Demonic Dragon: Harem System - Chapter 395

Chapter 395: Khaos Hearth
The silence was almost sacred.

Not even the sky dared to thunder. Not even the shadows dared to move.

Strax, colossal and still bathed in the blue flames that swirled like celestial serpents around his draconic body, stood imposingly at the center of what had once been the throne of an empire. His eyes – abysses of unfathomable power – scoured every deity present. Not with anger. Not with a thirst for blood.

But with the calm of one who has already won.

Zeus finally lowered his fists. The storm around him hesitated, as if even the lightning had understood that now was not the time to fight.

“So that’s it,” he said slowly, his voice reverberating with an echo that seemed to come from the columns of Olympus. “You declare war on the gods. To the Heavens. To Fate.”

Strax tilted his head slightly, as if answering a rhetorical question.

“No,” he said, his deep voice like a thousand war drums echoing in unison. “I declare independence.”

Nyx, still shrouded in shadows that flickered with the remaining heat of the draconic breath, smiled with a sinister serenity. Her eyes gazed at Zeus with a gleam that bordered on satisfaction.

“Perhaps now you will understand, O King of Heaven,” she murmured, “that there are forces in this world… that will not bend even to your thunder.”

Zeus snorted, the lightning in his eyes wavering with the frustration of a thousand ages. “Do you think it’s over? That these deaths won’t be charged?”

Strax replied, with a calm that made the world seem small:

“Come and collect.”

The silence lasted another second. Then Zeus spun on his heels, his cloak of dark clouds billowing behind him as he walked away. Each step reverberated like the announcement of a coming calamity.

“See you in the war, then…” murmured the god, before disappearing in a flash of celestial light that cut through the sky like a spear.

Nyx watched in silence. The night seemed to thicken around her, as if the darkness itself was bowing to what had just happened. She turned to Strax, her eyes carrying the ancient glow of forgotten ages, and spoke in the calm voice of one who has seen gods fall and worlds reborn: “You’ve changed the game. Watch out… now all eyes will be on you.”

Strax didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.

His eyes only closed briefly, and there, in the void between one blink and the next, the system reacted.

A wave of heat ran through the air as the notifications began to appear – not as cold, lifeless words, but as pulsating, living messages, bathed in shimmering gold. The shine didn’t hurt. It was serene, respectful. Almost human.

[Persephone looks at you in silence… and thanks you for postponing the war]

[Hecate crosses her arms, but smiles in a corner. She thanks you for postponing the war].

[Hypnos opens his eyes just for a moment… and thanks you for postponing the war].

[Thanatos, standing in the shadow of everyone, nods slightly. He thanks you for postponing the war].

[Nemesis watches from afar, eyes calculating… and thanks him for postponing the war].

[Moros, wrapped in foreboding, murmurs… and thanks you for postponing the war]

[Eris, even she, smiles – for the moment satisfied with the chaos to come – and thanks you for postponing the war].

The golden messages hovered before her eyes like constellations. Calm. Grateful. As if, for a rare moment, even the oldest gods had seen… hope.

Strax murmured the name that touched him the most. “Persephone…”

But gold wasn’t the only thing to manifest.

They didn’t just appear… they exploded onto the screen, red, burning, impatient, like wildfire.

[Apollo wants to destroy you for having interrupted the divine plans.]

[Hera is furious at your insolence and threatens to punish your lineage.]

[Hermes laughs in the celestial halls and mocks your “cheap courage”.]

[Ares challenges you. A real duel. No escape. Coward.]

[Artemis watches from afar… indifferent… indifferent. You’re just another stubborn mortal to her].

Strax took a deep breath. There was no surprise. Those gods accepted no restraint. They didn’t accept affronts.

But then… something changed.

In the center of the interface – between grateful gold and choleric red – a single white message appeared. It didn’t glow. It didn’t flash.

It was pure. Silent.

Like snow falling on a battlefield.

[Athena apologizes.]

[She says she has no choice.]

Strax froze.

Athena. The goddess of wisdom, of reason, of strategy. The one who, above all others, was seen as fair. And now… she wasn’t threatening him. She wasn’t mocking.

She apologized.

“You have no choice…?”

The phrase hammered through his mind like a whisper of veiled war. Even wisdom bowed to the chains of fate?

Strax clenched his fists. The system was still pulsing with messages, but his mind was already beyond it. He could already see ahead. Beyond the calm. Beyond the shattered field. Beyond the night that loomed like a prophecy.

“If even Athena can’t choose…” he said in a low voice “Then I must consider her a Hostage to Zeus’ will.” he thought.

He turned around, the wind rustling his charred cloak. Scarlet and Xenovia watched him in silence.

They knew it wasn’t the end.

It was just the interval before the real beginning.

Each god had made his move.

And Strax the Dragon-Serpent, newly crowned as a rival between deities, only whispered to himself, his eyes turned to the sky: “Let the gods come.” [Underworld.

[Underworld. Ebony Palace. Black Throne]

The darkness there was not an absence of light, but a living, pulsating, almost conscious presence.

Slow drops of black ether dripped from the abyssal ceiling like tears of reality itself.

In the center of the throne-room, surrounded by columns carved with scenes of torment and eternity, he sat.

Hades, the Lord of the Dead, the God of Silences, stared into the void ahead as if he expected the world to collapse in on itself sooner or later.

His eyes were closed… until she entered.

“Tartarus is moving…” said Persephone, her voice sounding like the autumn breeze before winter. “And Zeus… Zeus is distracting Olympus with foolish disputes. Titles. Advantages. A new pantheon within the old. They’re blinded by power…”

Hades opened his eyes slowly. There was no anger in them, no surprise. Just the icy acceptance of someone who had foreseen the end, after all, he himself knew that the end was near, at least for him.

“Zeus has never understood the gravity of the chains that bind us to the core of this world. He doesn’t see that… what is awakening beneath Tartarus cannot be controlled.” Hades spoke between sighs of exhaustion.

Persephone approached the throne, her light feet making no sound on the black marble. “The seal… it’s failing, isn’t it?”

The silence that followed was as heavy as lead.

Until Hades stood up.

“The Heart of Khaos…” he murmured. “That which has pulsed at the core of the world since before the Titans. Since before time.”

Persephone frowned, crossing her arms. “But is it evil?”

Hades walked to the balcony of the throne with difficulty, from where he could see the bottomless abyss that led to the depths of Tartarus. His words were spoken almost like a prayer: “No.”

Khaos is not malicious.

He is… incomprehensible.

A principle that existed before creation. Before light. Before form.

“He is the void between ideas. The absence between the gods.” he said, sounding poetic. “The heart of nothingness that… pulses, waiting.”

Persephone clenched her fingers in nervousness. “And now… it’s waking up.”

Hades nodded slowly. “Tartarus feels it. The seal was made with power stolen from forgotten ages, and yet… it is crumbling.”

Hades began, “Typhon… the Destroyer, the Scourge of Heaven… his whispers return in the nightmares of the damned. The Titans, forgotten and buried, stir in their prisons like dogs that smell chaos on the loose.”

“And Zeus?” she asked, in a string of voices. “Does he want the Heart?”

“Zeus… is foolish enough to think he can control it. He believes that, with the power of Khaos, he can reshape the world in his image. A world without threats, where he is the only throne.” Hades turned, his eyes burning like coals in a pit of ice.

“But Khaos doesn’t grant power. He consumes realities. He erases lines of fate. He resets everything. Without choice. Without warning. No… mercy.” Hades spoke.

Persephone watched him with growing amazement. “So… if the Heart awakens completely…”

“Everything will be erased.” Hades revealed. “This age… this world… the gods themselves… Even time will be reduced to a forgotten whisper.”

Tartarus below them roared, as if answering the call. The ground shook, and purple smoke rose through the cracks in the eternal marble.

“The seals are coming apart,” murmured Persephone, almost in a panic. “Strax has postponed the war of the gods… but what if… what if the real war is against what is coming?”

Hades stared at her with the sternness of an eternal judge. “That’s why I used all my power to create the system… my powers in my hands won’t be able to stop something like this… but not from a dragon… it’s different…” Hades revealed, turning back to his throne.

“I’m going to start implanting divinity in it…” Hades said as he sighed, the weight of keeping the system going was too much for even him. All his energy was draining away little by little.

“Persephone…” Hades murmured and she looked at him, “When the time comes… do what you need to.” He spoke before falling into a deep sleep again.

Persephone looked at Hades before nodding slowly… “All right.” She spoke before disappearing.