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.