First Demonic Dragon-Chapter 1025: Things Don’t Stop

Ziz opened his eyes to the worst headache of his life.

He was lying on his back staring at a familiar ceiling and underneath blankets he knew all too well.

Movement prompted him to sit up, and he came face to face with the one who brought him here.

"You were hurt pretty badly, you know? If I knew things were going to be that bad, I would have asked you to stay back with some of the others."

Yemaja was dressed and looked as if she were about to leave the house.

Ziz sat up with a forced smile.

"Couldn’t just sit on my ass while everyone was out there trying their best. It would’ve been a shame to deprive others of the sight of me looking victorious."

Yemaja raised a brow. "And how did that work out for you?"

"Great... till Michael showed up. Smug prick had no respect for the most beautiful of his old man’s creations..."

Yemaja giggled, but only because she found her boyfriend’s shamelessness to be a natural talent by this point.

Though she believed she might’ve been the only one who thought so.

Yemaja, for all of her impulsiveness, was not dense. She knew that her family’s opinion of Zheng wasn’t exactly the highest.

However, she didn’t care much about that. She found him amusing, and that was all that mattered.

Besides, they were only dating. Sometimes she wished that her family wouldn’t be so quick to forget that.

"Grandma healed you, but she said you should still take your time moving around and stuff, your bones are a lot more brittle than ours are."

Ziz scoffed. "I’m hardly defenseless, though, I assure you." He said sincerely.

He tried to stand back up. However, his legs wobbled awkwardly before he fell back onto his butt.

Yemaja covered her mouth and tried not to snort.

"I-I just decided that I wasn’t ready to get up yet!"

"Sure, sure. When Odie’s free, you want me to get her to teach you how to take a couple of steps? Then maybe you can help her with potty training. What do they call that...? Quid-pro-quo." Yemaja nodded.

Zheng was largely unamused.

Yemaja noticed the sour look on his face, but didn’t pay him much of any mind.

"Oh, don’t be such a sourpuss. A little ribbing is the very least of what you deserve for scaring me like that."

She crossed the bedroom gracefully and placed her hand on his chest.

For a moment, Ziz thought that she was about to kiss him. His internal temperature soared in response.

However, the reality was far different from what he expected.

With a single hand, Yemaja pushed him back into the bed. She even tucked him underneath the covers firmly, like he was five years old.

He should have known something like this would be the case. Yemaja wasn’t exactly the romantic type. She was just flirtatious.

"Don’t move anymore. Just go back to bed. I’ll bring you some soup or something later."

Ziz’ nose crinkled.

"You’re, umm... you’re not going to be the one making it, right?"

"Yeah, right. I’m trying to make you better, not worse." Yemaja laughed.

Ziz was overwhelmingly relieved.

Finally, Yemaja brought her lips to the top of his forehead and gave him a small kiss.

"I’ll be back. Don’t wait up." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Yemaja started to head to the door when Ziz suddenly called out to her again.

"Where’re you running off to exactly..?"

"Got a lead on my sister. We’re mobilizing everything we’ve got for this, so I doubt it’ll take that long."

Zheng’s Wraiths, Earth’s entire supernatural community, and Abaddon’s descendants were all going to be looking for just one man.

Some might think that this was overkill. Anyone who actually knew what dragons were like would be surprised that they hadn’t just stormed the place already.

"Right, well... good luck and all that."

"You should be saying that to him."

Yemaja finally left the room and shut the door behind her. Leaving Ziz with only his thoughts and a bitter taste in his mouth.

It wasn’t like he understood why he felt this way. Yemaja had done her best to care for him the only way she knew how.

And yet, he couldn’t help but feel just slightly emasculated.

Her cracks at his earlier failure didn’t exactly help the situation.

Ziz quietly wondered if things were always going to be this way. If he was going to be stuck living as a small fry on the bottom rung of the family.

He would rather pluck out all of his feathers and fry himself before allowing that to happen.

’This is all that damned angel’s fault...!’

Ziz insisted that if he could have reached the moon’s light, the outcome of the battle would have been very different. (It wouldn’t)

Charged by the light of a great source, his flames would have become supercharged, and even someone like Michael wouldn’t have known what hit him. (He would have been fine)

But Ziz was just a hair too slow to reach the perfect height in time. And as a result, Michael was victorious.

"...I could have beaten him if the sun was out." (...)

As he sat there, stewing over his loss, Ziz recalled the final moments of his battle.

He sat up when he remembered Michael’s strange behavior. The angel had actually healed him to a partial degree.

Was it a joke...? Or did he just feel pity for nearly killing someone?

Michael had a natural bleeding heart, but Ziz didn’t know if it was to that extent.

Thinking about all of this only left him with more questions.

Unable to sleep, Ziz went looking around his room.

Everything inside was radiant, lavish, and golden-colored. Just like him.

His eyes settled on his long robe on the back of his desk chair. It was dirty and torn in places from the battle, but for now, that could be overlooked.

From his current angle, he could see something glimmering within his pocket.

Curious, he tried once more to get up.

Despite his bones still feeling brittle, he didn’t fall over this time and made his way over to the chair where his robe was hung.

He pulled a black crystal out of his pocket. It was around half the size of his palm and shaped like a hexagon.

Zheng poked it. Nothing happened.

He poked it again and held it up to the candlelight.

Nothing swirled within, and there didn’t seem to be anything magical about it either.

It was a shame Tehom had no use for monetary things because this did seem like it would be slightly valuable.

"It’s not a lamp, so nothing is going to come out no matter how much you rub it."

Shocked, Ziz whirled around to find a new person in his room.

A man, dressed in black formal attire, was sitting on his bed.

His manicured fingers were interlocked over his lap, and he sat upright with perfect posture.

"Hello, Ziz. I don’t believe we have been properly introduced. I’m-"

"Save all the introductions." Ziz produced a ball of flame in the palm of his hand. "I know exactly who you are, you edgy bastard."

"Ah..." Percival nodded. "Just the same, you might want to save the attacks. I’m not actually here, you see, and I fear you would just burn up these 12,000 thread count sheets."

"I’ll get new ones."

"Seems dreadfully wasteful..."

Warily, Ziz moved forward with the flames in his hand, still not extinguished.

He brought his hand to Percival’s chest and passed right through it. The anti-Christ never made so much as a single move.

"You’re holding it there a little long, aren’t you? I should start charging you at this rate."

Ziz ripped his hand away. "How the hell is this happening?"

Percival pointed to the item in his free hand. "Communication crystals. Nifty things, aren’t they? Really brings new meaning to ’home is wherever you are’."

"Well, I’m destroying it."

"You can’t."

"I’m exceptionally destructive when I’m motivated."

Percival sighed and picked up a glass of brown liquid from somewhere Ziz couldn’t see.

"If you don’t wish to converse, I’ll just leave you be. I thought I might have found a kindred spirit among all the rabble, but it seems I’ve done something to make you earn my ire without even knowing what it is. Pity."

"You locked me in a cavern and mined me and my sister of our body parts for a hundred years!" Ziz roared.

Percival held up a finger.

"Nuh-uh. I asked the demons under my command to negotiate with you and work out a fair deal. I thought you all had come to some sort of amicable agreement."

"Bull shit!"

"I don’t blame you for not believing me." Percival sighed. "But did you ever actually see me in that cavern? If I had known what was going on, I would have put a stop to it. I wouldn’t want to harm God’s most honored creatures in such a manner. You are sacred beasts."

Ziz wanted to call Percival out on his lies again. He wasn’t deluded enough to believe them, not after how he had suffered.

But for some reason, he didn’t. And Percival took that opportunity to keep talking.

"It seems you have been led to believe a lot of misconceptions about me. I’d like the chance to clear those things up if you don’t mind."

"Do you think I’m foolish enough to listen to the words of a demon prince?"

Percival tilted his head. "Don’t you live with three of my brothers?"

"..."

Chuckling, Percival finished his glass and began pouring himself another drink.

"No need for such hostility and mistrust. I’m simply going to tell you my side of the story, and then you can believe it if you want. Does that sound fair, new friend?"