"How funny... You're quite a bit smaller than my son."
As if Iori's mood wasn't already bad enough, the mocking words of Asmodeus only served to make matters worse.
Now the already seething dragon was quite literally seething red, and the former demon lord would have to pay the price.
"Speaking of sons, it's about time that you and I had a chat isn't it?"
"ROOOOOAAAAAAAARRRR!!!"
Iori didn't even wait for Asmodeus to finish before unleashing a hellish monsoon of flames from his gaping mouth.
"Hey, I'm only trying to help you, you know? There's no reason to be rude."
Asmodeus snapped his fingers and a large portal appeared in front of him.
The flames that were intended to turn him into a charred stain were swallowed up and vanished without a trace.
Asmodeus opened up another portal in the sky and the gout of flames emerged, sputtering harmlessly into the sky.
"What was I saying? Ahh, right."
"ASMODEUSSSS!!!"
Iori let out another hate fueled roar as he held out his massive hand and conjured a giant great sword made of golden fire.
With a powerful downwards swing, Iori sought to end Asmodeus' incessant chattering once and for all.
BOOOM!!
"WHAT?!"
At the last second, Asmodeus summoned a large blade made of pure darkness.
As if nothing had happened, he continued to lecture the great red dragon.
"I'm sure your father feels honored that you idolize him so much, but the reality is that you are never going to be like him. Your father is a kind of dragon that is fundamentally different from others."
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?! BE SILENT FILTH!!"
Iori continued to attack Asmodeus with massive and ferocious strikes, but Asmodeus blocked every one without so much as scorching his hair.
"It is true. You should learn how to be your own man and stop following behind in his footsteps like a newly hatched duckling."
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!"
As Iori released more and more of his power, the already weakened colosseum began to crumble even further.
However, Asmodeus still showed no signs of wavering as his eyes glowed an icy blue.
"Cool down a bit, yea? You're going to hurt someone... Not me though."
The sky suddenly released a torrent of icy javelins that rained down on the massive dragon.
Instead of piercing him, the ice instead began to freeze over his body, encasing Iori in a wintery prison.
"How... is this possible...?"
"He hasn't chanted a single time... These aren't spells!"
"He's doing all of this through his own power?"
"How horrifying!"
The eyes of the crowd were still glued to the battle in front of them.
At every clash, Iori had been completely overwhelmed by the charming primordial demon.
There was absolutely no one who could have predicted this outcome.
Other than maybe Helios himself.
Asmodeus flapped his wings and came to stand on top of Iori's snout.
Currently, his head was the only thing that had yet to be frozen and the ice encasing the rest of his body seemed to be nearly impenetrable.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not break free.
'What is this made of?!'
"Do you want to know why your father is such a monster? Because he, just like myself and those damned archangels, are not original inhabitants of this world."
Even with his mind addled with confusion and rage, the absurdity of those words did not escape Iori's mind. "You... What did you say?"
Asmodeus merely chuckled as he brought up another point.
"It's funny, isn't it? The dragons in Dola like to discriminate between lesser and noble, but if any of you ever came face to face with a true dragon, you wouldn't be able to get the shit stains out of your draws no matter how much you washed them."
"True... dragon...?"
Asmodeus shook his head as he realized that maybe this information wouldn't help Iori very much.
"Look at me, I've developed a tendency to prattle on in my old age. I'll just leave you with these final words, my brother-in-law."
" Carve your own path."
Before Iori could even ask what that meant, Asmodeus suddenly flew up into the sky.
Once he was at a sufficient height, the demon lord smirked as he stretched his wings. "Haven't done this one in quite a while... I think he's sturdy enough to handle it if I dial it back a tad."
Suddenly, shining rays of light began to peak through the dark and dreary sky.
Asmodeus' wings suddenly changed a bit, with the left side becoming an illustrious white and the right an even darker black.
The primordial demon's status as a Nephilim did not fade away just because his son had freed him.
It just ensured that he was no longer a slave.
As a result, he was now free to use all of the power given to him for the betterment of himself and his wife alone.
The rays of light and the pooling darkness were both absorbed into the black and white wings of the primordial nephilim.
As he absorbed more and more energy, his white wings glowed much brighter while his black ones seemed to become utterly devoid of light.
"Wings of Blissful Destruction: Virtuous Sin."
There was another flash of light, and Asmodeus' wings suddenly fired two great beams at his immobilized opponent.
One was a pristine ray of light that filled those who saw it with a sense of wonder and awe.
The other was a suffocating beam of darkness that seemed to contain all of the impurities of mankind within.
As Iori watched the attack come closer and closer, he realized that he never had a chance to win to begin with.
'Another world, huh? ...Monster...'
BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
A beautiful explosion of black and white occurred.
Asmodeus' attack was easily just as powerful as Seras' spear art, and not only Iori, but the entire colosseum felt the effects.
The dragon took the attack full on and suffered horrible wounds.
His wings were in tatters, chunks of his scales had been blown off and even his horns had been cracked.
However, he would survive as long as he was healed in time.
But the stadium had long reached the limit of it's endurance.
"H-Help!"
"Hang on to something!"
"It's coming down!"
The shockwave caused by Asmosdeus' attack had been the final nail in the coffin for the Uruloki colosseum and now the 80-meter-tall structure was crumbling like it was made out of graham crackers.
"Damn it!"
Asmodeus cursed himself when he realized that despite his best intentions, he hadn't held back enough.
He immediately became concerned about the people who were about to fall to their deaths and be buried underneath the rubble.
However, before he could make any move to save them, a voice suddenly spoke from behind him.
"So, I see that my troublesome daughter has found an equally troublesome husband."
Helios waived his hand and suddenly the bodies of the millions of spectators present suddenly began to float up harmlessly.
The chunks of stone surrounding them suddenly seemed like they'd gained sentience and avoided falling on anyone present.
After the structure fell entirely, Helios safely placed his people on the ground.
"You are alright now. There is no longer a need to panic."
When the occupants realized that it was their king that saved them, they immediately fell to their knees in thanks.
"T-The dragon king has saved us!"
"All hail the dragon king!"
"Thank you, king Helios!"
Even though Helios was facing a sea of people who were fervently praising and thanking him, he showed no change in expression.
Instead, he turned back to Asmodeus who was floating a few feet away.
"Did you say Husband?" He said with a cheeky smile. " Does that mean I have your ack-"
"You talk too much. What did you hope to accomplish by telling Iori about my origins?"
Asmodeus suddenly shrugged and his wings returned to their normal black color. "What did you hope to accomplish by keeping them a secret?"
"If he continually strides after me, he can reach the pinnacle of existence in this world, even if he lacks most of my power and knowledge."
"That may be, but have you considered that maybe that kind of thinking would deprive you both of something valuable?"
"Valuable? Like what?"
Suddenly, Asmodeus' usual smile became something fonder and much more tender.
"You are missing the joy of watching your son become his own man, and he is spending his very long life chasing after a finish line that he cannot even comprehend. "
"Joy?" Helios questioned.
"Take Abaddon and I for example. While I spent a millennia in the beds of various women for my strength, my boy would never dream of such a thing.
Even though I never got to raise him, my son has become a different kind of man, a different kind of king than I ever was. And one of the greatest joys of my life is watching his ascent as he takes a path entirely different from my own."
Helios fell into an uncomfortable silence as his gaze travelled to Iori who was receiving treatment on the ground below.
He thought he was doing his son a service by allowing him to build himself in Helios' own image but what if that way of thinking was wrong?
Was he unconsciously harming Iori by not allowing him to develop his own talents that were independent of his father's influence?
"It's been quite a while since someone has given me this much to think about. I'll give your words some consideration."
Helios descended downwards to where his son lie after leaving Asmodeus with those parting words.
Once he was alone, Asmodeus let out a sigh filled with worry.
"Did I meddle too much? It isn't really my business after all..."
However, Yara suddenly appeared, and he forgot all about Helios' affairs.
Yara had a lot of faces and Asmodeus found them all to be exquisitely beautiful, but the one she wore right now was nothing short of frightening.
Wearing a smile that was not a smile, the dragon princess seemed to be releasing an oppressive black aura from her seductive body.
"Husband... What have I told you about using the powers of those bitches in front of me? I am supposed to be all that you need." Yara's eyes held a black and lifeless look that both aroused and terrified her husband.
Asmodeus immediately started sweating and quickly tried to make amends. "I know, my love but it's been a few years since I got to let loose a bit and I suppose that I got a bit excited."
"Alright... I'll forgive you just this once, but you'll have to spend the weekend making up for it, okay?"
Asmodeus could do nothing but smile helplessly at his wife's demands.
Sometimes, it really wasn't clear which one of them was a sex demon.
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Huge thank you to Gavin_McRoberts for sending me a massage chair and sponsoring this bonus chapter!