The dragon's harem

Chapter 2027: True Fear

Staring at Arad’s massive and bulging chest, Miani’s vision blurred, and the entire world around them seemed to twist and contort into darkness. The air itself felt as solid as steel, and her entire body lost its power. She could feel them, cold, dark tendrils of something strange crawling all over her body, and sinking into every pore and hole they could. Every breath felt strained, and with each gasp of air, she could feel Arad’s power sinking deeper into her lungs.

That was just Arad exerting his dominion over all the void around them, yet she couldn’t fathom that. She didn’t have the necessary knowledge, power, or time to think. Then, something even more terrifying happened. She could feel it, whatever Arad unleashed. It was taking root deeper inside her, resting within her very cells, her very being.

At this point, she had long since forgotten that Arad stood, walked, and talked like a man, and all she could ever seem him now as was an ever-expanding and oppressive mass of pure darkness and raw power.

Just as the realization slowly hit her, she came into a second, harrowing discovery. Whatever this darkness was, it wasn’t just limited to the arena. Far away in the east was her sect, two thousand kilometres away from this underground fighting arena. Her daughters and disciples were all there, training and working hard each day and night to grow stronger and survive.

Among those, her daughters, the ones she shared her poison and technique with, she could sense their presence clearly, and what she felt made her shiver. They, too, their bodies and souls were engulfed in Arad’s oppressive domain.

A loud and painful clicking rang through her mind, dropping her to her knees in pain as a deep, rumbling void gargled in front of her. The void listed the names of her daughters and disciples one by one, their size, weight, location, unique marks on their bodies, what they were doing, what they wore, and even what they were thinking.

The voice wasn’t threatening her with them; it was just making it clear that she had greatly underestimated Arad’s power, his reach, and utterly oppressive aura. If he so wanted, he could flatten the entire world.

In reality, her understanding was clouded by her limited knowledge. Arad couldn’t flatten the world; his expansion only spanned 4000km in every direction, which was the limit to how far he could expand his sense and power. It was just that the people of this world were far weaker and more susceptible to his power since no one like him existed, and due to the weak reaches of magic.

”What is the matter? You won’t keep fighting?” Arad asked, standing just a few inches away from her, but she didn’t move, remaining on her knees.

She wanted to look up at him, but her body refused to listen. She was afraid, horrified, and utterly shaken by knowing the true limits of the violence and carnage he could cause at any moment. One wrong move and he could easily rip her spleen out and jam it into the eye of one of her students on the other side of the continent.

Even if she were to assume that he would honor the rules of the fight and only hurt her... he could still have finished her long ago if he wanted. The only reason she can still breath is because he is letting her, if he wanted, the air would feel so heavy that it won’t follow into her lungs.

The crowd looked at them, confused. None of them felt what Miani was feeling, and no one understood why she suddenly fell to her knees like that. The only two who got a rough idea were Pig God Gor and Bloody Rose Liana, as they are the only two who could somewhat imagine what Arad could do.

But even they failed to grasp what kind of horror Arad was showing Miani, and they shivered just thinking about it.

Arad squatted down in front of Miani and stared at her pale face. ”You can move; all you need is to gather the courage to face something that you can’t reach, let alone beat.” He smiled, ”I know a lot of people who are crazy enough to challenge the odds, but I’m not so sure you’re one of those people.”

Miani heard him. She wanted to move, but her body refused to obey her. Her legs felt numb, her lungs burned, her mind clouded, and even her eyes started tearing up. This darkness, this cold, this alien nightmare... where could she even start?

Liana approached them and gave Miani’s face a look, quickly noticing that her eyes were staring into distant nothingness, like she was in a trance. She then threw a glance at Arad, ”Was it a mental attack? Poison?”

He shrugged. ”Neither, I just showed her a trick that I could do.” He then chuckled, ”Well, the only one that stood and fought back was your father.” Hearing that, the crowd immediately exploded. No one knew that he had faced Bloody Rose’s father before... that elusive elder of unimaginable power.

”Can she keep fighting?” Liana asked with a worried face, and Arad stood, ”It depends on her willpower. Will a rational man jump into the maw of death? Will any regular person here have the courage to stand up to you or to your father? That is what she is facing now.”

As he walked back toward his corner, he sat down and started waiting. ”I’ll give her time to see if she can gather her courage or not.”

”Got it.” Liana walked back and kept watching the frozen Miani, waiting for her to move or fall, and almost immediately, a second later, a flash of power exploded from the Spider Mother’s chest.

Arad smiled and stood, and the entire crowd cheered as Miani finally made up her mind to stand and fight against all odds, and the trigger for her confidence was obvious. Her own fate, the red thread she held between her fingers, it extended far into the future.

”Weave!” Miani shouted at the top of her lungs as her entire body was consumed by threads of darkness. ”Moirai!” The tapestry of fate opened above the arena as her body turned into a massive black spider, running through the threads with horrifying grace.

CRACK! But then, in the blink of an eye, her large spider head was kissing the ground as Arad hit her with a single punch, shattering her body and power before it could fully take effect. The tapestry of fate faded away, Miani’s body shifted back into her humanoid form, and Arad slowly removed his fist.

”That was close.” He sighed, and Doma nodded inside his head. ^{If this fool used that tapestry for another second, she could’ve fried her own fate to ash.}^

But then, in the next second, it was Arad who felt true terror. He could feel his entire body getting touched and hugged, and due to his extensive experience, he could tell they were three naked women caressing him. Doma, who was in his mind, felt the same thing, and unlike Arad, she was far more terrified than him, since she knew those three.

”Our Lord... GOD... The One and Only... The Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega... The Absolute Omniscience...” The voices of three women giggled in his head, and then slowly faded away.

^Doma, are you okay?^ He called to her, and she gasped for air. ^{The Fates... they were here... yet... I’m alive, they didn’t erase me.}^

As Arad stood there, the air around him suddenly shifted, and when it did, all the people watching turned around and fled, even Liana backed away, since he was glaring down at Miani’s unconscious body with pure, raw, murderous intent. ”Should I... Kill her to be safe?”

As he said those words, the only person standing between him and Miani was her mother; the old lady didn’t look afraid at all and stood there, giving Arad a sharp glare. ”Only my cold corpse.” Even though she said that, just looking at Arad’s face made her aware that he was about to fold her alongside her daughter like pieces of paper.

^No, I don’t think so. She just opened the tapestry of fate, and those three came out; it wasn’t her mistake.^ Doma quickly calmed him down, ^{Besides, this is good news. They might’ve changed their mind about erasing a Fateless like myself.}^

Half an hour later, Miani woke up in the VIP room beside Eris, who had healed her a while ago. ”You woke up. Do you remember your name?”

Miani stared at her for a second, almost getting enthralled by her divine beauty, but then shook her head. ”Miani... I was... fighting Arad, he punched me in the head, and everything went dark.”

Eris smiled. ”Good, it seems the healing magic worked.” She helped her sit up, ”The fight ended a while ago, and you lost. Take a moment to relax.” She looked around, saw Eris, Liana, and Kali, who was playing with her daughter in the corner. Why didn’t that girl go back home? She’ll make sure to give her an earful later.

But then, what she saw made all the blood drain from her veins. On the couch, Arad was sitting with her old mother on his lap, trying to feed him. ”Come on, sonny. You’ll need to eat if you want to grow up.” What made her even more appalled was that Arad didn’t look bothered at all, but... quite enjoying it.

Eris patted her on the shoulder. ”Your mother took a liking to Arad after he glared at her, and he seems to have liked how she didn’t cower in fear under his oppressive gaze.”

”Wait! She is over a millennium old! Like... seventy years if she was a regular human!” Miani cried, and her mother gave her a sharp glare. ”Come on, calm down. I’m just playing around... I won’t be stealing him.” She jumped aside and gave her daughter a smug glare. ”I just couldn’t feed him sitting normally.”