First Demonic Dragon

Chapter 1060: The Simplest Step

What am I doing…?

Inside of his mind, Abaddon was beside himself.

In stark contrast with his current dramatic and violent actions, his inner consciousness was lost. Disconnected.

Abaddon has always been a staggeringly human deity despite his ’true’ face.

Unimaginable divine power aside, he has his imperfections. Anger and impulsiveness can be blamed for every bad decision he has ever made.

Abaddon knew that about himself. He tried hard to keep himself from repeating mistakes and falling into bad habits.

More than anyone else, he was supposed to be better. He wanted to be.

It was the only way he knew to prove that the affection and trust his family placed in him wasn’t a mistake.

He thrived on connection. It was his lifeblood.

His family was the focal point behind his every decision. Their needs had always come first to him.

The children were the biggest recipients of this. Most specifically, Thrudd.

Even though Abaddon did not have favorites, he was always quite conscious of his second daughter’s life since he had effectively ripped her from the parent she was destined to have.

That meant he had to go above and beyond for her.

It wasn’t a mindset wholly born out of a sense of obligation. To know Thrudd was to love her.

She had a big personality matched with an even bigger smile. From the moment that she started learning how to talk, she was a delight. He wanted to make her happy whenever the opportunity arose.

For the longest, Abaddon was able to forget that Thrudd wasn’t supposed to be his child. Nothing with her ever felt foreign or out of place.

But there were some times when he truly wondered. Would Thrudd have been happier if she had lived with her destined father?

What’s more, if an opportunity ever arose where Thrudd had to make a choice between him and Thor, which would she choose?

Perhaps that ponderance was what fueled Abaddon’s current actions.

His soul had been tainted with desperation.

He didn’t want to leave the chance with Thrudd anymore.

He couldn’t allow even a slim chance that he might lose the daughter he had spent 8000 years raising and caring for.

And the only way he could think of to avoid that outcome with one hundred percent certainty was if there was no more Thor to begin with.

Abaddon’s psyche and physical body were split down the middle.

In his hand, he held King Thor between his fingers. Just by applying a bit of pressure, he crushed the man like a grape. What was left seemed like no more than a crude paste.

As quickly as he massacred Thor, he discarded him and turned his attention towards his other alternates.

He roared fiercely at them; the mere soundwaves killing millions on it’s own. The battle picked up once again as he lashed out at them on instinct.

But inside of his mind, Abaddon was not fierce, he wasn’t monstrous, and he wasn’t a killer.

He was a tired man. Wrestling with the weight of not only his paranoia, but also a compounding resentment for himself.

Abaddon was surrounded by several faces he knew all too well. His own.

Each one yelled at him at the top of their lungs for him to keep moving. To get up and finish what had to be done.

There was only a single shred of himself that recognized his actions weren’t right.

Regardless of Abaddon’s personal feelings on Thor, the man was a crucial figure.

In worlds where he wasn’t present or was defeated, the fate of Earth becomes significantly more perilous.

With that in mind, Abaddon had to ask himself- wasn’t his vengeance already through?

Did he truly need to drag all of creation into his vendetta, just so that he could feel a bit more secure in his relationship with his daughter?

Would it be worth the loss of life that would certainly ensue?

And most importantly of all: this something that Thrudd would want him to do?

Would it horrify her to know what he had done? The lengths he was willing to go for her?

The angry reflections of himself certainly seemed to think it inconsequential. She would never find out. And even if she did, all of this was for her sake. Because he loved her.

The reflections practically tore their hair out screaming at him to get up and finish the job. Their voices were like bombs going off in his mind one after the other.

He hadn’t seen what started it, but flames had begun to spread along the ground where he sat.

The fire licked at his face angrily as if it too were demanding he take some form of action. Complacency was irksome to it. Contemplation even more so.

With seemingly everything against him, including his own mind, Abaddon was ready to let go and just let his instincts take over.

“Quite a sorry sight we’ve found ourselves in…”

Through the flame, Abaddon looked up at himself. Or at least, another face that he used to have.

It took him a while to realize that he wasn’t staring at himself at all.

Or at least not totally.

“We can get out of this you know. The simplest path forward is often the one we consider last. We just need to take that step forward.”

Oblivion looked around at all of the other voices in Abaddon’s mind who were still screaming their heads off.

“Though I guess that’s pretty hard to do when you got all this going on… no biggie though.”

A set of tinted windows formed around Abaddon’s main personality as a protective shield.

Once he was isolated, the reassuring sound of silence returned to him.

It had never seemed so sweet before.

“Want to try things differently now?”

Abaddon nodded.

And for the first time since arriving here, his body responded in kind.

–

Sif and Seras were about to forcefully enter Abaddon’s pocket realm when Gabbrielle suddenly patted her tummy and made a perplexed expression.

“Oh. He put them back.”

For the wives who were ready to knock heads with their husband, Gabbrielle’s revelation had seriously thrown their momentum off track.

“…What?” She shrugged.

“Are you sure you weren’t just experiencing an upset stomach before bed?” Sif questioned.

Gabbrielle seemed offended by the question. “What kind of child do you take me for?”

She stamped her foot and her light-up slippers produced a miniature star shower.

Fiona was absolutely, 100% certain that if she ever saw anything cuter, she would fall over dead.

At that moment, another hole opened up in the sky and a single man came through. Albeit a far younger-looking one than they remembered.

When they saw him, the girls’ mouths collectively fell open.

Fiona elbowed Thrudd hard. “You had another brother and you didn’t tell me anything??” She hissed.

Thrudd elbowed her back. “T-That’s my dad, butt-munch..!”

Fiona watched young Abaddon embrace both of his wives who were equally stunned by his appearance.

From the babyish face to the twin colored eyes, he looked exactly as they remembered him.

Fiona almost fell to her knees.

“I may be young, but I’m readyyy~ to giveee you all my lovee-”

A bulky arm wrapped around her throat to prevent her from singing further. Thrudd debated on applying just a modicum more force and crushing her neck for good.

Instead of killing the friend she would undoubtedly come to rely on later, she settled for giving her the noogie of a lifetime and ruining her formerly perfect hair.

Fiona of course objected strenuously to this treatment, but without a modicum of dragon strength, there was very little that she could do about it.

“Thrudd.”

The fierce bullying only stopped when Thrudd heard her father call for her. His voice was light and youthful in a way she hadn’t heard in years.

She had many things she wanted to say to him in that moment. But all of them seemed to get pushed back into the recesses of her mind.

“Yeah..?”

Abaddon looked down at Fiona with a small amount of pity in his eyes.

“If you’ll stop bullying your friend for a moment… there’s somewhere I’d like you to go with me.”