First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1218: Of Two Minds

Chapter 1218: Of Two Minds

K’ael’s sudden collapse captured the attention of everyone in the house.

It wasn’t the fall that caught everyone’s attention. It was Erica’s scream that did it.

Thea and Apophis lunged over the staircase at the same time like Olympic athletes.

They hit the floor in unison and rushed toward their brother’s side.

As soon as they reached their brother, they were forced to take a step back.

A sweltering wall of infernal flame rose from the boy’s body as he screamed.

’K’ael!’

Odie ran toward her brother to help him, unthinking of the danger. If not for Helios restraining her, she would have undoubtedly seen a severe burn.

Only K’ael’s mothers seemed to be capable of getting near her son.

She held him in her arms to stop his shaking, but a new problem quickly arose.

K’ael’s body gradually shifted from a human’s into a molten magma-like state that melted the floor underneath him. He was literally slipping through his mother’s fingers.

“Oh. I’m late. It’s plain dreadful how that keeps happening.”

Over the roar of the flames and the screams of the young dragon, Eternity appears just beyond the doorframe with his usual thin-lipped smile.

He was dressed oddly, in a pair of overalls and a button-down shirt. A tan cowboy hat sat atop his head of oily black hair.

When he spoke, his dialect sounded poorly rehearsed.

“Howdy, neighbors! Mind if I lend a hand?”

Mira’s eyes lit up like twin-colored beacons. “You wore it- I mean, yeah, help my brother!”

“As you wish.”

Eternity didn’t make so much as a single move, but everything seemed to change instantly.

K’ael finally calmed down. At the same time, the flames he created finally vanished into nothing.

Everyone inside is unsure of what to make of what they have just witnessed. Eternity, however, was behaving in a completely normal manner.

He held up a steaming metal pan with an innocent smile.

“I brought conecuh sausages… would anybody care for one?”

–

Erica gently ran her fingers over the small details of her son’s face.

K’ael slept peacefully with her head in her lap. If he were awake, he would never be able to cope with the shame of his current position.

“I take it that is your youngest? I had heard the rumors, but he really does seem to be exceptionally powerful.”

Erica looks up with a wry smile at her honored visitor.

Tyson Vermillion was, like his sisters, an exceptionally good-looking person.

His physique was a bit less chiseled compared to Jazmine’s, but he still appeared to be more physically fit than Claire.

His red hair was bound in two simple braids that hung around his nape.

The bright, amethyst light of his almond-shaped eyes was naturally comforting and lifted even Erica’s mood.

“…You should have come to see him at some point. Even Amaterasu, as busy as she is, takes special care to visit her brother on every birthday.”

Tyson fidgets uncomfortably. “Ah, my dear maker… You know how my mind is. Always slipping from one thing to another.”

Erica snorted. “Yes, yes, I know. Maybe that’s why you should come around more so that-”

“Hey, why’s the shitty bird here?” Satan walked into the room with a wide gait; scratching his stomach obnoxiously.

He crinkled his nose in the air and stared at Tyson accusatorially. “Is Tweety having accidents or something? This place smells like burned-”

Satan fell through a hole in the floor before he could finish his crude and undoubtedly very offensive remark.

“Oh heavens…” Eternity stared into the hole where Satan had disappeared. “Is that necessary?”

“Yes.” The entire room seemed to respond at once.

“Oh…okay then.”

Tyson hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Who’s the twink?”

“Why does everyone in this house insist on calling me that?”

“Femboy deity feels too rude.” Behemoth answered with cheeks full of sausage.

“…I already possess a glorious, divine epithet that describes my purpose and my identity perfectly. I am Eternity. The well from which the waters of time flow and wash over all that has ever been and all that there will ever be.”

Tyson opened his mouth to speak.

“NO, it is not a ’stripper’ name!” Eternity snapped.

Tyson closed his mouth, but pointed to Eternity with a look of shock.

“I could do it because I saw you say it before you even thought it. Things really are no more complicated than that.” Eternity said with a huff.

“…Okay then.”

Maybe Tyson really did need to come around more…

Erica and the other wives rubbed their brows in unison.

“You can think of Eternity as something of a distant relative of ours.”

“Well, not as they currently are.” Eternity waved his hand over all of the wives to gesture to them.

“These women in their imperfect forms are not my equals. It is the sum of themselves who are my fellow absolutes. Speaking of which, approximately when will they be returning to life? My vision around the three of you is still imperfect and it feels disorienting.”

“In a few hours, twink.” Seras yawned. “Don’t rush us, we like getting to live our own individual lives too. As meager as you may believe us to be.”

“I would not say meager. Just fleeting. Surely, one day you’ll have to be absorbed into the others anyway, no?”

“What!?”

The children, as well as the wives’ parents, all stood up in horror at the sudden revelation.

“Calm down, everyone.” Eris sighed. “Eternity doesn’t necessarily know what he’s talking about.”

“Need we remind all of you that he routinely forgets the phrases for basic conversation?” Lailah reasoned.

“You seem to be mocking me, and I’ll have you know that is very un-tubular.”

“See, everyone? Nothing to worry about.” Lisa smiles.

Her words were enough to quell the parents down at least, but the younger children still seemed to be slightly shaken.

Tatiana pulled her children back into their seats and took them under her arms. “You all don’t need to look so down and gloomy. Even if you can’t see us, we’ll always be here with you. I can’t explain it, but you won’t lose us. The house’ll just be a little less crowded, is all.”

Odessa hung on to her mother tightly. ’…I like it when the house is crowded.’

Tatiana’s smile slowly faded. She and the others were left with no idea of what else they should say to console their children.

Eternity watched this entire scene silently, but he could not say he understood the reason for the negative feelings.

Should they not have been used to the concept of beings of more than one mind in their family by now? Even the flaming boy was something similar, born of Oblivion’s whim.

Silently, Eternity considered to himself the very real possibility that they might not have been aware of that fact.

“I am… realizing that I might’ve come at a bad time.” Tyson stood up. “Maybe I should-”

“””NO!””” Erica, Jasmine, and Claire all grabbed the young man by his clothes and forced him to sit back down.

“You can’t leave! We’ll literally never see you again!”

“Stop trying to be such a damned flake all the time!”

“You came over because you had information, right? You can’t just leave without telling us anything and having dinner, and a drink after, a-and maybe even staying the night too!”

“Okay, okay, I get it…! Can you all let my clothes go now!?” Tyson complained.

The girls finally let him go, but only after Erica got him to agree to stay for dinner.

It was the ultimate mistake. She was planning to attack his body with so much of the itis that he wouldn’t even be able to lift his legs after eating.

“I only saw it for a moment, and there isn’t much I can tell you about it, but.. here.”

Yellow flames poured out of Tyson’s body and filled the empty spaces in the room.

Within the flame, a moving image could be seen that contained the image of the same being.

From a distance, it looked somewhat humanoid. But the more details they noticed, the less they could say that was the case.

“What… is that?” Karliah sounded oddly fascinated.

“Grymthax.”

Everyone turned toward Eternity and found him nibbling on his own sausage.

He finally seemed to have found a food he liked, though he wasn’t a very big fan of the one called Darius stating that his liking of sausages was ’obvious’.

“…What’s a Grymthax?” Imani held up her hand.

“They are one of WorldJoiner’s lieutenants. A scout with eight all-seeing eyes that can accurately map out an entire solar system with just a look.”

Bekka’s eyes sharpened. “So they are coming… Things were so quiet after our husband nabbed Bayach’al, we hoped that they would just turn around and find another Aeon to pick with.”

Eternity continued eating. “Dreadful fellow, that brute is. I do not condone the use of our force against lesser beings, but I am very happy to see that beast taken off the board.”

“Yeah, well, now we have an all-seeing scout to deal with, so it seems that her army is full of annoying pieces.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it much. Everything that Grymthax has observed will no longer be applicable by the time her army has finished making it’s preparations.”

“…And why might that be?”

Eternity held out his tray of sausages for Mira to take one. “Ah, what’s it called again… the apocalypse? It starts in five days.”

Mira dropped her sausage back into the pan.

She, and everyone else in the room, were aptly shocked by the revelation that had been casually dropped in their laps with complete nonchalance.

Eternity blinked slowly ashe swept his gaze over everyone.

He turned his gaze downward into the pan of meat on his lap.

“That… probably counts as a spoiler, huh?”