First Demonic Dragon-Chapter 1272: The OD (Original Dragon)

Abaddon actually managed to recover rather quickly once his body realized that he was falling.

In a fraction of a second, he stopped himself, as well as all of the debris around him.

Time slowly rewound, rebuilding his castle as if nothing had ever happened to it. The entire incident was over in just a few seconds. And yet, Abaddon’s body still showed signs of stress.

His clothes were shredded. Plate-like black scales covered his legs in their entirety, while his feet had extended into the three-toed claws of a dragon.

His wings had burst out of his back at some point, four on the left and right sides of his body. They even seemed to have grown a bit.

His hair was still its unsettled, stark white and deep black. Something that only ever happened when he was feeling a little... chaotic in essence.

Either the world was out of balance (It was) or he was about to have the mother of all inconveniences dropped right into his fucking lap. (He was.)

Based on the vision he’d just had, he was fairly certain that what awaited him would not be in any way positive.

"BABE!"

Abaddon was suddenly tackled off his feet, and onto the floor.

Through the stars in his eyes, he saw Ayaana lying on top of him with a mozzarella stick in her hand.

"W-What just happened? I felt you were in pain, but then you just-"

"BABYYYYY!"

Zahara appeared out of thin air and landed on top of the dogpile.

As their husband, Abaddon was always going to be grateful for the love and affection that the girls showed him, but he would be lying if he said he occasionally wished they didn’t do it in a way that squished his organs out of place. Even if he didn’t necessarily need them, it still wasn’t very comfortable.

"Your hair! It’s doing that thing it does when you start questioning whether you want to end existence!"

"I know you’re mad at those human assholes, but we’re over this. You cannot go all Castlevania on them just because of that!"

Abaddon opened his mouth to speak, but did not get a chance.

"Human assholes?? What happened?!" Zahara asked in a panic.

"Some bastards were having some vile thoughts about our descendants. Odie stepped in before things got bloody and apocalyptic."

"Aww, that’s our girl... always charging in front to protect the helpless... We did such a good job with her."

"Raising her along with you two has been the greatest joy of my life, my loves. You complete me."

"Aww, come here sweet face...."

Ayaana and Zahara leaned in to give each other a short but meaningful kiss.

They turned to do the same to Abaddon, and then remembered his current condition.

""...WHAT HAPPENED?!?""

*Sigh...*

-

Back on his feet, Abaddon told his wives and his oldest children about the vision he had, and the side effect it had on him. But the fact remained that even after he explained everything, his family still felt as if they were missing answers.

"I don’t get it... " Thrudd scratched her head. "Why would some vision of a random demon guy make you have that kind of a blow-up?"

Abaddon stared at his family from the opposite side of the sofa. He craddled his head with one hand as he tried to think of the best way to explain.

Naturally, he found himself glancing at Ayaana and Zahara, using them as the perfect inspiration.

"...You kids remember what I told you about your mothers, right?" Abaddon asked. "How they and even some of your siblings are a bit different from the rest of you?"

Mira nodded as she sat upside down on the couch. "Yeah. They’re singularities or whatever. Entities in the multiverse that have no parallel selves. They are the only ones of themselves."

Abaddon smiled at his daughter, finding it a little surprising that she actually remembered something that detailed.

"Yes, that’s right. Now, do you remember what I told you about me?"

That single, simple question sent a chill through the room that caused his wives and children to stiffen.

Apophis was particularly surprised.

"I-I thought you said... that all of your alternates were so different from you that it was like you weren’t even connected at all."

"Yes, and I confirmed it!" Gabbrielle leaned forward.

Abaddon nodded.

"Yes, and that is true that usually they’re not. However... It seems like one is in closer proximity to me than any of them have ever been. In my vision, I saw him picking up a piece of broken concrete with my blood on it. Just like the one that human used to bind Thea and the fates."

Belloc was visibly rattled. "And just for the sake of the hypothetical... What exactly is going to happen if he gets his hands on that stone?"

"...I’d prefer not to find out."

Abaddon stood up and stretched his wings leisurely. "Seems like I’m going to be leaving for a bit... this domain is so big that finding that damn rock before my lesser does might take weeks... If not months." He sighed.

He hadn’t the faintest clue of what Asherah was thinking when she made all of this. What was the purpose of this test?

Was the End War not supposed to be a simple fight between the pantheons?

All of this Chaos... What did it prove?

"I need to leave quickly." Abaddon started to walk away.

Mira tilted her head. "Wait, I heard you say you made a bunch of horrors and creatures to hunt down those monsters who were using your name or whatever. Why don’t you just ask them to look for the rock fragment now?"

"They already have their hands full looking for those blasphemous little shits." Abaddon growled. "Besides... the terrain, the old gods that have been released, they’re all making travel exceedingly difficult... I have to do this on my own."

"Ooh! Can we help??" A feminine voice asked.

Abaddon glanced at the corner of the room where Fiona was sitting between her father and Courtney. All three of them had smoothies in their hands and were wearing pajama bottoms and t-shirts.

Shin sucked on his straw obnoxiously.

"It’s been a while since I got to shoot one of you in the face... It might make me feel normal again instead of just some retired old man."

"You are retired. You are old." Abaddon grinned evilly. "Not sure about the ’man’ part though."

Shin nearly crushed his smoothie cup in his hand.

"...I hope this guy looks a lot like you. I need an excuse for when I miss."

"You mean if you miss, old fool."

"No, I don’t."

Fiona stood up while dusting off her pants.

"Alright, so that’s two grumpy old rivals down as attendees... anybody else want front row seats to this inevitable trainwreck??"

Courtney raised her hand. So did Ayaana, Apophis, Thrudd, Belloc, and Mira.

Suddenly, Kanami came into the room with K’ael and Nihil at her side. Abaddon noticed immediately that she seemed to be quite drained. Though maybe that had a bit to do with her husband being away.

"Ugh... I never thought I’d say this, but I don’t want to deal with another mission for a while."

"Even one that lets you stab Dad??" Mira asked with big eyes.

Kanami became frozen in place as she looked around at all of the faces in the room.

"...I’ll go and ready then men." She walked away.

"Don’t you need a little more context than that??" Abaddon yelled after her.

"Nope!"

Shrugging, Nihil chose to follow his mother while K’ael stepped into the living room.

"I-Is it true...? Are you really going to let Auntie stab you? Are you trying to atone for accidentally giving her a son?"

Abaddon gave his own child a droll, unamused look.

"...No." He patted him on top of his head. "But since you’re so curious, you’re coming with me. Maybe getting you out of that room a bit will turn you into a bit more of a social butterfly."

"...."

K’ael swiftly turned on his heels.

Before he could even make it back upstairs, Abaddon grabbed him by his horn and tossed him over his shoulder like a garbage bag.

"...Shit sticks."

"Watch your mouth, boy, you’re too young for that kind of language, and you’re not small enough for it to be funny anymore."

"My insubordination is unforgivable. You should most certainly punish me by sending me to my room."

"..."

Abaddon walked upstairs to his room to get a few things before they left. Along the way, he bumped K’ael into every single wall in their house.

-

Fiona had been itching for another opportunity to use her ship again.

Ever since the apocalypse had started, and she returned all members of the order to their original universes, she had been painfully bored.

Well, sure, she was having a lot of sex and having sleepovers with her new girlfriend every night, and it was nice to catch up on some of the audiobooks that were on her list, but... she still missed the days when she had a little bit of excitement in her life!

So as the Euphrates loaded itself and their beasts onto the ships, she was as bright a ray of positivity as there could be.

"Come on, guys! It’s every employee’s dream to see their bosses get fucked up, so don’t spoil this opportunity by dawdling! Climb aboard and make yourself comfortable!"

As he stood on the front steps of his house, Abaddon had some very mixed feelings in his chest.

"Does everyone around me just want to cause me harm...?"

Ayaana came up behind him and smacked him on the butt.

"Sometimes it is, handsome. Now let’s go so we don’t disappoint everybody!"