This took place days before the current story, the moment Kaiser was thrown in the dungeon and Celia went missing. A short glimpse of what happened in the past.
Celia's Perspective:
"Crownless, this is the path, correct?" My voice came out quieter than I intended.
Crownless lowered his grotesque head. "Yes, my queen. I've memorized it the moment we entered."
Good.
The air around me trembled. My steps echoed faintly through the shifting walls of the labyrinth, and each sound felt like a heartbeat I wanted to silence. The corridors reeked of stale magic — remnants of older fairies.
My hands clenched.
When we reached the exit, the final gate loomed ahead — carved in old runes that glowed faintly, mocking me. Of course more fairies remained.
Crownless tilted his head, his nearly human arm pressed to his chest. "Shall I kill them this time?"
I didn't look at him. "No. Put them to sleep with your spores."
"As you wish."
He spread his wings — if those mangled, black-veined things could still be called wings — and released a cloud of shimmering gray dust. The fairies barely had time to blink. They collapsed, their delicate forms crumpling onto the ground. I didn't spare them a glance as we walked past.
Outside, the cold struck instantly.
The forest stretched wide — endless white and silver under a bruised sky. The trees whispered like dying voices, their branches heavy with icicles that clinked like windchimes. The snow reflected a dull, lifeless light, the kind that reminded me of her eyes.
Sylaphine.
I muttered her name like a curse, the sound dying on my lips. "That bitch… she should kill herself… burn herself alive…"
Crownless walked silently beside me, but I could feel his eyes on me — those unblinking pits of black that never left my face.
Each step sank deep into the snow. I kept walking. I couldn't stop hearing her laughter — soft, high, pure. I hated it.
I hated that Kaiser liked her... I hated that she didn't immediately refuse him.
"He's mine," I whispered, again and again. "Mine. Mine."
Crownless twitched — his jaw flexing, his fangs protruding slightly as if mirroring my hatred. The shadows that clung to him thickened. I heard him murmur under his breath, a sound between worship and agony.
"Why her… and not me…"
I ignored it, but part of me felt his rage — it matched my own, bleeding through the snow like black ink.
The cold deepened as we neared the forest's core. My breath fogged in front of me, shimmering faintly in the blue light. The wind cut at my skin, but I didn't slow.
"Ascend," I commanded.
The snow behind us cracked. Slowly, a figure emerged from the ground— Ronan. His demonic form bowed, shadows burning faintly across his back like dying embers.
"Keep us warm."
"Yes, my queen."
He raised a single finger, tracing fire through the air. It burst into soft crimson flame, hovering in a thin line before us. The snow hissed and melted where it touched the light, leaving a steaming trail through the frozen forest.
The warmth brushed my skin, but it didn't reach the hollow place inside my chest.
I kept walking.
The air shifted — colder, heavier — as the trees thinned and the Frost Crawler's abyssal pond came into view. The water was black glass, still and depthless, reflecting nothing. The frost on its surface pulsed faintly, as if something beneath was breathing.
I stopped at the edge, my reflection fractured across the ice.
"Kaiser…" I whispered. "You're mine. You'll always be mine."
The snow crunched beneath my boots as I took a few steps back from the pond. The cold didn't bite anymore — maybe because something inside me already had.
I stopped by a slab of stone jutting from the frozen ground. "Ronan," I murmured.
Without a word, he raised his hand. A wave of heat burst from his palm, melting the snow in an instant. The rock gleamed wet and smooth under the red glow of his flames.
I sat down slowly. My hands rose to my head, pressing against my temples. My pulse drummed behind my eyes, steady and merciless.
"Kill it."
Both Crownless and Ronan bowed.
"As you wish, my queen."
The ground shook as they moved. Crownless shot into the air, his shadow splitting into wings that tore the clouds apart. His claws glistened with black ichor, poison dripping like ink through snowflakes towards the pond. Ronan followed, his body burning with fire so bright it turned the falling snow to steam.
Then it awakened.
The Frost Crawler roared — a sound like cracking glaciers. Its body emerged from the pond, massive and white, frost blooming across its jagged scales. Its limbs were long and needle-like, and wherever they touched, the air itself froze solid.
The sky dimmed, swallowed by a pale mist.
Crownless struck first. He dove from above, slashing through one of its limbs — the impact shattered ice into dust, but the creature's tail swung upward, grazing his shoulder. The wound froze instantly, black veins crawling across his flesh.
He didn't flinch. He sank his fangs into the Frost Crawler's side, poison gushing in thick black streams.
Ronan followed — a streak of crimson fire through the white. His flames scar across the creature's scales, melting and cracking them, but the cold pushed back, freezing even the embers mid-air.
The forest screamed — the trees cracking, snow bursting from the ground. The clash of frost and flame painted the world in chaos.
I watched, silent at first. My breath fogged in small, shaky bursts.
Sylaphine's face flickered in my mind — that gentle, perfect smile. Her soft voice. The way Kaiser fell for her.
"Why her…" I whispered. My voice shook. "Why her, Kaiser…"
The Frost Crawler shrieked, and Crownless tore off another limb.
"Because she's prettier?" I murmured. "Because she's royalty? Because she has wings, followers, all those worthless things?"
Ronan's fire coiled tighter around the monster's neck.
My nails dug into my palms until they bled. The pain didn't matter.
"He looked at her like she was everything he ever wanted." My throat tightened. "He smiled at her. Proposed to her. Marry me, he said. Right in front of me."
A laugh slipped from my lips — cracked and bitter. "How funny."
The Frost Crawler tried to crawl away; Crownless slammed it down, his grotesque form towering, his eyes glowing red.
"Do you know how it felt, Kaiser?" My voice broke. "Do you? Watching you hold her hand? Watching you say you're beautiful to her like you said it to me?"
Ronan's flames exploded, melting the creature's back into molten slush. Its screeches filled the air.
"I hate you," I breathed. Then louder — "I hate you!"
The wind howled with me. My words echoed through the trees like curses etched into the cold.
"I hate you—" I gasped — "for making me love you this much."
For a moment, the world stilled. The battle blurred into silence.
Then his voice echoed in my memory — soft, warm, unguarded."You're my princess, Celia.""Your birthday is soon, I'll look forward to it."
My heart stuttered. The anger trembled — thin cracks forming in its edges.
I stared ahead, my breath shaky. The Frost Crawler was still moving, dragging itself across the snow, its flesh half-melted, half-frozen.
I rose to my feet. My hair clung to my cheeks, damp with melted snow and sweat.
Crownless and Ronan stepped aside, kneeling as I walked forward.
The creature looked up — its eyes dull, pleading, shards of ice clinging to its mouth.
And for a heartbeat, I saw Sylaphine there.
Something inside me snapped.
I lifted my hand — trembling, then still — and whispered, "You shouldn't have touched what was mine."
Yes… if none of those bitch fairies exist, then he has no reason to like any of them.
If I erase them from this world, if I burn their faces and their wings — then he'll finally look at me the way he used to.
He has to.
"I will just kill all of them."
The words came out soft, almost like a sigh.
But the air trembled around me — every word dripping with power I didn't bother to hide anymore.
My hands rose slowly, fingers curling. The ground pulsed beneath my feet as my chains uncoiled from the frost like living veins — black steel glistening faintly in the pale light.
The Frost Crawler thrashed nearby, its heavy breaths shaking the pond. Its body was still half-frozen, half-melted, crawling weakly toward the shadows. Pathetic.
"Ego ignis aeternus, tenebris coronata… devora cor, sanguinem, animam."
The syllables rolled off my tongue like venom, each one humming with violence. The chains stirred, rising into the air, their metal dripping with cold blue fire.
The Frost Crawler let out a low, shivering cry as the first chain lashed out — wrapping around its throat. Steam hissed where metal met ice. Another chain shot forward, coiling around its tail, its jaw — each one biting deeper, glowing hotter.
The pond cracked under the pressure. Frost split like broken glass.
"Tenebris vincula, in flammis resurge…"
My voice grew louder — not shouting, but sharper, like a blade against bone.The blue flames flickered, turning darker, deeper — almost black at the edges.
The Frost Crawler screamed. Its flesh blistered under the heat, the white scales splitting apart. Steam and blood rose together in the air, thick and metallic. The smell hit me — a mix of iron and something sweetly rotten.
I didn't flinch. I watched.I wanted to see it.
To see what happens when even ice is forced to burn.
Its skin began to slough off, melting like wax. The chains pulsed brighter, blue fire devouring everything it touched — the frost, the snow, the monster's flesh. The pond beneath it hissed violently, the frozen water boiling, evaporating into clouds of white mist that shimmered under the dying sky.
It tried to resist — its remaining limbs clawing at the ice, dragging half-melted bones across the surface — but the flames crawled higher, licking its face, its chest, its eyes.
The Frost Crawler's scream became unrecognizable, like the sound of a glacier dying.
I smiled faintly.
Not because it was dying — but because I could feel my heart slowing down. Calming.The world finally made sense again.
He loved her because she was pretty, didn't he? Because she had those gentle wings and that royalty look.
"Then I'll burn all of it," I muttered.
If she has wings — I'll tear them off, one by one.If she has followers — I'll strangle them with their own halos.If she's prettier — I'll burn her face apart until he can't recognize her.And if he still looks for her… then I'll burn her whole labyrinth and scatter her ashes onto this very pond.
My thoughts twisted, but they felt right. They felt true.
The Frost Crawler's flesh fell away in pieces, its muscles charring to black ash. The air was thick with heat — snow melting in a wide circle around me, steam rising in sheets.
Crownless and Ronan stood at a distance, watching in silence. Even they looked uneasy. The flames flow in my reflection across the ice, bright blue halos flickering around my shadow.
The creature's bones began to crumble — white turning to gray, cracking under the unbearable heat. Its skull split open with a faint hiss, steam escaping like a sigh.
Some of its bones fell to the ground.
Extinction is an easy escape.
I stepped closer, boots sinking into the half-melted snow, heat brushing against my legs. The blue fire wrapped tighter around the skeleton, refusing to die out.
"You don't get to die that easily," I whispered.
I raised my hand one final time, the flames curling obediently around my wrist.
"You'll serve me instead."
"Ascend."
The last chain snapped — not breaking, but sinking — dragging what was left of the Frost Crawler into the ice below. The fire followed, vanishing beneath the pond's surface.
A moment later, the world was quiet again.
Only the faint hiss of evaporating snow remained — and my reflection, smiling back at me through the heat-haze.
"From now on."
"Your name is Veil."
A long, drawn-out moan of something that understood death but refused to die. The air turned sharp, blue smoke spiraling around it, sealing into its reborn body. Horns jutted out from its skull. Black frost replaced the missing flesh. Runes—my runes—carved themselves into its ribs like an ancient oath.
I smiled.No—I grinned.
And as it lifted its head, two cold-blue eyes opened one by one. The creature bowed, its monstrous form radiating quiet submission.
"Yes…" I whispered, my voice trembling with excitement. "Yes, you belong to me now."
Its breath fogged the air, blue and heavy. The ground beneath it froze solid again.And then—
I laughed.
"Fufufu—ahahahaha—HAHAHAHAHA~"
My voice echoed through the silent forest, shrill and sweet and utterly deranged. The kind of laughter that made the air itself recoil.
I tilted my head, brushing a strand of white hair behind my ear.
"My precious Veil," I murmured, kneeling before the beast as its claws dug into the ground, awaiting command.
"From now on, you will obey me—without hesitation, without question."
The Frostcrawler—no, Veil—lowered its head even further, the edges of its bone mask dripping frost.
"Good boy," I said softly, almost motherly.
My fingers brushed its skull. It was cold to the touch, the kind of cold that could kill.
"I'll make you stronger than all of them combined… because you'll never betray me, right?"
The creature growled, low and resonant—a vow carved in sound.
I smiled again.Somewhere deep inside, my heart pounded fast.
Was this how love felt? To have something entirely yours—a life that bent only to your will?
"Kaiser would understand…" I whispered to myself. "He'll see I can protect him better than anyone. Better than that Sylaphine slut."
The flames behind me flickered, blue and divine.
"Veil," I said softly, my voice turning cold and commanding. "If anyone touches him… you'll rip their wings off. Understand?"
Veil's claws scraped the earth, eyes gleaming in obedience.
I leaned close, pressing my lips near its icy jaw."Good," I whispered. "Mommy's very proud of you."
The ground around us shimmered as if even the frost itself bowed.And in that silence, in that endless, eerie quiet, only one thing existed—My laughter, echoing like a hymn of damnation.
"Now, my darling Veil…" I said, rising, my eyes glowing faintly crimson."Let's show them what death truly looks like."