First Demonic Dragon

"Are you sure..?"

Lillian nodded as she watched her husband rustle through a trunk in his closet.

"I haven't sensed any deaths of your followers on earth. If I had, you know that I would've told you…"

Abaddon paused and glanced back at Lillian with an apologetic look in his eyes.

"...I'm sorry. I know that you would have told me, I just..."

"I get it." Lillian cut him short instantly. "I know how those people make you feel."

Abaddon nodded slowly. Relieved, but still feeling like an ass for questioning Lillian. She was honest to a fault. No part of her would've kept this kind of news from him.

"So... What's the likelihood that he is involved?"

Lillian embraced her husband from behind as she contemplated aloud.

"Asherah has been keeping a closer watch on earth than she normally would have before... It's not likely that anything could have gotten past her vision."

"...But?"

Lillian bit her lip. "But you know as well as I just how easily possibility can be manipulated when you possess enough power and... suitable backing."

Abaddon nodded slowly and turned around to embrace Lillian properly.

The goddess seemed just the faintest bit surprised by the gesture, but not unappreciative of it in the least.

She leaned into the warmth of her husband's body and even smiled faintly.

"...By chance, are you doing this to comfort me or yourself?"

Abaddon chuckled dryly. "Not quite sure anymore... just stay still and let me figure it out."

"That I can do."

Lillian was honestly fine with either reasoning. She was just glad that her husband wasn't shutting down.

The last time Abaddon had to deal with the descendants of those he left behind, there were a few years where he wasn't quite... himself.

He delved into a place that Lillian and the others couldn't just pull him out of, even if they loved him.

He had to take a minute, think about things for himself, and come out when he was ready.

And if she were honest, Lillian didn't really want to see him go down that path again.

"...You know you don't have to go back, right..?" Lillian said, against her better judgment. "We could send one of the others or your sister-"

"No." Abaddon shook his head firmly as he released Lillian and held her loosely by her shoulders. "I can't take the risk. If he is running around then my sisters could fall into a trap of his."

"Your sisters aren't like other beings." Lillian reminded.

"I know that they aren't." Abaddon nodded. "But they are the only siblings I've ever had. The only people who understand me just as well as you and the girls."

"Then you must understand them as well, my beloved." Lillian urged. "Think about what they would want. What this would mean for them."

Abaddon looked away and bit his lip. For an infinitesimally small moment, Lillian could've sworn that she saw water bubbling up in his eyes.

But it must've been a trick of the light. Because as soon as she looked again to confirm, it was gone.

"...I would rather the girls be around to hate me for keeping this from them, rather than them see a fate like Gulban did."

Lillian felt like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

She understood her husband's concerns more than anything. But she also knew that Kanami and Malenia hated to be babied.

Abaddon risked putting a serious crack in their relationship over this.

She placed her hands on his chest and inadvertently grabbed fistfuls of his hair.

"Abaddon... I know that you love them so very much. So I'm asking you, begging you, to do the truly loving thing and at least give your sisters the dignity of choice. Do you want to spare them from pain? Taking this road is what will surely hurt them."

Abaddon knew that, how could he not?

But his mind was so fully preoccupied with the thought of the worst-case scenario.

Lillian could see that she could get him to waver with just one more push, so she tried her luck.

"...You've been doing your best to grow as a person lately. I'm proud of you and I want to see you keep growing. But keeping your sisters in the dark will be taking a step backward. Please, keep making the right choices."

Abaddon would have felt less pain if Lillian had just full-on punched him in the gut. At least his body had some sort of resistances set up.

Lillian reached for her husband's face with both hands.

Ever so gently, she tilted his head down and pressed her forehead against his.

"...I'm going to tell your sisters what's going on now... Is that okay with you?"

The seconds before Abaddon responded were perhaps some of the longest of Lillian's life.

Every second that went by was a moment she dreaded that Abaddon's paranoia would lead him to make the wrong choice.

She waited for his answer for several seconds while taking care not to rush him.

In the end, her patience appeared to have been worth it when she felt his head slowly nod.

It was hard for Lillian not to break out into a smile.

"...You're doing the right thing. I promise you."

Abaddon didn't say anything as if he wasn't fully convinced.

Lillian stood on the very tips of her toes so that she could steal her husband's lips.

The gesture was not one designed to reward him for doing the right thing, but rather one designed to wash away whatever lingering turbulence remained in his heart and mind.

Lillian could not say for certain whether or not one little kiss would erase a litany of doubts and paranoia. But she did hope that her hopefulness would be passed on to him.

"Oohhh... What's going on here?"

Lillian briefly pulled her lips away from her husband's and glanced at the doorway.

There, Bekka leaned against the doorframe with a bag of chips in her hand. Next to her, Seras was carrying Izanami underneath her arm like she was a duffle bag.

But judging by the slightly red tinge to her cheeks, she must've been having a giggling fit before they got here. She clearly couldn't have been too uncomfortable...

"Are these make-up kisses? They look like make-up kisses. Who did what?" Bekka asked suspiciously.

Lillian furrowed her brow as she hurled a discarded shirt at Bekka. "No one is fighting, you mangy wife. We were just talking."

Bekka furrowed her brow- unconvinced. "I dunno... looked like a real good kiss, but neither of you were reaching for each other's clothes or anything. Seems just a little suspicious."

Lillian didn't want to admit it, but considering the context of her marriage, that logic made total sense. Kisses that went on for longer than three minutes were either an apology or a prelude. Sometimes both.

...Most of the time they were both.

"J-Just stay here until I get back..." Lillian huffed.

She walked out of the closet in a hurry and left the room. Abaddon partially assumed that she was going to tell his sisters about the journey ahead.

In the meantime, he started changing his clothes underneath the gaze of the four women standing in the doorway.

Abaddon was so in his own mind that he didn't feel their gazes, even though they weren't trying very hard to hide them. Not at all in fact.

Glancing at himself in the mirror, Abaddon started altering his appearance. He retracted his horns, shortened the length of his hair into a bald fade, and closed his third eye as well as the one in his chest.

He materialized a brush and began getting his hair into proper form while simultaneously trying to pull on a pair of pants.

He realized when he couldn't pull the pants above his ankles that a bit of telekinesis was at work.

"...You going to let me get dressed anytime soon?" He glanced over his shoulder.

The four of them shook their heads no in unison as they kept their gazes fixed below his metaphorical belt.

Abaddon's mood showed a minor improvement.

The shadows at the girls' feet became concentrated and Audrina crawled out of them with only her upper body visible. "By chance, do you need a traveling companion?"

Abaddon chuckled. "Any of you are always welcome to come with me... I'd ask for all of you to come with me if it weren't for the young ones..."

Izanami tore her gaze away from Abaddon's physique long enough to notice the complicated look on his face.

Sensing a storm of turbulent emotions within him made her own heart physically ache. But she didn't know why he seemed so iffy about going to Earth.

"...I would like to come." She suddenly said.

"As would I." Seras replied as she put down her wife.

"I can be packed and ready in a few minutes, babe." Bekka offered.

Audrina lifted a bag out of the shadows and revealed that she was already packed.

Abaddon's mood was just improving more and more.

"...We leave in ten."

-

"This is the place, right..?"

"These are the lord's exact coordinates…"

"I'm nervous… true contact with the divine is-"

"Quell yourself, child. There's no need to fear. Just be respectful and you will know no harm from him."

A group of assembled men and women were standing in the wilderness.

Heavy rain beat against the hoods of their ponchos infrequently as they stood at the top of a mountain in the southern United States.

Clay and the others turned their gazes toward the sky as they waited for their divine monarch to break into their world.

And as a red current of lightning ran through the clouds, they knew that the moment had arrived…