All in all, I felt that in navigating the two dreams I had earned potent rewards. I allowed myself to sit down in one of the many chambers in my tower, and I rested my head against the soft fur that lined the side of my new ursine companion. The Amarok wolf I had aided in evolving walked over to me, unsteadily and nuzzled its head against my chest. I smiled and began to softly pat its head.

"h.e.l.lo there you two. Thank you for being such good company." I said to the two creatures. I was responsible for their current, highly enhanced states.

They were powerful creatures, one a lupine being with mysterious powers over darkness and the other an ursine beast whose genetics included elemental power. And both of them were utterly loyal to me.

The bear whose side I sat against sat down and laid down. The thing quietly allowed me to lazily lay my head back and rest on its soft and warm fur. The wolf sat down as well and relaxed as I rubbed its head.

In this moment of relaxation, I felt like being kind. I quietly began to mutter nearly inaudible words. Words intended for a single recipient. One who dwelled in my shadow.

"Sombra, listen to me." I commanded. I waited a moment before I felt the creature that lurked like a snake in my shadow direct its attention my way.

"Exit my shadow." I told my demonic servant. I felt rather than saw the demon nod and shivered as its inky body detached itself from my shadow, and it crawled onto the floor next to me. The sensation was strange like my shadow was losing part of its ma.s.s. Sombra was now next to me.

"What is it that you want? What are your goals?" I asked the creature, curious to see how it being in my presence had affected its perceptions and if it had altered what the creature wanted. In the hours since it had become a servant of mine, I had gained dominion over lesser shadowy monsters, including its kind of creature, and powers over evil and darkness.

It looked at me and took a moment to consider how to reply. As it looked at me I sensed something shifting in it. It was a strange sensation because a part of me was sure, both consciously and unconsciously that my powers were somehow altering its mind. When it did speak there was a strange and new reverence in its voice.

"I want to serve you. Your dark powers seep into me, and they infuse me with newfound energy and eerie emotions. I feel... joy from being next to you. An unholy joy. One that a dark part of me wants to spread to other shadowy beings." The demon whispered. Its voice was a strange thing, newly changed, now sycophantic and seductive where it had once been prideful and contemptuous.

I grinned at the inky stain on my floor. I reached down and grabbed roughly where I hypothesized the thing"s head was, and in doing so caused my hand to seep into the floor and the shadow my demonic servant had created. And then I yanked what I had grabbed onto and pulled out an indistinct head, before placing it gently on the floor I was sitting on.

"In that case, I suppose I ought to craft you a body." I told the demon, smiling at it. "A real one." I added, now that I possessed that power. It was a power I had acquired hours ago, through the domain of darkness, but hadn"t used right away. Now felt like the right time to do so, and I felt generous so I was opting to practice crafting bodies.

"I am being kind. What kind of body would you like Sombra?" I asked the demonic ent.i.ty. It looked at me, its ethereal eyes filled with unusual emotion. The emotional c.o.c.ktail I could see in its eyes contained an emotion I hadn"t antic.i.p.ated seeing in the gaze of a demon: awe.

"Any type of body? Hmm... Could you craft me a body you could desire? I aspire to serve you... In all ways." The demon whispered and its last statement contained a tinge of a salaciousness. I chuckled and nodded at the demon.

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"How do I craft a body?" I asked internally. As usual, my question was directed towards two separate sources: the domain of knowledge and the system itself.

I knew that this was a strange power I possessed, but it wasn"t one I had made use of before. I wanted to go ahead and change that. The domain of knowledge was the one to reply.

"You aren"t crafting a body per-say. You are modifying an existing body. You are granting it physicality, and power. You can do it instinctually. It"s not a power that requires activation, it"s the sheer modification of something you already possess control over: shadows." The voice explained, speaking gently and almost motherly to me. I grinned.

"All you need to do is envision the form you wish for the shadowy creature to acquire. And then your power will do the rest." The voice whispered, revealing to me a key and amazing power.

I focused on the shadowy demon I had dominated and transformed into one of my servants. I carefully pictured its instinct and shadowy body and held that image tightly in my mind. And then I began to carefully picture a physical form that even I would feel desire for.

In all of my life, only one creature had ever made me feel anything resembling physical desire. Imbrosa Ravenfist, a stunningly beautiful undead drider who numbered amongst the first of the undead I had ever created.

I envisioned her nearly perfect form and focused on the humanoid aspects of it. The picture that came to my mind and lingered in it was one of a dark-elf with delft-blue skin, piercing red eyes, pointed ears, and full, ebony tinted lips. I didn"t give Sombra Imbrosa"s lower-half, instead, I gave the shadow-demon a long and slim pair of humanoid legs that accentuated its figure and helped it stand tall.

I was transforming Sombra into a dark-elf, or at least a shadowy imitation of one. And as Sombra felt the effects of my powers wash over it, it sighed pleasantly and began to transform before my very eyes.

I grinned as an a.s.sortment of abilities blended together and touched the very soul of the praereptor demon. I felt no resistance from the creature itself as its body began to feel the unholy and strange powers of my touch.

The creature"s indistinct form began to do the opposite of glow as if it were leaking darkness. I watched, delighted, as the shadows that made up my demonic minion"s incorporeal ma.s.s began to solidify underneath the darkness that it was emanating. The outline of a body that the demon possessed ceased being an outline and became something real, something corporeal in an instant.

The ebony shadows that once made up its limbs became the limbs of a dark blue body, one that was almost impossibly dark and mesmerizingly curvy. I watched as the demon"s vague outline of a body solidified, and as the demon gained a physical body to call its own.

The demon"s transformation was completed in an instant, and in the span of one heartbeat to another it went from lacking a true form, to gaining a beautiful one. One that was modeled off of the only creature whose beauty I had ever been amazed by. The demon was still immediately after it was finished transforming, but then began to smile and breathe heavily.

"So... this is what having a body of my own is like? Oh goodness... Finally." It said, speaking in a voice that was also an intimation of Imbrosa"s. I studied the creature, amazed once more by Imbrosa"s form, even if it wasn"t on Imbrosa"s body.

The demon looked on the floor it sat on and exhaled a breathy sigh. And then it looked up at me. That was when I was reminded of something important: it was naked. Its body was fully exposed to me, and since it was modeled off of Imbrosa the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and other feminine parts I could see were modeled off of her as well.

Sombra"s new body was significantly feminine. Delightfully so in fact. Temptingly so. I had to work to keep myself under control as a part of me, presumably the part of me that was corrupted by the corruption subdomain wanted to lunge at the shadow demon and do virile things to it.

The real problem was that my desire didn"t go unnoticed. Sombra kept her eyes peeled onto me, studying me intently for a moment. I could see its eyes locked onto my face, and I could sense the powerful emotions it was radiating. The l.u.s.t it was emanating.

I could see and smell evidence of its potent desires. I could see its nipples hardening, and I could smell the pheromones it was leaking into the air around us. It was a lot for me since I was new to both life and s.e.x and s.e.xuality. My keen senses let me pick up even the subtlest clues the demon was capable of radiating, and I wanted to act on them.

"Go on! It wants this as much as you do." Whispered a voice I had heard a few times now: the voice of corruption.

"Surrender to your l.u.s.ts. Shadows serve you, and this is you rewarding that service. Demons are creatures of evil and desire. It obviously wants this too. Just give it what you both want..." The subdomain whispered, making a factually correct argument in favor of grabbing this more elfen copy of Imbrosa and treating it animalistically.

I was still for a moment, wrestling with the idea of satiating my desire. Of behaving sinfully. But after a moment, I was able to regain control of myself and shook my head. I grinned at the demon, and beckoned for it to come closer to me. It nodded and obeyed me.

Sombra crawled over to me, moving hypnotically on all fours. There was a lewd grin on the creature"s face, and occasionally its mouth opened and a long tongue snaked and danced its way out of its maw and moved desirously. When Sombra reached me, it placed its hands on either side of me and waited for me to make a move. I placed one of my hands on its face gently, and smiled.

"This is... the most tempted I"ve ever been to take a creature and use it to release my desires." I told the demon, truly in awe of the beautiful form it had taken on.

"But... It is too soon for that. Because you desire it too. And that means that this would be a reward. You don"t deserve a reward yet. But you will. In time." I told the dark-elf mimicking demon. A frown suddenly weighed Sombra"s dark lips down, and I chuckled.

Its lips were one of its most beautiful features, as they were the same dark shade as the sky at night. Even glancing at them warmed parts of my body that I wasn"t used to feeling warm. I shivered at the thought of them pressed against various parts of my body and smiled at Sombra.

I was impressed with what I had done while giving my servant a body. Though it lacked Imbrosa"s spider-half, the body was still awe-inspiringly beautiful and amazingly tempting. It was also warm, and alive, which Imbrosa"s body wasn"t. I sighed, almost annoyed at myself for not giving in to the temptation I felt and then I spoke once more.

"If you desire a reward... Use this body, use it to serve me well. I gave you this form because I believe that you can become a powerful cultist of mine. I want you to help me create a demonic cult, as in a cult of demon-worshipers, and also a cult of demons, who both worship me. With your help, I can start to slowly work towards becoming a demonic lord, and as you help me I will reward you." I explained to the little demon.

The creature"s eyes widened when I explained what I wanted it to help me achieve. It began to speak, but at first, did so nonsensically. It took a second before its words became words.

"But... You"re a G.o.d, how can you become a demon-lord? They are two different things, Althos." It said, speaking softly. I smiled and gazed absentmindedly at the thing.

"I am more than a G.o.d. I am something new. I possess all the powers of the G.o.ds, that much is true, but I am something... beyond them. I can become a demon-lord, a demon-king unlike any who has ever lived, but I cannot do so alone. In order to achieve that apotheosis I need your help." I told the demon, speaking truthfully to my knowledge.

The truth was I was making a lot of a.s.sumptions, but those a.s.sumptions were backed by the knowledge I had acquired over the course of the past few days. The demon considered my words, and I could feel a surprising conflict welling within the demon. A surprising... pride, that made it want to believe I was wrong for some reason. This was curious to me.

"Why do you doubt me?" I asked Sombra, genuinely curious. The demon looked me in the eyes for a second, scanned and studied them, and then just sighed.

"What you"re saying... It goes against what I"ve always known. But your power... Its real and absolute. I can sense that I can"t disobey you. I"ve never felt anything like that before. I am filled with a desire to see your will done. I can feel that my will is nothing in the face of your power. If you believe you can become a demon lord... I will help you." Sombra said, its voice once more filled with awe and reverence.

I grinned at the demon. And at that moment I received a quiet message from the system.

[You"ve managed to fight off temptation, and gain a true demonic servant. Not bad. Praereptor demons are handy demons to lord over. And now that you"ve given it... given "her" a physical body, in time she"ll come to learn how to use it properly. And when she does, she"ll be able to shift between her shadowy form and the body you"ve given her. And that is positively wonderful!]

The system"s message surprised me. I was pleasantly delighted to hear that my demonic servant would one day gain the ability to swap freely between the physical form I gave it, and its native, shadowy body. That meant that Sombra hadn"t swapped any strengths or skills for other strengths or skills but actually just become stronger altogether thanks to my powers. And that wasn"t the only message I received, as I heard a new voice speak to me out of the blue.

"Resisting temptation is hard... Especially one like that, as a deity of l.u.s.t. That was well-done Althos. At times you truly demonstrate a patient, and even chaste heart." The voice told me, speaking approvingly. I grinned, aware of the ident.i.ty of the voice thanks to the way it spoke.

I had just heard from the subdomain of purity. A welcome way to begin a period of downtime that was well-deserved.

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The next few hours were filled with idle and mental exploration of my tower, a mostly empty place. The only other inhabitants of the place were the various undead who made up my first undead creations.

I mentally wandered the tower, while speaking to Sombra. I did this until the morning sun had risen over the skies of Puerto Rico and bathed the island in light. And then I teleported to a familiar place: the laboratory of Dr. Cortes.

In the time between the ending of the night and my appearance in front of Dr. Cortes" laboratory one minor thing of importance happened. I gained two new worshipers. Marlena and Gustavo. Both of them had sent me prayers, or rather they sent Cosecha prayers, devoting themselves to it.

The real worth of that though, was that this meant that I was one step closer to gaining influence over the domains and subdomains of trickery, lies, and enchantment. That brought a huge grin to my face, and left me with a satisfied feeling in my chest. A feeling of pride and accomplishment.

Today was the day the good doctor had asked me to come back to pay him a visit and to begin learning about alchemy. It was an important day, and as I appeared in front of his laboratory I could sense that this would be a significant day for myself, one that was filled with learning.

I was excited and there was a healthy grin on my face as I walked over to the door of the laboratory and knocked on it. My grin only widened when the doctor ushered me in and guided me to his workshop so that we could get down to business.