"I humbly beg the Demon Sovereign to find the wretch who fathered this thing and grind his bones to ash, so the dignity of the Demon Realm remains unsullied!"
——
Three full years I had carried the child. The heavens themselves had shifted with strange omens.
The movements in my womb had grown fiercer by the day, the unborn stirring with signs that its arrival was imminent.
I was lying in bed, preparing for the birth, when a commotion broke out beyond the doors.
"The Demon Sovereign keeps coming here every other day. Today, I'm going to see for myself what precious little secret he's hiding!"
"But, my lady, I've heard that the Abyssal Palace is part of the Forbidden Grounds. No one is permitted to enter without leave!"
"That's right, Seraphina. They say that when Cadmus Freewild merely wandered in here by accident, the Demon Sovereign executed him on the spot and it sparked a war between the immortals and demons. Barging in like this... isn't it a bit reckless?"
"Reckless? I am the only woman in all the Six Realms worthy of the Demon Sovereign's attention. He would never blame me."
Listening to the noise outside, I frowned. A cold sense of dread settled in my chest.
Malachar guarded me and the child with obsessive devotion.
After the incident where someone had accidentally touched my belly, he had dismissed every last soul from the Forbidden Grounds.
Proud and untamable as he was, he came here himself each day to care for me.
Cadmus Freewild had once been an honored guest, on friendly terms with the Demon Sovereign.
Yet a single drunken misstep into the Forbidden Grounds was enough for Malachar to kill him without hesitation, igniting a war between immortals and demons.
Mountains of corpses. Seas of blood.
If those people outside made it in here, another massacre was all but certain.
I hauled myself out of bed and hurried into the courtyard, hoping to warn them away before it was too late.
But the moment I opened the door, a face stared back at me. A face that looked seven-tenths like my own.
Before I could utter a word, a hand cracked across my cheek.
"Where did this wretched little servant come from, wearing my face in the Demon Sovereign's Abyssal Palace? What, are you trying to steal his favor from me?"
The slap came out of nowhere, so hard my skull rang like a struck bell.
"A mortal with no spiritual power whatsoever. How did you even get into the Demon Realm?"