Demonic Dragon: Harem System

Thanatos did not answer immediately. She continued descending through the narrow passage, keeping the incomplete scythe resting over her shoulder while the sounds beneath the platform became progressively clearer. Strax realized they were not simply voices. There was intention in them. Some cried, others murmured promises, and some repeated names with uncomfortable precision, as though every sound had been chosen to reach a specific person.

The deeper they went, the less Tartarus resembled an organized realm. The walls disappeared, then the platforms stopped having clearly defined edges, and even the idea of distance began to feel unstable. Strax could see a structure only a few meters away and, in the next instant, feel that it was kilometers below. It was like walking through a place where space and death had been mixed together until they no longer had any obligation to follow ordinary rules.

"Why can’t I touch anything that says my name?" Strax asked.

"Because down here there are souls that lost everything except the ability to desire an existence," Thanatos answered without looking back. "They have no body, identity, or right to the cycle. Some do not even remember who they were. So they search for something they can use as an anchor. A name is enough. If one of them manages to make you acknowledge it while touching it, it may try to attach itself to your existence."

Strax watched a dark shape crawling beneath the translucent stone. It looked like a man for a few seconds, then a woman, then a creature with limbs far too long. No appearance remained long enough to be considered real.

"And does it work on gods?"

"It worked on lesser gods."

"On dragons?"

"Do you really intend to discover everything in the worst possible way?"

"Usually."

Thanatos released an irritated sigh but did not answer. A few steps later, a voice emerged from the left.

"Strax."

He stopped.

The voice was female.

It did not sound threatening. On the contrary, there was familiarity in it, something almost affectionate that made the call sound as though it came from someone who had known him for a very long time. Strax moved his eyes toward the sound and found a woman standing on a small isolated platform in the void. Her hair covered her face, her clothes seemed to belong to some ancient era, and one hand was extended toward him.

"Strax..."

Thanatos noticed immediately.

"Keep walking."

Strax continued staring.

The woman raised her face.

For an instant, her features changed.

Strax saw different people layered over one another. Familiar faces, unfamiliar ones, women, men, children, and corpses. The creature was not trying to find an appearance of its own. It was testing which one would provoke a reaction.

"Strax Vorah."

His gaze hardened.

Thanatos turned quickly.

"Do not answer."

The thing smiled.

"Son."

Strax remained silent.

Thanatos approached him. "It is searching for a memory it can use. The longer you look, the more information it pulls from the surface of your soul."

"So it can read my mind."

"Fragments. Mostly emotions associated with the name."

Strax looked back toward the creature.

"Interesting."

"No."

He continued walking.

The creature called again, now with another voice. Then another. Strax heard his name coming from dozens of directions until the entire path began vibrating with the word. None of them managed to make him stop again. Thanatos noticed and subtly relaxed her shoulders.

"You handle this better than I expected."

"I’ve spent too much time surrounded by people trying to get inside my head."

"That isn’t something to be proud of."

"I didn’t say it was."

The passage ended a few minutes later.

Before them was a sea.

Not an underground lake or spiritual river. A true black ocean occupied the entire visible expanse of that place, extending beyond any horizon Strax could perceive. The surface reflected no light. Small human shapes occasionally appeared beneath the water and vanished soon after, like corpses being carried by invisible currents. There were no waves, but something very large moved in the depths.

Thanatos stopped at the shore.

"This is where the Bottom begins."

Strax looked at the water.

"I expected something deeper."

"You haven’t seen the depth yet."

She struck the end of the scythe against the stone.

A circular platform emerged on the surface of the sea, formed from black bones bound together by thin chains. Thanatos stepped onto it first and waited for Strax to follow. As soon as both were standing on the structure, it began gliding across the water on its own.

Strax looked down.

"Are those souls?"

"Some of them."

"And the rest?"

Thanatos hesitated.

"Things that were here before Hades."

That caught his attention.

"Before the gods?"

"Before the current pantheon. Perhaps before this version of the world."

Strax asked nothing else. Not because he had lost his curiosity, but because he had felt something far below them. A presence so ancient it did not even feel hostile. It simply existed, indifferent to the two of them, as though divinities and dragons were phenomena too insignificant to deserve attention.

He understood why Hades had chosen that place.

Even Zeus would think twice before diving down there.

The journey continued in silence for some time. Then structures began emerging from the ocean. First broken columns, then partially submerged towers, and finally gigantic statues of divinities Strax did not recognize. Some were humanoid; others had dozens of arms, animal faces, or bodies that looked as though they had been built without any understanding of mortal anatomy.

All of them were headless.

"Did Hades do that?" he asked.

"No."

"Who did?"

Thanatos looked at the statues.

"No one knows."

The platform passed between two of them and entered a region where gray mist covered the surface. Thanatos immediately became more alert. Her hand tightened around the shaft of the scythe, and the remainder of the black blade began slowly reconstructing itself with divine authority.

"From this point on, do not use teleportation."

"Why?"

"Space does not necessarily take you where you tell it to."

"That seems inconvenient."

"That’s why no one comes here."

A shadow crossed the mist.

Then another.

Strax felt the movement before seeing the creatures. They were long, fast, and possessed some form of condensed spiritual energy surrounding their bodies.

The third leapt from the water.

It looked like an animal made entirely of intertwined human arms. A massive mouth occupied the center of the mass, surrounded by translucent teeth that vibrated like glass.

Thanatos raised her scythe.

Strax lifted his hand first.

A white flame appeared at his fingertips and crossed through the creature before it reached the platform. White Fire consumed the arms, mouth, and spiritual energy within seconds, leaving only a small black sphere floating above the water.

Thanatos stared at what remained.

"You destroyed even the spiritual structure."

"Was that necessary?"

"No."

"Then it was more efficient."

She opened her mouth to complain, but more shadows began appearing around them. Strax cracked his neck and stepped toward the edge of the platform.

"How many?"

Thanatos sensed the region.

"Maybe fifty."

"Few."

"We don’t need to fight."

"Now we do."

Strax opened his hand.

White Fire spread around his right arm while Black Ice covered the left. He did not assume his full draconic form. There was no need. When the first creature emerged, it received an ice spear directly through the center of its body. The second was pierced by fire. The third tried to grab the platform from below and found Strax’s hand waiting for it.

He pulled it out of the sea.

The creature was almost ten meters long.

Strax grabbed one of its limbs and threw it into three others advancing through the mist. The impact split the black surface and scattered spiritual bodies across the water. Before they could reorganize themselves, dozens of Black Ice spikes emerged around the platform and pierced everything that approached.

Thanatos watched without interfering.

"You could simply wait for them to leave."

"I could."

"But you didn’t want to."

"I was bored."

The Goddess of Death closed her eyes.

"Now I understand why so many people around you look tired."

In less than two minutes, the mist became silent again.

The platform continued forward.

Strax wiped his hand on his clothes even though nothing had actually remained on it, then looked toward Thanatos.

"How much farther?"

"Not much."

"You said that before."

"I didn’t."

"Then I thought you did."

She decided to ignore him.

The sea began to change.

The black surface gradually turned red, not like blood, but like some ancient energy dissolved in the water. The souls that had previously appeared beneath them vanished completely. There were no creatures, murmurs, or voices calling names.

The absence of everything was more uncomfortable than the noise.

Thanatos finally slowed the platform.

An island appeared before them.

It was small, perhaps only a few hundred meters across, formed entirely from white stone. At the center stood a gigantic black gate supported by four pillars covered in inscriptions. No wall surrounded the structure. The gate stood alone in the middle of the island.

Strax stepped off first.

Thanatos followed.

He examined the symbols.

"Is this Hades’s?"

"Yes."

"Finally, something recent."

"It is more than six thousand years old."

"Recent."

Thanatos did not argue.

The two approached the gate. As Strax drew closer, the inscriptions began to glow. A heavy force pressed against his body, then his soul, and finally something much deeper.

Hades’s authority.

Even dead, the god had left part of his power there.

Strax smiled.

"So you really wanted to protect this thing, old man."

Thanatos touched one of the inscriptions.

Nothing happened.

She tried again, using her authority over death.

The gate remained closed.

Strax looked at her.

"You can’t open it?"

"I told you Hades took precautions."

"You’re the Goddess of Death."

"And he was the King of the Underworld."

Strax approached the gate.

"So how does it open?"

Thanatos studied the inscriptions for several seconds.

"There are three conditions."

"Of course there are."

"The first is that whoever enters must be alive."

Strax raised an eyebrow.

"You can’t enter?"

"No."

"Convenient."

"The second requires the person to withstand the authority of the Underworld without external protection."

Strax placed one hand against the stone. Hades’s energy immediately tried to invade his arm. Black scales appeared beneath his skin and blocked the pressure before it could reach his shoulder.

Thanatos nodded.

"You fulfill that one."

"And the third?"

The goddess remained silent.

Strax noticed.

"Say it."

Thanatos looked toward the central inscription.

"The third requires you to have killed a god."

Strax stood still.

Then smiled.

Thanatos looked at him.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Because Hades finally made something simple."

Strax placed his entire palm against the gate.

His mana began circulating.

It was not merely demonic or draconic energy. Within it existed fragments of authorities he had conquered, absorbed, and destroyed throughout his journey.

The stone recognized something.

The inscriptions lit up all at once.

The gate trembled.

Thanatos stepped back.

The two enormous doors began opening inward, revealing a staircase descending even deeper.

Strax looked at her.

"You stay."

"I know."

"You look sad."

"I’m not sad."

"Your face is."

"That’s my normal face."

Strax released a small laugh and started descending.

Thanatos remained before the entrance, but spoke before he disappeared.

"Strax."

He stopped.

"When you find Hades’s soul, do not devour it immediately."

Strax looked over his shoulder.

"Why?"

Thanatos hesitated for the first time since they had begun the journey.

"Because he left something waiting for you."

Strax’s expression shifted slightly.

"How do you know?"

"Hades asked me to bring you here if you ever came looking for his soul."

Silence remained between them for several seconds.

Strax finally understood.

Thanatos had not simply known where the soul was.

She had been waiting.

"So he knew I would come."

"He bet on it."

"What bullshit," Strax said.

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