Chapter 391 The Game Begins
The stage that Asherah had prepared for the collision of Abaddon and Samyaza's forces was truly one of a kind.
Up above, the sky was painted with a myriad of stars, commets and galaxies of unparalleled beauty, and it was easy to see that the mother goddess had quite an eye for aesthetics.
The ground wasn't really a ground since there was no earth or dirt, but if one descended low enough they would eventually be standing on a solid surface; albeit an invisible one.
Two portals were open in the stars above.
From one, the figures that spilled out were giants with pale white skin and horns like lengthy tree trunks.
Their bodies were extremely muscular, with each bulge and ripple resembling blocks of expertly carved marble.
Most of them remained nude with their genitals hidden within their body, but those of the highest ranks wore white and gold armor that covered only the vital areas.
Suddenly, a figure that was not a Nephilim flew out from the portal, and Yara visibly stiffened.
It was a human, or even possibly a kind of angel.
It had a humanoid body with two pairs of wings and four faces; one of an ox, lion, eagle, and human.
Abaddon was able to recognize it from the stories that his father had told him drunkenly one night.
This was the combined form of the false humans in bone white armor who had barged into his home and destroyed it so many years ago.
The fact that they were already unified meant that they were indeed taking this conflict seriously.
The angel flew until it landed on the shoulders of the largest of the nephilim who wore the most clothing and seemed the least brainless; as it too waited for the inevitable clash.
Yara was frozen in place as she wrestled with the visions of that horrible night that were coming back to bite her with a vengeance.
As she relived the worst night of her life, two hands wrapped around her own and gave them firm squeezes.
Malenia: 'It's alright, mother.'
Kanami: 'Nothing like before will ever happen again. Father and brother have given their word.'
Yara smiled at her two daughters as she held their hands silently, already feeling drastically more comfortable than she had previously.
Her family was larger than before and though she had not acquired it by ordinary means, she loved it all the same.
It was why she felt like she had that much more to lose this time around.
But luckily, the forces that were fighting against the angels this time were much stronger than run of the mill demons.
With the last of the Nephilim assembled on this one of a kind stage, it soon became time for their competitors to arrive.
From a portal in the sky, enormous dragons began to spill out one after the other. n(-o(-v)(E/)L)-b.)1/-n
Some were slim with no wings while others were bulkier with multiple ones.
From color, size, shape, and even the texture of their scales, no two dragons were completely alike in appearance.
However, they were all equally unnerving and frightening to look at.
It was easy to tell that these were not normal dragons, but hybrids of different mythical races.
And leading these massive army of dragons were two individual in human form; descending from the opening in the sky calmly and with their eyes locked firmly on the enemy.
Erica wore a sleek bright red bodysuit adorned with flecks of gold and patterns that resembled black scales.
At her side, Asmodeus had a much darker demeanor towards him; making the usually playful grandfather seem unrecognizable.
Across the chest plate of his pitch black armor were characters in some long dead language that were written in red dye.
Though Abaddon and his wives had absolutely never seen these characters before, they could read them just fine.
'Your god has abandoned you.'
With his enormous axe resting over his shoulder, he looked every bit the monster that his son and second daughter were.
With all forces assembled, Abaddon did a quick survey of the battlefield.
Unsurprisingly, the other side had more numbers.
At a rough estimate, he wagered that their numbers were closer to four and a half billion while his were sitting at a little over two.
However, his dragons were bigger than these giants in their natural forms and he was fully confident in their ability to use more tricks as well.
But with10,000 years of preparation time up one's sleeves, there was really no telling just what his enemies could have had in store for his forces.
This battle wold ultimately go to whoever side was capable of showing more grit than the other, and Abaddon had confidence that his father and Erica would not put on poor showings.
The nephilim that was the largest among them and had the most of his body covered in armor stepped forward and raised his halberd over his head proudly.
"Brothers! I know that we have suffered through hunger in recent years, but today that is no more! We end our hunger troubles today as we dine on dragon!"
Animalistic grunts and roars filled the air along with the raising of fists and smacking of clubs.
Clearly whoever this speaker was, he was fully capable of motivating the masses with only a few words.
Raising his barbed Kanabo high, he pointed it at the opposing forces as he licked his lips.
"There are enough that we need not go hungry for weeks! And if we keep a few of them to breed then-"
"That's enough."
Clang!
Asmodeus suddenly tossed his axe over his shoulder before he started walking towards the giants at a leisure and slow place.
"Oh how long I have waited or this day... Now that I have finally been given an opportunity to exact my revenge and take everything away from that accursed archangel, I will spare no expense and kill you all as cruelly as I can!"
Suddenly, Asmodeus' black skin began to crack and peel before it flaked away.
The flesh underneath his skin seemed to literally reject being inside of his body; and it burst free violently.
"Hear me well, you miserable dicks! I am Ashmodai! Progeny of the Fallen One, Genesis of the One Who Opens All Doors! There is no where that you can run from me and no weapon that can fell me! From the moment you were born, your lives were mine alone to take!"
The darkened flesh underneath Asmodeus' skin started to grow and pool outward like an ever expanding balloon.
He did not stop growing until he stood proudly at 250 meters.
Perhaps most were expecting a dragon like none they'd ever seen to appear after Asmodeus' furious display.
But while the thing he became was certainly unseen, it was most certainly not a dragon.
It was undoubtedly, assuredly, and unquestionably a monster of the foulest design.
Bipedal in stature, it possessed an enormous muscular black body that was large enough to pick up Nephilim in his fists like they were large dolls.
Short tendrils squirmed around it's shoulder blades and neck, conveying a small sense of sentience that was horrifying for a body part to have.
The creature had three heads on it's body.
One sat on his neck like normal, the other was positioned directly in the center of it's chest and the final one was positioned a little lower, towards the right side underneath his breast.
The creature let out a terrible roar like nothing anyone in either world had ever heard before, and the weakest of the nephilim went down like straw houses as they clutched their bleeding ears in pain.
Asmodeus lumbered forward on massive legs and kicked the nephilim who was giving speeches earlier.
As if he were a soccer ball, the nephilim went flying hilariously and soared through the air like a kite with it's strings cut.
While the lead nephilim was still airborne, Asmodeus opened his mouths as wide as they would go and fired three dark grey beams from his muzzles and sent the unfortunate giant flying even farther back, into the edge of his already damaged ranks.
Even when the beam was dispelled, Asmodeus started to raze the nephilim with his impervious black claws and tore their pale flesh limb from limb.
Erica couldn't do anything but laugh as she twirled her weapon in her grasp. 'You're such a bastard, Asmodeus. Now I'll struggle to impress your son since you've put on such a fine showing.'
Looking over her shoulder, Erica smiled at the awestruck dragons waiting behind her and waived her hand.
"Come on! If we leave Asmodeus to his own devices he'll hog all the glory! Is that what you want!?"
"NO, GRAND MARSHALL!"
"Then show our god you are worthy of his power and burn all our enemies to the ground!"
A chorus of roaring dragons rippled out into space as the two billion transcendent dragons took to the air and rushed at the opposing nephilim with overflowing pride and glee.
Soon, this entire battleground would be choked with smoke, ash, and blood as far as the eye could see.
The transcendent dragons had drawn first blood, but even then the battle had only just begun.
-
In leisure settings like couches and beds, Abaddon can sometimes be prone to distractions and fits of boredom that cause his mind to wander.
Like right now in fact.
For the past couple of minutes, he had been staring at the black tattoos on his arm and watching them constantly swirl and shift into different beautiful patterns.
He did this until he heard the room go eerily quiet, and felt himself being stared at by multiple pairs of eyes.
Looking up, he found every single person in the room staring at him with dumbstruck faces.
"...What are you all-"
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO YOUR FATHER!?!"