Bright light shone brilliantly in the conference room, forcing demons and fallen alike to shield their eyes. The suffocating hold on Morrigan was broken, as if cut off by a knife and she looked around in shock. Galandir was standing by the entrance his hand outstretched as he concentrated on the light. He was breathing heavily and sweat was running down his forehead from the strain while Azrael supported him with his hand.

"Y-You will not harm her," the elven boy exhaled. "I will not let you do to her what you have done to me."

King Uriel jumped up to his feet in outrage and pointed at Galandir, "Kill the slave!"

The fallen warriors unsheathed their weapons at once and were about to jump towards the boy, however Azrael conjured a fireball making them all falter for a moment.

"You have to go through me to attack the boy," he snickered.

"Father, the magic holding me is gone!" Morrigan called out, and Alphegor reacted without hesitation. He unsheathed his sword and with a swift movement lunged towards the Fallen King. Uriel jumped out of his way and erected a forcefield blocking his attack.

"What are you doing, fools? Get rid of the boy! Get rid of that light!" Uriel bellowed, and now the demon soldiers had their weapons ready for an attack. Morrigan watched the scene in horror. Few more moments and the whole room would erupt into a bloody battle. She had to get her blood back as quickly as possible.

It appears that the fallen blood magic does not work in light. Theobold must have failed to kill Galandir because I had conjured that bright fireball. And now Uriel can't harm me because Galandir created this light.

I have to get my blood back before somebody gets to Galandir or he runs out of magic. It doesn't look like he has fully recovered yet.

So Morrigan called upon her fire, the one power that never failed her. She couldn't just straight up attack the Fallen King since that would trigger a battle that she was so desperate to avoid. So instead of flinging flashy fireballs, she concentrated on the vial within his hand. She imagined it getting hotter and hotter, invisible embers burning at the glass.

"What the–" Uriel suddenly exclaimed and dropped the vial, his hand unable to withstand the heat coming from it. Morrigan didn't hesitate and engulfed the flask in bright blue flame, instantly destroying it and the contents within. A few seconds later, nothing remained, just a scorch mark on the pristine conference table. Everyone stared at the spot in shock, the chaos in the room coming to a halt.

"Good job," Galandir said weakly and collapsed. Before the boy could hit the floor, Azrael caught him and flung him over his shoulder.

"Good job, kiddo. Now with this matter settled, I'm going to take him back to the medical ward. He still needs some rest," Azrael said with a toothy smile and disappeared with a nonchalant wave of his hand.

King Uriel's face filled with rage as he stared at the scorched mark. Then his eyes locked onto Morrigan, his fist clenching with fury. Morrigan feared he might just attack her openly, but before he could go forward with the attack, she was pulled into the safety of Alphegor's embrace, his sword pointed towards Uriel.

"I believe you have lost your trump card, King Uriel. All because you didn't value the pawns you were given. Had you valued that elven slave more, perhaps he wouldn't have turned against you," Alphegor said triumphantly. Uriel's face turned red with anger, however, he sat back down in his seat, motioning the fallen soldiers to sheathe their weapons.

They hesitated for a moment, but then slowly backed away. There was nothing the fallen could do anymore. Without Morrigan's blood as their leverage, the fallen were completely at the Demon King's mercy. Then suddenly Uriel began laughing hysterically. His ministers looked at him incredulously, wondering if their King had gone mad.

"Alright, you've beaten me, Alphegor. Once again, I am at your mercy. So tell me what horrors will you enact upon my Kingdom now. More gold? More magic gems? More slaves? Will you take everything from us, leaving fallen people to starve and suffer?" he said, almost maniacally.

"You will give us whatever we deem to be the right price. It was YOU who ordered the attack on my daughter in my own home. It is only fair that YOU pay for what you have done," Alphegor said, his gaze merciless and cold.

"What choice did I have? You demons keep rampaging and pillaging us without mercy. My people are dying while yours prosper and thrive," Uriel spat.

"Oh, don't start with this pity nonsense again. You don't appear to be starving to me," the Demon King retorted.

"What do you know about me? Or about the Fallen Kingdom? Have you seen the devastation across our lands? Of course not, because you were the one who brought it there in the first place hundreds of years ago. Our land is already poor, being in the deepest recesses of the Underworld. But even what little we had, you took away from us," Uriel pointed his finger at Alphegor, who just narrowed his eyes at him.

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"So to fix that you decide to raid my kingdom. Attacking my people and stealing from them."

"It was either that or we die," Uriel said bitterly.

"No, it is your people dying. Your soldiers are dying for your arrogance. I never saw you on the battlefield. You were too cowardly to even attend a festival. Instead you send your Prime Minister. Not to mention that instead of sending a proper champion like everyone else did, you send a slave," Alphegor said.

"Why should we honor some old demon tradition? All you ever did for us is spit on our face."

"It is not a demon tradition, it is a tradition of the whole Underworld. But you are too big of a fool to see that, being cocooned in your bubble of misery and pity."

So the two kings continued bickering among themselves, both of them clearly using the occasion to vent some piled up frustrations. Ministers from both sides initially vehemently supported their own king with enthusiastic nods and even clapping occasionally. But as the argument dragged out and became more nonsensical in nature, they started looking annoyed.

"What do you know about raising children? You had five nannies for each of your daughters. I couldn't afford so many servants so my two sons were raised purely by me and my wife!" Uriel shouted.

"As if you've ever even changed a nappy in your lifetime. Best case scenario you looked over your wife's shoulder as she did. I remained by Morrigan's side constantly for the first four years of her life. Until you decided to invade my lands, and I was forced to leave her alone!"

"That's enough!" Morrigan spoke up, her irritation at seeing two kings squabble like children, reaching its boiling point. Two of them looked at her in shock while the ministers as well as guards from both sides sighed in relief. "If you two keep squabbling like this, we will never come to any conclusion."

"What conclusion could there be? You demons will just take whatever you want again," Uriel said, crossing his arms over his chest. Morrigan had to suppress a laugh – he looked just like a pouting kid.

"Let's just look at this objectively and lay down the facts," Morrigan said. "The Fallen Kingdom is suffering. There's not enough food, not enough resources, is that correct?"

"That is correct. Large portion of our population struggles to earn enough money to buy food," the Fallen King confirmed.

"So your people are suffering and in order to fix that, you attack the Demon Kingdom in hopes of gaining some wealth from us," she continued, and Alphegor nodded in confirmation.

"That is correct. This kind of pillaging has been going on for centuries, but six years ago, the fallen army itself led the raids, instead of it being some small groups assembled by the citizens."

"You attack us and then expect us to not retaliate. That's not very logical, is it? Would a dragon spare a snake attacking it just because it felt sorry for it?" Morrigan asked.

"We are not snakes!" King Uriel said, looking offended.

"It was just an example. I'm not saying you are snakes. My point is that you cannot just expect us to not fight back. Even if we know you are suffering, we cannot just let you attack us," Morrigan said. King Uriel remained silent, however some of the fallen ministers begrudgingly nodded.

"So when you attack us, we fight back and then it starts this whole cycle of hatred that cannot be broken. However, this cannot go on. After all we are all people of the Underworld. Instead of working against each other we should be working together," she continued, and the Fallen King sneered.

"Pretty words coming from someone in a position of power. Where are you even going with this, little princess?"

"Alright, I'll just cut to the chase. Instead of our two countries arguing and fighting, we should sign a peace treaty," she said resolutely. A wave of murmurs passed through the room as everyone considered the option.

"Peace treaty? What use would a peace treaty be?" King Uriel scoffed.

"It's to establish a friendly relationship between our countries. Wasn't that the whole point of the Nachstern Festival – to unite the races of the Underworld? It's not that we demons want to keep fighting. Isn't that right, Father?" She threw a glance at her father, who coughed, looking away awkwardly.

"Right."

"Alright, let's say we sign your peace treaty. How would the fallen people even benefit? It's not like it would solve our issues," Uriel narrowed his eyes at Morrigan.

"First, it is not our job to fix the problems of YOUR kingdom. That is your own job. If you wish to improve the conditions of your citizens then you should have come seeking aid instead of pillaging our villages," Morrigan retorted.

"Establishing trade routes and allowing fallen citizens to search for jobs in the Demon Kingdom could be a significant boost to your economy," Viana chimed in. Morrigan looked at her and the two sisters smiled at each other.

"Why would you want to do that?" One of the demon ministers slammed his fist down on the table in anger. But Alphegor glared at him, forcing the man to flinch back.

"Because then the fighting would stop. The people near the Fallen Kingdom border wouldn't have to suffer anymore. Not to mention that the fallen have access to valuable Burmese Rubies that don't exist anywhere else in Doppelta. Trading for those could prove invaluable to us," Viana said.

Thank you, Viana! I'm not quite as knowledgeable in these things yet, so your support is invaluable.

Uriel scratched his chin in contemplation and after a moment looked at Alphegor.

"Would you really return Theobold to us and sign a peace treaty?" he asked suspiciously.

"You heard my daughters. I have no use for fallen prisoners. It's just another useless mouth to feed. But those rubies of yours, I'd be willing to trade for," the Demon King said.

For a while tense silence descended the room as the Fallen King contemplated this information. Morrigan feared that her words might have been useless after all and more battles would follow between their kingdoms. But finally Uriel sighed and nodded.

"Very well. I shall sign this peace treaty. For the sake of my people!"