The dragon's harem

Chapter 2030: Unnatural Growth

When morning arrived, Arad was standing by the castle entrance, staring at the spanning capital with cold, purple eyes. Today was Eris’s crowning day, and it was a very important one. Eris was literally the first divine goddess to live in the mortal world and had even become a queen to probably the strongest empire to ever exist.

Thousands of people had arrived to watch, and many of them were powerful wizards, royals, and even hermits. Everyone wanted to see with their own eyes what a divine looks like, what a goddess walking the mortal world would be like.

Would flowers sprout from beneath her feet, or would everyone just die in her oppressive presence? Is she beautiful, or a nightmarish creature? Many other religions said that angels are far more terrifying than even devils and demons, so would a god be like them, or not?

They were both right, depending on how someone looks at it, Eris could be either beautiful or disgustingly horrifying. Are the people looking at the benevolent Sol, or the murderous Los? Are they scared of vampires? Are they scared of what they can’t understand? If so, then they’ll only see nightmares in her.

But the biggest question the mortals of this world have for them is going to be about him, not Eris. How in the nine hells did he manage to bag a divine being, while billions of people spend their entire lives without seeing one?

The answer to that was simple: Eris wasn’t always a goddess. Except for Kali, none of his wives ever was divine. And even among them, Eris was special. It was true that among his wives, her growth was the biggest. While he might’ve had a hand in her growth, he was never the reason.

Ever since the day she was born, Eris was special. A pure-blooded vampire born to a high elf mother who spent centuries in Katal’s service, the former god of murder. Her father was a powerful purple dragon, giving her a potent bloodline that already set her on a whole other dimension of power than anyone else.

A half-high-elf, half-purple-dragon with direct links to a cult whose main purpose was murder, and murder was the essence of combat. Eris grew rapidly and soon reached a big enough level of power to leave the cult and live on her own, killing, feeding, and embalming people for a living. Even the criminals of the underground city of Rita were already giving her the respect of a divine as she was their only road to a peaceful rest.

With all of that power and influence, she was fated to face her past once more. Her draconic father wasn’t going to remain hidden, and the cult that nurtured her mother would want her as well. It was just that before any of those two could shift her fate, she met a man, a massive man with enough madness in his draconic brain to challenge her, who was known as death’s incarnate.

Up until that point, no one survived facing her. It was a known fact that anyone who tried to challenge her would end up cremated and with their ashes in a tiny jar. But Arad was stupid enough to stand in her way, and dense enough to actually win.

From then, he dragged Eris home, out of the murderous lifestyle she had in Rita, he broke the cycle of her life, but not her attitude. She was very much a murderous half-dragon pure-blooded vampire, and she was the only one of his wives who acted like a drakaina, before even being a true one.

Eris loved to fight, loved to spill blood, and wasn’t going to stay a loser compared to Arad. She kept growing stronger to defeat him, and her powerful heritage only got stronger with her. Then, eventually, they clashed with her father and won, gaining her freedom. And when her cult came out, Eris had the power, backing, and strong fate tied to Arad to win against its champion, and eventually, usurp the god’s power by elimination.

Arad was indeed the catalyst to her growth, but he neither trained nor granted her that power. Most likely, even if he wasn’t around, she was probably fated to eventually become a divine goddess. Arad’s existence in her life only accelerated that growth and helped sway her away from the dark path.

If Eris had become a goddess without him, those people might not have come to watch her; they might have been afraid, hiding in their homes and castles, praying to the gods in fear of the rising of the new Murder Goddess.

In the end, all that Arad did was turn her away from the path of evil, and that is probably nerfing her murderous potential. Right now, Eris is most likely weaker than if she had just taken the dark path.

Eris appeared by his side, sighed, and looked at the tens of thousands of people filling the streets so early, right after dawn. ”This is more than Aella...”

”Well, you aren’t just a queen, you’re a goddess, and people really want to see what a goddess looks like.” Arad replied with a smile. ”Probably, there would be double this amount when the march starts.”

She looked at him with a smile. ”Probably? I bet you counted them.”

He chuckled, ”Well, I can’t help it with them being in my domain.” He then looked back at the castle, ”Besides, this is only the people who know of Sol.”

Beneath the castle, hundreds of thousands of vampires were gathering up to congratulate the new divine and their Blood Lord. It was quite strange. While Arad still remains as the Blood Lord, since he is a Pricolici, a creature above regular vampires, they see him as a higher being. To the vampires, Eris looked more suited to be the Blood Lord.

The two of them disappeared and emerged beneath the castle, inside Arad’s lair, where those vampires were gathering, and the moment they did, all those vampires stared at them.

Two masses of darkness, one glaring at them with burning red eyes. While all the vampires were talking earlier, the moment Arad and Eris appeared, they all fell silent, unable to even breathe. While neither Eris nor Arad exerted any power over them, the vampires still felt true fear, standing under the gaze of higher beings.

Zia appeared beside Eris and threw a glance at the vampires. ”Lord Arad, Lady Eris. Those are most of the vampire lords of this world, at least, the ones who could make it. There are some who are either hibernating due to wounds or other reasons.”

Zia then threw a sharp glare at all the vampire lords, and they all knelt down. They weren’t afraid of her, but of the implications of her glare. She was a direct servant of the two Lords, and that glare probably meant that they were being far too disrespectful.

”The law is moderation. For centuries, vampires had a really bad reputation as predators of mortals.” Arad looked at the vampires with a smile. ”That isn’t wrong, we vampires feeds on our race. A human vampire feed on humans, and an elf vampire feeds best on elves.”

He took a step forward, and all vampires could feel their blood boil. ”The world is filled with bandits, killers, and mortals so vile that even devils shy from their deed. Prioritize those people as a source of blood first, and try to avoid harming innocent people for no reason.”

While Vlad mostly left the vampires to their own desires as long as they obeyed him as slaves, Arad wasn’t going to do that. He and Eris were going to set rules and laws to ensure that humans and vampires could coexist to some extent while maintaining minimal contact.

This was the dawn of a new age.