“Just a little bit!? You set half the damn area on fire as far as the eye can see! Look, it is still burnt over!” Desaray yelled. She did not know what was going on with Cinder but she was acting very strange. Desaray looked at the demon queen up and down and noticed she seemed to be quite nervous. “What did you do wrong?”

“Huh? Why would you ask if I did anything wrong!? I haven’t done anything. I only flew here without burning a single blade of grass, I swear!” Cinder did not know what was wrong with her, but she kept fidgeting. She couldn’t help but do it. She did not understand this strange feeling that was kind of overwhelming her. 

“Alright. Forget that. You said more demon queens are coming, did you not? Tell me about them.” Desaray just wanted to get what information she could get and then leave. She had to make plans to protect Serenity just in case.

“Ah yes…. Ummm….” Cinder looked at the top of the wall and then back down at Desaray with eyes filled with hope. 

“What?  Do you want to sit on the wall? You could have just flown up there, you know.” Desaray was starting to feel tired.

“I didn’t want you to think I was here to attack, so I was trying to do things like a human would,” Cinder replied honestly.

“Was this why you were jumping up and down like a rabbit?” Desaray actually found this quite amusing. She was starting to feel that maybe Cinder was socially awkward. However, this did not change her distrust of the girl.

“Ah… I was umm… That is not important!” Cinder quickly shook her head, flew up into the air, and sat on the edge of the ice wall. Desaray followed after her and stood to the side with her arms crossed across her chest. 

“There are four in total excluding me. The first one is the one you need to be the most careful of. She is the Demon Queen of Death. She has the ability to raise the dead and use them as her minions. The Demon Queen of Death once turned half the continent into an undead empire, but unlike normal undead, these ones had no will of their own. The land was just covered by a billion undead army. It took the resources of the entire world to get to her and seal her away.

“The second one is the Demon Queen of Darkness. She is, umm… she can control shadows, and from what I know, she had once turned the world so dark even light magic could not light your path. 

“The third one is the Demon Queen of Lightning. I do not know much about her. I only know she had terrorized the land, killing everything in her path.

“Finally, the fourth one…. The Demon Queen of Lust…. She ummm… enslaved men around the world and, I guess, can be considered the strongest of the demon queens. While weak herself, her charm power is strong enough to force any man to submit to her. Although she is called the Demon Queen of Lust, she never does anything with any men. She only forces them to do her bidding. She had once enslaved every man on a continent. It did not matter if they were young or old. She used them as her army. They would rush in blindly and attack anyone and everyone, all in the name of their demon queen.” Cinder did not hold anything back. She did not want any harm to come to Desaray. At least not until she was strong enough to face her once more.

“Hmmm.     Question, if you do not mind answering.” Desaray had been very curious about something.

“You can ask me anything,” Cinder replied as she swung her legs back and forth while looking at the ground below.

“You were sealed, and so were the other demon queens, I presume? Why do you only get sealed?” Desaray did not know why they did not kill the demon queens but sealed them.

“I think it is because even if you kill one demon queen, another will be born. I might not look it, but I was once a young farm girl. But the other world seems to have a kind of curse on it. Any living being can become a demon queen.” Cinder lowered her eyes. She could still remember it. She could remember the day she became the Demon Queen of Cinder.

- - -

A small village on the outskirts of the kingdom near the desolate lands. A skinny young girl wearing dirty rags walked the same path she always did. The hot summer sun beat down on her small frame, burning her skin as it always did. But this did not stop her two feet. Her destination was the same as it was every day. As long as she went around this time, she might be able to find some food without being eaten by monsters,

The hot summer sun made many monsters stay in hiding and only came out when it cooled slightly. As she got closer and closer to her normal foraging grounds, her hunger-filled eyes began to ease up a little. When she reached a patch of what looked like nothing but a bunch of weeds, the girl crouched down and smiled. “Good, there is still plenty. If I only take three stalks, it should last a while.”