Through the blinding agony, I locked both hands over my belly and screamed with everything I had left:

"Stop! I am the Demon Queen!"

At those words, the celestial maidens froze mid-strike.

Seraphina stood off to the side, eyes narrowing as she studied me.

"What did you just say? That you're the Demon Queen?"

I met her gaze without flinching. "That's right. If the Demon Sovereign finds out what you've done to me, none of you will walk away from this."

I laid the truth bare, certain that Seraphina would stop.

Instead, they burst out laughing in unison.

"This filthy mortal has lost her mind! She actually thinks she's the Demon Queen?"

"Just because she looks a little like Lady Seraphina, she has the nerve to claim our lady owes everything to her?"

"Everyone across the Six Realms knows the Demon Sovereign adores Lady Seraphina and no one else. You're nothing but a wretched mortal who snuck in here, and you dare call yourself the Demon Queen? Do you have a death wish?"

Seraphina's lips curled into a vicious smile.

"I assumed that since you managed to slither into the Abyssal Palace using that face of yours to seduce the Demon Sovereign, you'd have at least some cunning. Turns out you're just a brainless fool."

"I've been married into the Demon Realm for ages, and I've never once heard of a so-called Demon Queen. You're a mortal without a shred of spiritual power. What could possibly qualify you for that title?"

"If you were truly the Demon Queen, why would you be living alone in the Forbidden Grounds, where not a single soul dares to tread?"

With that, Seraphina turned to the other maidens and gave the order:

"Cut off this wretch's limbs. Let's see how long that sharp tongue of hers lasts."

The maidens drew their spirit swords and closed in on me.

None of them knew the real reason the Abyssal Palace stood so desolate.

It was because the Demon Sovereign forbade any living creature from coming near.

Even a stray bird that wandered too close would be flayed alive, its carcass lashed dozens of times before his fury was spent.

He had kept my identity hidden because he wanted to wait until our child was born.

Then, before the entire Six Realms and the Eight Wastelands, he would crown me in a grand ceremony.

And the reason he was absent today was precisely because he had divined that this was the day our child would arrive.