Demonic Dragon: Harem System

The way back through Tartarus was considerably less troublesome than the descent.

Cerberus followed a few meters behind Strax, now far too obedient for a creature that, only a few hours earlier, had tried to tear him in half with three different jaws.

The new affinities had not completely stabilized yet. Fire occasionally escaped from the left head, ice crystals formed over the snout of the right, and small bolts of Black Lightning ran through the mane of the central head whenever the hound became excited.

Thanatos walked beside Strax with her arms crossed, keeping enough distance to avoid being licked again.

Strax watched the Goddess of Death for a while before speaking.

Her name continued bothering him in a very specific way.

Not because of the authority associated with it, but simply because it did not fit the woman walking beside him.

"I’m going to call you Tany."

Thanatos stopped.

"No."

Strax kept walking.

"Thanatos is a man’s name."

"It isn’t."

"Sounds like one."

"To you."

"To anyone."

Thanatos quickened her pace to catch up with him.

"If you’re that desperate to shorten my name, you can call me Thanathea. Or Thana. Persephone calls me Thana."

Strax looked at her.

"Thana is better."

"Good."

"Tany is cuter."

"No."

"I’ll alternate."

"You won’t."

Cerberus released a low sound behind them, and Strax looked toward the central head as though seeking support.

The animal immediately wagged its tail.

"See? He liked it."

"He was beaten until he developed a fear of disagreeing with you. His opinion doesn’t count."

"That’s slander. He likes me."

Thanatos glanced at Cerberus.

The left head immediately looked away from her and moved slightly closer to Strax.

"He has Stockholm syndrome."

"He’s a dog."

"Exactly."

Strax decided to abandon that argument only because another question had occurred to him.

"But why Thanatos? If you’ve always been a woman, who decided to call you that?"

She shrugged.

"Humanity."

"Naturally."

"I existed long before they had any organized understanding of what I was. People died, saw some presence, or heard stories from those who nearly crossed the boundary. Eventually, they needed to give the unknown a name. Humanity has a curious tendency to assign masculine forms to things it considers important, dangerous, or superior."

Strax gave a short laugh.

"That sounds very human."

"Kings, gods, monsters, natural forces. When they don’t know, they invent a man."

"And you never corrected them?"

Thanatos turned toward him with an expression of genuine indifference.

"Why? I am a goddess. If some peasant who died three thousand years ago decided Death had a beard, that does not alter my existence."

"So you spent ages letting everyone think you were a man."

"I spent ages not caring."

Strax slowly nodded.

"Respectable."

"Thank you."

"I’m still calling you Thana."

"I already accepted Thana."

"Tany when you’re angry."

Thanatos closed her eyes.

"I should have let Cerberus eat you."

The hound immediately whimpered.

Strax looked at her.

"Now you hurt his feelings."

Thanatos decided that staying silent until they reached the palace might be the only way to preserve what remained of her patience.

---

Meanwhile, Persephone had finally made the mistake of accepting Lithara’s invitation.

The Regent of Tartarus sat on one of the stones near the palace’s funerary gardens, holding a glass of wine she had ordered a servant to bring after realizing Strax really was going to take a while.

Lithara sat beside her with her legs crossed and her red hair loose over her shoulders, while Albedo occupied the third stone, resting her face in her hands with an increasingly depressed expression.

The conversation had started with politics.

Then moved to men.

And inevitably reached that.

"So," Lithara asked, swirling the wine in her glass, "how long?"

Persephone looked at her.

"How long what?"

Lithara smiled.

"You know."

Persephone immediately understood.

"No."

"That means a long time."

"It means nothing."

Albedo looked up.

"She’s asking about the last time you had sex."

Persephone slowly turned her face toward her.

"I understood."

"So when was it?"

Persephone took a long drink.

Lithara’s smile widened.

"Oh, this is getting sad."

"It isn’t sad."

"How long?"

Persephone sighed.

"A few years."

Lithara nearly choked.

Albedo looked even more miserable.

"Years?"

"I was married to Hades, not in love with him. Our marriage was not exactly an endless succession of passionate nights."

Lithara placed a hand over her chest.

"Years..."

"Stop repeating it like I confessed to having a disease."

Albedo was still staring at the ground.

Persephone noticed.

"And you?"

Albedo pouted.

Lithara answered for her.

"Virgin."

Persephone blinked.

Her eyes moved over Albedo’s horns, the demoness’s clearly adult body, then returned to Lithara.

"Her?"

"Yes."

"A demoness?"

"Yes."

"Who lives surrounded by succubi?"

"Yes."

Persephone started smiling.

Albedo immediately raised her head.

"It’s not funny."

"A little."

"I’m waiting for Master."

The answer was so serious that Persephone had to hide her smile behind the glass.

Lithara placed a hand on Albedo’s shoulder.

"She has principles."

"I have a preference," Albedo corrected.

"And an obsession."

"That too."

Persephone observed both of them and crossed one leg over the other.

"You’re both being too dramatic. Sex isn’t even that good."

Lithara slowly turned her head.

Her expression was one of pure shock.

"What?"

"It’s pleasant," Persephone continued. "But you talk about it as if it were some transcendental experience capable of completely changing someone’s existence."

Lithara set her glass down.

"You have clearly never spoken to Strax’s wives."

Persephone raised an eyebrow.

"And that is supposed to change my opinion?"

"Completely."

Albedo immediately paid attention.

Lithara leaned forward, far too excited by the opportunity to share information that probably should have remained private.

"They go completely insane when he touches them. You look at some of them during the day and think: elegant woman, powerful, capable of commanding armies. Then Strax closes a door with them inside and all that dignity simply disappears."

Persephone gave an incredulous laugh.

"You’re exaggerating."

"I heard Scarlet."

The Regent of Tartarus fell silent.

Lithara continued, pleased to have her complete attention.

"That woman usually walks into a room and makes half the people forget how to breathe. She’s old enough to have watched entire kingdoms rise and vanish. But after one night with Strax, I’ve seen her leave the room holding onto the wall while pretending her legs were perfectly normal."

Persephone turned slightly red.

Albedo moved a few centimeters closer.

"And Bellatrix?"

"Broke a bed."

Albedo’s eyes lit up.

"With him?"

"She certainly didn’t do it alone."

Persephone cleared her throat.

"That does not necessarily prove quality."

Lithara opened a wicked smile.

"Then we can talk about Cassandra."

Persephone immediately realized she should have stayed quiet.

Lithara did not go into graphic detail, but she did not need to.

She talked about marks hidden beneath clothes at breakfast, walls that needed repairing, extremely long baths the next day, and conversations she had overheard by accident while walking through corridors at the wrong time.

With every story, Persephone’s face became a little redder, mostly because Lithara had a natural talent for choosing words that made the situation perfectly clear without actually needing to describe everything.

"You’re making up half of this," Persephone muttered.

"I wish."

"How do you know so much?"

"I’m the Succubus Queen. Sexual information literally finds its way to me."

Albedo was pouting more and more.

Lithara noticed.

"Are you all right?"

"No."

"What is it?"

"I want it too."

Persephone looked at her.

Albedo crossed her arms and sank slightly over the stone.

"Everyone talks. Scarlet talks. Bellatrix talks. Cassandra tries not to talk, but her face talks. Daniela talks too much. Even women who shouldn’t be talking end up talking."

Lithara held back a laugh.

Albedo continued, growing more frustrated.

"And I keep hearing stories about Master like I’m studying some legendary creature that lives on the other side of a continent."

"You live in the same house as him," Persephone pointed out.

"THAT MAKES IT WORSE."

Lithara finally laughed.

Albedo pointed at her.

"You don’t have experience with him either!"

The succubus’s smile disappeared.

Persephone slowly turned toward Lithara.

"Wait."

Lithara picked up her glass.

"No."

"You just spent several minutes explaining what Strax is like in bed."

"Collected information."

"You’ve never had sex with him?"

Lithara drank.

Persephone started laughing.

Albedo pointed at her triumphantly.

"See?!"

Lithara turned red.

"I have theoretical knowledge."

"Are you a virgin succubus too?" Persephone asked.

"I didn’t say that."

"Then when was your last time?"

Lithara remained silent.

Persephone waited.

So did Albedo.

Lithara looked at the wine.

"It’s been a while."

"How long?"

"A while."

Persephone was already smiling again.

"Years?"

Lithara looked offended.

"We do not need to turn this into a competition about who is the most sexually abandoned."

Albedo pouted again.

"I would win."

The three fell silent.

This time, no one could disagree.

Persephone drank a little more while observing the two demonesses.

"So let me see if I understand. You’re a frustrated Succubus Queen. She’s a virgin demoness completely obsessed with her own master. And both of you live in a mansion surrounded by women who spend all day talking about how wonderful that same man is in bed."

Lithara slowly nodded.

"When you put it that way, it sounds worse."

"Because it is worse," Albedo replied.

She rested her chin in her hands again and muttered, pouting so obviously that she looked like a child forbidden from tasting candy.

"I want to taste Master too..."

Persephone choked on her wine.

Lithara started laughing.

Albedo did not find it funny at all.

"I’m serious."

"That’s what makes it funny," Persephone managed between coughs.

Albedo crossed her arms more tightly and turned her face away, clearly determined to remain sulking until Strax returned.

Lithara was still laughing when a familiar presence began approaching the palace through the corridors of Tartarus.

Persephone noticed first.

Then Lithara.

Albedo immediately raised her head.

Her eyes lit up.

Lithara watched the change and sighed.

"Look at that. All it took was feeling your husband coming."

Albedo stood instantly.

Persephone raised an eyebrow.

"You’re not going to try to attack him the moment he walks in, are you?"

Albedo adjusted her dress, ran her hands through her hair, and tried to recover some dignity.

"Of course not."

Lithara smiled.

"Liar."

Albedo remained silent.

Because she was.

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