The dragon's harem

Chapter 2164: Dance of Murder and Control

”Wait...what are you doing?” Merlin cried, looking up. ”Protect the worlds? The planets you mean? Just what are you going to pull out?” She almost stood and crashed the communication setup she had.

[I’m going back to the kitchen, and dragging Isdis with me.] Those words sounded more ominous than a joke, and Merlin knew to move quickly. Splitting her consciousness into two, she gave Lucy who was beside her a stare. ”Can you handle a few more spells?”

”Nope, but I’ll try.” A large six-sided dice appeared above Lucy’s head, and it started spinning faster than anyone could even see. It was, in fact, spinning so fast that it felt like a storm was raging inside the hall. Her eyes burned with blue flames, and she leaned back on the throne with a smile. ”Ah... this feels awful, but I can do better now.”

As a divine goddess, Lucy could now spin the wild magic dice countless times a second, endure all bad effects at once, and look for specific beneficial roles. Merlin would have loved to inspect and see what rolls Lucy got, but now she had no time. Eris always acted quickly, so she had to move.

”Thank you!” Closing her eyes, Merlin separated her consciousness at a rate of 95% to 5%. 5% was what she left here on the throne, and the rest shifted back to Arad’s inner world, taking shape as a titanic abomination that floated right outside the world’s atmosphere.

Merlin extended her horrific four arms, and everyone who was inside Arad’s inner world who saw her fell to their knees in utter horror. That thing was ugly and disgusting, yet it had a titanic halo of magic floating above its head and was now controlling almost every drop of mana inside Arad’s stomach.

Without wasting a second, she quickly started casting several barriers on everything. The planets, the moons, the purple sun, the meteor where Poppy is being kept, and much more. She was using so much magic in fact that when Poppy felt her, she shat herself and went into a panic, screaming and trying to find a place to hide. This feeling was just as oppressive as when Arad and Cain clashed under the sea, and it triggered the little pricolici’s PTSD.

This was all possible due to three reasons. The first was that here inside Arad’s stomach, Merlin could ignore all of Yog’s rules and be fine, since Arad owned this space. The second was Doma’s curse, which allowed her to use more of her powers here in exchange for not being able to use them outside, and the third was panic.

Merlin knew well that if she didn’t push her limits now, Eris was going to cause a disaster. She didn’t just know that woman well; she had slept naked with her on the same bed; they were both Arad’s wives. Eris would murder an entire world to help Arad, and that was just a fact and a part of her nature.

Back in the void of space, Eris appeared alone. ”This should be far enough to make Merlin’s job easier.” She looked back, and Isdis appeared behind her. ”Are you sure about this? Amaterasu won’t complain, would she?”

”She said I can use as much divine magic as I want. She is prideful, so she will never go back on her word.” Eris cracked her neck and shoulders. ”Besides, she is our only option. Energy can’t come out of nowhere, right?” She unbuttoned her robe and took it off. As she threw the robe aside, it got teleported into her wardrobe.

”I don’t want to complain a lot.” Isdis also took her robe off and then approached Eris. ”But I’m a little bit scared. Are you sure this will work?” She then took off her armored pants and let them teleport to her room, where the maids would sort them out.

”At worst, we’ll suffer a lot, and our angels would come pick us up afterward.” Eris looked back at her with a smile. ”I’m also sure it’ll be more painful for you than it will be for me.” She turned around. ”If you don’t want to do it, you can go back.”

Isdis sighed. ”Of course I’ll do it.” She took the rest of her clothes off in a single go, and crossed her arms. ”Do you really think I’m soft enough to back away?”

Eris fully stripped as well, then approached her. ”Just to test things. Don’t move.” She slowly touched Isdis’s stomach and then shoved her fist inside her torso, reaching up to her heart. Isdis twitched, but kept her passive expression. ”If you can endure this pain, then you don’t have to fear anything. A few burns won’t bother you that much.” She pulled her arm off and licked the blood.

Eris’s eyes opened wide. ”Wait! Your blood tastes amazing! Arad might be spicy, but you taste like... sweet vanilla!”

Isdis sighed as she healed in less than a fraction of a second. ”Yeah, I’ll let you drink my blood later, miss bloodsucking fiend. Let’s get this thing over with quickly. My only job is to cool you down, right?”

”Yes, the more power I draw, the hotter my body gets. That makes me even more volatile and weakens my control. Try to keep as close to my current temperature as you can, and hopefully I can make a decent one.” She threw her fists forward, clenched them, and Isdis stood just a few meters above her. ”We need to find clothes that can withstand our divine power later.”

”We can make clothes with our divine magic, but even I can’t do it at my current level. For now, we have to play it like this. If we don’t want Merida and Isabelle to keep nagging.” Eris’s entire body started glowing with a faint purple light. Her sharp black nails crackled with plasma, and her skin started getting filled with freckle-like tiny purple scales.

Isdis could immediately feel the heat rising, even though they were floating in the vacuum of space. It was just the radiation, and that alone was hot enough to melt steel. ”Damn it, Eris! You said you’re going to be hot, but not like this!” Isdis got even closer and extended her hands toward Eris’s back.

Isdis’s pale skin was already glowing, but not from divine power, just from the sheer amount of heat she was absorbing from Eris. Her blue nails crackled with her divine magic, and she felt like she was put on a grill. No matter how fast she absorbed, Eris always outputted more heat.

All of this was made to help Eris create and control a star, and the formula was simple. The further Eris was from the star, the harder the job was. The hotter her divine body got, the harder it was for her to maintain focus. So they had to stand close to the star when it was getting created, and keep Eris’s divine body as cool as possible.

Eris won’t be harmed if her body got too hot and turned into plasma; that, in fact, would allow her to control more power, but her precision would drop, and she could lose control. That won’t be bad if the star she was creating was her only star, but she has another one illuminating Arad’s world, and that star would crumble as well if Eris lost control.

Eris smiled. ”I warmed up enough. How are you holding back there?” She called, and Isdis growled. ”Bitch... is this just you warming up?” She was almost dying back there, but knew that she could endure more.

”What did you just call me?” Eris giggled. ”Well, it is my mistake anyway. Sorry, but you’ll have to endure more. Can you take it?” Eris threw a quick glance back, and Isdis was holding better than she expected. Her skin still looked soft and smooth, and she wasn’t looking like a roasted chicken.

”Yeah, keep going.” Isdis smiled and started sucking even more heat and ejecting it far away to empty her heat tank. ”I’m more resilient than I show.”

Eris looked forward, and finally, her skin started glowing with divine magic. ”I’m really sorry; this bitch would make it up for you later. I know this would hurt you like hell!” Right in front of them, a titanic purple star that was as large as the one shining on the mortal world burst into existence, and Isdis could feel the skin peeling off her flesh.

Isdis had never felt such pain before, but her divine body was still fighting back, regenerating her skin as quickly as it evaporated. She had never expected that one day, she would stand so close to a sun and stare directly at it.

”Good, I’ll collapse it.” Eris growled, but before she could start, Isdis growled in the back. ”Not yet; make it bigger.” Hearing those words, Eris froze for a second. ”I can smell you roasting behind me. I’m sure you’re a skinless monster now. You want me to use more power?”

”I said do it.” Isdis growled, and Eris could feel something disgusting slithering inside her skill, like a tongue licking her neurons. Compassion, love, obedience, will, and orders... ”All, trying to use your control on me? It won’t work; I’m a stronger divine. But fine, if you think you can handle more heat, I’ll make this star bigger.”

Eris pulled even more divine magic from Amaterasu, and Isdis put even more effort into cooling Eris down. The star started slowly growing bigger, but that was the moment something strange started to happen.

Eris’s Murder Portfolio started getting power from Isdis suffering behind her and getting burned to death over and over. At the same time, Isdis’s Control Portfolio was elated, sucking power from Eris trying to control a star. The two portfolios started resonating like two stars orbiting each other, and soon, Eris and Isdis were already working like one existence.

Merlin, who was watching from afar, noticed that first. At that moment, there was no Eris or Isdis, just one being. She could see Eris and Isdis’s souls stuck to each other like yin and yang, both spinning and burning with more and more power.

The people in Arad’s world could see a new star appearing in the night sky, turning the night into noon, and that star was growing bigger each second. If not for Merlin’s barriers, their world would’ve been fried. The angels of Murder and Control were all praying, and Arad’s dark soul rumbled with power.