When Cypress felt the alarming sensation of spirits fleeing his homeland, he immediately knew the culprit and prayed that he was mistaken.
But when he arrived at his city’s main road, he realized all of his prayers were in vain.
Abaddon and a young girl were climbing down from two of the most horrifying beasts he’d ever seen and chatting amongst themselves.
The casual nature in which they acted in his presence was downright infuriating.
But as mad as Cypress was, he did not ignore the drastic changes Abaddon had undergone since their last meeting.
The demon god appeared to have grown weaker physically, but in truth he was more powerful than ever.
‘He’s evolved in such a short time…?’
It frightened the elven king to think of just how high this creature could soar.
Now that he was here, he had to cut down his ascent while he still possessed an opportunity to do so.
“You dare show up in my lands uninvited? This is highly reprehensible behavior!”
Abaddon remained unfazed in the face of Cypress’ unnecessary yelling as he casually locked both of his hands behind his head.
“I had heard that elves were a friendly people. How shocked the rest of the world would be to learn that is nothing but a falsehood.”
“You are not welcome here! I do not know how you have infected Erica but I will not back down from a conflict with you!”
“I didn’t come here for a conflict, nor did I do anything to Erica as you claim. Today I am a seeker of information.”
“Ha! A monster would be a scholar? Now I have seen everything.” Cypress laughed.
Perhaps because their ruler was here and laughing, the citizens did so as well.
Thea didn’t seem to like that, but Abaddon didn’t care either way.
“Duality is my nature, elf. Monster, scholar, pacifist, warmonger, light and darkness, beginning and end. What version awaits you is determined by your own behavior.”
Abaddon used a clawed finger and pointed to the large tree towering in the distance.
“Tell me everything that you know about that tree right there, and show me the portal to the spirit realm.”
Cypress, and all of the elves under his rule paused as they stared slack jawed at the charming invader.
No outsiders were supposed to know about their most guarded secret, least of all a demon.
And yet Abaddon seemed to know exactly what it was, and even how to access it.
There was only one possible explanation for such a thing.
“It is as I thought, you seduced Erica for the goal of-“
“I did not seduce her.” Abaddon growled.
Why did everyone treat him like some kind of male prostitute?!
At times like this, it was easy for him to miss the days when he was short and chubby
“Father may have done it accidentally.” Thea admitted.
“Who’s side are you on?”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“ENOUGH!”
The winds within the forest began to blow with a new intensity and Abaddon casually tied up his hair to keep it from obscuring his vision.
He could feel Cypress’ anger rising with every passing second, feeding him and energizing his being.
The more uncaring he acted within his presence, the greater the elf’s rage became.
Holding the sin of wrath had caused Abaddon to be a bit more like his mentor Satan.
He enjoyed the immense anger that his opponents experienced that eventually gave way to despair and fear.
It was exhilarating.
Even now, he was fighting to keep his smile hidden and out of sight but it was getting harder and harder by the second.
“I will cleanse Dola of your filthy influence and save the lives of countless others! You will never be allowed to reach the Spirit tree!” Cypress roared.
Suddenly, four wispy figures appeared in the air surrounding the elven king.
One appeared to be some kind of huge brown tortoise that emitted earthly mana.
Another was a red salamander that exhaled fiery breath from it’s snout.
The third was a dainty green woman with wings on her back whom Abaddon assumed to be a pixie.
Last out of all of the spirits was a horse made entirely of shifting blue water.
Abaddon was a bit intrigued and eager to see the power of these spirits with his own two eyes, but he wasn’t done making Cypress miserable just yet.
“You say that I won’t be allowed to reach the tree? Then if I cannot have it, why should you?”
Abaddon tapped his foot on the ground one single time.
The temperature in the air plummeted as crystalline ice formed along every tangible surface for fifty miles.
The only thing that was spared were the now stunned elves that were looking around their winter wonderland.
“W-What is this?”
“How did he do that!?”
“The tree! The spirit tree is frozen!!”
Cypress turned around in horror to see that the same great structure that he had been sworn to protect was also covered in ice.
“Caudata, get that ice away quickly!”
At his command, the fiery spirit flew towards the great tree and unleashed a harrowing gout of bright red flame.
However, all would be alarmed to learn that the king’s magic had done absolutely nothing.
And what was the cause of this grand spectacle doing?
Pulling out one of his cloaks from his dimensional storage so that he could place it around his daughter’s shoulders.
“Here Thea, it’s a little chilly out.”
“Father, I am not a little girl anymore.” She seemed to be a bit embarrassed, but in reality she was not against this tender treatment.
“Blasphemy. You will be my little girl for all of eternity.”
BOOOOOOOMMMM!!
Interrupting the pair’s sweet moment was a projectile made of pure wind that Abaddon casually deflected with the back of his hand.
Thea glanced at the raging elf in the sky and titled her head in confusion. “Wow, he’s really mad. I didn’t know elves could get that color.”
After receiving no reply, she looked at her father and found him still staring at the back of his hand.
“Father? What’s the matter?”
“It… hurt.” Abaddon said in a shocked tone.
“Are you alright!? I thought you were immune to pain!” Thea said worriedly.
“I get it now… this is what Satan was missing, and why I could not understand his madness… this is what it means to fight…”
“…What?”
Abaddon couldn’t even answer his daughter, as he felt like he was having some sort of epiphany.
This is the high that the king of wrath was seeking.
For two warriors to stand on equal footing and truly fight with everything they have, they must be able to hurt one another.
Without that simple balance, there can be no true contest and thus fighting becomes nearly meaningless.
It was only then that one could begin to enjoy the struggle, as there exists no glory in beating down an enemy who isn’t in your league.
Isn’t this what he so desperately needed?
He’d been dealing with so much shit lately that he deserved to lose himself for a moment and have fun!
“Thea… stay with the hounds.”
The first princess was a bit surprised to see this sort of look in her father’s eyes.
She was used to seeing this sort of thing in her younger sister and even a few of her mothers, but her father behaving like this was a new spectacle.
If she was honest, she was more curious about what was about to happen.
“Oh, alright then.”
Whoosh!
The words had only barely left her lips when her father leapt into the air for the imminent collision.
Cypress was incredibly surprised to see Abaddon not only shrug off his wind bolt, but lunge at him faster than his eyes could follow.
The last thing he saw was a horrifying smile full of sharp teeth before a foot connected with his sternum, and he was sent flying.
BOOOOMMMM!!
Cypress’ body hit the Spirit Tree hard enough to crack the seemingly impenetrable ice, and his chest was practically caved in.
‘Master!’
‘Master, are you alright?’
‘You don’t look good!’
‘Stay still, you may have a collapsed lung!’
Cypress heard the voices of his contracted spirits playing within his mind and tried to reassure them that he was fine.
“My friends, I assure you that I am-“
Whoosh!
Abaddon reappeared before the elf in another gust of speed, and his smile was no less sharp than before.
“I was so hoping that you would make this difficult, but I did not know how much enjoyment I would take from it! This is marvelous!”
Abaddon grabbed the elven man by his hair and lifted him up into the air.
Even though he was skinnier now due to his illness, he proved that he was no less strong.
“Nereid! Caudata!”
Cypress called for two of his spirits’ assistance and the water horse and salamander quickly responded to the threat.
The two spirits rained down spears of fire and water onto Abaddon’s body from behind, and the explosion that followed was incredibly powerful.
Cypress waited for Abaddon’s grip on his hair to lessen, but when it tightened instead he let out a small cry of pain.
“Invigorating…it is nearly as good as lying in the embrace of my loving wives.” Abaddon said drunkenly.
Cypress had no idea what Abaddon was talking about, but he knew that he had to get away before things worsened even further.
“Ah… speaking of my wives, you were quite disrespectful to one of them last time we met.”
The elven king felt his blood run cold due to a large change in Abaddon’s demeanor.
“A-All of you, fire and get this demon away from me, now!!”
Cypress’ spirits immediately obeyed his commands and showered Abaddon’s body with their individual attacks.
He was pierced, bludgeoned, and burned relentlessly, and the force behind their continuous attacks was great enough that he and the elf were now standing within a rather large crater in front of the frozen tree.
And yet, Abaddon remained unfazed.
Even though he was hurting, he was acting as if he was receiving some light massage.
𝚘𝚟xt.𝑪𝑂𝗆
Unless his brain and heart where completely destroyed within milliseconds of each other, his body would always regenerate the damage and thus, he could not be killed.
“You may struggle as much as you like, but you can not avoid my wrath, elf. You will pay for disrespecting Eris.”
Abaddon had always treated his wives like goddesses, and he expected everyone else in the world to do the same.
And when such a rule was not followed, punishment was doled out in the most brutal way.
A fact that Cypress was soon to learn.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Abaddon tightened his grip on Cypress’ skull and rammed his face into the frozen wood of the tree.
Over and over and over again.
Cypress was awake for the first 8-9 blows, but after the tenth the lights finally went dark and he lost consciousness.
Abaddon slammed Cypress’ face into the tree one final time before pulling back to observe his handiwork.
The elven king’s face had retained none of it’s former beauty and was ruined beyond recognition.
Blood dripped from his skull in waves and soaked the ground beneath them, making this scene even more pitiful.
But strangely enough, Abaddon did not seem to find glee in this spectacle.
His bloodthirst had slipped away, replaced by irrefutable confusion.
The blood that was gushing from the wounds of the elven king… for some reason it felt eerily similar to that of his wife Eris’.