The Demon King’s Hero Of Light - Volume 1 Chapter 186 186 The King Is Dead

“Aella, get yourself under control!” cried Josephine, trying to send a stream of water at her to cool her, but the heat directly around Aella had formed a barrier somehow.

“The table’s going to catch fire if you don’t calm the fire in you down!” warned Alfred, backing away.

The soup in her bowl was boiling off, leaving a thick sludge that was soon starting to smoke and blacken. Setting the bowl down, Aella stumbled up from her chair and backed away from the table. Her hands were shaking, and she still felt cold. How could she be sick? She was a hero! Heroes never got sick!

Precious jumped down from the table and sat by the door, as far from her as possible, panting and looking back at her with a worried expression. Gritting her teeth in anger, Aella teleported back to the north and fell down the moment the chill hit her.

“You are dying,” came that voice again.

“Thanks for noticing,” she said, her teeth chattering violently. “Can’t you do something? You were the one who said I couldn’t die!”

“Mortals are so fragile!” said the realm. “Maybe this is why I haven’t succeeded at keeping any alive for very long.”

Aella collapsed, and rolled onto her back with a gasp of pain. The moment her back touched the ice, there was a loud explosion and she was flung into the air. Flailing her arms and legs, she managed to catch herself and floated for a moment before sinking to the ground again. Sitting hunched over, with her arms buried in the snow to prop her up, she watched through a haze as the ice and snow all around her melted.

“You have too much mana stored inside you. Your body can’t handle it. You need to absorb it, or expel it.”

“Realm, has no one else ever had this problem?”

“Yes, Joseph. But he’s an exception.”

“I hate magic! I don’t understand it!” she m.o.a.ned in pain as the fire within her writhed and fought to escape. “What did Joseph do when this happened to him?”

“He rebuilt himself to be able to handle the extra mana.”

“Rebuilt himself? What does that even mean?”

“I will force it to meld with you. This may hurt.”

When Aella opened her eyes, the sky above her was dark, and she wasn’t burning up any longer. Sitting up, she held her aching head and looked around. The snow for a hundred feet was gone. The ground underneath her was rock hard, baked like a brick.

Holding up a hand, Aella brought a flame to the tip of one finger, and studied herself. Her beautiful brown skin, that had been marred only by scars of battle, then burned by the mana, was now a strange gray color. The mottled look of her skin was gone, where the burns had caused it to peel. It was all smooth now, without even the scars from her time in the pits.

Floating up off the ground, Aella marveled at how easy it was to move, almost as if she didn’t have to think about flying. Teleporting to the clearing she had kept Joseph’s kids at, she was able to completely ignore the storm that was raging around her, to sit at the edge of the roiling water. Creating a calm directly around her, the water stilled, and she was able to look at herself as if in a mirror.

Her eyes were the same gray as the gray of her skin. Small bumps had formed on her brow, and she could see that her hair was completely black. Smiling, Aella saw that her teeth were the same, so she didn’t have to worry about that.

Standing up, she teleported back to her throne room, but as she pictured it, in preparation to jump, she saw that all of her generals were assembled, along with her entire council. They seemed to be in a rather heated discussion, so she decided to teleport to a corner of the ceiling, to listen in before making herself known to the room.

“The king has lost it!” growled Vesh, one of the demons from the pits. She remembered he had lost an eye during the fight, and she had one of the healers restore it so he could become a general. “Not only has she not been being present for issues in the kingdom, she has brought us to these forsaken lands that are plagued with horrible storms!”

“And what would you have us do?” asked Seifer, from the throne he sat in. “We can’t exactly go back to the capital city we left. She has had it destroyed. That is why these storms are raging now, because of the magic that was released into the realm.”

“How do we know that is the case?” asked Vesh gruffly. “Only by her word do we know it was destroyed!”

“I’ve seen the pillar of destruction that still remains in that place,” said Alfred, stepping up beside Seifer’s throne. “It is so bright, it burns your skin to be in its light.”

“Why are we listening to a human? A hero that killed our last king?” asked Vesh, turning to address the council.

“Vesh, I have allowed you to speak freely, but all you have done is attack our king. Nothing that has come from your mouth has been helpful to the situation we find ourselves in,” snapped Frederik.

“Nothing the king has done, has been helpful!” cried Vesh.

“And what would you have us do?” asked Seifer again, angrily.

“I think we need a competent king, one that will take care of the people, instead of running all over the place helping other kingdoms,” Vesh said.

“And who exactly would we choose to be the new king?” asked Frederik, looking slightly amused.

“I think we should have another competition, like the one that gave her the throne,” snarled Vesh. “Whoever wins would surely be capable of running the kingdom.”

“Vesh,” sighed Varnin. “We’ve already discussed this once. The trials were held when we expected the king to have to fight the heroes. Since that’s not an issue, fighting to determine the new king shouldn’t be how we decide it. The king needs to be able to conduct meetings, take in information, and give us solutions to our problems. We need someone smart, not necessarily strong.”

“If you put someone weak on the throne, he will be killed,” said Orolon. “The king needs to also be strong enough to deal with unruly generals.

Vesh ignored the jab.

“How about Firion?” asked Xathtak. “He already controls the royal army. He’s been the one keeping the populace under control all this time. Granted it’s by threat of death and his hidden assassins, but still. The people are used to being killed by now, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.”

“I don’t want the job,” said Firion, appearing on the throne with a frown. “King Aella is perfect for the job, and she has placed competent people in place to handle things while she is busy. She won’t be running around forever.”

“Since when do we listen to a psychotic killer? Firion should never have made it out of the pits,” spat Vesh.

“Well, we’re listening to you,” shrugged Alfred.

“And all humans should be killed for their aggressions to our kingdom!” snapped Vesh in return.

“Would you like to try to kill me?” asked Alfred with a slow smile. “I’m ready right now. I don’t mind Aella’s wrath when she finds you dead.”

“King Aella,” corrected General Brimsey.

“My apologies,” bowed Alfred, still not taking his eyes off Vesh, or his hand off his sword.

“The girl has even brought monsters into our city!” continued Vesh, as if he had a list. “Each of those lions take more to eat than ten of our people! And that multiple headed freak, is nothing more than an abomination!”

Aella couldn’t believe the conversation she was listening to. Flying down in front of the crowd, she settled before Vesh and eyed him carefully.

There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room as they saw her new appearance, but she ignored it.

“Aella!” mewed Precious, scampering from around the throne and dashing towards her.

She turned to pick up the kitten and felt a dagger sliding into her heart from behind her. Vesh’s voice trickled in her ear as she felt herself falling to her knees.

“You are no king. You are a little girl with nice toys, playing the part.”

Voices were screaming in her head, and all around her, as the dagger twisted and then was jerked out. She couldn’t seem to focus on any of them over the pain in her chest. Her air was trying to get her lungs to work, and the fire within her wanted to burn him to a crisp. Then the world started to spin, and she viewed her headless body for a moment before her eyes came to rest on Alfred’s shoes.