The dragon's harem

Kali sighed. “That fool never stops his games.” She leaned back on her ice chair, looking at the glowing sapphire lights on the ceiling.

“I guess that Nyar wants to take control of Stillness, the same way he tried to take control of me.” Isabelle looked at the table. “But such a plan would never work.”

Cania didn’t move an inch, but her voice rang across the whole throne room. “Six accursed lamps, all calling me to move. I bet they are used to corrupt and turn me into an abomination.”

Kali shook her head.

“But you’re useless. You can’t freeze anything; AO is the one who created you. Nothing can move; the universe would follow the words literally.” She rubbed her temples.

That was when talking about a full-power AO, not Arad in his current condition. Even Violet would feel like she is trapped in a sea of tar when touched by the inexorable will of Stillness.

The current Arad can’t resist Cania’s power. If she were to fall into the abominations’ hands, then the universe would be in a really bad spot.

Cania looked at Kali, “I’m certain Nyar took this move to draw me out, or to lure Arad. That’s why we can’t give him either.”

Isabelle also agreed. The best way to deal with Nyar is to never give him what he wants, at any cost.

There was a total of six lamps outside, each illuminated by a strange, alien light that attracted Cania. She could resist it for now, but the light grew stronger each day, and she would eventually give up. That’s when she devised several plans.

The first plan was to hire some devils to destroy the lamps, which failed miserably. Her other plan was to cut the lamp’s supply routes, which also failed as the devils maintaining those lamps were getting sacrifices from the mortal world.

“I already had a vestige called Blue Ice in Gojo’s kingdom, and he is powerful enough to shatter all lamps. My only problem is that he won’t listen unless I give him a reason to.” She looked at Kali. “Arad is my hostage for that.”

Kali stood and turned around to leave. “I’m taking Arad with me. I know you won’t harm him, but I can’t just leave him with you.”

Cania stood. “I can’t give him to you. I need him to keep Gojo moving.”

Kali glared back at her with glowing pink eyes. “Who said you’d be giving him to me? I said I’m taking him, not that I’m asking for permission.”

Isabelle stood.

“Damn it, you two! We were just talking.” She glared at Kali. “Leave Arad with her for now. He’ll be fine; being still won’t kill him. He probably won’t even realize that time passed.”

She then glared at Cania. “And you! Kali stays with Arad.”

Kali lifted her foot and stomped down.

The entire layer shook, the frozen glaciers cracked, the snow trumbled, and the endless frozen sea vibrated. The air itself started boiling, and cracks appeared in reality, ripping and tearing all devils and sinners living on the eighth layer of hell.

That was Kali’s will, pure destruction. With that one stomp, she doomed the layer into inevitable ruin and annihilation.

Cania waved her open palm, then moved both of her hands like the hands of a clock. With a calm face, she said one word.

“No.”

Everything halted. The air, time, space, Isabelle on the side, the cracks in reality, the chaos and destruction, it all came to a stop, unable to move forward or backward. Kali, too, looked frozen for a second before a smile crossed her face.

Kali took a step forward, and a weapon appeared in each of her hands. One hand held a bow, another held an arrow, one held a sickle, another held a hammer, another held a sword, and the last one carried a spear.

When Kali took another step, all of her clothes evaporated and were replaced by a macabre of corpses. A skirt of severed hands, a necklace of heads, Cania’s devil generals’ heads, and a carpet of blood beneath her feet.

Cania expanded her massive moth wings, and her whole body washed in shards of silver glass. She seemed to come to a full halt, before her radiant blue eyes flashed and she started floating.

The entire layer surrounding them disappeared, turning into an endless white expanse. The land of stillness where movement is forbidden. Forget all of the promises of progression, evolution, and prosperity, because everything here stays the same.

The entire universe held its breath. When those two would clash, Nyar wouldn’t have a universe to invade anymore. This would’ve been the end, if not for something strange.

“Fucking hell! This is the shit I gotta deal with! Gojo better pay me for this! And I don’t need any more food!”

Hearing that voice, Kali and Cania stopped, stared at each other for a second, then blinked.

“Damn it!” Cania growled.

“She’s good!” Kali laughed.

Deep beneath the endless layers of Ice, Arad’s body disappeared from its seal and was replaced by an angry, tiny, blond little girl.

Cania immediately looked into the ice and saw her, “Girl! What are you doing?” She growled at Lucy.

“Getting Arad out of your ice, dumbass, what do you think?!” Lucy shouted back at her, and she didn’t look pleased at all.

“You think someone like you can snatch him away from me? Even Kali couldn’t.” Cania tried to locate Arad again, but she failed.

Lucy laughed at her. “HAHAHA! See that, you can’t do shit!”

“Where did you throw him?!” Cania now had another problem. Arad was AO, an important being. Sealing him is one thing, but the gods can’t lose track of his location, because that would make him a prime target for Nyar.

In fact, she sealed him beneath all of her ice so Nyar can’t get to him without killing her first.

“Hell if I know, stupid! I did it anyway, suck it!” Lucy struggled for a bit, but the ice was freezing her rapidly. Soon, she would be as sealed as Arad was before.

Cania shifted her attention to Kali. “How did she get there? Where did she send Arad? Don’t tell me you don’t know.”

But looking at Kali’s face, Cania didn’t need to hear the answer. “Lucy is a wild magic user; if she teleported Arad away, no one knows where he’ll end up.”

By that time, Lucy was already frozen solid, sealed in Arad’s place. But he was nowhere to be seen.

At that moment, Isabelle finally managed to burst into the white world where the two were. “Arad is gone!” She shouted, and Cania glared at her.

“I know! I’ll kill that brat later. For now, call Yog and find out his location.”

“I did!” Isabelle cried. “The moment I lost his magic signal, I called Yog to find him. She told me that he got eaten.”

“Eaten by what? Even Nyar would get food poisoning from eating him.” Kali growled, then screamed into the air.

“Yog! Where is he?”

[Eaten by Entropy]