First Demonic Dragon

"...You're stupid." Gabbrielle finally decided after a long silence.

"Uwah!?"

"You are actually talking about cutting off the fingers of Yesh as if such a thing could ever possibly phase him. Not to mention the fact that you asked me to call him here. What do you think our father would do if he sensed a man, even god himself, in my room at the night?"

Mira looked down at the floor awkwardly as she shuffled her feet. "He would blow this whole-"

"He would blow this whole place up, yes." Gabbrielle finished.

Mira shook her head hard as if she remained undeterred.

"I-It doesn't matter! I'm going to make that old shit give daddy his powers back, and if you won't help me then I'll just go find him myself!" True to her word, she started to storm out the door again.

A smooth, shiny white tail that glimmered with all of the colors of the rainbow shot out and snatched Mira up by her torso.

"Gabbrielleee!! Let me go!"

"Nuh-uh."

"I am your big sister! Heed my demands!"

"It is adorable that you thought that would work."

The beautiful little white dragon proceeded to pull her sister into bed along with her mass of stuffed animals.

Mira normally would have put up a substantially bigger fight, but Gabbrielle's room was actually really nice and cozy, and it was such a drastic change from her own room.

Probably because her sister didn't eat in here and washed her sheets regularly like she was supposed to... but Mira liked to live life a little differently!

"I'm just letting you know... You're only holding me here because I want you to."

"Yes, I'm sure. Now tell me what the matter is, dear sister. Slowly this time."

Mira let Gabbrielle wrap around her body like a large exotic boa constrictor.

As the two of them reclined backward, Mira begrudgingly began telling her sister the full summary of events that she'd learned from their father earlier.

Naturally, Gabbrielle had no knowledge of the contract between Abaddon and Yesh either.

And though she was just as surprised as her sister, she waited until she had heard everything to make any kind of reaction.

"I just don't understand him... he nearly died for his powers, why would he so easily just give them away?" Mira pouted.

"Well technically, father did not actually give anything away. He'd still have his powers if he could fulfill all of the conditions for his release."

"But those are too hard and he can't possibly do that in any reasonable amount of time!"

Gabbrielle rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Actually, I have a theory about that. I've been thinking about father's access to the multiverse and it's capabilities. Since every possible eventuality exists somewhere, I believe it might be more than likely to find-"

"Don't care! I want dad to have his powers back!"

"...So you do not want to bother to listen to my extremely detailed and creatively thought out hypothesis as to how our father might be able to break through his restrictions easier?"

"No! I just want him to have no restrictions at all! And I'm going to get his powers back by whatever means necessary!!"

"He hasn't lost his... Whatever." Gabbrielle was so very tempted to hang her sister out the window by her nostrils.

She unwrapped herself from her sister's body and reverted to her regular, teenage form; complete with a footie pajama onesie.

"Come with me." Gabbrielle replied in a droll manner.

Mira was confused about why her sister suddenly started walking to her bathroom, but she followed her nonetheless.

Once inside, Gabbrielle flicked on the light and immediately went to her bathtub where she began running water.

"We're too old to still bathe togethe- Ow!"

Gabbrielle slapped her sister across the cheek with her tail before she could say anything else useless for the day.

"Just listen for once in your life please... Ordinarily I would just take us to the tree, but since our father would know the instant that we left, we have no choice but to do things differently."

"Like FaceTimeing them?"

"I... no."

Rolling her eyes, Gabbrielle turned back towards the rapidly filling tub.

She finally shut off the water and got down on her knees before she closed her eyes to pray.

'This is embarrassing... Respond quickly and spare me this humiliation... I know that you both can hear me!'

Suddenly, the water rippled and an image was reflected on the surface.

The girls could see a familiar old couple sitting underneath the shade of a shining gold tree.

"Oh? This is quite the surprise." With Asherah's veil removed, one could see actual emotion on her face. "Even when you were just a little ways away from us, you never contacted us directly like this, Gabbrielle."

"Yes, well I would have been enjoying the rest of my night, but my sister here has a grievance. I must confess to some raw feelings as well if I am quite honest." Even though she said that she was upset, with Gabbrielle's robotic demeanor, it was kind of hard to tell.

"A grievance?" Asherah already seemed like she was going to apologize. "I don't believe I've done anything to the two of you."

"Not you, Veil Lady!" Mira interjected. "That guy!" she pointed at Yesh.

'Me..?' The creator pointed at himself.

"Yes! Let my dad out of his seals!"

Yesh and Asherah seemed surprised that this was the focus of the conversation.

'Well, you see girls-'

"You don't need to talk to us like we're children, Yesh." Gabbrielle waived her hand. "I can understand that the terms were initially put in place to restrict the movements of the previous rulers of the abyss, but father isn't like them."

Mira: "Yea!"

'Yes, I-'

"These rules are excessive. Perhaps they would be less detrimental if the timing weren't so inopportune, but we are in the middle of a war. It isn't safe for my father to be so vulnerable with all of the enemies he has."

Mira: "That's what I'm- Mmph!?"

Gabbrielle forcefully covered her sister's mouth. "Please... you are exhausting me and I absolutely need you to shut up and let the adults talk."

'I'm older than you!?' Mira wanted to say.

Gabbrielle maintained a firm grip on her sister's mouth as she turned to address Yesh once again.

"As I was saying... I want to know what the meaning of this new agreement is. If the two of you care for my father like you say you do, the how on earth can you subject him to something so dangerous?"

Mira: "Mmh!" (Yea)

Gabbrielle tightened her grip on her sister's jaw to the point that she nearly broke it- and only then did Mira finally become quiet.

Yesh and Asherah looked at each other momentarily and it seemed as though the two were having quite the serious internal discussion.

Gabbrielle did not rush them for answers either; as she was able to recognize the clear severity of their discussion.

Eventually, Yesh tuned back to face the girls with a more solemn demeanor than before.

'Children... I need you to make me a promise before we begin. You must swear that nothing that you learn here today be repeated to anyone, and that all knowledge imparted today will stay within the confines of this room.'

Gabbrielle and Mira looked understandably skeptical of his words, but after taking a moment to weigh their options, they realized that they had very little choice in the matter.

"We swear." Gabbrielle nodded.

'...Very well.'

Against all expectations, Gabbrielle and Mira watched as the old man began to shrug off his modest robe.

When his wiry torso was revealed, the two grimaced.

Both of them could clearly see a large wound on his abdomen.

It was a rotting, black bite mark that was somehow also fresh as if he'd just gotten it ten minutes ago.

Not only was it still bleeding, but it was progressively getting worse at a very slow pace…

'I don't know if your father's told you about the little spat we got into in our history… compared to our past relationship, you could practically call us the best of friends now.'

Gabbrielle looked horrified. "That wound… is from that long ago?"

'I'm afraid it is. It took two million years for it to actually scar over… but recently something has caused it to open back up and fester.'

"What could have caused something like this??"

'Truthfully… it is Oblivion.' Yesh said solemnly.

Gabbrielle's body started to get chills all over when she recalled the first day her father emerged with his new power.

It was the first day that she heard Yesh say that he didn't know when asked about something.

'When the timeline reset after your father put that hole in Asgard, my wound re-opened at exactly the same time. Even my own power is helpless to close it.

I thought that maybe his sins were the crux of his strength and therefore the issue, but I was being naive. I didn't want to admit what I already suspected beforehand.

Oblivion is not a power born from any sort of multiverse or higher realm that you or he would know.

It comes from the true birthplace. The forge that springs forth all that is, all that will be, and all that could be.

Though it is my birth place, even I can tell you nothing about it. Because even if I could fully remember it, your mind would not comprehend the details of which I speak.

I do not know how your father obtained his power. All that I can tell you is that it comes from beyond even myself, and thus I have no defense against it.

I am not trying to hurt your father. My only goal is to slow his growth a bit until he understands what he is capable of and can control himself.

Lest he unravel me completely, and destroy all that exists within me at the same time.'

Mira heard a lot of things that she didn't understand, but what she did get was the fact that only one of her father's powers seemed to be the problem, not all of them.

"T-Then why didn't you just place a seal on oblivion and leave all of his other powers alone??"

"It doesn't work like that…" Gabbrielle rubbed her temples exhaustedly. "Primordial divinities are synonymous with their entire existence. They can't just be bound and stuck away in a closet."

'And because your father's divinities are infused into his magic just as they are his body, my only option was to restrain his power as a whole so that hopefully no unfortunate circumstances should occur.'

While this explanation left Gabbrielle in a state of reflection, Mira still wasn't having it.

"My dad dying would be an unfortunate circumstance!" She yelled.

It wasn't long before the young princess started to cry from feelings of helplessness.

Perhaps her greatest fear in all of her life was that something would happen to her father.

He'd had more close calls than the family cared to admit, and every one shook them to their core.

Abaddon was the pillar of his family.

Imagining an outcome that ended in him losing his life was more painful than words could describe.

"He can control himself, I promise! So can you please just take the seals off of him?!"

"Mira, he just explained why he can't do that… please calm down." Gabbrielle pleaded.

Her urging seemed to fall on deaf ears as Mira continued to cry with no end in sight.

-

Asherah and Yesh watched Mira cry while Gabbrielle tried to console her

Both of them felt like they should have said something, anything, to give the girls some semblance of peace of mind but they were drawing blanks consistently.

"…" Aftervwatching for what felt like too long, Yesh took out a familiar parchment scroll.

The very same one that he had forged Abaddon's contract on.

Against all of his wife's expectations, he set the paper ablaze in a mass of soft, golden flames.

"…Was that wise?" Was all she asked.

Yesh waited until the entire scroll was a pile of ashes before he began pulling his robe back on.

"No… it certainly was not."