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When Hazel came to, the first thing she noticed was the pain.
A searing, pulsating ache that started in her jaw and spread down her neck like fire beneath her skin. Her head throbbed as if it had been split open and sewn shut again with thorns.
The second thing she noticed was the cold.
It wasn't a natural cold, not the kind that numbed the skin. This one seeped inward, threading through her veins, crawling up her spine like frostbite made of despair.
Her eyes fluttered open.
Chains rattled as she tried to move — heavy, blackened ones that shimmered faintly with spectral light. They weren't ordinary chains. Her wrists were bound behind her, her ankles pinned to the roots of a massive dead tree.
The forest around her was… wrong.
Trees towered without leaves, their branches crooked like claws. The ground was carpeted in ash that rose like mist with every small movement she made. Ghostly shapes floated through the air — souls, drifting like pale embers, whispering in broken voices that barely reached the living world.
A shiver ran through Hazel's body as one ghost passed near her face, its hollow eyes staring straight through her. The air around it was icy, suffocating, filled with the scent of old grief and rotting dreams.
Then came a voice — smooth, sultry, and venomously calm.
> "You're awake."
Velia.
Hazel's head snapped toward the sound.
The serpent demon stood a few feet away, her body wrapped in a gown of living shadows that rippled with every breath. Her eyes gleamed emerald — cruel and brilliant — and her lips curved into a slow, delighted smile.
Around her stood a small army — rogues in tattered armor, demons with horns glinting in the pale spectral light, and at the far edge, Gavriel, his expression caught between irritation and unease.
Hazel's throat tightened. She struggled against the chains, pulling until her wrists burned and bled, but they held firm. "Where… the hell am I?" Her voice came out raw, cracked.
Velia took a step closer, her heels crunching the ash. "The Soul Forest."
Hazel blinked. "The what?"
"The resting place of the damned," Velia said softly, her tone like a lullaby. "Every soul that's died in the underworld and refused peace ends up here. It's rather poetic, don't you think? All those voices whispering their misery… while we make history."
Hazel's heart pounded. "You're insane."
Velia tilted her head, pretending to think. "Mmm… probably."
Hazel's voice trembled with fury. "You're a twisted psycho! Let me out of these chains!"
The sound of the slap was sharp — like a whip cracking through air.
Hazel's head snapped to the side, blood blooming at the corner of her lip. Before she could recover, another slap came — harder, crueler — leaving her dizzy.
Velia smiled. "I need you in perfect health, Hazel," she said sweetly, "so I'll be torturing you the human way."
Hazel's breath hitched. "What do you want with me? Why can't you just leave me the fuck alone?"
Velia's eyes gleamed. "Not in this lifetime, honey."
The serpent demon crouched before her, studying Hazel's face — the blood, the fury, the hint of fear. "Do you even know where you are, my dear? You're in a place where no magic answers to the living. The Soul Forest swallows all energy — vampire, witch, or demons. You're completely powerless here."
Hazel swallowed hard, her mind racing. The realization hit her like a blow.
If magic didn't work here… neither did hers. Neither did Hades'.
"What do you want with me?" Hazel whispered.
Velia smiled wider. "Ah. Straight to the point." She stood, brushing the ash from her knees. "There's someone or something I need to wake. An entity the world has forgotten — but the earth still remembers."
Hazel's chest tightened. "What do you mean… wake?"
"You see," Velia continued, her tone suddenly dreamlike, "long before your precious Hades claimed the underworld, there was another. A being so powerful the celestials themselves had to seal him away. The Serpent King. The one they called The Eclipsed One."
Hazel's breath caught. "T—that explains the storm," she whispered.
"Exactly." Velia turned to her, her dark green hair catching the ghostlight. "The storm was his first whisper. His call for release. And to awaken him…" She smiled, slow and cruel. "I need the blood of the one who imprisoned him."
Hazel felt her stomach drop. "Who—who's that?"
Velia's smile turned into a sharp grin. "Take a guess."
Hazel's voice was barely a whisper. "The… the Phoenix."
Velia's laughter echoed through the forest, cold and triumphant. "You catch on fast. Yes, Hazel. You."
Hazel shook her head violently. "No. No, I'm not. I'm not the Phoenix. I'm just— I'm just a princess from Aetheria who got married to the Demon King. I'm not—"
But even as she said it, she felt her own voice falter.
The denial sounded hollow. Empty.
Deep inside, something twisted.
She could feel it — that foreign warmth that always pulsed whenever she was angry, afraid, or in danger. The flicker that even Alyssa had sensed.
Velia leaned close, her breath brushing Hazel's ear. "Oh, Hazel. You humans love lying to yourselves. But I've seen it — the fire in your veins, the light in your eyes when you think no one's watching. You can pretend all you want, but the truth always burns its way out."
Hazel's body trembled, not from fear, but from fury. "You're wrong."
"Am I?" Velia straightened, amusement gleaming in her eyes. "You're one of the most powerful entities in existence, and yet—" she flicked Hazel's chin mockingly, "—you're so fragile. Predictable. Pathetic. That isn't the kind of woman Hades needs by his side."
Hazel's heart twisted painfully at his name.
Velia continued, voice cold as death. "To wake the Eclipsed One, I only need a small drop of your blood. But since I've waited so very long to see the light go out of your eyes… I think I'll take it all."
Hazel's voice broke. "Velia, don't. Please. You don't understand what you're doing. If you awaken that thing—"
"Thing?" Velia's laughter cracked like glass. "You mean the Serpent King. The one who will unmake this wretched world and build another from the ashes. And I will rule it by his side."
Hazel stared at her, horror dawning. "Rule over what?" she choked out. "A wasteland?"
Velia's eyes hardened. The next blow came fast — Hazel didn't even see it. Her head snapped to the side, blood dripping from her lip.
Still, Hazel managed to glare at her through the pain. "Hades will find me," she whispered.
Velia's grin returned, sharp and mocking. "Even if he does, he'll be too late. He'll come charging in like the fool he is — but here? He's severely outnumbered and his power means nothing. The Soul Forest devours magic, remember?"
Hazel's voice cracked. "Then why bring me here? Why summon him here if your magic doesn't work either?"
Velia chuckled, low and chilling. "Because summoning the Eclipsed One isn't magic, darling. It's a rite that have to be performed.
Hazel's gaze flicked behind her. And there — glowing in blood-red light — she saw it.
The pentagram, carved into the soil, pulsing faintly as if breathing. The candles flickered with an otherworldly flame, each one whispering in an ancient tongue she didn't understand.
Her chest seized with dread. "Velia, don't do this," she pleaded. "You'll doom everyone. Including yourself."
Velia's laughter echoed through the forest, a sound both mad and heartbroken. "Maybe doom is exactly what this world deserves."
Hazel's throat closed up. For a heartbeat, she thought she saw something — a flicker of sorrow behind Velia's rage. But it vanished as quickly as it came.
The ground trembled faintly, as though something beneath it was stirring. The whispering ghosts grew louder, circling faster, their cries rising into an unholy hum.
Velia turned, arms lifting toward the sigil. "It's time," she said softly, eyes glowing green. "Time to unbind the end of all things."
Hazel pulled against her chains, screaming now. "Velia, stop! You don't have to do this!"
Velia didn't answer.
The air grew heavy — thicker with every breath. The candles' flames bent inward again, drawn toward the center of the sigil. And in the faint, trembling light, Hazel saw it — a small crack opening in the ground, faintly glowing, as if the earth itself was bleeding light.
Every ghost around them began to wail — not in anger this time, but in terror.
Hazel's heart pounded so hard she could barely breathe. "Please…" she whispered, tears streaming down her face as two men unbound her from the tree she was chained too, making her kneel right outside the pentagram. "Please, stop this… Hades, where are you?"
But Velia only smiled, her hands bathed in blood as she ripped a heart right out of a rogue demon's chest, the demon fell with a loud thud, blood splashing on Hazel's face. "No one can stop destiny, Phoenix Queen."
And as the first scream of the awakening serpent echoed from beneath the soil — low, ancient, and monstrous — Hazel realized this was only the beginning.