When I wake up from my evolution once more, I have become a human.

Just as expected.

My body now is much more muscular and "macho" than my butterfly body, perhaps owning to the fact that I have evolved from a majestic cockatrice instead of a fragile moth-butterfly.

And like before, attributes from my former self still remain. I can feel wings sticking out from my back and my breath still turns living things into stone.

I hear a slow clap coming from behind.

"My my, you're quite a looker as a human."

The one who speaks is, of course, the Demon Queen. She makes her appearance at last.

I notice that her gaze goes all over my body, like she is checking me out or something.

And then I realize I am buck naked right now.

No wonder there's a little blush plastered on her face.

"So, how long are you going to admire my new body?"

Her blush grows.

Even a Demon Queen like her still can get embarrassed. Doesn't she have male incubus monsters she can ogle or something?

"Apologies. It's just that you're unexpectedly well-toned compared to your previous butterfly body."

"Yeah, no kidding." I answer. "It's like I'm a bodybuilder or something." I say as I look at my muscles.

"The cockatrice is known for having quite a powerful physical strength. Perhaps that strength carries over to your human body," she explains.

"Perhaps?" I notice the doubt in her voice. "You don't know how my evolution works either?"

"Unfortunately." She sighs. "Perhaps only him knows the rules and laws on how evolving Outsiders work."

"Him?" I ask.

"I'll explain while we walk inside."

As we walk through the valley, she tells me about how there was another with the same ability as mine in this world, back when the demons and humans were still at war. Like me, he could grow and evolve to a more powerful creature the more he devours. And with that power, he quickly gained strength that rivaled the strongest personages of both humans and demons.

"Back then, I was still the Demon Princess, since my father, the Demon Lord, was still alive," she explains.

I didn't think that demons could have families too. Guess they really are not that different from humans.

"My first meeting with him was on the battlefield. I was leading our demonic forces to take a certain dungeon in order to convert it for our base of operations. Of course, that certain dungeon turned out to be his home."

She suddenly looks downward with a blush on her face, as if she is embarrassed.

"As you would've guessed, he defeated me soundly in battle. And he did not merely overpower me. He made me feel ashamed, something that had never happened to my nigh-invincible self."

"And then, I fell in love with him."

"Funny, isn't it? Falling in love with an enemy you're supposed to defeat?" she says with a sarcastic tone. "But that was what happened. Of course, I didn't know right away that I had fallen for him. I merely thought that my attraction to him was because of his strength, something that is natural to us demonfolk since we respect strength above all else."

"I begged him to join our side but he refused, saying that he really had no wish to join in this human-demon conflict. He only wished to live his days peacefully."

"So I retreated, hoping one day he would change his mind."

"Ah, here we are."

She interrupts her own story by placing her palm on a wall that has suddenly appeared in front of us. I must have not been noticing how far we've walked; too busy being engrossed in her story.

She recites some spell before the wall vanishes, allowing us to enter.

"Welcome to my hidden dungeon."

The inside is also illuminated with the same kind of moss that illuminates the outside.

The path is tiny, only fit for one person at a time so she has to walk in front of me since she's leading the way.

This, of course, leads to me being able to ogle her voluptuous ass all day along.

I just consider this payment for her ogling my naked body before.

"So, where was I?"

"The part where you leave him," I answer, still ogling that sweet sweet booty.

"Right. So, we continued with the war against the humans. Demons, being superior in both strength and magic compared to humans, eventually start to win against them. One by one their territories fall to our forces."

"But then, the humans discovered the magic called Hero Summoning."

"With it, they summoned powerful humans from other worlds they dubbed Heroes. And they turned them against us. All of those Heroes thought they were doing good by repelling us demons, turning a blind eye against the corruption that consumed the human world; the corruption my father wished to burn to the ground by ruling over the humans."

"Soon, the balance tipped back to our defeat. Even my father ended up mortally wounded by a group of those Heroes."

"Thus I was forced to beg for his help once more. I told him I would offer everything, even my body, if he would help my race win this war."

"But then, he answered that he only demanded that he would be allowed to consume my father, the Demon Lord."

"At first, I refused but my weakened father agreed. He said he would sacrifice himself if it's for the good of his race."

"And so he ate him, gaining immeasurable power as a result. With it, he fulfilled his end of the bargain. He easily killed and hunted all of the heroes."

"That is, until he met with those three. Yes, it was the same three you met back inside that tree."

"I may call them Heroes but only one of them, Maya, is actually a human from another world. Tina was a princess from one of the human kingdoms and Mira was a mere peasant from some backwater human country. However, the three of them possessed power beyond those of even the Heroes possessed."

"Their battle was one for the legends. Mountains were toppled, lands were split open, borders were redrawn. I was not there to help him since he requested that I stayed behind, knowing that my power was so little compared to him that I would only become a bother."

"In the end, he lost. Even with the power given to him by my father, he still lost."

"It wasn't for nothing though. He managed to push the three to their limits, making them disappear from the war for quite some time, no doubt to recover their strength."

"If only... if only I had gone to the offensive, chasing after them while they were weak instead of just staying passive..."

Her story ends with her voice dying down to a sad whimper and sob. To think that the Queen of All Demons would show weakness like this...

In the end she is still a girl deep inside, I suppose. She must be hurt terribly by the loss of her lover.

...

Goddamn that guy. How could he refuse such a hot piece of ass like her? Look at those boobs and ass. It's every man's dream to have a girlfriend with that hotness. He doesn't know what he's missing out.

Especially that ass. The way they emphasize her naughty bit that was only covered by her tight black thong is simply divine.

"Finally! Here we are in the main cave! Would you prefer if--- oh my..."

She turns red as a tomato once she turns her gaze at me.

No, to be exact, at the lower half of my body.

"Does my body please you that much?" she asks.

"Truthfully, yes. Me and my little pal right here are really happy you are proud enough to show off your beautiful form without covering it up by unnecessary clothing."

"I am happy then if you're happy." She blushes even more. "I love wearing this clothing. It gives me much freedom of movement. I have no idea why humans love wearing cumbersome clothing, like those three heroes who wear dresses even in a fight."

"Well, it's not like they have anything to show off."

"Hehe, true. At least I have the advantage over them when it comes to physical looks."

Meanwhile, at the same moment, the Three Heroes sneeze at the same time.