First Demonic Dragon

Out of every public service organization underneath Abaddon’s regime, the Wraith Moons are the only one of which the people know frighteningly little about.

How many do they number?

What do their members look like?

How does one even go about joining?

What qualifications are needed?

Where is their base located?

It is rumored that not even the royal family themselves know the answer to these questions, as the Wraith Moons themselves are just that secretive.

But of course, that is not the complete truth.

Abaddon and his wives of course know where they work from, as well as the names of all of the members.

But beyond that… they don’t pay much attention.

This wasn’t done out of negligence mind you, but rather faith.

When Abaddon first met Zheng and took him into his employ, he knew nothing about stealth or assassination tactics or anything close to it.

So as a show of faith, he left everything up to Zheng’s total discretion.

The criteria to be tested, the potential candidates, the methods in which they were trained, it was absolutely all up to him.

And because they were the first organization to have such a massive scale of autonomy, Zheng felt as if he had to work ten times harder to live up to Abaddon’s trust in him.

Officially, the job of the Wraith Moons was to act as high-level S.W.A.T.

They were responsible for the apprehension of the more rough and violent criminals who were to be either swiftly executed or locked away.

But unofficially, their true purpose was espionage and assassination.

This is what Zheng trains them ceaselessly for, all in hopes of the moment where the royal family called on them to fulfill some specific task.

3. Entire. Minutes.

That was the full length of time that it took for Zheng and ten of his very best to gather their belongings, make their preparations, and assemble on top of the roof of Abaddon’s home.

Though they were a bit.. different from usual.

“…What are you lot wearing…?” Abaddon asked exhaustedly.

“It is your birthday, my lord. We would be remiss if we did not do at least this much to celebrate you.” Zheng said seriously.

Abaddon was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that all of his serious, powerful looking assassins had been outfitted with party hats.

He heard the sound of snickering coming from behind him and he glanced over his shoulder at Thea and Bekka, who were giggling as thick as thieves.

Camazotz was a few feet away, looking slightly embarrassed as if he were somehow under dressed.

“Ah… Should Camazotz have a celebratory hat too? Camazotz was not told about this beforehand!”

This of course only served to make Thea and her mother giggle harder.

Abaddon rubbed his temples as he pet the large bat on the head. “No, Camazotz, I assure you, you’re fine.”

“If the master is certain.” The bat shrugged.

Abaddon finally turned back to the ten soldiers who were still wearing party hats.

He held out his finger and created a small black hole just above his claw.

All of the brightly colored party hats were miraculously sucked in and obliterated.

“Aww!”

Abaddon reached behind his back so that he could put both his daughter and wife into respective headlocks and covered their mouths.

“Anyways… I’m sure you all have already been briefed, but I’ll be going over your mission details again. Your assignment is to kidnap the Norse goddess Sif and bring her back here.

Unharmed.” Abaddon emphasized.

“Should you observe her in the vicinity of a large, red headed man carrying an energetic little hammer, you are not cleared to approach.

Absolutely avoid him at all costs no matter what.

Wait for her to be alone, and then you may take her.

Do not expose yourselves rashly, and do not under any circumstances make the change. You are not my agents of destruction on this mission.”

All eleven assassin’s lowered their heads silently to indicate that they had received Abaddon’s orders.

The dragon gave Camazotz a final pat on the head before sending him over to Zeng’s group.

“Camazotz will take you to and from Asgard when you are ready.

Do not leave any of your brethren behind, and make no room for outside variables.

And remember… you all are not Nevi’im. Be cautious with your lives.”

Due to the fact that the Wraith Moons might have to go anywhere, at any time, Abaddon decided it was best that they not be offered his blood and venom.

After all, assassins have to be on their best 100% of the time, or they end up dead quickly.

“Understood.” Zheng nodded.

Finally, the Wraith Moons sank into Camazotz’ shadow and disappeared from view.

“Camazotz bids master and mistresses farewell!” With a hard flap of his wings, the bat god took off into the sky and shimmered before evaporating into a bloody mist.

As Abaddon watched the creature leave, he admittedly felt a small amount of disappointment in his heart.

‘Look at me… When did I become attached to such an odd little creature?’

–

After being interrupted so many times already, Abaddon basically gave up on going back to sleep.

So instead, he took a bath and got dressed before he carried himself downstairs where he could feel an unnatural amount of presences in his home.

The first thing that he saw was an already drunk Darius who sauntered up to him with a bottle of everclear in hand.

“Eh!! It is the *burp* birthday dragon! Come, drink with your Uncle Darius! We’ll finally get some hair on that chest of yours and make you a real man!”

“I am not drinking grain alcohol you crazy old, dwarf.”

“HEY! I am no longer a dwarf, redhead! And I’ll thank you kindly to remember that!”

Since becoming Nevi’im, Darius had finally reached a peak height of 6’0 and a half.

For humans at least, he was considered a little above average, but since the average height of Nevi’im was 7’0 for men, and 6’9 for women… he still had a ways to go.

…But no one seemed to want to tell the General of the Gold Legion that.

Suddenly, Abaddon noticed that his second favorite alcoholic seemed to be in a bit of a downtrodden mood.

He placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned down so that he was at eye level with the old dragon.

“Darius… Are you alright, my friend?”

At this, the old man smiled wryly as he stared at his bottle.

“You know… I was supposed to be at your birthday that day a year ago.

Your grandfather invited me, but I didn’t… I thought the old bloke and I would get more opportunities to hang out and drink together, so I declined.

I was an ungrateful bastard…”

Darius raised the bottle back up to his lips once again, but Abaddon stopped him just shy of putting it to his lips.

“I promise you, old man. You will have more days to spend with that cranky old dragon soon. You will be making each other sick long past the end of days.”

Darius smiled with all of his golden teeth and gave Abaddon a pat on the shoulder.

“You’re a good lad, Abaddon. Helios would be proud of all that you’ve become.”

For some reason that he didn’t understand, Abaddon felt like those words meant more than any gift he had received today.

Darius finally put the bottle down and went to sit on the sectional sofa beside Entei and fell asleep on him drunkenly.

In a twist that no one could have expected, Yesh pulled out a smartphone and took a photo of the two, much to he and Asherah’s amusement.

As Abaddon laughed to himself, his sisters finally approached him for the first time today.

Since becoming Nevi’im, they had both transformed into peerless beauties; with Kanami bearing deep black skin, and Malenia a shining silver.

And a few days ago, Asmodeus had finally undergone the same ritual with this that Abaddon had once used on Thea and Mira.

Meaning that these were now his real, blood siblings.

Although that connection couldn’t have made them any closer than they already were.

“”Happy birthday, brother!””

“There you two are. I was worried you may have forgotten about me.” Abaddon smiled.

The two embraced him at the same time and Abaddon experienced a rare sisterly warmth.

“And here we thought we were being good sisters.” Malenia said. “We know how much you value your sleep.”

“Next time we need something though we’ll be sure to come into your bedroom and cannonball on top of you like everyone else did.” added Kanami.

“Please don’t. I didn’t want to tell you this but, you’re getting a little heavy, Kanami.”

“YOU MONSTER!”

Kanami did a small hop so that she could headbutt her brother directly in the nose, but he merely laughed it off as he healed from his grievous injury.

“Kidding, kidding! You know you’re just as small as… Hm?”

Suddenly, Abaddon stared off into the middle of space as his mind wandered elsewhere.

“Sorry girls, I’ll be right back.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t leave, I demand a better apology than-“

Like he was never there, Abaddon disappeared in a gust of wind; leaving only a very irate sister and a very carefree one behind.

–

Today, the temples of Tehom were bursting at the seams.

In the midst of preparation for a worldwide festival to celebrate the emperor, dragons were coming in droves to leave offerings for their sovereign.

Since the festival was currently about to get underway, things had mostly already slowed down a bit but a few people continued to trickle inside.

In one particular shrine, a young dragon who couldn’t have been older than seven or eight was trying to find the right place to put his offering.

Ideally, he would have liked to have put it in front of the statue of the emperor, but he had arrived far too late for there to be any room.

As he looked back and forth between spots while trying to decide, he heard a sudden voice speak to him.

“Is that for me, Malphas?”

Turning around, the young boy found a man who was incomparably more cool than the giant statue behind him.

“Emperor Abaddon..!” he realized.

The young boy held out the item in his hand that he’d been carrying gently this whole time.

“Happy birthday..! This is my favorite so I wanted you to have it.”

With cautious hands, Abaddon took the toy from the young boy.

It was a little figurine of the first ever dragon super hero; Astaroth The Black.

Just by looking at it, it would be easy to tell that the toy designer had taken inspiration from a certain lazy red-haired monster.

“You would really give me this…?” Abaddon asked hollowly.

“Yea! My mommiess say that everyone is supposed to get something meaningful on their birthday, I figure that goes double for you!”

Abaddon didn’t know what to say.

This gesture wasn’t really all that grand, but the meaning behind it hit him full force in the chest.

In front of the young dragon who was not even a tenth of his age, he lowered his head gratefully.

“Thank you, Malphas. I will treasure it always.”