The dragon's harem

Darkness rushed out of Arad’s face and flowed down to his legs before exploding outward in a massive shockwave. The stone pillars shattered, and the flaming necrotic beasts were snuffed out. Aella relaxed for a moment, and the two assailants froze in their places for a second.

The lich could feel his soul tremble and his magic crack open when the void touched him, infinite darkness and lightless void spanned as far as the eyes could see, and the stars above were nothing but lumps of radiating magic, too powerful to fathom, too deep to understand, and too alien to be opposed.

He could clearly feel it. His elemental expansion wasn’t destroyed; it was absorbed and consumed by the endless void, torn apart and stretched infinitely across the vast emptiness of Arad’s dark stomach. It was like a drop of ink falling into a hungry whirlpool; the once concentrated power and color were now far too diluted to even be visible or meaningful.

His soul shook, and his necrotic magic failed to take hold. The lich looked up, his flaming eyes flickering on and off, gazing into the infinite nothing. Thousands of powerful souls and even angels were already flying above, glaring down and aiming their spears.

This was the end, and he would die here. Of course, he was ready to one day be obliterated. Most lichs are wizards of ancient times who feared death so much that they chained their souls to objects and turned themselves into undead monsters. This lich was the same, and he feared nothing more than Death herself.

As the angels flew down and impaled him with their spears, and as the void tore and digested his skeleton, the lich chuckled and cackled. “Oh, I’ve seen something impressive. Proud angels sucking off a draconic monster… how pathetic, how disgraceful, how repulsive.”

His body was erased, and his soul was nowhere to be found. The angels didn’t fret over it and wiped their spears clean. One of them quickly sent Arad a message.

“The lich’s soul wasn’t inside his body. We don’t know where he hid it, and we doubt he’ll poke his neck out any time soon.”

Even though the lich’s body had been destroyed, as long as his core was still hidden somewhere out in the world, he would eventually resurrect once more. It may take days, weeks, months, or even thousands of years. But he’ll be back.

The werewolf, on the other hand, had his eyes open wide, and his maw refused to close. There was no air to breathe in the void, and no land to support himself. He could feel a crushing wave of outer suction pulling his blood out of his skin, boiling it.

This was the horrifying dragon they saw from afar, that abhorrent existence, the unstoppable force of draconic arrogance. But the werewolf wasn’t a coward; he knew that Arad was the dragon the moment he appeared in the middle of their elemental clash. In fact, he already expected Arad to show up sooner or later, so he had already made peace with his own demise.

It was a losing fight from the start, and he only had his pride to blame for recklessly fighting alongside the lich instead of abandoning him. He was known as a reliable S-rank adventurer who doesn’t ask questions and always sticks to the end. He had never abandoned a client, no matter how bad their case was.

That style had gotten him in a lot of trouble, but nothing matched today. But this is how the S-rankers are, they have to be crazy, they have to be unique and stand out. And most importantly of all, they must have the iron will to impose their ideals upon the world.

S-rankers aren’t scary just because of their power, but because they are all hard-headed fools who don’t know what giving up means. Odds and reason mean nothing to them, and the only thing that matters is their will and beliefs.

Alcott had imposed his will upon the dragons, and even the weakest S-rank Dalla had managed to impose her will upon all other S-rankers; none of them wanted to face her in a fight and get slapped.

So why give up now? What did he see in the limitless expanse of Arad’s void to make him regret not making a different choice? It was Alaric’s tormented soul getting repeatedly torn and consumed by Arad’s void. The Demon Lord of the Werewolves, the one who disappeared not so long ago, was here, dying over and over again in eternal damnation.

Of course, a lowly regular werewolf like him won’t stand a chance against Arad if the Demon Lord of Werewolves got this humiliated. This nightmarish dragon, this abhorrent existence of absolute destruction, was a far larger being than anyone could ever hope to match.

He closed his eyes, relaxed, and let the void tear his body apart. Everything faded to black, and he could finally feel a cold breeze brushing against his dying soul.

A day later, he opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a chair, chained and sealed with countless magic sealing chains and cuffs. In the dimly lit room with him, a familiar face sat and looked at him with a smile.

“Yo! Been quite a while since I saw your ugly face.” Alcott waved his hand with a grin.

Back to Arad and his wives in the night before, when Arad pulled back his expansion and his void disappeared, Aella appeared with the others, hugging her to hide from the elemental clash.

“Is it over?” Lexi asked with a scared face, and Ganta looked around with a worried face. “I can’t sense any of them.’

Aella smiled. “Arad dealt with them.” She looked at Arad with a grin. “So? What took you so long?”

“I healed the injured fairies. Zephyr took them to the colonies alongside that prisoner cleric. Apparently, she was healing the fairies every now and then, so she got a bit of credit for that.” He approached and Aella frowned.

“They are sparring her life?”

“No, just giving her a fair trial. She could end up enslaved, imprisoned for life, or even executed. It all now depends on how well she can speak for herself in front of the fairies’ council.” Arad extended his hand and healed Lexi’s torn arm. “Aella would’ve been fine, but thank you for protecting her. Next time, value your life as well.”

Aella smiled and poked Arad’s shoulder with a smug smile. “What do I hear? Are you preferring the mistress over me?”

Arad returned the smile. “I’m saying you’re stronger and more durable, and dragons love strength.” He checked Lexi’s arm for a second and then tapped her on the shoulder. “How are you feeling? Any lasting pain that needs to be treated?”

Lexi shook her head. “No, just mana burns from using that counter.” She looked at Aella’s smug face and decided to change the topic quickly before she got accused again.

“Where is Kaede? I can’t sense her magic anywhere close.” She looked around, and Arad smiled. “Well, Zephyr sent her with a few wind spirits to clear the lich’s mansion. She is now on her way toward us.” He smiled, “Kaede is skilled at both spirit magic and curses, so she isn’t easy to detect.”

Due to Kaede hiding her aura and magic, only Arad and Zephyr could clearly sense her. Arad because he has stupidly powerful senses, and Zephyr since she has power over all wind spirits. She masterfully combines both her innate curse and spirit magic to both hide her presence and silently kill her targets.

“I’m back.” Kaede suddenly appeared out of nowhere as if she had spawned from the thin air and landed on Arad’s shoulder. “I burned the entire mansion. It was filled to the brim with undeads and ghosts. She leaned on his neck and sighed. “Sadly, I didn’t find the lich’s core, or whatever it was called.”

“Good job Kaede, now those spirits won’t have to fear or start a war with the humans.” Arad patted her on the head with one finger, and she stared at him with a smile.

“Instead of thanking me, let’s hurry back home.” Moving one finger through two, she looked at him with a smug smile. “I want to have some fun. Who said we could go fight the disgusting and nasty undead on our big night?”

Ganta glared at her. “Kaede! You…”

Aella laughed, Lexi blushed, and Zephyr flew out of the sky and landed on Arad’s head with a tired face. “The fairies are safe. We fixed this in time. They were planning to wipe all nearby human cities if the killing didn’t stop, so we got lucky.”

She then paused and looked at them. “What’s the matter? Did I miss something?”