In the frozen wastes, inside a grand fortress castle, a beautiful figure sat quietly on a black throne.
A magic circle flashed each ti her ice-blue hair almost touched the ground, with a beauty spot beneath her golden left eye.
The demon queen's figure transford, now almost perfectly replicating Riel with her soft, caral skin and black A-line dress with a plunging neckline clinging tightly to her curvy body with wide hips and bountiful mounds.
"...."
Several rows of demons knelt beneath her throne at the base of its steps.
"Your Majesty, the attacks have failed."
Silence.
"Valsarik."
The demon queen's voice reverberated with a pleasant ring through the throne room, with icy walls and the howling wind echoing in the background.
Fear spread through the demon ranks after this failure.
Their queen never forgave such things in the past—with a rage more tempestuous than the western sea. She would take their lives with a faint smile. Yet sothing was different this ti. The Demon Queen remained quiet, her golden eyes fluttering with light as she watched the images from the battle without noise.
"Yes, Your Majesty?"
His brother, although a failure and useless, perished. To demons the concept of family wasn't strong like humans or other races because of their competitive nature.
However, Valsarik and his brother shared a unique bond. His brother accepted Valsarik's emotions, which helped Valsarik focus on one mission, to support the demon queen. But as the last portion of his brother's power flowed back into him.
He experienced emotions that were long discarded and accepted by his brother.
As if trapped in a raging storm, he beca unstable.
"Because of this failure, the enemy will soon be upon our gates. Do you have a plan to redy this situation?"
The pair of them already made plans—this farce was for the lesser demons and those who didn't hold her trust. A re play to ensure that all the demons remained united and didn't betray the queen out of unease.
"Of course, Your Majesty."
With a growing smile, the Demon Queen leaned to the side, her posture quite unladylike as she placed an arm on the throne's seat, her head leaning on the hand with her elbow as support.
Yet her overflowing charm and aura could drive any male into madness with desire.
The demon queen smiled, making the lesser demons below tremble in awe at their queen's beauty, unable to hold back their praises in their minds.
"Good. I'm looking forward to it."
Valsarik raised his head, a faint smile on his lips. It was a strange sensation. For a long ti, he couldn't smile. These emotions fuelled his goals further to beco the strongest demon to serve the demon queen and crush the other races on this continent.
Most of all, he desired to kill the Demon King and his harem of wenches.
Those who killed his brother.
"You will see the whole continent bow before you, in awe and shock!"
Valsarik and the Demon Queen's plan was cruel and sothing that neither Alan nor Asmodeus planned for, thinking the demons would face them and not abandon their lands to attack Grigor directly... It was a fatal mistake.
The Demon Queen turned her attention back to the images and focused on a lone man with golden hair, who was running across the battlefield, his figure moving so fast that she could only see a blur of his body.
'Asmodeus... you killed that ddleso necromancer. I am impressed.'
Riel's voice echoed in her mind. Now, with the two souls completely rged, both the Demon Queen and the succubus Queen existed at the sa ti without differences between them.
She felt her connection with the man grow stronger.
Her power flowed towards him as if seeking him out, but still not nearly enough to reach him because of the distance between them...
'The Demon King has beco such an interesting man...'
A strange change that not even Valsarik understood or noticed... as he gave a final bow and left the room, with the lesser demons, leaving her alone in the empty throne room in silence.
Slowly, the Demon Queen was becoming more and more like Riel.
The influence in taste and the deep emotional thoughts that the Demon Queen, who only just gained sentience, could never compete with.
Because a Succubus who spent an eternity locked away with only her soul and mind awake would never lose to her.
"He's beco so strong... I envy you all being beside him."
Thus, when the Demon Queen thought or focused on Asmodeus, Riel's personality could easily take the driver's seat.
"I cannot believe that this demon queen is so obsessed with him. Even though I adored him, this feeling isn't all mine... and that's why it feels so amazingly sweet and delicious to do this... in her throne room!"
Ever since their bodies had fused, it beca difficult to control the urges of a succubus empress. Was it her connection to Asmodeus that made these desires too strong? With the flick of her palm, she sealed the huge arched doors with ice.
And then her hand slipped down her body, slowly gliding across her dress with a low whimper.
"Hurry, valiant knight... co and save this trapped princess."
***
Asmodeus stood in front of all his future wives, and the two armies of demon knights and warriors, so injured, others not. Today was when they would bury the fallen demons, but because most of their bodies vanished after the necromancer died.
It was a symbolic funeral and service for the fallen.
There was no speech or long-winded ceremony, just a mont to pay their respects in silence.
"..."
The losses were more than ever before.
In the past, Asmodeus did everything he could to save his demon knights and avoid losses, but with continued battles and fights, he couldn't keep that up anymore and now, maybe the people he knew as a fledgling heading south had fallen.
Fredricka, a friend of Anne and a knight who served her for most of her adult life, fell during this battle. The foul necromancer used her body to kill even more knights.
'I never thought people who I knew so well would fall...'
Asmodeus knew about war—the wars in his previous world took the lives of many, and although she wasn't a large part of his life. He knew that Fuuka and his wives trained with Fredricka each day, and many of the demon knights also looked up to her.
'Though I said I wouldn't make a big deal...'
The place they buried them was a massive cliff that overlooked the mana-infused river and the village... so they might always look down upon their forr comrades.
This idea surprisingly ca from Sariel.
"Honour the fallen," Asmodeus whispered as he pushed his palm towards the edge of their grave.
A rumbling tremble shook the cliff, rocks and earth shuddering in a moderate quake.
"What are you doing, Darling?"
"Asmodeus, is sothing wrong?"
Erika and Alice whispered on either side of him, yet he kept focusing.
Mana at max capacity!
Asmodeus felt everyone's eyes watching him, including the other won who loved him. He wanted to leave an imprinting on this land... to form a monunt with their mory, a mory of those who fell for them. For him!
'In my past... would I have ever done such things... but I did nothing for you who followed ... so let it be my apology to all of you who fell. I will etch this mont in my heart and mind and the land. So I never forget. '
"Rise!" He yelled.
Suddenly, the ground shook, almost knocking down most of the silent demons. Thousands of them swaying as a black, marble looking monunt of condensed rock, mud and mana ford a giant monunt that would be visible from the village—even soone with poor sight would see the gigantic black obelisk.
At the bottom of the obelisk, an epitaph reads.
Here lies the fallen. Honour their sacrifice. May they watch over us for eternity.
He scribbled countless nas on the gigantic monunt, from the peasants who beca demon warriors to the demon knights who joined from the Beast Empire.
Asmodeus rembered all of their nas and listed the fallen, magically engraving their nas so even a thousand years wouldn't weather them.
Fredricka's at the top in a larger font, as if special and soone treasured.
"This isn't enough..."
Asmodeus muttered before turning away from the monunt and leaving.
Vinea watched his back, her hand trembling, because he listed the nas of those who followed her and died the various battles together at the top with Fredricka. She never expected him to rember their nas. He t most of them once or twice at most.
"May you all rest in peace and enjoy a better life after you are reborn..." Her hand touched the monolith, a cold surface, yet sohow she could feel a deep warmth sealed within. She turned to see Asmodeus inching down the clifftop. "This is just like you."
'To think we watch you each day, and never knew about such a sentintal and gentle side...'
Vinea didn't care if others called her mad, but this, to her, was a sign of his hidden warmth and kindness.
To create a monolith that would keep them warm in death, fighting away the bitter cold.
A bitter smile ford on her lips.
Now, she was the last remaining knight who left Grigor to support him, and everyone she knew from those horrible days fighting with little food and no support, were now gone.
Vinea placed her head against the monolith, stroking the smooth surface while taking a deep breath before she heard Asmodea's voice from behind.
"Sister... are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Little witch!"
She turned to face her sister, a warm smile on her face and the tears hidden with her searing hot mana burning them into oblivion.
'Ah, that's right...
I'm no longer alone. I have a family.
So, I hope you will watch with benevolent eyes.
Thank you for your service, please rest well and wait for , I'll miss you all.'
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