First Demonic Dragon

Apophis slowly opened his eyes to see both of his sisters looming over his head with worried looks on their faces.

His disorientation quickly gave way to plain confusion when he realized that he was lying on his back and staring up into the sky.

"What the hell is going on..?" He sat up.

""Brother!"" The twins knocked him right back down.

"W-Why are you two so-"

"No time, kids! Get to the plane and find cover!" Mateo warned.

He drew his weapon just as a hail of bullets started to pick apart the very place where he had told them to take cover.

Mateo used his magical talents to erect another barrier to protect everyone under his banner.

But this assault wasn't like the ones that came before.

These bullets passed right through Mateo's magical barrier and created utter hell for those inside.

With virtually nothing to impede them, the bullets traveled through tissue, bone, and sinew equally.

The only reason no one perished from this initial onslaught is because their reflexes were fast enough to get them all to cover quickly.

But even the golden Ziz was not unscathed this day.

He felt something running down his arm and looked down to find that his sleeve had been dyed a flaming red.

"How the f.."

A gust of wind blew past his vision and saw two figures moving at a blinding speed that would be difficult for most to manage.

Apophis and Mateo, seeing that magic did not work, both drew their weapons and started using their bodies to cut down the bullets before they could harm anyone else.

Even though such a thing took an immense amount of training and focus, the two still somehow had the wherewithal to make conversation.

"You're supposed to be recovering, niño!" Mateo yelled over the hail of gunfire.

"In a moment like this? My parents didn't raise me like that!" Apophis laughed back.

"Your parents are the reason I'm asking you to stand down! I know your mother well enough not to have a single doubt that she would skin me by my huevos if anything happened to you!"

"Then I guess you gotta make sure I don't get a scratch, huh??"

Despite clear nerves on this kid, Mateo couldn't help but find himself biting his own cheek so that he didn't smile.

There was finally a break in the gunfire from the jets.

As they passed overhead, Apophis parted his lips while Mateo held out his hands.

One unleashed a torrent of purple and gold lightning, and the other sent forth a great wave of ice.

But both of them were somewhat drowned out by the enormous tornadoes of flame that were sent forth from out of nowhere.

""…"" Mateo and Apophis both paused and glanced over their shoulders.

There, they could see a very irate looking Ziz wreathed in flame and the very picture of agitation.

"This… was my favorite sweater."

Ziz was royally upset, and rightfully so.

He stayed up here, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, minding his own damn business.

What possible reason could anyone have to want to kill him? There was none.

Which only meant the humans were doing something out of blind fucking greed.

Again.

This was the race that his father would have him die for? Expected him to kill his sisters for?

It was almost like being slapped in the face as a doctor by a patient who was still wholly dependent on you.

"Well… This hunt seems to have been made all the more challenging."

A single man slipped through the gap in the flames and hovered just above everyone's heads.

On the outside, he looked like an average human man in his early forties. He had a short, scruffy beard and messily tousled brown hair that gave him sort of a grizzled look.

By far the most unnatural thing about him was the dull golden light being unconsciously emitted from his body.

Mateo noticed that this man's voice was not as he remembered it.

Perhaps there was no trace left of his former self at all.

"Huh. I thought it would be Zeus." Apophis muttered.

"Oh? You can tell who it is?" Mateo seemed genuinely impressed.

"Kinda…" Apophis scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

Mateo was a little bit less impressed than he was a couple of seconds ago.

"I'm having a hard time remembering his name, he's one of those obscure ones.. I think he fucks animals or something."

"I believe that should narrow it down quite a lot, no…?" Mateo asked.

"You would be truly surprised at just how little that helps."

Needless to say, god heard everything that the two of them were saying.

Being called obscure by some Egyptian deity whom even he didn't recognize was more than enough of an insult to warrant the use of deadly force.

The hunter god, who's name Apophis definitely should have known, drew an inhumanly long bow from behind his back.

He loaded the weapon with a wooden spear that seemed impossible to shoot properly.

And yet, when the hunter god loosed his arrow it flew as straight and true as if it were completely normal.

This was the first time that Mateo was ever certain that he was about to die.

His body simply wasn't moving fast enough to move out of the way before the spear got to him.

But his mind processed things so quickly that he could still see the spear flying towards him, even if his body couldn't react in time to avoid it.

When everything seemed like it was about to go dark for him, Mateo watched a hand reach into view and grab the spear by the shaft.

Apophis plucked the weapon right out of the air and broke it over his knee. Completely ignoring the outpoor of divine power that came out as a result.

"Do you need him for something?" Apophis asked without looking back.

"I…What?"

"Do you need him? Like… oh, actually don't worry about it."

Apophis tossed the broken pieces of spear over his shoulder before he vanished.

Suddenly, a huge chunk of the floating island became totally dark.

The hunter god turned his head upwards towards the sky.

He didn't see anything. Just complete and total darkness.

And then, that was all that there was. Forever.

-

Unlike the hunter god, everyone else had seen very clearly what had just happened.

And they cowered in fear as a result.

The largest living creature they had ever seen loomed above their heads in the sky.

It was exactly three hundred meters of scales, muscle, and anger.

The creature had the form of an unusually fearsome looking golden cobra. Glowing purple hieroglyphics started on both sides of it's hood and traveled all the way down it's body to the tip of it's tail.

It's eyes were a burning red color that betrayed it's carefully hidden ferocity.

A black forked tongue licked it's mighty jaws as if to savor the digestive process it was currently undergoing.

"… Cernunnos! Finally, it was killing me that I couldn't remember." Apophis nodded his head in satisfaction.

Everyone on the ground remained in awe. Too frightened out of their minds to make even a single move.

Except for Ziz, who gave Yemaya a small nudge.

"I know that's your brother, but I just wanted to say you have no idea how I-"

"Keep it to yourself, big guy. Just keep it to yourself."

"I'm just saying that…"

Yemaya stuck her fingers in her ears for what felt like a literal eternity.

And even when she took them out, Ziz was still talking.

-

With their plane as far from operational as it could get, Mateo's group had to be teleported home so that they could all get proper treatment.

Their wounds would heal in time, but for now they needed at least eight hours of rest before they could be ready to get out on their feet again.

Back at Mateo's base, Apophis was undergoing a full check-up by Mateo, the twins, and almost Ziz.

"For the last time, I said I'm fine! Better than fine in fact." Apophis said proudly.

Abaddon gave his eldest son the sin of gluttony not long ago.

So today, when he ate the body being possessed by Cernunnos, he gained both of their memories, as well as the god's divinities.

Making him a god of Magic, Poison, Gluttony, Beasts, Wild Places, The Hunt, and Fertility all in one fell swoop.

Right now he felt as if he'd just made out like a bandit.

But everyone else didn't seem to have such a lax attitude on the situation.

"I don't care what powers you got! You fainted, butthead!" Yemaja reminded.

"A-And you had a nosebleed…" Yemaya nodded.

Apophis scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "I'm sure it was just my blood sugar..?"

""DRAGONS AREN'T DIABETICS!!""

In fairness, if any of them were going to develop a lifestyle disease, it probably would have been Apophis.

Mateo sighed as he placed his hand on Apophis' shoulder.

"I'm sorry, míjo. Though I'm grateful for your help and the fact that you saved my life, I have to tell your father what happened. He'd be far too worried about you if he knew."

Apophis' face practically lost all of it's color. "W-Wait, you can't-" Find your next read at m-vl-em-pyr

*Knock, knock, knock!*

Just as Apophis was about to beg for them to keep his secret, a blonde visitor showed up at the door wearing an uncomfortable smile.

"I'm sorry… It seems I've come at a bad time."