First Demonic Dragon

"Suppression formation."

The order soldiers spread out to surround the demon in an instant.

Shin shrugged off his trenchcoat and revealed his full metallic form.

"You now stand in front of the Shining Order of Sacred Mercy. Our namesake is extended to all those who lay down their weapons and go quietly into the golden light of reincarnation. What say you?"

The demon spit on the ground. "Dogs of The Gold Order. When'd you switch from the hunting of abyss beasts to the terrorizing of us good-natured demons, huh?"

"We are an organization dedicated to protecting the multiverse from all threats that would seek to throw it into disarray. Your attempt to fuse the multiverse together flies directly in the face of the natural law and as such we have been called to respond. Do you deny it?"

The demon shrugged. "I am just a small cog in a very large machine, big man. You know how it goes."

"And yet you maintain a role all the same. What say you?" Shin asked again.

The demon buried his sword in the ground.

He raised his fist in the air and unfurled his thumb. Ever so slowly, he turned his finger downward towards the soil.

"Mercy has been refused." Shin decreed. "So says the accused. Now, let judgement be at hand."

"JUDGEMENT BE AT HAND!"

No further conversation was needed as a hail of gunfire fell through the sky like hail.

The demon picked up his sword faster than the eye could perceive and took to the sky.

In an instant, he appeared in front of an intern still wet behind the ears.

In the tiny, infinitesimal period of time between where the demon's sword connected with the human's neck, a glowing sigil spread across the human's body.

Time sped back up.

And instead of the human having his upper body cleaved in two, he bent his body at a ninety degree angle underneath the black sword.

While the demon scrunched his face in bewilderment, the human smirked victoriously.

At a much closer angle, and with reflexes that were impossibly quicker than before, he lifted up his pistols and fired two rounds into the demon's exposed eye-sockets.

The human was proud of himself for making the kill.

He never expected that the demon's body would have kept moving even after 'death'. All that he saw was the blade coming towards his neck while knowing that he couldn't avoid it.
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And then… somehow he did.

His body was pulled back against his own volition quick enough to avoid certain death.

His ears heard the whistle of the blade as it cut through the air. He was certain that if he had been hit by that he would've died before he could have processed it.

-

Belloc and Lillian turned their heads almost 180 degrees to stare at the large dragon behind them.

Straga blinked his eyes innocently. "Mother dearest. Big brother. Is something troubling you?"

"Don't be gross." Belloc recoiled.

"That man was marked for death, my son. You know we aren't supposed to interfere." Lillian reminded.

Straga scratched the back of his head and huffed. "These are supposed to be our allies, right? Wouldn't be proper of us to just let them get carved up."

"They are still mortals, Straga. We cannot overly interfere in their fates or they are bound to suffer even worse fates down the line."

Straga bit his lip unconsciously.

"Let him be."

The trio looked up towards the ten-headed dragon whose palm they were currently resting in.

Abaddon's eyes were focused solely on the battle, but he heard everything that the trio were discussing beforehand.

"I'll discuss removing any accumulated karma with Thea, the Moriai, and the Norns. If Asherah has something to say, I will accept responsibility." He said.

"What..?"

"Dad, you can't-"

"I'm the one who acted, I don't need you to-"

"All of you, hush."

Bekka appeared between the group. She used her hands to cover the mouths of her sons. "Your father has made a decision, don't give him grief about it. Just let it be."

The boys seemed to relent, even if they may not have understood.

Their father was a laid back man, but he had been on their asses about not abusing their divinities or connections from the moment they ascended to godhood.

For him to just casually say that he would talk to Thea about influencing the fates of mortals was no small favor. She had to work extra hard to influence the lives of those in the order in any direction.

Lillian didn't understand. She knew her husband wasn't one to casually interfere in things like that.

She continued to stare at him, and one might think she was trying to find an answer to her queries by looking directly into his brains.

Eventually, she tore her eyes away from him and glanced at Seras.

She was just like their husband. Her steely gaze was affixed to the battle below.

'Do you get it now, dear?' Bekka asked telepathically.

The realization dawned on Lillian like a freight car once she took another look at the battlefield.

Everyone here smelled of death. If Abaddon and his family did not interfere, then the order would suffer a devastating loss.

"Excuse me."

The wives looked up at Behemoth who was clutching her cudgel rather tightly.

"Am I allowed to participate?"

Everyone knew that she was truly only asking Abaddon, Bekka, and Seras, as they were the assumed 'experts' here.

Abaddon turned one of his many eyes to her and stared at her with a vaguely human expression.

"Will you be able to control yourself?"

"Probably not." She didn't even bother lying.

For some reason, her immense honesty served to put a smile on his face- albeit a scary, horrific version of one.

"Happy hunting then."

-

The members of the order were rattled.

Watching the demon dig the holy bullets out of his eyes was among the most disturbing scenes that one could personally witness. Hearing his laughter as he did so only added to the fear felt by those in the area.

"So these are the tricks you maggots spent all of these millennia perfecting. It's no wonder that none of you have managed to be a thorn in the side of the red god for very long. I've faced greater obstructions in my bowels!"

Shin might not have had actual blood anymore, but he felt something inside of him boiling.

The demon sensed his anger and turned his head to stare at him with that same eerie smile.

"Have I offended you, tin-man? Carve this single lesson into your very soul: mimicking me will not make you my equal!!"

The demon switched his point of attack from the little fish to the head of the pack.

Shin's processors barely caught the moment where the demon appeared in front of him.

A second sword swing was thrown out. This time, when Shin arose to match his speed, the demon wasn't nearly phased.

When Shin caught his sword with two hands, the demon buried one of his knees in Shin's metallic gut.

The lack of organs meant that Shin avoided having the wind knocked out of his sternum, but the sheer force behind the attack still bent his body inward.

The metal that made up his stomach crumpled under the force, and various warnings flashed in his retina.

The material his body was made from was very special.

It was designed not to rust, to withstand temperatures comparable to earth's sun, and absorb magical attacks.

And since it was metal with a high rate of durability, that meant that the amount of time that Shin could hold on to the powers of an abyss beast or demon was theoretically infinite. But there were a few exceptions.

Obviously, the technology hadn't been perfected yet. So his ability to hold onto his increase in power would likely not be permanent against an adversary like Shiva or Nyx.

The metal would eventually begin to crumple under the new strain, and once the metal began to lose it's integrity in one place, the rest of his body would become compromised.

Shin's systems were warning him that his time with his enhancements had just dropped dramatically from an hour to roughly thirty minutes.

He needed a way to force a separation of some sort with this demon. Because as of this moment, a game of close-quarters was heavily in favor of his opponent.

Whoever this creature was, he was far from the usual dunderheads who didn't know how to use their strength or their bodies.

As if responding to his wishes, Shin's body formed a strange protrusion on his chest.

A glowing blue light flickered to life, and the absolute loudest sonic attack anyone here had ever heard ripped through the archdemon.

His armor folded like a tin-can. Parts of his flesh were getting peeled off of his bones.

Dark blood trickled from his ears, nose, mouth, and tear ducts as he laughed despite his grievous injuries.

"Wonderful! Incredible! Tell me, what more do you have to make this day-"

The demon suddenly noticed an abnormal amount of energy gathering behind him.

While their leader was locked in a struggle, the other members of the order did not remain idle.

They looked to have been working on a rather complex spell formation that the demon didn't believe he had ever seen before.

But he ran out of time to analyze it when a giant tail fell out of the sky and knocked him clear through an island.