First Demonic Dragon

-Original timeline, Three Years before Abaddon's battle in Asgard...

"So, explain this to me once again.... What exactly are you doing?"

Isabelle lay on her stomach watching her sister race across her room while throwing clothes into her suitcase.

"Gosh, what's so hard to understand?? I'm just going to use our clan's shapeshifting techniques to launch a little honey-trap plot."

"...I need WAY more information." Isabelle stared blankly. "Since when have you ever had to use tricks to get a man? Besides, don't you have enough toys already?"

Audrina paused with a slightly dream-like expression on her face. "Believe me, dear sister. There are no toys quite like this one."

Isabelle couldn't tell exactly what her sister was thinking, but she knew that it was something gross. That alone was sufficient enough to temper her curiosity.

"You've been acting strangely ever since you came from your friend's son's party. I heard it was quite the buzz, but could it really have been that exciting? Dragons always fight at parties…"

Isabelle yawned before she turned towards her sister with an unamused look on her face.

"Don't go starting up anything in that old golden monster's territory. The last thing we need is for him to start putting some sort of sanctions on us because you can't behave."

Her sister smiled sheepishly. "I can behave!"

"Sure. You're so well behaved all our guards are afraid of you."

"They're supposed to be."

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "They're supposed to want to protect you. There is a difference, you know? That friend of yours seems to know that already."

Audrina paused. "Now that you mention it…. Why don't our men treat me the way Yara's treat her?!"

"Could be because you aren't as pretty or angelic as her." Isabelle smirked.

Her sister's mouth fell open- shocked that she would actually say those cruel words aloud. This more than doubled Isabelle's amusement.

As Audrina watched her sister fall into a giggling fit, she paused instead of unsheathing a sharp-tongued retort.

For some reason, that day she felt like it had been quite a long time since she had seen her sister laugh without reservation.

The first couple of years after Dagon had disappeared, Isabelle and Audrina were relative shells of themselves. They lived their lives looking over their shoulders, expecting their dreaded father to come back at the drop of a hat.

As time went by, they had each slowly returned to their own versions of normalcy, but this was the first time Audrina had seen her sister be so light and unburdened.

If it came at the price of being the butt of a few jokes, Audrina thought that she didn't mind that treatment. Especially since she was about to have the last laugh.

"Hmph, yeah, yeah, laugh it up all you want, dear sister."

"I certainly will." Isabelle stood up and closed the latch on Audrina's suitcase. "Now, before you go planning your next trip, maybe you can catch up on some of this Queenly work you've left behind from your last one."

Audrina's good mood evaporated into nothing. By now, there was probably more paper on her desk than in an office supply store.

"Ugh.." Audrina slumped over. "Why am I queen again..?"

Isabelle rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I believe it's because father called me a weak-willed people pleaser too soft to rule effectively and too weak to make a suitable warrior."

Audrina stared at her sister sympathetically. "…Father was a bastard. And you are perfect just the way you are."

For a moment, it seemed like Isabelle had really been moved by her sister's words.

She stood up and stretched while walking towards the door. "Yeah well, maybe you should hurry up and actually get married. That way you can kick your feet up and relax. Even more than now, that is..."

Audrina watched her sister shut the door behind her.

Even after she left, Isabelle's words kept lingering in her mind.

A mischievous smirk formed on Audrina's lips, and she turned her gaze towards the pen and paper on her desk…

- Present Day, Present Timeline…

What was Audrina supposed to say to her sister in that moment?

She could not tell her that she was wrong, because if she placed herself in her sister's shoes, she knew that she might feel the same way as Isabelle.

So then where did that leave them now that things seemed to have spiraled beyond all hope of reconciliation?

Audrina couldn't make herself pursue Isabelle further. Her words were caught in the back of her throat. All that she could do was scream silently at the world around them.

And in some way, the world around them screamed back.

They had been walking along a clear path through that strange flower field- careful to avoid any of those strange glowing blossoms that they saw earlier.

As Audrina watched her sister from behind- too cowardly to reach out to her, she saw Isabelle raise her hand to wipe her own eyes.

At that moment, she inadvertently kicked up a small amount of sand.

The particles billowed over to the flower petals and settled on them like dew in the morning.

Apparently, that was enough.

Audrina noticed a couple of the flowers change color and move. Almost like Venus flytraps.

But instead of trying ot eat something, these plants spit out a small cloud of their own brand of noxious pollen.

Audrina didn't think, she just moved.

She appeared directly next to her sister and pulled her out of the way before she was touched.

"H-Hey, what gives..?!" Isabelle wiped her face quickly in the hopes that her sister wouldn't see that she'd been crying. She did.

Audrina wiped her own face as well and then pointed to the small cloud of pollen that had started to settle.

Isabelle was greatly confused.

"And that's supposed to be...?"

"Something I think I'd prefer you not to get touched by."

Audrina formed a small glass vial in her hand.

She removed the cork from the lid and held it out towards the pollen.

Slowly, every particle of the strange dust began floating towards the vial.

If this was what Audrina hoped it was, then hopefully Lailah would be able to find out it's function with a closer look.

Meanwhile, Isabelle knew that she should have expressed her gratitude to her sister for saving her, but she couldn't get the words to leave her mouth.

But suddenly, Audrina's face hardened and she pulled her sister in closer once again. She was too strong for Isabelle to even pull herself away.

"Everyone, around us!"

Nyx and Gandora joined Audrina's little circle while L'asir and the other soldiers surrounded them in a protective formation.

Weapons were drawn. Spells were activated. And Isabelle still had no idea what was going on.

And then she felt it.

The entire ground underneath them rumbled furiously as if some great force was awakening.

From the flower fields, twisted and jagged limbs ripped their way out of the ground.

Seiges of mangaled bodies sprang up by the tens and twenties at once. They made no noises, and seemed to be neither alive nor undead. Yet they were moving all the same.

"Torch this place!" Audrina ordered.

The Euphrates would have done so even if she had not requested it.

L'asir was the first to act. The green flames making up his hair rampaged wildly and grew at least ten or twenty feet.

A deluge of bright green flames flared outward in all directions; bathing the area in light and flame.

The affected creatures released their first noises that sounded like shrill wails of agony.

The flowers went up quickly, like perfect kindling. And the more of the that burned, the more of the affected creatures dropped to the ground shaking- only to be turned to ash mere moments later.

But there were a few who managed miraculously to survive the initial onslaught and keep rushing forward.

Their chests rose and fell dramatically as they made heaving exhales.

Forcing themselves to cough, they expelled massive clouds of pollen from their lungs, quickly filling the air with it before they were cut or burned down.

Audrina held out her hand, and a gold sigil appeared over her palm.

A shadowy dome was erected around them- one that didn't allow anything in but also did not prevent their attacks from going out.

Clearing out the flower field and the monsters it had summoned wasn't actually that difficult. Nor did it take up much of their time.

But in the aftermath, when everything had started to settle once more, Audrina was still hesitant to drop her barrier.

Every one of her nerves told her that it still wasn't time. And she couldn't in good conscious ignore such an adamant warning.

Her head snapped around ninety degrees towards the sky.

An alien projectile was shooting towards them at a dangerously fast rate. At first glance, it appeared to be some brand of missile.

And a very large one at that.

"I guess we upset the locals..." Nyx joked halfheartedly.

"A little more than that, I'm afraid." Audrina's eyes narrowed. "A bomb that powerful could destroy this entire stretch of land."

Audrina held out her hand and caught the missile just before it struck land.

"Should we go introduce ourselves then?"

She lifted herself and her companions up while keeping them sealed within their dark bubble.

Together, they floated across the scorched lands, over the bridge, and towards the first domed colony.

Through the prismatic blue barrier, Audrina could see the large roaches scattering around like little roaches.

"I wonder… How should I knock this time?"