Demonic Dragon: Harem System

Strax remained standing at the top of the hillside for a few more seconds, looking toward Asgard in the distance.

The towers, railway tracks, walls, and busy streets looked small from that far away. After everything that had happened over the past few weeks, there was finally enough silence for him to think about matters he had kept pushing aside.

He ran a hand through his hair and released a sigh.

"What the fuck am I doing?"

Strax had spent days saying he needed to go to Tartarus, but he kept finding something else to deal with first. First it had been Vex. Then Zi Bai. After that came the war reports, training, and administrative problems that should not even have fallen on his shoulders.

Maybe he was simply postponing it.

He closed his eyes and searched within his own existence for one of the strangest abilities he possessed.

The System had granted him that magic a long time ago, after Strax had done exactly what he did best whenever he encountered something impossible to understand.

He had devoured it.

It no longer mattered exactly what had given rise to the ability. All that remained was that connection buried deep within his soul, a path that ignored normal distances and passed directly through the boundaries between worlds.

Strax raised two fingers.

"Underworld Gate."

The space in front of him lost its color.

There was no magic circle or complex formation. Strax’s shadow simply stretched across the ground, climbed over his feet, and swallowed his entire body.

The next instant, the mountain disappeared.

Strax opened his eyes seated before a table.

He blinked.

The change had been so immediate that he needed a moment to recognize the place.

The room was dark, illuminated only by small blue flames scattered across the walls. There were no windows. The floor was formed from perfectly fitted black stones, and a long table of ancient wood separated Strax from someone seated on the other side.

The air smelled of damp earth, dead flowers, and something metallic.

Strax rested one arm on the table.

"Right..."

A feminine silhouette remained in front of him, partially hidden by the shadows.

"Who am I speaking to?"

The woman moved slightly forward.

Long dark hair fell over her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin. Her eyes carried an almost supernatural green glow, and a black dress adorned with small golden details covered her body. There was beauty in her, but also a strange sensation of life growing inside a place built for the dead.

Strax recognized the presence before he fully recognized the face.

Persephone rested her chin on one hand.

"You took your time."

Strax remained silent for a second.

Then he relaxed against the chair.

"I did not have much choice."

Persephone raised an eyebrow.

"You did not?"

"I was busy creating a prosperous kingdom so I could go to war against the gods of Olympus."

She stared at him.

Strax shrugged.

"Simple things."

A small smile appeared on Persephone’s face.

"You continue saying absurd things as though you are commenting on the weather."

"It works better that way."

Strax looked around again. This certainly belonged to Tartarus, but it was not the region he remembered from his previous visits. The environment was too organized.

Too quiet.

And the person he expected to find was not there.

His smile faded slightly.

"How is Hades?"

Persephone did not look away.

"Hades is dead."

Strax became completely still.

For an instant, even his breathing did not change.

Then his eyes widened.

"When..."

"Not long ago."

Strax leaned forward.

"What happened?"

Persephone interlaced her fingers over the table.

"The Titans began to awaken."

Strax’s expression immediately hardened.

"How many?"

"More than there should have been."

She breathed slowly before continuing.

"The ancient seals began failing almost at the same time. We still do not know whether it was a direct consequence of the movements in the outside world or whether something inside Tartarus accelerated the process, but the prisons began opening one after another."

Strax remained silent and listened.

Persephone continued with absolute calm.

"Hades had to act personally. Some Titans were already able to project part of their authority through the barriers. If we had allowed it to continue, within a few days there would have been enough ruptures for at least three of them to recover complete bodies."

"So he reinforced the seals."

"No."

Persephone leaned back in her chair.

"He created new ones."

Strax narrowed his eyes.

She explained.

"Hades destroyed the old structures and used his own dominion over death to form a single barrier around the deepest regions of Tartarus. It is not merely a wall. It is practically a new world layered over the old one."

Strax could already imagine the cost.

Hades had not been well when he first met him.

Even then, the god’s presence carried clear signs of decay. His authority remained monstrous, but his body and soul no longer fully kept pace with the power they sustained.

"As you know," Persephone said, "Hades was already on the verge of death."

Strax did not answer.

"He used everything."

Her voice remained steady.

"All remaining authority. All divine essence. Even part of his own soul was integrated into the barrier. When he finished, the Titans were trapped again."

Persephone paused briefly.

"But Hades died."

Silence filled the room.

Strax looked away toward the blue flames on the walls.

An unpleasant guilt appeared somewhere in his chest. Small, but impossible to ignore.

He should have come sooner.

Maybe he could not have prevented Hades’s death. Maybe there had been nothing he could do. Even so, he had promised to return. There were unfinished matters between them, information he intended to seek, and a larger war beginning to take shape.

Hades had probably known his time was running out.

And Strax had taken too long.

He released a heavy breath.

"Shit..."

"Anyway," Persephone said, interrupting his thoughts, "that asshole is dead and I became the regent of Tartarus."

Strax slowly raised his eyes.

Persephone shrugged.

There was no sadness.

No attempt to appear shaken.

Strax simply kept staring.

Persephone noticed.

"What?"

Strax studied her expression for several more seconds.

"You are taking this pretty well... aren’t you?"

"Of course?"

The answer came so naturally that he almost laughed.

Persephone crossed her arms.

"I was forced to marry him, Strax."

He remained silent.

"I did not choose Hades. I did not fall in love with him. I did not dream of ruling a realm of the dead while my mother went mad in the outside world trying to find me."

She tilted her head slightly.

"So yes. Him being dead means my freedom."

Strax rested his face against one hand.

"You could show a little more respect for the corpse."

"He did not leave a corpse."

"That really makes the situation more convenient."

"Exactly."

Strax released a small laugh through his nose.

Persephone continued:

"I am not going to pretend to suffer just to make the story prettier. Hades treated me better than he could have. Eventually, we learned to coexist, and I recognize that he carried Tartarus for ages."

Her expression became slightly more serious.

"But that does not change how it began."

Strax nodded.

That was fair.

"So you are free."

"In theory."

"In theory?"

Persephone closed her eyes for a moment.

"The problem is the shit he left behind."

Strax already disliked where the conversation was going.

"What kind of shit?"

Persephone raised one hand.

A green formation appeared above the table.

A three-dimensional map of Tartarus emerged between them.

Strax immediately saw that the region was much larger than he had imagined. Entire layers of territory stretched beneath one another, connected by dark rivers, ancient structures, and regions marked with symbols he did not even recognize.

At the center was an enormous black sphere.

Dozens of chains crossed its surface.

Some were cracked.

"Is that the new barrier?" Strax asked.

"Yes."

"And the Titans?"

"Inside."

"All of them?"

Persephone remained silent.

Strax closed his eyes.

"Of course not."

"Three escaped before Hades completed the seal."

He looked at her again.

"Which ones?"

"We do not know."

"How do you not know which Titans escaped?"

"Because there are dozens of ancient prisons, incomplete records, and many of the names were deliberately erased."

"Why?"

"Because someone decided thousands of years ago that preventing certain Titans from recovering power through their own names was a good idea."

Strax ran a hand over his face.

"I just finished a war involving names."

Persephone smiled.

"Then you already have experience."

"Do not say that as though it is an advantage."

"I need to find some advantage in this situation."

Strax looked at the map again.

Three red points appeared beyond the central sphere.

One moved toward the upper regions of Tartarus.

Another remained completely still.

The third...

Strax narrowed his eyes.

"Where is that one going?"

Persephone did not answer immediately.

The red point moved along a narrow route ending in a spatial rupture.

A rupture connected directly to the outside world.

Strax pointed.

"Persephone."

"I know."

"Where does that passage end?"

She released a sigh.

"The human continent."

Strax kept his finger pointed.

"More specific."

Persephone opened another layer of the map.

The route crossed oceans, mountains, and several territories before stopping relatively close to a region Strax knew very well.

Asgard.

He stared at it for several seconds.

Then closed his eyes.

"I should have stayed hanging from that tree."

Persephone smiled.

"Welcome to Tartarus."

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