Azrael went over to the lotus and touched it carefully, assessing it from every angle. After a while, he gave an approving thumbs up, "The black orb is completely gone. Good job, Princess."

  "That is marvelous! To think that you are able to just not create things with your magic but completely erase things from existence," Boreas said in awe and looked at Morrigan, his eyes sparkling with admiration.

  "It came out nicer than I expected," she said with a smile but felt strength completely leave her body as her legs collapsed from beneath her. The ice demon, however, rushed towards her and caught her before she fell to the ground.

  "Morrigan, are you alright?!" Deziara and Viana called out and went over to their sister, their strength also mostly exhausted.

  "It just took a lot of magic to create that," she chuckled weakly as Boreas lifted her up in his arms.

  "I believe that the ritual will have to wait until tomorrow. The Princess is too exhausted," he said sternly, and everyone nodded in agreement. As they left the icy garden, Morrigan looked over Boreas' shoulder and saw how the beautiful icy pillars kept playing with their memories, never wavering, never changing. The only memories that would remain unchanging within this garden.

  "Morrigan! Are you alright? What happened?!" Galandir panicked as soon as he saw the group approaching. The elven boy glared at the ice demon, his fists clenching at his side.

  "You should address her with her proper title, slave!" Boreas snarled at Galandir, but the elf held his ground and it looked like he wanted to snatch Morrigan away from him, reaching out his arm and trying to assess from which angle best to take her.

  "Galandir isn't a slave. He's a servant of Demon Castle," Morrigan said weakly and then reached out her hand towards Seon, her demon guard. He ran up to Boreas and took her in his arms, leaving the two boys glaring at each other.

  Men. Seriously. I am not even an adult yet and they are already treating me like a potential wife. I have no energy to deal with their antics right now.

  ***

  The next day, walking back to the Garden of Frozen Memories proved to be even more of a challenge than before. Mainly due to a certain elf and ice demon refusing to take even a single step forward without Morrigan, their rivalry apparently reaching new heights.

  "Princess Morrigan, please be careful. This patch over here is especially slippery," Boreas said and gently pulled her closer to himself.

  "Morrigan, that place is even more slippery, you should come over here," Galandir said, glaring at the ice demon. How he had the nerve to speak so rudely towards a demon noble, Morrigan had no idea. If he weren't considered an irreplaceable servant, then it was likely that Boreas would demand his execution. Not that Morrigan would ever allow such a thing to happen. But she had to admit that the elven boy was becoming a bit too bold.

  "Enough, you two!" Morrigan shook her arms free of them both and glared at each of them in turn. They looked at her with the piteous eyes of a kicked puppy, but her patience had run out. "Our goal today is to complete the ritual, not squabble over who will hold my hand!"

  "But Princess, you may slip!" Boreas objected.

  "So be it! I'll take that over all this squabbling," Morrigan said and kept walking forward by herself. She slipped on the ice almost instantly but managed to stabilize herself at the last moment, glaring at both boys who were already jumping forward to save her.

  I swear I'd just melt all this ice if it was allowed, but apparently, that could wake up some unsavory monsters who only come during the warm season. Viana and Deziara taking a ride on Haku's back – that's what I wanted to do.

  Morrigan threw an envious gaze towards her sisters who were happily sharing the saddle on Haku's back, looking quite comfortable. All because they managed to wake up earlier than her. Morrigan had just been too tired to wake up early that day. But there was no point in complaining anymore, so she kept waddling forward with Galandir and Boreas walking dejectedly behind her, flinching every time Morrigan slipped on ice.

  After lots of slipping, they had once again arrived at the Garden of Frozen Memories. The blue lotus along with the icy pillars of their memories seemed to welcome them, and Morrigan felt that magic in the air had become much thicker than it had been the day before.

  "Everything appears to be in perfect condition for the ritual. Lord Boreas, if you were so kind as to take the lead," Azrael said and blew his nose. His cold had gotten even worse after yesterday and his eyes and nose were red and a bit swollen. Morrigan even felt a bit bad for the mage. He did provide her with a wonderful memory yesterday. But sadly there was no magic to cure the common cold.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Of course. Everyone else, please step back," the ice demon commanded and everyone obediently gave him some space. He motioned Morrigan to stand by the lotus flower so she obeyed. Then Boreas went up to each icy pillar in turn, touching it and muttering something Morrigan could not quite hear. After he had gone up to each pillar a ball of light appeared in his hands. There were images flashing within it, but they were changing so quickly that it was impossible to tell exactly what they were.

  "What is that?" Morrigan asked as Boreas slowly approached her, cradling the flashing ball as gingerly as a child. He looked nervous as he held it, then he offered it to her.

  "You'll understand once you see… Please, remain strong, Your Highness," Boreas said, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. Morrigan looked down at the ball and then reached out to take it.

  When she took the ball in her hands, nothing really happened. At least not at first. She looked into it, hoping to maybe understand at least one of the images within it, but then blackness enveloped her. Boreas, all of her companions and the garden around her disappeared and the ball suddenly got so heavy that Morrigan couldn't hold it anymore and dropped it to the ground. It rolled some distance away from her and then began expanding.

  It grew larger and larger, slowly taking a black serpentine shape. After a while it had formed into a giant black landwyrm with red eyes looking down at her, saliva dripping down his maw. Morrigan took several steps back, nearly falling over from fright.

  Where did this monster come from suddenly? Where is everyone? Are they safe?

  The giant landwyrm at least five times the size of the construct Azrael made for the festival lunged forward, trying to swallow Morrigan whole. She instantly slipped into the darkness, avoiding its attack with ease.

  "Oh. You already can melt into darkness at such a young age. Impressive. But that will not save you from my fireballs," the landwyrm said in a rough, booming voice, and his maw began glowing as fire formed within. Morrigan rushed as far into the dark void surrounding them, but the fire caught up to her in what felt like no time at all forcing her out of her shadow form.

  She conjured a forcefield in an attempt to stop it, but it just burned through it and kept going. She barely managed to dodge it at the last second. Before she had the time to get her bearings another fireball flew straight at her. On instinct, she conjured her own fireball, making it hot as she could, its flames turning bright blue. It collided with the landwyrm's fireball and then kept going straight towards the monster.

  "Ha! My fire is stronger!" she called out victoriously as the fireball hit the landwyrm. However, much to her surprise it was completely unaffected by it.

  Right… Dragons are extremely resistant to magic attacks and landwyrm is also a type of dragon.

  "Hahaha! A blue flame at age sixteen – spectacular!" The landwyrm laughed, its laughter echoing through Morrigan's bone. Then it suddenly began to shrink until the massive monster was gone and its place stood… Alphegor? No, it wasn't him as this demon's hair was completely black. But the similarity was uncanny.

  "Who are you and why do you look so much like my father?" She conjured another blue fireball in her hand, ready to hurl it at any moment.

  "Odd, why would I look like my great-grandson?" he said with a confident smirk and walked over to Morrigan. She took a few shaky steps back until the demon was standing right in front of her, assessing her from head to toe.

  "Great-grandson? But then would make you–"

  "The first Demon King. Aye, that'd be me. And look at this little pumpkin," the King grinned and mercilessly squished Morrigan's cheeks. She tried to squirm free, but his hold was firm. "What else can you do?"

  Morrigan stared at him dumbfounded for a moment, but as his eyes sparkled with excitement similar to Alphegor, she decided to show him more of her magic. She concentrated on changing her shape, turning to look like the demon in front of her. Despite the transformation, he did not let go of her, instead turning her head this way and that as if to assess the precision of the transformation.

  "Shape-shifting magic. Truly amazing. Alphegor has chosen a good heir, even if she has a human past," the King said, and Morrigan finally broke free.

  "How do you know that? What even is this place? Aren't you dead?" she asked, turning back to her own self. Her heart was pounding that this demon-ghost or whatever he was instantly could tell that she was a human before.

  "This is the Garden of Frozen Memories. Every memory that you have is laid bare here. It's not a problem for me to access those memories. As for your last question – yes and no," he said with a smirk.

  "What does that mean?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

  "It means that my body is most certainly dead, however, my spirit lives on in this garden and can be summoned if necessary. It is a task I have undertaken – measure whether my successors are worthy of taking the crown," the King explained then smirked.

  "Worthy? So you attacked me before just to test me?"

  "Yeah, you were never in any danger. And you passed with flying colors," he smiled and then outstretched his hand towards her. She looked at it and he opened his palm revealing a small black ring. She took it from his hand and looked at it from every angle – it looked like any other ring, except with a subtle scaled pattern on it.

  "What is this?" she asked.

  "Proof that I, First Demon King, approve of you as the next Demon Queen. It's possible that you'll change not just the Underworld, but Doppelta as a whole," he said with a smile and then snapped his fingers. The scene instantly disappeared and Morrigan found herself standing between the four ice pillars.

  "Your Highness, is everything alright?" Boreas asked, his expression contorted with worry. She blinked and looked around, seeing how Deziara and Viana looked equally worried. Azrael, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear in satisfaction.

  "Well done, Princess," Azrael said and applauded. Morrigan opened her palm in which she previously held the light ball. Instead, she saw the black ring that the First Demon King had bestowed upon her.

  "Everything's alright," she nodded and smiled down at the ring. Without hesitation she took and put it on the index finger of her right hand. "Everything is just as it should be."