First Demonic Dragon

Zahara hummed a soft little tune to herself as she floated toward the ground.

As soon as she touched it, an entire legion of shadowy, horrific creatures kneeled before her.

The goddess gushed in response. “Aww… Your daddy sure does make some adorable little babies, doesn’t he?”

Belloc eyed the thousands of inky black creatures. More than half of them were comprised of dark tentacles with beady black eyes. Some seemed to drool permanently as they revealed needle-like teeth.

“…Uh-huh. Adorable.”

Zahara was seemingly as bubbly as ever as she floated up to one of Abaddon’s creations to pet it. “Hello there, my baby!! What’s your name, huh?”

Satan and Belloc nearly fell over when they watched the creature use one of it’s facial tentacles to hand her a bundle of flowers.

“Aww, you’re just a sweetheart, aren’t you?? Thank you, darling.” Zahara kissed the eldritch creature, and Belloc could swear he saw it blush.

“…You know, I don’t get how you guys could possibly find these things cute.” The prince grimaced.

Zahara rolled her eyes. “That’s because you don’t have the link, my dear boy.”

Satan looked and Belloc incredulously before dropping his gaze toward the prince’s crotch.

“You don’t have a sausage link? No wonder you act like such a bit-“

Belloc used the tip of his tail to punch through his great uncle’s sternum. Satan coughed up a mouthful of blood before smiling, his thumb raised in approval.

“The link is what some of our children have, but others don’t. The potential to link minds with weaker, unnamed eldritch horrors and control them. Thea, Straga, Gabbrielle, and Bashenga can also make them from their own power, the same way Abaddon and Ayaana can.”

Zahara turned her gaze back to the horror who had given her the flowers.

“I suppose when you have a special connection to these creatures, you see them in a different light. Yesh was correct to be afraid of them and have them sealed away. But when held by the firm hand of a powerful master, the unnamed truly are quite docile. Not to mention adorable.”

There wasn’t a giant abyss creature that heard her words that didn’t blush.

Zahara shrank the flowers she had given until they were small enough for her to put into her hair. Once she was ready, she turned toward the very obvious spatial distortion hanging above a lake.

“Well, we’d best not keep our friends waiting, eh? Let’s go say hello.”

Not bothering to sprout her wings, Zahara kept her hands in her pockets as she leapt clear across the lake. Only when she vanished did Belloc, Satan, and the rest of the horrors follow behind her.

Upon jumping through, the dragons realized that they were somewhere much colder than before.

Thick gusts of snow buffeted their eyes as the dragons attempted to get their bearings on what was formerly Mount Tai.

Satan scanned the area the best he could, but he couldn’t seem to make out a single enemy. There wasn’t even a bunny for him to bite the head off of.

“What the fuck is this… Don’t tell me you lot got my murder boner all raging for nothing!”

“What is it with you and dicks today…” Belloc curled his lip in disgust. “I thought grandpa was the pervert sin, not you.”

“You look here, boy, I-“

Zahara lashed out and grabbed Satan by the jaw without even turning her head in his direction.

“Would you be quiet for two damn seconds… You can still get your hands dirty, since everything you want is right up there.”

The dragon mother pointed to the clouds above their heads. They were unusually thick and dense, so much so that seeing the sky through them was impossible for humans, and unreasonably difficult for dragons.

Belloc was surprised that he hadn’t even noticed them before this moment.

“ALRIGHTTTT!!!” Satan began stretching with an excited glare.

“Stand back, you bunch of whiny wet diapers! I’m going to ring the doorbell on these stuck-up little pricks!”

Before Satan could do anything dumb, Zahar swiftly chopped him on the back of his head.

“What was that for, you crazy fence-sitter?!”

Zahara’s chop turned into a full-force punch that knocked Satan face-first into the snow.

“It wouldn’t kill you to be quiet for once, you idiot… And to know when something is clearly well above your capabilities.”

Zahara turned her gaze back to the sky, removing her hand from her pocket.

“Forget ringing the doorbell, you couldn’t even knock on the door. And all you’d accomplish is alerting them to the fact that we were here. What we want is for them to panic a little bit.”

Zahara pointed her finger at the clouds, her claw slowly extending like a divine weapon.

At the last moment, she glanced at Belloc.

“Cover your eyes, baby boy. This might just be a little bit bright.”

“…”

Belloc caved to his mother’s suggestion and she turned back to the dense clouds above. Her smile was as deadly sharp as that of a ravenous animal.

“Bang.”

–

The Celestial Court had something of a very harsh reputation. They were not averse to bribery, coercion, or blackmail in an effort to further their own agenda.

Despite their methods, they are often seen as a benevolent body on the side of lawful good.

They are a lot like the Egyptian pantheon in that they do very little because they are plagued by needless debates that seem to go on for an eternity.

“You waste resources by staying here!”

Atop the clouds, inside a colossal Chinese palace, an entire governing body was holding a debate with two warriors of great renown.

One was the famously juvenile monkey king of Stone Mountain. His permanently annoyed expression had somehow become commonplace; however, his picking his nose in the middle of the court was something entirely new.

Beside him, there was a man in a white gi jacket and traditional armor on his legs and feet. His hands were bound in simple wrappings that he meddled with as if they were his greatest fascination.

“Until some of the other scouting forces have returned with information that proves actionable, I see absolutely no reason why I should leave my post. Our enemies are formidable. I stand as the best defense against the fallen one, as well as the dark dragons.”

Outside of his disguise, Wukong was as glorious as he was iconic. And it seemed his patience was shorter than ever.

“You kid yourself unnecessarily. Lucifer’s siblings would try you to the very fringes of your meager ability. What good would your bow do against the gusts made by the Fallen One’s wings? How well would your spear serve when it cannot pierce the scales of the Dark Dragons, or their offspring?”

A shadowy black dog barred its fangs at Wukong. The monkey king removed a particularly large and wet booger from his nostril, only to flick it at the hound.

“You have no place to talk here, stupid monkey.” Erlang snarled. “None here has forgotten that your last confrontation with your old rival ended with your total defeat. He has outgrown your capability to handle, so it’s best you leave another up to the…”

Suddenly, Erlang’s third eye widened, causing his speech to falter.

The warrior god became as pale as a sheet. His voice came out as a panicked roar.

“EVERYONE, SHIELD YOURSE-“

A devastating blast suddenly rocked the entire temple, shaving away more than a third of the entire structure and claiming just as many lives…