The dragon's harem

In hell’s capital, Asmodeus had finally returned to her castle. She slowly walked through the ashen grey walls of her inner quarter, followed by several devils. All of them the best of the best of what the nine hells could offer, powerful and beautiful maidens that can rival the layers’ lords.

She reached her room, threw her mantle away, and sighed. Exhausted from keeping the queen’s stern and aloof mask on, she dropped onto the bed with a pained groan. “Too much work…”

Sitting on the desk beside the bed was another woman, an exact copy of her. No, they looked too similar to be copies. This one was brushing her hair, getting ready to get out and get to work. The two of them took turns ruling hell in shifts.

“Alice, you’ve really exhausted yourself today. Who’s thought Lunara would dare show her face here?” The one brushing her hair giggled.

“Thanks to her, I had to go out of my way to make sure no one attacked her on sight.” Alice, the queen who was now on the bed, growled and hugged her pillow. “Damn it. Selena, I’ll rip your tail off when I see you.”

The one brushing her hair laughed, “Come on, it wasn’t that bad. Nothing like the outer war, and you know Selena and Maha are out there fighting armies of abominations on their own. Give them some slack.”

Alice sat up and threw the pillow at her, “Slack? They are footing the bill for their food. At least they can eat those monsters instead of sowing chaos here. They treat hell like a respawning dinner table.”

“Wasn’t it your idea for them to eat here?” The one on the desk finished brushing her hair and stood, a fresh, silky red dress embroidered with golden threads, switched with her sheep pyjama. “Anyway, I’m off to work. Anything I should know?”

“They headed into the dark area. As long as they follow the seer’s directions, they should be fine. But…” She looked at the window, “I can’t help but get a bad feeling. That place had been like that long before we took the throne.”

The other one sighed. “Are you spying on them? Give me the spellbind, I’ll keep an eye just in case.”

The one on the bed looked away, “I’m not.”

Silence feels for a second, “Wait! You aren’t? This is hell! No one knows what horror awaits them, You should’ve been watching them.”

“They seemed to be wary of my gaze… especially that demon Lunara…” She looked away with a guilty face.

“I don’t care if they like it or not! Right now, they could…” But before she could finish, the ground shook and she fell on the bed. Her hair, which she spent a long time brushing, had now gotten messy again.

The two stood out and looked out of the window, noticing a massive surge of hell’s curse toward the dark area. Asmodeus, the one that was about to leave for work, grabbed the other by the neck and shook her like a doll, “SEE! SEE! Who’s going to clean that now!?” She looked sadder and more miserable than angry.

****

The ground cracked, and fire rose into the sky. The darkness failed to keep hold of the world as Arad flew through the inferno and grabbed the madman by the face. The two flew through the fire, one panicking and the other glaring at him with an emotionless face and purple eyes lusting for blood.

A whip cracked through the fire, aiming for Arad’s exposed back. But before it could taste blood, Arad lifted his forearm and blocked it. The whip wrapped itself around his wrist and the pained woman glared at him with lustful horny face from a distance.

At that moment, the shadows beneath him and the madman swirled into a storm and wrapped around him like a snake. The darkness one appeared around his torso, her lower half shifted into a snake of darkness while her upper half still human. Her bloodied tongue licked Arad’s cheek, her lower jaw still missing.

Arad tensed all of his muscles at once, causing a small shockwave around his body that pushed the darkness woman away, but only her humanoid upper torso. The snake’s lower half, which was made of darkness, couldn’t be harmed with physical attacks. To push her away, he spun his torso and cracked her skull with a backhand so heavy that the shadows trembled in fear, her whole face seemed to disintegrate into blood as Arad teleported away.

Landing on the ground, he saw the madman chasing after him, burning with psionic energy. Instead of directly fighting Arad, he is trying to harm his mind and drive him mad. But that doesn’t seem to be working well. Arad ran away, at first on his legs, but then on all four as dark magic quickly engulfed his body.

Arad was aiming for the pain woman. She is annoying. Her attacks don’t deal that much damage, but they are quite painful, and pain could make it easier for the madman to get into his brain. She needs to go down first.

When she saw him rushing at her like a frenzied beast, a large smile covered her face. She shuddered and opened her arms, “Come! Beat me, make me squeal, give me a hug!”

Arad lunged at her, but instead of a powerful collision, he fazed through her like a ghost. She looked forward with a disappointed gaze, but then her face twisted, paling in horror. She didn’t get hurt…no, she isn’t feeling any pain.

Arad turned himself into nothingness to avoid hitting her like he avoided Nina’s attacks, but not fully the same. Goddess or not, she still is using a body to attack, and that body has nerves. As he passed through, he damaged her spine so she won’t feel any pain from below her neck.

She turned as fast as she could, and at the same time, the madman and the darkness woman arrived. But they were both too late. What faced them was the massive jaw of a titanic dragon, burning with nuclear energy, ready to burst forth.

A massive energy breath blasted the whole area, shaking the nine hells to the core as a pillar of fire, ash, and radiation birthed a grim shadow over the dark area. Arad was flying above the mushroom cloud, his body glowing blue with radiation. He didn’t need to hold anything back in hell. He had even scanned the whole area for a signal of magic similar to Mira’s and found nothing. Those three must’ve killed Mira’s father to send him away so Matilda’s group can never find him.

All of the devils of hell watched in horror as the massive dragon flew over the destruction. His massive wings burned like the radiant night sky, and his whole body hurt the eyes like the limitless void of the abyss.

The two Asmodeuses were watching, both named Alice. The one who met Matilda and the other was the first Alice, and the other was usually called Asmo for short. But that didn’t matter. “SEE!? He’s pissed off and we don’t even know what happened there!! How am I going to mend this now?!” Asmo grabbed Alice by the hair and started swinging her around. Alice also fought back, biting Asmo’s arm.