*Author’s Note*

I kinda-sorta took a break from posting because I’ve been writing like crazy lately lol. Like, I’m on chapter 235 of SDC atm… Yeah, I’ve written like 150 chapters or so since June. I also binge read a story called Super Detective in the Fictional World, like 250 chapters translated and then up to chapter 2000 or so MTL lmao. Before that was a few others, which I read translated and then switched to MTL. Like Mini Worlds of Endless Fun, Transformed into the DC World, a few Marvel related fanfics(Chinese of course) so yeah… Oh and I also watched random stuff, like Umbrella Academy Season 2, a few seasons of Agents of Shield… By the way, check out a new show called “Raised By Wolves” lol. It’s super dark and kinda disturbing, but then again, it’s about post-apocalyptic androids raising human children on an alien planet so… What do you expect?

Anyway, onto the story lol.

*Bariel’s Perspective*

“Always fall before the pride comes.”

It didn’t make any sense to me when I was a kid. But I learned… I learned the hard way, like always. I fell so many times, I can’t even remember them all. If only I would’ve stopped myself sooner, before I became too arrogant and greedy… Maybe I wouldn’t have suffered so much.

My father was assassinated when I was ten. I hired the assassin, because he betrayed me. I caught him fucking my sister in the garden one day and decided that I didn’t need either of them in my life anymore.

I’m sorry if that was a bit misleading. For Red Goblins, ten years old was considered adulthood. Although he first started ‘playing’ with me when I was much younger than that… Regardless, I didn’t mind. At least he treated me like a queen for a while. Then he got bored and wanted something ‘fresh’.

After my father died, I became the head of my family. Which meant that I was required to perform ‘favors’ to other family heads. Usually just sex, though it sometimes included assassinations and even torture. I did what I was told, because I knew that I didn’t really have a choice. If I didn’t comply, I would be replaced. Maybe turned into a prostitute or simply executed.

As I got older and a lot of the old generation died off, I was finally able to free myself from their bullshit. At least for a moment. After fighting my way up to the top of the food chain, I became complacent and arrogant. I thought that no one could ever hurt me anymore… I was wrong.

That’s when I met ‘Him’, or ‘Her’, I could never really tell what that monster was. It lured me into the catacombs beneath Black Mithril by using the voice of my mother. When I saw ‘It’ for the first time, the creature was in the form of a human. I had never seen one of those beasts before then, but I felt an instinctive fear and attraction to the huge and muscular man. He was extremely handsome, even by my standards. It didn’t take much effort for him to seduce me…

Unfortunately, once I climaxed, I woke up from that illusion and saw a grotesque clump of meat. It was like a giant ball, with tons of tentacles extending out of it. Obviously I was terrified, so I escaped as quickly as possible. However, I had been gone for days. In that time, my whole family was massacred by my enemies and I was destitute, unable to even seek revenge.

I was thinking about killing myself… But then it called out to me again. This time it didn’t try to seduce me with sexual pleasure, but appeared in the form of a human woman, who called herself ‘Alicia’. She gave me a place to sleep, though that house was definitely abandoned anyway, she still gave it to me and told me that I shouldn’t give up.

“Ariel… You shouldn’t give up just because of a small set-back like this.” The orange-haired woman smiled at me and whispered “What if I could offer you true power? The power of magic, hehehe~…”

And so I succumbed to temptation again. I hunted down my enemies, one by one and used any means necessary to kill them. She didn’t just teach me how to wield flames, but also seduction techniques and even made me ‘beautiful’. Those bastards didn’t even realize that the ‘escort’ they hired, was actually their most hated enemy until it was too late.

Alicia taught me the pleasure of burning people to death, but the price was heavy. If she had only asked for me to sacrifice random women or men to her, I would’ve done it happily… But what that monster desired was my own progeny. She told me “I want your own children to hate their mother. The cruel bitch who abandoned them. Only that way, will the sacrifice be worthwhile.”

That wasn’t the only problem. Alicia made it so that I couldn’t even reproduce with my own race anymore. Only ‘Lord Asmodeus’, that Goddess of Lust, would be able to impregnate me. As you might have already guessed, most of them died young. Some made it to adulthood, but were ‘devoured’ by my Master soon afterward.

Yes, Asmodeus because my Master. The one who controlled my fate… Or so I believed. No matter how much she helped me, I still hated Alicia. However, I needed her, while she seemed to need me as well. Though I never understood what a Deity could possibly need a Mortal like me to accomplish, she never gave me a straight answer, no matter how many times I asked.

After a few years, I had become the Matriarch of the Red Goblin District. Not only that, but I also managed to help my friend Crissella become the Matriarch of the Dark Dwarf District. Cementing my power as the overlord of Black Mithril… At least, that’s what I deluded myself into believing.

Nadja was a thorn in my side, but no matter how many assassins I sent, it was useless. Not only were her royal guards surprisingly skilled, but she was also a powerful Water Mage. Fortunately, Rat Tribe had short life spans and I figured that should would die sooner rather than later. Never expected that Michael would pop up out of nowhere and destroy my life’s work in what seemed like days.

Sure, if he had never killed that dragon, maybe Black Mithril would have ended right there and then. But my ‘younger’, stubborn and arrogant self, just couldn’t see the bigger picture. I guess I really always had a problem with short-sightedness.

After I had everything I ever thought I wanted, there was one thing that I still desired… So I asked, “Master, what must I sacrifice to have a child of my own?”

“Hmmm~, let me think…” Alicia smiled at me, as we stood in those musky and dark catacombs. Then she came closer to my ear and whispered “That’s a secret~, hehehe!”

***

I got my wish. A beautiful golden-eyed boy named Ethir. Unlike my other children with Asmodeus, he wasn’t deformed or sickly. Instead he possessed an incredible lifeforce. I wasn’t alone down there though.

There were other women, Rat Tribe, Red Goblins and Dark Dwarves. Most of them died during childbirth and were rotting away, filling the air with a putrid stench. It wasn’t long before a huge group of soldiers came down and started freeing all of us from that place. Obviously I had to pay them off to keep quiet about me and my child, but it didn’t take long before others found out.

“The Matriarch was impregnated by a demon!”

“Matriarch Bariel is raising a bastard child in the palace!”

“The Red Goblin Matriarch consorts with devils!”

Such rumors were constantly being spread among the nobles and affluent families. Then even the commoners knew about what happened. The worst of all, was that Asmodeus, my greatest backer… Disappeared. I hated her for so long, that I never realized how much I relied on that monster.

At first I just wanted to silence anyone who was stupid enough to insult or threaten their own Matriarch, but then… One of my own Royal Guards, tried to murder my baby. If I had been just a moment slower to return from that meeting, my child would have already been dead.

I wasn’t sure whether he was hired or was simply one of those fanatical assholes, who thought my child was a demon. Either way, I knew that Ethir had to go far away from me. He was already three years old. What surprised me though, was that my old enemy would actually help him out from time to time. Nadja always gave money and supplies to orphanages in all three Districts, but she especially went out of her way to make sure that my son was healthy.

On the other hand, the woman I thought was my best friend, started to look down on me. Crissella was always a bitch, but until then, I always thought she really loved me. Obviously I was wrong.