First Demonic Dragon

Michael was very late in recalling exactly where they were at that time.

Space. Nature's connecting and most mystifying pathway was just another extension of Abaddon himself.

There were very few places to run across him that could be considered worse than this.

Michael had exactly two seconds to feel fear.

At the very next second, Abaddon appeared before him like a ghost and struck him clean across the jaw with the back of his hand.

Unlike before, when Abaddon only seemed to be striking Lucifer out of necessity, he seemed to be genuinely taking out his anger on Michael.

"You should be embarrassed with yourself... Have you any idea of how much your father fretted when he couldn't find you? How long Uriel searched for you?"

Michael had the largest bruise ever already forming across his cheek. He glared and revealed himself to be missing a few teeth too.

"I meant to return to them once I had a way to break them free of the hold you had on them. I should have expected you to use the opportunity to ingratiate yourself with them further!"

"Worm."

Abaddon struck Michael in the jaw with his open palm- breaking it.

The angel struggled to maintain an upright position.

'Why can I feel pain!?' He roared internally.

'It wouldn't have amused me if you couldn't.' Percival responded back telepathically.

Michael was finding it harder and harder to say which of these two demons he hated more.

Abaddon waited for Michael's jaw to heal before he started to hit him again.

But this time, Michael quickly drew a flaming sword from within his robes and lunged at Abaddon.

Abaddon stepped just out of reach of the first swing, and in retaliation, he punched Michael in the stomach as hard as he could.

Michael went flying out of sight- dropping his sword unconsciously.

Before Abaddon could grab it out of the air, Lucifer returned with a vengeance.

He launched a spinning kick at Abaddon's head that was easily caught. But that appeared to have been what he wanted.

Using his other leg, he attempted to run up Abaddon's body and kicked him squarely in the jaw- briefly lifting him off his feet.

Lucifer used his accumulated momentum to turn straight into a backflip.

He grabbed his brother's sword while it was still lacking a wielder and rushed for Abaddon again.

Abaddon, hardly phased by being kicked, was already prepared.

Dark, armor-like scales had already formed around the circumference of both his arms. Giving them a glossy and unbreakable appearance.

He raised his arm over his face just as Lucifer tried to cut through it.

For a moment, the two were in a second stalemate.

Abaddon could see that Lucifer was hardly functioning. Earlier, his flames had done a considerable amount of damage and nearly melted half of his face off.

He could see that the angel had been trying to heal the damage, but the process was slow if it was happening at all.

Abaddon exhaled as his body shifted.

An additional pair of arms sprouted beneath his original pair. He clapped his hands together with tremendous force.

The shockwave blew Lucifer clear away, causing him to crash into the returning Michael.

Abaddon started to rush towards them again when he suddenly felt a familiar presence come near him.

"Husband!"

Lailah emerged from a nearby portal, clearly with a look of worry on her face.

It normally would have taken her less than a second to gain a full assessment of the situation. However, due to her seeing not one, but two faces she presumed to be dead, she needed a little bit more time.

"Lailah, infinite prison!" Abaddon called.

Lailah was quick to react at her husband's behest. She held out her flowing sleeves and two serpents burst forth.

Each serpent grew larger and larger until they had become nigh impossible to measure. They held open their gaping jaws and attempted to swallow the brothers whole.

Their jaws crashed down, and Abaddon hissed in disappointment.

He saw the brothers turning intangible again as the beasts' jaws closed. He knew they hadn't gotten them.

Lailah's frustrated reaction was all the confirmation he needed to know he was right. She retracted the serpents into her sleeves while cursing internally and externally.

"It's fine... they're just ghosts anyway." Abaddon sighed.

Lailah glanced at her husband again while making a painful look.

She ventured closer to him and started to touch his cheek again when she remembered they were in uncovered territory.

'...Not here.'

She grabbed her husband by his hand and began pulling him into a newly opened portal nearby.

-

Abaddon emerged with Lailah in an unexpected location. Her laboratory.

Before Abaddon could even ask why she had brought him here, she was pulling him into a chair and shining a light in his eye.

"W-What..?"

"Don't move too much. That bastard bit you, didn't he?"

Abaddon had gotten so absorbed in the fight that he'd forgotten all about his little snake bite.

The venom was still traveling through his body and attempting to poison him. But since he shared Lillian's immunity to toxicity, it wasn't really harming him aside from some inflammation.

However, the presence of a foreign substance inside his body was annoying enough, so Abaddon was going to dispel it at any moment now.

However, he didn't really see the harm in letting Lailah do it since she was so adamant about it.

"Hold still for just a couple of seconds, alright?" Lailah picked up an unusually sharp scalpel from her workbench.

"..." Abaddon knew his wife wasn't going to hurt him, but in the back of his mind, he was starting to feel like maybe he should have given her that 'kiss' she desperately wanted before she left.

"What happen-"

"You look beautiful."

Lailah blinked slowly as she stared at her husband. "I... Thank you, but don't you think that can wait for a minute or so?"

Abaddon shrugged. "No."

Lailah just shook her head and suppressed a smile as she made an incision along the side of his eye.

Almost immediately, Abaddon felt a release of pressure that he didn't know was building up. A dark purple liquid slowly trickled out of his head.

Lailah watched it very carefully. At first, Abaddon had no idea what she was looking for.

True to her suspicions, the liquid suddenly wormed about in a way that was far too alive.

Lailah immediately grabbed a jar from nearby and trapped the mass of sludge inside without even a moment's hesitation.

Abaddon's eyes narrowed.

Lailah placed the jar on her workbench and went to cleaning out her husband's wound. "Tell me everything that happened. Start from the beginning."

Abaddon ceased his prior acts of flirtation and told Lailah everything she wanted to know.

When she realized that their enemy had somehow absorbed Lucifer and Michael's souls to use their strength, she was troubled.

Now that Abaaddon was informing her that Percival held dominion over their souls and could use them as soldiers, she was far more disturbed.

If the Antichrist truly possessed such a power, then it was even more imperative that the other gods be protected from his reach.

With Lucifer and Michaels's powers, plus the ability to use them as foot soldiers whenever he felt like it, the demon race was establishing itself as a more than formidable power with no real rival among the divine pantheons.

For that reason, Lailah was beginning to re-examine her decisions quite a bit.

The chances for the gods to fall prey to Percival were suddenly much higher if he could just use Lucifer as a sledgehammer to break through their defenses. And not every pantheon had a deity as benevolent or powerful as Shiva.

Their highest up either wouldn't be interested in protecting their lessers or wouldn't have the power necessary to do so.

"What are you thinking about?" Abaddon suddenly asked.

Lailah suddenly realized that she had finished cleaning up her husband's wound some time ago. It had even healed already.

Now, she was just staring at the side of his head while almost completely lost in thought.

"... Switching the temporary detail on the gods to a more permanent one. As well as calling in the Grey Legion from the reserves."

"Done."

"You don't think it might be unnecessary?"

"You don't have unnecessary thoughts."

Lailah smiled and kissed her husband on his cheek. In response, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly like it had been years since she'd been home.

"...What were you even doing out there all by yourself? You know how things are right now..."

Abaddon nodded. "I do know, but I just needed some time to think. In a place that was truly quiet."

"And you didn't want to pop into Bashenga's room?"

"So that he could give me the stink eye for invading his private space? I think not." he chuckled dryly.

Lailah just rolled her eyes as she held her husband's face. "Was it worth it?"

He nodded again. "Unfortunate surprise visit aside, I was able to figure a couple of things out... I'm certain I will get to where I need to be."

Lailah stared at her husband for a few more curious moments before she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Well… the important thing is that you're back now. And I won't be letting you OR that bitch out of my sight."

Abaddon smiled wryly. "So… you've talked to Valerie then."

"I talked. She listened."

"And you said..?"

"What do you think? I told her that she wasn't going anywhere. I would rather die than give away the woman I love to an ungrateful universe."

"Lailah.." Abaddon began.

"But luckily I don't have to. Because our daughter found a way to keep our family together."