The dragon's harem

“Zia! Get her to a safe place for now!” Eris flew into the raging battle. She could see her angels getting smacked left and right; their strongest managed to stand up to some of the false gods, but the fight wasn’t going in their favor.

It took five to six angels to keep one false god pinned. Soon, Eris’s forces would get overwhelmed.

Moving like a radiant flash, Eris swam between the fighting angels and burned the false gods down, creating an opening for her angels to retreat and regroup. If she is to win here, she must both fight and command her troops well.

Knowing what she must do, Eris spiked her divine magic as much as she could. It was time, and so she flew up, almost reaching Amaterasu. Her body stretched like dough, and a large smile covered her face.

“Hehe… hehehehehehe!” She started giggling, and soon switched into maniacal laughter.

Blood burst from her body and mixed with the plasma, causing a blinding spark, then from that, purple flames consumed everything.

The false gods growled as the darkness vanished and the blinding light washed over them. They could see it in all of its radiant glory, a purple sun at least a thousand kilometers wide, and it was rapidly growing.

The angels and vampires retreated to the purple sun, unharmed by its raging inferno, but when the false gods tried to approach, bursts of solar flares burned them away.

It was quite strange to stand on the surface of a sun, but the vampires and angels did just that. This was their goddess’s heaven, and her will protected them from the heat and gravity.

From the sun’s surface, Eris emerged. Her body stretched up to five meters tall, making her look like a slender horror wearing a crimson dress of blood and plasma.

“False gods of this forsaken place.” She extended her hands up. “Sacrifice your blood to me. My angels, slaughter them all, bring me their rotten guts, and feed me their lives!”

The purple sun sparked, rivers of red blood flowing on its surface like cracks, and it started bleeding, a torrent of blood seeped down, washing over the false gods, carrying an army of angels and vampires.

The sun’s fire burned them, and its gravity ripped them apart. The angels smite them with divine magic, and the vampire sucked their blood dry. The sun’s blood, Eris’s blood, wasn’t still either; it swallowed the false gods whole and pierced them with countless spears and spikes of blood.

Eris’s long battle against the false gods had started, marking the beginning of her training under Amaterasu’s guidance.

****

Step, step, and another step, from the lightless fabric of space, Plum walked out. As her feet landed on the solid ground, she looked around, finding herself in a desolate wasteland.

Endless gray dried land, jagged stones, pale white sky full of toxic clouds. There wasn’t even breathable air around.

“Ho, no one had visited me in the last three thousand years. I had to go out and visit people.” A voice called from behind, and Plum slowly turned.

There he was, a thin man looking in his early twenties, sitting on a boulder. He wasn’t that tall, not that well built, but his ashy gray skin, red eyes, and massive horns made him look like a devil. But Plum knew this wasn’t a devil.

“A human? Here, out of all places?” She asked with an aloof face. “And why do you look so demonic?”

The man stared at her silently for a second, then burst laughing.

“Seriously? You’re powerful enough to come here on your own, yet you don’t know who I am? I bet you don’t even know where you are.” He laughed so hard that he fell off the boulder to the ground.

“I’m looking for someone in a certain world. Where am I? And did you see two humans or dragons? One massive and muscular, the other white haired and thin, a bit shorter.” She fully turned around, getting all of her magic ready for a fight.

The demonic human kept laughing for a while longer before wiped the tears off his eyes.

“Sorry, little fairy. I didn’t see anyone. As I said, I live alone in this place. If anyone came, I would’ve known. Like I did earlier and came to you.” He looked around with a wistful smile.

“Also, this place isn’t a world. It’s a major realm, like Hell or the Abyss.” He smiled.

“I’m Hades, and this is my gray, lifeless, wasteland. Welcome to the Gray Wastelands of Hades.” He looked at the sky. “A sad place, so you shouldn’t stay too long.”

Plum looked around with a stern face, then sighed. “I don’t sense them either. So I’ll be leaving.” She then turned toward him.

“I also don’t sense any World Tree around. Would you mind if I left a tree of mine here?”

He chuckled.

“A tree? Here? It’ll die.” He smiled. “I’ll kill it. Anything and everything that stays here for too long is doomed to die, its power and life force sucked by me. It’s not something that I can control.”

As Plum listened to him, she found it hard to believe that he was here alone; she didn’t even believe that this place was a realm like Hell and the Abyss, so she did the first thing that came to mind and called someone.

^Kali, do you hear me?^

After a few long seconds, Kali’s voice reached her.

^I can, where are you? Did something happen?^

^I’m in this world that looks like a massive gray wasteland, and there is this demonized human with gray skin and…^

^Get the hell out of there, and don’t fight him. If you have already started a fight, I’m coming.^

^We’re not fighting. Wait, if you’re reacting like this, then he wasn’t lying?^

^Whatever he said, it’s probably right. That’s Hades, and he’s stronger than the overgod; he just doesn’t have the authority.^

At that moment, the air beside Plum cracked into a jet-black portal, and from it, Kayden walked out wearing trunks, a flowered jacket, and a straw hat with sandals.

Hades’s eyes opened wide as he saw Kayden.

“Yo! It’s been a while. What brought you here?” He jumped to his feet and approached.

“Kali sent me here. I’m glad to see you didn’t hurt her.” Kayden looked at Plum, then turned back to Hades.

Hades shrugged.

“It was clear she isn’t evil. I could tell she was leeching off Yggdrasil, but she didn’t mean any harm.” He smiled and looked at Plum, “Isn’t that true?”

Plum slowly flew up. Even now, she couldn’t feel that much power from Hades. He looked to be at best as strong as Gamond, but nothing more. But with how Kali treated him, something seemed off.

“So this is a great realm.” She smiled, and Hades shrugged.

“An unlucky great realm that was unfortunate enough to have me here.” He reached up, grabbed one of his horns, and ripped it off. Plum paled and flew a foot back, sweating.

“What, don’t be scared.” He looked at the horn, broke the tip off, and hollowed its insides, turning it into a war horn. By the time he finished, his severed horn was already healed.

“Take it.”

Hades threw the war horn to Plum and smiled.

“If you find any abomination, blow it. I’ll come and tear them apart for you. Any excuse to leave this sad place.”

Kayden looked at Hades, then signaled to Plum. “Let’s leave, staying here for too long is bad.”

“If you don’t know, little fairy. I absorb anything and everything. If you stay here for too long, you’ll die, and all of your power will be mine. That’s how I got so strong. So don’t worry about me, just call me out.” He waved his hand as Kayden opened a portal to leave, and so did Plum.

As Hades was left alone, he stood, cracked his neck, and stretched his arms. “That was the most action I had for decades.” His body turned into stone, turning into a lifeless statue.