad Orion,” He mumbled back with a frozen face.

“Stop joking, even I’m not dumb enough to believe it,” He laughed, poking his friend once again.

“Hoy, stop pretending,” The fighter said with a forced smile, “You’re scaring me. Drop it. There is no monster out there powerful enough to beat Arad. If that was the case, it’s the world’s end,”

“You’re right. The world is about to end,” The ranger gasped.

The earth started shaking, a deep rumbling gushed from its dept as the streets and buildings cracked, and a powerful earthquake shook Alina. All the children in the city started screaming their lungs out, shouting in terror. “The ground is angry! Run!” They started panicking all over the place, causing confusion among the people.

Nina stared down, “Loci! Calm down!” She screamed, smacking the ground with her foot.

CRACK! The ground before the gate, forming a massive jaw twenty meters is width made of stone, roots, and dirt. “Who was it? I’ll eat them whole!”

“Calm down!” Nina screamed again, “This must be a false claim,”

“A false claim?” Loci calmed just enough for her to stop trying to move, if she did, Alina city that was on her back would crumble, killing everyone there.

“I’m sure he’s alive somewhere,” Nina repeated herself, ^Albeit, I never saw a false death before.^

Nina grabbed the top of the sealed box, cracked it open, and took a look inside, finding a large black clothes. She squinted. The smell of rot assaulted her nose.

“It’s,” She gasped, lifting the clothes and unwrapping them, finding Arad’s left arm with all the wedding rings still on the fingers. “His arm?”

The ground started shaking again, and one of the city walls crumbled immediately as Loci tried to stand.

“I said calm! This is good news.” Nina kicked the ground again, “It’s his humanoid arm,”

Loci stopped moving, realizing that even if Arad died in his humanoid form, he would be pushed into other forms. As long as they didn’t get a mutated vampiric wyrmwolf arm. There is still hope.

The guild’s door opened up, and Aella walked in, “Nina! Luci is freaking out, and I don’t know why,” She rushed toward the counter, seeing Nina standing there with the box and Loci’s flower on the side. Her nose immediately tingled from the smell. The magic coming from the box was familiar.

“Arad?” She gasped, staring inside the box only to see Arad’s arm. Her eyes quickly jolted toward the letter and snatched it from Nina’s hands.

“This must be wrong,” She gasped.

“That’s what I think,” Nina replied, “Calm down and don’t panic like Loci, we need to figure out a plan to find and rescue him,”

“He said he’ll be back in a day, but it’s already been over a week,” Aella looked at Nina, “We need to act quickly,”

“Arad should be able to survive. We need to plan well,” Nina turned around, “I’ll get the guild master involved. You get everyone ready. If something took Arad down, we can’t underestimate it.”

Nina rushed to the stairs, jumping straight to the second floor and lunging toward the guild master’s room.

She pulled a golden key from her pocket and opened the door, walking in and closing behind her. The room was clean, only having a large desk, two chairs for the guests, and a large cabin at the back.

Nina approached the cabin, “You said to never let anyone get behind this, and that it’ll be an emergency if someone tried to see what you hid behind,” Nina clenched her fist, “Someone like you would come back if it got crushed.”

BAM! The whole guild shook as Nina smacked the cabin out of the guild with one punch, sending it flying across the streets.

Nina gasped, her eyes opening wide as she saw something she never expected behind the cabin, a massive bone gate with a skeleton stuck to each of the doors, their hands grabbing the handles with eldritch red flames.

“A hell gate?” She gasped, “What’s this doing here? No, what would the guild master do with it?”

The hell gate opened up and Guild Master Malta lunged out, grabbing Nina by the neck and pushing her out of the secret room. “Who…Wait! Nina?” Malta gasped, letting go of Nina.

“You broke into the room?” Malta growled.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I don’t care,” Nina growled, “An adventurer died. We need your help.”

“They die all the time. Is that a reason to break into this room?” Malta growled at her.

“It’s not any adventurer. I’m talking about Arad Orion,” Nina stared at her.

“Now you lie?” Malta growled, “If that man died, the world would end. I’m still alive, and the world still exists, so he’s alive.”

“We got a box with his remains. I’ll bring them to you,” Nina walked out, and Malta sighed, dropping on her chair and looking back at the shattered secret entrance.

“That’s Nina for you, no thinking. She just moves forward until achieving her goals.” Malta smiled, waving her hand and fixing the entrance.

Soon, Nina came back with Arad’s remains, putting them on Malta’s desk. .

Malta took one look inside and her face changed, “This is bad,”

“Figured anything?” Nina looked at Arad’s hands.

Malta pointed at the cut, “Look here, see this black goo? It isn’t rot. It’s something else, and I think I heard of it.”

“You can help then?” Nina looked at her, trying her best to keep up.

“Not me,” Malta shook her head, “But… If it’s what I think it is. Arad might not remain alive for long,” She started sweating, “My husband fought in a war where the thing that this goo came from might have existed. We’ll need to ask him,” She put the hand back in the box and stood, heading toward the secret room.

“Where are you going?” Nina gasped.

“To my husband,” Malta looked at her.

“There is only the hell gate in that room,”

Malta paused for a second, “Well, how do I explain this?” She looked around, “My husband lives in the hells.”

“The first layer of the hell?” Nina gasped, “I never heard of expeditions there,”

“Sorry,” Malta looked down, “In fact, we live in the ninth layer,” She looked away.

“The deepest one?!” Nina gasped.

“And my husband is quite respected,” She giggled, “He’s the pit lord of the pit fiends.”

“An Archdevil?!”

“You already saw the gate.” Malta looked at her, “You can come visit, but don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret,”

“How did you end up with an Archdevil? A contract firing back?” Nina looked at her as they approached the gate.

“In fact,” Malta blushed, “Spindle was with me since he was a tiny, cute little gremlin of an imp,” She started wiggling, “Now he grew into a massive pit lord that commands a part of the devil lord’s army,”

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