The dragon's harem

An Ash Spawn lunged at Arad, swinging a long sword of burning, rusted metal. The creature was too fast for Amber to see, and even Eris could barely react. But before the monster could reach Arad, Tempo swung his sword, slashing the Ash Spawn’s arm off alongside its head in a single swing.

Tempo’s blade left a crescent arch of crimson flame, searing the ash and vaporizing it to smoke. “Monster! Release those souls, or I’ll burn even your ash.”

Tempo might not have as much latent heat as someone like Eris, who is a demi-goddess capable of creating small plasma suns, but he is far more efficient in utilizing his fire.

As a response to Tempo’s words, more Ash Spawns emerged from the ground, and most of the new ones were Titans. He wanted to curse but refrained not to empower the vile monster.

Arad reached forward and patted Tempo’s shoulder. “I might be able to help, but some of those souls are going to be destroyed.”

Tempo looked back at him for a second, “Do it. We won’t be able to search the area and save the survivors as long as they are getting in our way.”

Tempo nodded with a stern face, “Do what you have to do. I’m sure that’s better for them than whatever horror this thing is subjecting them to.” Knowing how Raptur treated its soul prisoners, Arad was certain that Tempo’s words were true.

Arad took a deep breath, his lungs forcefully filtering the ash and fire from his system. His body grew tighter, and his eyes flashed golden and purple. What he needs now is precision, not overwhelming power, and with that, he starts leaning on his werewolf blood for heightened reflexes and reaction speed.

With one leap, Arad flew past Tempo and punched one of the Titan Soul Ash Spawns hard enough to bow a chunk of their chest away.

The Ash Spawns immediately retaliated, ganging on Arad and surrounding him from all directions.

The Ash Spawns swirled as their weapons danced in the air, carried by waves of burning hot ash. Each blade flew at Arad from a different direction. At the same time, the Ash Spawns themselves charged forward with claws of fire.

The fight was short. Arad’s heavy punches and kicks landed with shockwaves, ripping through the Ash Spawns and their weapons with relative ease. The way he moved looked a bit strange. Eris had never seen such a hand-to-hand fighting style from him.

Of course, that is because Arad never used it before. He had just learned and perfected it. That was the style that the Overgod’s Dead Heart used, and he mixed it with Zenia’s combat style, giving birth to something new.

The core of the style was that Arad didn’t use his arms and legs as limbs for punching and kicking but as weapons for delivering blunt trauma. Instead of throwing a direct punch, he’ll drop his fist down like a hammer on an Ash Spawn head, planting their skull into their chest cavity.

As Arad rampaged and Tempo did his best to assist him by thinning down the horde of Ash Spawns trying to attack him, the battle continued for a while. Eris was already ripping heads with her bare hands, and even Amber had managed to burn some of the Ash Spawns, even if they were already burned.

Soon, Tempo noticed the number of Ash Spawns dropping down rapidly. “Arad! It’s working!” He shouted with a smile.

“No, it’s not. I can help some of the Titans, but all of the humans’ souls are getting destroyed.” Arad plunged his hand into the chest of one of the Titan Ash Spawns and ripped their soul out.

The soul cracked but still held its shape. Battered and hurt, it tried to reform itself. Arad watched the soul recover slowly, getting some much-needed inspiration on how he might be able to help Tina.

But then, the soul’s cracks grew wider, and its energy rapidly dropped, consumed by both pain and agony. Arad could see What damnation did to the souls it captured.

Damnation subjected the souls to the eternal agony of burning in hot ash and embers. Those Ash spawns were created by burying a living mortal into the ash and letting them slowly cook until nothing but their ashes remained. Those ashes are then reanimated with magic and used as minions. Even now, the poor souls are still suffering from the searing heat, tortured by the hellish ash.

“You were right!” Arad shouted. “They are in pain, burning in the ash.” He flew forward and ripped the souls of two Ash Spawns at once. One was that of a Titan, and the other belonged to a human.

The human’s soul instantly shattered, and the Titan’s soul started trying to repair itself.

Arad could’ve used the Titans’ souls to create more void creatures, but he chose to release them into the world, letting them soar into the heavens or sink into the depths of hell.

“Then put them to rest!” Eris shouted as she grabbed a Titan’s Ash Spwan by the arm, swung it around like a ragdoll, and blasted it away with a divine smite.

The one who struggled the most was Amber. Unlike everyone else, she didn’t have any other way of attack besides her flames. But that was fine. She had enough of playing nice, and it was time to burn everyone to ash, no, burn even the ash into nothingness.

She grew as large as a human and stomped on the ash, her foot sending a powerful shockwave rippling through the white dunes.

“I am Amber Burnhill, a descendent of the great clan Burnhill of pyromancers!” Her skin cracked, and streams of fire burst out like lava. Her eyes flashed red, and her nails heated up until they started glowing pale white.

“Titans! Abominations! Dragons! Do any of you dare boast a command over fire greater than that of spirits? NO! None of you even match. This is my domain, and it shall bend to my WILL!”

A pair of fire wings burst from Amber’s back as she turned into a burning fire spirit, and the whole area ignited. The heat and flame trapped in the ash and embers flew toward her in waves and torrents of pure inferno.

Amber absorbed all of the heat, consumed it, and flew into the sky like a crimson meteor going backward, her body blindingly bright.

Then, a flash illuminated the sky as Amber unleashed all of the fire she stored into the open sky, incinerating the heavens and shattering the clouds with crimson radiance.

Amber had taken all of the heat and fire from the ash, cooling it down and weakening the Ash Spawns to the point that they became as slow as zombies. That had allowed Arad to finish them off all in the blink of an eye.

Tempo looked at the sky, where Amber slowly descended down. “As expected of a fire spirit.”