Part 4
*Michael’s Perspective*
I snickered and let go of Dryad’s throat, as the bright-blue crystalline eyes seemed to have tears welling up in the corners. The head was similar to that of a dragon, or well, a lizard. It basically just looked like a three-meter tall Lizard Tribe woman, made out of dark-green bark.
Continue readingFirst of all, I would like to say… Why does WordPress feel harder and harder to use lately? Like it was so simple and clean back then. Anyone could just use it without much trouble and it required almost no effort to figure out.
Now? It’s a nightmare lol. Ugh, whatever…
Moving on, I’ve been writing a story called Bloodline Cultivation Journal lately. And I mean, like, that’s all I’ve been writing. Since June when I picked it back up(The story had about 77 chapters at that point.) I’ve written over 400 chapters. Now I’m currently writing like chapter 485.
I haven’t been posting it yet, because well, I keep putting it off, saying “Maybe I should wait a little longer?” And so it’s been like 6-7 months and I have almost 500 chapters that haven’t been released lmao.
I think I might just post the rest of Immortal Soul Volume 6 first. Get that out of the way. I don’t really have many readers for any of my stories lately. Probably why I’m not under any pressure and able to write BCJ so easily.
Of course, another reason why I’ve been hesitant to post Bloodline Cultivation Journal is that it’s just so… Well, sexual? It’s literally a story where the MC is writing a Journal, where he/she talks about… Stuff. There are a ‘lot’ of sex scenes. Like way more than any other story I’ve ever written lol.
There are also some fighting scenes too, along with a lot of slice of life stuff. It’s a pretty complex story. In the original idea for the story, the MC would be ‘two’ people. Or at least have two bodies and then cultivate at some point. Eventually though, the name Solo Dual Cultivation didn’t fit anymore for various reasons, so I changed it a while back.
I’ve been thinking about whether to post this story on my wordpress or maybe on a different site. But like I said, the base form just has so much sex and in such great detail, that I’m afraid I might have to censor things even if I put it on one of those ‘erotic novel’ sites lol.
I’m also not sure about what the rules on Patreon are like…
By the way, for people who aren’t aware, one of the reasons I kinda lost interest in Tapas… Like a year ago, so before they eventually got rid of me. Was because they started censoring things like crazy.
For example, I described a giant tentacle monster thing as having various assorted genitalia on it. It wasn’t even that graphic or a sex scene! It was just the description of genitalia which was no longer allowed!
I personally hate censorship. Like all forms of censorship, no matter what convoluted reasons people might make up. It’s just disgusting to me.
Anyway, while there is a lot of sex in the story, it’s not the only thing the story is about. Hell, sometimes I go like a hundred chapters without a sex scene! And vice versa, sometimes there are like dozens of chapters with sex scenes in a row lol.
I guess that’s about it for now. By the time I start posting this story, it’ll probably be 1000 chapters lmfao.
Part 1
*Michael’s Perspective*
“Many of you have no idea who I am or why my voice has suddenly appeared in your minds… My name is Michael, and I’m the reason why any of you are still alive. This entire continent was on the brink of destruction, but I, and a few others you may or may not know, stopped the cataclysm from killing you all. From now on, this entire continent is under the control of Alfirin, the country. If you’re already part of Alfirin, then good for you. It means that you already understand the rules: Thou shalt not rape, thou shalt not enslave! And a few other obvious ones, like not murdering each other or stealing, but what constitutes murder and theft probably isn’t exactly the same as it was in your previous nations. Regardless, the punishment for rape and slavery will always be death. So don’t do it. We’ll be watching… Always waiting for you to fuck up, so don’t.”
Continue readingLuna: Day 15
Rose and Sparkle died. I didn’t really know them that well, but it just shows how dangerous The Garden of Eden is… Even sentient and powerful beasts like those two could get killed.
Continue readingCataclysm: Day 10
Things are getting really complicated now. Michael and Silvia killed a battalion of random people yesterday, but today there’s a whole army after us. And no matter how many of them we slaughter, it just makes those freaks angrier!
Continue reading*Ethir’s Perspective*
From the moment we met, our fates were forever intertwined. I was just a lonely thief, while she was a Goddess… A Goddess of Blood and Death, but also Life and Redemption.
Continue readingSDC, I’ve wanted to change this story’s name for a long time now. Literally years since I came up with that tentative name lol. Anyway, I thought about like 50 different possible names, a lot of which gave major spoilers for things that get revealed or explained later in the series.
Right now I’m writing chapter 301… Yeah, 301 holy hell! I started writing this story like 2 years ago and stopped around chapter 40? Then I picked it up again last year and stopped around chapter 80… But when I started writing seriously again, around June, I just kicked it into overdrive and began pumping out chapters like crazy!
Although the story does have ‘volumes’ every 40 chapters exactly, I don’t do it like a normal volume. More like a regular Webnovel. Kinda like I did for HCOP and HCL back in the day.
Now for the content of the story… Not gonna lie, there’s a lot of sex. It’s basically an erotic novel. There is cultivation, but the main characters basically have no fucking idea what they’re doing, so it’s not your typical generic: “Ah! I broke through to level-3 of the Mortal Realm! Now I can break steel beams in half with my bare hands! Now let me meditate in a cave for a few seconds, only to be randomly attacked for no apparent reason by some generic bad guy so that I can show off to some random strangers that will be there for no particular reason!”
It’s more like: “Ah, I worked out really hard and steadily improved my muscle strength for a few months and now I can bench press a lot of weight, yay. Now let’s have kinky lesbian bondage sex.” Or something like that?
*Beatrix’s Perspective*
Power doesn’t corrupt. It only reveals a person’s true nature. Absolute power however, usually causes people to become apathetic and lethargic. This disgusting laziness often turns even the greatest of leaders, into incompetent rulers.
It isn’t something that happens instantly either. They slowly rot away, fatigued by the countless sheep that follow them around… Oftentimes to their collective demise. That’s just how people are though. Foolish cowards who would sooner stab their protectors in their backs, than lend them a helping hand.
My name used to be Beatrix Aust but… Around that time, I changed it to Beatrix Ares Day. My reason? Because I wasn’t just ‘me’ anymore.
“Do you feel that, Beatrix?” A deep and gravelly voice echoed in my mind as I looked through the scope of my favorite sniper-rifle.
“Yes… Arrogance and pride… They don’t understand how weak they truly are.” I whispered to the crimson-armored humanoid creature to my right. He wasn’t really there, but a phantom that Michael lent me as a gift. He taught me how to wield a myriad of weapons. Various techniques and stratagems… Even how to train soldiers through battle. Without his assistance, it’s likely that the Battle of White Mithril would have repeated itself many more times before I learned my lesson: The only worthwhile victory, is a flawless one.
“Tune out the silence… Listen to their souls. Feel their hearts beating in their wicked chests. Hone in on their minds. Do you see it? The sins they’ve committed? Mark the evil ones for death. Once the leaders are gone, the rest will make their decisions. To surrender or die. Not a difficult choice for the weak to make.”
‘His’ name was Ares. One of Michael’s former incarnations, who was known as a God of War. However, he wasn’t merciless or excessively bloodthirsty. This was months before the Great Cataclysm in the North. I received reports from my scouts about a Human threat near the western border of Lorthon Forest. There were hundreds of thousands of the bastards making encampments and preparing to enter from various different routes.
We had just finished cleaning up all the raiders and then even more of those scumbags wanted to encroach on our territory? Obviously I wasn’t going to allow them to taint our nation with their filthy ways. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to simply massacre them all or ignore their existence while defending the border. That wasn’t ‘our’ way. No, Michael’s rules of Karma dictated that whenever we saw ‘evil’, we needed to exterminate it at the source. Save those who could be saved and eradicate the rest.
*Bang!*
Guilt or innocence can come later, but the first step is always to neutralize the most dangerous threat. Thus, the white-bearded old man on the distant stone tower was the first target. Although my rifle was loud to me, the sound was dispersed throughout the forest around me and the sound of the birds flapping their wings to escape the area, swiftly drowned out the echo.
Within moments, the man at the top of that tower keeled over. My round hit his waist, but that didn’t matter. The most important aspect of firearms, is actually the ammunition. Since the target was a ‘wizard’ of sorts, I used a black-mithril coated bullet to bypass any sort of barriers… After a few seconds a massive tree trunk started growing out of the man’s back, while branches ripped his head apart. There was no time for him to scream to alert anyone else, because he died before he even understood what was happening.
Of course, the huge green tree devouring the tower was obviously going to be seen by many people, since it was the middle of the day. Also, I was ultimately a general, so that operation didn’t rely totally on my efforts. I simply wanted to have some fun first.
“Kill the marked targets first. Anyone who tries to enter the woods… If possible, the Guardians will apprehend them, but if they put up a fight… Execute.” My words instantly entered the minds of every soldier in the vicinity and bullets began raining down upon the humans that were marked for death.
They were surrounded by forests in every direction, deciding to build a damn fortress in that artificial void they created. Of course, the only thing they had was that ‘keep’ that the wizard was guarding, which housed the royal family. While their armies and workforce had to live in either huts or tents. Neither of which had any resistance to our bullets. Though very few of them were staying in their homes regardless.
Although, if we really wanted to massacre them all, we had plenty of more effective means. Such as bombarding them with mortars, dropping grenades from the backs of wyverns or even just letting loose some trained magical beasts. It was never going to be a fair fight from the start. In fact, it wasn’t a fight at all. Simply cutting away the cancer from the healthy cells.
After the rain of bullets, there were quite a few soldiers who were stupid enough to band together and charge towards the visible Guardian Battalion near the edge of the clearing. No matter how thick their iron or steel armor was, there were plenty of parts that weren’t protected. Not just that, but within ten meters, even the steel armor chest plates could be penetrated by regular shotgun slugs and LMG bullets.
Yes, it had been quite a while since Ailyn had basically created every conventional hand-held weapon she could think of, including automatic pistols, shotguns, assault rifles and light machine guns. Not that automatic means ‘better’ than semi-automatic, but when you’re in a dangerous situation, being able to just hold down the trigger and aim is often able to save your life.
***
*Beatrix’s Perspective*
After Ailyn finished making her idea of ‘conventional’ weapons, she started working on other things. Engines for vehicles, turbines to generate power, the ‘Super Lorelei Project’ and more. I didn’t have time to keep track of that though, because all that mattered to me was what I could use at the time.
Fortunately, Ailyn had left behind plenty of learning material and her apprentices had entire classrooms full of second-generation disciples. One of which, invented the innovative method of using magic to take previously semi-automatic or even bolt-action weapons and give them the ability to become automatic. Of course, he didn’t come up with the idea of Runes or anything. Michael started that and taught it to Ethir, who went on to create a school with Raelin and well, they taught a lot of students before they disappeared.
Still, the incredible thing about those Runes, was that they could be painted onto weapons with a special ink and they’d never be able to come off. From that point on, the weapons could become far more deadly. Of course, there were also other types of magical weapons that were developed once the concept of firearms was firmly understood.
For example, ‘Railguns’ that were essentially mithril tubes, with similar light mithril ball bearings for ammunition. The bbs would be controlled through Earth Manipulation and be able to fly several times faster than the speed of sound. This tiny projectile would oftentimes deal more damage than an ordinary .50 caliber explosive round. And it could be fired as fast as the Earth Mage could shoot it, being weaker or stronger depending on their concentration, mana capacity and other similar effects. Of course, it was also possible to create Runes to perform the actions, so that the Mage wouldn’t need to think about it too much… But ultimately, mana was still required.
The Rune on my bolt-action sniper rifle was the same way, it would need me to power it with mana for it to swiftly pull back the bolt and push it forward again. I remember when mages used to be revered for only being able to do rudimentary and ineffective spells, but after a few years, everyone could perform one or more types of magical manipulation. The truth was that, if you were in the First Ring of Lorthon, even on the outskirts… You already had enough impetus to use magic, assuming you understood how or had the natural talent. Most people couldn’t wield magic consciously, but they could still use it to heal faster while asleep or to save themselves in a dangerous situation.
Every soldier in my army around that time, had to spend a few weeks at Alfirin Academy’s special Magic Boot Camp. Also known as Magical Basic Training. It was important to understand and control mana, in order to protect yourself from enemy mages.
*Padadadadad~!*
*Du, du, du, du!*
*Bang, bang, bang, bang bababa~!*
The few hundred meters between the enemy camp and our defensive line was a killing field. They didn’t even make it halfway to us, before being torn to shreds by the shotguns and light machine guns of the Guardians. Although the Dark Dwarves and Wood Elves were generally much smaller in stature than Humans, their bodies were generally stronger due to better food and training. Thus, they were able to wield heavy automatic weapons with easy.
The three hundred Guardians annihilated the five thousand Human soldiers before they could even make it within the effective range of their shotguns. Then we went on the offensive, the Bear and Tiger Battalion charged out into the clearing.
Huge frames up to three meters in height, wearing heavy black mithril or light magical beast hide armor. They had spears, swords, axes, hammers and shields that had all sorts of incredible effects. The enemy archers fired their arrows, but their iron heads were immediately controlled by the Wolf Corps Earth Mages and either deflected or reflected. Although their armor would protect them from getting injured, it was best to prevent any damage from occurring at all, since it isn’t cheap to repair those fancy armors.
“Surrender or die!” A deafening bellow rang out from the sky, though no one was actually speaking. It was just a Wind Manipulation trick. There was another similar ‘attack’ shortly afterwards, which was a bit more direct. Once their minds were in disarray, my Judgement Squad entered the battlefield and telepathically ordered all the remaining enemies to surrender.
As soon as the human soldiers started putting down their weapons, the Tiger and Bear Battalion stopped slaughtering them. Then it was a matter of rounding everyone up and performing a brief ‘Judgement’. Since I was there, the elderly Wood Elves didn’t need to do much work. Even from a mile away, I’d be able to make a pretty accurate judgement of whether they should be killed or not. So at such a close distance, I only needed a few moments to pick out the three hundred rapists and/or former slavers among the nearly twenty thousand captives.
“Alright, send them over to the Village. Our work here is done. Tell the Scavengers to come over and clean up this mess.” I gave out some telepathic orders, then rode ‘Midnight’ over to the next warzone. Midnight was a pet I raised, that turned out to be a breed of magical beast that grew quite rapidly. He was a giant panther-like creature, almost as powerful as the demons from the Forth Ring.
Our little ‘ambush’, was something we repeated at least ten times before then and in different locations as well. We didn’t destroy the keep, because for whatever reason, humans just seemed to fall into our trap repeatedly. As long as we cleaned up scene a little bit, they would eventually come again. Each time we would gain another ten to twenty thousand humans. In only a few months, all the other races combined, sill weren’t enough to compare to the human tide.
***
*Beatrix’s Perspective*
Fortunately, Lorthon Forest was massive. It wasn’t only a single plane either. There were enormous underground spaces and it was also possible for people to create treehouses, like the elves of old, if they really wanted. No matter how many humans came however, most of them would be limited to the First and Second Rings of Lorthon, since they couldn’t adapt to the mana radiation farther inside.
There was an irritating problem with humanity however. They seemed to be broken up into different imaginary ‘races’ based off their skin-tone and other mundane features. The darker skinned ones hated the pale skins, the slightly bronzer skinned humans hated the others as well. It made absolutely no sense from my perspective, since regardless of whether a Rat Tribe has black or white fur, we don’t try to murder them because of that.
Regardless of their idiotic problems, they still needed to follow our laws. Slavers, rapists and murderers died. If they wanted to become and ‘Adventurer’ or soldier, they would have to get a Mark of Michael. Then they would have the right to bear firearms. It was sort of like the sword licenses we used to have when I was a kid, but much more effective, since it prevented them from misusing the weapons. As for swords, spears, bows and other non-firearm weapons, there were no requirements to buy or own them. If someone murdered someone else with them, they were executed all the same.
Of course, murder isn’t simply killing. It’s the killing of another person unjustifiably. For example, if Person A rapes Person B and Person C knows about it, both Person B and C can kill Person A without consequences. Though they can also report it to the Judgement Division and they’ll handle it themselves. Still, people tend to enjoy seeking revenge with their own hands.
There’s a big difference between vengeance and justice though. If the victim of rape kills their rapist, the family of the rapist might try to come for revenge. In that case, we let those idiots know that if they even just threaten to kill the victim, the Judgement Division will send some people to deal with them. Obviously we wouldn’t eradicate them for a threat, but they would be fined for making us go out of our way to deal with the situation. They would also likely have to pay the victims as well.
***
It took Midnight about an hour to carry me home, though I did live rather close to the edge of the forest. Rather than a conventional house, I lived on the top floor of a large black skyscraper. It was similar to the Alfirin Academy and the Angren Tower, since it was many stories tall and made out of a concrete, black mithril composite. Along with plenty of steel beams. However, this one was a bit less sturdy and covered with all sorts of armaments. There were also many other smaller buildings surrounding it.
Borderfort-7 was the official name of the town. I moved a lot though, so it was only temporary. Still, Muissel always tagged along and followed me wherever I went. She was basically my daughter at that point. I didn’t understand why she stuck around, but she did.
In fact, Muissel had become somewhat famous around that time. When radios were starting to become more commonplace, she was one of the first talk-show hosts, copying her ‘idol’: Lorelei. She was still a child from my perspective, but technically, she became a teenager. The ‘Mui Network’ featured stories about current events, politics, interviews with celebrities and sometimes, she even held free magic lessons occasionally.
As usual, when I rode Midnight over to the huge concrete wall, he easily climbed up a nearby tree and jumped over it. Fortunately, other creatures in the region could never do that, aside from some random squirrels and monkeys. They weren’t even considered magical beasts though, so we just ignored them for the most part. While some of the non-combatants liked to feed the animals for entertainment.
I hopped off Midnight’s gigantic back and landed on the ground with my rifle in my arms. It was pretty heavy, but I was a lot stronger than I used to be. After putting it onto my back, I casually walked past the sentries and over to the central tower of the fort. The huge mithril doors opened as soon as the rune above them scanned my mana-signature and I spoke my password: “Open.”
It recognized my voice and mana, then opened the doors. There was a massive lobby, with some people sitting or sleeping on benches, while others were walking around or speaking to desk clerks. Borderfort-7 was a popular location for mercenaries and adventurers who wanted to leave Lorthon Forest to either join the war or adventure into the human lands. Obviously they needed to fill out forms and keep a record of their departure, otherwise no one would even know how long they were gone or if they were gone. It also helped them return more smoothly and if necessary, allowed other adventurers and mercenaries to take up jobs to go rescue them or retrieve their corpses, assuming they were gone for longer than their file dictated.
Although Runes were really becoming popular, most paperwork was ultimately done with normal paper, pens and pencils. Regardless, none of that had much to do with me. I wasn’t even a general at that point, but the Supreme Commander of the Alfirin Military. At that point we had plenty of Army Generals, one or two Navy Admirals and we were about to get an Airforce as well.
When I reached the top floor, via the VIP elevator, I could see that Muissel was already on the air. Her Radio Station was a large soundproof room, big enough to have even three-meter tall Bear Tribe guests walk around inside. There was a glass wall separating it from the living room of our penthouse, so the moment I arrived, she saw me as well.
*Ariel’s Perspective*
“How could you know all that?!” I shouted, but my daughter laughed at me, as if I was an idiot.
“Mommy, didn’t I tell you before? The handsome boy, the fiery angel and the perverted snake always teach me lots of things when I sleep. Michael, Anael and Leviathan…”
“Don’t say that bastard’s name!” I unconsciously yelled, but immediately regretted lashing out at her.
Angelica smiled wryly, then asked “What if I am ‘that bastard’, Mommy?” Before I had the chance to even respond, she giggled and told me “Don’t worry Mommy. No matter what happens when I awaken completely, you’ll always be the mother who cared about me the most. I had other mothers, but they never treated me like a person. Just a tool to use to advance their political agendas. A potential whore to use as they saw fit. That’s why I had to get rid of them. I might be a kid, but I ain’t stupid.”
I took a deep breath, then calmed myself down. Before opening my eyes and whispering “I love you. No matter who you become or what you do, even if you kill me, you’ll still be my Angel. I’ve actually had other children too… But most of them died. There should still be one left though. A boy named Ethir. He was the only other child besides you that I cared about more than my own life or power. I’m sorry for yelling earlier. I… I was still clinging to the past.”
She giggled and shook her head, “I know you love me, and I love you too. That’s all that matters. When I first met you, I felt sorry for you Mommy. I knew you weren’t like the other goblins. You were aware of your situation and knew that you were basically a sex slave or toy for my Daddy to play with. But you didn’t cry or even seem to mind. When you finally learned how to speak and told me your name was Bariel, that’s when something clicked inside my head. And when the dreams started to get a lot more intense. I felt like I had known you before, a long time ago… I remembered a young girl named Ariel. A beautiful angel… And I think she was my daughter in the dream world I saw back then. Weird how I would think of my Mommy as my daughter, but Michael says that’s just how reincarnation works.”
At that moment I suddenly felt my heart sink. And I started crying… I asked “Why does it feel like I’m never going to see you again after tonight?”
“Don’t worry Mommy.” Angelica smiled, seriously saying “Even if we both die tonight, we’ll still see each other again… Eventually. But don’t worry. I don’t plan on dying any time soon! I’m still just a kid! I wanna live to be at least a million years old…”
I chuckled and then hugged her tightly, whispering “I don’t know what that number means, but I hope I do too…”
Yeah, I really didn’t know what the world million meant. Mainly because she used a language I had never heard of before, but also because we never really learned how to count that high in Black Mithril. It was more knowledge that Angelica learned from her ‘dreams’.
I carried my daughter in my arms, as my tentacles swiftly brought us over to the wall surrounding the palace without much time or effort. Then I climbed onto it and we got struck by lightning.
It happened so fast that I had no way to prepare for it or avoid the ‘attack’. Yet, we were fine. We both wore some leather armor that we salvaged from the armory, then made some adjustments due to our small size and my extra ‘limbs’. When the bolt of lightning hit us, it seemed to ignore me and strike Angelica’s outstretched left glove. Oddly enough, there was no damage, as if the terrifying amount of energy vanished into nothingness upon touching her hand…
“Are you okay?!” I screamed as my tentacles carried us down the other side of the wall, into a wide-open field that surrounded the giant pyramid.
She giggled and explained “It’s fine. It’s super easy for me to turn electricity and heat directly into mana. But we should still be careful, because I can’t do anything if it hits you before it reaches me…”
For the record, turning energy into mana is absurdly difficult. It’s definitely not something a human child with no prior experience controlling magic would be capable of, but I wasn’t about to interrogate her at that moment, because I thought that we were going to die if I didn’t hurry up. I probably should’ve known better, after dealing with Alicia for so long.
When we finally reached the side of the pyramid, I could feel a nauseating sensation. As if the mana in the air was poisoning my body. Burning my lungs… And I wasn’t a weak, human girl. I looked down at my daughter and noticed that she seemed perfectly fine, as if the absurd pressure and heat didn’t even affect her at all.
My maternal instincts were screaming at me that something was wrong, and even logic would dictate the same, but she told me “We don’t have much more time. Hurry up and bring me inside. I need to reach the central chamber and repair the runes…” Then she started coughing violently and I felt something sticky splash onto my face. For a moment I wanted to stop, but then there was something inside of me urging me forth, as if my body was no longer under my control.
However, my tentacles couldn’t work right anymore and slumped down onto the ground behind me, as I took slow and pained steps toward that huge arch. Lightning and rain fell down around us, but whenever a bolt was about to strike me, it moved to Angelica’s right hand. Although they kept vanishing, I could see that she was in agony just by looking at her cringing face.
When we finally made it inside, I felt like my body was going to collapse and fall apart… But I didn’t have time to worry about that, because we weren’t alone.
***
*Ariel’s Perspective*
“Hmmm~, who do we have here?” There was a huge pale-skinned man, with blue eyes and long blonde hair. His face was completely devoid of hair, while he was wearing shiny silver armor and had gigantic white dove-like wings stretched out behind his back.
Then there was a black-cloaked female mage, who had withered and bony hands. She was using magic to inscribe some runes onto the walls, before turning to us and shouting “Ew, demons! Quickly exterminate them so we can finish opening the portal!”
“Heh~, fine~!” He reached over to the hilt of the silver longsword on his right waist and pulled it out, then wielded it with both hands as he charged toward us. Those giant wings flapped and propelled his body forward, but he didn’t even make it three meters from us, before Angelica reached out her right hand… Launching a massive bolt of lightning out of her palm, which seemed to melt a hole through the chest of that knight. Then it continued onwards, striking the unprepared sorceress in the back. She let out a shrill scream, but it was drowned out by the deafening thunder that caused me to temporarily lose my hearing.
“Mommy… I have to go now.” Yet, even with my ears not working, Angelica’s soft and pleasant voice echoed into my mind. While I fell to the ground, she easily stood upright and stretched her body out. Then she turned to look at me and the ‘illusion’ she had cast on my finally vanished. The child in front of me had charred black skin on her left arm, with spider-like black and red veins all across that side of her face as well. The armor was burned and falling apart. However, those green eyes had turned white, while wings were sprouting from her back… Wings of lightning.
She sighed, before smiling at me and whispering “I love you Mommy, but I have to go…” Then she walked over to the area where that dead mage was laying, then plunged her right hand into the corpse and pulled out some bloody crystals from the torso. After that, she plucked out the crispy eyes and crushed it all together in her hands, while the lightning wings shot out into the walls… Swiftly inscribing new runes and erasing some of the ones that were already there.
“No, where are you going? Don’t leave me! Take me with you!” I screamed with all the strength left in me.
“Mommy…” She murmured into my mind, “You’re too weak. Your body was improved a bit, but you’re still too weak to even survive that little bit of mana-radiation outside the pyramid. If you come with me, you’ll die the moment we arrive… In Hell.”
I shouted “Why?! Why do you have to go there?!”
“That woman had originally inscribed some runes to open a portal from ‘Heaven’, to this world. I don’t have enough time to turn this pyramid back into a shield generator, so the best I can do is change the portal destination… To somewhere a bit safer than Heaven: Hell. I’m sorry, I don’t really have time to explain anymore than that. Mommy, I gotta go now. I love you… And if you really wanna go to Hell, then, go back home. To where you came from. You’ll be able to get stronger there and eventually, you’ll find me or I’ll find you.”
At the center of the massive cubic room, a huge pentagram appeared on the floor around Angelica. Then she giggled, before vanishing in a stream of bloody red light. I was actually pushed out of the pyramid by the air pressure and saw the crimson beam shooting up into the dark, stormy sky. It even seemed to disperse the clouds and stop the storm, for a moment. And then the lightning and thunder returned, far more powerful than before.
There was a huge vortex of mana shooting out of the top of the pyramid, into the skies, while the temperature dropped rapidly. Then, for the first time ever in the history of Southern Alfirin, it started snowing. Then it started hailing, as clumps of ice the size of cabbages started raining down onto the city.
I somehow managed to move my weary body back to the palace, in order to take shelter there. But the snow and hail showed no signs of stopping, while the roof of the palace wasn’t built to withstand that kind of bombardment either. So we needed to leave, while relying mostly on luck to avoid the giant balls of frozen death that fell around us. Obviously most of my minions died, but at least one human and a couple dozen Pink Goblins managed to make it out of the city before the real trouble started.
There was a portal to Hell in that pyramid, and it was still wide open, spewing out monstrosities of absurd power. My heart felt like it was frozen after being cast way by my daughter, but the only thing I could do was move forward… Or backwards, if you consider that I started in Lorthon Forest in the first place.
***
“Okay, that’s better. A pretty decent ending, if I do say so myself, hehehe~…”
Are you satisfied now?
“Hah~, hell no! I’m never satisfied! But ya gotta know when to stop! Anyway, I’ll be back with the bounty in a few years, but by then, I’ll be getting around to your part in the story again. So I hope you’ll be prepared to give another interview…”
Fine, whatever. Just make sure she stays alive. I don’t want that bitch escaping so easily.
“You know, I haven’t seen Crissy in ages. It’ll be nice to catch up and you know, interview her for my stories… Though I’m not sure if anyone would actually be interested in that. Besides, next is Trixie, then Ehtir…”
You should have written a whole book from my son’s perspective, instead of that annoying woman!
“Oh calm down~, people love Raelin! Even Ethir told me to do it from her perspective instead of his because, well, I mean… You know how shy that kid gets. He did promise to do an interview soon though, I have him scheduled after Trixie. Didn’t I just say that?”
Be careful out there, Michael. And say ‘Hi’ to Silvia for me. Tell her to come visit sometime soon.
“Ariel, or should I call you ‘Warden’ now? You know how much she hates coming to this place. Always complains about how fucking hot it is… And it is really damn hot, holy shit. Why didn’t they name this planet ‘Hell’? Besides, your inmates are the scum of the Solar System. Maybe you should let your protege take over for a few years and go back home? Trixie and Mike are off fighting that war in the Kuiper Belt, so it’s not like anyone else would give a damn if you returned home for a bit. It’s not like you gotta hop on a ship or anything, just go through your portal. I’ll take you on an adventure myself, hehe~…”
Maybe after I’m done torturing Asmodeus and Belial. But Michael, this is my home, no matter how hot it is… And I like the heat. Being on Mercury helps me train my Fire Affinity a lot faster than anywhere else. It’s the closest I can get to Sol, without needing any spells or equipment to protect my body.
“Well, whatever floats your boat. Personally though, I prefer wandering around on my ship, fucking shit up wherever I go… Writing books about my adventures and keeping all kinds of historical records from histories throughout all of existence. But yeah, New Orcheim is probably always going to be my ‘home’, since that’s where my daughter always stays.”
*Author’s Note*
Wow, okay then. I honestly didn’t expect this particular story to be so long or important to the grand scheme of things. I mean, I even included some dialogue with ‘The Author’, who isn’t the author of ‘every’ story I’ve ever written, obviously… And he usually does biographies by taking interviews, like it was explained here. Also, he’s a character in one of my other stories.
Phew~, this is probably going to include some spoilers for my other novels, so don’t read it if you don’t wanna know things. However, I feel like people are going to ask a ton of questions, so I’ll give the answers now.
First of all, Hell has been talked about in “Questing”, my other story that takes place in this same universe and time-period as “Immortal Soul”. Questing follows Coffee, his girlfriend and two of his close friends as they go on an adventure into the desert to the east. While also getting involved with Luna.
Hell is basically just Venus, while Heaven, is just Mars. However, you have to keep in mind that these planets are not dead rocks, but have plenty of mana and some even have souls like Terra/Luna/Sol. Which means that, while the surface of Venus and Mercury might not be as hospitable as Terra, they could still have an artificially created atmosphere, along with plenty of strange plant-life/animals.
Aside from that, you might be interested in who Angelica really is… And if you’ve read my other stories or even this one, Iris Angelica Healy is a commonly used character. Green Irises, orange/red hair, pale skin, usually Irish ancestry but, she’s also a monster. By monster I mean a person who greatly enjoys torturing and killing people, though she usually is considered Chaotic-Good, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, Angelica isn’t Iris though. She’s actually another incarnation of Michael called Raijin. I would’ve used Thor or Zeus, but those are a bit too overused in my opinion. Besides, there are other lightning-related characters in my stories and I might want to use Zeus or Thor as their names, so there should be a differentiation. Raijin is a character that was somewhat talked about in The Dao of Eros, but you probably haven’t read that chapter yet, so I won’t say anymore about it.
How did Angelica know about Heaven and Hell? Well, she might have been told by her other incarnations, or Helel could have paid her a visit… There are a lot of possibilities and it really isn’t that important anyway, but I was pretty sure someone would bring it up regardless.
As you might have previously noticed from the way everything is worded in “Immortal Soul” chapters, all the events of the story take place in the distant past from when the stories are being told. So basically, some characters might have inconsistencies due to the way they remember things, though most of the events have already been written down in other formats over the years or recorded in various ways. Some people like that, others hate it, but it’s just the way I decided to write this series. “The Dao of Eros” and “The Vanilla God” are similarly written way after the events in their stories happen.
Why did I decide to write a story about Bariel, when no one even remembered her anymore? Well, because it was necessary. It was a story that has a pretty powerful impact on the rest of the series. It also explains some things that will happen in the next chapter of Volume 5. I actually already wrote out some bits and pieces from Ethir and Beatrix before deciding to do Bariel/Ariel, but I was having writer’s block, probably because it wasn’t time to write those chapters yet.
By the way, Ariel is a pretty common character in my stories, in case you haven’t read any of them before. But I didn’t originally plan for Bariel to be Ariel, even though their names are absurdly similar. Hell, as I was writing the ‘Villains’ episode, I was like “Wait a second… Isn’t Bariel just Ariel with a B attached?”
Anyway, I should end this “Author’s Note” before it turns into an entire episode. Thanks for reading!
*Ariel’s Perspective*
There are some obvious benefits to having thousands of new minions. Many more hands to deal with menial tasks, like gathering food, building treehouses, creating simple tools… The obvious problem though, is that Angelica and I needed to manage everything ourselves, since the goblins were too stupid to know what to do on their own.
I’m not sure if this is fortunate or not, but those five male humans I captured were pretty useless. Rather than knights, they were only squires or well, slaves of the knights. They couldn’t fight and they weren’t really much smarter than the pink goblins. They could talk to a certain extent, but they couldn’t count, read or write. They were however, pretty good at taking care of horses. And we did gather a couple dozen horses, while the rest either died or ran away.
Horse meat tastes good. Something I never knew before then. As far as the human meat went, I didn’t partake. Just something about cannibalism that always disgusted me. Not sure why? Maybe it’s a bad habit from a life I can’t remember?
I didn’t ‘need’ to eat people like that anyway. I could literally suck the life out of them, if I needed mana. If I was hungry or thirsty, I could just suck them off or use my tentacles to absorb their life-force directly. Though I didn’t have to do any of that, since I had fish, nuts, berries and boar meat to choose from.
Enough about food. My ‘work’ for the next few months after the massacre was basically just converting all the Green Goblins into cute pink demons. Well, not all of them. I only converted the adult females. I don’t fuck kids or babies. I just don’t. It’s one of my rules.
Speaking of babies, those eggs hatched really quickly. They weren’t like bird eggs, but closer to the roe of a fish. Squishy and soft, but strangely, they grew larger over time. After the first week, each of the hundred eggs had gone from the size of my pinky nail, to bigger than my fist. It was also possible to see the little embryo growing inside. By the second month, each egg was half a meter in diameter. The creatures inside were Pink Goblin fetuses, each about the size of a newborn Red Goblin.
Since they looked like they would be born any moment, I was pretty excited. The idea of having a hundred new cute little kids to raise… Well, my expectations were crushed after a few days. They didn’t stop growing. They went from babies, to toddlers, then by the end of the week, they were full grown adults and bursting out of their giant bubbles.
“Mama~!” And they all considered me their mother. Or at least that’s what I thought. It turned out that it was one of the only words they spoke, and with different inflections, it meant different things.
It’s fine though. It was better that way. Since they weren’t babies and I didn’t have to raise them myself, I could be heartless and it didn’t bother me as much when they died. And they died way too often.
***
By the end of that month, I had managed to convert nearly two-thousand goblins. Although I couldn’t get them pregnant, I was able to accelerate the process. Sorry, not pregnant. But whatever it’s called when people lay fertilized eggs.
Normally, I girl would lay about ten or twenty every month… And there were thousands to start off with. It didn’t take long before we couldn’t stay in the forest any longer. There were just too many mouths to feed and besides that, I needed to get to ‘work’.
My Pink Horde swept across the Western Plains of Alfirin like a terrible plague. Minas Kingdom was renamed Gurgaran Kingdom after I was done with it. Most of the capital burned to ruins and was infested by my goblins. They were exceedingly vicious and cruel, though that was to be expected coming from Asmodeus.
I’d like to say that the humans deserved everything that happened but… Those bastards didn’t even spare the children. Men, women, even animals were raped, tortured and massacred. I had no control over them at that point. Aside from a thousand or so women, Mary and Johnny, none of the others really listened to me anymore. They just spread. A terrible pestilence of vermin.
To the northwest, there was a kingdom along the coast called Baul. When the Pink Horde had devoured all of Minas, they went there to have another feast. Supposedly, that was where humanity first made their way to Alfirin from their island off the coast. Above that was a huge mountain range that no one could pass, though it was possible to go around it via the ocean.
Wait, sorry. The real starting point was above Baul, a kingdom called Delebem. It’s been so long that I actually forgot what Alfirin was like…
Joseph went down south to Mael, then Uthales Kingdom, at the very southwesternmost part of Alfirin. It was there that he started his own vampiric empire, but I never saw him again. I just heard about what happened from, well, ‘you’. Which is why I don’t understand why you’re making me tell you all this.
“You’re really fucking up the immersion here Kid. Let’s get back on track, okay? There’s one last thing I need to hear about from you personally, before I switch over to Trixie again. What happened to Angelica? I mean, I know what happened to her, but pretend like I don’t.”
I really don’t want to talk about that…
“Don’t be such a pussy! People wanna read about all the fucked up shit that happened back then! For fuck’s sake, I need some tragedy! Otherwise why would I ask for you shitty story in the first place?”
Very well… It happened when we arrived in Minas, the capital. That’s when she woke up. And I lost my daughter.
***
The Great Wall of Minas was almost a perfect circle on any map I had seen before then, but in person, it looked like shit. From the stories I heard, it was usually covered in a protective magical barrier in times of crisis, but there was no reaction when my army of a hundred thousand Pink Goblins arrived.
Minas City was a little over a hundred miles in diameter. It was absurdly large. The population was similarly vast. Once upon a time, it had even been a kingdom of its own, but they eventually conquered the lands to the south of their ‘bubble’.
The walls that hadn’t collapsed already, were over fifty meters high and a hundred meters thick… Made out of white stones, that had turned grey over the centuries. The population was over ten million before the plague, but half of them fled to the Baul Kingdom to the northwest and the Amrun kingdom to the east. Of that remaining five million, I estimate that most of them died from the plague.
Two million might sound like a massive amount of humans, but when spread out over nearly eight-thousand square miles, it wasn’t much. Their actual military was less than fifty thousand and without ‘real’ walls to protect them properly, they weren’t able to stop the pink tide that flooded through the streets. Those goblins instinctively went into houses for cover, went through the filthy sewers to reach strategic locations and specifically targeted soft targets like schools and churches. They didn’t care about material wealth and only focused on acquiring weapons, while raping any people they found in their path. They didn’t even mind if their victims were plague-ridden or dismembered corpses. Those filthy mongrels would fuck anything, especially horses.
It made me disgusted, but I just focused on ‘our’ safety. Angelica and I traveled fifty miles to the palace, in order to ‘pay tribute’ to the scumbag who started me on my path to Hell. However, he had already fled to Amrun with all of his most precious valuables, including his harem and huge Royal Imperial Army.
Obviously the palace wasn’t empty, since there had to be plenty of people left behind to tend to the dying city. They were mostly just bureaucrats, lesser officials and lower nobles. It was from them that I learned that King Minas the Eleventh had gone to Amrun.
“Mommy, I feel weird…” That’s when it started. Right after we cleared out the palace and started moving into the luxurious royal chambers. Angelica told me “I’m fine now. I guess I just felt sick from all the blood and annoying people screaming all the time.”
I thought she was just getting used to the hell that followed us, but I was wrong. Anyway, the palace was huge and rectangular. There was also a massive amount of land between the palace and the rest of the city, including a pretty intact grey wall. Thus, so long as we secured it properly, my ‘minions’ would have been unable to get inside. My actual good minions, the few thousand of them who weren’t uncontrollable, lived inside the palace with us and… There was plenty of room. In fact, there was too much space for us to properly use.
There was a moat, with lots of edible fish living in it. Along with random animals being raised within the wall, probably as emergency food. Aside from that, there was a massive grain store in one of the many basement chambers. As for treasure, even though all the best shit was taken by the King’s group, there was no way for them to carry that much gold, silver and random artifacts.
Unfortunately, even if we were rich and living in a palace, the money had no value and the city was overrun by brutal monsters. Even if they couldn’t directly hurt me, I was still afraid of them. It was good that they were too stupid to understand the significance of the palace. It was probably just another building to them.
For about a month or two, we stayed in the palace without much trouble. We had enough food to last the thousand of us for a year or so, maybe longer if the livestock were raised properly and the fish were included. There was an inherent problem with the Pink Goblins though: They couldn’t stop reproducing. Even without males, the females who had already lost their virginity would continue to reproduce until they died eventually due to the stress it put on their bodies.
Even the virgins would die from not having sex for too long though. I had a similar condition, though it wasn’t quite as severe. I needed to keep mating and basically draining the life force from whoever I was fucking. It was fine if I spread it out across hundreds or even thousands of those goblins, but if I only had sex with one, it would die before I could orgasm once.
I still had those original human squires, but I also picked up some other servants on my way to the capital. A lot of women and children, yet there were still plenty of men. Farmers mostly, since we passed through plenty of fields. Of course, they were actually more like slaves before I found them, so becoming my servants was sort of a step up in status. Besides, they were allowed to have sex with me, so their luck was obviously greatly improved.
However, I did notice that I had an aura of sorts. It would make everyone around me hornier, sure, but it also made them healthier. Humans who were near me never got sick, while the ones that were ill or injured, healed quickly. They wouldn’t regrow limbs or anything like that. Normal wounds though, would recover swiftly.
It meant that the mana my body emanated had the ability to accelerate regeneration. It also meant that I was unintentionally corrupting everything around me. Including my daughter.
“Mommy, can you feel it?” On that day, Angelica had green eyes and orange hair. She was only a child, but I could already notice the resemblance. She smiled at me and asked “Haven’t you noticed that there’s a lot of mana coming from over there?”
She pointed out the window, towards a large grey triangular pyramid to the north of the palace walls. It was very similar to the one in Black Mithril, but supposedly, instead of activating a teleportation rune, it could create a giant protective barrier around the entire city. It made me wonder, “If they had such a powerful magical device, why would they ever leave?”
My daughter giggled, telling me “Isn’t that obvious Mommy? With mana-radiation that intense, normal humans would have no way to survive. The bacteria, viruses and parasites within their bodies would grow more rapidly than their antibodies and immune systems could handle. They’d also have a much higher chance of getting cancer, and once that started, it’d be over in a matter of days.”
***
“Who taught you that?” I started at the little girl for a few moments, before sighing and murmuring “Alicia?”
Angelica giggled, then shook her head. Explaining “Nope, it was this big and strong man. Hmmm, he was wearing black armor, like a knight. But he was gigantic! I see him sometimes in my dreams. There’s also this lady with fiery wings coming out of her back. She’s really beautiful. Then a green snake with crystal blue eyes, that always talks about pervy stuff. Umm, oh, and sometimes there’s this handsome guy, with a fluffy kitty cat tail and scary red eyes. He’s only a little older than me, but he almost looks like an adult now! Mommy, why are you looking at me like that?”
“No, it’s nothing. I’m fine.” I sighed and didn’t ask for any more information from the cute kid. Even though I had a hunch that I knew what was wrong with her, there was nothing I could do… She was falling onto a path that I couldn’t follow.
“You mean she was awakening as your arch nemesis?”
Why do you bother asking me to tell you the story if you’re just going to keep interrupting me? You never did this for any of the other biographies…
“Nah, I did the same for them too. It’s just that I usually edited it out. But now… Now I’ve run out of fucks to give, because it’s almost time for the most important part of this story! Me!”
Do you want me to finish talking about what happened to Angelica? You already know what happened, so why do I have to say it myself?
“It’s more authentic if I do it this way. Besides, I’m also recording your voice for the audio book and potential VR movie deal. Goblin History Month is next month, so I was planning to at least have your biography ready by then. Do you prefer Bariel or Ariel now?”
Ariel… And I didn’t even know there was a Goblin History Month. What’s the point in that? Do ‘real’ goblins even exist anymore?
“Okay then Ariel, well… I mean, just like all holidays, the purpose is usually to make money. Just like how we still have Human History Month, even though humanity went extinct a long time ago, people with small amounts of human DNA left in their system still like to celebrate it. Even if goblins and humans don’t really exist anymore, they’re still in games, movies, books and porn. Anyway, I’m planning to call your story ‘Ariel: Emissary of Lust’. Or maybe ‘Birth of a Demon Lord: Ariel’s Ascension’? Anyway, you can get back to your story now.”
Do whatever you want. Just remember to give me what you promised once I’m done.
“Sure thing. I can bring it to you alive, but not in one piece.”
That’s fine. I don’t mind if she suffers a bit before I get my hands on her…
Anyway, I’ll start where I left off. Or at least, a month and a half after that.
***
It was a dark and stormy day. Lightning crackled in the sky from time to time, but it was mostly just raining. Most of the Pink Goblins who could walk, left the city in big hordes in order to search for more prey to devour. The rest simply killed and ate each other. Of course, not before satisfying their other desires.
At that point though, there weren’t only Pink Goblins. There were also Purple Hobgoblins and deformed monstrosities. In case your audience doesn’t already know this, a hobgoblin is basically the result of a goblin and human successfully mating. Under normal circumstances, it’s nearly impossible for a Green Goblin or Red Goblin to breed with a human.
However, the Pink Goblins were different. They could reproduce with just about any other animal they could fuck, that wouldn’t die in the process. Hobgoblins weren’t born from eggs though. Their mothers needed to give birth to them the ‘normal’ way. There were also Goblin Chicks, the hellspawn of a goblin and a chicken, which were absolutely disgusting creatures. Same with the hideous Gobmares and Gobstallions, which had the heads of goblins and the bodies of horses… Most of them died before maturing though, for obvious reasons.
The most disturbing aberrations were the result of dozens of Pink Goblin eggs fusing together into a single creature. The resulting demon usually looked like a centipede of conjoined goblins or just a blob of flailing limbs if they were unlucky.
“Do you hear that song Mommy?” My daughter’s green eyes were glowing in the darkness of that stormy night, as she started humming along to a melody I couldn’t hear. Then she whispered “One more body for the devil… One more enemy will bleed… One more life, in the shadows… They should’ve never met me at all…”
“Where’s the music coming from Honey?” I asked her, and she pointed towards the giant grey pyramid that was constantly being struck by lightning.
She explained “It’s probably only being relayed through the macro manawell over there. Umm, the big pyramid shaped magical device is basically dormant right now, but it’s charging up and about to start working again. Once it becomes active, it’ll create a giant bubble of pure mana around this whole ruined city. Either that, or it’ll explode because the automatic release runes were probably damaged over the centuries. If it blows up, it’ll probably destroy this whole side of the continent… So, we should probably stop that from happening.”
“What?! Then we should get out of here!” I screamed, but she just giggled and shook her head while smiling.
“Mommy, don’t be naive. Even if we started traveling by horse right now, we’d never make it to Lorthon Forest or the ocean before the explosion. No, even if we escaped to the other side of the continent, one Mana Calamity usually triggers another one somewhere else. This whole world is like a giant web of mana veins and arteries. Mana is being sent inside to the core and released back out into the atmosphere constantly.” She sighed, looking back over at that pyramid and whispering “The lightning is probably accelerating the charging process. I can feel the mana fluxuations getting stronger in waves. If we don’t do something now, it’ll be too late to make a choice by tomorrow.”
