The dragon's harem

Outside the castle and in the middle of the violent thunderstorm, Arad was riding on a really big moose. The animal stood over a hundred meters tall with antlers that could blot out the sky. Of course, Arad had used size magic on Mc to make him large enough to endure the storm and carry him through it.

Tyal was riding in the front on her massive lightning tiger, causing the countless titans walking the streets to either stare at her or gasp. It wasn’t every day that someone saw such a fearsome monster.

Arad’s Mc, on the other hand, wasn’t that impressive. The titans looked at him for a few seconds, both confused and stunned at what kind of a mount this supposed emperor was riding. Arad noticed their stares, and he didn’t even look at them.

^My moose is far better than your monsters. What matters isn’t raw power, it’s the heart of courage and will to survive. This moose would charge with me headfirst into hellish battles while your mounts would cower in fear.^ He patted Mc’s head, “Don’t listen to them, you’re the best mount ever.”

Mc snorted, shaking its head with pride. Arad could understand its emotions. The moose didn’t care about what the titans thought, he didn’t even see them as beings worth his gaze and time. This walking tank with antlers didn’t fear demons nor gods, and he didn’t even care about the other lesser beings besides his riders and his family.

Mc would only care a bit if it were another moose. A female to mate with, and a male to beat up. Everything else is beneath him, and if the bugs beneath him dare attack him, then he’ll charge and ram them with his antlers, stomp them with his hooves, and bite their necks out. But he also made it clear that those around Arad aren’t lesser beings, especially Aella and Mira… those two fed it the sweet carrots.

Behind Arad was Alice, who rode on her elusive and ethereal unicorn. The ghostly pony silently trotted after Arad, its body shrouded in countless veins of ghostly silt and threads of magic, weaving into a tapestry of intertwined ruins. While everyone else was braving the violent wind of the eternal storm, Alice and her unicorn seemed unaffected by it, her hair didn’t even flutter.

While the unicorn and Alice looked enchanting, what stole everyone’s gaze was the lizard beside it. The massive, green drake groaned as its red eyes burned with hunger and madness, glaring at the titans with malice. It saw them as nothing more than food, and they knew it. Not one of the titans managed to understand how Claug is keeping such a monster under control, let alone ride it as a mount. The drake didn’t shy from drooling at every soft-looking titan that they passed, turning its head and licking its massive fangs.

Soon, they reached a massive platform that overlooked the vast mountain range. In their size, the platform looked large, but not that massive. While in reality it was almost five hundred kilometers wide, enough to host a small human kingdom. The large platform served as the capital’s plaza, and it overlooked the mountains, where the titans hunt monsters for food.

Tyal stopped and dismounted from her tiger as she walked toward the edge. Everyone followed and did the same. “No matter how we tried to raise cattle, that seemed impossible due to the weather here… I’m not sure that we even have weather. Just a storm. That’s why the titans hunt monsters for meat instead.”

Arad looked at the mountains, and he could already sense millions of powerful monsters crawling in the cracks and ravines between the mountains. The deeper you go into the darkness, the more powerful they get. The weakest he could sense were B-rank at the mountains, but the strongest ones far surpassed what humans would call an S-rank.

This was one reason why Arad couldn’t let the Storm Titans fall. They are keeping those monsters in check by hunting them for meat. Without the Titans, the monsters would flood the continent and turn it inhospitable for mortal life.

“The monster can hide from the storm in the dark depths.” Tyal pointed into the large ravines. “But… weak monsters usually get kicked out or eaten there.”

Alice finished after her. She was a Storm Titan as well and had learned a lot about those mountains. “Weak monsters can’t survive here, the storm would kill them, that’s the first threat. Then those monsters would fight and kill each other on the way down, and only the strong ones managed to crawl into the safe depths, where they would fight for food and eat each others, leaving only the most powerful to survive and reproduce.”

Arad looked at the darkness. “That doesn’t make sense. Won’t that mean the monsters’ offspring would rise in the depths? Where do the monsters above come from?”

Tyal smiled, “While a monster can be strong enough to survive, many can’t survive while pregnant or while protecting eggs. So they would crawl out of the depths to lay eggs in the safe peaks and leave after the eggs hatch. But of course, some really powerful ones can afford to lay eggs in the dark depths.”

The deeper Arad looked, the more worried he got. The vast depth spreads far down to the point where he senses he can’t reach, which is horrifying. Arad looked around. The titanic mountains here are anywhere from 500-1000km tall, and the depth of the ravines spread past Arad’s senses, which means they are at least 3000-3500 km deep.

^This place might extend to the core of the world, even… the hell is this place?^ As Arad was thinking, Zephyr’s voice rang in his head.

^Do you know what we spirits call it?^ She giggled, ^We call it Gaia’s buttcrack, since it’s wide and houses a lot of horrid shit. The depths spread all around the planet like one massive underworld of caves and underground lakes. Each monster you face there is stronger than the one before it.^ She sighed, ^And, this isn’t the only entrance, there are many of them. Each one is guarded by a tribe of Titans that makes sure nothing escapes.^

Arad sighed and Zephyr laughed, ^So yeah, you can’t blast it with a single breath.^

Arad looked down, his eyes flashing with purple magic. ^I’m not going to blast it. I need the monsters down there to remain alive.^ Three lines of darkness sneaked out from beneath his feet, too small to be noticed by anyone, and lunged into the dark depths.

Falling down, Darkness, Madness, and Pain were thrown back by the violent winds of the never-ending storm, but they persevered and landed in the snow, looking down at the monsters around them.

Their goal is simple: to collect souls for Arad to build an army of The Voids. And of course, they weren’t hunting blindly. Darkness was ordered to find and track a creature that excels at stealth. Madness hunted those who possessed mind control and hex abilities. Pain, on the other hand, looked for the most horrid and terrifying horrors, those that could cause a lot of agony and pain instead of outright killing their prey.