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?"

"She must have slept her way in with some lowborn demon guard. That would explain the pregnancy."

"Mortals really are pathetic. She thinks that just because she bears a passing resemblance to our Lady Seraphina, she can hide here and seduce the Demon Sovereign?"

It wasn't until I heard their venom that I realized who had barged in and struck me. The woman standing before me was none other than Seraphina Crystalis, the one the Celestial Emperor had offered to end the war between the immortals and the demons all those years ago.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the Demon Sovereign could have had his pick of countless beauties. Instead, he spent every day at my side.

He had never spared a second glance at any woman other than me.

That was why, when he agreed to halt the great war on account of Seraphina, a thread of doubt had wound through my heart.

Now, seeing her in person for the first time, I understood. She bore a resemblance to me.

That was what had stirred his mercy.

At this moment, Seraphina's face was twisted with fury, her blazing gaze threatening to consume me whole.

"You wretched mortal. You knew the Demon Sovereign was hopelessly in love with me, so you thought you could use that face of yours to lure him in? A face that only barely resembles mine?"

Her arrogance was suffocating, but since she clearly had no idea who I was, I chose not to hold the slap against her.

Instead, I offered a warning out of kindness.

"The Abyssal Palace is not a place any of you should be. The Demon Sovereign is away. Leave now, while you still can. If you stay, no one will be able to help you."

But Seraphina showed no gratitude. She seized my throat and snarled through clenched teeth:

"The Demon Sovereign adores me beyond measure. There is nowhere in the entire Demon Realm I cannot set foot. You, on the other hand, you wretched mortal, putting on airs and trying to shoo me away. You're just afraid I'll expose your little scheme and ruin your chances of seducing him, aren't you?"

"Today I'll show you exactly what happens to vermin who try to steal the Demon Sovereign's affections."

With a flick of her pale wrist, a wave of spiritual energy swept toward me like a gale.

The force was immense, howling through the chamber.

My body was hurled into the air and slammed back down against the stone floor.

I curled around my belly, shielding it with both arms, and looked up at Seraphina through the pain. My voice came out cold and steady.

"Do you really think the Demon Sovereign won't find out what you've done here?"

Seraphina scoffed, utterly unbothered.

"I am the Demon Sovereign's one true love, the woman he fell for at first sight. A single glance from me was enough to make him end the great war."

"Everyone across the Six Realms knows how deeply he loves me."

"All I'm doing is disciplining a pathetic mortal. Even if he finds out, so what? You think he'd blame me over some insignificant nobody like you?"

The celestial maidens in her entourage sneered in agreement.

"Exactly. Everyone across the Six Realms and the Eight Wastelands knows the Demon Sovereign fell for Lady Seraphina at first sight. What are you? You're not even fit to be compared to her."

"The Demon Sovereign stands above all living things. Of course there are shameless little foxes like this mortal crawling around, dreaming of climbing into his bed. My lady, we should make an example of her today. Kill the chicken to warn the monkeys, and crush those delusions once and for all."

"That's right. Let every shameless wretch out there know that the Demon Sovereign's woman is not a title just anyone can claim."

Every one of them spoke with razor-edged malice, their eyes burning with a hatred so sharp it seemed they wanted to tear me apart where I lay.

I kept my expression grave. "You should go ask the Demon Sovereign himself who I am."

Seraphina lifted her chin, contempt dripping from every pore.

"You, a common mortal who snuck into the Abyssal Palace, think you're worthy of me inquiring about your identity?"

"I am the one closest to the Demon Sovereign's heart. I am the Celestial Emperor's most treasured daughter. What are you? You think your status could ever compare to mine?"

She let her gaze drift across the darkened hall, and her voice turned soft, almost idle.

"This Abyssal Palace is far too gloomy. It could use a splash of red."

The celestial maidens understood instantly. One by one, they conjured whips of pure spiritual energy.

And they lashed into me without mercy.

I was mortal flesh and bone. I had no way to withstand an assault from this many immortals at once.

I was beaten to the ground, curled into myself, my skin split open in ribbons of blood.

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.

He had gone personally to invite the most powerful beings across the Six Realms, so they could witness the birth of the supreme Demon God.

To welcome the future sovereign of all Six Realms.

And now, every one of those precautions had become the very reasons Seraphina refused to believe me.

Watching them close in, panic seized me. I screamed, "I am the Demon Queen! If you don't believe me, go ask the Demon Sovereign yourself!"

They didn't even pause. Blades rose and fell.

Agony tore through me, bone-deep and blinding, as my limbs were severed one after another.

My whole body convulsed. Every breath came thinner than the last.

Seraphina clapped a hand over her mouth, laughing. "Oh, look at her! No arms, no legs, just that swollen belly. She looks like a turtle pulled into its shell!"

The others doubled over with laughter, clapping and cheering.

I glared at them through a haze of red, my voice raw and shaking. "You will regret this."

Seraphina stepped closer and looked down at me.

"In all the Six Realms, no one has ever made me regret a thing."

"But I can certainly teach you what regret feels like."

The moment the words left her lips, she shaped her hand into a blade and sliced my belly open.

A fresh wave of agony swallowed me whole.

Through the blur of fading consciousness, I watched Seraphina reach inside me and pull out a blood-soaked infant boy.

He was alive. His tiny fists swung on instinct, batting at Seraphina's arm as if in protest.

Seraphina stared at my son, eyes widening.

"A mongrel born from a mortal, and his life force is this strong?"

"What a pity. You're still nothing but mortal filth. Leaving you here would only taint the Demon Realm's sacred ground. Today, I'll clean house on the Demon Sovereign's behalf."

Terror flooded every fiber of my being. My voice came out barely above a whisper.

"He is the Demon Sovereign's child. You must not harm him."

Seraphina's brows twisted together, and she fixed me with a look of pure contempt.

"You wretched mortal. To save this bastard, you'd tell a lie that absurd?"

"The Demon Sovereign's power is beyond measure. A mortal body could never carry his offspring."

The other maidens chimed in.

"Exactly. The Demon Sovereign's power is so immense that anyone with weak spiritual energy would be destroyed just from the union alone."

"You're a mortal. You don't even have the constitution to be with him, let alone bear his child."

"This bastard is obviously the product of some affair with a low-ranking demon guard. And you have the audacity to pass it off as the Demon Sovereign's heir? The nerve."

They weren't entirely wrong. The gap between a mortal and a demon was vast beyond reckoning.

The Demon Sovereign, above all, was a being no mortal should have been able to touch, let alone conceive a child with.

That was why he had fed me his heart's blood, day after day.

It kept me ageless and undying, and it tempered my mortal body until the barrier between us slowly dissolved.

Even so, it had taken us hundreds of thousands of years to conceive this child.

"Everything I've said is true. If anything happens to this child, no one here will survive the Demon Sovereign's wrath. He will reduce the Six Realms to ash and ruin!"

Under the Demon Sovereign's nourishment, my body had long surpassed anything human.

But now, broken and bleeding, I could feel my life draining away with terrifying speed.

I poured every last scrap of strength into those words, praying Seraphina would spare my child.

She only gave a cold, thin smile.

"The harder you beg for this bastard's life, the more I want to kill him."

She raised my son high and hurled him at the ground.

"No!"

The scream ripped from my throat. It changed nothing.

All I could do was watch as my son slammed into the stone.

"He's still alive?"

Seraphina stared at the infant still squirming on the ground, murmuring to herself.

"Let's see just how hard this little mongrel is to kill."

She lifted her foot and brought it down on him.

The impact shook the ground.

The blow carried her full, devastating force.

It cratered the floor beneath him.

Every maiden there was certain the child was dead.

But his tiny hands still moved, waving as though nothing had happened.

"I refuse to believe I can't kill one worthless mongrel!"

Seraphina's composure shattered. She summoned Celestial Hellfire and sent it crashing down on my son.

White-hot flames engulfed him in an instant.

I was close enough to feel the searing heat scorch my skin.

Fear and anguish devoured me from the inside out.

My child was not just the future sovereign of the Six Realms.

He was the culmination of hundreds of thousands of years of hope between the Demon Sovereign and me.

Three years I had carried him. My own flesh and blood.

All those years, the Demon Sovereign and I had treasured him more than our own lives.

And this tiny, newborn boy had never even been held. Not once.

He was swallowed by merciless flame before he ever knew what an embrace felt like.

Tears streamed down my face, covering every inch of it.

Seraphina looked at the charred, motionless body and let a smile play across her lips.

"The little mongrel is finally dead."

The other maidens beamed.

"A mortal's mongrel, tough as leather. Thank heavens Lady Seraphina is so resourceful!"

"Exactly. One look at the brat and you can tell his lowly demon-guard father was just as worthless and disgraceful."

"Congratulations, Lady Seraphina, for ridding the Demon Realm of this stain!"

Bathed in their praise, Seraphina lifted her chin and cast a sidelong glance at my dead child, admiring her handiwork.

Satisfaction spread across her face.

"Don't worry, little bastard. I'll find your bastard father soon enough. Your whole wretched family can reunite in death."

The words had barely left her mouth when thunder split the sky above the Demon Realm. A voice rolled down from the heavens, shaking the air itself:

"What have you done?"

Hundreds of streaks of light plummeted like meteors into the courtyard of the Abyssal Palace.

The Demon Sovereign had arrived.

And with him, hundreds of the most powerful beings across the Six Realms, every one of them invited to witness the birth of the supreme Demon God.