First Demonic Dragon

Chapter 1178: Beware of Unintended Consequences…

“Lailah, get off him!”

“L-Let him explain, first!”

“He’s sick, you’re going to hurt him!”

Lailah seemingly could not hear anything that was said as she shook her husband’s neck like a stripper’s ass on Labor Day Weekend.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ’ATE IT’!? YOU CAN’T JUST EAT BUDDING TIMESTREAMS, YOU GORGEOUS IDIOT!”

Abaddon thought that Lailah was very pretty when she was angry. He did not understand their children’s fear of her.

While being shaken, Abaddon leaned forward to plant a small kiss on Lailah’s nose.

The act seemed to short her out somewhat. Her eyes fluttered rapidly as she fought with the two halves of her personality.

Valerie and Lisa acknowledged her current dilemma and lowered her into her husband’s lap, where she maintained her look of deep contemplation.

“Gotta say, I agree with the scary hot dragon lady.” Fiona raised her hand. “You can’t just.. take bites out of universal laws like they’re wedges of cheese.”

Abaddon didn’t know how to tell her that it was more like a pretzel stick that had started growing another pretzel.

“She’s right, you know. Tampering with the timelines like this isn’t just unheard of, it’s potentially dangerous.” Shin shook his head. “We have no idea how time is going to respond when things that should be in place for certain events suddenly aren’t.

The situation is especially perilous with something as prevalent and bothersome as those horrors. The range of things they influenced isn’t exactly small, you know?”

“Mhm.” Abaddon nodded, still a bit delirious.

“…Be honest here. What else did you change?”

Abaddon paused for a minuscule moment before he went back to inhaling Lailah’s hair. “Nothing.”

Shin raised his brow. “All you did was close the door?”

“That took enough out of me. I was already having enough trouble getting around. Didn’t want to make a bad situation worse.”

“No. I guess you wouldn’t. I’m just surprised you had that amount of thoughtfulness for once.”

Abaddon thought that he should have made sure Shin was left in a dumpster as a baby.

“So… what exactly is going to happen now?” Bekka asked everyone in the room.

Everyone gradually looked towards one specific person as if they were the expert.

Lailah was still sitting and stewing to herself, trying to decide if she was more angry with her husband or in love with him. It was a close race.

Lisa shook her gently, and Laialh looked up with an expression that said she hadn’t heard anything that was being talked about.

“…What?”

“We’re gonna die or what?” Bekka asked plainly.

“We can’t anymore.”

“You know what I mean. Is the universe gonna go kaput, and should I visit my favorite cheeseball factory one last time before it does?”

“No…” Lailah sighed. “You don’t need to visit the factory.”

Bekka was going to do it anyway. Between her, Mira, and Ayaana, her supply was running short.

“I don’t think our timeline is going to fully break” Lailah admitted. “Rather, it will try to correct itself, but the ramifications will be…”

“What?”

Lailah’s brow furrowed, making her look deeply troubled. “If changes happen to the timeline, mortals will likely be fine. The problem is gods and immortals.”

“…Meaning?”

“There’s a chance that our minds won’t synchronize with the new timeline’s simple changes since we organically withstand the weathering of time to begin with. Without the burst of energy from a universal reset, we may not be updated with memories of what the timeline has implemented.

We could be missing whole pieces of our past. Or, in the very worst-case scenario, one’s mind could be fractured. Unable to differentiate from the lived experiences they might have had.

If their lives didn’t change all that much compared to before, then it’s fine. But those who were the most affected might just turn into empty shells.”

Michael unconsciously brought a hand to his head to make sure that everything was still in place.

In the wake of Laialh’s explanation, the room seemed noticeably tense.

Shin and Fiona looked at each other for several moments, showing the exact same lack of seriousness.

“How you feeling, pops? Got any new memories?”

“No.. not really.”

“Me neither. Sweetness.” Fiona nodded.

“You were both inside your spaceship that was designed to traverse the currents of spacetime at the moment of the correction. If something was going to happen to you, it already would have.”

Lailah’s words brought up a very good point and made everyone remember who they had come here to save.

“Where are the gods?”

–

The mess hall inside of the Order’s ship was even more crowded than usual today.

Around 1,500 deities of every pantheon were being accommodated by the lower-ranking members of the order.

It was an easy job. It wasn’t as if the gods wanted much.

Most of them held their heads in their hands and sat by themselves as they wrestled with crippling headaches.

Some were a bit better and showed fewer, if any, signs of detriment. For those deities, the order gave them food, drink, and tended to any wounds they might have.

For the most part, injuries were few. But some gods did have flesh wounds from where the watchers dug their claws into their skin.

Ganymede was one such a deity. The seemingly young god was having his stomach bandaged by an older man while he consistently rubbed his temple.

“You look unwell, young man.”

With some difficulty, Ganymede looked up.

Abaddon’s figure, clad in his thick fur cloak and long skirt, was every bit as regal as the day they’d first met. But there were many things about him that Ganymede considered deceptive.

“…You look just as weary, my lord. I was not even aware that you were capable of sweating.”

“Only when I am trying to elicit sympathy.” Abaddon lied with a smile.

Ganymede laughed halfheartedly and immediately paid for the experience. He brought a hand to his head once more and winced.

A pang of guilt showed up in Abaddon’s gaze. And then, a moment later, he developed his own splitting headache.

Abaddon felt his vision shift. When he looked at Ganymede, he could see two ethereal versions of him screaming on opposing sides of his head. They looked like they were in agony.

The dragon blinked several times, and his vision returned to normal, but his body tensed up. Goosebumps ran along his flawless brown skin.

He felt like a child with it’s first taste of coffee. He had to do something, anything to burn this energy off.

Abaddon knew this sensation well. He decided to close his eyes and allow his body to take over.

“Young man. Please remove your hand.” Abaddon said gently.

Ganymede, with great difficulty, lowered his head as Abaddon had requested. His eyes were filled with discomfort and had become slightly glossy.

“…”

Abaddon opened his third eye.

It’s white, iridescent hue was as mystifying as it was profound.

A simple beam left Abaddon’s forehead and struck Ganymede in the forehead with the force of a hard slap. The god’s head snapped back, toward the ceiling.

“ABADDON!” His wives yelled!

Six different fists hit him all at once. Followed almost immediately by the remaining six.

“What’d you do that for!? This sweet baby is already-”

Ganymede abruptly turned his head back towards them.

When he blinked at the group with wide, innocent eyes, the wives immediately stopped harassing their husband.

“Is this… a spaceship?”

Lisa slowly kneeled in front of the handsome god with a concerned look in her eye. “Ganymede… are you alright?”

“Fine, my lady. My headache seems to have subsided.”

“But you don’t know what this place is or how you got here?”

“I was not of the mind to ask questions before…” Ganymede rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “B-But I know that these people saved me! Thank you!” He bowed.

When he lifted his head again, the god had a very large and innocent smile.

Deviant fantasies began running through Fiona’s mind, but she stuffed them down.

*A-Ahem!* “N-No problem. We’re just… doing what we can to help. That is the order’s sole mission.”

Abaddon’s wives looked towards him, dumbfounded.

Underneath their scrutinized gazes, Abaddon smiled wearily as he wiped a line of sweat from his brow.

“Before you ask… I have absolutely no idea.”

–

Back at home, Kanami and Hakon were doing something they didn’t get to do much of. Lazing about.

Their idea of lazing about was of course, exercise.

Side by side, Kanami and Hakon were on separate bench presses, lifting a barbell with the weight of a planet.

“500,551! 500, 552! 500,553-”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Hakon paused. “You jumped. You were at 400,849 just a second ago.”

Kanami turned and smiled at him devilishly.

“My dear husband. You wouldn’t be calling your wife a liar, would you?”

“I would never. Untruthful is much less harsh a term.”

“Shut up!” Kanami laughed.

She reracked her weights at the same time as her husband, and the two of them sat up on their benches.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other, their bodies slick with a layer of sweat and in decidedly tight clothing.

One had scarcely ever seen a couple so in love.

“This is nice.” Hakon said with a small smile.

“I can think of some ways to make it nicer.”

The demon’s ears became hot. “W-Well, if you want to call. it a day, then we can-”

“Whoops. I was being untruthful.”

Kanami laughed at her husband’s sour expression.

Leaning forward, she held out her arms and prepared to give him an apologetic kiss when the door opened.

Both dragons frowned at having their moment cut short, but they frowned even more deeply when they saw someone standing in the doorway whom they didn’t recognize.

“Hey, Mom, can I borrow your sword? I wanna use it in the colosseum.”

Kanami’s expression changed from frustration to bewilderment. “…What?”

“I promise I won’t lose it or anything, I just want to prove a point to some dickbag who thinks he’s hot shit!”

The new character turned to Hakon.

“Help me out here, Dad! Tell Mom that sometimes a man has to do what he has to do!”