Hey everybody, it’s your Goddess here! Long time no see, right? Though I guess it might be more accurate to say it’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me…? A-Anyways, don’t worry! You’re not just hearing voices, and that total certainty you’re feeling that it’s really me is totally normal for a godly announcement!

As for the announcement itself… I just want to let everyone know that the current church does not represent me. Hasn’t for a very long time! Kinda got taken over by a renegade angel, who started spreading hate for demonkind - or rather, monster girls and demons, both of whom I’m totally fine with! Seriously. I am. They’re my creations, too, after all! Kinda, anyway…

Also, the Demon Queen, Devilla Satanne - who’s my future step-daughter, by the way - is totally awesome in my book! She just freed me from imprisonment, which is why I’m able to talk to you right now, and it’s also why I'm announcing her as my official spokesperson on Solla! Listen to what she has to say, alright?

Also also, the current Heroine Lucy is amazing, and should not be held responsible for any of the church’s sins or any wrongdoings past Heroines may have done! She’s been doing her me-damn best for a very long time, despite some unfortunate circumstances, and she actually worked together with my dear future step-daughter Devilla to free me! 

Also also also, don’t be too harsh on the clergy, okay? A lot of them are just doing their best, despite being misguided by all the longstanding lies and manipulations from church leaders and that rogue angel I mentioned before!

Anyway, uh… Let’s see… the church is full of lies, the Heroine is good, please don’t lynch the clergy, Devilla is a cutie…. Did I miss anything…?

OH! Right!

Call me Liz, from now on, okay? It’s the super cute nickname my future step-daughter gave to me, and it’s way better than my actual name, and much less stuffy than just calling me ‘the Goddess’ all the time, right? Until next time, I love you all, bye!

“Is anyone else experiencing a rather foreboding feeling all of a sudden?”

“You’re probably just nervous about meeting your mom,” Abigail suggested.

“Possibly…” I confessed. Honestly, my heart was beating rather fast at the mere idea of it. I knew next to nothing about her, after all - excluding the unreliable tales the generals had told me, at least. All I knew for sure was that she apparently loved me beyond all reason. Enough to turn the area around Dimona Tower into a wasteland, just to protect me.

It was… difficult to wrap my head around. Everything I’d heard about her painted her as always being calm and commanding, always thinking of her people first… I wondered how much of that was a front she’d put on? Maybe even propaganda fed to me by the Generals who sought to control how I acted? They’d always said that our people’s safety had been my mother’s greatest concern, and that the best way to honor her memory was for me to pick up that mantle.

As far as her actual personality went, all I had to go off of was the letter she’d left for me. Not much, to say the least. Especially since she’d written it before I was even born! Had the warmth she’d once gazed upon me with all faded during her time in captivity? Watching me first act as a puppet, then a brat, must surely have disillusioned her - after everything she’d done, all the work she’d put into giving me my freedom, I had almost wasted it and ruined everything. Only Liz’s intervention had pulled me back from the brink - and even now, it was difficult for me to accept that I had truly changed. I was still the same person, deep down, after all, wasn’t I? Surely that meant I was still the same brat I’d always been.

Even if I wasn’t, it hardly made a difference to the people I’d hurt. Ashley’s bad behavior had arguably been the result of an outside force - a much more direct and persistent one than anything I had dealt with. Yet I still couldn’t forgive her for what she had done… So… what right did I have to ask anyone to forgive me?

“You do realize you’ve been standing in place for, like, a minute at least, right?” Abigail asked, interrupting my thoughts with an exasperated sigh.

“She’s probably lost in her own head,” Lucy said. “Maybe it’s just nerves over meeting her mom, like you said?”

“Or she’s beating herself up for not being worthy of meeting her mom,” Abigail replied, narrowing her eyes when I flinched. “You do realize that’s hogwash, right? I mean, you literally just saved Liz by diving into certain death. Beat up your ancestor, defeated the head of the enemy church, maybe even started real progress towards actual peace…”

“My accomplishments don’t define who I am,” I replied, frowning. “I’m-”

“Shut up!” Abigail harshly interrupted my doubts. “Your accomplishments might not define you, but they sure as hell say a lot about what you’ve put your efforts towards! You worked hard, Devilla. It’s alright to feel proud of yourself for it.”

“But everything I did-”

“Pales in comparison to what you’ve done since,” Abigail stated firmly.

Lucy nodded. “I’m sure your mom will agree!”

“Maybe…” I replied, much more hesitant. “But if she’s truly been watching my life play out, as Liz claimed, then she knows of all the mistakes I made. The people I hurt.”

“The people you upset,” Abigail scoffed. “You yelled at some maids. Tossed people into a surprisingly well kept prison cell for a few days. Speaking of, you do know that there were special cells just for the people you unjustly imprisoned, right? It’s not like they actually underwent the full criminal experience. Not when everyone knew you were just being a petty brat…”

“I’m aware,” I replied, a faint flush touching my cheeks. “It wasn’t exactly a well kept secret… and since most of the people I jailed early on were those in positions of power, it’s hardly a surprise that they found a way to make their short prison stays more comfortable… but it still bothers me that I just… threw them in jail for annoying me. It’s not like I’m the one who took steps to soften the blow.”

“Plus, there’s all those girls you slapped,” Abigail added, putting her hand on her chin as she looked up lost in thought. “Though considering you could have blown their heads off with a flick of the finger, I guess I could maybe call that impressive restraint…?”

“...I thought you were supposed to be making me feel better?” I asked, incredulously.

“I’m reminding you that you were a stuck up and petty bitch, not an ironfisted tyrant. Just the fact that people were allowed to complain about you without any real consequences sorta says it all, don’t you think?”

“I… just didn’t see the point in throwing literally everyone in jail,” I muttered, looking away.

“That, and you always cared about us,” Abigail insisted. “Even back then, you cared about your people’s well being. Didn’t you?”

“...” I didn’t have a reply to that. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I had. True, I’d never fled the tower, but that was largely because I had nowhere to go. Yes, I’d always intended to fight the Heroine to the death - repeatedly, even, until the day I died… but that’s just what was expected of me, wasn’t it? It was always what had been expected of me. In fact, it felt kind of funny to realize that such a death would never even come to pass…

“You cared,” Abigail repeated firmly, trust and resolve intertwined in her voice as she reached out to grab my hand. “Maybe you didn’t even realize it yourself, but you did. You still do. Just like you care about us. Just like your mom cares about you.”

“Bringing it back around to that, are we?” I grumbled good naturedly. A tired smile spread across my face. “I suppose you’re right… or at least I certainly hope you are. About my mother, in particular…”

“She is!” Lucy said firmly. “I mean, how could anyone who watched you not be proud of you? After everything you’ve accomplished!”

“After everything I’ve done?” I questioned.

“After everything you’ve been through,” Abigail countered, before pointing down the hallway. There, just past the smoking remains of the wooden door I'd blasted open to free Liz, was my mother’s room, its own door still closed and locked.

I wondered if my mother was still watching me? If she could see this, even now?

“Go on,” Abigail encouraged me, releasing my hand and giving me a gentle push. “We’ll be waiting.”

“You’re not coming in?” I asked, surprised.

She shook her head. 

“I think you should meet her first, Eena,” Lucy said. “I mean, it’s sort of a big reunion for you, isn’t it?”

“I don’t even remember her…” I muttered. “Other than a vague recollection of warmth, at least. I may have a perfect memory, but a baby’s brain isn’t built for storing much information or thinking things through very well…”

“Well, aren’t you curious about the source of that warmth?” Abigail demanded, giving me a firmer push. “Don’t you want to feel it again? For the first time in twenty-one years? I know if it was my Mom I’d be rushing in there to see her.”

“Me too,” Lucy agreed.

“Yes, but…” They both knew their mothers. Had known their mothers. That’s what I wanted to say,but how could I say that to Lucy who’d lost hers? And who only recently learned for sure how…

So, instead, I let out a sigh and moved towards the door, the key to the room grasped tight in my fist. “Here goes nothing…”

The room was silent, other than the sound of my own footsteps as I paced. The screen on the wall, which had long been keyed to my daughter, had turned to static the moment Devilla first entered the void in preparation for her transport. Worse, I couldn’t even ask my Goddess what was going on - she’d barely been able to communicate with me at all since her very first bit of interference, with Devilla’s reading of the rite, and now that she was actively helping out my daughter she’d been forced to cut the connection completely.

It hadn’t been so bad, back when I could see the effects of her interference on the screen - I was willing to bet she really had helped that one hunter catch a deer. It was just like her to waste precious bits of energy just to help a girl have a good meal on her date…

I guess it could just as easily have been chance, though. Not like my Goddess was anywhere near all knowing enough to plan for every eventuality. In fact, she was actually something of a ditz. …No, she was an absolute klutz…

I loved her dearly, though.

Still, considering the lack of communication, I think my surprise at the door’s opening was understandable, as well as my momentary fear. What if it was Luci, I wondered. What if she was here to take me hostage against my daughter? Would that work? Would my daughter even care? Did I want her to care, if it would mean her being harmed?

All sorts of dreadful thoughts ran through my head in the instant it took my eyes to register and recognize the woman standing in the doorway. A young woman of twenty-one, in a red shirt and a black bottom that barely covered anything. With white hair, like mine, and purple eyes so much like her dam’s. Unfortunate, that - I’d have preferred it if she’d taken after my own red eyes, but alas. She was still my daughter, and I loved her all the same.

“Hello, Mo-” was all she got out before I was upon her, my hands wrapping around her back as I bent forward, and then leaned back, lifting her in the air and twirling her around.

“Devilla!” I cried, undisguised joy in my voice as I spun her about. “You’re here! To rescue me I hope? And not be a prisoner? I should probably have checked that first, but… oh, you’re here, and I love you, and you’re here!”

“I… tha’s…” she stammered, her face red. I lowered her to the ground, reluctantly letting go and backing up so that I could get a better look - and oh, what a treat those red cheeks of hers were! My adorable daughter, blushing under her own mother’s attention for the very first time in her life.

That was… a sobering thought, actually. I shrugged it off a moment later in favor of smiling at her.

“And where are your girlfriends?” I asked. “I was so looking forward to judging… I mean meeting them.”

“J-judging?” Devilla asked, horror evident in her voice. “You can’t… I mean, they’re my… they’re good… you can’t just…”

I laughed. “I’m joking, dear. …Mostly. It’s true that I don’t think anyone is good enough for my precious darling, but it’s also true that you’re old enough to be making your own decisions - and I must say, if anyone could be considered good enough, I suppose Abigail would count… and maybe Lucy, as well.”

“Maybe Lucy?” Devilla demanded, now flabbergasted. “I’ll have you know she’s a hard working, good girl, and just because she’s the Heroine-”

“Oh, it’s not that,” I interrupted. “It’s the fact that she’s human, and born from those two. Your dam was pretty close to her dam, you know? And meeting those two… Well, it was the beginning of the end for her, and in turn my plans to have her raise you. Though, considering the events that followed from there it’s hard to be too upset about it…”

“Upset about… what? My dam’s death?” Devilla asked with a frown. “Do you… not care? It sounds almost as if you disliked her…”

“Dislike? No… it was more… distance, I suppose, for the most part? I picked her as my wife because I thought she’d be a good parent, and because I hoped you’d inherit some of her optimism over my… Well, I prefer to call it realism, but some people have been known to call it pessimism… Petty pessimism, even! Just because my motto is, ‘if I’m going down, I’m going to make it as annoying for you as possible, even if I can’t take you with me!’ It’s… Okay, maybe deserved, but quite frankly Luci deserved every ounce of pettiness I could muster! Another reason I married your dam - a common soldier - was just to annoy her…”

“So you didn’t care for her at all?” Devilla asked. “Then why is it a bad thing that she reminds you of my dam’s death?”

“It’s not about her death - it’s just that thinking about your dam always makes me think about my marriage. It was… unpleasant. Not through any fault of Issa, mind you. She just always wanted more than I could give - literally more than I could give, with the geas. It… didn’t exactly allow for open communication. I couldn’t ‘let her in’ no matter how many times she begged. Couldn’t tell her how I was really feeling… I was compelled to get married and have a child, and I made the best of it, but… the entire time I just felt trapped. I know it’s not exactly fair for me to take it out on Issa’s memory, but… I don’t know. When I compare it to what I have with my Goddess… Well, it can’t even begin to compare.”

“...You really love Liz, then?” she asked. I could see the caution in her eyes. The uncertainty. She’d just discovered that I hadn’t really loved her dam, and now she had to deal with the fact that I’d already moved on to someone new. Someone better - not as a person, mind you. Just better for me.

“Liz?” I asked. “Is that a nickname you gave her?”

“I… Yes,” Devilla confessed. “Do you not like it?”

“I do. So long as she does, at least. I gave my heart to her, and she gave hers to me - just as you have given yours to your girlfriends. Though I guess you’ve got more of a split going on, with the whole polycule situation… good luck with that. I’d love to give advice, but it’s almost guaranteed to be terrible so… ask at your own risk?”

“...Thanks… I guess?” she said with an awkward smile.

I gave her an awkward smile right back, unsure of where to go from there. It was… different than I thought it would be, to see her. Not that I knew what I’d expected. Laughter and tears and many more hugs and cheek kisses, I guess? But… I was still a stranger to her. One that looked just about the same age as her, no less.

It was probably going to take time for her to really wrap her head around the idea of me being her mother… but that was fine. I had plenty of time to wait.

“Now, why don’t you go get your girlfriends so that I can start judging… I mean, so that I can meet them in a totally innocuous way?”

She glared at me - actually glared at me! Her own mother! What a rebellious phase! One of the many things I’d missed, up in heaven! - then looked away.

“I thought you might want to talk to me first, a bit more,” she said. “But if you’d rather-”

“No, no, no way!” I protested. “I’d love to talk to you more! I just thought you might find it a bit awkward just dealing with me…”

“Well… maybe a little,” she confessed. “But… I don’t know… you’re my mother, aren’t you? Unless you don’t consider yourself such… I wouldn’t blame you, if so - you never got a chance to raise me, had no choice but to birth me with the geas, were forced into a loveless marriage just to have me - and then I went and almost threw away all your hard work… Arguably it wasn’t even me who lived up to your expectations. Not really. It was the memories of my past life that made it possible, after all - your daughter plus Jacob. I’m not… I’m not even sure if I qualify as your daughter, if you think about it like-”

“That’s enough,” I interrupted, gently but firmly, before placing my hands on Devilla’s shoulders. “You are my daughter and I love you. I just have no idea what to say or how to interact with you! Other than hugs, I guess? And a lot of affirmations, because I can tell you definitely need them… but for now, for real, why don’t you get your girlfriends so we can all meet up as a family and… I don’t know. Discuss what comes next?”

“What comes next?” Devilla parroted. 

“Yeah! You’re probably gonna wanna go back to Solla, right? Lead the land towards peace alongside your girlfriends?”

“I’m… not sure I’m the one who should be leading, to be honest,” my precious daughter murmured, looking away from me. “The people don’t exactly like me. Surely you would-”

“Be a terrible choice?” I interrupted. “I don’t care about the tower or its people nearly as much as you do, Devilla. In fact, I doubt you’ll find anyone among your ancestors who does. Not when we were all forced to fight and protect it against our wills…. But you? You actually care. And even if you’re not the best leader, you’ve got people who can take up the slack! …Plus, me coming back would totally throw questions about succession into the air, considering none of your predecessors are dead.”

“None but one!” came a voice from the doorway. A cheerful looking Liz stood there, smiling brightly at me. Behind her stood Abigail, who looked resigned, and Lucy who gave me an apologetic look. Devilla greeted them all with a smile, to let them know she was fine.

“And what do you mean by that, my Goddess?” I asked, a hint of danger in my tone. Not that my dear fiancee noticed… She rarely noticed such things… 

“I took care of Luci. She’s gone now. Also did a big speech to the world - you know, telling people that the church doesn’t really represent my will and was taken over by a renegade angel, that the leadership was rotten, that demons and monster girls are my people, too, that Lucy is a lovely heroine worthy of the title, and Devilla is officially the executor of my will on Solla! …Also, to call me Liz and that we’re getting married!”

For a moment, there was silence. Then, Abigail, Devilla, and Lucy all started to speak at once, but a cough from me was enough to silence them. I think they - unlike my dear Goddess - could see the anger on my face.

“So… let me get this straight. You annihilated your former head angel, before leaping into a world-wide announcement, completely upending the world order, without consulting me or anyone else…?”

“Um… yes…?” my Goddess hesitantly replied, backing up a step. She seemed to finally notice the irritation in my voice and on my face. “I know I’m not supposed to make big decisions like that without you, but… Uh….”

I moved forward two steps, then three, closing the distance between us so that I could reach out and grab her.

Then I pulled her into a hug. “Next time you’re in pain and hurting? Talk to me! Rather than throwing your future step-daughter’s life and maybe the world into chaos just to buy yourself some time to perfect that false smile…”

“...Sorry,” she whispered softly. “Did I um… Did I mess up that badly?”

“We’ll have to go over what you said,” I murmured. “But… maybe.”

“Probably,” Abigail muttered. Harsh, but I couldn’t really say she was wrong.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad!” Lucy said, though I could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

Devilla just groaned.

As for me? I smiled at my Goddess - my Liz - and took her hands. “Come on. Let’s all sit down and work through this together.”

~~~

Author's Notes

What comes next... That's the question on everyone's mind, I suppose, isn't it? The obvious answer is the epilogue, and the sequel, which all my patrons already know, but even I can say for sure what's to follow. (Will people enjoy the sequel? Will it ever be as good as the original? I hope we can find out together!)

Many thanks to FallingLeaf for the editing. The biggest change from the rough draft, though, was one I came up with on my own - adding Liz's speech. (Of course, then FallingLeaf suggested moving it to the top instead of leaving it on the bottom, which was in and of itself a drastic improvement in my opinion!)

Next up is the epilogue, which will aim to wrap things up as best it can. It won't be perfect - there's still some loose plot threads I never got to tug at, and the world is obviously a mess... but that's what the sequel is for!

Other than that? I just want to thank you all for joining me on this journey. It's almost finished, and I'm kind of sad, but at the same time... Well, all things must come to an end eventually, and it was wonderful while it lasted, wasn't it?

On a related note, I'm planning to write another (mostly) in-character Q&A once the series has been posted in its entirety. If you have any questions to direct towards either myself or the characters, do feel free to post them! They might just end up answered. (And this time, I won't need to censor Liz! ...Hopefully!)

If you enjoy my work, I hope you'll consider joining my Patreon. Every dollar makes a difference, and that dollar can get you early access to all my series. Generally, I try to keep them two ahead - in this case, that mostly means two ahead of Heart of Fey and Fire and Naughty Magic, as I'm still working on getting more chapters of Most (Un)Manly out. There's also the sequel, of course - I've written two chapters ahead there.

PS: Sorry for the late post. Depression/life kinda got in the way...