In the instant that Hakon and Absalom rushed at him, Belloc reacted.
Holding out his hand, the large axe that he’d been gifted on his birthday came flying into it with little to no delay.
With his other hand, he quickly pulled Stheno out of harms way by bringing her closer to him, and surprising her quite a bit in the process.
With the flat side of his blade, he smacked away Hakon’s hand that was reaching for his throat, and kicked him in the side hard enough to send him and the brother behind him tumbling through Stheno’s iron gates.
– *In the shadow of the sunflower*
Apophis : “Let us out, grandfather. Those boneheads are making a mistake.”
Asmodeus : “Sit tight, Junior. Look at what’s going on more carefully.”
Apophis followed his grandfather’s advice and paid bit closer attention to the world above.
There, he could see his brother fighting fiercely against two of the strongest lieutenants in all of Sheol’s army.
By sheer coincidence, his eyes found Stheno’s face and he let out a dry chuckle.
The charming rabisu had a bit of an intense blush on her cheeks, along with a lovestruck look in her red eyes.
She could have easily put an end to this misunderstanding if she only spoke up just a bit, but it seemed she was unable to make that connection.
Hajun: “Demonic women love a display of power, lad. For them who have violence ingrained into their very blood, there is little that can act as a better aphrodisiac!”
Apophis nodded slowly, his mind accepting the wisdom he was receiving from these two old men.
Asmodeus : “Well… these pleasurable bodies I passed down to all of you certainly don’t hurt either.”
Apophis looked down at his own rippled chocolate abs that seemed to be his wives’ main focus every night.
Bowing gratefully, he had no choice but to admit that his genetics had been blessed four times over.
“I am grateful for this gift, grandfather!”
*Sniff* “This…this is why you are my favorite! You should have been my son instead of your father!”
Hajun watched as Asmodeus became a crying mess as he threw himself at Apophis.
While they were enjoying their familial bond, he rolled up his shirt and looked at his own stomach.
While there was some pudge, there were undoubtedly muscles buried underneath.
“Hmph! You two aren’t the only one who can be sex symbols…” he muttered.
Asmodeus & Apophis gave the old man a pitying look.
“That’s right, Grandfather. It’s great for you to be confident.”
“Confidence is half the battle, you know?”
Hajun ground his teeth together as he showed the two a smile that was not a smile.
“Alright, you patronizing bastards. Come here so that I can thank you for your words of faith!”
–
Meanwhile, Belloc was still fending off attacks from a very irate Hakon and Absalom.
All three of the triplets used greatswords as their chosen weapon, as a result their blows were heavy and contained excellent coordination whenever they worked together.
Hakon: “You dare hold onto our sister in front of us?! You’ll be our dinner, you fucking rodent!”
Absalom: “Release Stheno, now! If you do as we say I will lop your head off so cleanly that you need not feel a thing!”
Absalom spit out a bright column of violet flames that was so concentrated it could have blown a small city to bits.
Belloc had no choice but to sprout his own wings and fly up into the sky to avoid being roasted alive.
“Do you think you might want to tell them this is a misunderstanding at some point? I’m trying not to hurt them so far, but they are becoming noticeably more irate and I will not have a choice soon.”
Stheno visibly jolted in his grasp as her eyes returned to focus.
This was the first time she had ever been this close to a man she wasn’t trying to kill, and he was of the Tathamet line as well.
For the past four minutes, Stheno had been mesmerized by every well defined muscle she could feel beneath Belloc’s hoodie.
The fact that they were practically rubbing against each other right now was only adding to her fascination.
When his words finally sank in, she had to blink away the stars out of her eyes.
“O-Oh, talk to them…right..”
“Are you unwell, Stheno? Your heart is beating very fast.” Belloc asked worriedly.
“I-I may be a bit under the weather.. I think this situation is making me feel strange-”
“What did you do to her, you bastard!?”
Out of nowhere, Hakon appeared with his sword raised over his head to strike.
“Brother, stop!” Stheno pleaded. “We haven’t done anything yet and-”
“YET!? THERE WILL BE NO FORNICATION ON THIS DAY OR ANY OTHER!!”
The roar of the rabisu shook the lands of Sheol for miles on end, drowning out anything that Stheno may have been about to say.
Hakon’s sword became shrouded in unholy black fire and he swung it hard enough to cut through a skyscraper in one smooth motion.
Sensing overwhelming bloodlust, Belloc knew that he could no longer afford to hold back or he could wind up seriously hurt.
Ducking under Hakon’s attack in midair, Belloc tightened his grip on his weapon and cut off the sword arm of the irate dragon cleanly.
As his sword and sliced limb plummeted from the sky, Hakon let himself be caught off guard by the pain, and missed the moment where Belloc went above his head.
Raising his foot high, he forcefully buried the back of his heel into the skull of his brother-in-law and sent him hurling back towards the ground.
Clutching his axe, he hurled it like a meteor towards Hakon’s midsection and pierced him cleanly.
He hit the ground with a loud collision, and the butt end of Belloc’s axe came out of his back to staple him onto the ground.
“Brother!”
Absalom immediately rushed to Hakon’s side to remove the axe that was keeping him down.
However, he quickly realized that it didn’t mater how much he pulled, the weapon did not even budge in the slightest.
He quickly tried to back away and deal with the culprit, but that was the moment where tendrils of dark shadows erupted from the ground and restrained him.
Though Absalom tried to fight it, he soon ended up lying on the ground right beside his brother.
Finally, Belloc landed on the ground with Stheno still clinging to him.
Amidst the flurry of curses he was receiving from the two men, their younger sister kicked them both in the head to provide some much needed clarity.
“You fools! What would you have done if our god found out that you injured his youngest son?!”
Immediately, the two of them froze like deer in headlights as they let their heads swivel back and forth between the two of them.
“W-What..?”
“H-Huh..?”
To help the two connect the dots, Belloc temporarily transformed into the form of an unusually mature looking infant, and their blood ran cold.
“P-P-P-P-P-Prince!”
“P-Please forgive us for our insolence!”
“We beg your forgiveness!”
“We will subject ourselves to any punishment you see fit!”
“Just please..!”
“”Don’t tell your father!!””
This was the first time that Belloc had truly experienced royal privilege of any kind, and it was an understatement to say that he was stunned by how quickly everything had turned around.
‘Why are they so afraid of father..?’
As the youngest of his four siblings, Belloc hadn’t seen most of his father’s struggles.
When he was born, Abaddon was already a very powerful god, and an established one at that.
He had seen him fight against Samyaza, and while he could admit that his father was impressive; he was not what Belloc would call fearsome.
He hadn’t seen his father at his angriest yet.
He didn’t know how seriously his father took threats against his parents, his people, his children, and especially his wives.
He’d never even heard him raise his voice for anything that didn’t have to do with an event at the colosseum.
Was he really what they were so scared of?
The scariest thing Abaddon had ever done around Belloc was spend an entire day asleep like he had fallen into some sort of magical coma.
He didn’t understand why these proud and ancient demonic dragons from literal hell were about to cry at the thought that he might run and tell his father on them.
“I don’t see why I should bother him with something as trivial as this. But I am sorry that I hurt both of you.”
Belloc removed his weapon from the stomach of Hakon and released Absalom from his shadowy shackles.
However, even when they were both free to move again, they refused to stand up and prostrated with their heads against the grass.
“Once again, we beg your forgiveness!”
“But if we might ask… What were you about to do with our-”
BANG!
Absalom hurriedly punched his brother in the back of his head so hard that he buried it a few inches into the ground.
“Imbecile! It’s none of our business what the prince was about to do with Stheno! We should merely just be grateful that one of the god’s own blood has chosen her!”
*Muffled* “You’re right! Please forgive my rudeness, once again!”
“I was just going to help her pull her shirt down…” Belloc muttered.
For some reason, Stheno looked slightly bothered by this. “So you weren’t going to take me?”
“I had been told that people did not usually do those things so early into courtship. I was going to suggest going on an activity first, followed by a dinner.”
“O-Oh…” Twice today, Stheno felt embarrassed although she was not exactly able to pinpoint the reason why.
“What kind of activity?” she asked.
“I am admittedly not sure. I’m told it would be something simple that we can both enjoy that would also give us an opportunity to talk and get to know each other better.”
Stheno rubbed her chin as she thought about it for a moment. “I enjoy hunting. What about you?”
“I like manga and cooking.”
Stheno’s eyes lit up as she pointed to the two dead lion creatures outside the gates to her home.
“I caught these two beasts today and I was just going to turn them into some jerky or something… Would you like to make dinner for me instead?”
Briefly, Belloc had to check with his council that he had abandoned on a nearby sunflower.
‘Everyone, is this an acceptable alterna-‘
”’YES!!!”’