First Demonic Dragon

“How much longer do I have to be in this thing?”

Lailah looked up from the test tube at her desk to find Nyx still sitting inside of an even larger glass enclosure.

The night goddess looked unquestionably bored, despite all of the magazines and cellular devices that were in there with her.

“Just give me a few more hours, Nyx.” Lailah smiled bitterly. “Please…?”

Nyx didn’t find that look to be fair at all.

“I guess this… is a comfortable little pitri dish.” She slowly settled onto her back.

“I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get all sappy on me…” Nyx hid her childlike smile behind a curtain of her hair. “How much have you figured out so far..?”

Lailah sighed again as she turned her head towards the ceiling. “I still can’t figure out why neither you nor L’asir were affected by the petrification. Are you sure you both touched the homunculus during the battle?”

“Yes.” Nyx nodded as she held up her fist. “I gave the ugly piece of shit a good punch like this.” She swung clumsily. “But the thing didn’t do to us what it did to the others.”

Lailah nodded.

She looked at her desk, where she had taken sample swabs of Nyx’s knuckles, her mouth, and even the fabric of her dress.

The analysis results had all come back with inconclusive results. Whatever material Nyx was exposed to was of a similar amount, and it was all minimal. She was exposed to more dust by walking through Mira’s room.

She sighed as she picked up a vial containing a powdery substance. “Maybe I should just switch my study to the sample Audrina gave me…”

Nyx did not miss how sad Audrina’s tone sounded when she mentioned the one member of their brood who was not at home.

“…How is everyone doing?”

Lailah just looked up at her with a ‘How do you think?’ look.

“Sorry, I asked…”

“No, no, it’s just….” Lailah was only a little bit less exhausted than she looked.

She hadn’t left the lab in over a day. Not even to sleep.

She was studying Gandora and L’asir at first, too, but let them go after reading even less of the spore on them than on Nyx. Ganny hadn’t even come into contact with it at all.

Every so often, one of the others would come in to bring her some variation on sugar and dark roast.

Nyx would occasionally try to improve the mood by yelling crude jokes along the lines of ‘give me a show while I’m stuck in here.’

None of them really entertained her perverse jokes. They just kept slipping magazines in here to keep her quiet, like she was at the doctor’s office waiting for a colonoscopy.

On the bright side, she had 35 new ideas to help make her house a home.

“I guess we’re all just dealing with it in our own way. None of us wants to be the first one to break and make the situation even more tense…” Lailah said bitterly. “And I hate it because we’re supposed to be better than that.”

Nyx put her magazine down and tried to show her friend an encouraging smile. “Well… Izanami seemed like she was at least doing a little better when she came by.”

The mention of her did put a smile on Lailah’s face. “Perhaps… maybe being married to all of us hasn’t fully exhausted her yet.”

“Oh, Lailah…”

At that moment, the door slid open and a surprising pair walked in.

Lailah raised her brow at Gabbrielle and her unlikely acquaintance, Shin.

“What might you two be doing here..?”

“We’re here to help.” Gabbrielle returned to her adult form and rolled up her sleeves. “Tell me what you need.”

Lailah tossed her daughter the vial she was holding onto without hesitation.

“Can you get me a chemical analysis on this? I need a full breakdown.”

“Okay.”

Gabbrielle moved right towards a station and started working immediately.

Lailah went back to browsing through the scans on her monitor.

“Ummm… And what about me?”

She looked up with a jolt and realized that Shin was still standing in the doorway, looking meek and shiny like a robotic mouse.

“I’m sorry, what about you…?”

“How can I help…?” Shin felt embarrassed asking a second time.

Lailah looked at her daughter awkwardly.

“…He can be useful, mother.” Gabbrielle insisted. “Just give him a chance.”

Lailah was on the fence about all of this because typically, she only liked working with her daughter in her lab.

She and Gabbrielle were wired in practically the same way. They kept all of their instruments neat and in the preferred order.

“I won’t step on any toes, I just… wanted to lend a hand.” Shin shrugged.

“I thought you didn’t like our family.”

“I don’t like your husband, but that’s a little different.”

Lailah’s gaze sharpened.

“K-K-Kidding, kidding… mostly.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, my kids thought I might be able to lend a hand, so they sent me here with the girl who doesn’t know how to pick a shape.”

Gabbrielle flipped him off without looking up. “I’ll appear as a sixty-year-old man if I want, and no one in this house will bat an eye.”

“I’d be willing to bet you wouldn’t dare. Everyone knows you enjoy your little cute, and cuddly aesthetic.”

Gabbrielle paused for a moment, and it was clear that she was beginning to regret bringing the tin man along.

No one was supposed to say that she liked being called cute, or else it seemed forced! They were just supposed to think she was cute and appreciate her!

“…I wonder how many eons I should run through your body before you break down and decompose.”

Shin wisely turned back to Lailah. “…S-So you need help?”

Nyx was also staring at her; wondering what her friend might say.

“….Fine.” She acquiesced. “Come over here.”

Shin waltzed over with a little bit more pep in his step than normal.

Lailah handed him a stack of papers she had sitting nearby and turned the computer screen towards him.

“I need you to analyze all of this for me and tell me what you think.”

Shin raised a brow in surprise.

“…You haven’t already analyzed these?”

“Yes, three times.” Lailah replied as she pulled down her hair and held her chin in her hands.

“Then…?”

“New eyes yield new perspective. The answer could be staring me right in the face and I’m just too overworked to notice it.”

“Oh, I see…” Shin nodded.

As Lailah requested, he started looking over the papers and documents line by line.

His brain’s enhanced processing speed made the task go by a lot quicker, and after two and a half minutes he was about half-way done.

However, there was something preventing him from getting the job done completely.

“So, uh…. How is the big red monster..?”

Lailah opened one eye. “Thought you didn’t like my husband.”

“I don’t, but I think I have the right to know if I should be expecting any rampages some time soon.”

Lailah rolled her eyes. “You don’t.”

“I don’t need to worry?”

“No. You don’t have the right to know.”

Shin stared at Lailah with a dry gaze.

He didn’t understand why everyone in this house was so unlikeable. They were nothing like Lusamine and her…

“… I think I’m going insane.” Shin sighed.

“Not finding anything either, huh?”

“Y-You could say that…”

At that moment, Gabbrielle came over and brought her mother a document with the information she had asked for.

“Thank you, sweetie.” Lailah kissed her cheek, and Gabbrielle gushed internally. Being appreciated for her cuteness was her favorite, but ability also had it’s advantages.

“Oh, that reminds me.” Gabbrielle suddenly said. “I was thinking, since you’ve been analyzing the samples and everything, have you taken a closer look at the afflicted?”

“Hm?”

A stream of thoughts bubbled into Lailha’s mind all at once.

Like a bomb had gone off, she felt all the stray synapses in her brain connecting.

“…Both of you, I need you to test something… bring me a rat.”

–

Asherah was humming to herself as she walked through the golden flower fields that made up her home.

She was about to return to her cottage when she halted in her tracks and glanced behind her.

“Abaddon. I figured you would be by soon.”

The dragon smiled at her wryly as he lowered his body towards the ground. “Have some time to sit down and talk..?”

Asherah thought she might know what this was about, but sat down anyway. “For you? Always.”

She sat down across from him, and she could tell just how tense he was.

His hands and muscles were twitching every so often. His deep red eyes were dark and deeply unfocused.

“Abaddon. Please, tell me your woes.” Asherah said softly.

Abaddon bit his lip uncomfortably before he finally came clean.

“…I need your permission… to merge the realms into Tehom.”