First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1187

Chapter 1187: Big Sister Loves Little Sister
Thea, still groggy from the flood of memories rushing through her mind, could not understand why her younger sister was so energetic.

“…What happened…?”

“Oh, Father must have synchronized all of our memories with the timeline through his psychic link. The others should wake up shortly.”

Thea looked around the room at the rest of her brothers and sisters, who were sleeping like the dead.

“…Oh… I see.” Thea crinkled her nose as she noticed something amiss. “Wait, then why are you fine?”

“I am not. I am simply too excited to show you what I have to let a crippling headache stop me.”

Thea blinked several times while staring at her sister.

“…You’re so cute, peach.”

Gabbrielle smiled earnestly.

–

Gabbrielle’s realm is uniquely different from everyone else’s in the house.

Her space, while infinite, initially feels small at first.

It is a simple one-story home with plain, modern furnishings and nothing particularly world-breaking.

There is little to no technology, save for the laptop that sits on her desk and the handheld game console her brother gave her as a gift.

It is a quiet, quaint space, the likes of which someone might go to in order to detox from society.

But when looking out the window, one realizes just how far out of the ordinary that the space really is.

At first glance, they appear to be surrounded by a sea of stars.

But viewing the stars through an enhanced vision, one can see that they are not really what they seem.

They are the vast sea of possibilities within Yesh. An infinite wellspring of different timelines, possible outcomes, and choices, all for her viewing and studying.

“I forget how pretty it is in here… You should let people in more often.” Thea stepped through the door with Gabbrielle in her arms, taking off her shoes out of respect.

The child-shaped dragon seemed to become slightly embarrassed in the face of her compliment.

“I fear I am not one for decorating, and there isn’t much in the way of entertainment. You would all be terribly bored here.”

Thea gave her sister a small, chastising headbutt. “You don’t need to entertain family, Peach. We just want to feel close to you, that’s all.”

Gabbrielle nodded slowly. “…I see. I will take that under consideration.”

‘So serious…’ Thea sighed helplessly as she buried her face in her sister’s hair.

“Okay.” She sighed, her nostrils filled with the scent of shampoo. “What’s so important that you just had to show me?”

Gabbrielle became visibly excited.

She held her small hand out toward the ceiling, and the entire roof of her home disappeared.

Thea released a short, involuntary gasp at the sight waiting for her.

Watchers, one and all, were hovering in place with each of their glowing blue eyes focused on a different ‘star’.

At a glance, they seemed content. The way they floated around the things they observed was almost reminiscent of dancing.

“What… is this?”

“I kidnapped them.”

“What?!”

“Or maybe that’s not the word.” Gabbrielle brought a hand to her chin. “…I broke them out of confinement.”

Thea wanted to tell her sister that she really wasn’t making things sound a whole lot better.

“And… why would you do that?”

Gabbrielle looked up at her sister with big, innocent eyes that melted her heart.

“I thought that it was what you would do.”

Thea was floored.

“…Me?”

Gabbrielle nodded. She slowly turned her head towards the sky, where all of the watchers were fulfilling their task faithfully.

“I believe that the gods are going to petition Zheng to put them all down. With Father going back in time to close the doors, the horrors would have never made their way out. The gods will have no one to blame but them.”

Thea’s eyes widened slightly when she realized her sister was right.

From the very beginning, the watchers had always made people uncomfortable. They were a silent, unnerving caste of immortals who were deemed so beyond repair that they weren’t even allowed to have their own thoughts anymore.

Not even the first generation of nephilim received such a harsh punishment.

“Oh, umm… Moogi?”

Suddenly, a giant black and white teddy bear stood up in the corner of the room. Thea was so surprised that she nearly dropped her sister.

“Will you bring me that one?” Gabbrielle asked.

The teddy bear performed a small salute before it floated off into the sky overhead.

Gabbrielle felt a pair of heavy eyes on her and turned to see her sister giving her the most amused smile of a lifetime.

“…What?”

“You still keep your teddy bear around? That’s so precious, Grandpa is going to love that!”

For some reason, Gabbrielle didn’t like this kind of praise.

“Y-You must ot tell anyone! Our brothers will strip me of my dignity if they learn!”

Thea scoffed. “A little dramatic, don’t you think?”

“Courtney was sitting on the couch crying earlier, and Straga was texting them jokes about how she should just date one of the horror posters on her wall.”

Thea thought back, and her brow twitched involuntarily.

‘I knew that bastard didn’t just have an involuntary coughing fit… We don’t even cough!’

Apophis couldn’t have known it, but his life was going to be in great danger when Thea got back to the real world.

Suddenly, Moogi returned to the house with a single watcher in tow.

Thea noticed her sister staring at her hard, though she wasn’t sure as to why.

“…What? Am I that pretty?” She asked cheekily.

She was, but that had nothing to do with why Gabbrielle was staring.

“You do not recognize him.” She realized.

“Should I?” Thea tilted her head.

“I thought you might, given that he held you in captivity. But I suppose that it was too big an expectation to harbor-”

“Wait, wait, say again?? This is Baba Yaga’s grandson??”

“Mm.”

“Are you sure??”

Gabbrielle unfurled her hand, and a misty smoke poured out.

Through it, Gabbrielle showed her sister the memory that occurred right before she stole an entire race of watchers from Fiona’s ship.

Thea remained stunned, though she didn’t seem to doubt her sister anymore.

“I thought you might want to.. rehabilitate them. All of them.” Gabbrielle suddenly said.

“What..? Me?”

“We can do it together. I just thought that with Yesh and Asherah unavailable that it would be wasteful and tragic to leave them as they are.”

Gabbrielle looked towards the vastness of her realm and took in the sight of each individual watcher all at once.

“I want… to give them a life that is not one of constant agony, if possible. I know that what they are is supposed to be a punishment, but… I wonder if there is not a better way.”

Thea continued to be hopelessly surprised by everything that her sister said. After believing she knew everything about Gabbrielle, she realized that maybe there were more things she had yet to learn.

“Why do all of this…? You’ve always seemed like such a hands-off person that I’m surprised you didn’t just give them to mom. Why the change?”

Gabbrielle stared up at her sister with big, full eyes bursting with admiration.

“I told you. I thought it was what you would do.”

Thea felt her eyes start to sting.

She considered herself to be quite a lucky person in life. How rare was it to acquire a family that thought so much more of you than you did of yourself?

Thea took her role as the oldest sibling seriously. And in moments like this, all of the emotional labor, name-calling, and invasions of privacy felt more than worth it.

“…Thank you, peach.” Thea kissed her on the cheek. “You’re the best, most adorable little sister ever.”

Gabbrielle already knew that, but it was still nice to hear. At that moment, her heart was so full that it could have burst.

–

Audrina saw it all as clear as day.

One day, Dagon suddenly fell ill and never woke up. All of his years of research and study into the abyss was left untouched.

Her mother assumed the monarchy. She raised the children largely on her own and made sure that they were functional adults.

And long before Abaddon rose to power, she was a frequent visitor to Antares and the house of Draven, where she and the young princess participated in ‘cultural exchanges’. (They drank and talked shit.)

The only major change was that Audrina had never become queen of Upyr. Their mother saw that she had neither the interest, nor the work ethic for it.

Instead, it was Isabelle whom she passed the throne to when she was ready.

Well… she and her husband, that is.

–

Isabelle awoke with the headache of a lifetime.

She and Audrina were still lying together on the sofa, sandwiching their mother between them like they were still children.

However, now there was someone else sitting on the floor, rubbing their neck awkwardly.

“H-Hey… We should… probably talk, huh?” Iori asked.

With her memories synchronized, Isabelle did what she felt was the only logical thing.

She fainted once again.