The dragon's harem

Arad looked at Nyar for a second in silence, and he was already panting. His body was falling apart due to both exhaustion and being on the verge of evolving, and the stress of fighting this Avatar was just absurd, especially with him using Vorvadoss as a halberd. Arad himself was using Azrael’s scythe and End divine magic, but that still was nowhere near enough for this fight.

It was a losing fight, and Arad knew it. The Avatar on their own would’ve been hard but doable, and Vorvadoss on his own is possible, but not them together like this.

He had to figure out a way to win and do it quickly. At this time, Gojo was still fighting above, so Arad couldn’t call him for help, and Nyar would kill him if he tried to do something that would take a long time like summoning Kali.

So Arad’s answer came naturally to him. He will just use what is already his, and what is already inside him. At that moment, his eldritch magic exploded out, replacing all of his mana at once and giving him an aura almost matching that of the Avatar.

If an angel saw Arad now, they would immediately go into a panic with at much eldritch magic he had, and the sheer fact that he now had more than when he almost snapped at the army of peace. The stronger he gets, the more eldritch magic he can pull at once, and today, at this moment, was when he needed that power the most.

”Hoo... trying to fight fire with fire. I won’t call that smart.” The Avatar looked at him, almost chuckling, but what Arad did next silenced him on the spot.

Arad slowly reached up with his hand toward his face and uttered just two words.

[THE...]

[... END]

A pale skull mask covered Arad’s face that instant, and shadows started burning all over his body like a dark cloak. The scythe in his hand changed to look simpler, and his entire eldritch magic changed from a raw form into one that resembled divine magic.

Azrael was already inside his stomach, and so was Death Herself, and Linda... all three beings that Arad needed to link himself to the Primordial Portfolio of the End.

The moment he did that, he could innately know who the End was and what they represented. As the Portfolio and concept implied, the End perished the moment they were brought into existence. Their name was Nihil, and their corpse is now the Shadow Realm itself.

Azrael was the catalyst, Death herself the bait, and Linda the portal that allowed the power to flow from the shadow realm into Arad’s stomach, where he could once again wield it.

”Unlike Death, who can’t harm us abominations as we aren’t shackled by it, the END is a different matter. It forces everything into null, ends all that has begun, and not even I can survive it.” The Avatar spoke in a calm voice.

He then tilted his head slightly, and his eldritch magic began to swell.

Tentacles exploded from beneath his coat, and his body seemed to get taller as the Vorvadoss scythe changed a bit, and Arad could finally remember what Nyar’s power was.

Nyar can impose nightmares upon reality, turn nightmares into living abominations, and into raw power. Unlike AO, who can create concrete reality with laws and a stable foundation. Nyar’s main weakness, and the reason he is inferior to AO, is that his power fundamentally needs a reality to impose upon; he cannot function on his own.

Nyar being able to control the abominations wasn’t just because he could, and they aren’t just calling him their father for no reason. They were literally born from his nightmares, and when they die, they’ll return to his eldritch mind to be born again from his nightmares.

As Nyar’s power reached the peak of what his current Avatar could support, he laughed. ”If you think I’m an easy target to overpower, you’re dreaming.”

Arad stared at him in silence for a second, and then immediately jumped at him.

The clash that followed was horrifying, and far above what any angel or god could ever dream of matching. Nyar’s eldritch tentacles swarmed forward alongside Vorvadoss’s halberd, which now looked more like a short-bladed scythe of bones, and Arad retaliated in the same way.

Arad’s scythe flew forward, followed by a flood of shadow and void tentacles that exploded forward like waves, pushing against Nyar’s tentacles as their weapons clashed.

The clash, all of it, only lasted a second, not a fraction more. It wasn’t decided by skill; it wasn’t decided by raw power, and it wasn’t decided by luck. The clash’s result was decided long ago, before it even started.

Who could maintain their power level longer: the still-healthy, perfectly moist, energetic tentacle monster from outside reality with his space-warping living scythe... or one crusty, on the verge of evolving, sleepy, exhausted, and burned-out void dragon who should be in his bed getting ready to hibernate?

Arad had stayed up longer than he should, and now, the tentacle monster under the bed and the smiling horror in the closet were coming to get him. It was too late to even call his mom for help. She won’t make it in time.

Nyar’s tentacles were more numerous and stronger than Arad’s shadow and void tentacles, so they easily burst through and pierced Arad’s body. After just a few clashes, Arad’s scythe, which was just the weapon of an Archangel, shattered when clashing with a weapon made from Vorvadoss, an alien abomination that was the equivalent of a primordial concept in Nyar’s roster.

As Arad’s fell down, torn apart and battered, his eldritch magic dropped rapidly, and Nyar let Vorvadoss shift back into a living form as they both leaned down to look at Arad’s face.

Vorvadoss clicked his maw, asking Nyar if he could just kill Arad. It was a reasonable question, since this was their best chance. But Nyar refused.

”If I fully destroy AO here, the entire universe would just vanish with him, and I’ll vanish too. For me to exist, I need a reality to infect.” He wrapped one of his tentacles around Arad’s neck and lifted him up. ”He is about to sleep now, so I’ll seal him away so we can take out time consuming this universe. When we’re almost done, we’ll start looking for another universe to invade. When we find that, I’ll let you kill him.”

Vorvadoss started cackling with a large grin on his face, and Nyar summoned a bunch of higher-tier abominations. ”He is weakened now; take him back with us. Vorvadoss and I will hold Amaterasu and everyone else back.”

The fight between Gojo and his avatars was about to end, so he had to get ready. This could be the turning point, where the tables turn in the abominations’ favor.

The abominations carried Arad, horrified as even when weakened to nearly zero, he still reeked with enough eldritch magic that one of the abominations shat herself.

But then... something changed.

”You there...” Arad’s eyes moved; he glared at the terrified abominations and spoke. ”... put me down.” His tone was calm, casual, as if he wasn’t being taken hostage at all.

”Huh?” The abomination grabbed Arad by the hair and lifted his head, looking into his eyes. ”Do you realize the situation you’re now in? You think you have any say in this?”

At that moment, a hole was blown into the abomination’s head, and everything behind him was erased from existence. ”If you’re only going to obey, then disappear back into nothing.”