*Bariel’s Perspective*

Although I said we went to the southwest, it eventually became completely south. Obviously I had no idea which direction it was at the time though. Not like I had a map or compass. I didn’t even know what a compass was back then.

The fortunate thing was that there really weren’t any people along the way. It was all forests beyond the shore. There might have been bandits or hunters living in there, but we never encountered anyone.

Those Green Goblins kept dying though. Well, they got sick and I killed them. Same thing. The point is that we were only left with a male and female, who both seemed pretty healthy. The four of us needed to forage for nuts and berries in the forest, or catch some small shellfish along the beach. With my Fire Magic, things became a lot easier. Even if my Mana was always low, I could at least conjure a spark or two. Just enough to start a campfire.

“Ariel, we need to talk.” On the seventh night, I was visited by Alicia again. She appeared in her usual female form, but she looked… Worn out. Which was strange, considering that she was supposed to be a nearly omnipotent Demon Lord.

“What happened to you?” I cautiously asked, noticing my surroundings seemed like some kind of cavern. There was magma bubbling up out of the ground nearby and some was even dripping from the ceiling.

“That’s a long story…” She sighed, murmuring “Let’s make a deal. No sketchy stuff. Just a normal deal, okay?” The naked woman had bruises all over her body, her left eye was missing, along with most of her right arm. There were also huge gashes, as if she was cut with the claws of some beast.

“I’m listening.” Although I was obviously afraid that she would fuck me over again, it was also true that my situation wasn’t great. Joseph was already a lost cause, but my daughter was still relying on me to take care of her… Something that I really didn’t have the ability to do while I was supposed to be executed according to the laws of Minas Kingdom. I didn’t even have enough mana to throw a fireball.

“After you were being a dick and kept refusing me, I decided to look for some other, more reasonable people to become my minions. Not minions, I meant servants. Erm, followers? Anyway, so I picked this human prostitute woman first, but she couldn’t handle that much mana and exploded. The second one was an Orc man, but he had some stupid vow of chastity and died from not having sex. Then there was a dragon, who got killed by another dragon and the backlash of that last one did ‘this’ to my spiritual body. Which is why I need you to accept my power!” Alicia’s blue eyes turned pink, as huge bat-like black wings erupted from her back. Then two gazelle horns emerged from her forehead, but as she was trying to complete the rest of her transformation, she coughed up blood and fell to the metaphysical ground.

I smiled wryly, then told her “I’ll help you under one condition. No, two conditions. First, nothing bad can happen to Angelica. Second, you’ll tell me what my actual goal is! Why do you want me to become your emissary?”

“I’m not ‘God’. I can’t protect that brat from any danger or keep her from her destiny, whatever that may be. The best I can do is say that your transformation shouldn’t make you go crazy and kill her or anything like that. You’ve already withstood two awakenings already, this next third one will be the final one. After you embrace it, you’ll have true power. Of course, you’ll receive my mark and I’ll get partial credit for everything you do, hehehe~… And that’s really what I need from you. It’s time for the Millennial Culling. Every thousand years, after we let the people of Terra fuck around and devolve into obscenity, Luna puts out hits on most of them. I just need you to act as my agent and you know, wipe out most of humanity in Western Alfirin. What you do after that is your business and not my problem, but as long as you get me lots of points, I’ll make it worth your while.”

“So what you’re saying is…” I snickered, asking “You’re going to give me enough power to annihilate the Seven Kingdoms of Humanity?”

“Umm, yeah, pretty much. Not like it’ll be that hard anyway. It’s best to avoid the minions of those other assholes, I mean ‘Demon Lords’. And Michael, no, just stay away from Lorthon Forest completely. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to avoid those bastards for a few years at least.” Alicia gave me one last piece of advice, before the dream vanished and I woke up.

Then the nightmare began. I was in horrible agony as the Mana came down from the bright red star in the sky, falling directly onto my body and coursing through my veins. I was only a few meters from where Alicia and those goblins were sleeping, but somehow they didn’t wake up from my screams.

My height increased until I was over half a meter tall, or five feet. Then six purple tendrils erupted from my back, while for the first time in my life, hair actually grew out of my scalp. It was long, black and course, but before I could even examine it carefully, I noticed black runes popping up all over my skin. They weren’t just tattoos, but seemed like tiny worms wiggling around underneath my skin. Sometimes they would become more defined or even protrude, while other times they would recede and vanish.

I crawled over to the water nearby in order to see my reflection, or obviously I wouldn’t be able to notice the tentacles. Then my irises began glowing with a golden luster. Similar to my son… It made me smile, thinking about him. Thus I was able to notice that my cheeks were torn open. I opened my mouth and my tongue was pink, but also longer than my arm.

Fortunately I hadn’t worn any clothes before going to sleep, or they all would have been destroyed. Of course, they were totally useless to me anyway. I couldn’t wear them with my newfound body size.

“Ai, ain his Ari-auh~…” I tried to speak, but it was difficult. So I tried again, “My name is… Ariel.”