When Abaddon stepped down from Bagheera, Sif realized just how tall he was.
Thor was three quarters giant and stood at exactly eight feet tall, and Abaddon was only a little bit shorter than him.
But where Thor had a more rotund and jolly figure, The Father of All Monsters was cut like marble, and as sharp as a blade.
Underneath the weight of his distrustful gaze, Sif clenched her fists until they bled to prevent herself from backing away.
She didn't realize that it hadn't worked and she had been taking two steps back everyti he took one.
'What is your issue with ?' She ant to ask.
However, before she could get that words out, Deter suddenly grabbed Abaddon's wrist from behind.
Instantly, the terse and unfriendly deanor he wore was replaced by a much more simple and unassuming one.
"Hm? What's wrong, Dem-Dem?"
"I told you I don't like that na…"
"It's too late, it's already saved in my phone."
"You could always change it…"
"Why would I do that? I think it fits, don't you Legba?"
Papa Legba snickered into his tea and chose not to comnt for fear of enduring the goddess's wrath at a later ti.
"You are wearing my gift…" she muttered.
Abaddon looked down at the belt he wore across his midsection and smiled. "I ant to thank you properly, but I'm sure you know that things got a little complica-"
"I love you."
Bagheera: "Groh…" (Oh shit, this bitch has lost it.)
Papa Legba: *Choked coughing*
Sif: "W-Wha…?!"
Abaddon looked like soone who had been caught with his pants down in the middle of a crowd.
"Deter-"
"No more Dem-Dem?"
"Don't joke… maybe this isn't the right ti for us to be having this-"
"I don't care about the setting. I have been silent for too long already, and I won't waste more ti. Even if I am to be rejected, I still want to say how I feel honestly."
Abaddon had never felt so awkward in his life.
He looked toward Bagheera for help, but found the large beast sitting on its hind legs and watching with great interest.
'Useless beast!'
'Say what you want, boss. This is better than priti television!'
Ignoring his mount for now, Abaddon instead smiled sadly at Deter as he lowered his head.
"I'm sorry… I cannot accept your feelings."
"…Can you tell why?"
"I already have my eternity. And besides… you do not love , you lust for . I'm aware that Greeks famously have a hard ti discerning the difference, but I can assure you it is there."
Abaddon's attempt at humor only seed to halfway land with Deter.
"I.. see." The goddess lowered her head to the ground and tried to force a smile onto her face.
"You should know… I value your friendship quite a bit. You have been a true friend to since I've known you." Abaddon was continuously trying to soften the blow however he was able.
Deter looked up at Abaddon, and he could see small tears forming in her eyes.
"Thank you… but you should know that sotis your friendship is more of a burden than a blessing."
Deter turned around without adding another word, and Abaddon felt he had no right to chase after her.
As he watched her back disappear, he got the sinking feeling that… maybe he wouldn't see her again for a long ti.
And even though he held no romantic love for her, there was a platonic variety there.
So to know that he had actually been hurting her… was a truly botherso feeling.
Turning his head, he looked towards a nearby stairwell where Persephone and Discordia were standing in the shadows.
He didn't even have to ask them to go after her and make sure she was alright, as they did it on their own.
"Are you well, Zanmi?" Papa Legba asked. (Friend)
Abaddon shrugged and sat down right on the floor.
Bagheera, in a rare mont of empathy, lay behind his master so that Abaddon could recline on his body.
For a mont, he sat in silence while staring at the ceiling and gathering his thoughts.
Sif could only sit and stare at him, completely unsure how to process the scene she had just witnessed.
Like that, five minutes of total silence ticked by before Abaddon finally spoke.
"You spent so ti in Dola, right..?" He asked Sif without looking her way. "What a coincidence, as did I."
The Norse goddess felt her heart speed up at the ntion of Asherah's world, and panic began to creep into her mind.
"I have… no idea what you are talking about."
"I dont know if you can tell, but I'm not exactly in the best mood at the mont. Lying to when I already know the truth is a very poor way to keep hospitable."
Sif gritted her teeth together as she doubled down on her lie. "I-I've already said I do not-"
"I rember the day I found her… she was the most precious thing that I had ever seen.
Despite being raised by humans and knowing nothing but them, she didn't hesitate to grab onto the tail of soone she knew to be a demon lord.
Perhaps she just figured that there was no way I could be an even greater monster than the one she had already co to know. Funny how that is true for her alone."
A sick, creeping feeling began to worm its way into Sif's heart.
"You.. what are you trying to say..?"
"Do you know that he didn't even na her? At eleven years old she was mute, illiterate, underdeveloped, and so thin that I could see all of her bones when I bathed her. It breaks my heart to rember that ti."
"Stop speaking in riddles, dragon!" She snapped. "Tell what you are trying to say!"
Abaddon leaned his head forward and pushed his two toned hair out of his eyes.
"I'm saying that one of the greatest joys of my life was the day I burned your little affair partner's soul out of creation, and adopted your daughter to live as my own. Do you understand now, or should I say it in Norse?"
Sif looked to be bordering on a violent outrage.
Her entire body trembled as she wept silently with every vein in her body popping out of the surface of her skin.
"You.. are everything that they say you are… I WILL KILL YOU!!!"
"I welco you to try."
Roaring, Sif summoned a large double sided ax into her hands as she lunged at Abaddon.
Neither he, nor Bagheera, or even the elents moved to defend him.
Sif brought her weapon down right on top of Abaddon's head; in the gap between his horns.
Miraculously, the shining tal blade broke against his head like a raw egg; and even splintered their wooden handle holding it up.
Sif felt her arms ringing like a prostitute's cell phone on Valentine's Day, and she was left reeling from her own attack.
With speed two fast for her to follow, Abaddon stood up and grabbed her by the wrists before holding her arms above her head.
"Are you done? You got splinters in my hair."
"Shut up, monster!"
Sif repeatedly kicked at Abaddon's muscular legs in an attempt to inflict any kind of damage on him at all.
But of course, she only ended up hurting herself in the process.
She bruised and even fractured her legs from the repeated kicking, but she either didn't notice or didn't care.
"Stop." Abaddon's eyes glowed red as he siphoned every drop of Sif's wrath and left her incapable of fighting back.
He exhaled from deep with his lungs and a wave of golden Aether passed over her body.
Miraculously, the blood and bruises on her legs healed as if they were never there, but Sif was not the least bit grateful.
Her head hung as low as possible as she continued to cry, with her voice so quiet that it was barely a whisper.
"I.. hate you.."
"For what? Raising the child you left behind while you played house with the thunder god? Or for killing the man who beat and starved her day in and day out?"
"You are a liar… he wouldn't do that… not my kind Joel… you killed him because you are a beast… Denying him even the dignity of an afterlife… I will curse you with my last breath."
Abaddon's eyes narrowed.
Since he was still reeling from the loss of his friendship with Deter, he wasn't in the mood to be talked down to.
He started to lash out, but at the last second he rembered his precious baby girl, and the sincere request that she asked of him.
Finally, he put Sif down and let her fall to the floor.
"So… you want to hear from soone trustworthy then? That's fine."
Papa Legba couldn't explain why, but for so reason he got a chill and the hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up.
Bagheera entered a similar state.
No one knew where or when, but at so point a large, ominous door appeared in the air above their heads.
The doors creaked open and revealed sothing indescribable to the mortal mind.
To the best of their abilities, Sif and Papa Legba would recall it as nothing.
True oblivion and inconceivability.
Except for one small thing.
They could see a single person just on the other side of the door.
"P-Please let out! I don't want to stay in the dark anymore, I can't take it!!!"
Sif's tears flowed harder.
Papa Legba scratched his head in confusion.
"Abaddon… what is this?"
The dragon looked over his shoulder sleepily at the loa.
"She said she didn't believe , so I asked a favor of soone who she could trust."
"But you said-"
"Right… we haven't talked in a while. I have beco Oblivion, old man.
I sit above destruction, above death, above the end. I am the final destination of all things.
Whatever has been erased, I alone can bring back.
Whoever has been ended, I alone can make them begin again.
Anything that is forgotten, I will always rember."
Sif was listening to Abaddon's description of what she was seeing just like the loa did, and she was even more shocked than him.
With a voice like a mouse, she hesitantly called out to the being above.
"Joel…?"
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