One day, as she stood on the balcony of her dark palace, overlooking the desolation she had wrought, Lily felt a strange emptiness gnawing at her. The sound of distant battles reached her ears, but they no longer filled her with the satisfaction they once had. Instead, a cold, hollow feeling settled in her chest. She saw herself reflected in the eyes of those who cowered before her—their terror, their hopelessness—and for the first time in years, she felt a flicker of recognition.
She had become exactly what she once despised.
Her mind wandered back to the days when she had fled the human kingdom, when all she had wanted was to escape the control of others, to be free. She had thought that power would give her that freedom, that vengeance would heal her wounds. But now, standing at the height of her power, she felt more trapped than ever.
A memory, which now felt so distant, came to mind. 'Ah… so this was how you felt …Azaroth.'
And with that thought, the memory's of Azaroth, the Demon King, came rushing back like a cold wind. She saw his face again—not the fearsome warrior who had ruled with strength, but the man who had understood her, who had treated her like an equal, not a possession. He had taught her about strength, about independence, about claiming her own path. He had never sought to control her, but to help her grow into the person she was meant to be.
But what had she become?
As Lily stood there, the weight of her actions pressing down on her like a heavy shroud, she realized that she had betrayed everything Azaroth had stood for. The strength he had instilled in her had twisted into cruelty. The independence she had once cherished had morphed into a lust for control. In her quest for revenge, she had dishonored his memory, turning herself into the very thing he would have fought against.
Azaroth had loved her, and she had loved him. But instead of honoring that love, she had corrupted it. She wasn't avenging him anymore—she was destroying everything they had both believed in.
The realization was like a knife in her chest, sharp and unrelenting. For a fleeting moment, she considered turning back. She could stop. She could relinquish her power, try to rebuild the world she had shattered. But the thought seemed distant, almost laughable. Could someone like her, who had tasted such power, ever truly turn away from it?
Lily's guilt gnawed at her, but it only served to push her deeper into the darkness. The weight of her crimes, the destruction she had wrought, was too great to undo. And so, instead of trying to make amends, she embraced the monster she had become. If this was her fate, she would see it through to the end. There was no salvation left for her.
Her reign of terror continued. The once-beautiful lands she had conquered remained broken, a twisted reflection of the shattered girl she had become. She ruled with an iron fist, crushing anyone who dared oppose her, whether human or demon. There was no one left to challenge her, no one to stop her from sinking deeper into the abyss.
As time passed, Lily's heart grew colder, harder. She no longer thought of Azaroth, or the love they had once shared. His memory became buried beneath the layers of cruelty and ruthlessness that now defined her. Feared and hated by all, she was no longer the girl who had once fled her kingdom in search of freedom.
In the end, the Demon Queen sat alone on her throne, her empire vast but hollow. Her subjects cowered before her, terrified of her wrath, but there was no joy in her victories anymore. She achieved everything she had once dreamed of, but in the process, she lost herself entirely.
The world was hers, but it was a broken, empty place.
And so was she.