The dragon's harem

While Arad was training on how to manipulate the divine magic of others with the archon, Kali finally had some time to go through all of the reports. Even as a goddess, she would rather spend some time reading those papers and carefully thinking about what happened.

“Uncle attacked… this wouldn’t have happened if I were here.” She held six reports, one in each of her hands, and stared at them with a worried face. While Cain’s powers were known to be far too great, they had their limits. For example, he is mostly a psychic monster that twists the mind, on top of being second only to Yog in magic.

For Cain’s magic to work, he needed to have a lot of information about his target, which he used Yog’s omniscience for before when he was an overgod, but now, he had gone mad and lost that power, meaning he needed to act like a normal god or wizard.

The only reason Cain’s eldritch magic worked on Amaterasu and the other higher divines was that they were his wives, and he knew them inside out. But other people like Violet, Arad, and the other none-divines are just not at his level, so he can brute force his power. From the reports, Kali also became aware that sneaking that magic on Violet was only possible because she wasn’t aware of Cain’s presence, she was busy with Alcott, and had let her guard down.

“I guess, even the strongest of dragons can let her guard down in bed.” She scratched the back of her head and threw that report aside.

Besides them all, the only other one who had a chance to sense the attack was Eris, and she failed as she is still a new divine. Which brought into light Gojo, who somehow managed to not just sense Cain’s magic, but even go and stop him.

“Damn it, Yog, what did she do to him before he was even born. But…” Before coming here, Kali had asked the fates about Gojo and Cain, about how they are going to make him and overgod, and what Yog was planning. To be exact, the question Kali asked was how Yog is going to turn Gojo into an overgod.

The answer she got was convoluted. She was told that Yog won’t be making Gojo an overgod, but Gojo himself would take up that title, and that he would do it to save Arad from certain death.

Speaking of Arad’s death, he almost kicked the bucket while she was away, and it was Amaterasu’s fault. To think he got stuck at the core of a dying star and got exploded into nothing, even forcing AO to come out.

That must’ve been scary, but if Arad survived that, he could pretty much endure anything. That why she allowed Gabriella to blast him.

“He showed up…”

They knew for a while that if Arad died, AO would take over. But what they didn’t know was if the takeover is permanent or not, or what he would do. But what happened there now proved that AO won’t take over permanently, or at least that he doesn’t want to now.

That was a risky event, one which she shouldn’t have allowed to happen. If she were around, she might’ve even started a fight with Amaterasu because of it. But now that some time had passed, she had already calmed down.

“Arad, do you mind calling the Nymph here from the abyss? I want to see what she looks like.” She called, and Arad stopped what he was doing and looked at her. “The nymph’s incarnation? Wait a moment, I’m almost at a city where I can set a beacon.”

“It a city? Which one?” She stood, and Arad remained silent for a second. “Abbacus Ridge, north east of layer 854.” That was the name of the city he was heading to, and in which layer it was located.

Kali stood, “Well, leave her there, I’ll go myself.” She cracked her neck, stretched her arms, and shifted to her little girl form. “I haven’t been to the abyss in a while, and I need to dump some of my demonic energy there. It would be best if we talked there.”

She was the demon goddess after all, and one of her duties was to fuel the abyss with demonic magic. Just her presence there would allow enough power to seep through all of the layers, making the demons stronger, and allowing the abyss to grow deeper. She only needed to spend time there, and so going there to talk with Arad would be hitting two birds with one stone.

As she took a single step forward, her foot landed on the abyss’s dark soil, and she was now all alone, wearing rags and a hood, looking like an abandoned beggar child rather than a divine goddess. This was the form of the goddess of orphans, and she took this form because it wouldn’t scare the demons if they saw her from afar, and it would take the really powerful ones to recognize her.

In the demon city, Arad was walking through the streets wearing a black hood and barely showing his face. He had made sure it wasn’t easy to recognize him, and his efforts clearly showed up. From a distance, you couldn’t tell if he was a man or a woman, if he walked to glided through the ground, or if he even had a face or was just a lump of darkness under that cloak.

This was the form of the Emperor of Nothing, the same one he used to cross the hells, but now under the cloak was a ten-foot-tall, unimaginably beautiful nymph. Arad wandered into the bustling streets, and was quite surprised to see the demons living a basically normal-looking life, with their own rules.

They had homes, large stone buildings, and a rich marketplace filled with all kinds of strange trinkets that he had never seen before. But, one strange thing filled the air, it was a tense feeling of dread and stress, as if he was walking into the black market run by a murderous criminal organization.

Anything goes here if you’re strong enough: money, goods, women, lives, land, anything is yours if you have the strength to take it away. There are no guards, no rules, no safety, just constant conflict that the demons thrived in.

That was one of the reasons he had to hide his face. The last thing he wanted was having to kill tens of demons who simply couldn’t contain themselves and tried getting him. He had already made that mistake before, and had to bury five demons because of it.

But it seems that not showing his face or figure was already drawing a lot of attention toward him. He walked toward one of the local taverns, sat down, and called the woman serving the demons, asking for their strongest drink and a plate of food, mostly meat.

Arad himself didn’t need to eat or drink, but it made for a good show. If demons saw him drink literally poison that would kill them, and eat more food than ten of them could, they would avoid him. It was the same for humans. If you saw a man drink three bottles of whisky in a single sitting and eat two roasted boars, would you dare start a fight with them? Probably not. Anyone who can eat like a monster is probably one.

But it seems like trouble couldn’t help but find him. The moment the woman brought him his food, four large demons approached, and they were followed by an armored, knight-looking big demon. They surrounded his table, and the large demon glared at Arad.

“You’re that nymph who killed several demons in the other city. Our Lord, Great Kukumon, had heard of your strength and beauty and ordered that you be brought to him as a breeding mate. Stand, we’re moving.” He crossed his arms, and one of the demons added. “Your beauty won’t work on us; we’ve got a protective spell.”

This was the reality of the abyss; if Arad were any demoness, his fate would’ve already been sealed. This armored demon was at least twenty times stronger than the demons he killed before combined. Kukumon must have accounted for Arad’s power quite well based on what he had done so far in the abyss.

Arad grabbed the large bottle of demon alcohol and bit the top off, then gulped it down, glass and all. As the demons watched in horror as he gulped an entire bottle, of which a single shot would send their strongest to the bed.

After taking a deep, satisfied sigh, he spoke. “You don’t need to throw your lives away. Leave, he can come to me himself. That way, only one corpse would need to be buried.”

The armored demon smiled. “You think you can kill me?”

“I don’t think, I’m telling that I could,” Arad replied, and the demon’s face broke into a grin. “We were told to bring you alive, but nothing about breaking your arms and legs.” He lifted his arm, and immediately could sense his head, torso, and limbs getting torn off violently.

The demon froze for a second, gasped for air, then looked down at himself. He wasn’t killed. What was that feeling now? Illusion magic? No, it felt too real. His demonic instincts and senses were all ringing alarm bells, screaming at him to run away.

“You’re that strong?” With a smile, he swung his arm down at Arad’s head. He knew this nymph was stronger than him, but as a demon, that only got him more excited for a fight.