First Demonic Dragon

Underneath the Shinto temple was a small floating home that barely qualified as such.

It was more like a shack, with ordinary dark wood walls and a roof that had the same aesthetic as a junkyard.

Basking in the darkness of the landmass floating above it, this place seemed uniquely isolated from the world and was indicative of the being living inside of it.

Sitting beside a crackling fire in a seiza position was a downright ghastly woman.

Her clothes were a mess; what could only be assumed to have once been a pristine white tunic, was now dingy and contained no small amount of burn holes.

Through the holes in her clothing, one could see her flesh that was once fair and healthy, but was now rotting in patches and crawling with maggots.

The actual color of the skin itself had a pale grey color to it, almost like a corpse long dead.

Even as a dead woman, it was clear that at one point she had been very beautiful.

Her long graying hair was string-like and largely unkempt, and her eye sockets were sunken in, with nothing but entirely black eyes devoid of any light, love, or warmth.

It was unknown how long this woman sat and watched the fire burn.

But at a certain point, the joints within her neck cracked as she finally turned her head around 180 degrees and stared at the doorway.

There, she found a pair of glowing red eyes standing in her home, and a figure hiding just behind a curtain of darkness.

"For what it's worth, I did knock."

The woman did not crack a single smile, nor did she even seem to be breathing.

Abaddon stepped into the light and allowed the dead woman to take an actual look at him for the first time.

Like the rest of the gods, she had seen him once before so she was painfully aware of just how attractive he was, but her appreciation of his charm went no farther than simple acknowledgment.

She thought to herself, 'he is the most beautiful man to ever be witnessed' and simply turned her gaze back to the fire.

In terms of reactions, Abaddon absolutely had the more dramatic of the two.

The brief look he'd gotten at her face caused his reptilian pupils to tremble significantly.

Her face, though currently ghastly, was a distinct extraordinary sort of beautiful, and it had a profound familiar impact on him.

"I always wondered just why they shared your namesake…for a while I thought it simply a coincidence, but now I can see now they've inherited your beauty from you too. How is that possible?"

Abaddon sat in front of the dead woman in a seiza position as a sign of respect.

Not because he feared her power or was worried about angering her.

But because he felt a significant amount of respect for her due to the role she might have played in his family.

The woman turned her gaze back towards him, an imperceptible look of surprise in her black eyes.

He wasn't being flirtatious or making any sort of veiled remarks, just making a simple comment.

And yet it was strange of him to refer to her as beautiful in a form such as this one.

When the woman finally spoke, her voice was chilling and hollow like some sort of charming poltergeist.

"…Asherah asked a favor of me to create a clan for her world using my bloodline. My only request was that she provide me with but a few souls in return."

Unbothered by the voice of the goddess in the slightest, Abaddon lowered his head in a respectful gesture.

"You may not have done it for me specifically, but I would like to thank you for your decision nonetheless.

Your descendant Lailah is the first woman I have ever married and I would be a shell of myself without her."

For the first time, the goddess showed some sort of visible reaction.

It was clear that a storm of thoughts were going on inside her mind, but she only had one question.

"…Can I meet her?"

This wasn't particularly the direction that Abaddon was expecting the conversation to go, but he wouldn't stand in the way of a potential tender meeting.

He immediately contacted his darling wife without a second thought.

'My love, are you awake?'

'Yesh!'

Abaddon snickered at the sound of his wife talking with her mouth full yet again.

Though she appeared regal and authoritative to outsiders, she was pretty much the farthest thing from it at home.

'Are you dressed?' He asked.

'I am, I was just having breakfast with our babies.'

'I need you for a moment, love.'

'W-Wait, wait-'

Abaddon held out his hands and a woman suddenly appeared in the air and fell into his lap.

Lailah had on a cute but simple outfit of an oversized hoodie and black shorts with high socks.

She typically wore things like this whenever she was in the library for long periods of time or there was a particularly delicious breakfast prepared.

She wasn't a real big fan of buttons on pants inhibiting her ability to enjoy herself.

Her cute and homey look was further enhanced by her hair that was up in a messy bun and the crumbs and icing lingering on both sides of her cheeks.

"D-Darling, why couldn't you wait for a moment! You know that if I leave food around Mira it's as good as gone!"

"I'm sure she wouldn't eat your food like that if you just tell her not to." Abaddon joked.

Lailah closed her eyes and turned her gaze towards the dining room table.

She connected her mind with Mira's, and prayed that she had gotten to her before she was too late.

'Pumpkin, be a good girl and please don't eat mommy's-'

'You snooze you loose, mommy!'

'Mira Tathamet!'

'Mommy! Can Straga have your leftovers too!'

'W-What?! No!'

'Uwah…'

'O-Okay, fine… eat slowly.'

A single crystalline tear fell from Lailah's eye as she rested her head on Abaddon's chest.

"It's gone… it took me a week and a half of begging to get Tatiana to make me a full course pastry breakfast… who knows when she'll do it for me again!?"

Abaddon smiled as he licked away the mixture of icing, cream cheese, and syrup from her cheeks and lips.

Lailah looked like she had some sort of pent up perverted remark in store before she suddenly realized that she was inside of a literal shack.

"Why have you brought me h- …Oh, hello. Who's this?"

When her eyes finally landed on the corpse woman in the room with them, she showed no real surprise or disgust.

Abaddon shifted Lailah to a more comfortable position in his arms and made introductions.

"My love, apparently this is your ancestor. The Shinto Primordial Goddess Izanami."

Lailah immediately raised a brow as she stared at the strange, undead woman in a new light.

She analyzed her from every possible angle, but she found it difficult to agree with the assessment that her husband had provided her.

"I mean no disrespect, ancestor, but.. you do not feel like a primordial being."

While Izanami's eyes contained an immense amount of inner profundity and depth, that was all that seemed to be special about her.

The immense amount of power that one would expect when they hear about primordial beings was not present.

Even Belloc had more power than her before he was reborn as a Tathamet and reset.

"…I have been trapped inside of yomi for so long that most of my power is now tied there." She answered plainly.

Abaddon and Lailah let out unanimous sighs of relief.

Suddenly having a primordial goddess show up in their backyard was one sure fire way to make them shit a brick.

Even if Abaddon could restrain the powers of anyone in his world, he would need at least a second to do it.

With beings like this, a second was far, far too long.

Lailah lowered her head in a respectful bow and regained her empress-like demeanor.

"I see. It is very nice to meet you."

Izanami looked back and forth between her descendent and the man holding her.

It brought back uncomfortably painful memories of a past thousands of years old.

"You…two… are in love."

""Very much so."" The two answered in unison.

"She is my guiding light. My gentle hand."

"He's my confidant… my best friend."

"She keeps me smart and open minded."

"He makes me laugh and makes me feel safe."

""He / She-""

"I get it… you do not have to continue." Izanami held up her hand to stop the gushing couple from sending her into a diabetic coma.

"I just have one question…" she suddenly asked.

The flames inside of the shack were snuffed out, and a suffocatingly sharp pressure started to descend on the shoulders of Abaddon specifically.

Even without her full power, Izanami was still nothing to overlook.

In terms of strength she was comparable to his father or even one of his wives.

"I demand to know… do you listen to her?" She asked in a hatefully scratchy voice. "Would you abandon her if there is a moment where she is no longer considered beautiful…?"

Abaddon and Lailah looked back and forth between each other and Izanami several times.

They didn't say anything for a long time until they both had an unexpected reaction.

"She… pfft… she wants to know if you listen to me, husband."

"I…" *snicker* "D-Don't make jokes, Lailah… she needs me to give a serious answer. "

"S-She also wants to know if you'll abandon me when I am no longer beautiful..? Don't you think you should… pft.. HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Lailah's laughter served as the straw that broke the camel's back, and soon Abaddon was unable to hold his own laughter back as well.

"Y-You.. pfft.. are so childish- HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Izanami watched her descendent and her husband collapse all over each other and start laughing hysterically.

Tears rolling, sides splitting, banging on the wood flooring, the whole deal.

During this entire display, Izanami lost all of her previous ferocity as stared blankly at the two full grown and beautiful adults rolling around on the floor of her abode.

"… What the hell is so funny?"