The dragon's harem

“Can they even reach him?” Diana looked at Arad with a smug smile. “If he stopped suppressing himself. I doubt that many demon lords could even approach him to start a fight.”

Kali nodded. “You’re right, maybe letting them try won’t be that bad. After the first few deaths, they’ll learn.”

Roa looked at them, then back at Arad. “What are they talking about?”

Arad scratched his chin. “Well, I’m quite the deadly dragon even when I’m not trying. Approaching me in and of itself isn’t easy.”

Kali stood, “It’ll be faster to let you see it. Let’s go, I just checked the locations of all demon lords, and one of them is nearby, five layers below us, waiting for me to declare that I’m looking for new consorts.” She smacked her fists. “Let’s just have Arad beat him, and I’ll declare that I’m not looking for consorts.”

At the layer below, a massive storm was billowing, its winds faster than sound and powerful enough to rip the mountains from their roots. Great flames, acidic rains, and raging flashes of demonic lightning blasted the dark sky, turning the entire place into a land unhospitable to life.

Among that storm, an army of demons marched, unbothered. Each of them was a ten-meter-tall giant with animal heads, human limbs, and transparent torsos that showed their rotten organs. To them, this storm was nothing but a light rain, a weak breeze, and the equivalent of a cloudy day to a regular human army.

Spearheading the army, a titanic demon stood, fifty meters tall, without a head, and riding a headless horse. The demon Lord was called the Rider, an undead demon lord that is usually worshipped by the centaurs’ cults as the headless trampler of the abyss.

He had marched his army here upon hearing the news: the Demon Goddess finally took a consort, and now, she is looking for more. He had waited for such a long time for this day, and now, he could earn himself a seat at the abyssal depths.

At that moment, he could feel it. A shift in the winds, a shiver across the abyss’s bones, and the lightning seemed to dim a bit. He stopped, and so did his army behind him. His arms tightened, his legs stopped moving, and his chest filled with air.

Slowly, he went down to his knees, and the army mimicked him.

“Your Lordship, Malevolent Destroyer, I’ve arrived, rider of the thousand hoofs.”

Over four thousand kilometers away rested what Rider sensed. A great, majestic obsidian dragon, asleep and curled on itself like a cat, and between its arms, rested the Demon Goddess of Destruction, Kali.

“Rider, you are powerful, a being capable of erasing life from several worlds at once, a Demon Lord so ancient and powerful that the mere thought of your existence can drive people insane.” Kali spoke, her voice even, but then she giggled. “But, you’re too weak for me, too weak to match and catch, to the existence beside me.”

Rider slowly stood, looked forward, and replied with a deafening roar. “I would rather die trying than sit and cower in fear. Shall I impress you, I wouldn’t even ask for you. I only ask for a drop of blood.”

He stood and burst running toward Arad and Kali. His army followed, but soon, the difference in power became clear.

The moment the army crossed the 4000 kilometers mark, his soldiers started to fall one after another, their skin red, blistering, and seeping with pus. Some of them puked and died, and the others withered away as their hair turned white, and some even deserted, stopping in the tract without moving an inch.

Rider threw his soldiers a single glance and realized that something was off. He felt pain, his skin burned, his organs twisted, and his mind fogged. The radiation was so extreme that even powerful demons weren’t able to endure it, falling down like flies.

But that wasn’t all. Rider knew that whatever was killing them was just the surface of the power of that dragon. Space itself shattered around the dragon, making the distance they needed to cross far longer than it should be. The 4000 thousand kilometers felt more like 40000 under Arad’s space magic, and what’s more, that effect grew stronger the closer they got.

When space itself twisted and shattered, it pulled on the strings of time, accelerating and slowing it randomly across Arad’s domain, aging or regressing everyone inside. The weaker of Rider’s demons with the shortest lifespans found themselves either growing too old in minutes or turning back into crying infants. Then they were quickly smoked away by the radiation and the trampling hooves of the other soldiers.

The closer Rider got, the more he started to understand Kali’s words. He had just hit the halfway point to Arad, and now he was faced with a devastating reality. When time and space are shattered, gravity takes hold, and the closer he got to Arad, the heavier he felt, each step becoming harder than the one before, and radiation had reached a level when the air itself burned with blinding blue light.

At this point, his entire army had been wiped out, and he was all alone, pushing forward. He already understood that he couldn’t win, but his demonic pride didn’t allow him to retreat. It was terrifying, unbelievable, and expected. He couldn’t even approach Kali’s chosen, let alone challenge him to a fight.

Then, his massive legs gave out, his organs shut down, and he fell, cracking the ground in a single loud thud. Kali was still sitting between Arad’s arms alongside Diana and Roa. She looked calm, Diana unimpressed, but Roa was almost shitting herself.

Arad didn’t even move, didn’t exert himself, or even try. He was naturally radioactive, due to the insane amount of mass inside his stomach, and he also twisted the fabric of space and time around himself without even trying.

“Are you serious?” Roa gasped and Kali smiled behind her.

“Arad always keeps himself in check to not harm those around him. But if he let all of his aura loose, not that many creatures could even approach him, let alone fight.” She approached and wrapped her arm around her. She smacked her on the butt. “Think back, remember every moment you stood in front of or anywhere near him. The only reason you remained alive is that he was considering the lives of everyone else.”

Arad moved above them. “I’ll clean this place up.” Flapping his wings, he took off.

Rider opened his eyes, feeling someone shaking him up and screaming at his chest. He gasped for air, and the gills on his sides flapped. He looked around, even though he didn’t have eyes, and soon found himself back in his own layer.

The one shaking him up was one of his wives, a centaur demoness as massive as he was. She looked both worried and terrified, and in the distance, he could hear the pained moans of all of his soldiers.

“As expected of a demon lord, just a few minutes and you’re back to your senses.” Hearing that voice, Rider jolted back to his feet and stared up, seeing Arad towering over him and his wife like the starry night sky.

“You! You’re him! Kali’s consort!” Rider jumped away in terror.

“What consort? She is my wife.” Arad flapped his wings, “Not that many of your soldiers died, and I made sure the rest made it here alive. Next time you come after my wife, don’t complain if I come after yours.”

When Arad returned to the castle, he found Kali waiting for him with a smile on her face. She approached him with a smile and looked back at a massive portal that she created with her demonic magic.

“I called several demon lords for an urgent meeting; they are all ladies I want to be either mistress or servants.” She licked her lips, “We’re going to put on a show for them, and see how they react.”