A Dragon Stuck in a Castle II

It was already 6 PM when the group realized it.

The Demon Lord had finally mustered up his courage to open the doors after a continuous back and forth between the Butler and the Demon Lord.

He firmly grips the door handles, which have been intricately carved by the combined hands of the late King and the Queen, just a touch, and he could feel the memories etched onto the door.

"They really were madly in love, huh?" Hiuya chuckled before pushing the doors open.

Silence...

The Demon Lord, a symbol of fear and strength, tyranny, and madness, felt sorrow and sadness at the sight.

His dear friend who had surrendered herself to her throne, she who had surrendered centuries ago, felt nothing; the title 'Dragon Monarch' was just a title that suited her strength, the fear she induced on the warriors she faced off with, nations that had been destroyed singlehandedly by her, was left in a state of grievance.

He slowly walks up to her; step by step, he inches forward. He glances to his left, and all he sees are paintings of him, the King, and their children, all happily smiling. Artifacts that haven't been touched in ages, with finely armored guards at every pillar.

He glances to his right and sees the same thing, but the paintings were of the three of them and their adventures, the fierce duel between the Emperor and the King, the adventures in the deep where they faced off giant leviathans and the merfolk, the skirmishes with the human empire of Kip, it was like walking through history itself.

But when he realized it, he was face-to-face with the Queen, his dear friend.

"Ponainen," he uttered, standing tall against the living statue.

"Ponainen.. I'm sorry." He went down on one knee and bowed his head. Everyone in the room was shocked by this scene.

"Lord Hiuy-" But just as Nayr was about to tell him not to do that, he was shut up by the lovely princess beside him.

"Let him talk, Nayr," Ayuiha softly whispered into the butlers' ear.

"I know it's been, what, 10,000 years or something? But I just want to say, I'm sorry."

Hiuya paused for a bit, hoping to regain his voice.

"I-I am sorry I wasn't there to comfort you about Poniras; I was devastated myself, you know?" He paused again.

"I couldn't hold back my anger. Falmus, Opi, Fozl, and my lovely daughter Ayuiha were the ones that helped me get through this." He reminisced about those times of solitude when he was stuck in his throne room himself.

"So I want you to know that we want to help you too; call all of your children back, and let's get you through this seemingly never-ending tunnel of misery together."

"Ponainen, listen to me when I say this, I love you, I love you guys, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys sooner." She still sat there, unresponsive to the words this Demon Lord spoke.

'Wait a second' Hiuya seemed to recall something.

He got up for a second, raised his arm and placed it atop the Queen.

"In mentem fallere, in sensus ludere.... Psycorium Illusio!" A shining light enveloped the two, and the throne quickly shone in a white light as Hiuya pushed his mana reserves deeper into his palm and shot them out.

"Please wake up! Ponainen Meriavel Lusaris!" He yells out as the room keeps filling up with a blinding light. The light escapes into the outside world as Hiuya pushes more of his mana into the spell.

_________

"What the?" Hiuya looked around; it was just the void, pitch black, with nothing else polluting the clean black space.

He looks around.

"A chair?" Hiuya questioned this peculiar chair as he walked towards it, still confused and wary of his surroundings.

"Mama!" Hiuya jumps at the sudden yell; it echoes further and further away from him.

"Mama!" The yell again felt nostalgic for some reason.

He couldn't believe his eyes at the sight he saw.

A child was there, sitting on the lap of a person with red hair and long black horns.

"You want me to read this book for you again, Ilga?" The beautiful woman asked the little girl softly as she cuddled with her mother.

"Yes, yes!" The child affirmed.

"P-P-P" Hiuya was speechless, but before he could finish his sentence, someone knocked on the door.

"Enter!" The red-haired woman called.

In came a young-looking elf with striking blonde hair and glasses. He wore a simple white shirt with a black vest and pants.

"How are my two beautiful ladies doing?" He said it enthusiastically with a wide smile on his face.

"We were just reading a book, right, Ilga?" She asked her child with a motherly, gentle tone as she caressed her silky golden hair.

"Yup yup! Will Daddy join us?" The little Ilga asked with beaming eyes.

"Ah. Daddy is busy right now...." The elf sadly chuckled.

Ilga immediately frowned.

"But that could wait. Alright, let me get some snacks, okay?" He panicked while saying so.

The handsome elf went away for a bit to cancel his meetings and spend some time with his child and spouse.

The two girls just cheered 'hurray' at what the father said.

"Great job, Ilga." The red-haired woman grinned mischievously at her daughter, her partner in crime.

Hiuya just watched the scene unfold, now understanding exactly where he was.

"I'm in her memories; it looks like I managed to pierce through her defense, but what should I do?" He said this to himself as he took a thinking pose. As dramatic as ever this Demon Lord was.

But as he was still deep in thought, the spotlight that showed the scene changed to a light blue.

Hiuya remained quiet as he watched the scene unfold before his very eyes.

He was now shown the castle of the Federation, where, from below, he saw a gathering of soldiers with flintlocks and muskets as well as donning iron chestplates and helmets.

They all stood in military uniform shoulder to shoulder to protect the carriage and the person going with them; their gazes were as sharp as daggers, and their faces showed no emotion. These were the elites of the Royal Guard.

The same red-haired woman was standing on the castle balcony, where she watched carriages filled with soldiers.

"Should we go down now, Your Highness?" The red-haired woman looked back and nodded her head, yes, to the butler.

"You can take the rest of the day off, Nayr; I feel that I won't be needing any assistance today." she said with a grin, revealing her white fangs.

"Thank you, Your Highness." Nayr bowed and left the bedroom.

The red-haired woman then climbed the railing, her hair flowing wildly against the wind, and opened both her arms wide.

"It's been a while since I did this, but here we go!" The woman then jumped.

Everyone in the royal family watched as the carriages were preparing to depart, but one of the carriages had one of the most important people in the Federation.

"Hey Poniras!" Everyone's attention turned above them; they wondered what that was, but as the dot turned into a large dragon, they knew who it was immediately.

"What the!?!" The handsome blonde elf who wore glasses looked up and was surprised by what he saw.

"Stay safe out there, Poniras!" The Red Dragon called out, and the elf with glasses could only smile at the air show his beloved was doing for him.

"Yeah! See you later, Ponainen!" Poniras yelled his lungs out, but it was unfortunately time for him to go with the dragon flying above them in circles.

They didn't know about it at the time, but this was the day that tragedy would strike.

Hiuya could only shake his head with a sad expression.

"What are you doing here?" Suddenly Hiuya was struck with some sort of spell, but it didn't matter that much to him; it was the voice that he heard that made him scared, that voice was.

"Ponainen!" Hiuya had luckily shielded the strike with his robe; he could feel something drawing near once he regained his composure and stance.

"I asked you a question. What. Are. You. Doing. Here. Hiuya!?" He felt the atmosphere change to a dark red color, and he carefully backed away from the woman.

"ANSWER!" She raised her arm in anger as spikes formed around the demon lord. He immediately broke them with his nails, but more and more formed.

'Not good!' Hiuya yelped when his robe was caught as he jumped away from the dangerous spikes.

"Listen Ponainen! You need to get out more, bro! This is messing you up!" Hiuya yelled, and for a second, she stopped her body. As if someone casted his time spell on her.

"WOAH!" He let his guard down for one second, which was quickly capitalized on by Ponainen, who immediately froze his entire body besides his head in a thick wall of black ice. He was basically caught in her mouse trap.

"Now talk, Why are you here? You who left me to rot alone in my throne." Ponainen looked at the disheveled head of the demon lord in disgust and anger.

"I've been trying to help you! Couldn't you hear me all those years ago? Your children, who've been there ever since that ambush, have been calling your name out, trying to console you!" Hiuya spoke as slowly as possible, pointing these things out should help her calm down for a bit.

"Lies!" She yelled at the Demon Lord.

"Its the truth! I am sure of it!"

Ponainen backed away, reeling herself away from the trapped demon lord. She could feel something breaking inside of her.

"Look at what you've been doing! Reliving your memories while still hooked up in the past"

"I-I don't know what to do. You abandoned me; everyone did." Ponainen dropped to the floor sobbing, she didn't really know what to do after his death. All of those fake words of encouragement and those fake smiles everyone had on them.

They were all wearing masks to her.

She called out Hiuya before—multiple times, actually. But it was already too late once she tried, he had already turned the demon realm into an isolationist one.

But that was all in her head; it wasn't until Hiuya himself was dealing with the aftermath of such a catastrophic loss of one of his allies that

"We did not; please stop saying that." But Hiuya wasn't going to let her fantasies roam freely in her head.

With made-up scenarios that were only there to expand that mindset, she was an emotional ticking bomb ready to explode at a moment's notice when that timer had finally stopped ticking.

"Ponainen, at least hear me out for a bit!" Hiuya called out to the enraged woman; her deadly mouth was about to release something as he felt more and more chilled.

'Ah crap!' Hiuya couldn't get through to her at all; she was still in an emotional frenzy, so simply talking to her in this state wasn't going to do anything. But what if he just calmed her a bit with this spell?

'Alright, here it goes!' Hiuya suddenly cast a spell on her. Something he had experimented on for countless days before the invitation.

Something like this should work for her in a ragged state of mind, susceptible to illusions and psychological attacks.

'Psycorium Illusio' A devastating spell Hiuya personally crafted in his realm was to combat the advantage the Succubi and other creatures that use illusions had in his realm. It was powerful enough to traumatize hundreds of Succubi who were dissidents against the Demon Lord and his reign.

Ponainen suddenly dropped to the ground; like a puppet with its strings cut, she fell lifelessly to the dark abyssal floor.

Hiuya began breaking down the ice prison, punching it and casting Ignis Pleinor at every possible notice, hoping to whittle down the magic ice of its mana.

"Hiuya..... What were you doing before?" Hiuya suddenly felt a chill. She was already standing in less than 3 seconds after such a devastating blow that made her collapse like that.

Hiuya was internally panicking when he realized the spell was too weak. So he had to come up with an excuse to lead the unsuspecting Ponainen.

"I was.... helping out with the memorial." He spoke with caution. 'For now, this should work,' he thought.

"Memorial?" Ponainen tilted her head in confusion when Hiuya mentioned a memorial. She most likely thought it was for her husband, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"For Poniras," Hiuya said, affirming her suspicions. She knew that multiple years had passed already, but it was impossible for her to know when she was quite literally living in the past by constantly applying another form of Illusio in her mind every single day.

"W-What year is it now?" She asked, as she felt her heart drop when it was revealed to her.

"It's 1844 now. A lot has changed since Poniras died. Come with me and face it already." He said it with a straight-forward face, still covered by the black ice he was trying to melt a while ago.

Hiuya could feel the ice melt around him; it felt like this was working.

"I-I don't know Hiuya. What will happen to me when I come out? Will my citizens really support such a Queen?" She dreaded all of these possibilities—her only friend alive, her children, and her citizens—and she has betrayed them all by isolating herself in her fantasy-like past. She felt she could never forgive herself for knowing this.

"I don't know, but there are still supporters of the Royal Family; little Ilga is a part of it as well as Lazus, Nitt, and Keit." Hiuya said. It felt nice knowing that her children are still out there in the world making a name for themselves without their mother, but something struck her as odd or rather strange.

"Eh? What about the others?" She asked as she tilted her head once more in confusion.

"We-" She interrupts by raising her finger to silence Hiuya for a bit.

"Actually, no, I want to see them myself." She said it with a sad smile.

She has decided it herself, and she wants to know their reasons and everything that led them to that decision. She wanted to know herself through her children's own words.

An awkward silence passed through them as she just stared at the still trapped Demon Lord, as if waiting for him to do something.

"Alright, sure, so can you get me out of here now.... please?" The Demon Lord chuckled for a bit once he remembered that he was still in this prison of ice.

"Huh? I've already weakened it, though?" Poniras said. She was still wondering why Hiuya hadn't gotten out of the prison already.

"Wait, don't tell m-" She covered her mouth in shock, and in a wide-eyed expression, she just looked at the frustrated Demon Lord in shock and terror.

"IT ISN'T LIKE THAT!" He yelled in annoyance, breaking free from the icey prison with an intensified Ignis Pleinor, exploding the ice from the constant pressure building up inside and releasing a lukewarm mist in a single second now that he realized it.

"For your information, I've been training myself and perfecting my craft of the magical arts to finally defeat you someday!" He approached the red-haired woman with an annoyed tone and a face as red as a tomato. 'Such insolence!' He thought as he stormed off for a bit before returning to the grinning dragon monarch.

"Well, we'll see once we get out of here." She said this with her signature mischievous grin, a grin that only symbolized tragedy to those who witnessed it, Poniras being a major recipient of this grin in bed.

______

Outside the Black Space

Everyone gathered at the throne room, where the light happened moments ago. They were distressed, understandably so, by the scene they saw.

The Demon Lord was just standing there. Menacingly, with his hand placed on top of the head of the Queen, it was a bizarre sight for newcomers, but Nayr, Ayuiha, and the Royal Guards stationed inside knew what had happened.

12 hours have passed without anyone knowing what was happening inside their minds.

The Illusio spell seemed to have trapped the two in that state; they were basically in a comatose-like state. Of course, the guards have already secured the place with many tiers of Sanctum spells (Sanctum meaning Barrier).

"I wonder what's happening in there," Nayr said worryingly as he clutched onto his little rosary depicting the holy circle of the Church of Meriavel. Ayuiha, too, was visibly worried as she tapped her shoe in a beat.

"Phew. Sorry about that, Ponainen" Everyone in the room was shocked. They have been waiting for this day ever since the death of King Ponaris, her faithful and loving husband.

They watched with bathed breath, something urging up inside of their hearts as they watched the statue of their queen stand slowly up.

"I have returned." She said these simple words.

Every Elf bowed to her Majesty, the Ancient Red Dragon Monarch of the Elves and Wyverns, and her power, which had been proven time and time again in history.

"Welcome back, Your Highness!" They shouted with their heads facing the ground.

"Stand up, my loyal followers; I heard about the situation," She said as she wobbly stepped down the mini-stairs with Hiuya assisting her.

"Careful there, glorified lizard, you might trip," Hiuya teased.

"Shut up, Netherkin," Ponainen fired back.

The beautiful red-haired woman watched the colored window; it was the image of the entire royal family, Poniras, standing beside Ponainen with their children, which shone as it struck the rising sun.

A new day has passed for the Great Elven Federation of Meriavel.

What would be in store for the rest of the world now that the Dragon Monarch has risen and the Demon Lord has finally lifted the isolationist stance they've taken?

"Lead me to the Council of Elders!" She ordered with a dignified voice as she floated with Levitare.