The dragon's harem

[Void Expansion:...] Darkness gushed out of Arad as Shi's claw drew closer to his body.

[...Accursed Pillar] The massive black pillar of cursed metal appeared behind his back. Countless vampire spawns emerged from nothing, lined around the pillar, the blood dancing beneath their feet.

Unlike Gojo's expansion which twists the void, Arad's expansion simply opens his stomach to the outer world. Anything that was inside him could be used there, including the cursed metal.

His range usually extends up to four kilometers as he's a young void dragon, but since using it all would suck the barbarians and the girls inside, he decreased it to a reserved two-kilometer.

To make sure the hell he's about to unleash won't leak out, Arad relied on Doma's assistance to enclose his expansion in several barriers, protecting everyone outside and preventing them from entering.

The cursed pillar behind Arad gleamed with faint green light before that turned into a blinding blue flash.

The monsters that were caught in Arad's expansion turned red, boiling from the inside out as they exploded.

The cursed metal's effect was natural. Its true identity was uranium. It only needed Arad's void to tickle it the right way for its hell to set loose. Arad's void expansion now turned into a sealed core of a nuclear reactor, with Shi stuck inside with him.

The radiation ripped through her cells destroying the genetics responsible for regeneration. At the same time, the sheer heat evaporated her blood and bones.

[HP: 6600/6600]=>[HP: 0/6600]

Arad floated in the middle of his expansion, staring down at Shi with a smile. He knows she's already dropped to 0hp, but also has the feeling that she would regenerate the moment he stops burning her.

At that moment, she might evolve again with resistance to the cursed metal. For that, Arad has to finish her here and now.

He parted his hands with a grin, extending them into a T-pose. "I said it, didn't I?" He giggled.

"I can see your soul,"

*****

Shi, the human stood naked in the middle of darkness, her eyes closed as chains held her body to the ground.

Those chains cracked, falling one after the other until none was left.

Arad stood in front of her. "Death is the separation of soul and body," He said, grabbing her by the neck and lifting her up.

"The tarrasque's immunity to death isn't that the bond between its soul and body can't break. It's that even if it broke, the soul can create a new body out of nothing to survive." He glared at her with a smile.

She didn't even reach, what he held in his hand felt human, but it acted more like an empty husk, a dool devoid of everything.

"We void dragons cultivate our age by eating the souls of our prey. If I killed your current body and kept it dead long enough, I would have to eat your soul without allowing it time to create a new body and resurrect it."

"I can now understand what Brother and Vars meant by the quality of the soul. It isn't just raw strength. Rarity and quality matter. Eating the soul of a fine half-tarrasque woman like you would probably give me seven or ten years of age." He smiled.

Shi's soul flinched, trying to fight back, but it was all over.

Arad looked back, "I'm surprised you still had some life in you. The tarrasque blood messed you well, but not enough it seems." He let go of her neck, and her body curled into a ball, floating in front of him.

"I will swallow but not eat you yet. For Nina's peace of mind, I will wait a bit. If we found a way to bring you back, then shall be it. If not, you're my preserved food." The void consumed Shi's soul, sending her straight into a locked section in Arad's stomach.

Arad opened his eyes standing in front of the burning cursed pillar, Shi's body had finally died now that it lacked a soul to stitch it to life. She won't regenerate again.

Using his void, Arad started quelling his expansion. First shutting down the pillar, cooling the whole place, cleaning all the radiation then unlocking the barrier before lifting the void.

The barbarians stared at the erased forest in terror. That wasn't a fight between two monsters. It was a fight between two s-rank monsters capable of leveling cities if not kingdoms.

Aella stared at the sky with a smile, "Arad! Are you okay?"

Arad lowered his hands and turned to look at her with a smile, his eyes flashing purple.

"For real?" Lydia gasped, "Is that immortal monster dead?"

"I wonder if he left anything to sell," Jack sighed.

"I don't think so," Eris looked, "It seems he cremated the thing to make sure it won't stand again."

"What's this!" Zephyr screamed, "I didn't get to help at all!" She cried, sad that she couldn't have Arad do the thing she wanted.

Nina looked forward with a bitter smile, "So, Shi finally rested in peace,"

ZON! Arad teleported to them, landing behind the Barbarians, "I'm back,"

All the barbarians jumped away with scared faces, they fought this man before, but now they saw him as a monster unlike anything they had seen before. A being stronger than what they called the great one.

"Arad, are you sure it won't stand again?" Aella asked.

"I'm sure," He then looked at Nina, "Don't look sad, I have some good news,"

Nina nodded, "She's resting in peace,"

"No, I have her soul inside me," He said, and everyone stared at him with confused faces. "You know how I eat souls to grow older? Once she dropped to 0HP, her soul separated from her body. I then had to keep her at 0HP for a few seconds for me to eat her soul, and prevent her from resurrecting." He smiled, "I won't call her alive, though,"

Lydia stared at him, "Wait? Do you have her soul? Like how necromancers bind souls to corpses to create undead?"

"I don't know about that, but her soul is with me. If there is a way to create a new body for her, we might get her back, but don't take my words on it," He scratched his head, "I know nothing of that, other than I can store the souls I swallow instead of eating them directly, since I have good control of my stomach,"

The barbarians understood nothing of his words, and even Nina only understood that Shi might still be saved, but the chance of that is extremely small.

Thud! Arad patted Nina's head, "I told you that you can rely on me,"