First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1031: We Found You!

Chapter 1031: We Found You!

Baba Yaga coughed as dust and debris filled her lungs.

Sunlight was streaming into the house from a brand new hole in the roof. It was perhaps the only thing she could properly make out with her blurred vision.

However, it seemed she and her grandson were the only ones still having trouble with their sight. Loki was more than aware of the predicament they were already in.

“Nidhogg, good buddy, good pal… b-been a real long time, hasn’t it? You’re looking great. H-Handsome, even. Boy I tell ya, when you’re around my greatest enemy is bisexuality and thin-”

“Shut up, Loki.”

“L-Look, I know how it seems, but I swear I was an unwilling participant here! I didn’t know that little shit was going to-”

Baba Yaga’s vision refocused long enough for her to see what happened next.

A man taller than any she had ever seen before burned through the barrier of sulfur like it was simple wax paper.

He grabbed Loki by the neck and lifted him in the air with no effort.

Panic shone in Loki’s eyes as Belloc brought a hand towards his face.

Underneath the frightened gaze of the ancient witch, Belloc pulled Loki’s bottom jaw away from his face.

While it did not kill him, it was a very thorough indicator of the dragon’s mood.

Baba Yaga blinked, and suddenly the room was filled with people. All wore shadowy garments and oni masks; none of them made so much as a single sound when they arrived.

“Find her now!”

As quickly as they appeared, the men disappeared even quicker. Leaving Baba Yaga with the very last person she wanted to be around.

Belloc dropped Loki’s body just as more figures began to fill up the house.

No one paid any mind to anything except searching the house. Save for Apophis, who immediately trained his eyes on Steven.

But something soon got in his way.

“…What are you doing? Move.”

Baba Yaga kept her body positioned over her grandson’s. Her arm was held out in a trembling plea.

“Wait, please… I know you’re all angered, and you have every right to be. But I can only ask that you be satisfied with punishing me instead of my grandson.”

Steven believed he must’ve hit his head harder than initial estimates suggested. There was no way he could make sense of what was going on.

“You must be joking.”

“I was the one who made the decision not to teach him magic when he was young! This whole thing is a result of our family spat, and-”

“THEAAAA!!!”

Mira’s shrill howl shook the house.

Apophis and Belloc forgot all about their catives and ran towards the source of her voice.

Baba Yaga tried to stand up and take her grandson with her.

She only managed to get to one knee before one of the wraiths stabbed her through the shoe and stapled her foot to the floor.

When Baba Yaga tried to scream, a gloved hand covered her mouth instead.

Through her tear-streaked eyes, she saw the shadows at her feet form letters.

Make a sound, and I’ll crush your jaw.

–

Apophis and Belloc ran into each other several times in their attempts to rush down to the basement.

The rest of their siblings were either already there or trailing behind them.

Together, they entered into a spacious area that reeked of sulfur and a variety of other magical ingredients. All noxious, all dangerous, and all next to impossible to acquire.

Unless, of course, you run away from home with two million dollars in cash.

At the farthest end of the wall, there was a set of glowing chains bolted to the wall.

Each set of chains housed an old woman, who looked to be at least eighty years old.

Three of them looked painfully similar. You could scour every inch of their bodies and probably never even find a single wrinkle out of place.

Their white hair was thin and stringy. Their pale skin was covered in liver spots, and their eyes were sunken in and hollow. They might not have even known where they were.

The only other captive down there with them was distinctly different. Her skin, though just as wrinkled, was distinctly darker than the other captives.

Her hair also had a hint of blonde coloring that had yet to fade to white.

She was bound with more restrictions than the other pairing. Her wrists and ankles were both locked up tightly.

The chains connected to a singular point on the wall, and hanging above it were seven small effigies made of clay.

All of the energy being siphoned from the captives was flowing into those trinkets. Apophis narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

Mira snapped the chains binding all of the captives at once.

Almost immediately, power stopped flowing to the effigies on the wall. Straga gave a nod to the wraiths to collect them.

“Thea, are you okay!?”

Mira picked out the blonde old woman and held her in her arms.

Even in her immense grief, she was careful not to squish the old woman with her strength.

Slowly, the old woman’s eyes fluttered open. They were a heartbreaking, cloudy grey.

Her voice was as fleeting as a gust of wind. It was as if she hadn’t spoken in some time.

“W-Who…?”

Mira’s heart cracked inside of her chest as she pulled them apart.

“Y-You’re kidding… I-It’s me, your sister..!”

“…Gotcha.” The old woman held up two finger guns and forced herself to smile.

For a moment, Mira’s face twitched.

She raised her fist without thinking, and Yemaya just barely managed to catch it.

“Let me go! I was worried sick about her, and she pulls this kind of shit?! I’ll make you forget me for real, you bitch!”

“M-Mira, calm down!”

“Fuck you! Fuck her too!”

Tears streamed down Mira’s face as Straga eventually pulled her away.

Thea, seemingly hanging onto only a thread of her life, showed a smile that was both sad and sheepish.

“S-Sorry… I, umm… I don’t know why I thought that would go over better.”

Apophis went to his sister’s side and placed his forehead against her own.

She smiled at the drops of water that fell onto her cheeks.

“Stop all that now… we’re a little bit too old to be crying still, don’t you think?”

“…I’m sorry.”

As strange as it may have been, Thea believed that this was among the most loved she had ever felt.

Her stoic younger brother was even lowering himself to cry in front of her. She felt honored.

Nubia had been looking at the floor for a short time, trying to figure out what exactly had held her sister and the fates here without even letting them be observed.

The circle drawing was crude in both it’s execution and construction.

A powdery substance had been mixed into the sulfur. The ground-up bones of dead witches.

To accumulate this much, Steven had to have gone on a rather extensive grave-robbing spree. Or at least paid someone to it for him…

At the northmost tip of the pentagon, there was a black rock that looked like a slab of broken pavement.

It was unusually powerful, she knew that much for sure.

Picking it up, she brought the rock to her nose and sniffed it.

To her surprise, she recognized a very distinct scent.

The rock was soaked in blood. The very same blood that ran through her veins.

‘I suppose it wasn’t quite an artifact like we thought… still.’

Nubia enveloped the slab in a bubble of water.

The water began rotating at extremely high speeds- breaking down the stone into bits of sediment within moments.

As soon as the stone disappeared, there was a change.

Thea suddenly gasped as if a rush of air had flooded her body.

Her eyes glowed so brightly that it looked like she was burning from the inside out.

Right before the eyes of her siblings, Thea revitalized herself.

Her skin regained it’s perfect luster, her hair reacquired vibrancy, and her body’s curves returned in full.

When the light in Thea’s eyes finally died down, she sighed and smiled helplessly. “Whew… I feel so much better.”

Her siblings smiled helplessly at her, and helped her to her feet.

“Thanks for not bringing the girls too… didn’t really want them to see me all wrinkly and concerning looking, you know?” Thea forced a laugh.

Yemaya looked down at her watch. “Yeah, well, they’ll probably be here in a few seconds, so let me get my hug in before they slobber all over you.”

Yemaya embraced her sister with the tightest hug she could muster. They were very quickly joined by the rest of their siblings, some of whom were dry-eyed and some who were not.

But there was one person Thea noticed wasn’t present for their reunion.

“Where’s our little Bash?”

Immediately, awkward glances were exchanged between the Tathamet siblings.

Thea’s brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s… nothing.” Belloc lied. “He was more worried than any of us. He’ll be psyched to have you back.” He smiled.

By now, Thea knew she wasn’t getting the full story. Even if she didn’t know exactly what was being kept from her.

But after only just breaking free from captivity, the very last thing she was interested in doing was interrogating anyone.

As far as she was concerned, everything else could wait until they got home and the matter of her captor had been addressed…

Thea just like me fr making jokes when the situation don’t call for it.