“Father, I will be leaving my men in your care for the time being.”
When Abaddon voiced his decision, it took a moment for everyone to comprehend what he’d just said.
But in the blink of an eye, they all turned to Asmodeus and awaited his response.
Unfortunately, the nephilim seemed to be having none of it.
“Hm? Why do I have to do something so tiresome??” He hated training recruits, and it had never really been interesting to him.
That’s why he used to always push things like this onto his nine lieutenants while he went to go and play with women.
“You had something better to do?” Abbadon asked in irritation.
“No, but I can certainly find something.”
Abaddon rolled his eyes and was suddenly filed with the urge to beat up his father.
If flat out asking wasn’t going to work, he decided to try praise instead.
“Seras has told me of your battle prowess, and she isn’t one to praise others lightly. I’m asking you to do this because I know that you can give the Euphrates what they need.” He said sincerely.
“Oh really? Seemed to me like you were only asking because you had no other option.”
“Two things can be true at once.”
“…How do you hang up this device?” Asmodeus asked as he tried to cut the connection with his mouthy son.
At his side, Yara gave him a small pinch and a look that he absolutely could not resist.
“Husband, our son is asking you for something sincerely. Don’t you think you should help him as his father?”
The nephilim wanted to say no, but he believed that if he did that then the chances of him having sex anytime soon were going to slip to zero.
There wasn’t much he considered to be a necessity in life, but seeing his wife naked was absolutely one of them.
“Fine, fine. I’ll do what I can.” he agreed begrudgingly.
Abaddon smirked victoriously as he silently thanked his mother for making this process so much easier.
Now that the Euphrates had a proper instructor, he could continue to work through this dungeon with peace of mind.
Though he did wonder about something.
If they were able to learn enough to beat Lusamine in four days, how much more would they improve under Asmodeus in three?
Abaddon wasn’t sure of the answer, but he was nonetheless excited for the future ahead.
–
Boom!
After a riveting back and forth battle, the shark man that had been continuously plaguing the children all of this time finally fell to the ground with a thud, and they were victorious.
Each of the children seemed to have suffered some degree of injury, however none of it was serious enough to constitute worry.
“Mira is the victor, she has dealt the final blow!” The small ice dragon raised her hands proudly from atop the corpse of the beast and celebrated her great triumph.
Thea and Apophis watched in horror as their younger sister suddenly took out one of her daggers and began cutting into the chest of the beast.
“Sister… what are you doing?”
“It is already dead, your efforts are being wasted.”
Despite their objections, Mira continued to cut open the beast’s chest.
“Mira wants to eat the heart like daddy does!” Blood spattered and continued to hit the young child in the face but she could not care less.
All that mattered was getting to the prize she so desperately sought.
After a few more seconds of fishing around, Mira had pulled out a massive still beating heart and taken a proud bite.
She only managed to chew a single time before her face twisted up in disgust and she spit the contents of her mouth back out.
“Bleghh..”
“Eww, Mira!”
“How unsightly…”
The young girl seemed to be immune to her siblings’ disgusted comments as she focused on getting this god awful taste out of her mouth.
The sound of melodic laughter played in their ears and the sibling turned around to see Abaddon approaching with Entei following close behind. 𝒪𝚟xt.𝒞𝗈
“I don’t do it because of the taste, my daughter.” Abaddon said with a chuckle.
He scooped his youngest child up into his arms and immediately handed her a small flask to wash her mouth out.
“Then why do you do it??” She asked cutely.
“Necessity.”He said as he patted her hair and looked at his other two children.
“You all did well. That sharkman was comparable to a boss in a less difficult dungeon.”
Even though they were battered and tired, Abaddon’s words of praise still filled them with pride and they no longer felt as weary as before.
But Abaddon could see that the last monster had really worn them out.
So much so that he was ready to go back on his original vow of not helping the three of them.
However, his children seemed to be quite perceptive and did not take kindly to such a thought.
Apophis: “Father, we are fine.”
Thea: “This is supposed to be a learning experience. You cannot clear this entire dungeon for us just because we have a few scratches.”
Abaddon scratched his cheek in embarrassment.
It wasn’t like he was going to clear the entire dungeon for them!
…Maybe just the rest of this floor so that they could heal and rest up.
To him, this was undoubtedly one of the hardest parts of being a father.
Allowing his children to succeed or fail solely based on their own merits and circumstances.
But even though it was hard, he recognized that he would be depriving his children of something valuable if he did not stand aside.
“I get it, I apologize for doubting you. I will continue to observe.” Abaddon placed Mira back onto the ground and gave both of his children pats in the shoulder.
He returned to his place on Entei’s back as he waited for the children to continue their adventure.
Once their father had stopped meddling, Thea took charge of managing her siblings.
“Alright, how long do you think you two will need to heal?”
Apophis and Mira both looked down at their wounds.
The eldest son had a few cuts across his exposed torso, while the youngest daughter had some on her face in addition to a few large bruises.
“Give us ten minutes.”
“Yea!”
Thea nodded and sat down on the ground to meditate and recover from her own injuries.
One of her arms was broken, and she also had a large puncture hole in her thigh.
She closed her eyes to focus and fell into a deep trance.
Exactly ten minutes later, both she and her siblings were healed and ready to advance.
“It looks like everyone’s ready, shall we go?” Thea said.
Once she received two determined nods, they traveled in unison to find their next opponent.
Unlike before, they didn’t struggle as much when it came to enemies and were able to dispatch them with only moderate difficulty.
Thea showed great promise as a leader, and the continuous use of her armor had allowed her to unlock another seal and her power took a rather substantial boost.
Mira and Apophis did not receive additional power from outside sources, but their combat techniques and battle senses were continuously heightened due to the constant stream of life and death situations.
The siblings had run through the dungeon at a maddening pace without rest.
Abaddon wasn’t quite sure how long they’d been down here anymore, but he knew that they were currently on the 35th floor.
“SKREEEE!!!”
The latest boss monster to try to halt the meteoric rise of the children was a nightmarish kraken.
It’s eight long tentacles were covered in dark poisonous barbs and it’s bulbous head contained souls black eyes.
At a glance, this beast was easily over twenty meters tall.
Riding on the back of Entei, Mira circled the massive beast as she searched for any kind of opening or weak point.
Her two older siblings were still out in front of the beast, holding it’s attention and allowing their sister to do recon.
Unfortunately, Mira couldn’t find anything no matter how hard she searched and the beast seemed like it was on the verge of flying into a frenzy at any moment.
Left with no other alternative, Mira decided it would be best to restrain the beast first and then let her siblings finish it off.
“Hup!”
Mira leapt off the back of her pet and reverted back into her natural form.
A pure white dragon with one red eye and one purple eye was somehow ‘flying’ within the ocean depths.
Normally Mira does not take this form in combat, but her need for greater control over her powers made such a thing a necessity.
Flapping her wings, she flew directly overhead the kraken and began concentrating with everything she had.
“Mira? What are you doing?” Thea asked worriedly.
Bang!
Her lapse in focus was almost her undoing as a giant tentacle slammed directly onto the spot she was just standing on.
If she had been even a second slower, she would have been reduced into a meaty paste.
“Mira’s going to freeze it! Then siblings can cut off his head and we win!”
“Mira you can’t! The power of your ice isn’t strong enough yet!” Thea warned.
All of their yelling had alerted the kraken to the small dragon that was now flying over it’s head, and it immediately changed the focus of it’s attack to the meatier looking prey.
“Sister, get back!” Apophis warned.
In the blink of an eye, his body transformed into that of a giant red cobra with green eyes.
Before the kraken could start attacking his sister, Apophis had wrapped his body around it and began squeezing it with everything he had to restrict it’s movements.
“SKREEEEE!!!!”
“AGGGHHH!!”
The barbed tentacles of the boss had easily pierced through Apophis’ scales, causing him to let out a horrible howl of pain as his body was pierced and filled with a potent venom.
“Apophis!”
“Brother!”
Both of his sisters immediately became concerned, but Apophis could not allow their worries to waste the opportunity that he was creating for them.
“I CANNOT HOLD HIM MUCH LONGER. THE TWO OF YOU NEED TO BRING THIS BEAST DOWN, NOW!!”