The dragon's harem

Chapter 2356: The Nymph is Out

Inside the Void, Eris looked up and saw an endless starry expanse. Isdis was immediately overwhelmed by the intense flux of magic, so she almost fell to her knees. And while Neptune looked fine, she was already sweating from anxiety. The only two who looked unbothered and not surprised were Merlin and Kali, the two who understood most about Arad’s evolution.

"There he is." Kali pointed up, and what they saw was an endless sea of stars with light falling down like a waterfall, and beneath it stood a large man, looking away from everyone. They could only see his massive back, long black hair, and the dark mist leaking out of his cracked body.

"ARAD!" Eris called, and the man slowly turned, looking at them. But the moment he did that, it wasn’t a human that looked at them, but a formless sea of darkness. Eris couldn’t see his face, and neither could anyone else, except Kali.

"I am not done yet." He spoke, and his voice rang inside their minds, causing Neptune, who had the least divine capacity, to fall to her knees. "I still... need a bit of time."

Through her shaking and blurry vision, Neptune struggled to lift her head up and look at Arad, but what she saw was strange. In one moment, it was the cracked large man; in another, it was a kid; and in another, it was a tall woman. She even saw a horrifying monster and an endless black pit of nothingness.

One thing was for certain: this one was similar to Amaterasu in nature. It was as Merlin told her. He is a Nymph of Dark Matter, holding the fabric of the universe with Amaterasu as if it were nothing. To her, this might explain why Amaterasu was so interested in him. For eons, no one was able to reliably help her, and even Cain only lasted five thousand years before crumbling, and he was nowhere near as stable as Arad was now.

It was as if Arad was made for the job.

"They aren’t here to get you out early." Kali smiled. "They just want to know how you’re doing?" She walked and extended her demonic magic back to cover everyone and protect them from the endless flood of magic coming out of Arad.

"My souls are forming, they are growing, and they are splitting apart. The Human, the Dragon, the Nymph, the Cursed Beast, the Cursed Fiend, and both the Abhorrent Abomination and Unyielding Divine." His eyes moved, and the darkness coming out of his back exploded. "The first to come out would be the Nymph, as she attached to the universe. The dragon would come last, as it’s last in line to evolve."

He smiled, his voice shifting. "In fact, she is out." With those words, everyone got ejected from Arad’s soul realm, and when they opened their eyes, they were back at the church of stars.

"Did he kick us out?" Isdis looked around, and Neptune was already shaking. "That feeling, a higher divine!" As she lifted her head up and looked forward, she could see her. The woman looked a lot like Violet and Yuwaku. Tall, well-built, and boasting long dark hair and glowing purple eyes. She was sitting on the back hole, her legs dangling down as she looked at everyone.

"You’re finally awake?" Eris flew toward her, and the Nymph returned the smile. "Just a part of me. Thanks to Amaterasu’s endless supply of divine magic, I got this body out first." The Nymph floated away from the black hole. "But as you can see, I’m not any regular Nymph."

The Nymph lifted her hand, and a glowing orb of darkness burned on her palm. "The Divine Goddess of Darkness, Nothingness, and the Ineffable Universal Bodies." As she waved her fingers, several small meteors started orbiting her. "By controlling dark matter, I can control almost all objects in the universe, as well as affect gravity without the need for mass."

Eris and the Nymph landed, and everyone rushed toward them. "First is the Nymph. How long till the other bodies come out?" Isdis asked, and Arad shrugged. "I don’t know. It depends on how much energy I can get." He then looked toward the door. "Luckily, I got a nice meal waiting outside."

"Godvia... you’re going to eat her?" Kali asked, and Arad shook his head. "Of course not; eating her is wasteful no matter how you look at it. It will be best to keep her alive." He took a single step forward and disappeared.

Eris gasped. "Was that a void step?" And Kali immediately replied. "No, he stopped existing here."

****

In the desert, it was already nighttime, and Godvia suddenly lifted her head up, causing Gamond to glare at her. "What are you up to?"

Godvia remained silent for a few seconds, and then replied. "The stars... they changed. The moon is gone as well." She looked down, and her eyes opened wide. "The sand feels strange as well."

Alcott stood. "She is right; something is off."

Aether laughed. "I’ll tell you what’s going on. Daddy’s back, and he brought a fresh belt." As the darkness of the sky shifted, the sand dunes moved, and like tar, space itself moved, dragging the sky with it as a woman’s silhouette emerged from the shadows.

"I made you wait, Godvia." As the Nymph spoke, Godvia shifted her massive head down and looked at her. "Longer than I expected. Would you eat me now?"

The Nymph smiled. "Eat you? I already did. You’re inside my stomach now." He started floating. "You’re powerful, far stronger than any Elder Dragon I’ve ever seen. That comes with pride, and there is no Elder Dragon that would desire death, since to become an Elder Dragon one must first surpass their own death and cling to life."

Godvia’s body was already heating up, climbing toward criticality. "You feel guilty for destroying your world, yet cannot die. Your solution was to find a void dragon powerful enough to eat you, so you could live inside their stomach. But you don’t want the humiliation of living inside a dragon weaker than you."

"You speak as if you know me." She smiled and opened her massive jaw, charging up a blinding breath.

Arad smiled. "I don’t need to know you." He lifted his hand, and Godvia unleashed her breath down at him, a beam of pure radiation and burning energy. But the moment that breath approached Arad, it was as if she was pouring water into an endlessly deep well. It all faded away into nothingness.

Godvia gasped the moment she saw her breath fade away, and Arad lifted his arm up, clenching a fist. "If you land a single hit on me, I’ll let you live." He pulled his arm down, and she was forced into a humanoid form and pulled toward him in the blink of an eye; before she could even understand what happened, he punched hard enough to send her flying up into space.

Gamond looked around. "We’re inside Arad’s world. When did he pull us here?"

"That doesn’t matter!" Alcott growled at her. "He just punched that drakaina into the air! We need to make sure they don’t cause a disaster." He put the mask on and shouted. "Get ready!" And a titanic, devilish spider burst from underneath the sand.