Species: Praereptor demon

Alignment: Chaotic evil

Personal virtue: Patience

Personal vice: Envy

Magic sensing: Praereptor demons are naturally capable of potent magic such as possession and they possess semi-ethereal bodies which make them well-adapted to use alteration magic.

Faith sense: This demon is loyal to no one but somewhat unwillingly serves as a scout for an army of demons led by a Soluto demon named Agustino.

Authority detection: Sombra serves as a scout and seducer who is meant to convince those who summon it create demon-summoning conjuration circles that summon fellow demons until the number of them in total is large enough to overthrow their conjurers.

Soul sense: Sombra is surprisingly charismatic and if given the right body to possess could easily create a chaotic evil cult dedicated to a lord who actually earns its loyalty. Sombra could become a talented cleric devoted to a lord of sin and deception.]

Reading about my new servant brought a smile to my face. It turned out that manipulating the creature would be easier than I had antic.i.p.ated it being. The thing was an envious little monster and suitably easy to handle. I looked at it and readied myself to begin a gentle interrogation.

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"Tell me who summoned you." I told it, speaking softly but utilizing words that made it clear that I wasn"t asking. The demonic creature was silent for a second, but I knew it would do as I asked so I was patient.

"I was summoned by a dwarven conjurer named Atmost. He summoned me intending to use me as a spy meant to see if the world above the tiny dwarven settlement he lived in had humanoids that he could recruit as part of a plan to invade and conquer a nearby dark elven city." The demon revealed, speaking gently.

I looked at it, confused and suspicious. I knew that it probably couldn"t lie to me, but my tremorsense didn"t show me any dwarfs with that name. I revealed as much gently, and the demon chuckled.

"I killed my summoner. It took a lot of planning, as Atmost was a skilled conjurer who had carefully prepared his defenses, but in the end, he couldn"t defend himself against a cave-in. All I had to do was leave the dwarven mine sufficiently unstable, and one day a dwarven miner stuck the right rock with too much force and well... my work was done." The demon confessed, a smile on its smokey face. I chuckled.

"After that my plan was simple. I went around possessing who I could for as long as I could, having fun in their bodies and encouraging self-destruction. One creature I possessed was a satyr. He was fun to control and I led his best friend to the lair of a Rusalka. The miserable creature never stood a chance against that water spirit. She"s vicious even for her kind." The demon told me, causing my eyes to widen.

Sombra was most likely responsible for the death of Mof, one of my undead minions and worshipers. And it readily revealed that, chuckling all the while. I considered pursuing this for a moment but ultimately decided against it. I wasn"t one hundred percent sure, and though the news was shocking, I wasn"t particularly offended by it. Sombra, all the while, continued speaking.

"The dark elves who dwell underneath the island regularly summon demons. Many of them who do, only know how to do so because of me. One of them summoned a lesser demon, a sly demon who intended to go to the big city to the west." My newest minion told me, which explained the handful of demons I could detect in the major dark elven city beneath the island.

"That demon came to the surface in this forest and was defeated by the goblin I possessed, but not before biting him. I possessed the goblin for weeks before we crossed paths." Sombra explained, revealing how it came to possess Troik.

"So that"s how you got here huh?" I asked, smiling at the demon I was going to make into a major minion of mine. The thing nodded.

"What was your ultimate plan?" I asked it, genuinely curious as to what it intended to do. The shadowy creature considered my question for a few moments.

"Well, ultimately I want to be one of the first demons responsible for converting this world into a part of the Heart of Darkness. To do that I need to bring my fellow demons here." The creature explained, suggesting both a far-reaching plan and also that it still intends to do that. I looked at the creature skeptically.

"I won"t let that happen." I told it, flatly. The creature looked up at me, annoyance flaring in its colorless eyes. I chuckled and didn"t change what I said.

"There are other demons on this world Althos. We will win, eventually." It declared, arrogantly. I chuckled again.

"If that"s the case, I"ll find and make them my servants as well. And you"ll help me. And in exchange, I"ll give you what you want. Whatever that happens to be. I don"t intend on being a cruel master, but if you stay in this world you"ll only do so because I allow it." I explained, flatly. There was a coldness and steel to my tone that made it clear that I wasn"t bluffing. The demon visibly shivered.

"Why do you want to protect this world?" The demon asked, gazing into my eyes. I laughed audibly, as soon as the demon was done talking the sound cutting through the silence of that engulfed this room when neither of us spoke.

""Protect"? No, my friend, protect isn"t the right word. I want to decide this world"s fate myself. I don"t want someone else doing that for me. I want to be the one who decides what fate befalls this world, and I won"t settle for the idea of demons having their way with this planet." I announced, sternly.

I wasn"t lying either. I intended to stop any major world-changing schemes by any powers, be they native to this world, alien, or even extraplanars. This was my homeworld, and I intended to be the one to decide what happened to it, no matter what I ended up eventually deciding to do.

The demon looked at me, and though not many emotions could be seen in the depths of its eyes, I sensed a certain level of approval in its gaze. Evidently, the thing didn"t hate the pride I demonstrated when I effectively announced that this world was under my protection from the machinations of all manner of ambitious beings and even entire dimensions.

The more I spoke to the demon the more I came to feel a distinct pride. It wasn"t pride in my world or anything silly like that, it was pride in myself. I was a G.o.d, and the more I spoke to the demon the more I realized that. The more I came to feel it in my divine bones. It was a nice feeling.

I gazed into the demon"s eyes. I opened my mouth to speak once more.

"Let me be perfectly clear. I am a neutral G.o.d. I intend to lord over both good and evil, and be a master of order and chaos in balance. I will destroy, I will create, and I will do so on my own terms. In time I will set my eyes on the other dimensions that exist in this universe. I will conquer them as I will conquer this world." I declared, speaking in no uncertain terms and declaring my goals for the first time to someone other than the system.

"I intend to reward those who follow me. I will recognize loyalty and those who serve me faithfully will be treated well. Be mine Sombra. Become my servant, my worshiper." I told the demon, before placing my hands on the thing"s face once more and gazing into the demon"s eyes. The creature was silent, as its eyes explored mine.

When the creature nodded, it was a subtle gesture. It was so faint that the main way I noticed it was that I felt the creature"s head bob up and down against my hands. I grinned and pulled the demon"s head closer to me, before placing a kiss on its forehead. The creature shivered against the kiss, delighted by it, but also feeling my eerie powers crawl across its skin and sap its strength.

At this point, I quietly sent a telepathic message to the elves and my servants located in the forest. It was a simple message, and as some of my messages tended to be, it was a lie.

"I have dealt with the demon. If you wish to learn more about me, please listen to Raiz. She will explain my faith to you." I told them.

My plans, for now, were simple: I intended to use what Sombra had told me to begin to make moves to engage with the civilizations that dwelt in the world beneath the world. That included a few species I knew I"d need to deal with eventually: the dark elves, the dwarves, and other, stranger beings. And doing so would be easier if I took Sombra along with me.

I gazed into the colorless depths of Sombra"s eyes and activated my will-stealing gaze power: "Gratifying gaze". The last of the demon"s independent will was s.n.a.t.c.hed away from it as it gazed back into my eyes. I smiled as I watched the demon lose any ability it might have had to resist me, and I promised myself that I"d restore its will eventually.

"And now, I suppose we should go and introduce ourselves to our neighbors shouldn"t we?" I asked, speaking mostly to myself. There was a smug and satisfied smirk on my lips as I tied my mind and the mind of my demonic servant together, to allow for telepathic communication.

"Let"s go meet the dark elves." I told the demon, smiling at it, as I looked over the details for two quests, one I had ignored, and one I only just access too.

[In order to acquire the first tier of influence over the domain of darkness you must blind three people. There are spells you possess now, that allow you to do that.] The system informed me, via one of two text boxes that appeared in my mind"s eye the second I wanted to begin to learn about the quests for darkness and evil.

[In order to acquire the first tier of influence over the domain of evil you must acquire five evil mortal or extraplanar servants. You"ve already acquired four. The two ogresses are evil, Gnorl is evil, and Sombra is evil. You must acquire one more evil servant who is either a living mortal or an extraplanar.] The system told me, via the second text box. I looked at that and plainly realized that it was asking me to acquire a dark elf servant. I chuckled and nodded, ready to do just that.

I looked at Sombra, and asked it a question out of curiosity. "Can you enter my shadow? Just to ride it?" I asked the creature, not quite sure of its abilities. When my first demonic servant nodded at me, I grinned and commanded it to do so. I didn"t want to waste time.

The demon entered my shadow without any difficulties, and for the first time in my life, I readied myself to move at the speed of light. I took a deep breath, teleported myself outside of my tower, and began to move towards the place I could detect where dark-elves could be found in large numbers, the place I a.s.sumed was the closest dark-elven city.