Nothing to Lose
During the long years of peace, Haalfrin never stops being wary of the Queen; he feels deep in his bones that she's only docile because Dakka is stronger than her.
So, he has his researchers (headed by Miss Laura) constantly look deeper into new spells - especially ones about Time Locking.
During this time, Laura's team learns how to solve the problem of the Time Locks wearing out.
Before, it was well known that all the suffering the "indestructible walls" have endured over the years has left a lot of excess energy trapped inside the stones. The second the Time Lock spell wears off, all of that energy will explode out and completely obliterate the entire battlefield.
However, Laura's team has learned how to extract this excess energy from the Time Locks - hence, relieving stress on the enchantments, as well as reducing the coming impact.
With all of this extracted energy, they start mass-producing huge quantities of high-class mana stones. With this alone, they've made their own golden ticket in the Death Realm; so long as they keep their production method a secret, the Arkin are guaranteed to be rich in the afterlife.
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In the process of learning how to solve the Time Locks "deterioration" problem, Laura and her team have also learned how to quickly take apart Time Lock enchantments - effectively destroying what was once indestructible.
Knowing this, Haalfrin tells Laura to keep this a secret. In case the Queen ever betrays them, he'll have an easy way of getting rid of her; all he has to do is have his people destroy the Threshold, and he can just watch the Queen and all her revivable bodies be incinerated at once.
Of course, this is their last resort. Hopefully, they never have to do this.
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Time passes, and the Queen grows more and more restless. Dakka starts to get stressed out as well since he can feel his wife's anxiety, but he doesn't know what to do about it.
He DOES try everything, too; he tries feeding her, being extra skillful and generous during *nighttime bonding*, doing anything she asks, and making sure she's as comfortable as possible.
To his horror, his wife only grows more despondent and unresponsive. He really starts to get worried when he sees that even her study books are growing dusty when he finds her in the same position every day – laying flat on her bed and staring at the sky blankly.
Dakka fondly remembers the fire that was in the Queen's eyes during the war – the strong will to live. Now? Now the Queen isn't even taking the basic steps to preserve her own life. He has to FORCE her to eat, for pity's sake!
Even the 'children' Ants are starting to get anxious for their 'mother'… though they're expressing it rather strangely.
For some reason, all of the 'children' Ants are acting especially clingy to Dakka – always demanding his attention in the most bizarre ways.
For starters, they all start demanding that Dakka feed them personally, and they start holding onto parts of his body and refusing to let go. Dakka is always scared of hurting them, so he just lets them cling to his back, wrists, and ankles.
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The Ants reach their peak of annoying clinginess when Dakka wakes up from an afternoon nap one day...
... Well, let's start from the beginning.
He'd been working hard all that morning, and he'd grown tired. He was in his dragon form at the time, and he didn't think to turn back into his humanoid form before taking a rest. So, he found a blank field on one end of the land, and he plopped his mountainous body on the ground with a thunderous thud.
Curling his tail around himself, then resting his long neck on his tail, he soon went to sleep.
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All of the Ants see that the "sun" is growing dimmer, and they know that their guardian is going to go back to the Castle to be with the Queen.
"We can't let him leave!" "He needs to be with us!" "I have an idea! Let's force him to stay!" "Yes, yes! Let's do it!" – countless whispered hushes pass between the 10 million Ants, though, with so many talking, they're still unbelievably loud.
And so, all of the Ants abandon their work in the fields and in the shops, and they make a long trek to where Dakka had settled down.
Once they arrive, they form huge ramps leading up to Dakka's tail, while all their other sisters climb up and scuttle across Dakka's back. Pretty soon, all of the Ants are on top of Dakka, and they all assume varying relaxing poses; some lay down, while others sit cross-legged.
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Dakka wakes up with a groan, and he's about to stand up to go back to his wife, but his lustful thoughts are interrupted by a chorus of voices near his ear, "LOOK! HE'S AWAKE!" "No he isn't!" "See! His eyes are open!"
"WHAT'RE YOU DOING UP THERE, GIRLS…?" Despite his deep voice, none of the children up there are intimidated.
One young lady holds onto one of his loose scales, leans over to his ear hole, and screams, "You're not leaving! We're not getting off your back for forever!"
Dakka thinks this is another one of their games, but he resists the urge to laugh; if his shoulders started shaking, then thousands of children would tumble off his back and fall to their deaths.
So instead of laughing, Dakka calmly talks through his teeth, "You can't stay up there forever, you know, and I have to get up some time."
"NO!" the girl screams with a red face.
One of the other young ladies – a fragment with a more rational piece of Fina's soul – pulls the other one up, then she takes her own turn to talk into Dakka's ear. "We know you're not going to stand up since you'll hurt us if you do. We can also take shifts occupying your back so that you'll always be pinned down."
"…Come now, little ones," Dakka stammers, "You can't do this to me. This kind of prank isn't funny."
Another Ant sister leans down and says morosely, "But Dakka… We're all starting to feel very anxious and empty. It makes us feel very sad when you go up to that cold castle and spend the nights with mother. She's very mean, and she's not grateful for all the attention you're giving her. Just stay down here with us, because we love you, and she doesn't."
This calms Dakka down, and it makes his heart feel warm. "Fine. I'll stay for just a bit longer."
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In the end, the Queen completely ignores Dakka's plight, so the Arkin have to come down and carry the struggling Ants off his back and head.
The sisters do try this same trick the next day, but some of the watchful Arkin up above manage to wake Dakka up before he's overrun again.
After that, Dakka makes sure to not take naps in his dragon form anymore.
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While Dakka is out doing something useful to distract himself, the Queen is languishing on her bed – same as usual.
'How long have I been here, on this bed? Hours? Days? Weeks? Whatever. There's nothing to do anyway,' the Queen thinks sulkily.
'No.' She turns over on her side. 'It's that I don't want to do anything. Even if I were set free and given permission to eat everything in sight, I'd probably just stay inside… What's HAPPENING to me?!'
The Queen still has clear memories of herself fighting stubbornly for decades, centuries, and perhaps millennia on end. She remembers thirsting for power out of a desperate need to live.
Now? She hasn't had to worry about her own safety in… a VERY long time… and now she doesn't even understand what the point IS in surviving. 'Why fight to live when you have nothing to do with your life afterward – nothing worthwhile?'
And she really has tried everything she could to find some meaning. She's tried eating sweet deserts, she's tried resting all day, and she's tried studying subjects that others insisted were interesting. She's even tried finding solace in her husband… though that didn't work either.
Just a while ago, the Queen was even studying hard so that she could hopefully get more powerful than Haalfrin and Dakka… After all, studying is her only way of improving herself without breaking the treaty between herself and the demons.
However, she's long since stopped studying, and it's not that she realized it was futile; it's that she grew depressed and lost all motivation to do anything but stare thoughtlessly at the ceiling.
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Every now and then, the Queen does see Dakka try fussing over her, but she just curls herself in a blanket and ignores him as best as she can.
As time goes on, the Queen cares less and less about her own life – about keeping herself safe. The less she cares about her own safety, the more reckless her thoughts become.
'Yes…,' she thinks darkly as she gets up (willingly) from her bed for the first time in a while, 'It's time to end this.'