Dragon of the Eldritch

AN Ello! I'm back for good this time! Also, I got coverart for this fic! Its Ai-generated, Midjourney, with some color manipulation on my part.

Gactha dutifully, silently observed the meeting between her king and the two mortals. She did not eavesdrop, for it was not her place or business to interfere with matters of her mistress's lover. She only observed, to ensure that nothing happened to trouble him.

Of course, she wasn't the only one observing.

There were no less than twenty-three entities watching on as well. Should she point that out to her new master? She wasn't sure, The Great Sultana had not left very specific instructions beyond "Protect Issei while I'm away." She accepted the sacred duty, of course, but she didn't even know how powerful this Issei Hyoudou was yet. Was he already aware of those that were watching him, or was he still too human to sense such things?

Her eyes narrowed. Twenty-four entities.

Her doll-like eyes shifted to the left, her head more snapping than turning as she laid eyes on the newcomer. Deceptively human, but definitely not a mortal.

"Well, I was hoping I'd find one of you about," the blond man greeted with a smirk.

"What is your purpose here?" Gactha asked coldly, her powers rippling beneath this suit of skin.

"Relax. I wanted to talk with you. My name is Azazel," he greeted, giving an easy going look while holding his hands up in surrender.

Gactha paused before retracting her eldritch nature. "That name means nothing to me."

"I'm not even surprised," Azazel remarked in amusement.

"You wish to speak. With me. Why?" Gactha questioned with a frown.

"Well, finding the cults takes time, so I was hoping you might be one I could use to send a message with," he explained.

Ahh, now Gactha understood. He didn't wish to speak with her, but through her. A clever being this was. "You have words for my Mistress?"

"Well, I'm hoping it reaches a bit above her station," Azazel said meaningfully.

Gactha didn't react. There was no station above her Mistress. She would find the notion insulting, but she sensed there was some misassumption in the air. "What are your words?"

"I understand that some rogue Fallen Angels caused some..." Azazel paused to consider his words very carefully. "Annoyance for your Queen."

This being thought she was servant to some other Eldritch God. She supposed that was expected, the Great Center had few direct servants on this rock. "Yes, they did."

"I'm the leader of the Fallen Angels," Azazel explained, pausing to appreciate the fact that he wasn't already attacked. "I'd like to make it clear to her that I and my people had nothing to do with that, and apologize on behalf of my wayward subordinates."

Gactha was impressed. This one was brave enough to believe he had the ire of the Queen of the Eldritch and not be petrified by utter terror. Many terrestrials opted for suicide just from the idea of it. "I will transfer your sentiments to my Mistress."

"I appreciate that," Azazael said with a nod as he took a careful step back, preparing to leave as he turned around-

-He wasn't that surprised to see her Standing Right In Front Of Him, but he was certainly on edge now.

"Twenty-five," she stated in an emotionless voice.

"I'm...sorry?" Azazel asked, resisting every urge to fly away as fast as he could. "Twenty-five, what?"

"There were twenty-three observing this area," Gactha answered. "You were twenty-four. Now there is twenty-five."

Azazel blinked, realizing she wasn't staring at him, exactly. "Oh, you mean the creep following me?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the "empty" space. "Is he not with you?"

"Not to my awareness," Gactha stated with a head tilt. "Reveal yourself. Now."

A long sigh came out as the air rippled to reveal...a bird; a very large, almost humanoid bird. It was blue, and lanky, and had a cage strapped to its back. "Well," it answered in a surprisingly normal voice. "I'm embarrassed a terrestrial could sense me."

"I may not be an eldritch, but I'm hardly a pushover," Azazel said confidently. "And you are no god, Eldritch or otherwise."

"I never claimed to be divine, Sir," the avian retorted in a remarkably gentlemanly manner. "I do apologize for intruding on your work, Good Gazer," it answered, looking to Gactha with a brief bow of the head.

"You are The Collector," Gactha recognized with a raised eyebrow.

"Collector?" Azazel repeated with a scowl, eyeing the eldritch bird suspiciously. "Collector of what?"

"Thuft, if you please, Lord of the Fallen," Thuft introduced civilly. "And I am a collector of all things. And several of my patrons have requested I "collect" several specimens from this world, and those worlds connected to it. In case, as you might know, they came to an untimely and abrupt end."

Azazel didn't know if it was comforting or terrifying to imagine the last members of the Fallen Angels could end up in an Eldritch version of a zoo, or as pets to some god from beyond the stars. Still, there was a more immediate concern. "And you were going to collect me?" he questioned with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, good Mist, no," Thuft assured with a good natured smile on his beak. "I was merely following you so that I might find some members that would be less important and less problematic in collecting."

"That's...honest, I suppose," Azazel stated with some unease. "And why should I let you get away with trying to collect my subordinates?"

Thuft took a step forward, bending his neck down to be more at eye level with the fallen angel. "You have subordinates that have fallen out of line, correct? Surely those fools were not the only ones that were problematic?" he suggested enticingly.

Offering his internal enemies over to the eldritch…there were fallen Azazel really didn't like, but he wasn't sure he'd go that far just to get rid of them. Then again... "And what do I get out of making your job easier?"

"Enough, " Gactha interrupted sternly, a small but terrifying scowl on her face. "Do your business elsewhere, both of you."

"As you desire, Priestess," Thuft answered instantly, bowing his head once more before turning to Azazel. "I shall speak with you soon, Lord of the Fallen. But I shall refrain from collecting your kind until we settle our discussion."

Your kind, Azazel noted even as he nodded. He wondered, just what had Thuft collected already from Earth. Regardless, the Collector vanished with a flap of his mighty wings, leaving only a brief gust and a trail of blue feathers.

"Well, that was interesting," Azazel mused, glancing back at Gactha before he made to leave again. Thankfully, the Eldritch female didn't appear before him again, allowing him to walk on. He briefly contemplated asking her what her name or title might be, but decided against it. After all, that could invite more trouble. Besides, he had to deal with this Collector and decide if he should warn any of the other factions about him.

Gactha watched the fallen leave dispassionately. While her eyes had been on the conversation between the two interlopers, her true gaze had been on the All-Mother's King.

And he was leaving. Which meant she was leaving too.

Twenty-two.

Meanwhile

Koneko was not okay.

But she wondered, staring into her reflection, was she even Koneko still?

Koneko hadn't been fearless, not really, but she definitely didn't have panic attacks on a daily basis.

She had been calling in sick from school, hiding in the clubhouse so that she didn't have to be anywhere near...Her.

The Eldritch Queen.

Her eyes dilated as something moved in the mirror, something slithering just out from behind her head. Her hands snapped up, trying to grasp it, but met only her own scalp and hair.

She turned all about, scanning the empty room like it was the lair of some terrible enemy, but found nothing and no one was here.

Koneko calmed her breathing, not realizing how labored it had become. She was fine, she was safe. Nothing was going to hurt her. Nothing wanted to hurt her.

She grimaced, pain registering. She looked down at her hand and frowned, finding that her claws had formed on instinct. They were covered in her own blood.

She looked back in the mirror and saw that blood was staining her white hair and clean uniform. If she were human, it'd be a very alarming amount of blood. As a neko-turned devil, it was mostly just a mess.

Koneko wouldn't have hurt herself like that. She was a rook of Rias Gremory, she wouldn't have hit herself enough to overcome her own durability.

So, who was she now then? Had Koneko died that day, and she was just whatever was left?

Her shoulder was getting wet and cold.

She should clean up and change. Rias and the others had enough problems to worry about; she didn't need to scare them with this.

As she headed to the shower, her mind returned to her own hollow assurances.

After all, it wasn't really about wanting to hurt her. Az-The Eldritch Queen had nearly destroyed her mind just by flexing her horrible powers with Koneko in the area. There was no ill-intent, no desire to make her suffer, she had just been...collateral. Nothing more than a casualty in a splash zone of insanity.

She blinked, savoring the warmth as the water rolled over her body, steam filling her nostrils. When had she gotten in the shower, or even stripped down? She was truly having problems, to black out like that.

The letter from "Madam Yi," if that letter had ever really existed, said this would fade away and that'd she be fine by the end of the month. Could she make it that long? Dealing with these horrible episodes of dread and seeing things?

More importantly, who was Madam Yi? And why had she helped her at all? The Eldritch, to Koneko's understanding were...apathetic to those caught in the wake of their terrible powers.

Maybe she was just cleaning up for the Queen, maybe the Eldritch kept relationships with the Supernatural as smooth as possible for their own convenience.

She was curious to know, but curiosity killed the cat. Koneko or not, she was still a neko. And death might be the kindest fate if she imposed on whoever had tried to help her.

As she kneaded the self-inflicted wounds, she never noticed the concerned gaze of Akeno, peering from just around the door, glancing to the blood stained uniform on the ground.

Meanwhile

"Huh? Aza? You're back early," Issei said in surprise as Aza literally tore herself through one of Yog's portals.

"Issei! Good, you're here! And she hasn't ssssshown up yet!" Aza said quickly, her tongue turning into some kind of snake from how fast she was talking.

"I told you, he's fine. You knew he was fine! This wasn't that kind of emergency," Yog said with a sigh as she used her sword to close the ruined tear in space-time.

"You know how much trouble sssshe can be!" Aza protested, her tongue emerging to hiss at the time goddess.

"Easy, easy!" Issei said, some strange instinct causing him to grab Aza's serpent of a tongue. Said girlfriend of his suddenly went stiff and actually seemed to melt a bit at his touch. Was the snake purring? Yes, it was purring. "Okay, Aza, calm down. Who is "she," and why are you so freaked out?"

Issei released her tongue, giving her a chance to retract it and morph it back into a normal tongue. Yog, meanwhile, sighed as she finished closing the portal. "I just reminded her that that you're now a stepfather," Yog explained, equally amused as she was exasperated.

Issei was surprised, slowly turning to Aza again. "...You have a kid?"

"Well, I actually have three, but it's just the one you have to worry about," Aza assured sheepishly.

"I'm not sure why I'm even surprised. Guess I just didn't get milf vibes from you," Issei mused as he cupped his chin. "So, this a miracle birth kind of thing or do I have to worry about an eldritch ex-boyfriend?"

"No, no, she was a virgin before you," Yog assured in amusement. "But yeah. Nyarlathotep is, well, a handful. Also technically my aunt."

Issei opened his mouth and closed it. "I'm going to need to a see a picture of this family tree someday, before I start adding to it at least," he stated idly. "So, what's so bad about Nyr...Nyarat...can I just call her Nyarly?"

"Yes, we all do," Aza answered with a wave. "Anyway, how should I put this? You know how most Eldritch Gods are above the petty concepts of good and evil?"

"Yes, you guys run on a very weird orange-blue morality," Issei answered with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, Nyarly isn't that," Yog explained, extending her sword to lean on it like a staff. "She's actually really malicious. As in kick babies and eat kittens kind of malicious. Some of us end a world by accident, but it's never an accident with Nyarly."

"She really, really likes tormenting mortals," Aza explained bluntly.

Issei suddenly became very, very alarmed. "Wait, are you saying she'd...?"

"No, no!" Aza spoke up quickly. "She wouldn't harm you, or your family. She knows I won't let her. I made that very clear to her during your past lives."

"Ahh, how I savored the moment when you put your figurative foot down on her. The look was priceless," Yog said, pulling a photograph out of thin air, smirking at the contents.

"Yog, don't provoke her," Aza muttered with a sigh.

Issei stared for a moment as he tried to process several things at once. "I'm just going to file most of that away for later. But okay, if she's not coming after me or my parents...?"

"She has an entire planet and the connected supernatural worlds filled with various creatures to amuse herself with," Yog said plainly. "She'll be bound to cause some trouble somewhere, like she always does. And just because she won't hurt you outright doesn't mean she won't find a way to fuck with you."

"...Aza, I don't want to question your parenting or anything..." Issei said carefully.

"Oh no, you should definitely question my parenting," Aza said with a sigh, running a hand through her hair, her fingers seeping into a stray tentacle and morphing it back into strands of hair.

Issei looked taken back by that as Aza slumped, glancing to Yog for some hint at how he should take that one. She held up a scroll, opening it to reveal one sentence.

Don't ask, she's not ready for that talk yet.

Issei decided to trust Yog on this, coming over to Aza and wrapping an arm around her. "Come on, we're getting ice cream."

"Huh? Ice cream?" Aza asked, looking up in bewilderment at the subject change.

"You're sad and ice cream makes you happy," he said with a grin. "Unless you were acting that on our date."

Aza smiled and shook her head. "I like it. The coldness reminds me of space, but it's sweet like you," she answered in a small voice.

Issei stumbled at that. "W-well, glad you enjoyed my cream so much," he joked, chuckling at her comparison.

Aza opened her mouth, but closed it. "I didn't actually mean that, but...yes, yes I enjoyed it," Aza assured with a small, meaningful smile.

"Ahh, love," Yog teased playfully, mock-swooning behind them as she leaned on her sword.

"Come on, you're getting ice cream too Yog," Issei said with an inviting grin.

"Huh?" Yog stopped and snapped up right, looking at Issei in confusion at the invita-

"Well, if you insist," Yog said with her usual confident smirk.

"Great. Cause I want to know what a time-goddess's favorite flavor is," Issei stated, playfully but honestly while ignoring a small headache that was passing through his skull.

"Believe it or not, it tastes different to me in each timeline, so even I don't know," Yog explained with a grin of her own.

"Eh? Wait, so your taste buds are different in each universe or something?" Issei asked in confusion.

"Yeah, something like that," Yog answered in a "more or less" tone. "But only with ice cream. Bubble gum ice cream in this timeline might taste the same as chocolate ice cream in another, but popcorn always tastes like popcorn."

Issei look to Aza for some better explanation, but she just shrugged helplessly. With that, he decided to just enjoy some time eating treats with the two eldritch ladies.

Meanwhile

They came from the blackness.

Beasts of withered flesh, eyeless and mouthless, and headless too…their pear-shaped bodies crawled and leaped and scurried on five limbs. Each somehow like a leg and an arm at the same time, multi-jointed, with hands that had too many fingers. From the lump on their back emerged three...tendrils. They were like tongues, but whip-like and barbed.

They had descended upon the mountain like a plague, slaughtering all of their feathered preys. Wings were dismembered and bowels were ripped open. Those that tried to fly away were shot down, the "tongues" launching out like snakes, wrapping around their targets and dragging them down into a final fall from the skies.

Yet, these beasts did not eat or steal. They only killed. And they soon killed them all.

All, except her.

She covered her mouth, trying to silence her sobs of grief and terror as she hid under the corpses of her family: her mother, her father, her brothers, her sisters. All had died, leaving only her alive by chance and luck. She could not calm her breathing, for she could not look away: it was either gaze out at the nightmare outside, or look upon the dead faces of her loved ones.

"Kill."

She bit her tongue to stop the scream, tasting her own blood. One of them...was right on top of her…of her big sister. She couldn't see it, but she could hear it and she could feel the weight pressing the bloody corpse down on her, forcing her down into the crimson pool forming beneath her. The creature, it was...speaking, somehow? But it had no mouth, so how...?

"Killing, killed them all we have. Please, pleasing, pleased the Center shall be. Insult, Insulting, Insulted her these vermin has, will, have," it said in a maddening, senseless voice as it relished this moment.

"Finding, found, find more we can," another spoke, and she could see this one. It had one of its limbs raised, showing its open hand in her direction. She swallowed, drinking her own blood by accident, as she saw that there was a...mouth of sorts, at the center of the palm. And from it emerged a small tendril with an unblinking eyeball attached to it.

She dared not move, lest it notice her.

"No. Only these, those of dark wings. Suffer, suffered, suffering only for these. Other wings are their enemies. Let them enjoy whatever wretch remain, remaining, remained," the one above her said dismissively.

For a moment they said nothing, did nothing, until she saw the one before her turn its gaze to the side. She saw it backing away and felt the one above her retreating as well.

Were they...leaving? Had she survived? Was some god taking pity on her?

A black shoe stepped right in front of her, stepping on the wing of her father, crushing feathers and bones like they were paste.

"What a wonderful mess you've all made," a voice, a woman's voice murmured out with dismissive amusement.

No, no god was watching over her. Not favorably, at least. She knew that instinctively. She could feel something cold and terrible seeping into the air, just from the presence, just from the voice.

"Have these worms not pay, paying, paid offence to your great progenitor, Crawling One?" one of the beasts asked with...with...

Was that terror on its seeing tongue!?

"Not these, no. These are Harpies. One of the terrestrials I like, actually," The female said with a chilling giggle.

She smiled brokenly at knowing The Great She found something of value in her.

Then she froze. Why...why did she think that?

"The ones you were looking for have wings separate from their arms," The Crawling One explained, tapping her shoe into the bloody mess that was one of her mangled siblings.

She almost pulled herself out of the corpses, to crawl before The Great She and lick the filth from the dark divinity she was kneeling before.

But she stopped herself, trying to cover her ears with her wings and block out the terrible, wonderful, insidious voices creeping so tenderly into her brain.

"We apologized, apologizing, apologize for our mistake, O Phar-GAH!" the creature stopped, screaming in pain as glowing azure blood filled the air; literally, filled, as it was slow to fall.

"Begone you petty things," The Great She commanded, bored of their insolence, and they of course obeyed, scurrying back into the abyss from which they sprung.

For The Great She was great and terrible.

"Yes, yes I am, little bird."

She froze, she trembled, and she cried. She was going to die. This was the end.

"Mmm, The End indeed, little bird, The End indeed," The Great She purred in a horrifyingly loving voice as the bodies above her began to tremble. "Here, let me get a look at you."

And just like that, the corpses were ripped away and tossed aside like trash, with the barest of effort. Or was it effort? The figure towering over her was not leaning or crouching, just standing. How...how had she flung the bodies away? Did she want to know?

"Come now. Look Me In The Eye."

She had no choice but to obey. There was...no scenario, no reality that existed where she didn't not obey that voice. It was not a request or even a command. It was a simple fact of reality; such was the will of The Great She.

She humbling lifted her head, staying up at the dark beauty...and lost her soul in those yellow eyes.

Literally.

The Eldritch giggled deviously, her fingers beckoning the body of the young harpy to float and rise. "The End, and The Beginning, my soon-to-be pet."

"Don't you have enough horrors to look after?"

The Crawling One smirked over her shoulder at the newcomer. "Was wondering when you were going to show up. Don't worry, I just wanted to pick up something to play with before you cleaned up this mess."

"Mmm. And you know I can't actually stop you."

"Indeed," the Crawling One mused tauntingly. "Say hello to the family when you go tattling, Little Key~"

Meanwhile

Issei knew he had forgotten something while on their way to get ice cream.

He was promptly reminded of it, or rather her, as Gactha took a seat with them in the booth, sitting next to Yog.

"Oh, right, you," Issei said idly

"All-Mother, Kungur, Great Lurker," Gactha greeted with respect, bowing her head to each of them.

"Gacthaurshaaftxtt?" Yog greeted with a raised eyebrow, smiling at Aza. "You were worried even with her keeping a gaze on him? By You, you're overprotective."

Aza gave a pouting glare at Yog while Issei rolled that full, eldritch name in his head. "I feel like I almost understand that," Issei stated in interest, getting a head tilt from the black faced Eldritch. "So, Aza, why didn't you tell me about her?"

Aza gave him a confused look. "Didn't I?" she asked, looking to Yog suspiciously. "Yog, did you rewind time when I wasn't paying attention?"

"Yes, but not for that," Yog answered honestly, glancing out of the window. "Granted, my pet might have eaten up a minute or two."

"Eh? Pet?" Issei asked, suspecting that Yog's idea of a pet was anything except normal.

"I'll introduce you another time," Yog assured, waving a hand to Aza.

The Eldritch Queen shrugged. "Beloved, this is Gactha, one of the Aftxttan. They're a race I, well, created," she explained, motioning to Gactha, who bowed her head again.

"Created?" Issei repeated before stopping himself. "Right, Eldritch Goddess and Queen of the Universe."

"Don't worry. One day, you'll have your own little horde of cute alien girls calling you All-Daddy," Yog said teasingly.

Issei grinned at the mental image. Aza just put a finger to her chin. "Well, technically, he's already the All-Father to Gactha and the others."

"This is true," Gactha agreed, causing Issei to sputter and blush. "Though, most of us just refer to you as the Kungur for now."

"And marrying the creator of a species is never the same as making your own for the first time," Yog stated off-handedly.

"R-right," Issei accepted awkwardly, realizing that they were completely serious and not teasing him. Or not just teasing him, in Yog's case. "S-so, think we should order soon?"

Yog smirked, raising her sword and tapping it against nothing, making the air ripple.

"And what will you all be having?" a waitress asked with a polite smile to the group of four.

"I desire any kind, but drowning in sprinkles," Gactha answered flatly, her empty gaze staring through the soul of the woman.

"R-right," she said, trying not to make eye contact with the creepy one.

"Just vanilla is fine for me," Yog said with a wave, tilting her hat up with her seethed sword.

Issei raised an eyebrow, wondering if regular people even noticed that Yog was dressed like a sailor with a sword, or if Yog just willed them to ignore her strange outfit.

"I will take the Ikasumi!" Aza said enthusiastically.

"Wait, they have that here? You have that here?" Issei asked in surprise, looking from Aza to the waitress.

"Yes indeed! It's a very new item though," she answered with a smile.

"I'll...try that too, actually," Issei answered as she wrote down the order and left. After a moment, he looked to Aza. "Did you warp reality so they'd have squid ink ice cream here?"

"Yes?" Aza answered with a head tilt. "Is something wrong with that?"

"Not...really, just making sure," Issei answered awkwardly.

"It would have shown up here in another year or two anyway," Yog assured idly, turning to Gactha. "So, I think you have something to say, Miss Gazer?"

Gactha nodded, turning to Aza. "I had a meeting with the Leader of the Fallen Angels."

The air around Aza suddenly got very thick as she gained an even look. "Why was he anywhere near Issei?" she asked in a dangerous tone.

"He didn't know that he was," Gactha answered honestly.

"...Eh?" Issei and Aza said in sync.

"So, wait, was this while I was at the park? And it was just a coincidence?" Issei asked, not sure if he should be bothered or not that more Fallen Angels had been nearby.

Gactha nodded. "He appeared to be under the misassumption that I was a servant of a lesser Eldritch, more local to Earth."

"Oh, okay then," Aza said, calming down instantly. "So, what did he want?"

"He was hoping that I might relay a message to my Mistress, who would relay it to the Queen of the Eldritch," Gactha explained. "I decided it might be best not to correct his mistake and simply listened to what he wished you to hear; which is that the whelps you disposed of were not working under his orders. And that he wishes to apologize, and if needed, give compensation."

"What kind of compensation?" Issei asked curiously.

End of Chapter

Ello! Sorry of the long wait. Lot of shit happened. Writer's block, funerals, covid, work, other IRL issues, etc. But I'm back to this and you'll be happy to know that this story will be getting monthly updates from now on!

And to top it all off, I got some badass coverart.

But onto the meat of the story. Little meeting between Azazel, Gactha, and Thuft the Collector, another character from Love Azathoth. Meanwhile, Issei gets a warning about Nyarly annnnnd I justified the Horror aspect of this story with the Koneko scene and what happened with the harpies. Yeah, you probably know who that "Great She" is.

Hope you all enjoyed this, I know I did.

Early viewing of chapters 9-10 avaliable on my pat-reon:

p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64