The dragon's harem

The half-angels watched in horror as the mighty divine punishment disappeared into Arad’s darkness, leaving them wondering if they had started a fight with some kind of god-eating abominable horror.

Their horror quickly shifted to utter bewilderment and madness as they saw him spit the divine punishment back at the heavens that sent it down at him.

Today they’ve learned an important lesson, always try to talk first before starting a fight, no matter how confident they are of winning. If the power of a god can’t stop Arad, then nothing will.

Arad flapped his wings, looking at the sky for a moment before he turned around and flew down, landing right above the injured paladin. Due to Arad’s size, the paladin looked like a tiny spec of dust between his massive arms, insignificant to the point none of the other paladins could’ve believed that Arad kept the tiny man in his mind and avoided stepping on him.

Arad then shifted back to his human form, landing beside the terrified paladin, his whole body smoking from the extreme amount of magic he had to channel.

Arad looked fine, and that was scary. At first, the angels saw him as a mere large human that they could overpower with numbers or skill, but now, looking at his massive figure, bulging muscles, burning purple eyes, the steam rising from his shoulder, and knowing what he did, it was impossible for anyone to dare challenge him again.

Arad cracked his neck and approached the paladin. The poor man tried to crawl away, but he couldn’t have any more energy. His suicidal charge earlier had left him with a wound to his chest that slashed his aorta. Even his own healing magic can’t revert that damage.

Arad leaned forward and touched the paladin, then a surge of divine magic rushed from his palm, engulfing the man in more divine magic than he could’ve ever imagined.

“You’re wasting divine magic trying to recover the blood you’re losing.” Arad mumbled, “That works since if your blood pressure drops a bit too much you’ll lose consciousness. But doing that means you’re not leaving any divine magic to heal the severed massive vein, meaning your bleeding isn’t getting any slower.”

The man coughed blood and tilted his head. “You’re stuck in a circle of recovering your blood only to lose it again without having time to heal yourself. If you pass out, you won’t be able to keep the magic and bleed to death, if you run out of divine magic, you’ll die. Unless someone else heals you, you’re as good as dead.”

Arad healed the paladin’s vein and recovered his blood with divine magic, leaving him as bewildered and terrified as he was before, if not more. “Why! Why did you heal me?”

“Why? Lucifer wouldn’t find it funny if I killed his soldiers the moment I came here.” Arad stood and looked back, “Speaking of the devil…angel? Whatever, good to see you, Lucifer.”

Lucifer was already standing behind Arad with a gentle smile on his face. “Arad, my friend, sorry for being late, did I miss something?” He approached.

“A whole lot, what were you doing while the world here almost burned to ash?” Arad asked with a smile.

“Ahm, about that. Sorry, I just… well, couldn’t just leave my girl hanging, had to finish.” He waved his hands, looked away, scratched the back of his head, and then sighed. “Forget I said anything. Let’s go, we’ve got a whole lot to do.”

“You’re right.” Arad started flying, but Lucifer approached the paladin first. “First, I must applaud you for lasting that long against Arad, even if I’m certain he was going easy on you. Second, don’t attack anyone who comes through the border uninvited. Call me first, I feel like the next time you mess up, we’ll be losing more than your pride.”

He flew and then disappeared with Arad into the horizon.

“So, Arad, how do you like it here?” Lucifer asked with a smile and Arad chuckled, “Told the paladins. I got a warmer reception from the devils in the ninth layer of hell.”

“Shit! And I’m sure it wasn’t just because of the heat, right?” Lucifer laughed, “But I gotta say. It is what you should expect.”

“I came without expectation, what do you mean.” Arad felt that Lucifer had something on his mind, and he was right. Lucifer almost immediately replied after a sigh and a long, deep breath.

“Angels got fed up with the purity and good nature of the heavens so they came down to the mortal world, settled here, had children with humans, and indulged themselves in everything that they couldn’t do before.” He looked at the city that slowly peeked its head on the horizon.

“We eat, we sing, we dance, we kill, we rob, we fuck, and we sleep for our heart’s content. This is the culture around here, so temper your expectations.” He smiled, “And by the way, the half-fallen-angels with Gabriel are the opposite, they are the descendants of the fallen angels who seek redemption. They are more like real angels than devils, I’ll let you know.”

Arad smiled, “So you’re saying it’s the opposite of what people might expect? No wonder I don’t see many of you around the world.”

“But, we have laws, strict laws that keep us in check. Those laws also protect outsiders like you, make sure we don’t harm them.” He looked back.

“Thing is, laws were made to be broken.” He sighed, “Anyway, I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t come to hate this place. But you’ve survived hell, you’ve seen worse than us.”

The two soon landed in a massive palace of gold and jewelry. When Arad looked around he immediately noticed the strong stench of alcohol. “You were drinking?”

“We drink all the time. Anyway, don’t worry about it. I got them to start cleaning before I came to pick you up. They should be done by now.” He then looked at Arad, “As done as for us half-angels. Your draconic senses might pick up that alcohol scent.”

The two walked for a bit and found themselves facing a massive bronze door with two half-angel women standing at each side, four in total, all fully armored.

“This is it, our palace. I hope you’ll find it fun.”

The door slowly opened.