First Demonic Dragon

Helios didn't earn the moniker of 'The Golden Dragon' solely based upon the color of his scales.

He was called golden for his dignified and regal aura, as well as his tastes.

It wasn't a bias that he was aware of, but after thousands of years of ruling as king to the most powerful nation in Dola, he had grown accustomed to only experiencing the best.

And now, as he stood in front of the place where Hajun had told him to meet, he felt for the first time in a long time a feeling of absurdity.

'This place is beneath me...'

Helios was staring at a small, greasy looking diner.

It didn't look like any sort of reputable establishment, nor did it seem dignified by any stretch of the imagination.

But he could already sense those who he had come here for inside.

Suddenly, the door was flung open and a man came outside smoking a cigarette.

He was a dragon around a few thousand years old, who had chosen to show traces of his age in his appearance while still keeping himself upright in a dignified manner.

Judging by the smell of food on him, he was clearly the cook here.

"Man, that empress sure can eat... and the other one drinks more than any man or woman I've ever seen..." Eventually, the man finally noticed Helios standing outside.

"Oh hey, you must be the emporer's guest, right? Go on in, they're all in there but I think they started partying without you." the man cackled.

"Right..." It had been so many years since the golden dragon had been talked to with such informality.

It was jarring.

Helios finally stopped standing outside to gawk and ventured inside of the building.

Once he opened the door, he could clearly hear several different streams of laughter filling the air.

When he stepped into view, he was met with a series of cheers and excitement.

Darius: "He made it! I was worried his old ass wouldn't be able to follow the map on his phone!"

Jasmine: "I never doubted you for a second, gramps!"

Hajun: "Get on over here and grab a drink with me!"

Within the empty restaurant, a medley of faces were already sitting down occupying multiple booths while they waited for him.

Abaddon was sandwiched between two women who Helios already knew fairly well, but he wasn't expecting them to also make an appearance.

"...Traditionally, grandson, when someone requests a meal with you, they do in fact mean just you." The Golden Dragon felt as if maybe that point was not properly made clear before.

Abaddon smiled bashfully. "This all just sort of happened at the last moment. Here."

Miraculously, the large dragon suddenly appeared outside of his seat and standing next to his grandfather. "We're going to step back here for a moment. Valerie, keep Bekka away from my plate if you don't mind."

"Sur-"

"We're married so what's yours is mine, sweet husband!"

Bekka snatched up the two sausages resting on Abaddon's plate and gulped them down like they were... well, sausages.

Secretly seething and plotting revenge, Abaddon led his grandfather to an empty booth on the other side of the restaurant.

As they walked, to the back, Helios couldn't help but glance at every minute detail of the establishment.

"Why have you had me meet you in this hovel..?"

"It's far from a hovel." Abaddon scoffed. "It's a nice reset for me. Places like this keep my family and I grounded."

"What need do you have for something like that when you are practically above all?"

"Those who forget where they come from inevitably fall right back where they began. A sense of humility will protect my mind from poisonous hubris and greed."

"Humility, huh..? So you think that you are an average looking man?"

"No, I have no equal or superior in terms of physical appearance. I'm humble, but not blind."

Helios rolled his eyes. "Sometimes you truly are so much like your father..."

Abaddon paused just as he was about to sit down in a booth and glanced at his father. "Yes, well... that is not such a bad thing to be. I have certainly known worse men than he."

Helios didn't ask what his grandson meant or why he seemed to be thinking about something from a whole lifetime ago.

The reason why he didn't was... he was just bad at that kind of thing, and had been for as long as he could remember being capable of independent thought.

"So? Are you going to sit down?"

Helios glanced at the booth warily. "...You would truly have me sit on this-"

"Sit down, old man." Abaddon rolled his eyes.

It looked like it nearly killed Helios to do so, but he eventually sat down nonetheless.

"So? I don't want to say that you are a cold man, but you certainly aren't the kind of person who asks to meet because you missed the company of your grandson."

Helios became slightly uncomfortable, as he wasn't expecting them to just jump right into the conversation.

This isn't what he practiced at home!

He imagined that they would sit and talk about smaller things first, possibly even share a drink or reminisce about the days where he was a scrawny little lizard who married a woman twice his size.

You know, small talk!

But now that they were just jumping right into the conversation, Helios wasn't at all prepared!

"We haven't had a chance to catch up in a while, so you might not know..." Abaddon began.

When Helios looked back up at his grandson, it almost felt like he was staring at a different man.

The very air around Abaddon had changed significantly, and become something much more oppressive, domineering, and incomprehensible.

It was then that Helios finally realized just how much blood Abaddon must have spilled to develop this kind of disposition.

And the strangest thing was, he still seemed to be growing more and more oppressive with the steady passing of time.

"I've developed a very... distinctive set of talents, you see?" Abaddon continued. "I can feel it in my blood when I look at a man who has conquest on his mind."

Helios looked horrified like a man who'd been caught with his pants down.

If he learned that Abaddon also knew his innate sexual preferences, he was liable to faint outright.

But Abaddon also considered that ability to be a curse, ever since the day he accidentally looked at Thea and learned about her fetish for having her hair pulled...

Now that the cat was already out of the bag, Helios sighed in defeat.

The dragon looked out the window absentmindedly as he tapped his claw on the table.

"You've done what I set out to do, but better. You've created a haven for our people where we are free from any oppression that would fall upon us, or any vile humans who would seek to tame us.

You've made our people strong. Eternal. This is all that I ever could have wanted, but in my time my efforts accounted to an insignificant third of yours." Helios said honestly.

"Don't." Abaddon raised his hand. "Let's not compare accomplishments between us. Much of what I've accomplished was brought about by the groundwork you laid out in Antares. Think of this as a combined effort, and leave all other thoughts aside."

Again, Helios was left stunned into silence by his grandson.

He so much resembled Yara in how he behaved that it was scary.

They were both unwaveringly kind people.

Where Helios was born, dragons are not particularly 'nice'. Not even to their own sometimes.

Kindness is seen as a luxury that they simply do not have.

The belief was that to survive, they had to be ruthless, dominant creatures that forced their way to the pinnacle by whatever means necessary.

Only when you are great and untouchable do you have the luxury of being 'kind'.

Because nothing else remains that is capable of hurting you.

The problem is that climbing the ladder like that takes a very, long time.

And once a dragon becomes full grown, they get stuck in their ways and find little reason to change- with the threat of betrayal being to great a concern.

Helios was no exception.

Perhaps that reason was why he was so enthralled by his daughter.

She was born with an innate desire to show compassion, and it was a trait she passed down to all three of her children.

It wasn't something Helios understood, but it was something that he sometimes wished he possessed.

It truly was an odd thing to look at your own descendent and see everything that you wanted to be.

Should he be jealous?

Or maybe even possess a feeling similar to being left out?

No… perhaps it was best to just feel a bit of pride instead.

"...So? What is it you want to ask of me?" Abaddon asked again.

Helios snapped out of his small moment of reflection and came back to the present.

"Right... You have already given me my darling Rhea back. And you have brought me back to life with my family as well.

By all means you are not required to ever do a single thing for me ever again, but I fear I must shamelessly ask you for more.

If your vision for our people is the same as mine, and you also wish to enact divine vengeance upon those who would call themselves our conquerors, then I ask you, Abaddon... help me bathe the whole of Visoleer in the glow of our divine fire."

Abaddon had heard a little bit about his grandfather's homeworld from his granddaughter Gabbrielle.

While the concept of dragon slayers and dragon riders is not exclusive to that world, it is particularly brutal there.

It was the kind of thing that Abaddon couldn't let stand, even if Helios hadn't asked him to help.

He was just in need of a little push to get him started.

"...It will take time." Abaddon said seriously.

"I've waited several thousand years already. I can wait a bit longer if need be."

"I don't half-ass my wars. This will leave your old world entirely uninhabitable."

"Is there any other way to conduct a war against hated adversaries?"

Abaddon smiled to himself; for the first time realizing just how similar he and his grandfather may have been.

"No... There most certainly is not."