First Demonic Dragon

Chapter 1184: Redemption

Gabbrielle knew that she was good at writing emotions. However, sometimes she had difficulty with them in real life.

They were too nonsensical. And that was wonderful when you were writing a story with lots of ups and downs, but it was difficult to manage when it was yourself.

When placed into a situation that meddled with her already short emotional range, she became prone to short-circuiting.

That was what happened to her when she saw her sister’s captor.

By Tathamet standards, trying to end the world was a far inferior crime compared to harming a hair on one of the children.

The grandson of Baba Yaga would likely never have even slipped into their radar otherwise. It felt like rogue magic-users try to end the world every four seconds.

But as Gabbrielle was faced with this man whom she so clearly despised, she was reminded of her sister’s feelings on the matter.

She had offered her forgiveness to someone who, by all accounts, did not deserve it.

And yet, Thea wasn’t the kind of person to think about things like that. She offered redemption and forgiveness to all who wanted it.

Gabbrielle knew that her sister would have been sad if she were to see the fate that had befallen the boy.

Being rendered a watcher was one of creation’s harshest punishments for a crime.

The soul is stripped bare and pulled from the cycle of reincarnation.

Watchers don’t even get to remember their own names, their pasts, or their faces.

They are stripped of the desire to do anything but watch. It is their only function, and thus, they hang on to the responsibility with everything they have.

Gabbrielle did not envy them.

The last shred of ’purpose’ they possessed had seemingly evaporated before their eyes, and now they were but husks.

Gabbrielle knew they were probably going to be put down.

With Yesh no longer in a position to manage them, and Asherah absent from the world, it was highly likely that the gods would petition Zheng to exterminate the strigori for everything that had transpired.

’Clearly, they can’t control themselves.’ They would say.

’They went crazy and started abducting us out of nowhere. We’re not safe with them around.’

No one would remember that it was Yog-Sothoth who seized the vulnerable minds of the watchers. All of the blame for the crimes committed would inevitably fall upon their shoulders.

The watchers were always an uncomfortable race for the divines to discuss.

Creating a slave race out of the worst of mortality always seemed like a very heavy-handed punishment for someone like Yesh.

The watchers’ eerie appearances and silent demeanor also didn’t do much to make them popular.

Zheng was Judicator, and his role was to keep the gods in check, but if they ever genuinely felt that their safety was in jeopardy from an outside force, it was his responsibility to neutralize that threat.

Gabbrielle folded her little arms, holding her notebook tight across her chest.

Impatiently, she began to pace back and forth in the cargo hold.

“Umm… What are you doing here, little girl?”

Gabbrielle paused and looked towards the doorway, where a member of the order seemed justifiably stunned to see her.

“You’re not the director’s, are you? Y-You shouldn’t be here with-”

The man couldn’t say if he had hallucinated or if he was still hungover.

But the child on the bridge was suddenly replaced with a strikingly beautiful adult woman who looked even older than him.

Her glowing white eyes pierced through him like the sharpest blade.

The young man swallowed and took a cautious step back.

“Oh, you’re… one of his. My mistake, ma’am… b-but this is a restricted area.”

Gabbrrielle rolled her eyes and went back to staring at the sea of watchers.

After staring at them for a while, Gabbrielle unfolded her hands, and a small white hole appeared above her skin.

Right before the young man’s eyes, all of the watchers in holding were sucked in one after the other and disappeared from sight.

“That… they… you…”

Gabbrielle closed her hand and returned to her child-sized form.

Lifting off her feet, Gabbrielle floated towards the nearest wall and phased through the impenetrable metal.

It took a while for the stunned man to realize that he should have done something.

He reached inside his coat pocket for his communicator and brought it up to his mouth.

“Containment team to Commander… t-there was a little girl a-and she kind of just… I dunno what she did, but she stole all of the watchers!”

It wasn’t a full five seconds before the communicator beeped and Fiona’s voice came out on the other side.

“Little girl? What little girl??”

“T-The dragon’s kid, the one with white hair who can change her age!”

“Oh, stanka-butt? She’s harmless, don’t mind her.”

“I…What?”

“Did you see her cheeks? They were big, weren’t they? She’s such a little cutie patootie.”

The young man slowly put his communicator down and stared into space with a dejected look.

He wondered very seriously if this place was as serious as it said on the hiring pamphlet, or if it was all one big fever dream.

–

Gabbrielle went back to the mess hall where her parents were still talking.

When they saw her approaching, they stopped their chat and smiled at her sweetly.

“Have fun exploring?” Lailah kneeled.

“Mm.” Gabbrielle nodded. “I have gained much inspiration.”

“Oh, for your next novel? I am excited to read it, dear.”

Many authors would have had serious qualms about their parents reading the smut they wrote.

Gabbrielle wasn’t one of those children.

“I am returning home to begin my work on it right now. I hope it will make you proud.”

“What a silly thing to say. We’re already as proud of you as we could be.” Abaddon ruffled her hair.

Gabbrielle smiled curtly. There was something new in her eyes that piqued Abaddon’s interest.

But before he could ask about it, his daughter opened up her own portal and returned home, only looking back to wave goodbye.

When she left, Abaddon and Lailah stared at the space where she’d disappeared for quite a long time.

“Did she seem… up to something to you?”

“For a moment, but… I think she’s just excited to go home and write more porn. She must be pretty inspired. Maybe her next work will have an outer space theme.” Laialh shrugged.

Abaddon thought his wife’s hypothesis made more sense.

After all, Gabbrielle was one of their good children.

What could she have possibly gotten up to on this boring old spaceship?

“Now, aback to you, Mister.. I thought we told you to stay in bed.”

Abaddon swallowed. “Uh..”

Seeing the way her husband was behaving, and what he was about to do when she arrived, Lialah was only becoming more upset.

She unconsciously clenched her hands as she stared at him with eyes like bowls of honey. “I need to know… does the reason you’re so insistent on coming back here have anything to do with her?”

Abaddonn couldn’t believe Lailah was actually on the verge of crying over this.

“No! Why would you think that??”

His wife folded her arms across her chest and looked away.

“I just… can’t help but feel you’re more motivated to do the right thing than usual.”

Abaddon gently tilted Laialh’s chin back towards him. “My love… do you truly think I would betray you in that way?”

“Well… no.” Lailah murmured stubbornly. “But she is-”

Abaddon released a beam from his forehead and zapped Demeter from across the room.

The fog instantly lifted from her eyes, and she seemed to become alert once again.

Before she could turn around to face Abaddon, he held out his hand, and a pink shroud hovered over her head.

Abaddon looked back towards Lailah, pleased with himself.

“There. She no longer harbors an attraction towards me. Do you feel better?”

Lailah stared at her husband with a perplexed expression.

Demeter’s attraction to him wasn’t the problem. (It was still a problem, it just wasn’t the main one.)

Demeter was in love with Abaddon beyond his physical vessel. It was the reason why even Eris was irritated at her millennia-long simping.

Abaddon could take away her physical attraction to him, but everything else would stay unless interfered with by a god of love, or all of her memories surrounding him were removed.

Or, of course, she died. Lailah was fine with either of the three.

But her husband’s attempt to appease her had, in some small part, helped to dampen her irritation a bit. Her mind was no longer belting out visuals of the worst-case scenario.

She brought a hand to his cheek tenderly. “When are you going to realize just how desirable you really are…?”

Abaddon rolled his eyes. “Believe me, I’m quite aware of-”

“I’m not talking about this.” Lailah squeezed his cheek hard before she moved her hand to his chest. “I’m talking about this.”

The look in Abaddon’s eyes indicated that he didn’t understand. Something that made Lailah sigh a bit.

“My big, loveable boo-boo-bear. You are nothing if not oblivious.”