Alice

Sitting on her throne in the Sanguine Maw, blood dripping down the hem of her dress, Alice looked down at those kneeling before her and asked with a slight smile, "What is love?"

To this question, young Alice would have answered: Love is the protection and the feeling of value conferred by her father.

Alice was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman and a lowly dancer, but with a powerful affinity for dark magic. His mother always told him that their beautiful lifestyle was proof that they were loved. Her father often took young Alice to see the family's sacred treasure, the Crown of Antalus, telling her stories of the family's past glory and how she would help restore their greatness.

Alice understood from a young age that being loved meant her role was to be the shadow knife of the family.

Using her gift for dark magic, Alice moved across the battlefields of the south, manipulating hearts and minds to remove obstacles for the Antalus family. His half-brothers' contempt for his illegitimate status was only static in the symphony of love. Alice held her head high and ignored their petty grievances with arrogant pride.

She had always loved her father and her family despite everything. Even when she was captured and tortured by the Monastery of Light during their last mission, Alice gritted her teeth and revealed none of the family's dark secrets.

But does love really exist?

While imprisoned, a mysterious figure revealed a shocking truth to Alice: her entire life, she had been nothing but a pawn. Alice sneered in response, dismissing this as just another ploy of the Enemy. The figure shook his head, handed Alice a mysterious orb, and unlocked her cell door.

Covered in wounds, Alice returned home to overhear a conversation between her father and the elders. His failure and capture was the result of a calculated deal between the Antalus family and the Monastery of Light, with the aim of restoring the family's former glory.

And love? Alice looked at her father and saw only cold eyes.

Love never existed - all along there had been only its value, its desires and its lies. His birth was permitted because of his talent; her freedom granted because she was used to family. Love was a sweet poison that allowed the family to show its true nature. The Family had long prepared magic to suppress Alice. They looked at her coldly as she lay pinned to the ground, thrashing like a wounded animal; they had already arranged for her to be taken back to the Monastery of Light.

But at the height of her despair, the orb in Alice's possession began to glow. She knew that this mysterious figure could be another Antalus family player trying to use her, but who cares? Alice laughed as despair and hatred consumed her body. The power of the Abyss completely transformed his blood: crimson wings burst from his flesh as demonic energy engulfed the entire family.

Alice crouched down and whispered the truth into her dying father's ear: even if they returned her to the Monastery of Light, the Antalus family would never receive what was promised. In the eyes of those above, his father was a pawn himself. The Antalus family's dream of returning to their former glory, like Alice's desperate desire for love, was just an illusory fantasy.

Her father let out his last breath amid Alice's blood-curdling laughter.

Using the cruelest methods, Alice transformed her contemptuous parents into slaves of the Blood Demons, bound forever by her will. She took the crown of Antalus and mockingly wore it on her leg as decoration - shattering the hypocritical illusions of the family and the so-called honor of the nobility.

She is reborn from the ashes of a dead love. The Blood Queen had arrived.

Now the queen asks: "What is love?"

Love is a prize, love is a desire, love is a lie... Love is only an ornament under authority, a bloodstain on the crown, an echo when the chess player makes his move. Having witnessed so much "love", she instinctively masters the game of power and desire. On her throne, Alice holds out an empty hand, but within her reach are the desire of countless souls. With this power, she left the Moniyan Empire, leading the Blood Demons to the Abyss, where they claimed their domain.

But that is not enough: the Queen hears the voice in her heart, the whispers of her human part: that is not enough. She had enough of the deception and manipulation. Rather than remaining a pawn that others could control, she would become the player who controls everything.

She is the Queen of the Blood Demons, the Mistress of Sanguine Lair, the wrath of the Abyss and the one who will turn her claws against the Moniyan Empire and rise to the pinnacle of power.

Love and hate are long dead; only power and desire can forge eternity.