521 Side Chapter: Mady's Journey Since I have a memory of my own self that I have always been alone. I was born in the slums of a city filled with corrupt aristocrats and a king that never gave a glance to the people that needed his help the most. My mother? I never met her. My father? I never met him. I was born as the only surviving egg inside a nasty poodle in the streets, I crawled my way through the nasty and fool-smelling water as I arrived in the slums, a place filled with danger. I did not know how to speak, nor read, not even fight… I was lost. I just knew that I was born and that deep within me, there was the instinct of survival, to ensure it at all costs. I survived my way through hunting the small crabs and fish that lived in the nasty pools of the streets, they were not delicious and tasted bitter, but were enough for me. As I grew, I began to interact with those of my height, those similar to me, children that were homeless and survived as they could. Most were uninterested in me and would reject any interaction with me, others would try to attack me and steal whatever I had as a possession. But because I never had anything, they would just beat me until I could not move and then go away. This happened many times until I finally learned my lesson. I cannot trust anyone. Most of those children were not like me either. They did not have long appendages as legs, which could stick to the walls and even ceilings, and as I grew, a strong carapace grew in my back where I could hide from their beatings. I used what I had to make a living. I saw many times how they assaulted the unaware and foolish people, and how they stole things from them. I did the same. I used my carapace to hide as a piece of junk in the trash and awaited an unaware trespasser, I then ambushed it with my tentacles, hit their faces until they couldn't move anymore, and stole all their possessions, leaving their bodies exposed to the rest. Since that time, I learned how things really were. I acquired my first clothes, as well as some things of 'value'. Some kids approached me after seeing what I did, some feared me, and others saw potential in me. An older kid, a merman, taught me how to speak their language, and also gave me a brief introduction on what the System was. I never knew about the system until someone told me about it, there, everything I ever had would appear as numbers, skills, titles, levels, and more. In the System, I discovered my name… Mady Cobalt. Who gave me such a name? That is a mystery that I never discovered. I was baffled by this strange power, and I decided to put it on my use to survive. It seems that not many of them were capable of hunting crabs and fish from the ponds where I went, which were deep under sewers, it seems that I naturally had a high resistance to wastes and the toxicity in water, something that they lacked and were weak to. I gathered food for them, and I got workers for me. I grew to like this, I stole and stole, gathered riches and paid them, made them my loyal dogs, I made sure that they couldn't betray me, to depend completely on me… and those that seemed suspicious were eliminated and feed to the crabs. I gathered books and read many texts, I began to understand the words as I abused the System powers, and through this, I gained knowledge, greater knowledge than most of these ignorant fools. I found a strange book one day, by assaulting an old man, and learned strange magic from within a scroll inside of it, I acquired the power of Illusions. It seems that I already had the talent for them, but needed to awaken them through knowledge and understanding, which the book and the scroll gave to me. As I grew older, I was not as strong and flexible as before… but I used the powers I awakened, the powers of illusions to deceit those that depended on me and those that had the potential. Lies and Deception were my life, I used them for everything, my words held strange powers within them, bribing and treachery became my strongest tools, as I accumulated many things, not even the guards of the Kingdom could easily mess with me, and those that dared were eliminated or had their families captured, and only freed when they became obedient dogs. I used my words that held magical powers to brainwash them slowly, to make them zombies for my cause, to fight for me, and to die for me. I could not help it, I was rotten to the core, I was born in the trash and became trash, I embraced this and became treacherous and what most call, an 'evil person'. I did not see myself as someone 'evil', but as someone that had to do what it had to do to live another day. I used every tool and was as nasty as possible for my own good. I could not let them see my weaknesses; I could not let them see me as someone exploitable. I exploited them. I found their weaknesses. Not much after these years, I was known as 'The Treacherous Kraken Witch'. My race was named Kraken, so it made sense in a way, and through this title, I acquired even more control over those below me, and a higher reputation. I gathered forces and more lackeys, and treasures and riches beyond what could I had ever imagined. I embraced these things and used them to my advantage. I could never be safe unless I had the whole Kingdom of Aquaria dancing in the palm of my hands. I had long gone into the path of someone that could not walk back… In my seek for power, I made my group a criminal organization, and slowly built connections with many aristocrats… those that not even glanced at us in the past feared our power, the power we had to kill them and their families if we wanted, the power to brainwash them or to expose their deepest secrets, those that they had revealed to us as we made negotiations… the secrets of their most obscene fantasies. I might have been rotten, but these people… they were completely insane. Slave trafficking, weapon trafficking, drugs, money, territories, we handled them all to please our aristocrat friends. Pleasing these pig-faced fishes, we became richer and richer, until we held so much power that we quickly began to settle ourselves as a respected criminal organization in the whole Kingdom… not even the King Caspian was able to fight back against us anymore, his guards or his knights were nothing. But it was hard to continue like this, we were not the only ones. My illusions could not work if I were near my targets, so I was not incredible. Many criminal organizations began to blossom and slowly tried to pressure us. I did all I could, but I was betrayed by those aristocrats I had previously made by dogs…?these damned bastards. We were set up by them… and what I could do for now was to accumulate strength for a war between crime organizations in the future. Until a fateful day, a mysterious fairy woman appeared out of the blue. She took down my lackeys one after another, killed the mini organizations I had, and stole everything… was she contracted by other organizations to take me down? Since when has there been a hitman this strong before? I would have surely hired her first if I were to know about her! In a few hours, I found myself cornered by a single woman. Slim body and large breasts, wide hips, and pale-white skin. Scarlet eyes like blood, long, purple-colored hair with gold strands, horns growing from her forehead as if she were a demon, and large and intimidating butterfly wings that shined in gold, purple and pink. Her presence was accompanied by the dangerous Aura of a monster… no, many monsters. I knew that outside of the Kingdom there was a forest filled with dangerous monsters… could she had been born there? However, instead of killing me, she forgave my life… why? What does she mean by saying that she was not hired by anyone?! What does she mean by saying that she was here doing a trip around? What does she mean?! Is this real life?! My entire organization… destroyed by a single fairy that just… was walking through? I was held in disbelief over what was happening, my thugs were killed with ease as her long purple nails extended around like blades, she drank their blood and ate their flesh like a voracious creature. She came to me and… offered me a deal. She enslaved me and gave me the powers I never imagined. She let me devour monsters she brought in her strangely large Item Box, and new powers surged within me one after another. She gave me treasures more valuable than whatever I had, and weapons and accessories so strong that anything we had could not rival against them. I ate the monster's flesh, and then my own thugs, my power surged, I gained skills, one after another, I could now take a whole army of these 'weaklings' she called with my bare fists. I was given an order by her and then… enamored by her aura of power, I was embraced by her lust, we lost each other in the sudden passion of the moment, I had evolved into something different, something far beyond this small world named the Kingdom of Aquaria… And I was enchanted by her entire existence, I obeyed her… perhaps I finally found what I have been looking for so long, someone to follow, someone more admirable than myself… someone so strong, it destroyed anything I knew about logic. Our exchanges were brief, but we met again later… many times, and in the blink of an eye, Aquaria was hers and I, was the Queen not only of this place but of the outside world, of her giant Empire. Such a large world was waiting for me, and I have been inside this cramped old lake for so many years… I learned many things, my mind was enlightened and expanded many times, I learned so much that I could barely take it all. Through all of this, we conquered a human Kingdom as if it were nothing and I acquired even more powers and a treasure that I never knew I could use. Quickly after that, I learned of my pregnancy. Kireina was not simply a woman, she was someone with many facets, many forms, and many powers. But she always showed her sincerity and love to me, I could not help but genuinely fall for this woman, or man… or both? We had such a big family… things changed so quickly yet so slow. Her children, her concubines, all of them were welcoming and nice women, I made friends with all of them, some were dumb and others too serious, but they were all honestly good women. All of them gathered with me to follow this person, Kireina… The air of greatness that she exuded was something that we could not easily get off our heads. And when this was combined with a loving, caring, and benevolent personality without a shrewd of evil or bad intentions in her actions, I could not help but see her as someone I deeply loved… Kireina… now, after so long yet so little, our children shall be born… They have many siblings and a large family that will love them unconditionally… I never imagined that I would ever have children, yet here I am. I am glad that life has allowed me to bring them a better childhood than I ever had. Mother, father, whenever you are and whoever you were, I will make sure to be a better parent than you two could ever be. -----