In retrospect, Abaddon could hardly blame her for misunderstanding.
Suddenly walking forward while saying 'we need to talk about us' was sure to cause some kind of confusion.
But still, her reaction had caught him more than a little off guard.
"You're more like your father than I thought... I will admit that while I am attracted to you, I have no intention of giving you my heart or my body. "
The dragon blinked several times as he wrestled with the weight of feeling both insulted and amused.
He found it funny that Erica believed that he wanted her hand in marriage but... he also didn't like being compared with his less than sane father.
He wasn't sure which misunderstanding to tackle first.
"Umm, mother... I do not believe that father-in-law was going to ask for your hand in marriage." Claire pointed out.
"Hm?"
Erica looked back and forth between both of her daughters who seemed to be embarrassed for her and her cheeks turned slightly pink.
She looked at Abaddon suspiciously as she tried to hide her own building embarrassment.
"Then you... were not going to ask for my hand?"
"Why would I do that when our children are about to be wed?"
"Dragons typically do not care about normalcy and are only focused on taking what they want. Are you not the same?"
"I like to think that I have more control over my desires than others."
"Does that mean that you desire me but will not act upon it?"
Before Abaddon could respond, Audrina appeared out of thin air behind Erica and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.
"Erica~ If you flirt with my husband again, your maids are going to be picking pieces of you off the wall, do you understand?"
"W-Who is flirting!? I asked a simple question born of only genuine curiosity!"
"Curiosity killed the phoenix you know~"
"That is not how the saying goes, now take your breasts off my back!!"
Abaddon merely shook his head as Audrina continued to harass another of her old friends while also delivering some not so veiled threats.
He prepared to put a stop to her behavior when he felt something invade his body from the side.
Looking down, he found Seras with a clawed finger embedded in his ribs and a cute yet stern pout on her face.
Behind her, the rest of Abaddon's wives looked to be equally pissed off and beautiful.
Abaddon seemed to be unconcerned with his wound that was currently leaking blood and smiled at his wives without the slightest sense of discomfort.
"Something wrong, my loves?"
Bekka: "Are you trying to make us want to kill you?"
Eris: "Because it's working."
Valerie: "You basically just admitted that you desired her."
Lisa: "Are we not enough for you?"
Lailah: "If you try to bed her, we are going to kill her in front of you."
Seras: "We are all that you need, beloved."
Lillian: "We will remind you of that as many times as it takes if that is what you require."
Even though they believed themselves to be intimidating Abaddon, the dragon was actually humored and more than a little aroused.
His interest in Erica was practically nonexistent for several reasons, but perhaps he hadn't made that clear enough.
Although... he was more than a little grateful for the misunderstanding.
Seriously, was there a better sight in existence than this one?
Apophis: "Father, mothers, I do not like the look in your eyes so I feel I must remind you that we are in the company of outsiders."
Thea: "Yea, so can you try to keep your love and insanity for each other in check until we go home..?"
Mira: "Is this one of those times where mommies and daddy go in their room for a few days and we don't see them?"
Gabbrielle: "It would seem so. Perhaps we will acquire another sibling within the near future."
Abaddon and his wives only barely registered the words of their children as they seemingly could not take their eyes off each other.
"You all are making us very uncomfortable." Erica said as she pried Audrina off of her. "Can you state your business with me before you make a mess of each other?"
At the table, Cypress and his wife both looked like they were seeing something that they shouldn't be.
But where Cypress wanted to leave as quickly as possible, Jezebel almost seemed like she wanted to watch.
Abaddon shook his head to free himself of dirty thoughts as he tried to return to a sense of normalcy.
"Right... In addition to bringing your daughters home I've also come to give you notice. Fourteen days from now my armies will march on Renanin, just as we did Apeir."
The silence that followed was deafening in volume.
Everyone who was hearing about this for the first time was completely taken aback and rightfully so.
It seemed like Renanin and Samael were about to join hands in the near future and prosper together, but now Abaddon was claiming that there would be war instead.
"Is this some kind of a fucking joke?!" Erica asked angrily. "If so I find it to be highly unpleasant!"
"This is no joke, Erica." Abaddon said calmly.
The phoenix queen looked back and forth between the man who would be her invader and her two children who were still within the arms of their loved ones.
"I don't understand! Why would you spout off about our children getting married if your only intent was to raze my lands to the ground!?"
"They have nothing to do with this." Abaddon said calmly. "Whether our children fell in love with each other or not, I would still have to take action."
"Why!? What reason could you possibly have for wasting the lives of millions!?"
Abaddon did not answer and instead stared calmly at the irate woman opposite him.
"You bastard! Do you truly think of nothing but conquest and slaughter?!"
Erica began to lose control of herself and she started to produce rainbow colored flames from her fingertips.
She walked up closely to Abaddon as if she were going to burn him and no one around could even think to stop her.
"Contrary to your beliefs, I do not want to do this. If you give me your lands voluntarily, there will be no need for-"
Whoosh!
Erica raised her hand like she was going to slap Abaddon across the face, but before she could even blink Audrina had caught her arm and Seras had pointed a bloody spear at her throat.
"That's enough."
"We aren't going to let you touch him."
"Both of you... GET OFF OF ME!!"
Erica's entire body went up in flames, but neither Seras or Audrina so much as flinched from the heat and they didn't budge an inch.
Audrina's hand didn't even seem to be showing any signs of burning despite being so close.
"Girls, let her go."
"Darling, are you sure you-"
"She's dangerous, husband-"
"It's alright. It isn't as though I wouldn't deserve it."
Both of the girls looked like they were more than a little unwilling to comply, but because Abaddon seemed to be absolutely sure about this they did so anyway.
But Erica was still seething with rage, and her rainbow flames had yet to disperse themselves.
"Why... are you doing this...?"
"I cannot tell you that. But if you want to avoid this unpleasant fate then you need only sign over Renanin to me."
"I would rather die than hand my lands over to you on a silver platter. The hell do you take me for!?"
"I figured." Abaddon said in a rather uncaring tone.
"What is your goal, demon?" A new voice suddenly said.
Abaddon glanced at Cypress out of the corner of his eye and felt his own irritation rising.
"Are going to swallow up all of the lands within our world, satisfied only when you have conquered them all? You are a black hole of carnage that threatens to destroy everything."
Normally, such words would not have gotten to the dragon, but he had already reached his threshold of tolerance for Cypress when he saw him glaring at Eris earlier.
Before anyone saw him move he was right beside the elf once again, his eyes glowing bright enough to light up a dark room.
"I am what circumstances have made me. My every attempt to live my life in peaceful seclusion with my wives and children has been met with one annoying interference after another.
So if I must swallow up the entirety of this world so that we can live happily, I will do it. Now I would suggest you be silent, elf. Or I might set it in mind to burn down your lands next."
There is only so much disrespect that a man can endure before he decides to take action, and Cypress was very quickly reaching his threshold.
Even though he was wary of Abaddon, he wasn't going to let him threaten his lands and people without making his displeasure known.
His eyes started to glow green and a fierce pressure blew throughout the room at the same time that the pressure increased tenfold.
Abaddon felt like he could vaguely see several strange silhouettes behind the elven king, and he nearly raised a brow in surprise.
'Curious indeed...'
"I will save Erica the trouble of dealing with you and expunge you from this world myself!"
"No you won't, Cypress!"
Erica's authoritative voice cut through all of the tension between the two men and the oppressive atmosphere immediately disappeared.
"You want my lands? Fine. I hope you understand that you'll have to kill me for them, Abaddon."
"That's not going to happen." Abaddon waived his hand and another portal opened up in the center of the room.
"I made a promise with my two daughters-in-law. No matter how much you struggle, or how piss poor your attitude becomes, I will not kill you and neither will my wives."
One by one, members of Abaddon's family started walking through the portal and heading home, leaving Erica reeling from yet another shock.
Looking towards her daughters, a look of betrayal could be seen on her face as she grappled with the weight of this revelation.
"You two... you knew he was going to do this...?"
"Mother... he truly does not have a choice." Claire said apologetically.
"We cannot tell you why this is happening at this time but... You should know that he has no impure intentions for our home, and nothing will change." Added Jasmine.
Erica was no longer sure of what to say, but her heart started to break when she watched her two daughters head towards the portal with their loved ones.
"You're choosing him over me...?"
"Of course we aren't! But this conflict... it is truly bigger than us."
"We are going to stay in Antares for the time being...We don't want to make it seem like we are choosing sides."
Claire and Jasmine released their fiancés for a brief moment and ran to hug their mother once again.
But due to Erica's consistent shock, she did not maintain the presence of mind to return their affections and simply stood there motionlessly.
When her daughters released her, they both had tears in their eyes as they ran through the portal, Thea and Apophis following behind them worriedly.
Abaddon took one last glance at Erica before turning his back and walking away as well.
"Erica... we are family now. That means that I will make up for all of this unpleasantness at a later date. Irregardless of what you may require from me."
When the portal finally closed, Erica snapped back to reality as she ran her hands through her fiery red hair.
All of this made practically no sense to her, and she couldn't even begin to understand how or why things had gotten to this point.
However, there was one thing she knew for sure.
"Cypress... I'm requesting an alliance."
The elven king felt his ears perk up a bit as he saw a look of determination on Erica's face that he hadn't seen in centuries.
"The two of us... we are going to kill Abaddon if it requires everything that we have."
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