For the sixth time this month, a squad of Golem crashed into the poorly organized defenders.

The steel-cast giant hammered onto the calvary of Aura-users, decimating the unit. High above, swarms of aerial Golems dropped the napalm on the settlement, pouring more oil into the roaring fire and scattering the fighters screaming in panic and fear. Some tried to resist, climbing on the back of the giant to fell it. They came short in the end, smashed and broken by the fury and fire of the battle.

Some routing troops tried to flee the scene of carnage. Those people never got far. The animalistic automaton quickly hunted them down in the celebration of silence and blood.

The final knight standing raised the standard in defiance before being stomped like an ant by the humanoid war machines. A mocking statement of the final struggle of this short resistance.

From her throne, Etaceh — Empress of Prime Intelligentsia — surveyed the war-soaked battlefield. With this victory, she finally smoothed her triumph over Eleanor. Yes, she had crushed the Lord of Commerce and the Mercenary Port, but she still had to do the clean-up. Random pockets of resistance rose from the ashen remains of the Eleanor. 

Once upon the time, these cities answered to Eleanor which stood as the major trading-hub of the continent. With the fall and sacking of the Mercenary Port, the grip on power was loosened and the hopeful city-states then declared their independence from both the defeated Borbonsi and their new conqueror.

Knowing where the trend went, Etaceh did what every routine conqueror had done and crushed the ambition short with well-placed strategic skirmishes, annihilating all resistance.

Now the final thread of the Eleanorian rebels had been extinguished. Etaceh paused her thoughts. No. Not quite. Most of the surviving ‘rebels’ had moved to the only place in the Eastern Continent still mounting anything resembling a resistance against the Lord of Mechanical Magic. That place was Etaceh’s final conquer target to achieve her desire as the sole overlord of the Eastern Continent.

Papal White State Montgomery.

Etaceh knew she shouldn’t waste energy caring about the well-fare of her enemies, but part of her was sorry for those poor bastards who pooled their chips on Montgomery for the dim chance of beating her.

If those fools knew what kind of power Maximus had, they would be joining her against him, not the other way around.

…

In contrast to the Etaceh who was gearing for an epic continental conquest, her opposition’s enthusiasm left much to be desired.

Elizabeth La Louve was crushed.

The spa in the Residence of Lord helped a little. Caislean tried to cheer her up, and Amy was a heart-warming ball of support without the influence of alcohol. However, they still failed to solve the fundamental rock Betty was hitting.

Etaceh was nowhere to be defeated despite their best effort.

The Lord of Mechanical Magic had magnificently swept Curtis up as her new property and turned the Magic Kingdom into her personal playground. Then she flew over to Eleanor and destroyed it in a single night. Betty was at the front row for both events, and the reality of her nonexistent progress was more transparent than the fantasy of Leprechaun’s gold.

Maybe that wasn’t exactly true. They made progress and made Etaceh more vulnerable. That once almighty barrier over Hecate wasn’t so invulnerable anymore. Pruina Von Ozean still left them plenty of options to dismantle Etaceh’s main advantage.

Sadly, Betty could tell herself anything she wanted, but it didn’t change the fact she was nowhere close to defeating her nemesis since the day she contracted with Ciel.

Now she was staring into the face of weakness.

Etaceh’s conquest of the city-states once aligned with Eleanor had created refugees in its wake. Fear and uncertainty were in the air. People were traveling to Montgomery, following the scent of salvation.

Betty didn’t know what she could have done here by mingling among them in a disguise. The hooded woman watched the moaning displaced young people, middle-age men in despair, and crying children. She understood full well she helped make this happen.

Ciel and Xia would agree, but they would insist she gained nothing from focusing so hard on her failure. Betty wanted to agree, but those two weren’t the one who helped jumpstart the crisis and lost everything to it. They were the heroes who opposed Etaceh in the beginning, not an overconfident idiot who believed they could control her.

They wouldn’t understand how Elizabeth La Louve felt.

Thankfully, there was someone who did.

Betty couldn’t believe her eyes when she discovered who she had stumbled into.

A short-hair brunette wearing a Beret hat hung by the street corner behind a makeshift table with a popcorn maker cobbled together from pieces of metal and runes. People were gathering around her, trading commodities with a bag of popcorn. Normally, such a road-side transaction would be done by Accel, but after what Etaceh had done in the Mercenary Port, people went back to bartering.

In a flash of genius, Ciel had stored most of their wealth as precious metal, so Betty wasn’t exactly affected by the immense devaluation of Accel.

Unperturbed by the recent economic turmoil, the temporary popcorn stand was selling well enough. Betty expected that was the case. Those emergency popcorns were delicious back when Curtis was still a country.

Attracted to the past, Betty approached the popcorn stand of her nemesis.

“Hello, Carolina,” Betty greeted.

“Hello, Elizabeth,” said Carolina. “Bring something to trade for some grub?”

Betty didn’t know how to respond. This one woman in front of her went from the Deputy Commissioner of the Curtis’ Military Police to an unemployed refugee. Somehow she unseated Hikari, rose to the highest rung of Eleanor’s management ladder, and became the Golden Hand’s Gold Leader, directly responsible for Eleanor’s black-op squad. Now, after losing everything again, she was selling popcorn in the street to her old political rival. Carolina Ex-Westerna didn’t even bat an eyelid at her circumstance. Instead, she took her life in stride with barely a raised eyebrow.

Elizabeth looked at the woman who suffered way worse than her and remained more plucky than she ever was. She forked out a piece of silver for a popcorn, and maybe, an answer to her life.

If someone could share the secret of bouncing back from defeat, it would be the villain who always lost, but never beaten.

…

Agent of Black

The Harem’s resident Black Magic guru. The woman was widely accepted as the planet’s chief expert on necromancy. The only person alive who could give the Reaper a run in espionage and assasination. Amongst the wives of the Unity Lord, this one lady was the worst cheater. Most cheaters cheated the card, the good one targeted the player, but Agent of Black, at her peak, cheated the game.

Despite her checkered reputation in the family, this one lady proved herself a necessity. The Avatar of Green and the Princess of White might have a hate-boner for her, but they couldn’t live without her either. Time after time, Agent of Black came in clutches when all else failed. The tenacity she displayed was the stuff of legend. She was utterly shameless for her ability at refusing to quit, returning and surviving with the luck to make the devil envious.

Many heroes could slay dragons, but how many successfully seduce the evil sorceress. Most fairy-tales demonized evilness, but let’s be real. There was no chance the Unity Lord could triumph by playing fair hundred percent of the time.

Sometimes a villain was needed to save the day.

…

Carolina, the evil sorceress, handed her nemesis a bag of popcorn, “And here you go.”

Betty, trusting in Carolina enough to know she won’t poison the food, grabbed the snacks. She slumped down on the improvised chair beside Carolina’s popcorn stall.

The Black mage continued the conversation. “I doubt you are here for only popcorn,” she said.

“No,” Betty said. “I heard you ran into Xia during Eleanor.”

“Yep,” Carolina said, grimacing. “She is way stronger than I expected.” She changed the subject. “We haven’t seen each other since Curtis fell, haven’t we?”

“Yeah,” Betty confessed, chewing her popcorn. “Etaceh beat us.”

“No argument,” Carolina said.

“That is it?” Betty couldn’t believe how easily Carolina could take that setback. “No yelling. No regret. Nothing.”

“Are you expecting me to mope?” Carolina said. Then a realization struck her. “Holy hell. Please tell me you aren’t spending all this time bemoaning the tragedy of Curtis?”

Betty’s following rant answered Carolina's question perfectly.

“How can you be so flippant about it?” Betty said, gesturing to the lethargic refugees and depression surrounding them. “This is our fault, Carolina. Etaceh ran away with the entire Curtis, and she used our country as a trampoline to attack Eleanor.” Betty then struck another point. “Hell, you should be even more depressed than me. You handle the fall of not one but two countries.”

“You can put it that way,” Carolina said, accepting the argument with nary a change in her expression.

“How can you be this irresponsible?” Betty yelled. “Xia and Hikari are convinced you are a bitch, and I agree wholeheartedly. We have been nothing but each other's worst enemy the entire time.”

Carolina nodded, confirming the mutual relationship, “It is a mutually colorful career.”

Once upon the times, two women stood on the opposite side. One was a princess of the dynasty who aimed to preserve her heritage and authority. Another was a cut-throat official who built her career on ambition and undermining said authority. For both, that life was a past, but only one of them moved on without a problem, leaving another in a limbo of regret.

Despite all common-sense dictating the tale of mutual hatred, the only thing that could be found was a strange friendship.

“We should hate each other,” Betty said.

“I hate you, if that makes you feel better,” Carolina said.

“What we have is more like a pet hate,” Betty said. “You never loath me like you loath Xia.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Carolina replied. “Life without you would have been boring.”

Betty hoarsely laughed, “Now that I think about it. You were the only one who treats me like a bitch.”

“Because you are a bitch,” Carolina said.

“Yeah, I feel so much better already,” Betty said, slumping in her seat. “How did you do it?”

“Do what?” Carolina asked.

“Live with being a bitch,” Betty voiced her fear. “I tried, you know. Etaceh pretty much beat me with that fact, and I had no answer.” She paused before continuing. “How can you just continue so shamelessly without bothering to change? How can you be so fine with being the bad guy?”

Carolina thought about it for a second and shared her secret.