First Demonic Dragon

The birds were chirping, the sky was blue and beautiful, and the sun was shining in perfect harmony with it all.

It was an ideal forest paradise. Too tranquil to be real.

And yet, the couple had never felt so on edge.

\'A divine realm..\' they realized.

"I don\'t like this plan at first, but I must give that Thoth fellow credit. This worked just as his design intended."

Abaddon and Bekka followed the voice towards a cliff overlooking the river bank.

Crius was standing next to a woman that neither of them had ever seen before.

She was almost entirely nude, with her only coverings being the verdant green vines that encircled her body from the neck down.

She had deep, sun kissed olive skin that seemed to shine with it\'s own natural luster and sense of grandeur.

Her long, dark hair fell in unrestrained curls below her back.

She had eyes more green than gemstones, and a beauty that was uncontested.

But despite that, she looked a bit thin. And possessed small bags underneath her eyes.

Almost as if she were sickly.

"I am surprised that it took us so long to meet given our close family relationship ties. Though perhaps that may have all been of his design." She grumbled.

Bekka, who was currently in the form of a large black hound, held out her paw and passed something to her husband.

From the moment that Abaddon had arrived in the pit, he was on high alert. His eyes picked out the magical landmines located on the ground with ease and he unraveled them quickly after arriving.

Even when Crius and Hyperion threw the chain at him and Bekka, he didn\'t see an issue because he already knew full well he could get them out of it.

The chains binding the gates themselves were lined with a few nasty traps as well, so that was where most of he and Bekka\'s focus lie.

In all of their preparations, they never paid attention to the thing that truly mattered.

The soil.

Sulfur and monster blood had been poured along the surface of the floor to coat what was they now knew to be regular gravel.

And that was certainly not native to the underworld.

It came from earth; making it a part of Gaia\'s body.

No wonder she was able to pull them here. They had already been touching her.

"You two do not seem like very big conversationalists. I wonder if that is just with me though..?"

She turned to Crius and gave him a small nudge.

"Did they atleast converse with you, my son?"

"Erm… O-Only briefly." Crius muttered.

The conversation he did get out of Abaddon was not what he would call \'riveting\'.

"We tried to use the chains, but I\'m afraid they failed.." he confessed.

"They broke them?" Gaia tilted her head in surprise.

"They ate them.."

"…Seriously?"

"Quite."

Gaia\'s verdant green eyes showed equal parts humor and intrigue.

"Brother…"

Abaddon\'s heart dropped when he heard a soft call come from behind him.

To his horror, he found his sister and all of his men located on the bank of the river.

Stone was slowly swallowing up their bodies and rendering them into motionless scaly statues.

Just as Abaddon is all-powerful in his divine realm, other Primordials are in theirs as well.

Here, Gaia is no less powerful than the creator. She is her own cause and effect, and the sole writer of her own story.

It wasn\'t hard at all for her to render the Euphrates powerless and a non-factor in this confrontation.

Even though she couldn\'t kill them, she could still fill their esophaguses with dirt in less than a second and make them wish they were dead.

And Abaddon knew it.

"…Release them." He demanded.

"Oh!" Gaia lit up. "So he does speak!"

"I never said that he did not speak, mother.." Crius reminded.

"Oh, right."

It was easy to tell that Abaddon was becoming more and more unstable based on the fluctuations of the air around him. And Bekka had no interest in quelling him.

But the earth mother only seemed more enamored with him at the sight of his agitation.

"Such hostility for me!" Gaia gasped as she placed a hand over her chest. "But how is that fair? I\'ve certainly done less to you than you have to me."

"You repulsive sanctimonious bitch..!" Bekka growled.

"If you do not release my sister and my men right now, then nothing I have ever done before will compare to the harm I will bring upon you." Abaddon promised.

Gaia fell silent.

Abaddon thought his message clear, but against all of his expectations, the goddess cracked her lips into a small smile.

"How very rude of you, mister… but I can forgive that little slight."

"M-Mother?" Crius was bewildered.

"Hush, boy." Gaia held up her hand.

She leaned forward and held her face in her hands innocently as she stared at Abaddon.

There was certainly a bit of lustful attraction in her gaze, but more than that there seemed to be.. admiration?

"You\'ve spun all the realms into quite a tizzy since your resurgence a little while ago. As we\'ve all delved into your origins to find a way to combat you, I admit to finding myself a bit more curious than most. You are the tapestry that I never seem to lose interest in studying."

Bekka\'s anger quickly rose to match Abaddon\'s. Though she wasn\'t very far behind him to begin with…

"You should have learned then that I have no fondness for games or repeating myself." Abaddon snarled. "Let. My. Sister. Go."

Gaia only smiled wider.

"See? That\'s what I admire about you, Tathamet. I sense in you a kindred spirit. One who understands the importance of family bonds."

Gaia vanished from her place beside her son and reappeared beside Kanami.

The stone that had gradually been consuming her stopped just at her collarbone, leaving her head exposed.

"…She truly is very pretty." Gaia admitted. "She even puts that strumpet Aphrodite to shame. You\'ve given up your physical body so I can\'t accurately place it, but I assume there is some resemblance."

She draped her arm around Kanami shoulders as if they were a cute and innocent pair of friends.

Of course, the fiery red-hair tried to bite and burn her, but Gaia just sealed her lips with a gag of mud.

"Do you see? I don\'t want there to be conflict between us. As I said, we are practically family~"

Crius\' jaw dropped.

"M-Mother, this was not the plan that we-"

"Quiet, boy."

Gaia snapped her fingers and soon it was her son who was entirely encased in stone.

The sculpted who chiseled him out on earth deserved their credit, because he looked virtually the same as he did here.

"As I was saying.." Gaia smiled innocently as if nothing had changed at all since their conversation began.

Abaddon wasn\'t surprised by any of this.

Gaia was perhaps one of mythology\'s most famous reoccurring turncoats.

She loved her husband, her children, and her grandchildren until they inevitably disappointed her and she tried to kill them.

Originally, she was supposed to side against Kronos and take Zeus\' side in the war against the titans.

She would then side against Zeus when he felt that the punishment of imprisoning most of her children in Tartarus was too heavy handed. So she \'birthed\' Typhon to kill the King of Olympus.

But since Abaddon had diverted from that timeline, things were now very different, but Gaia was still the same.

"You\'ve killed one of my sons today. And taken another from me long ago." Gaia reminded. "And now, you want to take a lover from me who is very dear to my heart.."

Gaia wiped away a small tear from her eye as if those losses had really hurt her.

"But I can forgive all of that." Gaia paused. "As long as you agree to give me something fair in exchange. An even concession if you will."

Abaddon and Bekka\'s anger went well beyond a boiling point.

Despite sensing that, Gaia continued.

"It\'s really simple I think. If I should lose my lover, I believe I am owed a new one. For the price of the son I birthed, as well as the son I believed I did, is it outlandish of me to ask for replacements to fill the hole in my heart?"

Abaddon and Bekka went deadly silent at the same exact time.

Instead of sensing building animosity from them, Gaia almost felt nothing from them as if they weren\'t even there.

When Abaddon finally spoke, his voice was so low she could barely hear it.

"…You are all the same no matter the path I tread. Whether you are gods or goddesses alike you all have the nerve to act as if you are entitled to me. To whatever you lay your eyes on. And then you have the gall to ask why I want your lives.."

Gaia\'s eyes narrowed.

"I\'m aware you\'re handsome, but you don\'t seem very wise. I\'m offering you a very fair deal you know, but you\'re choosing to be boar headed instead?

I would\'ve thought that little incident a few trillion years ago would have taught you a lesson about picking battles you can\'t win."

All of the sudden, the very waters around Abaddon turned black and thickened until they resembled tar.

"Studying my past will never give you the insight into me that you seek, because I am… so very different from the me who came before."

Before Gai could draw her guard up, she heard the sound of \'something\' breaking.

This sound was immediately followed by a dark gust of wind and Bekka\'s uncharacteristically insane laughter…