"D-Dad, you can let me go now..."
"Who is the parent here?"
"Y-You are, but you can only nuzzle me so many times before my cheek skin peels off!"
"It'll grow back, now stay still."
Thrudd hadn't the foggiest idea why her father was suddenly being so affectionate with her, but she was just going to attribute it to old age and let him do what he wanted.
Abaddon continued to nuzzle his second daughter affectionately when the two of them were suddenly bumped into.
The pair looked up at Straga, who was clearly enjoying his new height that made him even taller than his father.
"Whoops." Straga gloated. "Sorry about that, little guy, I didn't see you down there..!"
Abaddon smiled.
-
"...I apologize for my outburst."
"Oh do you now?"
Abaddon sat on top of his son's head for just a few minutes longer; just to ensure that the message had properly set in.
Monica was just a couple of feet away chuckling to herself and not intending to help her betrothed in any way.
"Father."
"Hm?"
Abaddon suddenly felt a much more soft and pleasant nudge than the one he received before.
He looked over his shoulder to find little Gabbrielle staring at him in anticipation.
"...Am I... cute?"
Abaddon was struck full force by an ultimate destructive strike of adorableness that he couldn't even begin to fight against.
Gabbrielle's powdery white hair had darkened into a shining silver color overnight.
Her eyes had been dyed a pure, and unbridled white color that were bright enough to put most flashlights to shame.
Abaddon couldn't help but left his little girl over his head as if she was a prized trophy.
"How can you even ask me such a thing? My daughter is the cutest little infinity goddess the multiverse has ever witnessed!"
Gabbrielle showed a small smirk on the fringes of her small, cute face.
"...I knew it."
Abaddon laughed to himself as he finally stood up from Straga's head and brought his daughter back to the sofa.
"How does it feel to be a goddess again, peach? Is it as you remembered?"
Gabbrielle looked down at her small hands and clenched her fist a few times.
Truthfully, she didn't know how to explain how she felt because it was nearly new to her.
She was just a regular goddess now. No longer a living embodiment.
The two were hardly comparable... and yet it wasn't a complete fall from grace.
As the second generation of deities, titans typically exert greater control over their areas of divinity than other deities do.
She is no longer literally imbued within every infinite concept or application, but if she concentrates she can at least observe them, or with a substantial amount of effort, manipulate them.
But in all honesty, Gabbrielle wasn't exactly eager to return to her former status and position once again.
She didn't want to become that same empty, hollow being as before. Ultimate divine power would definitely make her even less of a people person than she already was.
It wouldn't do to have those walls going back up when she was finally starting to form her own bonds with those in and out of her family.
"Peach?" Abaddon asked again.
Gabbrielle realized that she had inadvertently ignored her father's question when she became lost in thought.
Courtney had told her Uncle D that he had chicken legs and he nearly fell over crying.
Meanwhile, Abaddon was seated at the barstool with Nyx and Izanami on either side of him.
"So... What are you going to do with all of them?" Nyx finally asked. "I'd imagine that they are already in quite the tizzy by now."
The night goddess was of course referring to the underworld deities and gods that were currently residing in the pit of Abaddon's stomach.
As a response, the dragon only shrugged harmlessly.
"For now I guess I will keep plaguing their realms with tremors just to give them a little scare... And then in a few days I will release them and ask them nicely to surrender."
"Nicely?" Izanami was usually quite unexpressive, but even she snorted at his comment.
"Are you doubting my capacity for such a thing?"
Izanami chose not to comment as she drank her soju in silence.
"You wound me." Abaddon smiled. "And to think I had such a nice gift for you."
"A gift..?" Izanami tilted her head.
"Where is my gift??" Nyx questioned.
"You're living in my house already." Abaddon rolled his eyes.
"So are like twenty other people!"
"All family or blood related."
"And Camazotz??"
"A pet. Is that something you want to be?"
"That depends. How tightly will you hold my leash~?"
"..." Abaddon couldn't believe he had walked right into such an obvious set up.
"Anyway." he emphasized as he turned back to Izanami. "Doesn't this belong to you?"
Abaddon held out his hand and an orb of pure dark energy appeared within his palm.
Izanami slowly put her cup down as she stared at the orb like she couldn't believe it was there.
Originally, when Camazotz and Persephone first went around bringing defectors to Tehom, the primordial Shinto goddess was one of the first whom they recruited.
However, Izanami wasn't quite like other primordial deities.
She was imprisoned within her realm from the beginning.
To get out, she had to leave more than half of her power behind in the realm in which she was tied to.
Though most gods would have considered it an option not even worthy of consideration, Izanami didn't actually care all that much.
As far as she was concerned, her power wasn't any good to her if she couldn't take revenge on her ex husband with it.
So, she readily left it behind and hadn't thought about it even once since she'd been here.
"I... don't know what to say." She muttered as she slowly took the orb.
"You don't actually need to say anything since it is yours to begin with. I'm only returning to you what you left behind." Abaddon smiled.
Even though that was true, Izanami was still very touched.
Because she knew just as well as anyone that Abaddon didn't necessarily have to do this. He could have kept all of this power for himself if he wanted and no one would look at him strangely.
'But then again, he's not that kind of man, is he..?' She chuckled quietly.
"Abaddon... I need to say that I am very moved by yo-"
"DAD!!"
When Abaddon heard the twins suddenly call for him, he forgot about everything else going on and snapped his head in their direction.
Yemaya was kneeling beside Bekka; trying to keep her from panicking while also panicking herself.
The source of their worries? The fact that Bekka's stomach was glowing bright red.
Abaddon had barely left his seat before a red light swamped the entire room and halted the party dead in it's tracks.