First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1158
Chapter 1158: Missing Gods
In the short moments after Odin burst into the room, infuriated, his regret showed up clearly on his face.
The looks he was receiving from Apophis, as well as K’ael, were nothing short of murderous.
‘…Hello! What’s your name??’
Odin blinked his one eye at the orange-haired human who looked like a ray of literal sunshine wrapped in caramel.
“…I am Odin. The All-Father. I stand as the leader of the Nordic Gods, and-”
‘Kyaaaa!! Oh my gosh!!! No! Way! Our names are almost identical! Isn’t that crazy??’
“…It-”
‘Wait, wait, I know what we’ve got to do!’
Odessa ran up to Odin and pulled out her phone to take a selfie.
‘Smile!’
Odin was too stunned by everything that was happening to show the proper reaction.
While looking in the camera, Odessa noticed that there were more figures than just Odie #2 standing in the doorway.
These figures included a hawk-headed man, an old guy who looked like Santa Claus, and another old guy who looked really muscular and distinguished…
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Do you guys want to get in the picture too??’
The heads of the pantheons were stunned beyond what words could articulate.
“Please, don’t mind Odie. She’s just our little ball of affection and intrusive thoughts.” Apophis yawned.
‘Aww… That’s good, right?’
‘Pretty good.’ He shrugged nonchalantly.
Odie #1 beamed with pride.
“Is this your new bride, Lord Apophis? She’s a bit young for-”
“Eww, fuck, no, no, no!” Apophis immediately recoiled.
Odie wasn’t any more pleased either. ‘Eww! Gross, gross, gross, gross!’
“‘He’s/ She’s my brother/sister!”‘
Father Dagda blinked. “…Oh. My apologies, lad and lassie. I wasn’t aware your father had another human daughter.”
‘I’m kind of the best kept secret.’ Odie stuck out her chest proudly before deflating a bit. ‘Though I guess.. It’s not really a secret anymore, huh?’
The gods were baffled.
“So do you see why I left our little meeting abruptly?” Amaterasu held her chin in one hand and gave Odin a bored look.
“I… suppose so.” Odin acquiesced.
K’ael put down his teacup, troubled. “Nee-san, if we have disturbed you, then-”
“Do not finish that sentence. You have never been a disturbance. As for the rest of these nuisances, I can hardly say the same.”
There wasn’t a god in the room who didn’t look insulted by that fact. But as they were in Amaterasu’s domain, there was fuck all they could do about it.
“It’s not often I see a lot like you getting together. Who pissed in your godly cereal while we were away?” Apophis asked as he stole his brother’s tea.
The gods looked at each other uncomfortably.
“…Sorry, but our issues are none of your concern, Prince Apophis.” Horus replied.
Apophis barely reacted. “Oh…?”
A wall of golden magic was erected between the gods and the door. The space itself became locked, and time was made unstable.
“Let’s stay here for a while, then. Have some tea, eat a little bit of sugar… I’m sure you’ll find yourselves in a more talkative mood after a few thousand years.”
The gods were rightfully enraged.
“Prince, you have no-”
‘Oh, noooo!!! I can’t stay here for a thousand years! I have a chemistry test on Monday!’ Odie started to cry.
Silence fell over the room. Apophis blinked at his sister slowly, realizing she truly did not know anything about how magic worked or how it felt.
“You’re embarrassing us.” K’ael’s irritation was clearly written across his face. “Even if you stay here for 100,000 years, when we get back to earth, no time will have passed at all. Our brother has locked the space.”
‘S-So I won’t miss any new episodes of ‘Fire Country’?’ Odessa sniffled.
K’ael resisted the urge to throw something at his sister.
Horus barged across the room and pointed at Apophis angrily. “You are holding us hostage, and as your ruler, I demand that-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Apophis wiped his mouth as he put down his teacup.
“We should make one thing painfully clear. I am not some animal you can command at will like Sekhmet. I have no rulers. No leaders. My attachment to the Egyptian pantheon is purely circumstantial. I am now, and have always been nevi’im.
You all seem rather against telling me about a clear problem that is so big it requires a bunch of big shots like you to get together and scheme. So, I’m just hoping to loosen your tongues a bit. Is that so wrong? It’s not like I ripped the information out of your heads.
Sit down, stay a spell, enjoy some daifuku. Or just spare us all the time and tell me what’s really going on.”
Horus’ feathers bristled with anger.
He wasn’t the only one feeling insulted in the room.
But there was nothing they could do about it.
In his own, uncompromising way, Apophis was trying to help them. And because he knew what he was doing was ultimately for their greater good, he couldn’t be talked out of it.
Amaterasu knew that, so she wasn’t going to bother trying.
“Lately, gods have been going missing. We’re trying to figure out where they’re going, as well as who has been taking them.”
“Amaterasu!” Odin yelled.
The Shinto goddess flicked her finger, and a small ball of sunfire struck the one-eyed man in the nose. “Quiet. I have no desire to stay in this room with you any longer than necessary.”
Apophis and K’ael were both immensely concerned.
“Gods have randomly been going missing, and none of you said anything?”
“Our new judicator was away. Asherah is in a secret seclusion. Who were we supposed to tell?” Amaterasu tilted her head.
“My father? Better yet, my mother, you had twelve of them to choose from!”
“They dared not involve your parents after everything that occurred at the trial. They fear them more than ever before.”
To K’ael and Odessa, everything Amaterasu had said made no sense.
Apophis, on the other hand, understood all too well.
He remembered that day like it was just yesterday. His father’s rage was more terrible than he had ever seen, but it was vastly overshadowed by the power of his grief.
‘Why would you be scared of my parents?’
Odie’s question was baffling to almost everyone else in the room.
Suddenly, Prometheus stepped out from the shadows and came towards Odessa.
He kneeled in front of her with a subtle smile and a soft voice.
“Child… do you not know what the man you call father is?”
Odie shrugged. ‘I know he’s like this really old anthropomorphic personification and stuff…’
“Have you not beheld his true face? Seen the horror of what he is??”
In response, Odessa glared angrily and folded her arms. ‘What’s wrong with having horns and three eyes??’
Prometheus laughed thunderously. “I do not speak of that enviable body he chooses to make for himself. I speak of his true, disastrous form, the one that could coil around the farthest recesses of heaven and blow it apart with a single breath!”
Prometheus unfurled his hand and a parade of sparks floated out.
Within the small bursts of heat and light, Odessa saw the beginnings of what looked like a bad home movie, one that depicted a dragon with multiple heads setting the world ablaze.
She saw no more than a few seconds of it before the flames were snuffed out.
“What do you think you’re doing…?”
Apophis’ fangs had grown too big for his mouth. His eyes glowed so brightly that they resembled miniature suns.
“I hope you’re not trying to insert some kind of wedge between my family as I sit here in front of you. I can’t say you’ll like what I’m going to do if that is the case.”
Prometheus sighed and shook his head. “My intention was only to provide enlightenment. The child does not understand the depths of our fear, so I took it upon myself to show her.”
“Your fear is baseless. The only people my father has ever harmed have been those who have leveled slights against our family or Yesh’s natural order. Yet you’re sitting here acting as if he’s some unthinking, blind monster, and it’s really starting to piss me off.”
“It is a good thing for a father to have a son who’s willing to speak so highly of him. But you must also understand that those outside of your family walls do not quite see Apollyon the same as you do.”
“I hate that name.” Apophis spat. “Our father is no Destroyer. He is a Waymaker. A Protector.”
Apophis stood up abruptly, and the magic around the room dispersed.
He pulled his robe back over his shoulder and began walking towards the gods with scales beginning to grow along his cheeks.
“When he figures out where your missing gods have gone and returns them to you without a scratch, you better fall to your fucking knees and thank him. Or else I just might break your legs and make you do it myself.”
The gods parted way for Apophis like the Red Sea of old. None said anything to try and dissuade him from telling Abaddon.
“Come on, kids. We’re leaving.”
K’ael and Odessa quickly picked up their things and followed after their brother.