Reminiscing had been set aside. Fond memories were something that scarcely rattled through his mind but the return of Ezkalda had ensured Valkner had felt nothing but pain and grief.

Settled on his bed -- with his right arm in a sling -- the demon prince felt uncertain just how much of the truth he wanted to truly know. It had been so long since the news wracked him and set him into despair-filled nightmares. Surrounding himself in women had been an easy choice: many of the kings and demons of renown refused to serve the prince when they had the king's ear. And among all of them, many demons would have loved the idea of becoming the future queen.

All but the Slime Queen. It hadn't been her that pursued Valkner at the beginning. Few among his dungeon knew anything more than the pair had trained together, while only his family knew of his relationship being beyond camaraderie.

Yet Ezkalda had. And she still took the murderer's heart and dared to face him? The idea of her being so complicit as to bed the man who murdered the one thing that Valkner had loved -- truly loved -- and never thinking to slit his throat made his blood boil.

The door clicked open and the disguised demoness led the way. Rather than sit as she had before, she kept her distance and stayed in the corner. Jigalta appeared seconds after and shut the door, smiling despite the tension building between the siblings.

"Alright boss! Anything else? Like needing me to check Darmia's pockets or-"

Valkner's intense gaze fell on her, instincts long lost broiling alive.

Spell [Corrupt God's Stare] unavailable.

Even without the spell, it did the trick of making Jigalta shut up and nervously clench her arms together. Part of Valkner considered dropping his disguise but he knew that it may cause the half-slime to become confused. She would bear witness and help judge Ezkalda's tale. It was possible she would try to use skills to deceive him.

The problem was that skills around lies weren't very useful when it came to disguises -- particularly since [Disguise] itself was a Deception-type skill. Only a handful of races -- demons and masterful humans -- had even become able to maintain more than one at a time. Telling lies was possible but if anyone used a skill to verify if someone was being honest or not, it would flag dishonest. Not only did Ezkalda have such a skill but there was something he had learned of slimes that few but their wisest and oldest ever learned.

Val pointed his good hand weakly at the goo, narrowing his eyes at Ezkalda. "Darmia, you are going to teach my friend here how to use [Detect Lie]."

Ezkalda nervously jumped, looking between the two for only a moment. She paled beneath her disguise but hid her understanding beneath a smile.

"O-Of course. It's simple... b-but surely you know learning new skills aren't so simple, brother-"

"Jigalta," Valkner interrupted, looking to her and waving three fingers toward his sister. "Reveal yourself to Darmia."

Bound to his command, her human facade melted away. The slime looked between the two before turning her almost skeletal grin toward Ezkalda.

"Surprised? It's okay! Your brother totally spared me so I serve him now! He's a nice half-elf, sticking with a demon like me!"

Ezkalda tried to nod, forcing words from her lips after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "Y-Yes... I didn't imagine there would be a half-slime. But as I said, skills take time and-"

"Slimes are a Deception-natured species, Ezkalda." Valkner let the information sink in and the wall-breaking bitch squirm. It felt good to corner her -- even if she was family -- after she threw him through a wall. Even if she hadn't known slimes were Deception-natured, there wasn't error for understanding that Deception-type skills were almost second nature and learned with ease by slimes. The half-human blood coursing in Jigalta's blue goo also meant she acquired skills faster based on her previous skills. And one of her racial traits being Disguise meant she had a core, fundamental skill of the Deception-type.

So for the next twenty minutes, he watched his sister walk Jigalta through a simple loop: tell a lie, focus on the memory and then judge it. Again and again, the pair ran this loop, neither of them ceasing thanks to Jigalta's bubbly personality and Ezkalda's pressure to answer. If she ran or rushed off it would bring suspicion on her and her hero-husband. Neither of them wanted a scandal getting out -- particularly since going after him would only reveal the survival of the Demon Prince -- and it was apparent she knew doing as he wished was the safer pick. Confronting Valkner about the truth would be far less painful physically -- and for someone as frail as Ezkalda had been, it was easy to manipulate her without any master planning.

Jigalta has learned [Detect Lie].

Being the slime's master had its advantages but it would suffice for now. There were skills he would likely have a harder time learning that could help -- such as [Slaver] and [Soul Owner] -- but the chances for learning them in the heart of a human-conquered frontier as a half-elf were particularly low. Jigalta looked to him for the next steps but Ezkalda refused to even look at him. For Val that was perfectly alright; she could look into the corner in shame or face one of them. Either choice would bring shame and humble any immortal. Few knew better than him just how hot shame burned after spending a century crawling and begging between gritted teeth.

"Darmia has a story to tell us. A very true story, Jigalta." Valkner raised his hand casually and smiled. "I'm sure she'll swear it... won't you, Darmia?"

The slime's gooey brow hunched over her socket, looking over just as the half-elf nodded. Val's smile faded, dimming itself with years of anguish long-buried. Ezkalda finally turned to face him, waiting for the right words until they finally linked with reality. All around them, the room's walls fell away as she activated a spell that had always been considered a childish one for the demons. Yet Ezkalda had grown to love it because it was an escape from reality. Jigalta's eyes went wide and she looked around the darkness, patting the nearby walls to ensure they weren't in some sort of alternate space.

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Yet the slime calmed, looking the disguised woman over for a moment before gawking in dismay.

"Darmia, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Tears freely flowed down Ezkalda's cheeks, her hands clasping tightly as she crumpled back onto Valkner's dresser. The demoness didn't want to speak but the anger and rage in Valkner made her know she had no choice.

"This is the tale... of the Slime Queen's Demise... from my very own eyes."

The room around them shifted, lurching and shifting its appearance. The familiar walls of his inn morphed along the [Jester's Box]'s demands, conjuring sight and smell alike of a beautiful lake nestled against the mighty forests of the elven border. Jigalta seemed confused but buried her words, looking to Valkner for answers.

For the first time, she saw his disguise fall away. It hadn't been planned in any intentional way; after all, Val didn't want to shock her or make it possible she'd mess up. Yet out of all the emotions that came to her, it wasn't shock nor fear or any betrayal. An emotion she seldom truly felt or experienced to raw degrees wept out of her, leaving trails of tears visible beneath the sheen of her body and down her body within.

Jigalta cried because she saw the long-thought-lost Demon Prince facing Darmia and openly wearing tears of his own. All of his mopings had never come close to this -- none of it had ever matched the sorrow or darkness that emanated from him.

"Ezkalda, come!"

The shadowed back of the archer did little to steel her nerves, knowing that this was wrong. The woods around them had once been so beautiful... but now they gruesome to all but the humans among their number. Pools of slime -- various shades of color and size -- littered the ground and had been shewn across the barks of ancient wood. The lake in front of them roared with oil-fueled flame, burning and boiling the demons from its depths. Slime, fishmen and alike were thrust from their homes into the blades and spears of elven warriors. Piles of men lay dead and dying as they advanced, the hero slowing and pulling one of his arrows.

"Look at her... so determined to save as many as she can... yet none have escaped so far." The flame's light turned the elf's smile twisted, knocking his arrow and gesturing down the hill.

Ezkalda walked up alongside him knowing who it was without needing to see. The Slime Queen stood in front of countless other slimes -- half-bloods and full alike -- with her form shimmering with raw mana. Despite being outnumbered, she had endured almost two hours of facing the small army of mercenaries, soldiers and adventurers.

But her core's surface had been damaged; arrows and two speartips swirled within her, dug deep inside the sphere.

"I will not... lose here!" Her voice boomed through the woods, defiant despite her heaving shoulders. "My people won't bow! We won't die here!"

Elvish sprang out in retaliation and a squad of men rushed forth. The Queen turned and exhaled a single, cool breath. [Death's Wind] swept over them in a moment and turned them all into ice. The hero grumbled and began drawing his bow, gently turning it as he lined up his shot.

"She truly is something, don't you think?"

Ezkalda frowned, reaching out and grabbing his wrist. "Please, surely we can spare her. My brother and she always seemed so close. If you try, I am certain she will-"

The hero rolled his arm dismissively, forcing Ezkalda to step back. He looked her up and down before finally scoffing. "You think I care for your brother? I took his life because he was a threat, just like her. Demons like your kind at least have a chance as slaves -- but the slimes refused. They drink all the water and make taking the frontier difficult; if the humans can't take the frontier, then they will come for our forests."

Ezkalda wanted to state that the forests too would one day fall into their ambition but the hero's arrow could easily find its way into her hearts. All she had been was a means to give immortality to him... and now she was forced to be part of this unspeakable moment. So many had suffered but if she died now then there wouldn't be hope for her people or her family.

So Ezkalda watched, bound beneath her disguise, as the man fired his arrow. Unlike those before it, light itself resonated brightly and guided it blindingly fast. The Queen turned her head just in time to see the trail of it.

All of the slimes behind her screamed in agony and dismay, watching the arrow clink into the dirt behind her. Her core ruptured, tearing asunder and splintering into the depths of her slime as her legs lost form. Their queen pooled out, clutching and grasping the fragments of her core in desperation; there was nothing for her to do even as they balled neatly together in her grip. Yet she still clutched them tightly, fighting for every moment of life. Ezkalda's tears cooled her cheeks from the intense heat of the lake, looking at the smiling elf in horror.

Despite mortally wounding another demon, he didn't feel disgusted. He watched her clinging to her life as the many other slimes screamed at the approaching elves coming to finish her off.

Yet none of them but she heard the words whispered from below from the fading queen, clutching her core back anew into a proper sphere. It was smaller, tighter... but it gleamed a brilliant white as slime passed from her body and took on a purplish hue.

"My child... will live. Face... [Death's Deal]."

The queen collapsed into herself once more as the warriors finally neared and raised their weapons. Ezkalda grabbed the cocky archer and threw him backward, crossing her arms and erecting all of her barriers.

All sound within the forest -- screams, blades and the crackling of flame -- ceased. The warriors below shared looks before all of the slimes turned their backs. None of the demons of the lake feared the sudden flash of light but simply didn't want to see what it did. The closest elves flash-froze before shattering, rippling through the forest as a cold snap wave tore through it. Ancient trees shattered like glass, men, and women exploding in a vicious show of force. No slime or demon who had been hunted was even touched as the core's bright light roared through, racing over the barrier. Behind her, Kaden paled and looked through the barrier in horror at the scale of death. None of the heroes had truly faced anyone like the Slime Queen in utter desperation -- all of their victories had been assassinations or surrenders.

Yet now he saw the raw power of a greater demon's soul cast asunder, weaponized in one final act of desperation. The land itself hardened, her stats starting to dwindle and her mana vastly falling.

But at last, the light receded and left them in a winter wasteland. The lake's fire was simply gone; the oil itself had frozen. All of the demons who had called the lake home were grouping together and fleeing back inside... all but one. The same purplish slime from before wreathed itself around the dimming core, forming a child-sized slime that was quickly ferried along with the rest. Ezkalda looked back at her husband just as he finished standing, looking at her in disbelief.

"What happened? This isn't... I never..."

Part of her knew telling him about the child would be smart... but if her brother was dead, surely he would haunt her for killing the child of his closest friend. Even if she had been treated poorly by Valkner, he was her brother. Kaden's punishment would be worth saving that child to at least live some form of life -- the slimes and others would evacuate the lake in time and flee further into the distant frontier. No elf would be able to justify chasing them after such intense loss.

"This was [Death's Deal]; a spell used... when a demon is willing to consign themselves to Death for centuries in exchange for one last wish." Ezkalda turned her attention to the last stragglers fleeing into the water, letting her barriers finally drop and the chilly winds to sweep across the pair. "The Slime Queen's soul was torn and battered, used as a weapon and now given to Death... all for the sake of buying her people time."