Striding down the hall toward the former Demon King's chambers, Ariel struggled to hide her bubbling excitement. Her Father had been cursed over ten years ago slowly withering away until he was bed bound and a mere shadow of his former self. The once proud Demon King who could go blow for blow with the most powerful fighters on the continent was now little more than a withered husk. One that seemed about to turn to ash at any moment.

"The Princess sure is excited." Akagi snickered as she followed behind, Silfana in toe. "I swear she's about to start skipping!"

"If she had a tail, it would probably be flicking back and forth like when Miji gives you pets." Silfana laughed as she tried to poke fun at the Demon, which didn't work.

"What can I say? Miji is very good at her jo!." Akagi said with a cheeky smile. "Dumetor's Director of Pets and Floofs needs to be the very best! The Catkagi is a fickle existence and must be treated well!"

{I hate that you actually made that an official position too... And I hate that it wasn't me... Stupid brain...} (Yumi)

"Hey, it's my Kingdom and I can do what I want." Akagi shrugged as Yumi rolled her eyes. "I wanted a governmental position dedicated to petting me and thus it was!"

{All hail the Demon Kitty. Please prepare your daughters for sacrifice to the petting farm.} (Yumi)

"Hey I take good care of my petting slaves- I mean, happy pet friends who I love very much." Akagi nodded smugly as she and Yumi bickered back and forth internally as they continued down the hallway.

{Why must the being with world destroying power be such a child...} (Ariel x Silfana)

"We're here." Ariel stopped in front of a large set of wooden double doors, breaking Akagi out of her discussion about the pros and cons of ear v head scratches. "My Father's chambers are just beyond this door..." She took a deep breath as she turned back to the Demon. "Are you really going to cure him?"

"I said that I'd do what I can, and I don't break promises." Akagi rolled her eyes before pushing past the former Princess and throwing open the doors to the former Demon King's chambers without even bothering to knock. "Well, at least it doesn't smell like a nursing home." She said, walking in and ignoring Ariel's comments about her being rude.

"Now let's take a look at the old man." Akagi said as she walked up beside the large ornate bed in the back of the room. A white curtain was drawn around the bed and the shadow of a thin man was barely visible on the other side, though something in particular about him caught the Demon's eye as she scanned over him.

{Is that...} (Akagi)

"Hmm?" Silfana hummed in thought as she stood in front of a small fireplace in the room, noticing the portrait above of a large muscular man in ornate clothing. "Is this your Father?" She asked Ariel. There were no portraits of the former Demon King anywhere in the Palace, so the Vampire had no idea what her predecessor looked like beyond some generic descriptions of a tall and strong Demon King. This lack of depictions was because tradition forbid the hanging of official images until after the current Regent's death and even then it would only be displayed in an official room that displayed every single prior Demon King. "He's definitely an imposing man if the proportions are to be believed."

{He reminds me of my Father in a way with that look in his eye. Though this man might've had my old man beat in the muscle department.} (Silfana)

“Yes, this was painted several decades ago. I believe it was presented to him not long after his coronation.” Ariel explained that the portrait showed the former Demon King in his prime. He was a tall, tan, and muscular man that towered over just about everyone else and his thick black hair and thin beard were immaculately trimmed for someone described as a terror of the battlefield. He shared the same red eye color as Ariel, but his somehow felt sharper and Silfana almost felt as if he was glaring at her through the painting.

"His horns were black? Not white." Silfana asked, looking between Ariel and the painting, noting that the former Princess had white horns. "And they were shorter."

"I got my horns from my Mother's side of the family." Ariel replied as she walked up next to her. "Hers were even longer than mine and they sparkled with such a bright white that one would be mistaken for thinking them made of marble instead of bone." She smiled bitterly as she recalled her Mother.

"You've not spoken much about her, and I've seen no paintings of her." Silfana commented as she looked around the room.

"She... My Mother passed when I was thirty years old. One day an illness struck her out of the blue... And she grew weaker and weaker until eventually..." Ariel grew quiet, which told the Vampire all she needed to know. "I'll never forget the sound of her cough... She struggled to breathe at times and just taking short walks down the hall left her gasping for air. We could never figure out the cause, and no healing magic or potion was able to cure her. My Father... He never fully recovered from her death, neither of us did really. She was the central pillar of the family and was honestly his most trusted confidant, and, as odd as it may sound, my best friend. I tried hard to fill the vacuum she left but in the end..." She balled her fist, causing her knuckles to turn white. "In the end, I was little more than a failure."

{It took all I had to keep our people together, and even with the war providing a sense of unity it was clear that my position as Regent was tenuous at best. I was never respected as the true heir to my Father. The others saw me as little more than a nuisance, one that was hard to remove due to the circumstances but a nuisance nonetheless. Bathrumd showed me that when he openly declared his intention to hold new elections despite my Father being alive. And now my actions have led our people into the service of a Demon Lord. My legacy will be that of failure.} (Ariel)

“Calling oneself a failure is quite extreme.” Silfana said, not agreeing or disagreeing with her assessment.

"Extreme, but accurate. I tried so hard to keep up a good relationship with the Gods only to find out that all my effort was for naught. I tried to unite our people behind a common cause of saving the world, but that ended up being a genocidal slaughter against innocent people. I tried to hang on to my position by taking a stance against a global threat... Only to find out that not only was I never in control of the situation but that said threat was actually no worse than those whose 'favor' I sought prior." Ariel said, giving a self-deprecating laugh. "I've done nothing right during my time in charge... I'm a failure as a leader... And a failure of a Daughter." She said, turning to look at Akagi who'd pulled back the curtain and was examining the withered husk of the former Demon King up close. "Please, if you can restore him then I will forever be in your debt. My Father is what our people need at this moment, not a worthless child like me who can do nothing but drag our people to ruin. I'd give anything, even my own life if that meant his return."

"You can stop with the dramatics." Akagi sighed, mot wanting to hear more self loathing. "I'll fix up dear old Dad, or at least I'll try." She said, shaking her head as she pulled back. "However, there's a snag here."

"A... A snag?" Ariel stammered. "What do you mean? Can you not break the curse?" She said, her heart rate skyrocketing as she feared that even Akagi couldn't undo the damage.

"No, I can." Akagi said, turning to her. "However, the issue is that even if I break the curse, it's unlikely he will ever fully recover." She said, putting out her hand and making a ball of white light appear above her palm. "This is what a soul looks like. Don't ask me where I got it or what I'm doing with it, that's not relevant to this situation." She flashed a brief smile. "Now, ordinarily damaging or otherwise interacting with one of these is pretty hard. Souls exist in a state of being that generally makes them untouchable under normal circumstances and even if you do it's very hard to actually inflict harm to them in any meaningful manner."

{Souls are meant to be eternal, hence why only beings of high enough power and authority can even mess with them to begin with. That someone in this world did it...} (Akagi)

"Its... To see such a thing." Ariel paused, a feeling of dread and awe welling in her chest.

"Trust me, everyone feels that way the first time they see one." Silfana said, putting her hand on the former Princess' shoulder and nodding intently.

{Though in my case she showed me my OWN fucking soul! That was noticeably LESS awe inspiring and more HORRIFYING!} (Silfana)

"As for your Father, his soul rather than his body is being drained by this Curse." Akagi explained what had been done to the Demon King. "It's been slowly sapping away at his very being and draining it until it eventually fades away. The good news is that I can break the curse and prevent it from going any further..." She sighed. "The bad news is that even I can't undo the damage to his soul that's already been done. I suspect that it will recover somewhat given enough time and rest but there is no way he'll return to the man he once was. Perhaps if the curse was broken years ago he would've had enough vitality and strength, but by this point, the damage is irreversible."

"N-No, that's more than enough..." Ariel's entire body went numb as she was told that there was a way to free her Father from his curse. It was as if a weight had lifted from her shoulders and the sudden relief mad her legs wobble. "Just breaking the curse and letting him have a little more time would be more than enough." She said, slowly falling to the floor as her legs finally gave out. "I thought it impossible for the Cult's magic to be broken, and even though I never wanted to admit it, I knew my Father would never get better... I just... I wanted to hope... Hope that those bastards won't get the better of him... To die from something as paltry as a curse just..."

{My Father should've gone out in glorious battle! To fade away to nothing... Its a cruel joke for such a thing to happen to a man like him.} (Ariel) The most update n0vels are published on novel✶fire.net

"Yeaaaaaaah... So, about that whole Cultist Curse..." Akagi scratched her cheek, looking away from the Demon Princess. "This ain't a Demon Lord's work, I can assure you of that this is someone else's distasteful handiwork."

"What?" Ariel's eyes widened in shock as her body filled with tension once again. "No, that can't be right! The Cultists infiltrated the Palace in an attempt to assassinate him! I was there the night it happened! I saw them attack!"

{I watched as those hooded monsters fled the Palace in the middle of the night after taking down dozens of guards! There's no way it could be anyone else!} (Ariel)

"I don't know what you think you saw that night, but I'm telling you that this curse was not brought about by the Cult." Akagi shook her head, adamant that her words were correct. “Its easy to make that assumption in this situation, but I can almost guarantee that the Cult didn't do this.”

"Even if it's not a Demon Lord's power that fueled the curse that doesn't mean the Cult didn't do it! We had eyewitnesses who saw the Cultists attack my Father with a cursed blade!" Ariel exclaimed.

"Did those eyewitnesses happen to be lackeys of the Gods?" Akagi asked her question causing Ariel to freeze, as the Princess realized that said lackeys were the one's who reported the events of that night to her and the rest of the government. "Because you see my little Princess your Father was not cursed by the power of a Demon Lord, he was cursed by a God."