She Belongs To The Devil

Out of 24 Royals, only 5 of them were able to advance to the third level of the test. And they were Adeline, Nigel, Alan, Raphael, and Edwin. All the others were made unconscious again and they were kept inside a huge hall, except for Claudia of course. They would be kept unconscious until the test would be over and a future ruler would be selected.

Adeline was now inside a room which only had two chairs. One of those chairs was large with beautiful designs on it while the other was plain and small. Adeline didn\'t need to guess which chair was for her.

Azriel went and elegantly sat on the larger chair. And then he gestured for Adeline to take her seat as well.

After Adeline settled down, he briefly explained the rules to her, "In this third level of the test, I am going to test your mind. I will give you five riddles and in order to pass this test, you simply have to answer them correctly. But you will only have a minute to answer each of the questions. Shall we begin then?"

"Yes," Adeline nodded in agreement.

"The first riddle. Listen carefully because I will not repeat myself." Azriel looked Adeline in the eyes and gave the first riddle, "It is powerful than God, evil than the Devil. With poor it stays but desired by the rich, spent by the miser but saved by the gambler. And it is the only thing that everyone can take to their grave. What is it?"

Adeline frowned her brows even though she knew the answer. It was because she did not agree with the first part of the riddle, \'evil than the Devil\'. She wanted to argue with Azriel saying the riddle was flawed but time was ticking so she hesitantly gave the answer, "The answer is Nothing."

She had met one of the Devils and she knew that there were others who were eviler than Devil. But then again, she had not met the Devil, Lucifer. And she didn\'t know if he was actually how everyone said he was.

Azriel didn\'t say whether she was right or wrong. He simply moved to the next riddle, "I come in one color, but not one size. You can\'t find me in the rain, but find me in the sun; I\'m stuck at the bottom, yet easily I run. I will always follow you around, whether you like me or hate; but fear me not dear, I am your mate. What am I?"

"Shadow," Adeline answered delightedly because she didn\'t even have to think about it. The riddles were too easy for her to be called the riddles.

"Now moving on to the third riddle." Azriel then shot her with another one of his riddles, "Everything in its path, it devours; rabbits, wolves, trees, and flowers; gnaws iron, chomps land; grinds the rocks into sand; slays the Kings, ruins the village; nothing can save you, not even pilgrimage. What is it?"

Adeline found this riddle to be a bit difficult. She had never heard it before. She closed her eyes and repeated the riddle in her mind and tried to figure out what it was. "It devours everything… destroys everything… and we cannot escape it… what can that be? Is it God? No, no. God won\'t destroy his creations. Then what is it? War? No, war can be prevented if right things are done."

Adeline tapped her feet vigorously as time was running out. She squeezed the muscles on her temple tightly with her fingers as though she was trying to pinch the answer out of her brain. "Argh! What can such a thing be?"

"15 seconds left," Adeline was startled by Azriel\'s voice.

She shuddered and screamed in her mind, "Oh dear lord… I need more time! Time…" Adeline\'s eyes glistened with joy and she shouted, "Time!"

The corner of Azriel\'s lips lifted up to form a smirk. And he gave another riddle to Adeline. "Everyone is after me, the Kings, the Nobles, the rich, and the poor alike; for me, they are ready to put everyone else on the spike; the more they have me, the more they desire me; but heed my warning you fool, for I will make you sin; the more you have me, the less your kin. What am I?"

Adeline sighed and buried her face in her palms. The riddles were getting really confusing. She raked her brain and mumbled to herself, "What is everyone after? Argh! They are after so many things. But what fits here?"

"The more they have, the more they desire? For me, that is love. But why would I kill for love? That doesn\'t make sense here. Then what can it be? Oh! Wealth… Everyone wants it, they would even kill for it, and it will also make you sin."

Adeline glanced at Azriel and was about to give her answer to him but then one thing struck her mind. "Wait! The last part didn\'t fit though… If I am affluent then shouldn\'t I have more people who want to be close to me?"

Time was running out and Adeline was getting all sweaty and anxious again. She wiped the sweat beads on her forehead with her shaky hands while still raking her brain for the answer. "Can it be… power? Everyone wants power so that others won\'t push them. They fight for power, literally, war happens for power. No one is ever satisfied by power. There are people like Lillian who will even use dark magic for the sake of power. And the more powerful you are, the more enemies you get."

"That\'s it!" she clapped her hands and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Power. It is power."

Azriel frowned and gently massaged his ears. And without saying anything, he pointed his palm at Adeline and slowly shifted Adeline\'s chair to the end of the room.

Adeline looked down and puckered her lips in embarrassment. "Was I too loud?" she thought.

Azriel cleared his throat to have Adeline\'s attention on him. And when she glanced at him, he said, "Adeline, I will be giving you the final riddle. Listen to me carefully. It\'s a bit long and I won\'t be repeating it."

Adeline nodded her head, "I am listening, Dragon Immortal."

Then the final riddle was out, "Many fear me because of my dark abyss, but there are some who trust me and give a kiss. My breath is cold and I am rough to touch; but I am here for you to hold, though I can\'t give anything much. You can find several things in my pits; secrets, treasures, history, and even beasts. Some seek me out to get my blessing, while for some I am just a sour dressing. My skin is bare, move I don\'t dare. On earth, I will forever stay, even though some parts of me crumble away. What am I?"

After hearing that riddle, Adeline panicked because that was the longest riddle that she had ever heard. It took Dragon Immortal almost one minute just to complete saying that riddle. And Adeline\'s heartbeat was jumping in her chest because she was unable to remember each and every part of the riddle.. She had only caught a few phrases here and there.