Chapter 444 The Dragon of Stories
"I… was going to use the involvement of these three with you against them, so that in the moment that they had something I needed I would have been able to coerce it out of them."
Persephone: "You bastard!"
Camazotz : "I'll gnaw your bones, spider!"
"Keep going."
"I…" Anansi tried to force his jaw closed through his own willpower, fully knowing that the next words that he would speak would mean his death.
However, Abaddon's compulsion via cursed wings isn't something that can be fought against with simple 'willpower'.
The harder he fought against him, the easier the truth spilled out against his will.
"I... was going to stay and spy around for a while... learn what stories you have to tell and study you and your family until I knew all there is to- Kugh!"
Abaddon looked to be absolutely furious.
Thea seemed like she was going to be sick.
Gabbrielle was bordering on outrage.
Straga had fallen asleep in his father's throne.
Abaddon lifted up Anansi by the neck and held him high above his own head.
"The nerve to lie to me in my own home... this is why they say that spiders are better off crushed."
Anansi struggled in vain as he tried to free himself from Thea's restraints.
Somehow, his divine powers and abilities were all being surprised by this cold liquid metal produced by the daughter with blonde hair.
'Wait... that bracelet...!'
Anansi's eyes went so wide that they practically left his skull, prompting Abaddon to realize that he was learning too much too fast.
"I hope you have learned enough for the next few lifetimes. Your secrets will die with you."
A wave of pure, corrosive destruction left Abaddon's hand, and Anansi's body was broken down into a mass of black dust right before the eyes of everyone inside.
Only Demeter was old enough to know what they had just seen was a destruction divinity at work.
But she hadn't felt this unsettled by one since Perses.
Anansi was not a frightingly powerful god, no, but he was the son of an aspect of the creator himself.
You generally can't just make things like that go away just because you want them to.
Once the body of Anansi was fully obliterated, there was a dull glow around his ashes before four different colored marbles showed up in the dirt.
Abaddon waved his hand and fished the divinities out of the ashes and inspected each of them curiously.
"Ohhh..."
"It's been a while since I saw any of these."
Abaddon was amused by the way that the eyes of his cute daughters sparkled as they?stared at the small marbles in his palm.
"Do the two of you want one?"
"Huh?"
"Really?"
"Of course. It's better than allowing them to collect dust. Just don't tell your brothers… they'll be jealous." Abaddon held out his hand to both of his daughters and waited for them to make their choices.
"Surely you know… I won't be able to use this for a long time, right?" Gabrielle said warily.
"Yes, I do. But the moment that you regain your divine status, you will have a little gift from me to celebrate the occasion."
Persephone, Camazotz, and Demeter all watched this scene with dry gazes.
What was this morbid ass family friendly scene?!
For all intents and purposes, Abaddon had effectively just killed a man and was now distributing his remains to his children like they were M&Ms.
It would have been endearing if it weren't so chilling!
Although Camazotz did not really seem to be troubled by this much, almost as if he already accepted this as normal.
Gods of sacrifice are strange like that.
Thea and Gabbrielle each made their choices and thanked their father gratefully.
Understandably, the mischievous little human girl had chosen trickery, and the formerly all-knowing goddess of infinity had chosen wisdom.
While the youngest simply stashed hers away in her pocket, the eldest held hers above the gem in her bracelet and waited.
Fusing the witchblade with her being had elevated Thea to a status beyond a mere mortal.
Different from a loa and far more dangerous than a demigod, she was already a living deity.
She was just as capable of plundering the divinities of gods as any other being from heaven.
There was a short but intense flash of light, and eventually the entire marble was swallowed up, and Thea's aura saw a noticeable boost in power.
A wry smile formed on her face as she opened and closed her fist repeatedly to admire the new power coursing through her.
" I broke another seal… just two left, master." She whispered.
Remembering the woman whom she had spent several years of her life with but was no longer around, Thea became slightly distant.
Abaddon ran his hands through her hair and smiled with 1,000 thoughts going through his mind, but one standing at the precipice.
'I'm sure that she would be proud of you.'
He had never met the woman who chose his daughter as her successor, but she spoke incredibly highly of her- sometimes blurring the line between an idol and a first love.
Not that much different from he and Seras in that regard.
Though she tried not to be sad about the fact that her master was no longer around, from time to time Thea was known to become slightly melancholic about it.
Especially on the days where she grew in power.
"…What?" Thea seemed to notice that both her father and sister were staring at her with intensely sympathetic eyes.
""Nothing.""
"I'm fine, okay guys? You don't have to worry about me, I promise."
""We aren't worried.""
"Liars! Why are you both hugging me then?!"
""Because we love you.""
"…I love you guys too."
After Thea was able to pry herself away from her family, Abaddon looked at the two remaining marbles in his hand and prepared to stash them away.
"Might I make a suggestion?" Gabbrielle suddenly asked.
"Hm? Of course."
The young girl picked up one of the two remaining marbles and gestured for her father to take it.
"Fuse this one… I'll give you more information later but I am certain it will complement one of your existing divinities fairly well."
Abaddon couldn't get an in depth explanation from his daughter due to present company, but he trusted her enough to take her advice without a surplus of follow-up questions.
He swallowed the misty black marble and broke down and assimilated all of the power inside.
A rush of cold energy shot through his entire body, and Abaddon felt his already expansive mind become more focused, organized, and most importantly, filled with information.
He was suddenly privy to a lot more secrets, stories almost as old as time, and he developed much more insight into the philosophy of man, as well as what motivated them.
But none of that was important in the slightest compared to what this divinity could do in conjunction with another.
In the short timeframe of 5.941 seconds, his mind ran multiple simulations in an attempt to understand why his daughter recommended him this specific divinity in the first place.
As the embodiment of order, Abaddon was capable of exercising control over certain aspects of reality in order to arrange them however he liked as if they were pieces on a chess board.
But there were limits to that power.
Say that Abaddon has altered someone to go to the pharmacy for condoms.
Even if someone does what he wanted them to, there are all sorts of butterfly effects and things that could befall them that could result in rendering them incapable of completing their mission.
Hit by truck-kun, a sudden heart attack, struck by lightning, etc.
But if his divinity of order was used in harmony with the divinity of stories, Abaddon could alter whole events like he was writing a children's book.
He could make it so that instead of only controlling what a person does and what they become, he could control what happens to them as well.
To the day they were born, all the way up to the moment that they took their last breath.
It could be as small as him placing a rock in your path to trip you over for a laugh, or teaching you a character lesson by having you get cheated on in college.
"My daughter.. what a genius you are..!"
A rare look of surprise showed up on Gabbrielle's face, almost as if she wasn't expecting her father to be able to comprehend the gravity behind her decision so soon.
"Y-You understand my thinking?"
"I do indeed. Are you proud of me for my insight?"
"I-I am… You're almost too smart for your own good."
"Oh? I have to keep up with you and Lailah somehow, don't I?"
"Ahem."
Suddenly, Thea, Abaddon and Gabbrielle remembered that there were still three gods standing around in their throne room.
Persephone lowered her head worriedly with clear fear drifting off her body as she tried to make amends for her blunder.
"Abaddon… I assure you that we had no knowledge of Anansi's-"
"I know."
"Yes, I… hm?"
"You've taken my blood. If you were going to betray me in any sort of way, i would have known it before you did, and you would no longer even be breathing."
"Oh… Comforting."
"I should hope so. It is the only reason I tolerate your unannounced visits. Speaking of..."
Abaddon lifted up a single finger and a small drop of golden blood came out on it's own.
Camazotz felt his mouth water as his breathing became noticeably harder.
"Down boy."
*Depressed whimpering*
Ignoring the large bat creature, Abaddon presented his blood towards Demeter.
"…Must I?"
"If you want to get out of here alive, yes."
"Paranoid, aren't we?"
"After everything that has just transpired, are you seriously going to tell me that it is not justified?"
Demeter sighed and licked the small drop of blood off of Abaddon's finger.
But much to her surprise, it wasn't unpleasant.
"A-Ah, M-Mr. Abaddon? Camazotz has something he would like to give you, as an apology for his earlier carelessness!" The bat god said excitedly.
"Something to give me..? Alright."
From out of nowhere, Camazotz pulled out two items that were very familiar to the dragon god.
A long black leash, and a silver bowl with a dog bone on it.
Immediately, a vein bulged in Abaddon's head as he showed a smile that was not a smile.
"Camazotz… What the fuck is this?"
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