First Demonic Dragon

Not even five minutes ago, the Queen of the Great Below was pacing around in her quarters.

The source of her worries? The fact that her entire domain had stopped receiving dead souls.

Not only that, but she and her husband were both unable to view anything transpiring on earth, which was highly unusual to say the least.

So, since it was egregiously unlikely that everyone living there had miraculously stopped dying, something else was afoot here.

But how was she to find out?

She, nor any of the underworld deities under her command could leave.

She was stuck.

However, she would never have predicted that the answer to the questions plaguing her would summon her directly to his throne room.

"It's good to see you again. Have you been well?"

Ereshkigal had only met Abaddon once before, so she already knew him to be quite kind and pleasant.

So much so that him summoning her completely out of the blue didn't particularly bother her as much as it usually would have.

"I have indeed. And you, my friend?"

"I'm doing well." Abaddon smiled proudly as he placed his hand on top of Bash's head. "My son has finally been returned to my side and my family is one step closer to becoming whole. I've much to be grateful for."

Suddenly, all of the gears clicked into place in the underworld queen's mind.

"…Tartarus I presume?" She smiled wryly.

Was she surprised that the Greeks had failed to guard him after all of their earlier bluster? No. Not at all.

The child seated with his arms folded finally spoke in a voice that was completely un-baby like.

"You are correct, but you are to refer to me as Bashenga now. Etch my glorious name into your very soul and do not forget it."

Ereshkigal looked back and forth between baby Bash and Abaddon several times.

"…He is still a primordial I'm assuming?"

"His arrogance gave him away, huh?"

"I am afraid it did."

"Yea… We're still working on fixing that."

Abaddon smiled wryly as he pointed at the woman sitting on the other side of his throne.

"This is my baby sister Kanami."

"Yo!" Kanami held up a peace sign.

"Greetings." Ereshkigal bowed slightly. "You two bear quite the resemblance to each other. Your immense beauty is worthy of admiration."

"Aww you!" Kanami held her cheeks as she blushed cutely.

Suddenly, Ereshkigal felt a hand grab her foot.

Looking down, she finally realized that the room was filled with the bodies of multiple gods.

Literally every underworld god from every deathly domain in existence.

And they were ironically, all on death's door.

Tehom is not particularly welcoming to outsiders.

Currently these newcomers were experiencing a combined atmosphere of Aether and Nether that was so unbelievably pure that it was detrimental to their bodies.

Kind of like a human having a potassium overdose.

That is, if a potassium overdose resulted in your internal organs slowing turning into forbidden pudding.

However, Ereshkigal was really only worried about a few above the many.

"A-Abaddon, my family is-"

"Ah, my bad. I just wanted to make a point."

The air within the throne room suddenly changed and the death deities were no longer dying.

Ereshkigal went to help her family stand up immediately.

Her husband, Nergal.

Her son, Namtar.

Her sister, Istar.

And her other son, Ninazu.

Needless to say, they, like everyone else in the room, had questions. Especially since the matriarch seemed to already be acquainted with the first of dragon kind.

"Wife… What is the meaning of this..?" The lion-headed god growled.

"It seems the answer to our questions about our domain has come to us…" she replied.

"That is not what I mean! How do you know of him?! Why do you speak to him with such familiarity?!" He roared with apparent jealousy.

Bash slowly glanced at his father and literally saw the ulcer growing in his brain.

"…Does this sort of thing happen to you frequently-"

"You have no fucking idea."

Being so attractive was indeed not as fun as people on the internet sometimes made it look.

"I-I assure you, it is not that sort of arrangement between us.." Ereshkigal spoke quietly as she tried to quell his anger.

"Your marital nonsense can wait."

The jackal-headed Anubis stepped forward among the crowd.

He stared up at Abaddon unflinchingly and with his head held high.

…For all of two seconds.

Kanami appeared in front of him like a ghost and struck him so hard in the stomach that his spine snapped as he fell over.

"What do you think this is..? How dare you stand so arrogantly in front of my brother after only meeting him for the first time."

Anubis could not currently hear Kanami because he was coping with the fist-shaped dent in his gut.

The fact that nobody had seen her move only added to the tension that was already present in the air.

"…I am fond of my new Aunt." Bashenga suddenly said.

"Aww, thank you!" Kanami beamed with pride at her new nephew.

Rolling his eyes, Abaddon yawned as he addressed the crowd.

"Right then… For those who are unaware, I am Abaddon. And as of this moment, I hold your lives in my hands."

No one liked his sheer callousness or lack of respect for their numbers, but there was fuck all they could do about it.

"I'll keep this really short because I have a pretty full day today. Surrender and you be get to live. Struggle, and I'll have to call the maids in to mop up what you become."

Were this meeting a popularity contest, Abaddon would be seeing criminally low votes right now.

"Laying the whole overlord thing on a bit thick, aren't we?" Ereshkigal asked.

"I figured it would save me some time." Abaddon shrugged.

Truthfully, he didn't care much about any of these gods, or about proving his intentions to them anymore.

If they surrendered, they would see his good intentions for himself so long as they were not inept and blind.

And if they didn't… he could win this war and accomplish everything he wanted without them.

But Ereshkigal was a kind goddess. The loss of life saddened her to such a degree that she wept for even the humans who she sentenced to death.

She turned to the crowd sincerely and placed her hand over her chest as she made a sincere plea.

"I feel as though I must confess something. A short time ago, the Hindu pantheon hosted a meeting in secret and invited but a select few of us.

Our goal was to understand the psyche of the great enemy before us and discover if war was truly an unavoidable outcome.

Our search for answers proved most fruitful. We discovered that the enemy we feared was not only a man of principle, but he was also a very-"

"Foolish woman… He's deceiving you!" Nergal snapped.

"Jesus… I'm tired of this." Abaddon yawned again.

He stood up and placed Bashenga on his shoulders as he stepped down from his throne.

Now that he was standing upright, his monstrous height just added another layer of intimidation to him.

Not that he even needed it anyway…

He walked towards Ereshkigal and placed his hand on her shoulder as he smiled at her appreciatively.

"I'm grateful for your willingness to vouch for me, but I'm afraid that it was unnecessary. Changing minds takes a little more than just words and character witnesses. I'm not unaware of that."

"You bastard, you dare lay your hand on what's mine!" Nergal called a lion-headed mace into his hand.

Abaddon and Bashenga's eyes narrowed in unison.

Abaddon: "…Be very, very sure of what you are about to do next."

Bashenga: "Unless that little toy is about to be an offering to me, I would urge you to put it away before I lose my temper."

Nergal wanted to move forward.

To bash in the skull of the man who was far too close to his wife for comfort.

But he couldn't move.

Nergal was a god of inflicted death and war.

He could feel the oceanic difference in power between them and himself and it was truly staggering.

Nergal had never been cowardly. Not for as long as he had been alive.

He did not fear dying in battle and even considered it to be a glorious end to his legend.

But he was petrified of the excruciating fate that awaited him if he took the plunge.

As such, it barely even registered that Abaddon and Bashenga had already walked past him some time ago.

Like the biblical scene of the Red Sea, the gods slowly parted way for him as he made his way towards the exit.

"If you all decide to stay…"

Abaddon snapped his fingers and small sake cups filled with his blood appeared in front of every god in attendance today.

"If you step outside of this room without drinking, the same death that I spared you before will come to plague you again. Make your decisions accordingly."

Abaddon pushed the doors opened and found Duke already waiting outside in his usual crisp suit.

"We're heading to the meeting hall. Please escort any who decided to drink into the abodes of their respective pantheons.

If they don't have any, show them an open plot of land where they can build something. Can you wait for them to make their decision?"

"Certainly, Young Master. You can leave everything to me." Duke bowed.

Abaddon thanked him for all of his help and exited the hallway while Duke stepped inside.

As the father-son pair were walking down the hallway in silence, Bash finally decided to speak up.

"…I am disappointed that whelp did not try anything further."

"I bet you are, son. I bet you are."