*3rd Person Perspective*

History is kind to the victors… But Karma is cruel to the Villains. This is a tale about two little Matriarchs, who fled their underground lair in order to escape from Fate: Bariel and Crissella.

“That fucking bastard will pay for this!” The Red-Goblin woman growled, as she sat in a carriage alongside the gray-skinned Dark Dwarf. They were both very beautiful from the time they were born. This caused them to win the favor of many men, even some influential female nobles as well. Given the nature of the clans back when they fought their way into power, they were obviously forced to give out many ‘favors’ to the people supporting them from the shadows.

“Calm down Bariel. There’s nothing more we can do… What’s the point in making meaningless threats? We need to be smart about this. If we want to reclaim our city, we’ll need help. That naive child doesn’t realize that we have allies outside of Black Mithril…”

When the crimson-skinned bald Goblin heard those words, a wicked grin appeared on her face. Then she asked “Are you sure that the White Dwarves and Green Goblins will remember their ancient vows? They might not even exist anymore…”

Crissella snickered, explaining “If they don’t exist anymore, then we’ll have to find other potential allies or pawns… But if they do, then even if they betray their oaths, they’ll definitely be tempted by other ‘other’ methods. Whether they want our bodies or our money… No, we could even offer them maps of secret passageways into Black Mithril. With the potential to gain so much, who would be able to resist? After they act like bandits and tyrants, while that Brat won’t be able to do anything about it… We can use that to our advantage. We’ll play the heroes and form a rebellion, we could even do the same in ‘their’ original territories too.”

They had taken quite a few carriages and wagons along with their armies, as they fled Black Mithril. Of course, they also brought plenty of gold, silver, jewelry and other riches with them. Otherwise they wouldn’t have any capital to bargain with anyone.

“Hehehe~, this is why I love you Crissy… You’re just so damn brilliant!” Bariel suddenly leaned over within the carriage and pecked the grey-skinned woman on the cheek, then the neck… Moving down to her bountiful bosom.

***

After the two women were finished ‘fooling around’, they separated their caravans and started heading in two different directions. Crissella and her Dark Dwarf entourage headed to the east, taking the long and relatively safe path towards White Mithril.

They didn’t plan to head straight through the Third Ring of Lorthon, because there was no possible way for them to make it there alive. Thus, they needed to stay within the First Ring. It was a long and seemingly endless journey, filled with many perils.

Though it was barely ever used anymore, there existed a large dirt road that no plants could ever grow on for some mysterious reason… Obviously because of the magical magnetic pathway directly underneath it.

Meanwhile, Bariel had a much shorter and more straightforward path ahead of her… She took her caravan, along with over a hundred of her most elite Royal Guards and traveled westward. Their goal was ‘Green Mithril’, a city that once stood proudly at the center of the plains outside of Lorthon Forest.

Even though their contingent was rather large, they still encountered dozens of human Bandits along their path out of Lorthon Forest… Due to the many ambushes, by the time that she finally made it to ‘safety’, Bariel only had a handful of troops left and even her finest robes were in tatters. Aside from her own carriage, the supply wagons and most of her riches had been sacrificed in the battles. They were all broke, starving and dehydrated as they reached a mysterious old worn-down log cabin.

“Matriarch…” The ‘new’ leader of her Royal Guards whispered, “What’s our goal here? We can’t continue this way. Even if we make it to the Green Goblins, what are we supposed to bargain with? If we don’t find some food and water tomorrow, we’ll be too weak to even walk around in our armor anymore.”

All of the Red Goblin Royal Guards wore heavy steel armor. They originally had crimson cloaks, bows, shields and swords but… After all their battles, most of their equipment was lost. They had two swords and three shields to split between the five of them. Bariel even lost her precious magical staff. Along with the massive drop in atmospheric mana density, she was totally powerless and even suffering from mild mana deprivation.

“We can’t give up now…” Bariel was haggard and her face even seemed to have aged a few decades, while her previously supple figure was withered. She appeared like she could starve to death at any moment. Yet her spirit was still firm. She whispered “Green Mithril is close… So Close… We can’t give up now…”

However, before elaborating, she fell into unconsciousness. Those five Royal Guards obviously weren’t allowed to stay inside with their ‘Matriarch’, while she slept. Thus they were able to abandon her without the exhausted Fire Mage finding out.

As Bariel slept on the dusty and hard wooden floor, she had a terrible nightmare about ‘Him’. Not Michael, but something far more monstrous: Lord Asmodeus, Goddess of Lust. It had the appearance of a young, pale-skinned female human, with blue eyes and orange hair… Surprisingly similar to Iris, one of Michael’s most dangerous incarnations.

“You look like shit, Ariel.” The ‘woman’ giggled, asking “I’m guessing you’ve already met my sister? Well, she was always a scary bitch, but I’m surprised she took care of you so quickly. We’ll have to accelerate our plans then.”

“You… Why? What are you talking about?” Bariel trembled, as she fell backwards into the dark abyss. Staring up at the smiling devil at the top of the pit.

“Oh, you’ll know soon enough… Soon, you’ll be begging me to save you. At that time, I’ll grant you salvation…” The feminine voice suddenly became deep and masculine as she growled “At a price!”

*Author’s Note*

About three years ago, I wanted to write about what happened to these two Matriarchs. And I’m sure many of you have already guessed some of the things that happened… For example, Crissella headed over to White Mithril and incited a ‘rebellion’ of sorts. And all the humans fleeing from the west must have raised some alarms as to Bariel’s situation. If not, you certainly have your theories now that you’re reading this.

Anyway, the point is that there are a few reasons why I was hesitant to write about Bariel. First of all, I had never really intended to make her that important in the beginning. In fact, I was almost going to directly kill her off right then and there… Because I knew that if I told her story, it might be a bit too disturbing ‘at the time’. Since then, I’ve written a lot more sketchy stuff (HCOP, CC, TDoE, OtE…) and so, I’ve gotten used to people freaking out.

Hell, I remember back when I wrote the second Volume of Immortal Soul, The Archmage, I lost a huge chunk of my readerbase. Not just because of the fact that the ‘MC’ became a woman, but also because I had an actual sex scene from ‘her’ perspective! So many people were triggered and wrote all kinds of horrible shit to me.

Fortunately on Tapas, people seem to be a lot more mature. At the very least, I haven’t seen anyone curse me out or threaten me?

The next chapter will be from Bariel’s perspective… I was going to go straight to “Chapter 4: Wrath”, but I figured that I finally needed to explain just what actually happened to the human kingdoms in the west… I will warn you though, it ain’t a happy story.

“Chapter 3: Lust” probably won’t be that long, but who knows? The more I write from her perspective, the more I kinda like her…