The dragon's harem

Agnar looked down and frowned. He had left his snowshoes back at the tree he was sawing. Fighting around the camp was somewhat possible, but there is no way in hell he’ll be running all the way to Obelisk on the snow.

She looks to be on the other end of the forest.

So he reached into his pocket and pulled another one, a bottle of cursed water, not another pair of snowshoes. Why would he run when he has a perfectly fine flying horse around?

He looked at the succubus with an evil smile. “Time to work, horse… no, donkey.”

He splashed the succubus in the face with the cursed water, healing her. Since she is controlled by the slave collar, they might as well use her well. In such a desperate situation, Agnar won’t refuse the help of anyone. Even an evil, twisted, and scary succubus.

“You come from hell, right? Get moving. I know you can handle pain well. Here ya go!” Since she didn’t move immediately, he had to pull her up on her feet and then smack her on the back with a hard slap.

The impact of witnessing Yuwaku’s beauty should still be seared into her brain, making it nearly impossible to feel sober. She felt dazed, drunk, and disoriented, like she had been punched in the face.

She definitely looked the part, unable to stand straight and still wobbling like a newborn donkey. Agnar’s flying horse had been downgraded into a drunk filly.

But before he could get her sober and ready to fly, the ground trembled once more, quaking under massive stress as countless trees were blasted away in a storm of splinters and snow.

A hundred-meter-tall, demonic, and horrid creature stood up as the three devils flew away, screaming and crying. It was massive, with two stumpy legs, a muscular torso, and two ape-like heads above its wide neck. It didn’t have hands, but tentacles instead, four of them ending in sharp hooks, and behind its back rested a hairy scorpion singer with a needle big enough to be a spear.

With each step, the ground shattered and the snow around the demon violently combusted into flames, blooming into an infernal hell.

It’s disgusting, black and green, tentacles flew after the devils like hungry snakes, catching them in the blink of an eye. In one arm, he grabbed two, and in his other arm, he grabbed the last of the devils with two tentacles.

The devils started desperately blasting the demon in the face, trying to get him to release them, but he wasn’t budging. Using the two tentacles, he pulled the third devil’s legs apart, splitting him in half with a loud crunch. He then threw the torn two halves into his two massive, gaping ape-like mouths, swallowing the devil’s still twitching body without even chewing it.

The other two devils increased their efforts, pushing themselves beyond their limits to escape, blasting and cursing the demon, and one of them even started biting the tentacles so hard that his teeth shattered. But their attempts all failed, any wound they inflicted was quickly repaired, as what flowed beneath the demon’s skin wasn’t flesh and blood, but blue goo.

Uncaring, the demon ripped the other two devils as he did the third, swallowing nonchalantly after. The scene, the crunch, and the deafening screaming of agony. Agnar would probably have nightmares about it for the next week.

The Succubus who was behind Agnar fell to the ground, shaking.

“Impossible! Demogorgan? He was missing from the war for months! He was here?” Seeing that horror was enough to wake her up a bit, and Agnar looked at her with a smile.

“Awake, Filly.” He already gave her a name.

At that moment, the demon glared at them, quickly melting and transforming. In front of Agnar, Obelisk landed, looking at them with a somber, emotionless face. “Is anyone hurt?”

Her eyes quickly shifted toward the succubus. “Dinner?”

“No, I captured her for Abel. Don’t eat her.” Agnar looked back with a sad face. The shelter he worked so hard on was now buried beneath a mountain of snow.

“You can call her Filly, Filly the ass.”

“Wait! The demonic slime? You ate Demogorgan?!” The succubus crawled away, hiding behind Agnar. She was so scared that she couldn’t even comment on his changing her name on his own.

Obelisk indeed ate Demogorgan; Gojo hunted him long ago. But she wasn’t anywhere as powerful as the Demon Lord was when he was alive. He could rampage at full power for months, but with Obelisk’s mana, she could only use that form for minutes. On top of that, no matter how hard she tries to make her slimy skin, it’ll never reach the uncanny durability and resistance of the Demon Lord’s actual hide.

She was powerful, but only for a short burst. Luckily, she can recover mana by consuming whoever she eats.

Agnar sighed and started walking toward the buried shelter. “We’ll dig this place out, then see what to do from there.” He looked at Obelisk. He was hungry, exhausted, and cold.

“You can’t just go down there and block that gate so no more idiots come out.” Seeing her power, it was reasonable for him to think she might be capable of some powerful demonic magic. But sadly, she wasn’t.

She shook her head. “I can’t do that. I’m not a wizard, and I can’t even destroy it. We can only hope no more of them would attack us.” She extended her hand forward and wrapped the succubus in a slimy rope, then glued her to a tree. “You’ll stay there. Even with that collar, we can’t risk you stabbing us in the back.”

At that time, Agnar was shoveling the snow away with Yuwaku; they had to clear the shelter quickly before it started snowing again.

“Ignis! I know you’re inside. Can you try clawing your way out?” As Agnar called, Ignis quickly showed up, melting her way through the snow with ease.

Now, all they had to do was wait. How long will it take the devils to realize that their attack squad got wiped out? Will it take minutes or hours? Days? Agnar hoped they won’t be coming again at least until the adventurers arrive this evening, but he couldn’t count on that.

“You, succubus. Who sent you? What do they want? And how do your ranks work? When can we expect the next attack?” He glared at her, and the succubus froze for a second, trying to remain silent, but the collar quickly forced her to speak.

“A Devil Lord candidate, the name is Fractal Wraith. They want to invade this kingdom and secure the second gem of ascension to become a true Devil Lord.” She growled and then panted for air.

“We don’t have ranks. I don’t know when the next attack would come. Each squad is operated directly through Fractal. We’re like what humans call a mercenary.”

She struggled against the pull of the collar, but in the end, she couldn’t take back her freedom. The collar was made by an even more sinister and powerful devil than her, so she found herself helpless.

Obelisk frowned. Did that succubus say a gem of ascension? Is she talking about Gojo’s jewel? How in the nine hells did his ball end up as the catalyst of a devil’s ascension to lordhood? Last time it was helping a demi-god ascend…

“What makes you believe the gem is in this kingdom? It’s not here.” She growled, and the succubus giggled.

“You won’t deceive us. We already got the first one, and we want the second.” She looked at her. Now, she tried to resist again, but failed miserably.

“We know that goddess of yours used it to ascend, and we want it. She has it, doesn’t she?”

So… the devils already have one of Gojo’s jewels, and now they want the other one? The one that is with Gojo?! It’s stuck to his body where it belongs! But those devils think it’s with Lucy? Probably since she ascended in the mortal world without any prior decades of power and history.