I woke to pain. Not the clean sting of a wound, but the heavy ache of a body that wasn't mine.The air was thick with incense. Velvet curtains hung over a ceiling carved with runes that glowed faintly red. I wasn't lying on a battlefield : I was in a bed. A royal one.
When I tried to sit up, a deep voice snapped beside me."Your Highness! You mustn't move!"
A man in dark armor knelt at my side. His eyes were sharp, trained, filled with panic. He called me Your Highness…?
My throat was dry. "Where… am I?"
He stared at me, stunned. "You don't remember? You're in the palace of the Crimson Abyss. You, Prince Aren, barely survived the duel with the human hero."
The words slammed into me like a hammer.Prince Aren. The Demon Prince I had killed.
I looked down at my hands. The skin was pale, faintly luminous. My nails tapered like claws. In the mirror across the room, two black horns curved from my hair.I stumbled back, heartbeat thundering in my chest.
No… no, this had to be a dream.
"Your Highness, are you well?" the knight asked, eyes wide. "You've been unconscious for three days. The council awaits your orders."
Three days…I touched my chest where the spear had struck me. No wound. No scar. Only the slow pulse of something ancient under my skin.
I remembered the voice at my death. "Live as the other side."It wasn't a dream. I had been reborn : inside the body of the Demon Prince.
The knight rose and bowed. "Shall I inform your father, His Majesty, that you've awakened?"
Father. The Demon King.Every instinct screamed to refuse, to run, to find out what gods had cursed me.But the moment I opened my mouth, words spilled out that weren't mine.
"Tell him… I'll be ready soon."
The knight saluted and left.Silence filled the chamber. I sank to the floor, gripping my head.
I was the hero who vowed to destroy demons.Now I was one.