The dragon's harem

Chapter 1548: The Fallen One

The devils fell one after another to Aradʼs blade; it didnʼt matter how powerful their curses were, none of them had the basic stats to match. They matched his speed, but failed to produce enough power to harm him.

They matched his power, but sadly were too slow to catch him.

They outnumbered him, but their numbers only made them easier to cut in bulk.

Arad was winning, his sword flashed left and right at blinding speed, cutting through flesh and bone alike, not even curses and magic survived the sharp edge of his dark sword.

Euri had spent two thousand years in this world training and empowering the devils to fight Arad, but even with all of that, they were rapidly failing to keep up.

The devils tried to find openings in Aradʼs moves, but found nothing, not because his skills were perfect, but because Arad kept changing his move set.

Arad would sometimes fight like Kayden and shift his swords into a long o-katana, and then he would switch mid-swing to a longsword alongside Alcottʼs stance. He then would swing around his opponents and hit them with a heavy punch, roaring like a mad ape, mimicking Gantaʼs moves.

The devils couldnʼt understand if they were fighting a dragon fighter, a demon swordsman, a human master, or a wild animal. It didnʼt help that when Arad screamed and roared, his human jaw would open wide enough to fit the head of a smaller devil.

That had caused a few devils to die just by Arad screaming into their faces.

If a thousand drakainas couldnʼt take Arad down, an army of devils wouldnʼt be able to do it either.

As the fight lasted even longer, the devils finally started to find out the more terrifying part about fighting Arad. Long fights really play into his favor.

The more the devils fought him, the stranger his fighting style became. When they started to notice, it was already too late, and the ship had sailed.

Doma copied their curses and recreated them, while Arad learned their moves, adapted, and grew more accustomed to fighting them. Now, he knew all of the devils by face, learned their skills, and danced between them like he had trained with them for centuries.

This wasnʼt normal learning or adaptation; Arad was much, much faster than anything had any right to be. It was abnormal for him to learn and near-perfectly mimic the moves that a devil trained for longer than humans can live.

The devilsʼ weapons bounced off Aradʼs sword with ease as he flew between them like a storm of blades, cutting and slashing his way through with ease. All of those devils had trained together, so the moment he learned just a few fighting styles from them, he became better able to fight the majority of them.

”Back away!” One of the devils shouted, standing above a mountain of corpses with a face drenched in blood and guts. He ground his teeth and glared down at where Arad was beating his people, one after another. The devils flew away with shattered bodies and torn limbs like popping popcorn.

”With the strength of a thousand devils! We shall stop him!” He opened his wings wide and lifted his trident, pointing at the red-glowing sky above.

The blood and curses of all the corpses beneath him started flowing up like mist and then became a ravaging torrent of energy, engulfing the entire pile of corpses in dark-red flames.

”Violent Invader! You shall rue this day!” The devil growled, plunging his spear into the corpses beneath him and glared at Arad. ”By the corpses of everyone that died this day, you shall not live to see the next one.”

”Iʼll rip you apart and bury a chunk of your rotten flesh with each one of them. Not even hell would dare claim your horrid remains!”

The devil screamed, his eyes spazzing and his muscles tightening as his curse grew stronger and stronger by the second.

Arad punched all the devils surrounding him and looked up, locking eyes with the rising devil.

The devil then came to a sudden halt, falling silent as the curses around him all faded away.

The battle beneath calmed down as everyone looked up. Even Arad had no idea what was happening. The only two who knew were flying above, bathed in golden light.

”Arad, be careful. He is starting to believe.” Diana called from the back, and the moment her voice died, a spark of harrowing power exploded in the devilʼs body.

He screamed as loudly as his lungs allowed, his eyes and ears bleeding as he bent forward. The devilʼs back bulged, his wings withered and turned to ash.

From the devilʼs back, raven black feathers exploded out, drenched in blood, they soon grew and exploded into massive black wings.

The whole world around them shook and trembled, cracking away as the devilʼs red skin fell off, getting replaced with a pale grey one, then his long black hair shifted to white, and his entire body contorted, getting swallowed by the explosive tide of divine and cursed magic.

Arad lifted his arm and covered his face, while all of the devils around him got washed away by it. Many died, and most were left gravely burned to the bones. Diana and Mathilde didnʼt even bother protecting themselves, for this wave wasnʼt anywhere near powerful enough to harm them.

From the blood and magic, the devil emerged, no longer being a fiend. A tall, muscular, and majestic man with a muscular build, long flowing white hair, red eyes, expansive black wings, and a burning two black halos above his head.

”{Arad, he had a sacrifice curse. Usually, he would grant it to mortals. You know, give me the soul of your lover and Iʼll give wealth. That type.}” She sounded a bit worried. ”He used it on himself. Now, he sucked all of the souls of the devils you killed into himself, overcharged his body with curses, and now...}”

Arad said with a passive voice, ”I know, turned back into a fallen angel. No, with this power, a fallen Archon.”

”Donʼt give him too much credit; he is an archon, but not a real one. He has no god to replenish his power, and he is even weakened. Look, just two halos and a pair of wings.”

Diana expanded all of her wings out. As it turned out, she had eight pairs of wings and could manifest as many as eight halos. Albeit the halos almost meant nothing, she was a cloud of divine destruction.

Arad looked at the newly born Archon with a smile, ”I came here for Euri, and look at what we found. A devil with enough willpower and strength to become an Archon. I bet you couldʼve become a layer lord in the nine hells, or even got picked up as a fallen Archon by some of the gods.”

Arad pointed his sword at the fallen Archon, ”What a waste of talent.”

The fallen Archon stared at Arad in silence for a long moment, then suddenly, nine more pairs of wings burst from his back.

Diana and Mathilde immediately gasped and pulled their weapons. This was bad, extremely bad. How did that happen? Where did those other wings come from? Where did he get that power?

The fallen Archonʼs eyes finally moved as a third eye burst on his forehead, glaring at Arad with cold indifference.

The moment the fallen Archonʼs wings flapped, Arad moved, his blade whistling through the air, aiming to cut the charging Archonʼs head off.

But instead of blood, only dust rose to the air.

Arad looked down, seeing the fallen Archon kneeling in front of him, ”My Lord and Maker, they are far too close.”

At that moment, a torrent of abominable eldritch magic burst from the ground, rising to the sky like a towering pillar of dark green light.

Euri was coming, and he wasnʼt alone.