It is said that the first demon emperor was born out of the hubris of the gods. Long after they created the world, the sun, and the stars. They began to squabble against one another in a bid for dominance. After thousands of years, the war reached such a cataclysmic level that a new realm: Pandemonia, was born. At first, it consisted solely of the souls of dead gods and their followers, it was quite literally a sea of souls.

However, over time, the volume of deaths grew so great that Pandemonia itself began to change. Shaped by the nascent will of dead gods, the realm changed from an incorporeal one to something very real. Just like in the mortal world, Pandemonia would soon have a sky, soil, and water. As more time passed, life blossomed too.

The first entity to walk Pandemonia was a demon, who would later become the first demon emperor, ruler of all that walks and flies within the nether realm. The first demon emperor would then be responsible for leading a war against the gods, uniting all of demonkind to slay their weakened creators. The first emperor would succeed in his war, slaying all of the remaining gods. However, the war left him mortally wounded, and he soon perished, but not before leaving behind six children to continue his legacy.

Ever since that fateful day, each demon emperor since has only been able to have at most: six children, for every child an emperor tried to have beyond the sixth would die shortly after being born. Now, the latest generation of these demon princes gathered together to meet inside Sandalphon, a floating castle that has been used to mediate between the upper echelons of demonic aristocracy for millennia.

The atmosphere was tense as they convened in the grand chamber. Large brimstone walls accompanied with flickering torches framed the room. Sat around an immense, ebony table were all five remaining demon princes, their seats etched with large numbers and arranged from I to VI. Of course, for now, the first seat remained empty.

"Could someone remind me of why we are all meeting here again?" The voice came from Apep, who claimed the fourth seat. As he spoke, he nonchalantly stretched his arms across the table. Dark, unruly green hair framed his face, and his yellowish eyes gleamed with a hint of mischief. Several tattoos adorned his neck and part of his face which always drew stares from those who did not see him often. The fourth prince never cared much for how others saw or felt about him. Apep was just Apep.

"Brother Apep, with all due respect, you need to take this more seriously."

The voice came from Andras, who claimed the third seat. Unlike the rest of the demon princes, his body was covered from head to toe in armor. His massive form seemed comically oversized compared to his seat. Resting beside him, leaning against the table, was his colossal greatsword: Tyrannus.

"Apep, be a good brother and listen to Andras."

The voice resonated from Arachne, who occupied the fifth seat. She was a drider: a type of demon who had a humanoid upper body and an arachnid body from the waist down. This was why she did not truly sit down on her seat, only managing to stand above it on her eight chitinous legs. She had ivory white skin and hair, while her eyes and horns were a mesmerizing shade of radiant pink.

Amuria breathed out an audible sigh. "Apep, don’t make this any harder for me."

"I was just joking, sister." Apep said, crossing his arms.

"Finally." Amuria muttered. "Alright, we can all begin. As you are all aware, Anzu over here was defeated by Sister Alza recently."

"Such a result is to be expected, Alza is the strongest out of all of us." Andras said.

Arachne let out a snarky giggle. "You misunderstand, Andras. Our little Anzu here wasn’t beaten by Alza in her demon form, he was defeated by her while she was still using her mortal form, isn’t that right?"

"I…yes." Anzu muttered, lowering his head in shame.

"Cut him some slack, Arachne. Mortal or not, Alza is still a pain in the ass to fight." Apep said.

Amuria coughed into her hand to draw attention to herself. "Regardless, I am here to discuss how we will proceed about bringing Sister Alza back in the future."

"Oh, didn’t Father mention that we should each go after her one by one?" Apep asked.

"Precisely." Amuria nodded. "Anzu was the first, but we haven’t determined the order afterwards."

Apep stifled a yawn behind his hand. "Can someone remind me why we're taking turns going after Alza?"

Amuria's voice carried a hint of irritation as she responded, "Because, brother, our goal is to push her to break her seal, not to kill her."

Apep grumbled under his breath, "Such a shame."

Amuria shot a piercing glare at Apep, her patience wearing thin. "One of these days, I swear I'll-"

Andras intervened, his authoritative tone silencing the room. "Let's focus, everyone. Continuing with our discussion, who's willing to step up next, following Anzu's encounter with Alza?"

"Put me last, I’m not exactly keen on trying my luck with Alza." Apep said, stretching his arms.

Amuria looked around the table. "Are there any objections to this?" After waiting for a few seconds, nobody else said a word.

But then, Arachne raised her hand. "In that case, I would like to go next after Anzu. I think playing around with Alza sounds like fun!"

Apep snorted. "Heh, what do you plan on doing? Tie her up in a web and flay her alive?"

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"That’s certainly an option, though I much prefer impalement with- "

Arachne paused as she sensed a killing intent coming from Amuria. Her shoulder tensed as sweat beaded from her forehead. "A-amuria, I didn’t actually mean anything by what I said."

"I swear on Father’s name, if you do anything excessive to her, I will kill you myself, you damn spider." Amuria spat.

"Please be at ease, sister. If Arachne’s methods end up restoring Alza to her true self, wouldn't that be beneficial to us all?" Andras interjected.

"Going to have to agree with Andras here, whatever works, works." Apep said.

Amuria breathed out an audible sigh. "Fine, you’re all right, my apologies."

"Apology accepted." Apep said with a smug grin.

"Anyway, who wants to go next after Arachne?" Amuria asked.

Andras raised his hand. "I would like to volunteer then, on the condition that Apep goes after me."

Apep shot an annoyed look at Andras. "Hey, what gives?"

"I mean you no offense, Apep. I’m only suggesting this out of concern for Amuria." Andras said.

Arachne chuckled. "Why of course, I doubt Amuria would have the heart to even lay a finger on Alza."

"Shut up Arachne, before I turn you to ash myself." Amuria spat.

"What, can't you take a joke?" Arachne said.

"That’s enough, both of you." Andras interrupted. "If nobody has any reasonable objections to the order, then it will be as follows: Anzu, Arachne, myself, Apep, then Amuria."

"I suppose I’m fine with second last." Apep said with a yawn.

"I am excited to go after Anzu." Arachne said.

"I have no objections." Amuria said.

"Neither do I." Anzu said.

"Good, it seems we all have an agreement then."

"Oh, one question though." Apep asked aloud. "Why does Anzu get a second chance? I thought we were all supposed to only get one attempt at bringing Alza back."

Anzu was about to speak, but Arachne interrupted before he could start. "Obviously, it’s because he’s weaker than all of us, he deserves a handicap."

Amuria chuckled in response. "For once, I agree with you, Arachne."

Andras slammed the table with an armored fist. "That’s enough. Anzu may not be as capable as the rest of us yet, but he is still a demon prince and should be treated with more dignity."

"With all due respect, I’ll only acknowledge him once he becomes stronger." Amuria scoffed.

Arachne nodded in agreement. "Exactly, the Demonic Empire has no use for weaklings."

"Then I ask that both of you at least- "

"Brother Andras, it’s fine." Anzu interrupted. "They aren’t wrong, I still have a long way to go."

Andras shook his head. "Alright, if there’s nothing else, I think it’s time we dismiss ourselves."

***

Alza couldn’t help but sneeze. She had been sneezing a lot lately, though she wasn’t quite sure why.

"Alza, are you alright?" Elysia asked.

"Yeah, no, I…I’m ok." Alza muttered.

The two were inside a forest thicket. A gentle river meandered nearby, the crystal-clear waters flowed gracefully, mirroring the surrounding greenery with ease.

"Alright, so as I have mentioned before, I think it’s time to try and take your earth magic to the next level. It’s about time I teach you transmutation."

"Hold on, I thought that you need to be able to use at least two different elements before you could do that?"

"Not necessarily, and that’s also why I brought you here."

"So, what did you have in mind?"

"I think you could benefit from learning how to transmute your earth magic into something similar, but with different properties, such as mud."

Alza nodded. "Sounds simple enough, where do I start?"

Elysia hopped across the river and clasped her hands together. "Watch me closely, alright?"

"I will."

The elf oracle inhaled deeply and kept her breath in for a few seconds. Then, she exhaled and out of her mouth emerged countless small stone shards. However, the hail of stones gradually seemed to liquify and thicken, until all that came out of Elysia’s mouth was a torrent of mud.

Elysia stood back and wiped off some mud that had splashed onto her lips. "See if you can try to do that."

Alza tilted her head in confusion. "But…how did you do that?"

"You just have to get a good feel for it, and when you sense that the time is right, you create the mud."

"That is in no way helpful."

"I suppose I should be more specific. The key here is that you do not ‘create’ mud the same way you could manifest rocks or chunks of soil using earth magic. You actually have to apply magic to an existing element to reshape it."

"I get that, but how do I go about actually doing that? And won’t I need to use water magic to create mud?"

Elysia raised two of her fingers in front of her. "Two things. Firstly, you just have to create a piece of dirt or a rock and apply your magic to it. Secondly, you do not need to be able to use water magic to create mud…under certain conditions."

"And those conditions are?"

"You do need to source the liquid from somewhere. Saliva is viable once you can infuse your magic into it, but until you can do that, you can first try to use the water from this river to aid you."

"Alright, here goes nothing then."

Alza held out both of her hands and channeled her magic. Immediately, several stones manifested within the river. She then tried her hardest to transmute the stones into mud, but after several minutes of trying, she achieved no results.

"It seems I failed." Alza said.

Elysia placed a hand on her chin. "This is most curious, I thought it would come naturally for you."

"Evidently, it does not come naturally to me at all."

"Hmm, I think it’s time we change strategies. Maybe try to hold some of the river water in your mouth, and then try to transmute the stones there."

Alza shot a bewildered look towards Elysia. "You cannot be serious."

Elysia remained stoic as always, not a single thing about her indicated that what she said earlier was in jest. "I am serious, it’s easier to infuse magic through things connected to your body like saliva anyway."

"Fine, but if I choke on rocks, I’m blaming you." Alza said with a light chuckle.

"Do you want to make a bet?" Elysia asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Sorry, but I don’t bet with oracles, and especially not you."

Slowly, Alza knelt down and cupped her hands into the river stream. She then took a few handfuls of water and kept it in her mouth. Afterwards, she clasped her hands together and focused on creating small stones within her mouth. It was rather awkward trying to concentrate with rocks sloshing around in your mouth, but nonetheless, Alza persevered.

As Alza channeled her magic, a peculiar sensation tingled within her mouth. It was an odd and disgusting flavor, like decayed earth and stagnant water combined. She couldn't bear it any longer and spat out whatever was in her mouth. With a mixture of disgust and delight, Alza smiled as she saw a lump of mud was ejected from her mouth, landing at her feet with a wet thud.