Her execution time was very near. Within a couple of days, she would be made example of within the city, Holy City prided itself on being a safe haven for humanity, a place where non-humans would face mistreatment and extermination.

Being a demon, she tried to help her kind. Her father happened to be the leader of the demons, the one with the title of Demon King, he led them against the humanity, with a plan to liberate the demon kind. But sadly, her father was fatally wounded by humans, and as his heir, she was entrusted by him the power of Demon King. In his dying breath, he asked her to protect the demon kind.

She did just that.

Years of leading her kind, fighting against humans, liberating the enslaved demons, she did all she could in order to protect the demon kind. But it was not enough. In previous battles, several of her generals, the Demon Lords, have perished. Only a few remained.

In the last battle between the demons and humans, the demons were defeated. She sacrificed herself so that her generals, the Demon Lords can escape. She knew that they would be able to find a better leader, but demons strong enough to be Demon Lords are rare. Losing their leader is a better price to pay than to lose the Demon Lords, who embody the power of demons. If she let all Demon Lords die, then the demon kind would be demoralized.

She knew she was being foolish, but in her heart she knew that she would rather die than let any more demons perish.

Letting her allies flee, she fought against the human knights. She fought fiercely, but they overwhelmed her with numbers and in the end, they captured her.

Bound by mana binding chains and doused with holy water, she was weakened as the knights took her to the Holy City, a place her kind could not hope to enter without suffering immense damage.

This was the end game, the last place she would see before her demise.

Apparently they thought that she was one of the Demon Lords, not the King, apparently they thought the king was male. She made sure that they wouldn’t find out, otherwise, it would spell disaster. If the news of Demon King being executed is allowed to spread, then the demon kind will suffer and all the hopes of demons will vanish.

She could not let that happen. No. Her death must be only counted as death of one of the Demon Lords, that way the demon kind would still have hope that the Demon King is still alive. If the demon kind loses hope, then they would have lost everything.

No matter how much they tortured her, she said nothing, not even when they used lighting magic to interrogate her. She knew that they wanted her alive and whole for the execution, but enduring the pain of the lightning magic shocking and electrocuting through her body was no easy task. But still, she endured, and not a single word came from her mouth.

This prison, it was a prison for demons and criminals, of that she was sure.

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The other prisoners were of no importance, if they died from torture they were disposed of. She could feel that every day, many prisoners died here, their screams audile inside the cell where her hands, legs and wings were cuffed.

Her eyes were bound with cloth, to prevent her from using her demon eyes. Her sight sealed, able to only hear her surroundings, she waited for her impending doom.

However, it seems like fate had something else in store for her.

She heard a sound of a body dropping on the ground. A brief scream, followed by another body falling. Then, a sound of a mad laughter echoed through the room.

There were many guards in the prison, most of them were knights. The commotion outside could only mean that someone was fighting, and the sound of body falling could only mean one thing, someone perished.

But who? Did the intruders or the knights die? What was going on? She could hear more and more noises, clashes of swords, slashes, blood spurting, more bodies falling lifelessly. More messed up laughter followed.

Now, even the guards guarding the room she was in started to feel concerned, because now the sounds outside the room suddenly came to a dead silence. The guards, fully armed, went outside the room. They closed the door behind them.

She could hear a sound of a battle. Screams, shouts, they lasted for a thirty seconds, before they also died down. In the end, the sound of clownish laughter was all that remained.

Then, the door to the room was cut open; it now fell down towards the floor.

A single sound of footsteps could be heard.

“Well, this cloak of concealment is useless now.” Sound was followed by a light chuckle.

It was a man’s voice. The sound of fabric tearing could be heard. Then he proceeded to throw the fabric on the floor.

“Well, I will cut to the chase, you are obviously demon, are you Arin Draco?”  he asked after momentarily stopping his laughter.

She gasped. How did he know her name? His voice was not familiar. He was not one of the Demon Lords, what was going on?

“So you are Arin Draco. I see, a female, I thought it was a male name.”

He started to approach closer and closer. She shivered, was he here to kill her? If so, she hoped it would be quick death.

“I am not here to harm you. I am here to free you.” He said as his face was not on the same level with hers.

She could not see his face. But she could feel his breath. He again started to laugh uncontrollably. She felt scared of that laughter.

“You are not one of the Demon Lords…Who are you?”

“Who am I? Excellent question…Indeed I am not one of the Demon Lords…so you can call me…the Dark Lord.”

He now took off the bandage off her eyes, allowing her to finally see his face.

It was a face of a human being, with no horns, but his left eye was glowing red in the darkness of the room. His face was smiling, but she could sense massive murderous intent emanating from his body.

Fear spread from the tips of her toes to the top of her horns. He scared her. This human scared her, Arin Draco, the Demon King.

“No worries, I already killed everyone on my way here.”

Dark Lord gestured at the entrance. Countless corpses decorated the hallway in deep crimson color of blood.

“Lord, can I come out now?” a snake type demon showed its head out of the doorway.

“Feel free to, but we are leaving anyways, so, just make sure to tell me if you can sense anyone approaching.”

“Yes, milord.” The snake demon eagerly complied.

As the Dark Lord brandished a crystal dagger and started to cut off the chains Arin Draco was bound by, Arin Draco couldn’t help but think:

Have I been saved or doomed? Who is he? What does he want from me? Why has someone calling himself with a preposterous name as Dark Lord has come to free me?

Arin Draco knew that this Dark Lord fellow was extremely dangerous, but at the moment she was glad he was not her adversary.