The dragon's harem

The tower leading from one floor to another was always a long, white tower that spiralled into the blue sky. Every floor of that tower had a large open zone that was at least fifty meters wide, with a massive balcony that illuminated its inside. To reach floor 910, Arad and the two Terrors had to climb thousands upon thousands of steps.

Climbing the tower wasn't that hard due to their extreme physical power, but even they had to rest a bit at the end.

"We'll rest here." Arad stopped on the last floor that had a balcony before reaching the end of their climb.

Ombre looked at him, "This trip took us almost a day. We'll tackle the boss at night, but for now, we should wait. Facing him in the daylight is risky."

Arad nodded, pulled his greatsword and moved away from the two and started swinging it, trying to get used to it's weight and enchantments.

"You sure about that?" Neige looked at Ombre with a worried face. "The goddess said to help, not do this?"

"This is the safest way. With me here, we have more of an advantage in darkness than in light." Her eyes looked at the dancing shadows around the flame. "You can play your role as we discussed, try not to die."

Neige frowned, "Like I would. Unlike you, fragile priestess, I'm much more durable." She looked at her with a smug face. "I can kill thousands of monsters and regenerate even from getting beheaded."

Ombre picked a knife from their ration bag and slashed at one of the dancing shadows around the flames. "Darkness and shadows don't care. Neither do I." She lifted the knife and pointed it at Neige, and then suddenly threw it at Arad.

As Arad swung his sword left and right, he suddenly threw a round kick, stopping with the knife caught between his toes. "Watch where you're throwing." He looked at Ombre, and she smiled at him.

"At least you can react that fast… and to catch a knife like that. Aren't you supposed to be a wild barbarian?" She leaned on her hand and threw a glance at him.

Neige lifted an eyebrow. "You think the goddess would care about a random barbaric beast?"

"We'll… look at his body, the size, muscles, and face, he looks just like those ancient gods from fantasies. I took it that the goddess loved that about him." She smiled, "But now I feel like there is something more… unique about him."

"I was trained by an unmatched fighter, my father." Arad replied with a smile, "He is far more skilled with weapons than I."

Ombre stood and slowly approached him. She looked at Arad's arms, sword, and back with a scrying smile, "Mind if I enter your shadow?"

"You can enter shadows?" Arad lifted an eyebrow, and she lifted her head, "Of course." She lifted her foot and stepped on his shadow, soon sinking into it.

Arad now had two shadows coming out of his feet. One was his own shadow, large, proud, and mimicked each of his moves, and the other shadow was that of a woman, moving on its own.

^Ah… Being here feels so…good…^ He could hear her moan inside his head, then she yawned. ^I want to take a nap.^

To her, being inside Arad's shadow felt like lying on a soft and fluffy mattress, the gentle and divine pillow beneath her, and the warm, tight embrace of a thick blanket. She felt tired, sleepy, and wanted nothing more than to close her eyes, fall into an eternal slumber and turn into nothing more than Arad's second shadow.

It was then that Arad felt something off, his own shadow seemed to tremble for a moment, and then, if just for a second, it moved on its own. "What was that?"

Arad's shadow shrugged, tilting its head to the side. Arad looked at his shadow, that fellow clearly didn't know, so he then turned toward Neige to ask, only for his eyes to jolt back to the shadow, "You moved?!"

Arad's shadow nodded and then looked at Ombre's shadow that was beside him and pointed at her.

"Ombre! What's going on?" Arad asked, but the mumbling Shadow terror seemed to be about to fall asleep. "Wake up!"

Arad's shadow approached her, lifted his hand, and was about to slap her on the face, but he stopped. For a moment, the shadow scratched its head, and then instead slapped her, but hard enough to wake her up.

Ombre gasped, rubbing her butt and then glanced at Arad's shadow. She looked furious, but the shadow only stared at her with a stern face.

Arad and Neige watched the shadows, trying to understand what was going on. Arad's shadow seemed to have a mind of its own.

Ombre was complaining about something, but Arad's shadow pulled by the hand, turned her around and smacked her butt again. This time, Arad could hear her scream inside his head. Soon, another shadow joined them, the shadow of a woman.

The third shadow walked in with a hunch on its back, then it stretched, perking its chest up. Seeming to yawn and shake its head, the third shadow looked at the two arguing.

"That isn't my shadow." Neige looked down, her shadow was in place. Arad, on the other hand, recognized to whom that shadow belonged, "Wait, that's Shi's shadow."

Shi's shadow grabbed Ombre and Arad's shadow by the hands and smacked them down. Arad's shadow tried to stand up, but she punched him to the ground, and Ombre, who tried to run away, got kicked in the face.

The barbarian shadow then picked Ombre and Arad's shadow on top of each other and dusted her hands off. She then sank back into Arad's body. The two seemed to have been too noisy and she came to shut them up.

Ombre's hand emerged out of the shadow and grabbed onto the ground. She barely pulled herself out and Arad's shadow suddenly returned to looking like a normal shadow.

"What was that?" Arad asked, and Ombre, who lay on the ground, looked at the ceiling with a tired face. She remained silent for a while until Arad almost thought she didn't hear him, but she then spoke.

"I have never seen such pure darkness before." Her eyes shifted toward him, "Forget all about how the goddess said I should help you. Now that I've seen that darkness, I can't just sit still."

"What do you want?" Arad asked, and she looked at him with a serious glare, "To sleep eternally in your darkness."