Chapter 442 A Last Effort and A Day Interrupted
Asherah was only barely able to escape from helping with throw up duty before she decided she had been 'partying' for far too long.
The experience was not exactly an unpleasant one, but she had her own home to be getting back to.
She scoured the garden for Abaddon so that she could bid him farewell and simply hoped that she would not walk in on another scene of physical expression of love.
…Just in case, she made lots of noise as she walked so that they would not be able to pretend that they didn't hear her.
In the end, she found Abaddon and two of his wives sleeping underneath a tree, drunk and unresponsive.
Among them, there was a beautiful red haired woman who was lying on top of him, crying hard enough that her whole body was shaking; yet she would allow no sound to spill out.
She wouldn't risk waking the man she loved for anything.
Asherah dropped down to her knees without worry of dirtying her white dress.
"Erica, child… come here."
The phoenix dragon immediately sat up from her place on Abaddon and all of her crying came to a stop.
Once she found the mother goddess sitting behind her and beckoning her over, she dried her face as she lowered her head with reverence.
Back in Dola, Renanin functioned under a matriarchy that was tens of thousands of years old.
From the moment that she was born, Erica had been taught that women were better, smarter, and worth more in the eyes of all because they were modeled after the literal mother goddess herself.
She was already feeling bad about everything that was taking place with Abaddon, but now she felt as if she had disgraced herself irrevocably in front of what was essentially her hero.
"Forgive me, Great Mother… I have shown you such an ugly side of me."
"I do not beckon you to me so that I might judge, or condemn you child. My only wish is to console."
Begrudgingly, Erica crawled towards the outstretched arms of the goddess and allowed her to take her face into her hands.
"Tell me honestly… why do you cry over him?"
"Because I love him." Erica answered without pause. "And I believe that it may be possible that he could love me… but I see no way for us to be together… and it breaks my heart."
Erica's voice cracked on a near constant basis, but Asherah understood her just fine.
She wiped away her tears when they started to fall again, and listened to all of her woes without complaint.
Once Erica was able to pull herself together, she realized that this could have been a golden opportunity.
"Great mother… I ask you in your infinite wisdom… how can I overcome these burdens so that I might be together with him..?"
"Oh, I don't know."
"…What?"
"My partner and I created Abaddon to be a protector… a guardian. And because of that… we failed him and he ended up getting… 'hurt' in the process.
In this life, we have allowed him to develop different values so that he could hopefully have a different outcome. But because of that, we do not know him as we once did.
The one who will know the best way to access his heart, and take a place beside him, is you. Any insight I could give you would be inferior to what you already know. "
Those words should have made Erica feel a lot better, but they only filled her with more grief.
So far, all that she had done was try and fail to close the distance between them, and she was growing more and more disheartened with every failed attempt.
"Although… I will give you… just a little bit of hope before I go." Asherah said with minor difficulty.
She was pretty sure that this may have been overstepping her boundaries just a bit, but if it could help not just Abaddon and Erica, but all of his family, then she would meddle just a bit.
"The fact that they are as they are means that there is still room for you… let me tell you a little secret…"
If Erica's eyes would have twinkled any brighter in that moment, they would have made it look like it was daytime.
That night, she was so excited by everything that she had learned from the mother goddess that she couldn't sleep.
When the morning came back around, Audrina slowly opened her eyes and nearly let out a yelp when she found an awake and strangely energetic Erica hovering over her.
"Erica, what the hell?!"
"Good, you're awake. I need you to do me a favor as one of my oldest friends."
"You're remarkably serious for it to be so early… what do you want?"
Erica gingerly helped Audrina sit up from her spot in the bushes where she'd fallen asleep.
"I want you to do the same thing to me that you all did with Tatiana. Please give me an incomplete marking."
Blinking several times, Audrina had to ensure that she had not misheard something due to having a stray leaf in her ear.
"Bitch what?"
-
Abaddon had been hung over before, but this was a bit different.
As he stewed in the bath like a teabag, he felt like his head was going to split open from the inside out.
Even as he pulled himself out of the water and got dressed, he tried to accomplish it with as little energy expenditure as possible.
The bright side was, the area around him was unusually quiet and peaceful.
For the first time in twenty days, he was without the company of his cherished wives.
Each of the girls were out attending to their own little to do list, while also being just as hungover as he was.
'I'll never understand how they have the energy to get up and be productive while going through something like this…'
Abaddon neglected to think about the rather strenuous activities that the girls would endure for days if not weeks at a time, and then have to get up and function normally the next morning.
A little hangover was nothing for them.
Abaddon opened the door to a very specific bedroom and poked his head inside.
When he saw who was staring back at him, a blissful smile spread across his face.
"Bau!"
"Hello, little man. I'm glad to see you're so energetic this morning."
Abaddon felt his weariness being sapped away by the sight of his youngest son waiting in his crib.
Straga was so excited to see his father that he levitated his little body out of bed and carried himself all the way to the top of his head.
"Your moms are a bit busy, so it'll be just the two of us hanging out today. That sound fun?"
As a response, Straga started trying to put his father's horns in his mouth and slightly messed up his perfect red hair.
"I take that to mean you're hungry."
After making sure that his son was secure, Abaddon stepped out into the hallway and started to carry his son downstairs to the kitchen.
Along the way, he made idle chitchat that his son never could have hoped to respond to.
Perhaps after the way that his other children had been born, he had grown a bit used to being able to talk to them right away.
"I have to apologize to you… usually we would inform the kingdom of the birth of you and your sisters and hold a grand festival to celebrate you all… but your mothers and I have some unpleasant business that we're getting ready for… it requires our full attention at the moment."
Straga shifted his attention towards his father's earrings and started trying to put the shiny pieces of metal into his mouth.
"But even though we can't yet hold a festival for you just yet, I have no intention to hide you. I could take you with me when I go to the military bases and perform a routine inspection, if you like."
Straga noticed that the black tattoos on his father's body were constantly moving, and his childish brain told him that maybe if he bit them enough he could make them stay still.
"Or maybe you would prefer just playing with toys instead, since you are effectively a normal baby afterall… this is exciting."
Oblivious to his father's good mood, Straga created a small metallic rattle out of thin air and shook it happily for his own amusement.
When the two of them finally reached the kitchen, Abaddon fished out a bottle of Valerie's milk from the fridge and fed it to Straga happily.
…But since a part of his DNA was also Bekka's, he needed four more bottles to feel fully satisfied.
"You must be feeling tired."
Straga and Abaddon both looked up into the doorway and found Thea and Gabbrielle standing side by side in their night clothes.
"I was when I first awoke. But being around my children is helping me to feel more revitalized by the second." Abaddon said with a smile.
"Bau!"
After being burped, Straga immediately held out his hands as an indication that he would like to go to one of his sisters.
Much to the internal heartbreak of Abaddon.
Gabbrielle gingerly took her brother from their father and inspected him like he was grocery goods instead of an infant.
"How strange… What manner of creature were you, Straga, that you have become such a blank slate as this one?"
*burp*
"Remarkable…"
Abaddon smiled wryly as he watched this scene of family bonding and he couldn't help but wish that it were complete.
"Where are the rest of your siblings? It isn't like you all to be running off after we've just gotten back."
"Belloc and Apophis are on a breakfast double date, the twins are managing the kingdom you gave them, and Mira is with Aunt Kanami at Grandma Kirina's."
"I-I gave the twins a what now?"
"Stay focused, dad."
Thea twirled her fingers together nervously as she stared up at her father with large, round eyes.
"I-I had been meaning to ask but I wasn't sure how to bring it up… but about the humans on earth.. will they be safe??"
Smiling, Abaddon ran his hand through Thea's blonde hair.
"Have you ever known me to not keep a promise that I've made you, my daughter? The humans will be fine, you have my word. And they are well aware that they have you to thank for their blessing."
A deep blush spread on Thea's cheeks. "I didn't need you to go that far for me… you could have taken the credit."
"When I am hardly deserving of it? I think not. If you hadn't asked, I would have let every one of those motherf-"
"Dad!"
"Kidding, kidding…" (Somewhat)
Smiling, Abaddon took both of his daughters under his arms and started walking them towards the spacious living room.
"It's been a while since we had a day with just us, don't you think kids? Tell you what, we can do whatever you want no matter what it is. Any ide-"
Abaddon's excitement vanished in less than a second when he felt some very familiar presences invade Sheol.
Gabbrielle and Thea could not help but notice that her father was twitching briefly, almost as if he was trying not to snap prematurely.
"Father..?"
"What's wrong?"
"My children… I am so very sorry, but it seems like I'm going to have to spill just a little bit of blood before we can have the day to ourselves."
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