First Demonic Dragon

"World-Breaker. Red Ruler. Angel of The Abyss."

Percival Helel Morningstar stared down at a near uncountable number of demons. All of them seemed to be teetering on edge of his every word.

Every demonic creature in Hell was here, from those who were the size of buildings, to imps no bigger than him.

Percival had all of them hanging off of his every word.

Whether they were impressed with or just in awe of the new king, it was hard to tell.

"He poses a most credible threat to us now. He and that homogenous bride of his. The Unifier. World-Forger. The White Dawn.

They will no doubt come here looking for Michael and Lucifer, and when they do not find them; they will no doubt fly into a rage and attack me, the architect of their untimely biting of the dust.

So before that happens and they reduce our precious home to even more of a fixer-upper than it already is, I am ordering a full scale evacuation."

The assembled demons may as well have been told that they were about to be gifted white wings and halos.

Leaving Hell was equally as unattainable for them. Without possession, they couldn't even travel to the newly budding earth.

Murmurs and outcries of denial filled up the lowest level of hell.

"We can't!"

"We'll die!!"

"This is madness!"

Percival narrowed his eyes. "Be quiet."

When his true voice slipped out, the weakest of the demons imploded outright. The rest roared in agony and dropped to their knees.

"Do you want to grow or do you want to be comfortable? You cannot do both." He landed atop the head of an oblivious looking cyclops demon. "Even if the Black Dragon would not eventually come knocking, we would still need to leave this prison for a land that is more… fertile."

Paimon, who by all accounts had become akin to Percival's aide, raised his staff for the king's attention.

"I question not your ability to break us free, as I surmise you would not make these kinds of pronouncements unless you had a way to break us free from our confinement."

"Naturally."

"But where exactly are we to go? Whichever realms we tread upon shall notice our presence."

Percival smiled eerily as if he had just been waiting for someone to ask him that question.

"The Ash Lands."

Unlike before, there was no murmuring, but the demons' immense surprise was perhaps louder than words.

Baal, who had been very careful about how he spoke to Percival since the hall earlier, was in a clear state of shock like the rest of demonkind.

"My Dark Lord… The Shadow Realm is supposed to be a fable. Do you truly not jest as to knowing it's whereabouts…?"

"Do I look like a joker to you?"

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Percival looked down at himself and remembered his suspenders and bow tie.

"…Don't answer that." He cleared his throat. "But yes. We shall begin our relocation towards the Ash Lands immediately."@@novelbin@@

To prove his point, Percival opened up a portal in the sky, larger than any demon here had ever laid eyes on before.

He pointed up, and after a moment's hesitation, droves of demons began flying up towards the hole in the sky.

Percival stepped down from the cyclops demon and landed on the steps to Lucifer's former palace.

There, the three remaining wives of Lucifer- Eisheth, Naamah, and Lilith, were bound and gagged. Standing beside them were two of Lucifer's sons, who, like the rest of demonkind, had fallen in underneath their new ruler.

Beelzebub and Lucifer, the Sins of Gluttony and Pride.

Looking for the others was no major concern of his, as if he were honest, he didn't believe that he was going to need them. No, he was certain he wasn't.

He smiled at all of them in a deceitful, childish manner.

"Shall we go see our new home then, my toys?"

- Present Day, Amassierre.

Time had run it's course on Percival, as it does on all beings. The only difference here was, he seemed to have grown particularly well over the course of the last few millennia.

He wore the appearance of a neat, handsome looking man with perfectly tousled black hair and a clean shaven face.

His almond shaped eyes were their 'regular' unassuming red. Though they twinkled with amusement.

He had a handsome face almost akin to that of Ziz. It would be a miracle if he possessed even a hint of humility looking like that.

Only Percival's upper body was reflected through the glassy surface of the gemstones, and the only clothing that could be observed was a black, button down shirt with a sweater over it.

"Oh? It seems we had guests while I was out. You rascal, Gulban, why didn't you tell me?" He tisked.

"Who. Are. You..?" Abaddon asked again, with significantly less patience than the first time.

"O-Oh, I'm a nobody compared to you, sir..!" Percival feigned reverence. "I've actually been a fan for such along time you have no idea."

"Do you think me a man so easily amused...?" The cavern rumbled as Abaddon's hair seemed to float uncontrollably.

"Well I didn't, but now I'm thinking you might be easily angered..." Percival's reflections looked around the cavern as if he were somehow also fearful he might die in a collapse.

"No more games! Who are you and what have you done to my father!?" Valerie roared.

Gulban shivered and looked away in shame.

Percival merely held up both his hands in surrender. "Okay, I will admit... I was a bit overzealous. I did a smidge too much. But that was only because he was so uncooperative. I mean, it's not that hard to just comply, right? If he had, he would have been in a much better state."

Percival noticed the silence in the cavern and paused as if he had just said something controversial. "Oh...Well I just meant... Nevermind, there's not really any fixing that is there? Maybe I just shouldn't talk so much, but I'm just so damned good at it..." He gripped his chest as if he were unwillingly burdened with glorious purpose.

Abaddon swiped the air with his claws.

Upon lashing out at what seemed like nothing, he cut the nearest block of gems into threes.

Percival furrowed his brow for a second, and then looked down at his torso.

A large claw mark was spread across his chest. Rivers of blood ran down his clothing as a brand new wound opened up.

He winced as his eyes watered. He'd been injured. For the first time in his entire life, he had known pain.

And he hated it.

"If you ignore another question directed towards you, the next time you will lose your head and die without explaining yourself." Abaddon said coldly.

Percival waited for his wound to close up, but to no avail. It was clotting as if it were a regular human wound.

He had no choice but to summon a small ball of flame and burn his wound closed to stop the bleeding. All the while gritting his teeth to avoid showing a disgraceful scene.

"It must be easy for you.. All that power. All of that might at your beck and call whenever you want it. I was born to be great, but you... You are something unique, aren't you? And that outside help must make it even easier, huh?"

Abaddon formed a thought, but immediately bubbled it back down.

Instead, he raised his claws that were glowing with a mysterious light. "You're hardly the first demon hard of hearing I've ever met. It seems you won't learn until-"

Suddenly, the gems went dark and Abaddon could no longer see the face of Gulban's captor.

"Resorting to violence at the first instance of disagreement. You really are a dragon, through and through. I was always going to answer your questions, you didn't have to go all Puss-In-Boots on me.

My name is Percival Helel Morningstar. The 2nd Monarch of Demon-Kind and unintentional architect of this little soiree that you and the Empress have stumbled your way into... Oh, and you too Director Nagumo. You're just not as interesting as the other two."

Shin set his jaw in place. He was tired of being stepped on everywhere he went.

Meanwhile, Abaddon was reeling in the wake of a torrential revelation. Helel was another of Lucifer's names before the fall. Add to that the fact that Percival had his namesake and...

"Lucifer is your father..?" Abaddon said, aghast.

"He was, for what little he was worth. Did you like the replica I left you back before the reset? Equally as infuriating as the real thing, don't you think?"

If Abaddon and Ayaana were not experts at controlling their facial expressions, Percival's latest revelation would have undoubtedly caused them to crack.

They both remembered Igrat, who rested at home alone, and the last words she said to them before falling into a coma.

She said Lucifer had taken her son right out of her stomach.

"Where is your father? Where is your Uncle? How did you survive the reset!?"

"Questions, questions, questions...!" Percival whined. "So exhausting! Why does anyone even want to know about those old bastards anyway? They were hardly so interesting when they were alive."

Abaddon and Ayaana almost felt their jaws drop.

"You two scale-brains have been asking me whatever question you wanted ever since I miraculously appeared. But now I have a question for you..."

A single gemstone rippled and Percival's face appeared with a large, pointed smile and his frightening goat eyes.

"Is your sister as strong as you?"

Abaddon rushed towards the gemstone, but before he could obliterate it, Percival had already left.