The dragon's harem

“No, sadly, I hadn’t the pleasure of going to war yet.” Arad looked at her with a passive face. His eyes sparked purple as he stood. “But, All I care about now is learning how to control souls better.”

The abomination’s souls are all linked to Nyar, like a part of him. It doesn’t matter how many times they were destroyed. They’ll always return to their father and get reborn from the black depths with his vast body.

Damnation shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. This is all I can teach you. The others are biological functions of my soul. All abominations are unique, and each uses their powers based on what they are.”

Arad looked at her. “So besides the silver chain that links the body and soul, those two must also work like a lock and its key. I’ll keep that in mind, but now, we must finish what we started.”

Damnation stood, ready to fight, “Are we really still going to fight? I thought we were going to stop. I can keep teaching you how to control souls, and you let me live.”

“Not my call.” Arad shook his head, “You didn’t just kill many. You made them suffer torturous pain for years by burning them alive. You can’t pay me and expect them to forget unless you can get each one of them to vouch for you. I’ve got a duty to put you down.”

Arad lept at her with a clenched fist, and she flew aside to dodge the attack. “Calm down! Are you telling me that bribes don’t work on you? Everything has its price.”

“Indeed!” Arad chased after her, “Now you’re paying the price of the suffering you caused them.”

Damnation threw her arm toward Arad and blasted him with a powerful explosion of fire to create a smokescreen for herself to gain some distance. As she was trying to back away, a shadow flew through the flames.

A little girl who looked no older than ten emerged from the fire and grabbed Damnation by the head, grinding her skull to the ground. When Damnation gasped and kicked the little girl away, she saw her turn into an old man leaning on his cane, glaring at her with deathly empty eyes.

The old man swung his cane down at the ground and caused a powerful enough shockwave to blast Damnation a few meters back. But by that time, he had turned into a healthy, strong man in his late thirties with flowing golden hair and radiant brown eyes.

That man lunged at Damnation with a clenched fist, and by the time he punched her in the face, he had turned into a frail-looking, pregnant woman in her early twenties.

Damnation growled. “What’s going on?” She kicked the woman in the stomach and flew away. But before she could make it far, the newborn baby that was now floating where his mother was kicked; he threw his umbilical cord and caught Damnation by the neck.

With a single pull from the baby’s tiny arm, he yanked the abomination back and threw his foot in a kick. By the time Damnation was close enough to take the kick, the baby had turned into a teenage girl with vibrant red hair and blue.

A void dragon’s shapeshifting ability was power, far stronger than most dragons except steel dragons, to which they were equal. Even Arad’s mother was known to live many lives, switching vessels every few decades. One time, she would be a queen and a commoner in the next.

The souls that Arad freed, each tiny human soul that shattered in his hands as he freed them from the clutches of eternal suffering and burning in the incinerating ash. Even if it was just symbolic, even if it had no meaning, it was their right, and Arad was going to deliver. He was going to kill Damnation using their hands.

Damnation found it quite irritating. The faces of the people she once killed, both directly and indirectly, were coming back to haunt her, worn like skin suits by the most horrifying monster of them all.

The men and women, the elderly and old, the living and the not yet born, one by one, emerged from the depth of Arad’s great soul, switching between countless weapons and fighting styles spells, making it impossible for Damnation to predict and defend against any of their attacks.

The heavy punching coming from a large man could soon turn into a flying cane held by old grandma and then turn into a spell flung by a young boy not older than ten.

Arad wasn’t a monster. Half of him was a mere human. Each soul that shattered in his hands was a disaster that he would never forget. They were relieved from the endless searing pain and welcomed into the calm nothingness of the void, but still, he wished he could’ve allowed them to reach either heaven or hell. For that, Arad made sure to remember all of their faces, their bodies, and what little memories they left.

When the mother’s soul shatters, and her last wish is to thank her son, Arad makes sure to deliver her words to her son using her face before her son’s soul shatters as well.

Damnation was blasted back by a punch from a woman in her late thirties and then held down beneath the iron boots of an elderly soldier. “You won’t have an easy death: The souls tortured by you are lost forever, and revenge is always cold and meaningless. But, that’s only when carried by the harmed ones.”

The soldier shifted back to Arad, “Do you know when revenge has a meaning? It means something when carried by an external force, by a justice system to deliver punishment and set an example, by a god whose presence will deter more evil deeds.”

Arad lifted his foot up, “Your death will be a warning to all other abominations, an example. Let them know that messing with the universe will come at a price and that I’ll hunt them down to the end of the void, rip them apart, limb by limb.”