Chapter 443 Unwelcome Visitor
Camazotz had learned to hide his presence whenever he arrived in Sheol, but that didn't mean that he wasn't getting a lot of stares.
Everywhere that he looked, dragons and spirits were stoppping in the middle of the streets or poking their heads out of their heads to look at him.
Their hostility was unsettling for even him who spent such a large amount of time around death.
As he tried to ignore it, one of the passengers riding atop his back began to voice their anxiety.
"I don't like this… I don't think we are welcome here."
"It is fine… most likely. He is not as cruel and unreasonable as he wants the rest of the gods to think."
"Are you so certain…?"
"…No."
Camazotz carried his passengers all the way up to the floating castle in the sky and once again marveled at it's splendor.
However, they were only able to get so close before they started to feel a more overwhelming sense of danger.
They couldn't see any enemies, but they could sense very clearly that they were all around them.
Numerous presences seemed to just be waiting for them to make the wrong move and give them an excuse to cut them down.
"Persephone.."
"It's fine. Take us down, Camazotz."
"As you wish."
The bat god flew down towards the white stone walkway that led towards the castle doors and walked carefully so that's surrounding invisible guardians would not perceive any of his movements as hostile or sneaky.
The front doors opened of their own volition, and Camazotz walked through on all fours without any hesitation.
The allure of good food was a greater motivator than the fear of death!
Even though it had been a while since his last visit, he still remembered the way to the throne room as if he had just come here yesterday.
"I'm nervous…"
"It is too late to turn back now… we are already in his house."
"Heaven help us.."
Camazotz finally walked through the last pair of thick jewel encrusted doors and stepped inside of the grand hall once again.
Unlike before, they did not find multiple women seated on the thrones this time.
Instead, there was only a man, two young women, and… a baby?
'So cute…'
While Persephone was focused on the young child who was trying to eat his own fist, Camazotz couldn't take his eyes off of the man he had come here to see.
Abaddon looked like the textbook image of an ancient god.
He lounged upon his great stone throne like a coiled dragon, wearing only a long red ceremonial skirt with a golden tassel wrapped around his midsection.
The jewelry glittering off of his body was only made more radiant by his glimmering dark bronze skin that was in no way inferior to the precious metals themselves.
His blood red hair was still long and fiery, but it looked to have recently been cut.
It only came to the back of his knees now instead of his ankles like before.
His head rested leisurely in his left hand and his entire body seemed to exhude a somewhat relaxed and tranquil air.
Standing on opposite sides of his throne were two young women who were nearly as beautiful as he.
Appearing at around the ages of seventeen and fifteen, the older one seemed more lighthearted and playful with her blonde hair and glowing purple eyes, and the younger one seemed far less approachable, with snow white hair and burning red eyes.
Even the young baby nestled within her arms could not make her seem warm and friendly.
Persephone finally slid down from Camazotz's back and the woman next to her did the same.
"Greetings, Abaddon… and… I do not know how to address the two of you." Persephone did not know if the young girls sticking so closely to Abaddon were maids or attendees or even mistresses.
She didn't want to offend him by mixing up their titles.
"These are your daughters… aren't they?" A woman guessed.
The woman beside Persephone stepped forward; clear curiosity on her face.
She looked to be quite a bit older than her, with rich olive colored skin and wavy raven hair to match.
Her eyes were such a deep cerulean blue that they were almost purple, and complimented her lilac colored lace dress nicely.
Threads of ornamental golden wheat and flowers were woven into her hair like symbols of her identity.
Abaddon looked down at the floor and realized that she was the only person he'd ever met other than he and Eris who made flowers bloom just by having her feet touch the ground.
"They are." Abaddon answered in a somewhat cold tone.
Demeter seemed not to notice this though, and continued to stare at Thea with something akin to mystery.
It was like a kindergartner was trying to solve quadratic equations for the first time.
She could hardly even begin to understand just what she was looking at.
"I don't mean to pry but she is human, yes? And yet she is most certainly of your blood… how can this be?"
Abaddon sat up from his throne and his eyes suddenly became drastically more intense than before.
"You'll have to forgive me.. I'm not in the habit of discussing my family intricacies with strangers slinking about in my home."
Immediately, all three uninvited gods became tense.
"W-We meant no disrespect, Abaddon." Persephone said nervously. "I simply wanted to introduce you to my mother and-"
"I'm not talking about your mother, Persephone."
"""…Pardon?"""
Abaddon took Straga from Gabbrielle, and casually ran his clawed hands through the short black hair on top of his head.
"Sheol is more than my home, it is an extension of myself and thus I am all knowing and all encompassing here.
Do you understand? In my world there is nothing that hides from me, even if you were able to evade the notice of these careless fools."
At that moment, a very, very, small black spider leapt out of the back of Camazotz fur and made a beeline for the front door.
"Girls."
""We know!""
Gabrielle snapped her fingers and a wall of searing white flame shot up into the doorway, blocking off the exit and increasing the temperature of the room to unhealthy levels.
Thea's bracelet glowed with an odd grey light, and a tendril of liquid metal sprang out from the gem in the center.
The entire body of the spider became encased in the liquid substance that quickly hardened and halted all of it's movements, leaving only the head uncovered.
With a wave of her hand, Thea brought the creature back towards the foot of her father's throne, subjugating him without breaking a single sweat.
"Hey, hey… let's not take things too far out of proportion here, yea?"
As soon as the three gods heard the voice of the spider, a unanimous grimace showed up on all of their faces.
"Shit.."
"Abaddon, we did not know that he was…"
"Camazotz will happily eat him to clean this mess up, even though he does not like spider blood!"
The spider made a clicking sound with his teeth, and his body started to grow within his confined shackles.
"You two just looked like you were up to something interesting so I decided to tail you out of instinct, but who would have known that it was something like this..? Naughty, naughty."
Kneeling on the floor of Abaddon's throne room was a bald headed man with very dark skin and pure white eyes.
Unlike a normal person, he had four legs and four arms that were reminiscent of a spider.
He smiled nervously at the dragon sitting upon the throne, and revealed pointed fangs in his mouth that looked venomous in nature.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Dragon. I am-"
"Anansi. From the Akan pantheon."
"You've heard of me? All good I hope!"
"Mhm. God of knowledge, stories, trickery, and wisdom. Son of Nyame, and Asase Ya."
Anansi's white eyes twinkled brightly with glimmers of hope.
"At your service, Abaddon. Or do you prefer Vovin? Muriel? Apollyon? Big Dadd-"
"Stop talking."
A hand of shadows reached up and grabbed the spider god forcefully by the head and started to apply an unhealthy amount of pressure onto his skull.
"G-Gah! Alright, alright, no more joking! Mercy!"
"Mercy?"
Abaddon stood up from his throne and placed little Straga in the seat in his place.
His bare feet carried him towards the subdued spider, and with each step his pressure became more and more insurmountable and suffocating.
"I must admit that you do have some gall. Sneaking into the home where my sisters come to relax, and where my children lay their heads…
It has been so very long, since I have felt so disrespected by a whelp from the heavens. And now, you have the nerve to come here and ask me.. for mercy."
Anansi felt like his entire chest was going to cave in with every second that he lingered within Abaddon's presence.
His father was an aspect of the creator deity himself, but even he did not make him feel this helpless.
The dragon was truly a monster of which there could be no compare.
"I-I wish to strike the same deal with you as these three! I want to join you in your crusade against the rest of the gods!"
"Do you now? Funny."
Abaddon unfurled his wings from his back and Anansi felt like he was going to throw up.
They were horrifyingly unsettling things, with one side being leathery and demonic and the other being feathery and angelic.
On each of his eight wings, a giant eye opened up directly in the center.
Some were goat-like, others were reptilian, and a couple were human.
Each of them were different colors than the next, and gave off an equally disturbing impression.
But it was when they started to glow that Anansi became truly afraid.
With their mystifying glow, the eyes within the wings stripped him of what he considered to be his greatest ability.
The talent to lie.
"Why don't you tell us all just how deeply the depths of your sincerity go?"
Anansi felt his mouth start to move against his own volition, and he knew in the back of his mind that his life was no longer guaranteed.
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