First Demonic Dragon-Chapter 930: Manufacturing

"Valerie, baby, can you hand me that slide over there?" Lailah held out her hand without looking up from her microscope.

Valerie was typing away on her iPad at the moment while grumbling to herself angrily.

Belloc had hooked her on a pay-to-win game from Earth yesterday, and now it was all that she thought about.

She was grateful that she was an adult and money didn't matter to her. She couldn't imagine having to limit her spending with this thing consuming so much of her mind.

"VAL!"

"H-Huh? What's happening??" Valerie looked up.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a thoughtless daughter I have."

Gulban had been sitting on the ground and drinking himself into a stupor when he suddenly stood up to hand Lailah the slide she was asking for.

Valerie glared at her father and looked away from her screen for the first time in four hours.

"Why're you even here, old man?! You're interrupting our quality time over here!"

"Is that what you would call this?" Lailah replied sarcastically. "You haven't said a word to me in the entire time you've been in here."

"So you weren't just enjoying my presence?" Valerie asked with uncharacteristically big eyes.

Lailah hadn't the foggiest idea how this whole thing had somehow gotten turned around on her…

Rolling her eyes, she went back to studying the sample on the slide.

After staring into the slide for some time, Lailah reached an intriguing and startling conclusion.

"Interesting…"

"Got something, my little genius?" Valerie fluttered over.

Lailah smirked at Valerie's thinly veiled attempt to get back on her good side.

… It was only working just a little bit.

"This fluid that I extracted from our husband."

Valerie: "Go on."

Gulban: "Please don't."

The old maker left immediately before he could hear anything else. Leaving Lailah just a little bit perplexed.

"…He does know that I'm talking about the venom I took out of our husband's head after he and Lucifer fought, right?"

"I didn't even know that was what you were talking about." Valerie's wings lost a tiny bit of their sparkle.

"Seriously?? What did you think I was over here analyzing?"

"I thought you were trying to figure out why it feels so good when he-"

"No."

"Or why it tastes like-"

"Jesus, love. Are you ovulating or something?"

"Maybe..." Valerie deflated even further and let her head rest on the countertop. Her husband's absence was taking more of a toll than she had initially anticipated. The only reason she hadn't tried to jump on Lailah already was because of how hard she was working.

"So what did you find out about the other kind of goo?" Valerie asked.

Lailah shook her head helplessly. "It's a parasite like we initially thought, but it seems to be one that can be remotely controlled through the use of mana."

"So someone else was trying to brain-jack our husband." Valerie rubbed her eyes as she got back on her tablet. "Add 'em to the fucking list and we'll finish off Lucifer whenever we see him again."

Lailah smirked. "And another thing... I don't really believe this venom is Lucifer's."

"What makes you say that?"

"I had a feeling, so I tested this material against the samples of DNA I have from the other five pigeon siblings."

"Do I want to know why you have samples of the archangels' DNA?" Valerie stared at her suspiciously.

"I have samples of almost everyone's." Lailah responded as if it were obvious and not a blatantly insane thing to keep.

Valerie began to have a migraine. "How would you even..." Her words trailed off as she reached an inescapable conclusion. "Audrina's been helping you with this gross hobby, hasn't she?"

Lailah became defensive as she covered the nearest set of test tubes. "I-It's not gross; she does it because she loves me!"

There were very many things that Valerie could have said in that moment. However, she wisely decided that she wouldn't press just for the sake of time.

"Okay, so if it didn't come from Lucifer, then where did it come from?"

"I think it was likely manufactured." Lailah admitted. "Lucifer was probably just used as the means of delivery."

"Okay..."

"But if it was manufactured, and Lucifer was used as the means of delivery this time, that theoretically means that it could be replicated and given to another host. Even multiple."

Now, Valerie looked slightly concerned. "...You think Percival might've given it to all of the demons?"

"I don't see why he wouldn't." Lailah sighed as she stretched her back to ease her fatigue. "It makes the most sense if you're trying to increase your numbers and extend your reach."

Lailah passed her arm over the counter.

The contents of her desk shifted and were replaced by all sorts of scientific glassware and a short list of chemicals. Both magical and mundane.

"More work to be done?" Valerie almost sounded crestfallen.

A small smile threatened to spread across Lailah's face. "An antibody will be necessary, babe. You can stick around if you like, but..."

Judging by the way that she shrugged casually, Valerie rightly guessed that her plan was going to take a long while.

The look on her face was so sad it could've melted the heart of a giant. "So...We don't have any time to fool around?"

"Valerie." Lailah rolled her eyes.

Valerie wagged her finger, and the lights in the room suddenly cut off. The only light was coming from the glow of her wings.

Lailah reached into the pocket of her lab coat. "If you come near me, I will spray you with this water gun."

"I'll like it."

As big of a stickler as she was for her work and her deadlines, Lailah had a terribly enormous weakness for seduction.

"...You have ten minutes and don't mess with my hair."

"I only need five."

Valerie swooped after Lailah instantly and swept her up in her arms while wrapping her wings around them.

Their lips were mere centimeters away from each other when the door suddenly swung open and the lights flickered back on.

"Hey, tomboy, why're the lights- Oh, Jesus bloody christ."

The wives slowly pulled apart from each other while fixing their clothes. The look that Valerie was giving her father was one of immense dislike.

"I thought you were gone, you old bastard!"

"So you immediately jump on poor sweet Lailah as soon as I leave the room?"

"Obviously."

Gulban just rolled his eyes and sat back down like he had no intention of leaving. "Anyway, I need a favor if you don't mind."

"Get out!"

"I lost something, and I need you to use that big robot of yours to help me find it." Gulban cracked open another beer.

"You lose every damn thing except your life, you old shit!"

Lailah pulled her lab coat back on and started working without intervening.

"Oh, now you want me dead, huh! Well, when I looked like a wet mop string, you couldn't stop crying when you thought you were about to lose your dear old dad!"

"I'm waiting for someone to leave you on death's doorstep again so that hopefully I can let nature run it's course this time!"

"Such a short fuse for such a hulking little boy! All this fuss just because I stopped you from crushing wee little Lailah with your arms of ground beef!"

"For YOUR information, she likes to be crushed!!" Valerie screamed back.

Lailah opened her mouth to speak, but then decided that she would be better served not to. Simply riding out the storm was always the best option.

"Just what do you want??" Valerie huffed.

"I only need a little help finding my key, and then I'll get out of your hair." Gulban huffed.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "You lose that thing all the fucking time, dad. You probably just left it on an asteroid or something like the last sixteen times!"

"Well, probably, but I don't exactly have my powers to go looking for it anymore, do I??"

Valerie sighed. "Really not my problem right now, Dad. Arggy is overworked enough as is, I won't deviate from his important work to help you find the key to your garbage dump again."

Gulban sighed in frustration as he hurled his empty bottle at Valerie. She caught it with ease and hurled it back with enough force to knock out an adult elephant .

"Val!" Lailah snapped.

"He started it!" fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

A breathy sigh escaped Lailah's lips as she pulled the broken glass out of her father-in-law's forehead.

"Gulban, why don't you just take Mira and ask her for help finding your key? She really needs something to do that doesn't involve sugar or tracking mud into the house."

The old maker rubbed his beard of flame as a small smile spread. "You know... that'll actually be quite helpful. It'll be nice to spend time around a family member who actually respects me!" He dug at Valerie.

His daughter only rolled her eyes. "Mira's a really easy-to-please young girl, and you can burp your ABCs. The bar is low."

"Just like your estrogen, he-she..." Gulban grumbled.

"The fuck did you say, old man!?"

Valerie chased her father out of the room with the fury of a great go at her back.

She slammed the door behind her father and leaned against it in a huff.

After fixing her hair, she locked the door behind her and started taking off her overalls.

She had almost turned off the light when a clear jet of water hit her in her eyes.

"H-Hey!"

"Don't even think about it, babe. Moods ruined."

Lailah put her miniature water gun back in her pocket and continued working.

Valerie slid to the floor, teary-eyed and wondering why her father hadn't gone home to glory yet.