"...Mine are better."
"They're nice, but I think I've got you beat."
"You shouldn't even have any! Your diet is comprised of 90% beer!"
"Someone sounds jealous."
"And if I am!?"
"Wanna touch em?"
"A little bit!!"
In the training room, Valerie and Bekka were embroiled in a very intense contest.
Comparing which of the two of them had the best abs.
As for why the two of them were having this silly contest, neither of them could really say.
The two of them were just staring at each other a bit too hard in the bath this morning and now here they were, having this intense and entirely unnecessary debate.
"Argh! This isn't going to work! We need a neutral third party."
The girls seemingly had the same exact thought at once and closed their eyes to contact the rest of the wives telepathically.
'Girls, between Bekka and I, who has the best abs?' Valerie asked.
'And don't lie!'
It only took a few seconds for the two of them to receive an answer, but it wasn't what either of them were expecting.
Lailah: 'Seras.'
Eris: 'Well Seras is actually...'
Audrina: 'Seras has you both beat.'
Lisa: 'Why are you even having this debate?'
Lillian: 'I think the both of you have very lovely bodies and there is no need for contest between you!'
Needless to say, the two of them were rather unsatisfied with those answers and twin veins began to bulge in their foreheads.
'We said between the two of us!'
'You bunch of bitches!'
Valerie and Bekka opened their eyes and glanced at a nearby wall out of the corner of her eye.
There, Seras could be seen sharpening her spear with a shit eating grin on her face.
The girls dropped their gazes down just a little bit further and found her infuriatingly perfect eight pack that was on full display.
Neither of them wanted to admit her superiority, so they turned towards each other and did the only logical thing they could.
"I like yours better."
"I like yours better too!"
Seras rolled her eyes as she watched the girls hug and make up over their mutual dislike of her body.
"Why don't we wait until husband comes home and then we can have him..."
Like a bomb had gone off, all three women suddenly clutched their heads and doubled over.
Their minds were practically flooded with so much raw, unfiltered hate that it nearly made them nauseous.
And almost on cue, a the ground underneath their feet began to tremble intensely.
"I have never... felt him be this angry before..." Valerie said shakily.
"How can he have this in his mind, I-It's like poison..."
"I-I can't even begin to read his memories through all of this..."
The girls were the only ones home at the moment, but they could only assume that out in the city the rest of the wives were having similar experiences.
Bekka started trying to form a string of coherent thoughts but it was difficult.
Abaddon's rage was nauseating, infectious, and so dark that it left even her with a gnawing sense of dread.
It took longer than she would have liked to admit, but eventually she was able to string out a message that she hoped would reach him.
'Husband, I need you to come home now, alright...? You've got the girls and I a bit worried...'
Bekka wasn't even certain if Abaddon could hear her, but she prayed with everything she had that he could.
Whether her prayers worked or not none could say, but eventually the ground ceased it's rumbling.
The anger she felt was lessened, but it was only comparable to a few drops of water on an open fire.
Thirty seconds later, an starry black portal opened up in front of her.
Abaddon emerged from it, his entire body soaking wet from the boiling salt water.
None of the girls could see his eyes that were hidden behind a veil of white hair, but that did not prohibit them from feeling his burning gaze.
Bekka wasted no time in running to his side and she placed a reassuring hand on his chest.
"Husband... I need you to tell me what's wrong."
She reached for his face and finally pushed aside his soaking wet hair.
Her husband's eyes were unlike any way that she had ever seen them.
They were undoubtedly smoldering with rage, but there was also another emotion that she wasn't expecting to see present.
Frustration.
"My love... am I cursed..?" Abaddon asked.
"What? Why would you be cursed, husband?"
By now, Valerie and Seras had also started to approach their husband, equally as concerned as Bekka was.
"Why does it seem like the heavens themselves conspire against me? I am sent test after test endlessly, with each more daunting than the last.
Who are they that I should have to prove anything to them?! WHO ARE THEY TO INTERFERE IN MY LIFE??"
None of the girls seemed to be frightened by Abaddon's outburst, just hurt by the the frustration that dripped from his words.
"It feels as though I am cursed by forces above and below to suffer tribulation after tribulation. If I have been infected, then so too are all of you and I have none but myself to blame!"
The revelation of his last three conditions had fractured his mind.
Even if he overlooked the first two, the final one had been too much.
If he had to simply shoulder all of the world's challenges on himself then things would have been different.
But now the safety and lives of his innocent people had been directly threatened.
He was supposed to be their leader and greatest defender, and now he had inadvertently dragged them into his own fucking mess.
"...So what if you're cursed?"
Bekka used her fluffy tail to wipe away the water on Abaddon's body.
"We have already taken our vows of for better or worse, my love. That means that your burdens our our burdens and your curses are ours as well. As such, we will help you overcome them.
You feel weighed down by these challenges because those that sit above us are doing everything that they can to keep you from reclaiming the destiny that was meant for you, but they will fail in the end."
Grabbing him gently, she pulled their faces together and pressed her forehead against his.
"I don't know what's gotten you so spooked, but you should know that it matters little in the end. Our family's victory always has been and always will be inevitable.
And all of the beings who cursed us and tried to deprive us of what was rightfully ours will meet the same horrible fate.
Remember these feelings, my love. Hold tightly to this frustration. So that when the time comes for our retribution, you might pay it back a thousand fold."
Just like Lailah, Bekka had watched Abaddon grow and change from the very beginning.
Ever since that day he woke up transformed a year ago, she had watched him grow by leaps and bounds without ever complaining once.
He was a model son.
The most loving father.
And the most perfect husband that she and the girls could ever ask for.
But even he got frustrated and downtrodden sometimes.
And in those moments, she would always run to save him from himself, just as he would have done for her.
Unlike Lailah who was more poetic and wise with her words, Bekka operated more on the fly and simply said what she believed that he needed to hear.
And just as she hoped, they actually took root.
Abaddon felt something strange occurring within himself.
The anger that was spilling from his every pore was now flowing back into his body, and he did exactly as his wife instructed.
He took all of the negativity that he felt and stuffed it into a dark door in the recesses of his mind, to be opened only at the appointed time.
The girls could see his shoulders lose their tension and his demeanor became much less intimidating.
A small smile formed on his lips as he smiled warmly at the woman who once again seemed to know him better than he knew himself.
"My Bekka... how lost I would be without you."
"That's a silly thing to say, don't you think? You may not be giving yourself enough credit, husband."
BANG!
The doors to the training hall were suddenly kicked open, and Abaddon's remaining five wives came spilling in to the room.
"What happened??"
"Darling, what's the matter?"
"Are we going back to war?"
"Sweetie, why are you all wet?"
Abaddon scratched his cheek in embarrassment.
Seems when he blew up he'd inadvertently scared the girls a fair bit more than he had realized.
Even now, they were checking his body for wounds or abrasions of any kind as they showered him with cute concerned faces.
"Sorry to scare you girls so much. I was just having a bit of a tantrum I suppose."
He took a moment to fill the girls in on what he'd learned about his new conditions, and they could easily tell why he was so upset.
But they appeared to have missed his big blow up, because by now he was perfectly fine.
He had a firm hand on Bekka's butt and his signature charismatic smile, and it was hard to tell that anything had happened at all.
Suddenly, he recalled a question that he'd formulated earlier and realized that the person that he wanted to ask was now here.
"Audrina, my love."
"Hm?"
"What can you tell me about spirits?"
-
Erica Vermillion pulled herself out of the bath and grabbed a towel that was resting nearby.
The last thing that she had expected for today was for an earthquake to interrupt her bath time in the middle of the night no less.
It was so violent and unnatural that for a moment she thought the dragon king might have gone on a rampage again.
She dried off entirely before wrapping her hair in the towel and exiting her bathroom.
However, she was nearly shocked out of her senses when she found an intruder waiting for her in her room.
Abaddon was sitting on her bed cross legged, absentmindedly flipping through some book with a tired expression on his face.
"Do you know what it means to enter a woman's private chambers at this time of night?" Erica's tone was more hopeful than annoyed.
It was as if she had already imagined this scenario a great number of times before.
"It means that I have something to talk to you about that can't wait."
Erica's excitement deflated like a balloon and her face changed into a scowl.
"A naked woman in front of you and your only thoughts are on business?"
Abaddon finally looked up from his book to analyze Erica more closely.
She did indeed have a great slim figure, with perky breasts and a body that was completely shaven.
A pity she did not know Abaddon's fetishes.
"Yes."
"I hate you."
"I will live with that unfortunate reality."
Erica rolled her eyes and instead came to sit beside Abaddon on the bed. "Fine, what do you want?"
"I just have a simple question."
Her returned to reading his book as if he were just so enthralled that he could not bear to put it down.
"Your friend Cypress. Will he tell me everything he knows about spirits of his own volition or should I first burn down his home to loosen his tongue?"
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