The dragon's harem

Several tens of devils flew around a massive pyre, guarding it. Their job was simple: keep the light illuminated and prevent anyone and anything from approaching it.

One of them moved -he could feel something approaching from below. He flew forward and looked down through the hole to the eighth layer, but sadly couldn’t see anything due to the raging blizzard.

The storm was violent, even more than usual. But it wasn’t what got the devil worked up -it was a faint clicking noise that had just started echoing around him.

Click after a click, it never ended, and grew stronger by the second. And then, it hit him. Sharp, loud, oppressive, and ruthless. The clicking grew so loud that he could feel his teeth cracking, all of his body convulsed, all of his thoughts washed away, and the only thing left inside his skull was a pain unlike anything that hell could offer.

It was approaching, coming from the depths of hell. Black wings, radiant blue eyes, a will far more harrowing than the ancient devils. The devil’s whole nervous system fried itself, sending the powerful fiend’s corpse tumbling down into the snow.

The other devils saw it, but it was already too late. They, too, were hearing it, the clicking of death. But to their luck, one was smart enough to notice.

“A mental attack!” He shouted, quickly setting several magical barriers around his mind to shield himself from whatever insidious curse the horror coming up was unleashing. Some of the other devils did the same, but most weren’t so lucky -they fell broken and dead on the spot.

But even the devils who managed to shield their minds weren’t safe. The fear, the horror, the oppressive and dreadful presence. It far outclassed the harrowing aura of the queen of hell. They could at least feel a bit of kinship to her, but this horror coming toward them was completely alien, ineffable, and violent.

What arrived next was worse: the radiation.

The devils who managed to stand their ground found their skin falling off, their eyes growing blind, and their organs shutting down as a deadly wave of radiation washed over the entire area, ripping and tearing everything to pieces. As their very cells were killed, regeneration and healing magic became useless, turning those deadly and powerful devils into moaning lumps of inflamed flesh. Fresh chapters posted on novᴇlfire.net

By that time, the devil, who died first due to Gojo’s mind wave of psychic energy, was resurrected by the grace of hell, only to be assaulted again by both the mind wave and radiation.

The devils died, were forcibly brought back to life by hell, only to die seconds later. This repeated several times, growing faster and more painful the closer Gojo got to them, until the obsidian wings finally emerged from the roiling snow of the eighth layer.

Not even the powerful devils of the seventh layer of hell are worthy to stand in Gojo’s deadly presence. His mere existence several thousand kilometers from them was enough to spell their death.

As Gojo landed on the seventh layer, everything around him crumbled to ash, disintegrated by the endless streams of high-energy radiation and heat.

But it could never be safe, not even for him, for this was hell. From the distant horizon, a black flood of insects rushed forth. Three-meter-tall humanoid cockroaches, ten-meter millipedes, clouds of wasps, flies, and mosquitoes, followed by an avalanche of spiders and beetles, each varying from as small as a fingernail to towering over mountains.

They were all devilish in nature, and their hungry, malicious gazes fell upon the black-winged dragon, drooling over the fresh flesh.

The seventh layer of hell was a place where sinners were constantly assaulted and violated by insects, eaten alive, and torn apart from the inside out, all while being forced to stay alive and resurrected over and over for all eternity.

Gojo opened his massive jaw and roared. An explosive shockwave burst forward as the loud roar washed over the seventh layer, ripping anything it came into contact with to pieces. The insect’s wings tore apart, their chitin cracked and shattered, and their eyes popped out of their heads.

It only took one roar for all the insects in the layer to understand that Gojo wasn’t a dragon they could beat with sheer numbers.

With one roar, he had killed thousands of hulking cockroaches, each of which was as powerful as A-ranker. This only means that drastic measures are needed quickly.

From the ground, a massive spider burst from the stones like a thousand-year-old scada. Gojo was massive, being around seven to eight kilometers long -without counting his tail. A titanic horror, but he was still dwarfed by the brood mother.

The brood mother was over twenty kilometers wide by legspan, armed with massive poisonous fangs, steel webs, and a speed that something her size shouldn’t have.

The brood mother wasn’t Gojo’s only problem; something else emerged from the blinding light he had to snuff. A tall, humanoid moth stepped out, looking as beautiful as any Nymph Gojo had seen. But there was no mistaking it; his eyes could see the rotting, abominable corruption consuming the heart of that devilishly beautiful face.

The brood mother was here to defend the layer; the abominations had nothing to do with her, but the moth wasn’t.

“Dragon in Black, what brought you to our land?” A loud voice boomed from the brood mother, washing over the seventh layer and shaking the ground.

Gojo’s head moved slightly, and he glared at her. “I only seek that light’s death. Get out of my way.”

The brood mother shifted, looking at the moth bathed in light, then frowned. “Moth, scram. You aren’t welcome in this layer anymore.”

The moth laughed.

“Kicking me out at the first sight of danger, aren’t you a coward?” The moth giggled and looked at Gojo. “Dragon in Black, you aren’t my target. So what brought you to meme?”

Gojo wasn’t willing to talk. He had only one goal: to get rid of the light, and so, he opened his jaw, charging a breath.

The moth growled. “Not going to speak with me, are you?” She expanded her wings, ready to fly and dodge the beam. But then she froze, feeling two hands grab her chest from behind.

Gojo was there, hugging her from the back with crazed blue eyes. “GOT YOU!”

His fingers dug into her breasts, ripped into her chest, and tore her lungs out. As Gojo spun her around, his fists came crashing down on her face, cracking her skull open, before he grabbed her by the hair. Using all of his power and space manipulation, he stretched her body across a whole kilometer like a spagity, tearing all of her organs and cells out.

The massive black dragon charging a breath in the back faded away, disappearing into sparks of magic.

The moth’s soul found itself drifting away, getting chained by hell. She had died here and thus was bound. She watched Gojo standing over her violated corpse with a somber face. That was no normal being, but a rabid monster. One mistake had caused her to suffer a horrible, painful death.

But it wasn’t the end; hell would soon resurrect her. She’ll make sure he suffers as much as she did.

Gojo’s head snapped back, and his eyes were glaring straight at her soul as it floated away. She gasped, understanding a second too late that she wasn’t safe.

The light faded away, and the moth’s soul was no more. The last thing she saw was Gojo’s smiling face, glowing blue eyes, and the crackle of magic.

It was impossible to fathom; her job was to guard the light, to assure no devil or monster dared to get close. The moth was powerful, far outclassing any devil lord by the grace of the blessing of her nebulous patron.

Her patron warned her about a beautiful woman with blue eyes, but no one said anything about a handsome man with white hair and blue eyes.

“Dragon, listen to me.”

The brood mother called, and Gojo stopped moving. “I’m in a hurry; get in my way, and I’ll burn this entire layer.”

“I do not wish to get in your way. I wish to make sure you do not kill any more of my children.” She glared down at him with burning-red eight eyes. Her entire body burned with dark magic and curses, rising as a towering titan that reached the clouds with her head.