A week had gone by and it was time for Mammon to deliver the materials that had been requested by his fellow sin.
Accompanied by twenty carriages loaded down with the most expensive and rare building materials in all of Dola along with over fifty demons, he was eager to get this business out of the way so that he might finally get his hands on a succulent succubus or eight.
However, his plans were rudely interrupted when he arrived at the city of Luxuria and found that it was completely deserted.
The streets, houses, and even the wall overlooking the city, they were all completely empty.
“What the hell is going on?!”
“I want to drop this shit off and blow a load already!”𝔬𝓥xt.𝕔𝑂𝗆
“Celeste? Marianne? Have the two of you run away from me..?”
“Oi! What did I tell you about trying to turn whores into housewives!?”
Naturally, when the men did not see the pretty faces they had come here for, they became particularly irate and rowdy.
Mammon did not make any attempts to calm them, his ancient mind was already running overtime to figure out why the city could possibly be empty.
‘It looks like they left in a hurry, a great deal of personal items are still here. Was it an enemy? That can’t be it, there are no signs of damage.’
The king of greed was at a loss for an explanation.
“They are returning!”
Just as he was about to scream out in frustration, one of his soldiers pointed out at a large horde of demons that was approaching the gate from the east.
Even from here, Mammon could feel it.
‘Something is wrong.’
The entire group was exuding pure negativity.
At the front, Audrina was walking next to a dark elf woman and a little girl who was riding a strange beast that resembled a cross between a lion and a dog.
It was perhaps triple the size of a large bear, with golden fur as bright as the sun. Perhaps due to the kind of mana it had been fed, it’s curly mane was made of black flames. It’s huge fangs were more like tusks, giving this ferocious beast an even more horrifying appearance.
Even from a distance of more than 100 yards, Mammon could see it’s bright red and gold eyes focus on the unknown demons within it’s vicinity.
‘A Komainu?!’ Mammon screamed internally.
Why did it seem as though his nephew was always obtaining such good things?!
Komainu are godly beasts that are more commonly referred to as guardian lions.
As the name suggests, they are fierce protectors and rather powerful beasts as well. they shouldn’t even be in this world, yet here one was as clear as day.
As the group got closer and closer, Mammon was able to notice that Audrina had a rather ugly look on her face.
It was a mix of frustration and utter panic, making Mammon worry even more about what could have happened in the week it took him to gather materials.
When the two parties met, he quickly got to the heart of the matter at hand. “What happened? Why do you all look like someone who’s just watched their wife get plowed?”
Audrina took several shaky breaths. “My daughter went missing five nights ago. We have all been searching for her tirelessly ever since.”
Mammon glanced behind the vampire and saw that other than the rabisu who were non expressional all the time, all of the demons present seemed like they were upset over their missing princess.
Truthfully, the demon king did not care that a human child was missing but he did care that it was Abaddon’s child that went missing.
This could derail all of their future plans.
Mammon did not know much about his nephew but he did know that he placed his family above all.
If he returned home to find his daughter missing, forget building, this entire continent would be razed to the ground until she was returned and the ones responsible were no longer drawing breath.
“I find it hard to believe that someone could sneak into your home and take your daughter.”
That was something that Audrina could not understand either.
When Mira came to her a few nights ago and said that her sister was missing, Audrina thought Thea may have simply gone to the bathroom or something.
Even while resting, Audrina was constantly observing the entirety of her home with her senses.
There was absolutely no way for any foreign entity to slip into their home without her noticing.
So did that mean Thea left voluntarily? And if so, where did she go?
After searching tirelessly for days, she finally had to call off the search.
The rest of the family was supposed to return today and Audrina was trying to muster up the courage to face them and tell them that she’d lost their precious child.
“The queens are arriving!”
Off in the horizon, a massive dragon was flying closer with a small army in tow.
When they arrived through the gates of the city, the citizens bowed to show their respect, while silently eyeing the 400 or so newcomers that were accompanying them.
Vampires, dwarves, phoenixes, warwolves and various other beast men were staring at their surroundings like they could not believe they were real.
For them who had never experienced life outside of a facility, this place was nothing less than heavenly.
“We’re backkk!” Bekka called cheerfully.
“Oh, the materials are here!”Valerie immediately became excited and her passion as a craftsman burned with renewed intensity.
“Mira…? What is that you’re riding on?” Lisa’s could focus on nothing other than the large lion-like beast her cute daughter was riding on top of.
After another moment, all of the women noticed the odd and depressing mood among the people and their family.
Lailah’s eyes immediately met Audrina’s and Mira’s, easily seeing that the two of them were greatly disturbed by something.
Right now, she did not care about the new citizens or whatever business Mammon had come for.
All that mattered was finding out why her daughter and one of her best friends had such pitiful looks on their faces.
“What happened?”
Before answering, Audrina opened and closed her mouth several times like a fish, utterly incapable of voicing the current situation.
Frustrated, she put up a dome of shadows around herself and the rest of her family, giving them total privacy from the outside.
With no more outsiders privy to their conversation, Audrina finally dropped her icy outer persona as she fell to her knees sobbing uncontrollably.
“I-I’m so sorry! We looked everywhere for days b-but we can’t find Thea!”
Through choked sobs, Audrina told the girls everything without withholding a single detail.
She waited to be screamed at, to be called a bad mother and unworthy to be a part of their family.
Unsurprisingly, none of that happened.
The vampire was suddenly bombarded with warm embraces from every one of her family members without exception.
“It’s not your fault, you did everything you could.”
“We will find her together.”
“This is not something that should be on you alone.”
After several minutes of coddling, Audrina was finally able to regain her composure and it was now impossible to tell she’d been crying impossibly hard mere moments ago.
“Thank you girls… But what do we do..?”
Subconsciously, all eyes drifted to Lailah.
Even though she was not the oldest, her position as the first wife and rational thinking caused her words to carry a lot of weight within the group.
“For right now… We should get business settled here while we wait for husband to return. When he gets here, I’m sure that he’ll want to go out and begin searching himself.”
Lailah was of course worried about Thea just as much as everyone else, if not even more so.
However, that did not mean that she could immediately lose her head and go off looking for Thea with no real clues as to where to start searching.
For now, the best thing that the wives could do was wait for Abaddon to return and pray that they were not too late to save their precious daughter from whatever horrible fate had befallen her.
–
‘I cannot believe I’m doing this…’
“YAHOOOOO!!!!!”
*Sigh.*
After finally clearing all four dungeons, Abaddon and Malenia were finally on their way home.
Normally, the trip would have been over in an instant as the dragon had the power to open gates to any place that he’d previously been to.
Unfortunately, Malenia had complained that she did not want her reward to end so soon and demanded that he allowed her to ride home on his back.
His refusal was swift and immediate.
However, the fallen angel did not let this matter go easily and after several tantrums and a few gallons of tears, Abaddon finally relented and allowed her to climb upon his massive scaly back.
And so, the scene of a giddy fallen angel riding happily on the back of a two headed dragon could be seen by the world for the first time.
With their home in sight, Abaddon could not have been more elated to have finally been a step closer to being in the embrace of his family.
Needless to say, a two headed dragon that was over seventy meters tall and had a wingspan large enough to blot out the sun was not very difficult to spot and the people of Luxuria had already lined the streets to welcome him.
Landing onto the ground below, Abaddon changed back into his human appearance and wrested Malenia from his back.
“That was so fun!”
“It will never happen again.”
“Aww! Don’t say that master!”
Ignoring her, Abaddon instead glanced at his people that were bowing before him.
“WELCOME HOME, DEMON KING ABADDON!”
The crowd was respectful and enthusiastic in their greeting, but he could easily sense a bit of fear mixed in.
“Husband.”
Approaching from the manor were all five of his wives along with Eris and Mira.
“Girls? Has something happened? And where is Thea?”
The streets became filled with silence and anyone not of the royal family could not help but lower their head to the ground.
How would the king react?
Who would he blame?
His people?
His soldiers?
How many people would die when the king found out that one of his beloved daughters had gone missing?
With all of these questions in her mind, Lailah slowly opened her mouth to break the news to the demonic dragon.