First Demonic Dragon

“Spare change..?”

“Please, spare change..?”

An orc stopped in the middle of the street when his leg was suddenly grabbed.

He looked down at two haggard old women who were dressed only in burlap bags.

“Disgusting… get off of me!”

The orc ripped his leg away, only to draw it back a moment later and kick the old women hard.

As one was closer to him than the other, she took the brunt of the attack. Her thin bones could be heard breaking under the pressure like stacks of plywood.

The women cried out as they skidded across the dusty street and tumbled against a nearby trash can.

Several onlookers shook their heads at the display, but no one really bothered to help them.

The most that anyone could really be bothered to do was place some coins at their feet out of pity.

The sister who hadn’t been kicked wouldn’t allow for this opportunity to just go to waste.

Many would likely think little of them, but the women hadn’t been able to eat for the last six days now.

They couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity.

The younger sister had nearly succeeded in gathering up all of the coins when a boot suddenly stepped on their last coin.

“H-Hey, that’s ours..!” The old woman looked up.

As she hissed through yellow, cracked teeth, her breath became caught in her throat when she noticed the man staring above her.

He was a daringly handsome individual. His sharp, handsome features were callously unfair when taken into consideration with his sharp sense of dress.

The woman was only mesmerized by his red eyes for half a second before she went back to hissing, albeit much more meekly than before.

“…Please, good sir… My sister and I need that to eat. I need to retrieve it.”

The man’s expression showed glimmers of amusement.

He slowly removed his foot, and the old woman scrambled to pick up the coin before he changed his mind.

“…It really is so sad to see.” The man said in a low voice.

The old woman’s ears perked up.

Her hope rose with the wish that the man’s pity might entitle them to eat a better meal. As unfortunate as it was to say, she and her sister thrived on the sympathy of others.

“It’s not a glamorous existence, but… my sister and I do what we can to get by… We are just grateful to have each other still.”

The man seemed to like what he heard.

“…How touching.”

Internally, the beggar woman’s heart soared.

“So you’re both fine with flunking out of the Ministry of Magic, then? As long as you can sit here and beg for scraps while singing each other fairytales? You are more pathetic than you look. And I didn’t even think that possible.”

The old woman’s face darkened as her sister crawled to her side, holding her broken arm.

“Who…Who are you-“

“Does it matter? I’m someone who knows that you were robbed. Magic itself has turned its back on you. Denied you all that was rightfully yours and forced you into this life of filth and destitution.”

The man took a sniff of the old women and his face soured.

“And now look at you. Too filthy to even sell yourselves. Too hideous to even stomach looking at for long, no different than a public toilet. Are you satisfied with this?”

The older sister shielded her younger sister as she glared up at him. “We don’t need you to make fun of us as if we’re blind. We know these circumstances aren’t worth living, so just speak plain. Unless you have some way to resolve the curse on us then just bugger off.”

For the first time, the young man’s face showed undeniable traces of amusement.

The old women’s faces twisted up in horror as his hand dipped below his belt buckle and he slowly unzipped his pants.

“What are you doing-“

“Didn’t I tell you? Public toilets.”

The older sister took the brunt of the yellow stream as she shielded her sister from such indignity.

“Bastard!”

Lunging out with her sharpened yellow teeth, she attempted to bite off the young man’s member as repayment for the cruel and unusual method of humiliation.

She barely even saw him draw his hand back to smack her hard across the face.

Her body crumpled up as she went down, holding her face. Her younger sister screamed as she pulled her sister back into her embrace.

The man pulled his zipper back up and sighed at himself as if even he couldn’t believe what he’d done.

“Sorry, sorry. I really don’t like to beat on dead horses but it felt particularly important to me to make sure the severity of this instance had been thoroughly enunciated.”

The man looked down at the younger sister as she wept while holding her sister’s shaking body.

He couldn’t help but scoff in disgust.

“Really? Are we crying now? How unsightly. This might actually mean a little more if I didn’t know that you are both prone to soiling yourselves quite easily.”

Neither of the women said anything as they glared up at him like rabid dogs. Tears and other fluids stained their haggard faces as they remained in the dirt.

“Anyway.” He yawned. “Only more of this kind of future awaits you if you choose to stay here. So I believe, as should you, that it is in your best interest to come with me.”

“As if either of us would ever stoop that low.” one of the sisters hissed.

“Oh, so you want to stay here and be peed on then. Wow, she’s certainly done a number on you, hasn’t she? I’m almost envious.”

“She who?”

“I already told you, magic itself has…”

Suddenly, the man turned around and stared into the cloudy sky overhead.

His eyes suddenly widened as he watched a titanically large figure burst through the clouds and started flying towards him.

“What in the nine hells is that..?” He muttered.

“What is what, bastard?” The younger sister hissed.

The man briefly looked back and forth between the thing in the sky and the women on the ground in front of him.

“You can’t see it? No, why would you be able to as meager as you are… Fuck.”

The man reached inside of his back pocket and pulled out a shining bejeweled key.

He stuck it into the space in front of him and turned it as if it were a lock. Somehow opening the door to somewhere very far away.

“Right then… time to go now, kiddies.”

He grabbed both girls roughly by the hair, despite their instantaneous protests.

He proceeded to drag them through the opening while they both resorted to kicking and screaming.

“And I was having so much fun sightseeing too. This place is really different without dragons.” He sighed.

–

“Are you alright..? You look a little bit pale.”

Izanami blinked several times before she looked up and smiled.

Abaddon and Eris were staring at her, giving her a worried look that made her heart sing internally.

“I’m fine. Just a little foggy-headed, I suppose.”

‘Fog’ was the absolute last thing on Izanami’s mind.

This morning had been an… interesting one.

Izanami wasn’t sure that she was going to make it out of the house with her celibacy still in tact with the way that Lailah and Valerie were acting.

The chances were high that she wouldn’t have if it were not for the fact that Azrael decided to call Abaddon again at the last second.

That was the first time Abaddon had ever seen Valerie swear at an angel, citing his aggravatingly poor timing and lack of consideration for pent-up hardworking women.

Azrael didn’t know what to say, so he just sat there in silence while Abaddon and the others tied up Valerie.

As of now, Abaddon, Eris, and Izanami had just arrived within heaven’s gates. And the death goddess was still thinking about all the casual nudity and dirty talk she had seen this morning.

However, there was a large possibility that thinking about these things was no more than a distraction to take her mind off her surroundings.

This was Izanami’s first time in biblical heaven. True to its rumors, it was a rather daunting place.

Everything about the space just felt pure, and clean. Not to be touched by the unsavory hands of demons, monsters, and dark deities who had gone on few millennia-long murder sprees.

But again, that could have just been her being self-conscious about nothing.

“Are you coming?”

Abaddon held out his hand for Izanami to take. Eris mirrored him.

Izanami formed a wry smile as she stepped down from the back of Gandora.

Izanami glanced up the steps to the spiraling white tower in the distance.

“Are you sure that I should be coming with you to this meeting…?” She suddenly asked.

Eris smiled wryly. “We know it’s not exactly the most ideal environment for a date, but we just wanted to spend a little more time with you today.”

“And maybe even show you off a bit.” Abaddon smiled.

Izanami was finding it hard to be mad at that reasoning. She wanted people to see her with Abaddon and Eris too.

It was the only way he felt she would be able to mark her territory.

“Emperor. Empress.”

Suddenly, several armored dragons descended from the sky. Each of them lowered their heads in front of the royal family respectfully.

“We’ve been anxiously awaiting your arrival. Please, allow us to lead you to them.”