The dragon's harem

The guards at hell’s capital froze, seeing the Black Shadow approaching. The caravan still didn’t return, but they’ve already heard the rumors about the Black Shadow being powerful enough to kill powerful devils and sinners. The two guards lifted their tridents and glared at him. Fear was slowly seeping into the bones.

The Black Shadow halted. Just seeing him move like a ghost was enough to make their skin crawl, and their blood froze the moment they couldn’t see his face, even though they were staring straight inside his hood. He was over three meters tall, standing eye to eye with the biggest of the pit fiends.

An omen of death.

As the devils were about to speak, a voice rang in their heads. “Let him in. He has the courtesy of coming through the front door, so don’t stand in his way, if you value your lives.” That was Asmodeus’s voice.

Even in the deathless hell, the land of eternal suffering, the queen warned them about their lives.

The two devils moved out of the way, and the Black Shadow glided past them without making a sound. And just when he was behind the two devils that they understood something. If they aren’t looking at him, they can’t sense him. They turned back, and he was there, slowly gliding away. The only thing that can help them perceive him is their eyes, they can’t sense magic, sound, or anything. The Black Shadow doesn’t exist until you look at him.

If they don’t see him, he can’t harm them. Or so they thought, finally taking a relieved breath now that he was out of sight.

The Black Shadow floated through the city, watching both sinners and devils gasp and move away from his path. While the ninth layer of hell was filled with horrors beyond mortal imagination, he was the unknown. What everyone feared is what they can’t understand, what they can’t fathom, and prepare for. To them, all they know about the Black Shadow is that he can kill pretty much everyone.

Asmodeus wasn’t shy about informing her devils that he would kill them in this deathless wasteland. One touch and they’ll get erased, and thus, get a title. The Emperor of Nothing, the All One.

The Black Shadow’s hood slowly moved from left to right as he floated past a grill where devils were cooking sinners alive, past a cage where a blond woman sat, all of her limbs sawn off. And soon found himself standing in front of a massive temple.

The Black Shadow looked at the temple for a few seconds, and the guards there started sweating. But just before they could panic, Asmodeus floated down from the sky and landed in front of the Black Shadow.

The people are the ones who started calling him the Black Shadow, and the queen was the one who addressed him as the Emperor of Nothing. Now that the queen appeared, the devils seemed to regain some confidence around the strange being.

It was then that the devils started approaching to look. Did the queen of hell come to deal with the Black Shadow herself? They aren’t going to blow the whole layer, are they? Some even started running away from the city, waiting for it all to rot away.

Asmodeus looked around with a sweet smile on her red lips, “We’ve got a large audience.”

The Black Shadow didn’t reply for a long moment, but then he spoke, his voice deep and gargled as if spoken by a wraith. “I can make them disappear.”

And at that moment, they disappeared. The Black Shadow didn’t kill or eat them, but they ran away the moment they heard those words.

The Black Shadow looked at Asmodeus and she giggled, “Neat trick.” And she then expanded her wings, “Let’s head to my palace, we can talk in peace there. Where no one would bother us.”

While Asmodeus flew to the palace, the Black Shadow disappeared and reappeared in front of the palace’s gate. It was like he could exist wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

The two headed inside, reached the massive throne room and locked the door. Inside it, the Black Shadow stood in the middle of the Devil Queen’s throne room. He looked at the strangely wide throne and saw the two Queens sitting them.

Exact twins, as if created by Gemini. The two Queens sat side by side, their leg intertwined and their arms resting over each other’s necks.

The Black Shadow looked a them for a moment and the lifted his hand. A gust of fresh air flew out of his fingers and in the next second, multiple people appeared. The two Minitour devils, Seer Haru, Sara, Matilda, Lunara, Gamond, and even Mira’s father.

Mira’s father was still hugging his precious violin and mumbling to himself. The years of mind hex and whatever he suffered in hell didn’t seem like something he could recover from any time soon. But at least he is safe now.

Everyone looked at the Black Shadow, and he then removed his hood. Arad stood there and looked at them with a smile, and then his gaze Shifted back to the queens. “Now it’s better, right?”

The two queens smiled, looked at each other, and then one of them spoke. “Indeed, the power to free people from hell isn’t something you’d want everyone to know about. Like this, you’ll be detached from it.”

Arad sighed. He can understand what she wanted when she asked him to keep his identity hidden. Just by being a bit powerful many women came rushing to his castle, Isdis was now having a hard time figuring things out. What if news of him being able to free people from hell spread? Forget just getting several women rushing to his door, the whole world would come crashing down on his castle.

“So?” Arad looked at the two queens, “I’ll have to rely on you to keep what happened here a secret. But you didn’t ask me to come here for nothing, right? Devils rarely work for free.”

The two queens smiled, “Well, of course, I’ll start monopolizing you.” They licked their lips, “But in a good way. First, Seer Haru, Pit Fiend Gorigore, Pit Fiend Flabrony. They’ll be leaving with you.”

And before Arad could ask why, the other queen spoke to explain. “Pit Fiend Gorigore and Pit Fiend Flabrony will be my emissaries from hell to your castle. You’re linked to both the demons and devils now; I would love to use you as a neutral place for war meetings.”

The other queen giggled, “But for Seer Haru, you can have her. I’m sure she’ll be useful if you ever need to deal with some people.”

Arad looked back, “I can understand the two are going to work… but what about her? Seer Haru.” He sighed, “That is not for you to decide.”

The two queens giggled, “Oh but its ours to decide.” They looked at Haru and then one of them spoke, “She is my granddaughter after all.”

The two pit fiends almost fell down, and even Sara choked on air, “Wait, what?”

“You’re the queen’s granddaughter?” Sara looked at Haru with a shocked face. But Haru remained calm, “I’m but one out of many.”

“That doesn’t mean you’ll decide for her.” Arad honestly didn’t care if Haru went with him or not. He understood what the two queens wanted, and it was the same as everyone else. She wants to get one of her direct bloodlines linked to him.

Haru turned to the two queens, “You said he’ll need my help dealing with some people. Do you mean them?”

“Who else would I be talking about?”

Hearing those words, Haru nodded and looked at Arad, “Then I’ll go. No, I insist that I go with you.”

Arad looked a her for a moment, thinking. “First. Who are you talking about? And you’re using Sara’s eyes and ears to listen, aren’t you?”

Haru nodded, “Yes. Sara allowed me to use hers.” She then approached him, “The people we talked about are the triplets of fate. The ones who took my sight and hearing from me when I got my oracle powers.” She looked down, “I want to get them back.”