The Demon Lord of Rot froze in place and slowly turned around to take a look. The woman behind her was tall, well-built, had black hair, and glowing green eyes. But what’s most important was that she reeked with bloodlust.

Unlike them, who were old and Kali, who surpassed them all, Merida still couldn’t control her demonic impulses of violence and aggression.

Ever since she was born, Merida had always been a bit too aggressive, violent, and prone to attack first and think later. What at first looked like a strange quirk, a lack of discipline by her crumbling family, or just a lack of manners had turned into a cruel joke by the fates.

When she was little and would beat the kids in Alina to an inch of their lives, many adults called her a demon child. Only if they knew how right they were. She always had that demon in her, intertwined with her very fate.

"You’re Merida, right? The Demon Lord of Fungus." The Demon Lord of Rot waved a hand. "Call me Sally Ki, I’m the Demon Lord of Rot."

All of the muscles on Merida’s body started contracting, causing the stripes on them to become clearly visible. After Arad left the bath earlier, she didn’t and instead stayed here to train. She did everything from swimming with weights to running in amplified gravity, and all while being under a deadly concoction of toxins and sedatives made by Claug.

A demon did show up earlier, that was Roa, but she didn’t give Merida any threatening looks and instead joined her in training. The two got along really well, which was a surprise. But those new demons weren’t the same, two of them were undoubtedly dangerous.

"Take care of the fairy." Merida growled as she disappeared, and so did Sally. As a loud shockwave exploded in the distance, the other demon lords sighed.

"That one is quick! Is she that new Fungus Demon Lord?" The Demon Lord of Carnage smiled. "What did she mean by take care of the fairy?"

"Who knows?" The Demon Lord of Betrayal sighed, "Maybe she got fungus in her head."

"Maybe..." A voice came from between The Demon Lord of Betrayal’s legs, and when she looked down, she could see Zephyr’s smug smile looking at her directly from the surface of the water. "She called for help."

"Zeph..." Before the Demon Lord of Betrayal could run away, Zephyr blasted her away with a shockwave of compressed air. The other demon lords were unbothered as Zephyr’s wind never reached any of them, making it clear that she wasn’t blindly throwing her magic around.

The only two here who are in danger are the two demon lords who displayed aggression or threatened Arad and his wives. "Here they go..." the Demon Lord of Wrath shook her head, and the Demon Lord of Bursts shouted right after. "Aloe! Careful, I can smell other spirits around, multiple queens are watching."

Aloe, the Demon Lord of Betrayal, growled, using her own wind magic to deflect Zephyr’s blast and stabilize herself, glaring around with an enraged face. "Where are you!"

"I’m here, it’s been a while, Aloe, hasn’t it?" Zephyr appeared out of the air like a ghost of mist, looked at Aloe with a smile, and approached even closer.

Aloe’s face burned red with rage. "To think you are still sitting on the throne as if glued to it, My Queen! Are you still slaving away with mortals? Jumping from one useless humanoid to another and dragging our name in the mud?"

Zephyr smiled, giggled, and reached forward. She grabbed Aloe by the nipples and started slowly twisting them. "You have never changed, did you?" She used more strength, causing Aloe to flinch.

"Your wind magic is still the same; you only added demonic magic on top of it. Even your body is the same, except your chest, did it grow a bit bigger? And you have more tattoos on." She then stopped, licked her fingers and made her nails grow as long as fingers.

"You’re the one to speak! Old Hag." Aloe growled, but never moved an inch or tried to resist. Zephyr was dangerous, unhinged, and unpredictable. At this distance, Aloe is as good as dead if they clashed. She had to buy time, think, and find an opening to use her demonic magic.

"Spirits are violent, aggressive, blood thirsty, and prone to immoral slaughter. We’re small, and the weakest of us, the pixies, are always abused and used by humanoids, but the strong of us are in a realm akin to gods to the humanoids."

Hearing Zephyr speak, Aloe tried to back away slowly, keeping an eye out for any sudden attack, but Zephyr never lifted a finger and instead just kept talking.

"Tell me, Aloe. What do you think of humanoids, of everyone else who isn’t a fairy?" In that instant, Aloe found Zephyr’s hand on her neck. "Your answer would decide what I’ll do with you."

Aloe smiled with a sweaty face. "Of course, I learned to put my pride aside a bit. As that witch wizard of yours, she had me kiss a maid’s feet and endure being pissed on. The old me would’ve snapped just from seeing a human standing in front of me and not kneeling."

Zephyr’s hand grew tighter around her neck. "You always were a bad liar. You knew that it was just an illusion." Aloe gasped, and her expression changed. Fooling Zephyr’s eyes is almost impossible, especially since she is a wind spirit.

"We all have bad thoughts; the real difference is between those who act on those impulses and those who don’t." She gasped, trying to wriggle herself out.

Zephyr giggled with a smile, slowly pulling Aloe closer as if about to kiss her. "Come on, don’t look so scared and in pain, you’ll get my impulses going on." And then, Zephyr’s palm moved like thunder, smacking Aloe in the guts with a palm strike so powerful that the water in the craters below splashed, and the demon lords had to shield their faces.

Aloe’s body twisted like paper, her eyes almost popped out of their socket, and she coughed a mouthful of blood with a pained growl. It was just like last time when they fought. At that time, Aloe was Zephyr’s right-hand spirit and her heir, the next spirit queen.

Zephyr wasn’t done with one strike and unleashed a barrage of destructive palms, hitting Aloe multiple times before kicking her away.

"If I stop humbling you and the other spirits, then the pride would overflow, and they’ll end up killing everyone else." Zephyr slowly lifted her hands, extended them forward, and aimed a burst of air toward Aloe, hitting her from range and causing her to fly even further away.

When Aloe hit the ground, she rolled right in the middle of Merida and Sally’s battlefield.

When Sally lifted her arms to block, Merida’s fist came crashing down with a shockwave, breaking the sound barrier with ease as it impacted. Sally’s arms shook and almost shattered, but she didn’t fall or get pushed back. Instead, she clenched a fist and swung back at Merida.

Merida smacked Sally’s fist away and went in with a kick. All of that mycelium spreading through her bones, muscles, and veins pulsed with power, reinforcing her body, increasing her strength, speed, durability, and even reflexes to a level of a demon.

The Previous Demon Lord of Fungus was physically weak and mainly relied on her army of infected servants, but Merida was the exact opposite; she was a brawler, a sword master, and a physical fighter who thrives in direct confrontations.

"Your husband brought me here! You can’t just attack me out of nowhere!" Sally growled as she went fist to fist with Merida; the reverberation of each hit shook the mountain, and Aloe barely made it out alive from their battlefield.

"My fungus told me; your purpose is to kill me and steal the crimson rot. I don’t know what you told him, but I don’t care anyway." Merida jumped back, and the muscles on her entire body pulsed. She squatted down, and her thighs became a third thicker as her toes dug into the stone ground.

She jumped forward, and the ground she was on shattered, only to be quickly repaired with Merlin’s magic. Sally lifted her arms to block, but Merida’s flying kick sent her flying back at blinding speed, causing both of her arms to explode into splinters of bone and mushed rotten flesh.

"Damn it!" Sally growled.