The dragon's harem

Chapter 2352: Going Back Home Victorious

As the rotten universe shattered and burned to ash, Bahamut saw Cain evaporate as well, so he grabbed Amaterasu and flew away with her. She had spent a lot of her energy right now, and so he had to take her back and keep her safe, even though he too wasn’t doing well, with a hole in his side and a missing arm.

She was mostly fine, just exhausted enough that she wouldn’t be able to go back on her own without resting for a while. The reason for that was simple. Even though she wanted to blow the entire rotten universe to pieces, she had to conserve enough energy so the universe back home wouldn’t just collapse. It was like trying to conjure a lightning bolt without tripping the breakers, and that almost demanded a high level of control and mastery over her power.

"Is it dead?" Amaterasu asked, and Bahamut looked at her. "How am I supposed to know?" If anyone here could tell, it should be her with the Eyes of the Lord. But her answer shook him. "I’m blind now; I overworked my mind, and it shut down. Check the Dracorage Mythics; if that Meteor is still up, that means Nyar himself survived."

As he flew with her, Bahamut closed his eyes and checked. "All of the Avatars in the wars are vanishing and crumbling. But there is no change to the Dracorage Mythics; that meteor is still orbiting the universe and approaching it slowly."

"Damn it. That meteor is autonomous and doesn’t need Nyar’s input, but its magic shouldn’t be like that. There is a 50/50 chance that it crumbles when Nyar dies, so... if that bastard is alive, he is hoping we bet on the 50% that it stays." She closed her eyes and tried to let them rest for a bit. "But even if he is alive, we got ourselves a few centuries of peace. That should be enough for us to deal with the Dracorage Mythics and allow Arad enough time to explore the universe and grow in relative peace."

"I got it. I’ll inform everyone else of our victory." Bahamut smiled, but then looked at her. "At least ask Yog to keep an eye out. We won’t want Nyar to sneak attack us if he survived. The last thing we want to deal with is a suicidal assault."

"I’m working on it." As Amaterasu contracted Yog, she got an immediate reply. ^Countless abominations are vanishing one after the other, but something is off. The way they are fading isn’t what it should look like when Nyar dies, but what it looks like when he runs out of energy, or when the link with him is severed unexpectedly.^

"Explain in a way that I could understand." Amaterasu growled, and Yog cleared her throat. ^Imagine how a human would die if you crushed their skull versus how they would die from a heart attack. This is the difference. There is a high chance that Nyar is still alive, but I say you messed him up pretty badly, enough that he will probably be at least two-thirds as scared of you as he is scared of AO.^

"He should be more scared of Cain and Bahamut; those two messed his rotten universe up and bought me enough time to charge up." Amaterasu looked up at Bahamut. She remembered when he was just born. Asgorath was so happy that he cried, but sometimes, he did leave Bahamut and Tiamat in Amaterasu’s care, which resulted in her nursing them, changing their diapers, and even training them on how to fight when they grew up a bit.

"Scared of me? I’m old, and I could barely keep those two ugly bastards at bay; I even got a hole blown into me." Bahamut chuckled. "I’ll live, but I don’t think that I’m fit for battlefields anymore." He then looked back. "But... Cain is still as horrifying as ever. He almost destroyed that rotten place before you could do it. Where did he come from?"

"Most likely, it was his heart. AO fueled it, and Cain’s madness took control to fight. What I’m trying to understand is if Cain is sane or mad, and what he is planning. He’s always been a slimy bastard with a thousand plans, so I doubt this is the end of it." She shook her head, and Bahamut frowned. "He could be very well working under AO, or at least aligned with him."

^Forget about everything. How are you now? Can you see? I know that the damage was done to your brain and not the Eyes of the Lord, so how are you doing mentally, and what did you see in that universe?^ As Yog asked, Amaterasu had to think about it for a few seconds. While she could see everything with the Eyes of the Lord, she was only focusing on charging up back there, so she had to take a few short moments to remember.

"That universe was weird, as if it was fragmented and carried countless rifts inside it. I could only sense abominations inside, but there were traces of a great battle that might’ve taken billions of years to play out." As Amaterasu explained, Yog nodded. ^Say, what was that universe’s shape? Did it look like a pumpkin from the outside?^

"Now that you mention it, it looked like a rotten and deflated pumpkin." As Amaterasu replied, Yog sighed. ^Can I check your memories directly? I need to get a clearer look.^

Amaterasu didn’t mind, so she allowed Yog to look, and a few seconds later, she got a reply. ^I’ll be gone for a few minutes. Have Bahamut bring you back home safely, and go rest immediately. This isn’t advice but an order: keep your eyes closed and let your mind rest.^

The line cut, and Bahamut flew toward the universe with Amaterasu in his arms.

****

Back in the universe, Yog appeared in the desolate wastelands of Hades and found herself standing alone in the dusty and endless landscape. She looked down at her bare feet and wiggled her toes in the dust, looked up at the black sky, and then at the grey-skinned man sitting on a boulder in front of her.

"Yo, been a while, dusty boy." She smiled, and Hades returned the grin. "What a fucking midget doing in my land, fuck off."

She laughed, "I got you some news. Amaterasu found and blew up your universe." The moment he heard that, the smile on his face disappeared, and he stared at her with a serious glare. "It was already long dead, but I’m at least glad that my Lord was put to rest."

He jumped down and approached her. "But do you know what that means?"

Yog scratched the back of her head. "I doubt Nyar would’ve stayed there if he knew Amaterasu was coming, so most likely, he had fled beforehand and left it there as bait, the same way a lizard cuts its tail to escape." She shrugged and shook her head. "Still, we hit him good."

Hades smiled. "That is good enough for now. He won’t bother us for a while."