Content Warning: This one gets dark. Contains mentions of mutilation and slavery.

Stepping through the portal, I found myself staring into a wide, white room. A largely featureless area, there were only two things that truly stood out. A large throne toward the back of the room and the rectangular pool behind it.

It was the pool that first caught my attention. It was filled with a substance that looked like water, and yet my instincts screamed that it very much wasn’t. It held power. Power enough to draw my attention, keeping me from even thinking about the fact that, were Abigail’s spell still properly functioning, I shouldn’t have been able to see anything at all.

“Devilla!” Liz called out, snapping me from my trance. “Look out! On the-”

There was a figure on the throne. By the time I realized it, though, the figure had already moved, a blur of motion too fast for my eyes to properly follow. One moment they were on the chair, the next they were right in front of me, a finger pressed against my forehead.

“Now, now, Liz, no warnings or interruptions. In fact, I think it’s time your voyeuristic spell came to an end, don’t you? It’s rude to spy on family affairs, after all.”

No response came from Liz. Instead, I felt a heat radiating out from the point of contact, burning through my skull and lacing its way into my mind.

“What-”

“Nothing much, princess,” the figure declared, backing away far enough for me to get my first proper look at her. 

She was tall, even by the standards of my mother’s family, standing at a full six foot five. There was little family resemblance for me to grasp onto - she had the same white hair as me, the same black nails, but where my face was soft and round hers was harsh angles. If I could be called cute, she would be more along the lines of… statuesque. “I just thought we’d be better off without interruption. Though, speaking of that…”

Her gaze turned to Lucy and Abigail, false familial warmth fading away in favor of a cold stare. “Well, I suppose we can let them spectate. So long as they stay silent.”

A snap of her fingers, and a wall appeared between us. It was completely transparent and yet I was aware of its boundaries in a way I couldn’t explain. I’m sure the same was true for Lucy and Abigail, but that didn’t keep the former from ramming her shoulder right into the barrier. Nor did it keep Abigail from banging her hands furiously upon it, screaming words that failed to penetrate.

“Now it’s just you and me,” Luci said. Her smile held a false warmth in sharp contrast to her cold eyes and her sharp words. “The little trouble maker. The brat with a knack for getting in the way of other’s plans… Honestly, do you have any idea what a mess you’ve made of things?”

She held up a hand before I could respond. “No, no. No need to get into it. You were just trying to live your life, I know. You had no way of knowing you were getting in the way of your betters. At least when you first started. There’s still time to fix things, though… for you to go back. It’ll be a while before the next Heroine is ready, of course, but once she is-”

“What makes you think I would ever work with you?” I interrupted, unable to hold my tongue any longer. “I’m here to stop you.”

The fake smile dropped off her face. “You think you have a choice? How… quaint. But don’t interrupt, hmmm? Or I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”

“By killing me?” I demanded. “Last I checked, you still needed a Demon Queen for your genocidal plan.”

“Oh, I do,” she replied, eyeing me up and down. “And you’ll be fulfilling the role, too. Unless you want me to torture your little girlfriends in front of you right now?”

“I won’t let you,” I replied through grit teeth. “I’ll stop you, here and now, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Will you now?” she asked, arching an eyebrow and breaking into a genuine smile for the first time. Suddenly, she moved again, her figure blurring as it had earlier. Before I could even question the efficacy of my senses, she already had her hand around my neck and was holding me over the pool of ‘water’ behind the throne.

“Do you know what this is, Princess Devilla?” she asked me. The ‘pleasant’ smile from before was fixed back in place, but this time there wasn’t even an attempt to hide the cruelty behind it.

I didn’t reply. Couldn’t reply, to be honest - not with her hand squeezing so tight on my neck. I might not have needed air to breathe, but I certainly needed it to speak.

“It’s divine magic,” she answered, no longer looking at me but at the pool. “Divine magic in its purest form - worship meant for the Goddess that I’ve dammed up here. She gets a trickle of it, of course - enough to survive - but the rest? The rest is mine to do with as I please. And what I think would please me most right now would be to dip one of your playthings in this pool and hear them scream. What about you?”

She threw me across the room, not waiting for a response. I smacked hard into the wall, pain lancing through me as I struck its surface. Any injuries I sustained were gone quickly, of course, but as someone largely unused to pain it was still rather unpleasant.

“No need to rush to a decision,” Luci declared, calmly walking towards me. Or no - not towards me, but towards the center of the room, where a table was materializing from thin air. Food appeared next - a roasted bird, a plate of sliced roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas, a gravy boat, and so much more, enough to make any earthly table creak under the weight of dishes piled upon it. The table wasn’t made of normal wood, though - it was made of divine magic and it held its shape just fine.

“Come sit with me,” she said, sitting herself down even as a chair appeared to catch her. “We can discuss your future together.”

“My future?” I asked, not making a move closer to the table. “What future? I already told you I won’t be working for you.”

“And I’ve already told you the consequences of refusal. Or do I need to melt one of Abigail’s arms off before you truly begin to grasp the situation you’re in?”

I didn’t answer. I just moved towards the table, and sat down - expecting a chair to appear beneath me, as it did for Luci.

It didn’t.

“Ha!” She let out a bark of laughter, a real smile appearing for the second time. It suited her face, but not her personality. As beautiful as she might have looked, it was only surface deep and she was a twisted, rotten husk inside. “Oh, don’t give me that look. I’ll conjure you a chair - you only had to ask.”

Saying so, she made a chair appear slightly to the side of me. I glared at her even as I took it and moved it into position, sitting at the table.

“Help yourself to whatever you fancy,” she declared. “A leg of lamb? Some wine? Potatoes, perhaps? Whatever you’d like.”

“No thanks,” I replied, refusing to give the mashed potatoes so much of a glance. It was hard - I was willing to bet that the gravy boat had something fatty, brown, and delicious inside it, just perfect for pairing with mashed spuds - but quite frankly I had far more important things on my mind. “I’m more interested in what sort of insanity you think you have the leverage to drag me into. I’m supposed to go home, and… what? Wait for the next Heroine to kill me?”

“You’re supposed to go back and live your life,” she replied. “Terrorize your people. Make sure they continue hating you. Preferably to the point where they’d actually welcome a Heroine - can you imagine that? Just like in the game - them welcoming their own doom with open arms…” Her smile grew and she let out a cruel laugh. “Tell me - what do you think would have happened in that timeline? With the Demon Queen dead or enslaved? Do you think your little Heroine could have led your people to a peaceful age? She wouldn’t have been able to. More likely the church would have assassinated her or pushed her into full insanity before she could make use of her influence to try and bring about positive change. The demons in the tower would have been killed, or perhaps turned into slaves. Your precious ‘peace’ scattered to the wind…”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “It’s not as if things actually went that way.”

“No… but you considered allowing it at the start, didn’t you? I imagine one day you’ll go back to thinking about it. Thinking it might have been good, if only you’d made a different choice. That your Heroine and maid could have survived. That they could have lived wonderful lives, had you only made the right decision. But no. I’m here to tell you that it’s a fantasy. No choice you could make would have ever led to a happy ending - because happy endings don’t exist. Not for you.”

“So what?” I demanded, clenching my fists. “You intend to break my spirit through hypotheticals? By making me believe my choices don’t matter?”

“Honestly, I couldn’t care less about your spirit,” Luci replied, carelessly waving a hand. “What I do care about is whether you’re willing to end this pointless rebellious phase of yours and go along with my plan.”

“Right… the plan where I… what? You still haven’t explained how exactly I’m supposed to put things back on track. The next Heroine won’t be like Lucy, ready to unite our peoples. She’ll be a tool of the church.”

“Probably,” Luci agreed. “But the church listens to me. I’m sure I can work something out… It can’t be that hard to produce a bright eyed optimist who thinks she’s here to save the world, can it? Especially when all I really need her to do is doom it.”

“Doom it?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “How exactly does the fall of demons doom anything?”

“Well, for one thing, it might finally be what’s needed to wake up my dear Goddess and help her understand how worthless mortals are… Honestly, all she needs to do is let the world fall and she’d be free.”

“And you think making her watch demons die will do that?” I asked. “No offense to Liz, but if a two thousand year genocidal war didn’t make her give up on humanity I don’t think anything will.”

“Oh, the death of the demons is just the start,” Luci replied. “Next we’ll see how she handles it when humans turn upon each other. Not to mention the lovely slave trade that’s bound to spring up soon.” She paused there, taking a moment to serve herself up some food even as I glared at her. 

“Well, I say ‘spring up,’ but it’d be more accurate to say ‘go public.’ Did you know there’s already a fairly large black market for demon slaves? All hush hush of course, kept hidden from prying eyes and in the remote manors of some particularly influential nobles and church leaders. Though I suppose they only really hide the slaves whose demon traits can’t be concealed. Most of the time they prefer to simply…. Remove any inhuman traits the demon might have. You know - sawing off wings, ripping off ears, slicing off tails. The slavers have gotten quite good at that actually, able to keep most of them alive even with all those extra bits removed. It’s a wonder what some fire for cauterizing and even rough stitches can do to get a demon back on their feet and ready to serve. 

 “Not to mention all the other stuff that they’re experimenting with - like the ones that led to that mutt you keep around - and it’s just what they’re doing now. I can’t wait to see how my dear Goddess responds to what they’ll be doing in the future~."

“Liz.”

“...What?” Luci asked, her fork freezing in place even as it stabbed into the meat.

“I said her name is Liz. Or at least that’s what she prefers to go by now. Even you should be able to get at least that much right.”

“You… think you know the Goddess better than me?” Luci asked quietly. All false warmth was gone from her tone. Her eyes were cold as she stood, the chair disappearing before it could even clatter to the ground. The table and food were next, all of it dispersing into thin air as she blurred before my eyes once more, again grabbing me by the throat. “You think you can just come in here and get in the way of our relationship? Telling me what to call her? What to think of her as? Like you actually know her? I was made by her! I spent every waking second thinking of her! Doing things for her, being there for her, serving her, being the best head angel I could be for her - all that she could leave for a hundred years with barely a goodbye! All because she couldn’t stand to let one worthless world full of pathetic mortals die like the failure it is. Do you know what that did to me?! Do you know how that felt?!”

“No,” I replied, forcing the word out with what little air I could manage. Her eyes widened, and her grip loosened, allowing me to finish speaking. “And frankly I don’t care. You’re a horrible old hag and knowing we’re related is one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced.”

“You… you…” she sputtered, before growling. “I should throw you into the divine pool.”

“Then why haven’t you?” I demanded, grasping her wrist and trying to tear off her hand. It didn’t budge at all. “You need me. Admit it.”

“I need you to shut up!” she screamed, throwing me against the wall yet again. She blurred into motion, but this time she grabbed Abigail and Lucy instead of me - taking down her divine barrier in the process. “One more word and I’ll end their lives.”

“You can’t,” I replied, pushing myself up to my feet. “If you could kill us that easily you’d have done that to my mother instead of this insane revenge plot you’ve concocted.” Doll had mentioned that all the other Demon Queens were alive, too, so there was no way Luci had the power to just… end a soul.

As if to confirm my thoughts I saw Luci gritting her teeth. “I can still hurt them. Hurt you.”

“Is that so?” I demanded, moving towards her. Except she wasn’t really my goal. She was just in the same direction as it.

“What are you doing?” Luci demanded. “You can’t hurt me, you know. Or do you intend to forcefully pull them from my grasp? Even if you manage to get one, I’ll just snap the other’s neck.”

I didn’t say anything. I just kept walking towards her, trying my best not to look at my true destination even as I began to circle around Luci’s current position, maneuvering myself closer to the back of the room as I did so.

“You can’t stop me, you know. You don’t have the power.”

“I know,” I replied. I smiled at Abigail and Lucy. “Thank you for everything. I love you both more than words can say.”

“What?” Luci asked, confused by my sudden confession.

The next few things happened in quick succession. First, Abigail spat at Luci, hitting her right in the eye and causing her to recoil - momentarily blind.

At the same time, Lucy struck out, grabbing hold of Luci’s arm and twisting, trying to pin it behind the angel’s back. A futile effort in the end - Luci didn’t even budge - but it was more than enough to distract her.

At the same time, I sprinted towards the pool.

The pool she had threatened me with, but never actually let me touch. The pool of divine energy she had actively thrown me away from. The pool she’d then proceeded to threaten everyone else with - and yet she’d never even tried to share that pain with me.

I still remembered how Liz had taken advantage of the divine energy in the void. How she’d taken control of it, using me as a relay transmitter of sorts. In theory, her spell was gone from my head - I could no longer hear her - but just because Luci had the power to disrupt Liz’s communication didn’t mean she’d actually removed the spell. If it was still there, if Liz could still make use of it…

It was a gamble. A desperate, insane one. 

I was desperate, though. So, before Luci could realize what I was doing, I flashed the girls one final farewell smile, ignored the looks of mounting horror on both their faces, and dove into the pool.

~~~

Author's Notes

The biggest change between this chapter and the original is definitely Luci's long rant. It was written almost entirely by FallingLeaf (though I did take the time to rework it a little and make sure it matches my style). Other than that, though, it's mostly just minor edits - which is no less important for keeping the story flowing, so thanks FallingLeaf! (Also for the chapter title suggestion)

Other than that? I do have some fears about the ending - just a touch worried that Devilla's line of thinking won't come through/is a bit too desperate - but... at the same time, I'm glad to finally get to introduce Luci!

She's terrible and I hate her, but she's my brainchild all the same and it's good for her to finally get some screen time (so that you can come to hate her as much as I do)

Just a reminder, but you can read ahead all the way to the end of Demon Queened on Patreon for as little as a $1! (None of it's been edited by FallingLeaf yet, though.) If that's not enough to incentivize you, you can also read ahead two chapters on Naughty Magic, as well as the SFW stories I write under a different pen name (Hatching a Heroine, which admittedly hasn't been updated in a while, and Heart of Fey and Fire, which... currently has only one bonus chapters on Patreon, but I am working on it!)