Chapter 6: The Demon Queen

I awoke from the sound of thunder and a lightning strike outside, it was pouring down with rain and I just laid there staring at the ceiling, I decided to get up and walk over to the window. I stared out the window at the dark and stormy sky. I felt breathing on my neck and I turned around, nothing was there. And then I turned back to the window and that was where I saw it, the demon king standing out in the field. I quickly grabbed my raincoat and staff and rushed outside, making sure no one heard me.

"I want you to undo what you've done to me!" I shouted towards him, he smirked and vanished then appeared before me.

"Maybe I should finish what was done and bind you." He smirked as he touched my head, "These horns are impressive, you should be appreciative. Not everyone gets to become a half demon half human. You are truly the Demon Queen!" He laughs, "And soon, you will have to decide for a friend if they live or die." He vanishes, and I look around some more, no sign of him.

With time to think over what happened, I went back inside and sat in one of the chairs in the kitchen. "Kanade or Tyru won't get caught easily, so who could he be talking about?" I said as I thought.

The Demon King approaching the altar as he started to ritual, "It's time to summon one of her allies!" He opens a portal after the ritual is completed and grabs someone who knew Megumin well by the foot and dragged them through.

That person was Kazuma, my partner. "You will become my bait." When he gets Kazuma onto the ground, he uses a magic cage spell to cage him. "She will be my QUEEN!" He laughs, Kazuma is passed out.

When having a shower, I felt the same head pains that I feel when the demon king gets into my head, "If you want your friend back, come alone and we'll talk about it." I could see Kazuma and he was hurting, I just had to go…

I quickly finished up and grabbed my gear. I then departed and made my way towards the demon kings castle, I had an idea of his demands for Kazuma's release.

After a long ride, I arrive at the gates to the demon king's palace, the gates slowly open and I am greeted by bowing demons. "The Queen has come back to us!" I pouted and made my way inside, they led me to the throne room again which is where I saw Kazuma, floating in the air. "What do you want?" I said as I approached the throne, knowing that his answer would be me.

"I want you, the half human half demon to be my queen! Just imagine how many generations of demon kings or queens will come out from us!" He smirked and got off his throne.

"Maybe we can come up with something other than giving myself over to you for Kazuma's release?" I looked up at him, I loved him…

The demon king smirked and came closer to me, "You love him, don't you? If that's the case, then why don't you do the right thing and let him live his life without worrying about demons attacking. All you have to do to free him is sit on the small throne next to mine." He points towards it.

I looked at the throne, then at Kazuma. "I'm doing this for you..." I attacked the demon king, using all my strength into the attack.

He got knocked back and used a magic attack on me, I managed to jump out of the way of the attack and used another few attacks on him. But before I could respond, he had already gotten behind me and hit me into the far wall, I laid on the wall and spat out some blood. "You will be forced to be mine!" He said as he walked approached me, I looked up at Kazuma and used the spell 'Magic Dissipation.' Which breaks the magic barrier around Kazuma and wakes him up.

"K-Kazuma…" I said as the demon king turned to face him, "Megumin? Is that you?" He said as he looked up at demon king. "I'm guessing you are the one who kidnapped me and hurt her!" He unsheathed his sword and attacked the demon king, I laid there and slowly healed, another ability that came with the horns. After Kazuma had injured him, he rushed towards me and grabbed me, and to complete the binding he threw me towards the throne, but I managed to move myself out of the way using wind magic. I saw Kazuma continuing to fight him, but I sensed that he would lose. The only way I could save him is by doing something that I thought I wouldn't have to do.

I decided to embrace the power that these horns have whispered to me, knowing that it can't be good. I took a seat on his throne and the horns glew with a dark red power, he turned to see me on there and shouted, "NO! GET OFF THERE NOW!" Without doing anything, I stood up and aimed my finger at him and shouted, "DEMON BLAST!" Which annihlated him completely. I stared at Kazuma as I sat on my throne, it shrunk to fit me.

"Be gone, get out of my sights. The Demon Queen demands it." I said to him as I sent him through a portal to the capital. My first order of buisness was to get my dark mages to work on a way to open a portal to the other world, then I will take my army through and conquer it. Or so I thought.

Kazuma landed in the garden in front of the house, the first people he saw was Tyru and Kanade who were searching around for Megumin, "Megumin? Where are you?" Tyru shouted. "Wait! Who's that!" Kanade said running over towards Kazuma and pinning him to a wall with her blade pointed at him.

Kazuma looked at them, "I-I'm Kazuma, I'm a friend of Megumin's…" Kanade looked at him and released him, "Well we're looking for her, do you happen to have any idea where she is?" Kanade said.

He looked at them and nodded. "Yes, I do but I don't know what happened… I was fighting this huge demon looking guy who was attacking her and then all I saw next was a massive blast of purple magic that disintegrated him. And then she claimed to call herself the 'Demon Queen' and sent me here."

Kanade and Tyru looked shocked, "No… It can't be… We have to assault that fortress immediately, inform the guild!" Tyru said to Kanade but Kanade shook her head, "That's not a good idea. If we assault that fortress they could try to kill her!" Kanade said.

Tyru looked at her, "There is no other choice, we need to plan an assault and try to free her!"
Kanade nodded, "Shall we head to the guild then?" With them being agreed, they headed to the guild along with Kazuma who remained silent for the journey. "So, how do you know Megumin?" Tyru asked Kazuma. "M-Me? I know her as she used to be in my team in another world, not sure if she's told you about the fact that we're from another world yet."

Tyru laughed, "Of course she has told us, she's been trying to regain her memories for a while."
As they approach the guild, they enter and see a big horned character standing in the middle of the guild hall, "So they finally arrived." I said and turned around to them, my eyes glowing. "I have been awaiting you, how do you like it? The new me!" I smirked and walked closer to them, my long cloak and two demon guards also following. I looked at Kazuma and kissed him on the cheek, "You don't know how much I missed you guys. Don't worry, I haven't hurt any of the guildmates in here." I appeared behind the guild master, "Now tell me, you're going to pledge your allegiance to the demon kingdom aren't you?" I smirked and licked his cheek. "Never, we shall never join you! We should've killed you when we had you in that cage!" I cackled, "But you didn't, and that was your mistake!"

Tyru steps forward, "We want to save you sis… Come back to us please!" My eyes turned to see her and I rushed forward, "DON'T CALL ME SIS!" I shouted at her and hissed. "But, if you want to save me then come after me. The gates to my palace will always be open. Try you best to beat my revamped security!" I laughed evilly and vanished through the floor.

The guild master took deep breathes, "I guess you're here to ask us for help against her? If you are then that's fine, we'll be happy to help but I've got to ask… How did she gain that much power? She claimed the demon king was dead but he's been living for centuries." He said, Kazuma stepped forward. "Due to the failed binding, she had a lot of power stored deep inside her. So when she came to save me, I was close to losing the fight so she made the ultimate sacrifice and sat on his throne which led to her becoming the 'Demon Queen'" he said and looked down.

"So, we've got the layout of the palace here. This map was recovered by one of our spies." The Guild Master said. "This is the throne room, we expect her to have tons of guards in that room to prevent anyone from getting inside. And around the castle are fortifications. We don't know what though as she claims to have revamped everything." After a few hours of discussion, they finally had a game plan. Now it was their time to storm the castle and rescue Megumin.
"Once we get there, we'll take out the Demon Queen and this land will be free!" The Guild Master said, when Tyru overheard this she interrupted them. "Take her out? We're not going to kill my sister! She can be freed from this, I know it!" She said having enthusiasm behind her, "And we won't give up until she is free!" Kanade said.

Once they arrived at the castle all of the groups split up to do their assigned jobs, once all of the defenses were down the main team consisting of Tyru, Kanade, Kazuma, The Guild Master and five of his greatest guild warriors went inside and approached the throne room while the rest of the guild took our the demons that wandered the ground.

Once inside, the appearance of the throne room had changed. It was more dark and foreboding, around them were demons of all sorts, guards. I sat in the throne and watched as they entered, and as they approached I got my guards to surround them. "Are you here to surrender or to try and fight me and my guards?" I said. Awaiting their response I tapped my fingers on the throne.

"We're here to free you sis! This isn't you, why don't you just come home!" Tyru said, I cackled. "Kill them!" I said to my guards and they did as I said, they started to attack them but got cut down before they could get a hit off.

"My my, you're quite good guild master. Lets see how you face against my juggernaut." With a click of my fingers a massive demon juggernaut appeared from the shadows and went towards them, he had a bit more of a difficulty trying to take this demon down. Tyru, Kanade and Kazuma approached me more, and as they got closer my other guards were picked off by the elite warriors.

"Do you want to die?" I said to them as I stood out of my throne and held my staff in my hand.
Kazuma approached closer than the others, "Megumin… Don't let them control you! I know this isn't you, I've always known you better than this!" Kazuma said. I ignored him but also knew he was right, "I've realised if you fight me with that dagger it won't be that fair now will it? How about you take this sword I found" I threw it at him and got ready for a fight, I started off the fight with using dark magic. "Dark Capriccio!" I had thought it had hit him, but he deflected it back at me with the sword, I take the hit and the side effects. "Uhh." Kazuma came charging at me with the sword and I managed to use the spell 'Dark Vanish' to disappear and then when he least expected it I jumped from the darkness into the air and used "EVIL EXPLOSION!" The room lit up with darkness and shadows as the explosion of evil hit everyone but myself, the next thing I saw was Kanade jumping from the walls and pulling me out of the air into another wall. I hit her a few times with the staff to get her off me!

What I didn't realise was the sword that I gave to Kazuma was a sword that banishes darkness, he came out unscaved from that hit. "HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD!" I shouted and stood up.
"It's this sword, it seems to banish darkness whenever it is used against the wielder." Kazuma said as he pointed it at me. "And I will banish the darkness from within you Megumin!" He rushed towards me and I quickly jumped through one of the broken windows to get outside, he followed behind me and I was surrounded by the guild members. "There she is! Kill her!" They shouted as they approached me, I used magic to grow wings and fly up into the air. I started casting the ability that I used to defeat the last demon king!

"Kanade, I need you to get me up to her before she casts that spell off!" Kazuma said as he put some mana into the sword. She nodded and he got onto her back, she used her strength to jump the other walls to get on top of the throne room building. She jumped up towards Megumin but wasn't close enough, "You're going to have to jump if you want to hit her!" Kanade said mid air. Kazuma nodded and jumped off of Kanade, and right when I was about to get the ability cast I felt a sharp tinging go through my chest, like a sword had just stabbed me. My horns started to crack as the darkness inside of me was beginning to be banished by the sword, and as my horns dissipated so did the evil magic inside of me. I started to fall to the ground, quite fast. I got caught by Kanade mid air and after however amount of time I was out, I awoke and saw them all gathered around me. We were in the guild hall medical room.

"W-What happened? The last thing I remember was sitting in the demon kings chair to-" Another sharp pain went through my chest as the last amount of dark magic came out of my mouth and dissipated. Kazuma is sitting next to me holding my hand. "You're alright now Megumin… You were being controlled by the dark forces that were inside that throne." He said as he looked at me, I smiled at him. "How did you manage to free me?" I said to him, wondering how he managed it.
"I had used the sword that you had gave me, I figured out during our fight that it banished darkness. So I stabbed you through the chest with it to banish the darkness and free you." I coughed and laid back in the bed.

The thing I wanted to check were if I still had horns, I used my free arm to check if I had horns and to my relief there weren't any sign of them on my head. "The horns are gone… Finally. K-Kazuma… I need to say something… I-I…"

The lights went out and I looked around, and then the next minute they all came back on and everyone shouted, "Happy Birthday!" I had completely forgotten that it was my birthday. I also forgot the date so I clearly didn't know if it was today. "T-Thanks everyone!" I said as they put the cake down and went to get refreshments. I turned to Kazuma, "I-I love you…" I kissed him after that, I had always been meaning to say that to him for years. But I thought I'd never be able too as I had thought that I'd lost him forever when I was brought into this strange world.

This world will keep on getting stranger, even though one threat has been eliminated and another prevented. There is still one more thing lurking within the shadows. Within the void… And that would be their toughest challenge yet, the challenge where choices will be given and not everyone will survive…

TBC – Chapter 7: The Fate of This World and Ours.
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