Hajun stepped into the basement training room and was momentarily stunned by what he saw.
“This… this…”
Thea held up her hands in a gesture of innocence as she stammered out an excuse. “N-Now grandpa, I know what it looks like but we were just bonding a little and-“
“How does a child become even more adorable in such a short time?!” Hajun squealed.
The old man rushed past Thea like she was made of air and instead focused on the young Belloc.
Back in his child sized form, Hajun immediately scooped him up and cradled him lovingly.
“Who did your hair and made it look so good, huh? You’ll be as handsome as your father when you get bigger!”
‘I hope I’m not… father seems to have a lot of complaints about being desire incarnate.’ Belloc thought.
“Sister did it.” The death dragon pointed to Thea with a baby finger and Hajun felt years upon years of his life being restored in an instant.
Hajun smiled fondly at Thea as he nodded his head in approval.
“You kids… it truly does warm my heart to see you all getting along so well and taking care of each other. It heals my old wounds like you wouldn’t believe.”
Thea showed a sad smile as if she immediately knew what Hajun was talking about.
He and Kirina had four children before they were separated, with Seras being the oldest.
It wasn’t quite known why, but she and her siblings were not even remotely close and had not spoken to each other in several hundred years.
Even now, the other three siblings were living in decent sized homes in Sheol, but they never even came close to their goddess sister.
Some in the family thought it was out of respect for her position.
But Seras herself never bothered to comment and confirm or deny that line of thinking; so Abaddon was the only one who knew of the circumstances behind their relationship.
One of the largest regrets that Hajun and Kirina harbored from their marriage was that they did not properly work on strengthening the bonds that their children shared with one another.
Even now, they didn’t know if they would ever be able to come together again like when they were very young.
It… was a difficult thing to wrestle with.
Suddenly, Hajun felt something tugging on his leg and looked down to see Gabbrielle pouting somewhat angrily.
“Grandfather is neglecting me now. I thought you said that I was the cutest baby ever?”
If one listened close enough, they could very clearly hear the sound of Hajun’s iron will crumbling into pieces.
He scooped Gabbrielle up so fast that he very nearly gave her whiplash, and nuzzled her soft and jiggly cheeks against his own.
“Of course my granddaughter is the cutest! You truly have no comparison in this world or the next!”
Gabbrielle gave a satisfied nod as she made indirect eye contact with her brother.
‘Remember, I am the baby here.’
‘I thought we both were..?’
‘Well yes, but actually no.’
As he relished in his cute grand children, Hajun suddenly noticed a burning smell within the air and followed its trail.
Soon, he found another one of his grandchildren lying on the floor, covered in soot and smiling as he was tended to by his wives.
“Umm… Children? Why is your brother smoldering?”
Thea scratched her cheek in mild embarrassment as she fumbled around for an excuse. “Welll… Apophis and I were sparring just a bit because we wanted to show Belloc what we could do!”
Hajun smiled softly as he looked back and forth between his youngest grandson and his oldest granddaughter.
“Thea… I know that you two want to look cool for your younger brother, but you should remember that your parents have yet to decide if they want him to be around combat yet. You shouldn’t prematurely expose him.”
“I know…” Thea said sadly.
Hajun looked down at the young boy in his arm and felt his resolve wavering just again.
“Though…it isn’t as if… I don’t understand the desire to look cool for our youngest.”
Thea’s purple eyes suddenly twinkled as she realized a way to make Hajun an accomplice.
“Actually… I broke another one of my seals the other day and now I only have four left… I haven’t even gotten a chance to show my mothers yet.”
Hajun’s ears twitched visibly.
His granddaughter had reached a new realm of power??
And even his daughter hadn’t seen it yet??
He really really wanted to see the improvements that his grand daughter had made!
“I-Is that so… you know, I used to train your mother for hours on end when she evolved. But that feels like such a lifetime ago… How I miss the day where she broke my bones for the first time…”
“Well… do you want to help me then, grandpa?”
The critical blow dealt, Hajun looked back and forth between his Thea and Belloc as sweat dripped from his brow.
He could train his granddaughter and get in a chance to look cool in front of his new grandson, increasing the affection he received from both!
This was a very good opportunity that surely wouldn’t come around very often!
“Belloc… I don’t want you to make a habit of this now, but today we are going to learn how to keep a secret..”
“…?”
–
Currently, Belloc was sitting comfortably in the lap of Mira as they watched Thea and Hajun stretch before they got ready for their spar.
Like Mira, Thea had changed into a sleek black bodysuit with no sleeves that provided her more flexibility and agility than normal clothes.
Evidently, her wives seemed to like the change very much.
Nita : “Do you think she’d wear that for us tonight if we asked her..?”
Sabine : “You’re planning on waiting for tonight..? I was going to pull her into a closet as soon as she finished this.”
Jasmine : “I will join you in that closet.”
‘I’ve been born into a very sexually charged family..’ Belloc thought.
Ignoring that for now, the young dragon kept his eyes glued on his two family members who looked to be just about done warming up.
He was a bit dissapointed that he had not gotten to spar against his sister himself, but this felt like a suitable alternative.
He wanted to see why all of his children acknowledged Thea as the strongest, even though he was the one who was born a demigod.
“Alright grandpa! I’m ready!” Thea said excitedly.
“Truly? No weapon?” Hajun asked.
“Nope!”
“My granddaughter… if that isn’t just simple hubris, then it is splendid!”
Hajun dropped his center of gravity and spread his legs into a wide stance.
Dull red scales grew to cover his arms and face as his already muscular physique grew even more intimidating.
“Like your mother, I can be particularly stringent in my training! Don’t resent me!”
“Of course not!”
BOOM!
BOOM!𝒱𝗅xt.𝚌𝑶𝑚
Both powerful behemoths shot forward at the exact same time and cracked the ground underneath them with their power.
The pair threw strong right hands that were powerful enough to demolish a building, and another loud explosion rang out from their forceful collision.
Hajun’s brow furrowed as he let Thea’s power vibrate through his arm.
“You cannot train effectively when you are holding back, Thea! Take all of your opponents seriously no matter what!” He said.
“…Alright gramps, hold onto your teeth!”
Spinning around, Thea launched a front kick aimed directly at Hajun’s temple.
The attack was so powerful that the old dragon was temporarily lifted from his feet and shattered all of the pointed teeth on his bottom row.
“HA!”
BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
Thea punched Hajun in the stomach so hard that his body folded up like a lawn chair as he went flying back through the air.
But before he could even strike the wall he was heading for, the young girl moved at an inhuman speed that far exceeded anything showcased today and reappeared directly behind him.
Throwing out a powerful punch, she hit Hajun squarely in the back and flung his momentum in the opposite direction.
‘T-This is wonderful…! Abaddon, Seras… You are raising such a powerful and talented daughter!’
As Hajun’s body whipped through the air, tendrils of liquid metal wrapped around his legs like a giant python.
With a powerful tug, Thea flung her grandfather around the room before planting him into the ground like a tree.
BOOOOOMMMMM!!’
A cloud of dust and debris erupted from the ground as the impact from the shockwave sent cracks throughout the floor.
Though they quickly healed, it was a bold display to produce at all.
Thea returned the liquid tendrils to the precious bracelet wrapped around her wrist and made a bit of an embarrassed expression.
‘Ah… I didn’t mean to go that far.’
“Grandpa! Are you okay?!”
Thea immediately waved her hand to dispel the dust cloud as she ran to Hajun’s side.
She found the old man lying on his back in a small crater with his eyes closed and breathing shallowly.
Blood was leaking from the corner of his lips, and he didn’t appear to be capable of getting up anytime soon.
“G-Grandpa! I’m sorry, I was just doing what you said and-“
“Thea…” Hajun suddenly said.
“Y-Yes?”
“Your talent is exceptional, just like your fathers. Your body is powerful beyond what any human could ever hope to possess and it doesn’t fall behind a transcendent dragon’s in any way… I only have a few notes..”
“N-Notes..?”
Hajun suddenly sat up and pulled out his glasses from the ring on his left finger.
Next, he grabbed a small notepad and paper before he began jotting something down.
“You need to be smarter with your choices in combat. Instead of throwing a punch when you struck me from behind earlier, I think it would have been best if you opted for an open palm strike instead.
The increase in surface area struck along with the wider distribution of force would have produced something like an internal shockwave that could have ruptured all my internal organs. Things like that are what I mean.”
“Ohhh… I understand!” Thea nodded excitedly.
“That’s a good girl! We’ll keep taking these notes after each session and then I’ll make fried chicken for dinner and we can go over this together.”
Immediately, Thea’s eyes sparkled like stars in the sky.
“Y-You mean it?! You’ll really make it for us??”
“Hahahaha! Of course I will! But if you don’t train effectively then you’ll be relegated to only two pieces.”
Almost immediately, Thea felt her will burn bright.
Where Mira and Gabbrielle preferred pastries, Thea was a sucker for a well prepared savory dish.
And fried chicken was her absolute favorite.
With her physique not being fully organic, she could eat as much as she wanted without losing her sleek and toned figure.
Only giving her two pieces was akin to only feeding a dog twice a week.
“I’ll do it! I’ll train so hard that my arms fall off!”
“That’s my granddaughter! Let’s get back to starting positions!”
“Yea!”
Belloc watched his sister spar with their grandfather well into nightfall.
With every round they completed and improved upon, her prowess became better and better until she was practically unrecognizable from her previous self.
But there was something he did notice.
Though his sister used the full extent of her physical body, she did not completely showcase her full powers.
And yet she was already so very strong.
The fascination and idolization that Belloc felt with his oldest sister was only growing.
‘Sister is the best…! I want to be just like her.!’