First Demonic Dragon

Izanagi didn’t actually feel anything at first. His world just went dark.

And then the pain came.

Wave after wave of dull, throbbing aches that traveled all the way through one’s physical and spiritual manifestations to strike at their very essence.

When the agony finally subsided, Izanagi was lying flat on his back inside of a large crater in the ocean floor.

A soft rainfall was falling over the god as he lay on his back, mildly disoriented and with his body wracked with pain.

He squinted his eyes and focused them on the scene above his head.

Surrounding him from all sides were the same, nightmarish creatures that had caused the battle to go to hell in the first place.

They bit and chomped at the air while foaming from their mouth, or mouths. The only thing keeping them at bay seemed to be their master, who was even more ominous than every one of them combined.

Abaddon was suspended in the air, looming above him with a hard glare that contained no rage. No anger.

If anything, there was a perception of cosmic indifference that could only come from a being who could see so much of creation whenever he chose.

Izanagi looked into the dragon’s eyes, and they somehow said 1,000 words without him even needing to open his mouth.

You tried to kill her.

This wasn’t about the custody of a dangerous criminal goddess. Nor did it have anything to do with protecting humanity.

Izanagi had come here to fight him over a woman.

Another age-old scenario of one man being jealous of another for seeing value in something he had thrown away.

A tale as old as time. A show so boring it wouldn’t make it past one season on TV.

There was no value in this conflict. No glory or prestige.

No reason either.

Two very old and very powerful deities had caused near irreparable damage to an entire realm for nothing.

Abaddon felt that he had wasted his anger on Izanagi. He had been baited into acting with the mention of Izanami and like the hotheaded fool he was, he’d fallen for it.

But now that the battle was over and his enemy was unable to attempt to harm him further, he just felt as if he’d competed in the most thoughtless competition ever.

He gave his enemy a look of intense pity. And Izanagi could not bear it the humiliation.

“You… You dare…!”

Izanagi started trying to force his body to get up again. Abaddon knew that he had no choice.

He held out his eight arms and opened his palms. The tattoos along his body all turned bright red at once.

The realm became even further damaged when the sky overhead was torn to shreds, revealing the great, colorful makeup that was the background of the divine realms.

Through this opening, an eye larger than any identifiable sun stared down into the realm.

It was a horrible sight. Not the kind easily forgotten with alcohol or years of therapy. Those who saw the scene that day would be forced to remember it for the rest of their lives.

The eye started to glow and bathed the realm in it’s light.

Izanagi’s will to fight had been squandered.

He no longer tried to get up. He didn’t want to run.

He was staring into the abyss with his back already against the wall.

And as he stared into the darkness with no hope, he saw a familiar figure appear in front of him with her arms out in a defensive measure.

“L-Let’s not take this any further..!”

The eye above Abaddon stopped glowing. Instead, it sealed itself shut, and the rip in the realm closed slowly.

Abaddon warily descended from the sky.

His face was complicated, as if he was realizing that he’d let a bad game go on a hair too long.

“…I wasn’t going to kill him.” Abaddon said after a while.

“It… certainly seemed like it.” Amaterasu frowned slightly.

She fixed her robe and her hair to make it seem like she wasn’t scared out of her mind just now. She was.

But as scary as it might have looked, Abaddon wasn’t actually going to kill Izanagi just noe.

Rather, he had attempted to seal him. He’d hold him for a short time and then release him later when he was sufficiently calmer.

But he understood how things might have looked to onlookers who were present. More than anything, he understood how it must’ve looked to his daughter.

“…I wouldn’t take your father from you, Amaterasu.” He said, finding it to be the only thing he knew how to say.

Izanagi raised a trembling finger. “You don’t have a right to say my daughter’s name, you-“

“Stop, Father.” Amaterasu raised her hand and cut his words of bitterness short.

She proceeded to help him up, even going as far to drape his arm over her shoulder.

This was the first time she realized the full extent of the damage.

Izanagi’s body was practically a cooked noodle. No strength or rigidity anywhere.

If she let him go, he wouldn’t even be able to stand up on his own.

Amaterasu was amazed that he was still conscious. But she supposed that the power of spite would make a great many things possible.

“I’m… going to take him home now.” Amaterasu said. The way she spoke almost made it seem like she was asking for permission rather than just telling him goodbye.

Abaddon just turned away.

He didn’t see Amaterasu go, but he felt her presence disappear.

Once she left, he too floated out of the crater to surveil the world around him.

The damage was considerable.

A former full ocean nearly completely evaporated. Dimensional cuts the size of ravines were lashed out in every direction. And a sky that was, in some parts, raining, and in others ripped away.

“What a show..!”

“Aye, a sight to behold indeed. My loincloth hasn’t been this soiled since I was a babe!”

“Alright, gross.”

Abaddon looked over his shoulder.

On one of the islands, he saw the Celtic gods whom he had sent to death camp all cheering for him.

As this bunch was mostly comprised of drunken deities of war, they loved a good clash no matter the reason or the stakes.

Their cheering didn’t exactly make him feel any better.

“Abaddon!”

Izanami flew into the dragon’s arms like a bullet. Ayaana and Sif came immediately after her.

Abaddon briefly shook off his inner thoughts and cupped Izanami’s face in his hands. Once he saw that she wasn’t hurt, he pressed his forehead against hers.

When he saw her, his first thought was of how he might’ve just made things worse.

“I’m sorry. I think I might’ve… diminished the chances of her coming to visit by quite a bit.”

Izanami shook her head. “You really don’t need to be worried about that for now. She’s probably just shaken up anyway…”

Abaddon hoped to god that were true.

At that moment, Nyx, Mateo, Dagda, and even Shiva floated over to see their friend.

Nyx looked slightly shaken up. Mateo looked like he had seen a car crash. Shiva seemed only to want to know what had happened to lead to this point. And Father Dagda…

“Hahahahaha! Splendid, Scale-Lord! Splendid! I believe I might like to go for a round with you myself if you’re up for it!”

Abaddon’s eyes were looking beyond Dagda. To the scenery around him that was still wrought with destruction.

“…Don’t applaud me for this.” He said in a deep, thoughtful voice. “This was beneath me.”

“You’re damn right it was, that’s why I’m offering to give you a more worthwhile-” Dagda was cut off when Nyx elbowed his pudgy stomach.

“Would you relax, you oaf..? Not every warrior deity is in the mood for a casual realm ending fight at the drop of a hat.”

“Then how can they hope to call themselves warriors??” Dagda threw up his hands.

Nyx had the strongest urge to punch the old gos as hard as she could. But then again, doing so would probably excite him.

“Father Dagda.”

“Hm?”

Dagda glanced up at Abaddon and raised a brow.

“I’m afraid… our meeting will have to see a pause for the day.” Abaddon apologized. “I’ll return again later.”

Dagda looked Abaddon up and down several times. His eyes seemed to see through his physical shell to the crux of his psyche.

Judging by the sour look in his eyes, he didn’t seem to be all that fond of what he saw.

“Yes, yes, fine.” Dagda clicked his teeth as he turned his head away in a huff. “Feel free to come back whenever you want, and do yourself a favor, and don’t let the portal hit you on the way out.”

If that was supposed to be a joke, Abaddon didn’t laugh.

He vanished instantly. Sif and Izanami went with him.

Ayaana would have gone too, but she decided it might be a little better if she stuck around to help repair.

“What about you, Dragon-Lassie??” Dagda playfully raised both his fists in a fighting gesture.

Ayaana didn’t look pleased at all.

Instead, she smirked and drew back her fist.

She punched Dagda in the face so hard that his head was knocked off his body.

Only to become immediately annoyed when his headless figure gave her two thumbs up.