The dragon's harem

What surrounded Susanoo’s remains was nothing short of terrifying, a storm, not that of wind, rain, and lightning, but a howling mass of divine magic and demonic essences. Comparing his storms with the mundane ones was as foolish as comparing a water splash from a buck to a full-blown storm at the heart of the raging sea.

Arad Orion, walked through that storm, enduring it’s burn and maintaining his balance only thanks to his heavy weight and martial skills. Each step was strenuous, pushing his body through this was no small feat, and due to his scales getting ripped off his skin and healing back up in the blink of an eye, his entire figure was covered with a halo of radiant mist.

Shuten couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing, and Ibaraki was nothing short of horrified. It was a well-known fact that when power reaches a certain level, just approaching someone could be deadly.

Not just anyone could approach Arad, let alone be worthy of challenging him to a fight. Susanoo was much the same, and now, many can’t even approach his resting place, let alone be worthy of looking upon his grave.

Demon Lords, gods, devils, and ancient horrors, all of them had come here to try to rob the power of the long-dead god, and only ended up failing. The ones at a demon lord level or lower were killed by Ibaraki and Shuten, but those who passed them never managed to brave the divine storm.

All, except Arad Orion, of course. He who was now walking through the storm, approaching the grave with steady steps.

As Shuten’s eyes opened wide, Arad was now at the heart of the storm, standing right above Susanoo’s grave, glaring down at it with glowing purple eyes. “I see…”

A verdant scimitar rested on Susanoo’s grave, impaled on the stone. From it, Arad could sense a horrifying flow of both divine and demonic magic, a power that far outclassed many of the horrors he had faced.

“Kusanagi, the grass-cutting blade. The sword brother ripped from the eight forked serpent. I once called it the Blade of Solace. Because it was the only thing comforting brother after that girl’s death.” Amaterasu spoke from the back, and Arad couldn’t help but throw a glance toward her.

Why do all legendary weapons have funny names? The Exploding Nipple Knife, and now the Grass-cutting blade. The Blade of Solace seemed like a much better name, so Amaterasu should have a better sense when it comes to naming things.

Arad started to think that whoever made the sword named it the grass-cutting blade, but after Susanoo acquired it, it should’ve been called the Blade of Solace due to its new role as Amaterasu explained earlier.

Arad flicked his finger, and a small butter knife appeared floating in front of Amaterasu. “What would you name this? It’s now called the Exploding Nipple knife, Nipple Duster, or Nipple Buster.”

“Don’t have a conversation while standing in a storm that can kill gods!” Shuten shouted, and Ibaraki stared at her with a wry smile. “Let him be.”

Amaterasu lifted the knife, gave it a look, and then smiled. “I remember seeing it before… Ah, Leon’s sacred blade. It was once used to erase a disease from the universe. But based on its current role, I’d call it the Mammal Slayer Blade.” She smiled and swung the knife a bit. “While useless against anything else, mammals would die easily to a single stab.”

She then looked at the edge and stabbed herself in the hand. A second later, blood started seeping from her chest. “It even works on me. This thing is way stronger than it seems. While Dragon slaying and God slaying weapons sound amazing and powerful, this one can slay all mammals, which include everyone from animals to monsters, dragons, gods, demons, devils, and even some abominations. If you have nipples, you’re weak to it.”

Arad smiled, “I’ll use that name.”

He then turned his gaze back to the sword and reached down. “Is this the source of all power?”

As Arad’s hand reached toward the sword’s handle, a bone hand burst from the ground and grabbed him by the wrist. He froze in place and slowly tried to shake it away, but the skeleton’s grip was far too powerful.

He couldn’t free his wrist, even though he was using most of his physical strength. This was a bad sign, and it only kept getting worse. The skeleton arm got engulfed in verdant flames, and soon, the ground shattered as the full corpse rose.

The storm died for a second, and Susanoo’s body was as clear as the sun in the sky. A skeleton over three meters tall, engulfed by green flames and wearing a strange suit of armor. His empty eye sockets burned with flames, and he lifted his sword up, priming himself for a downward slash.

Arad lifted his left arm, engulfed it and his entire body with all the barrier techniques that Kayden taught him, and wanted to try and block Susanoo’s slash. From the look of it, this skeleton might not die even if it is destroyed, so it was most likely trying to evaluate Arad’s worth through combat.

As Susanoo’s sword flashed on, Arad’s arm was severed, and so was his entire body, from head to ground, cleanly in the middle.

The two demons in the back screamed, and Lunara paled. Amaterasu, on the other hand, retained her smile, watching as Arad’s two halves fell down at the burning skeleton’s feet.

“ARAD!” Lunara shouted, trying to jump in to fight Susano, but she hit a solid wall of magic formed by Amaterasu. “Do you want to die? Sit still, little-bun.”

Amaterasu then threw a glare at Susanoo, and smiled.

Veins emerged from Arad’s two severed halves, connected them, and his entire body started floating as the two halves stuck together right in front of Susanoo. While anyone else would’ve died, and even Arad himself should’ve been incapacitated if his brain had been destroyed. In this case, this was only one of Arad’s incarnations, and thus, his brain and spine were fine somewhere else.

As long as he still retained a beacon of his mana, and his reserves of energy didn’t run out. The only way to kill Arad Orion is to simultaneously destroy all of his clones in their draconic form.

Susanoo glared at Arad, never speaking a word, as he was nothing but a mindless, emotionless, rampaging figure of his former self. Without warning, he swung the sword again, this time aiming at Arad’s neck.

Arad lifted his right arm and blocked the sword by aiming at the wrist instead of the blade, and then swung a fist of his own, smacking Susanoo in the chin hard enough to shatter his jaw to ash.

A massive shockwave exploded from that attack and rattled the entire mountain, causing the caverns to start collapsing right after. Shuten and Ibaraki stared at Amaterasu with horrified faces, “They’ll destroy this place.”

“I know.” She smiled and pulled a biwa. With one flick of the strings, everyone got transported away into a vast, empty desert. This was the same world the priestess’s elemental expansion took Arad to, and it was the world Amaterasu decided to let Arad and Susanoo fight in.

Susanoo shifted a bit, looked at Arad as his chin regenerated from the ashes, and even though he didn’t have any lips, Arad could swear this monster was smiling.

“FATHER! STOP IT!” Shuten screamed, and neither Arad nor Susanoo seemed to be listening to her. One second, they were standing face to face, and in the next, the entire region had been blasted into the sky. The sand had turned into glass, the mountains melted down, and the blue sky was now dark, engulfed by a titanic cloud of smoke and debris.

Shuten jumped away, leaving the safety of Amaterasu’s barrier by jumping backward, and then flew into the battlefield. As she landed on the burning hot black glass, she shouted. “Father! Father! Where are you?”

And there he was, glaring down at her from behind; she was no taller than his knees, and his arm was already lifting up, ready for a slash. A green snake crawled out of Susanoo’s ribs, slithered above his head, and started floating.

The snake hissed once, showing its eight forked tongue, and then it started swallowing its own tail. That hiss made Shuten turn around, and staring at the murderous, burning green eyes of her father’s corpse was enough to drain all the blood out of her veins.

The snake eating its own tail floated above Susanoo’s head like a halo, then twisted, turning into an infinity symbol.

“Stop…”

But Susanoo wasn’t listening, as the corpses can’t understand words. His sword flashed toward his daughter’s head, then stopped midway. Arad was standing there, with Shuten fitting easily between his legs as he caught Susanoo’s arm.

“Isn’t this your daughter?” Arad glared at Susanoo. “It might not be my place to speak, but… I won’t let you.”