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The pride stared at their most recent usurper with dull, lifeless eyes. The lands they lived on had long been cursed and they had no chance of escaping it, no matter how great a king was at the start of their reign they were doomed to suddenly fall into a violent madness or slowly corrupt over time. The last king had been the prince of hell himself, using his powers to quite literally sever the border between the land of the living and the underworld, and demons now freely roamed and preyed on the pride as a result. The fact any of them lived was a miracle of itself, but any bit of hope the pride had left had been thoroughly starved and stomped out of them. They had to hide and live in fear of their once beloved king’s gaze (who turned out to have always been pure evil and tricked all of them) for anyone who caught his attention died in a horrific manor. The only happy faces left were those of the demon lionesses. Several pride mates had opted to swear allegiance to the devil and abandon god and the circle of life. Sadly, most of them had simply been devoured by their king and his henchmen as they only made such declarations out of fear. But there were a few who were genuinely devoted to him and the evil he brought, their love was genuine and dark, they truly wished to be like him. He had been overjoyed by this. His final stomp on hope. He presented them to the rest of the pride and revealed this to them, and proceeded to grant their wish in front of everyone, the lionesses shrieked as their bodies warped and snapped in unnatural ways, but the screams of agony slowly became laughs and cry’s of relief and elation as the pain became pleasure as they became demon lords of their own right. They became his queens and bore his cubs. Evil seemed to have truly won. More and more lionesses witnessed this and opted to try. More and more demons were created. Then the prince of hell suddenly decided he was bored, made his oldest son king, and took most of his demon lionesses and servants with him to conquer more land. It was a shock, but not enough to give the lionesses hope. Not even the lone primal who happened to be stronger than the new king and killed him was enough. After all, this primal and his buddies seemed more interested in feasting on any meat he could find. He’d even been fascinated by the remaining demon lionesses and made one his queen. (Much to her annoyance). Their child had been small and made of pure shadow. This merely amused him. The pride was simply watched and wait for the inevitable snap. Then something unexpected occurred. They couldn’t really understand what they were looking at but the best way to describe it would be nothingness and void, in the shape of a snake. It was hard to focus on or understand it, but it spoke. It was the embodiment of the curse that was attached to the land. It was designed to work until nothing remained. But life had stubbornly persisted despite everything. Even though the lionesses had no hope. They were still THERE. The curse spoke again. It explained that since it’s purpose was doomed to never succeed and had no hope of such, that it would inflict the same pain on the lionesses. This was why the light of hope had long left their eyes. Even now, as the opportunity to KILL it and rid the land of the curse was right in front of them, they didn’t even try. The curse declared victory, and faded away, the void particles sinking into the king.
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