The dragon's harem

The devil growled, "Those mortals have a way of spying on my moves. I bet it's related to the latest rampage of that spirit in Avernus." He waved his hand in the air, "Unforgivable! To think those bugs are crawling beneath my house, I shall crush them all with my entire might," He glared at the devils lined in his throne room.

"Lord Alony, just give the order, and we'll search every crevice of Avernus to find what they did." A devil stated, bowing to Alony.

Alony glared at him, "DIE!" The devil's body exploded immediately, "You're an even bigger fool. That spirit rampaged on Tiamat's land and didn't get eaten. That only means the mother of the chromatic dragons is on their side, at least tolerating their existence,"

He approached his henchmen, "You that mean she won't let us roam free in Avernus. Fighting her isn't an option," He growled.

****

Aella and Isdis returned home after making sure the devil's plan in the capital failed. They landed in Arad's garden, and Tina looked out of the window.

"They returned!" She turned and called the others. Upon walking inside the house, Aella asked, "How is Arad doing?"

"The magic released from the egg has grown even stronger." Tina replied, "He might wake soon,"

"I see," Aella took her boots off and walked, Isdis trailing behind her. "The devil's plan failed. Brother wasn't that easy to manipulate,"

"Merlin already told us when she received your message." Tina replied with a smile, "Thankfully, the devil doesn't seem to be planning any moves for the time being,"

Aella and Isdis sat on the couch, "I doubt he has any easy way of making her the richest without direct help from the royal family."

Isdis smiled, "I warned Father. Kin and Gin are investigating with the paladins for any devil activity. He won't get anything from them,"

"What about Roberta?" Aella looked at Tina.

"She's being protected in Merlin's tower by Lydia and Eris."

The door opened, and Mira and Merida walked in carrying wood axes and a stack of firewood, "Tina, did Aella and Isdis come back?" Merida looked into the living room.

"Take your shoes off first! Don't drag mud inside," Tina glared at them, "And thanks for the firewood. Yes, they came back,"

"Merlin said you two stopped the devil's plan," Mira looked at them as she handed the firewood to Tina.

"Here it is,"

"Thanks, I'll get it ready at once," Tina replied to Mira.

Mira looked at Aella and Isdis, "We're taking a bath. Want to join in?"

"Well go after you. It'll get cramped if we all go at the same time." Aella waved her hand, "We're wasting firewood, but what could we do?"

"Just wait until the mountain's castle gets built. I got the architects to design a royal bath using a natural hot spring source that we found in the mountains. We can make twice as large as the one we have at the royal capital," Isdis said with an excited voice.

"That'll take a while," Aella sighed.

"We're going quick," Mira and Merida rushed toward the bath. It's been a long, cold day cutting firewood and working on furniture. Mira had Merida work as her hauler for the day, exploiting her massive strength to carry furniture and tools around.

****

Inside Merlin's tower, Roberta sat on a couch, reading a book with a tired face. "I can't sleep," She mumbled.

"I've told you to relax a bit," Eris said, staring at her as she sat on a chair in the corner of the room, playing with a tiny plasma ball to master her magic further. "We got the news that they defeated the devil in the capital. It's 2-0 in our favor now,"

"Eris is right," Lydia smiled as she was reading a black book beside the fireplace. Apparently, it was the holy scripture of Amaterasu. "That devil won't win. Not with two paladins protecting you,"

"They said that woman might die," Roberta sighed, "I can't get it off my head that she might lose her life because of me,"

"That Bela? Prince Charlie already said she was crazy from the start. Dealing with a devil is her fault." Lydia closed the holy scriptures, looking at Roberta, "It isn't your fault, and if that devil came, I'll punch him in your place."

"Punch a devil from hell? I'm sure he isn't from the first layer, probably the third. Isn't that what Sena's said?" Eris giggled, "I fought devils from the first layer. They are powerful."

Eris resited what she learned in hell.

15 low-rank devils = 1 mid-rank devil.

15 mid-rank devils=1 upper-rank devil.

1 upper-rank devil in the first layer = 1 low-rank devil in the second layer.

"If he's a low-rank in the third layer that means he's 225 times stronger than the upper ranks of the first layer, the ones who I can barely beat three of them at once. If he's a mid-rank, he's 3375 times stronger. And if he's an upper rank, It's over 50 thousand times stronger. Do you know what that means?" Eris stared at Lydia, "We aren't beating that thing in a fight, don't even try, you'll die,"

"Hell doesn't seem right," Roberta looked down, "What kind of scaling is that?"

"It's designed to jail anyone. That means the lower layers should be able to contain even world powers, demigods, and entities strong enough to threaten the multiverse. What did you expect from the literal hell? Be beaten by mortals who train for a few decades?" Eris giggled, "It would be pathetic. No one would fear hell if that was the case,"

"HELL! HELL! THE HELL HAS IT LAWS!" Black chains emerged around Roberta, and Merlin busted through the door open, "He's here!" She screamed.

The devil Alony emerged out of the fire waving his chains around Roberta, "How were you doing? The richest woman in the kingdom, did you enjoy it?" He whispered, the chains cracking behind them.

"I spent a fortune to make it happen, so now I want my part of the deal," He giggled, "Don't have it, then I'm taking you with me," A collar emerged around Roberta's neck.

"How did you!" Merlin growled. ^Did he make her the richest? He didn't move a bit, not a single plan or a mission. Don't tell me he shelled out from his pocket. What does Roberta have for a devil of the third layer to want it so badly?^contemporary romance

CRACK! Lydia jumped behind the devil, swinging her sword at his neck. [Divine...]

Alony turned around, swinging a back fist and smacking her in the face, ripping her lower jaw off, and breaking her sword. "Mortal..." Lydia didn't stop moving, with blood gushing out of her mouth and her upper teeth scraping the devil's arm. She clenched a fist, [...Cleaver]

Her fist hit Alony's face, exploding with a brilliant light and spinning him in place.

Eris gasped, ^In that fist, she had more holy magic than I could fit into ten expansions?! The depth of faith corelate to the amount of holy magic the gods grant you,^ She growled, ^But it isn't without a price.^ Lydia's arm was nowhere to be seen, and the bleeding from her lost jaw would kill her in seconds.

As Alony's head hit the ground, Lydia stepped on his face with her steel boot [Divine Cleaver]. Her scream quickly turned into a screech akin to monsters as holy magic burned from her body, crushing the devil's face to the ground.

Alony waved his hands, and the black chains of hell caught Lydia, pulling her into the flames and toward the depth of hell.

"GAH!" Alony growled, standing up. "Fucking paladin, those bastards never chance." He looked around with a smile, "You can't move, can you?" He giggled with blood gushing out of his nose.

Eris and Merlin were frozen in place, his black chains holding them.

"I'm Barony Alony, a humble devil of the second layer of hell. My curse is domination. I control and steal the power of those I win in a contract." He waved his hand, bowing as his face healed.

"A faithless wizard and a super holy vampire that came from the god of murder and just started serving the goddess of dusk and dawn," He smiled, "Your faith, will, and power of determination aren't strong enough to beat my curse. But that paladin was, her oath was to protect and take vengeance, and her words, she honored."

"About punching you? I didn't expect that she'd actually do it," Eris stared at him, "What's happened to her?"

"She's dead, dropped into hell. I don't even know which layer she landed on. I just flung her inside." He smiled.

"We'll..." Eris growled, but before she could finish her words, her body split in half as the devil waved his hand, "I'm not listening to any word from you,"

Eris's severed body burst into hellish black flames, "Stay dead until I'm out of here, or forever. That flame can't be put out."

Alony turned toward Merlin, "Grand magic at the expense of your own life won't kill me. That'll only make my curse stronger, and you're dead," He waved his hand, cutting her head in half. "I do not play games. You've messed up my plans enough, and this is the end. It's over, doom."

A hell gate opened at his side, and he shoved Roberta inside, "See you later,"

"YOU!" Gojo burst through the wall, swinging a punch but barely missing the gate closing, "Damn it, Merlin! Make an exception in your barrier," He looked at the carnage, "He was only here for a few seconds, and..."

Gojo smiled, "Wait, so you've made an exception. He slipped in after him."

[Contingency spell: Activated] A voice boomed across Merlin's tower, [Protocol: Sever cranium and brain trauma]

****

Inside Arad's house, time seemed to slow down. Mira was in the middle of handing Merida a stack of clothes with a smile as a devil swung his sword toward her neck, and Merida was panicking, trying to move as fast as she could.

Aella stood to pull her bow as she could see a gust of flames gushing behind Tina, two devils rushing out faster than she could react.

Deep inside the dungeon, two devils ran toward Arad's room chased by Meryem. She screamed after them to stop as they charged their spells, aiming at Arad's egg as the kobolds stared back in shock.

In a sudden attack out of nowhere, the devils seemed to spawn out of thin air in Arad's house. Their goal was simple. Kill everyone as fast as possible and before they counterattack. With no talking and no warning, the devilish master had gotten hold of his target and only cleaned up the remains.

As the two devils were about to unleash their spells at Arad's eggs, trying to kill him before waking up, the egg flashed with a rainbow light, whistling with an extremely high pitch that dropped everyone to their knees.

"HOO!" A kobold gasped, crying, "He's waking up! Our lord, our ruler. How beautiful. How majestic, it's the most powerful thing I ever saw!

The egg cracked with a flash of light, and the two devils lost two chunks from their torsos in the shape of a human's hand with claws.

Their whole bodies crumbled into the wounds, vanishing into nothing as Meryem gasped, unable to see anything.

"What was that? What happened?" She screamed, looking forward to seeing Arad's egg as an empty shell, "No! No way! They got Arad while I'm here," She cried.

"They didn't!" A kobold shouted, "Our lord got them! And he's out for more blood!"

The devils attacking the girls in the kitchen suddenly disappeared, only leaving faint sparks of flames before harming anyone. "What happened?" Aella and Merida gasped at the same time.

"What?" Mira looked toward them, and so did Isdis, "I felt a bit of magic?"

"Devils? But where did they go?" Aella looked around, holding her bow.

"Arad mauled them before I could act," Zephyr sighed, appearing behind her. "He stacked two times slow on top of each other, one cast by him and the other by a Gemini clone. That slowed time by 99%."

"Arad woke up?"

"He forced himself to wake up," Zephyr sat on Aella's head.

done.co