When Andrea stepped through the portal she had created and then vanished from view I chuckled and rose a hand. The portal vanished, undone by my power and the desire that I felt to see it undone, in a display of my powers over destruction and even reality itself. I turned back towards Sombra and I began to speak.
"We still have time before it is time for us to return to the Heart of Darkness. When we do... We shall not leave until I have become a demon lord, and have defeated Agustino." I remarked. Sombra nodded at me, and I smiled at my dutiful pet. I was quite fond of her. I stretched out my hand, offering it to her. The praereptor demoness took it with no hesitation.
I pulled her close, watching as blood, or her equivalent of it, spread across her face giving her the demonic version of a blush. As she approached me I teleported the two of us from the interior of the factory and to a sidewalk in the city of Ireland. We went from standing in a brightly lit section of the factory to instantly standing on a concrete sidewalk.
Far above us shone the sun that illuminated this world, one of a handful of such stars that I had visited and utilized my powerful abilities on. We were surrounded by people, by humans, and for one of the first times in my life I was in a densely populated city that was still largely unaware of my existence. I had chosen to come here for a reason. I wanted to experience what it was like to be in such a place.
Sombra was still very close to me, and I wanted to enjoy our final day of relative peace for a little while longer. I held her close to me and I whispered in her ear.
"We have more daylight left to burn. Let us burn it together, in peace, before we must return to your birthplace and resume the battles we have begun. Would you like to spend this last moment of peace, with me?" I asked the demoness, sincerely, truly asking her if she would spend one more peaceful moment with me before we returned to the terrifying, nightmare-filled place of her birth. Sombra didn't hesitate and the demoness nodded at me.
And so we began to walk together, hand in hand, into the city. We had no specific destination in mind, and for another few moments I allowed myself a simple and happy existence.
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The city of Ireland was a significant metropolis. It was inhabited by over a million and a half people, making it the largest city I had physically visited, through there were cities in the solar system I came to life in that were both bigger and more densely populated.
The city itself was not the capital of New Sol, but it was the capital of the department of New Sol that I had spent most of my time in. It was a democratically run place, like most of New Sol happened to be. The city was a fairly safe one that was well-run, fairly wealthy, and also one of the fairer settlements in the world of Htrae, by and large as close to an idyllic city as I had seen so far in my fairly short life.
I had a fair amount of influence here, if I wanted to wield it. I had built cults here, including one of my few cults of goodness. That said, just this once, I wasn't here to do work. I was here to spend time with my pet and to enjoy myself before I went back to war, and to the rewarding but also not fun task of beginning to conquer dimensions.
While Sombra and I explored the city on foot we found many fascinating things to have fun with. Sombra a surprisingly potent magic user, wasn't fond of much technology but she was fond of clothing. The first thing that she and I did was spend a fair amount of time going clothing shopping.
More often than not this consisted of the two of us entering a store and her staring at clothes but not even bothering to try them on. Sometimes I could convince her to put on the clothes, and typically when she did she would purchase them. I had unlimited funds, as I had wielded my powers and did not feel like setting up limits for myself, so the shadow demoness and I could easily purchase whatever we wanted.
When we made purchases of new clothing items she and I would leave a store and then walk into a nearby alleyway or even a hallway if inside of some shopping mall, and I would simply drop the bag of clothes into my shadow. If I needed too I could momentairly shut off the lights in whatever hallway we were in and then drop the clothes into my shadow. I had my shadowy storage space which was unlimited in capacity.
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"I'm enjoying myself quite a bit, master." Sombra told me after buying a particularly pricey outfit. The demoness not only had an eye for fashion but was also apparently quite extravagant in her personal tastes. That said, I didn't mind. Wealth was something that in this world and any other I possessed an infinite amount of.
Over the course of my life I had acquired power over things like metals, technology, and even the power to create things from nothing. Between all of these abilities, I had the ability to acquire as much wealth as I wanted the instant I wanted it. In a world like Htrae I could give myself limitless wealth the instant that I wanted it, in such a way that governments are fooled by my abilities, thanks to my powers over technology.
Being generous was easy for me, given that wealth was meaningless with my powers. I was, in a very real sense, the most wealthy individual in the world.
Sombra held onto the bag containing her outfit until she and I walked out of the store in which we purchased it. Fortunately for us we were right next to an alleyway and were able to nearly instantly functionally and momentarily rid ourselves of the outfit, even without placing it in either of our inventories. As soon as I was out of view of any humans I dropped the bag into my shadow, invisible in the larger shadow of the alleyway. My shadow greedily devoured the bag.
Even that was a performance. I had an auric ability thanks to my powers over trickery that would have allowed me to simply place the bag in my shadow and cause no one to question me, but I didn't feel like activating my power for such a mundane purpose.
As I finished disposing of the bag, at least for the moment, I began to wonder about something. Something related to Sombra. As soon as she and I were about to begin to continue to explore the city, I asked my pet something.
"Sombra... What do you want?" I asked her. I could have looked into her soul, but I wanted the creature to talk to me. I wanted her to use her words to articulate her desires. She tilted her head curiously and thought for a moment before beginning to give me an answer as we continued our walk throughout the city.
"Hmm... I am not very sure myself. Meeting you totally upended my life, and I don't mean that in a negative way but it's the truth." Sombra told me, speaking with unusual frankness. I didn't mind it and I didn't reprimand her for it either.
"Before we met I was actively malicious. I was a servant of Agustino, though he knew and knows nothing about me now." She said, continuing on from before after I didn't reprimand her for being so frank.
"Now... Now I am still evil, and still chaotic, but I feel less connected to the sin, or rather to the vice, that once had an enormous effect on my soul. Thanks to your powers I don't need to be envious of mortals and other creatures with solid bodies. And because of that I am free." She said, smiling as she spoke.
"I chose to serve you, as do other members of my specific type of demon, because you have freed us from the perpetual envy that we once felt. All of us felt, and those of us who have yet to feel your touch, who have yet to experience your gift of shadow-shaping, still feel, a constant, maddening envy aimed at those who still have bodies." Sombra explained, revealing for the first time why her personal vice was that of envy.
"Now, freed from that sin, it is easy for me to control my baser impulses. That allows me to seem quite tame, and probably even almost neutral, rather than evil. That said, I am deeply... in love, with you, master. Or at least I think I am. Love is an emotion that is not quite natural for me, but I believe that what I feel towards you is love." She said, speaking earnestly and from her heart. And she was in love with me. I knew it, as a god of love. But I wasn't about to say anything right now and ruin the mood that I had inadvertently created by asking her what she wanted.
"What I feel towards you drives me to want to be by your side. It drives me to want to see your will enacted and the vision you have for reality brought about. I want to be your servant, your pet, one that one day you entrust with even greater power." She told me, speaking gently as we made our through the streets of Ireland, hand in hand.
"Many of my fellow praereptor demons worship you as a demon-lord-to-be of darkness. They see you as their savior, and they wish to plunge all that exists into darkness for you. While there is something to be said of their eagerness and fanaticism, I know you better than that. I know you better than they ever could. I know you seek power. I know you do not limit yourself. I want to become a tool of yours that you use to acquire greater power." Sombra told me, and for a moment I sensed a remnant of her old sense of envy show up.
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My pet demoness was proud that she knew me better than the praereptors who lived in Dunkelheit did. She was a bit envious of the simplicity of their lives, but more than anything else she felt a sense of keen superiority compared to the praereptors who thought they understood my desires.
Sombra was correct in her assessment of me though. She knew me well, in her own way. She knew that I sought power over all things, and I was fond of her desire.
"Your answer is good. And I know that you are not lying. How excellent." I said, speaking simply. I was also telling the truth. I had a few means to tell when I was being lied too, and the most useful was whenever I received a notification from the subdomain of lies. Sombra's words did not trigger any such notification.
"You are one of my most prized servants. You are my dear pet, and I seek to rise you up. I wish to transform you into a demon lord. As I become a demon god, I shall make you into a demon lord of obedience, submission, and servitude." I stated, simply.
I was also being honest with her, those were my intentions for my pet. And as I spoke to Sombra, I gained a wicked idea. One that filled me with delight.
"I may not possess such a power at this very moment, but I can do something worth doing. Sombra... I, a deity of nobility and empires, grant you a divine mandate." I stated, which caused Sombra's eyes to widen in shock, and also caused a ray of brilliant light to begin to shine down on us. The instant that happened I activated my "aura of normalcy", and also tried to pass it onto Sombra. To my pleasant surprise it worked, and no one gave us or the light that was brilliantly shining down on us a second look.
"Master... What are you doing?" She asked, an excited yet surprised grin on her face as she spoke to me. I smiled at her and began to reply the second she was done asking her question.
"Sombra... From the moment I gave you your body you've been a loyal servant of mine. I have made you into the first noble in my empire, as a way to show something I've shown to others like Paimon: I reward loyal service. And by giving you a position as a noble, you now possess the means to be ensure treatment that you deserve by anyone who is a loyal servant and worshiper of mine." I stated, happy to reward my most loyal and frevent worshiper. Sombra hugged me tighter with each word I spoke. As she hugged me her hand began to glow.
Sombra hissed in pain for a second, sharply exhaling, as a mark embedded itself on her skin. She moved her hand so that she could see it, and practically purred in delight when she saw that it was a symbol of a black sun. The symbol resembled a tattoo.
"What a symbol." She muttered, looking at the symbol in astonishment and joy. Tears formed in her eyes, but didn't quite begin to stream down her face.
I held onto Sombra for a bit longer, before I let go of her and took her hand again. When I did I chuckled and led her to a restaurant not far from where we were, all while making use of some of my powers. Within minutes of making Sombra a noble we found ourselves dealing with a maitre d.
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An elegantly dressed man stood behind a lectern. He had well-coifed black hair, was dressed in a simple, yet tasteful suit, and was glaring at me and at Sombra.
"Hello. May I have your name?" He asked, his voice containing an unsubtle edge of anger but as I sensed his mood I could tell he was just an angry individual in general.
"My name is Althos. I made a reservation for today at 1:30." I told the man, lying. That said while on the way here I had utilized my powers over technology and made my lie into something resembling the truth. We did have reservations, and they were for 1:30, but I had not made them. Not really. They were a product of my powers over technology.
The man looked at me oddly when I said my name, but he dutifully did his job and checked the small machine he had hidden behind the lectern, which displayed all upcoming reservations. His eyebrows raised in curiosity when he saw my name listed as one of the reservations, but he wouldn't delve too deeply into it.
"Alright sir, your table is right this way." The maitre d told me, before stepping out from behind his lectern and beginning to walk through the restaurant. We stepped into the dining room of a high class establishment, the sort where every person has a personal chef who serves them throughout their time at the establishment.
Sombra studied the restaurant as we made our way through it, her eyes swiftly watching each of the current customers and the chefs. I myself was relaxed, and I was formulating bits and pieces of a plan, a final, fun gift for the world of Salifinos, one that I could leave it while I returned to the Heart of Darkness and became a truly terrifying higher being of evil.
Within a minute or two Sombra and I found ourselves seated at a large table on a private floor of the restaurant. We were at a large table, one with many seats, and for now it was just the two of us. That wouldn't stay the case.
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I had come up with a fun plot while walking through the restaurant. It was a simple enough one to enact, for all it truly required from me, for now, was the usage of some conjuration, some alteration, and my powers over emotions and lust.
Sombra studied the menu while I began to enact my scheme. I swiftly utilized some spontaneous conjuration magic and a second after I did that the empty seats that surrounded our long table began to be filled by a respectable number of hauntingly beautiful and eerily handsome creatures: succubi and incubi. Sombra kept studying the menu while this was happening, and she sensed her fellow demons but she paid them no mind.
In the past I might have been nervous about doing something like this. Prior to my acquisition of the second tier of influence over the conjuration subdomain my conjuration abilities did not automatically subjugate those I summoned so summoning so many creatures at once would have been dangerous. However, that changed when I gained the second tier of influence over the subdomain, as I acquired an ability called "Dominance and Love" which made summoned creatures submit to me, and maybe even fall in love with me.
Indeed, the instant that my minions appeared their eyes were filled with lust, love, and fascination, and turned to face me with fawning looks on their faces. I smiled at them and wanted to laugh. I was looking at something quite exciting.
"Hello. My name is Althos and I am the prince of plagues. And from today on, you all are my servants." I stated, arrogantly but also factually. My powers over love washed over the demons, and I intended to brook no disagreements. Most of their eyes momentarily transformed into hearts, as my powers filled them love for me and washed away any traces of love they felt towards others.
"Your first mission is to aid the abominations in the world of Salifinos, which I seek to transform into a nightmarish playground for horrors and for evil. And to do that... Begin by coming to me and kissing me." I commanded, utilizing a fel-array of powers to cause each and every one of the demons present, aside from Sombra, to become obsessed with me.
The demons swiftly got out of their chairs and lined up in front of me. In a matter of moments the first one of them, a tall incubus named Greyon was the first in the line. He approached me and then kneeled in front of me so that I wouldn't need to stand. I chuckled and wrapped my arms around his broad torso, pulling him close to me and bringing his lips to mine.
His lips were hard and cold, and though the creature was a massive being practically made of muscle, in my arms he was basically putty. As I kissed him my powers over love grabbed his heart and wrung it dry of any love he felt for others, before filling it with love for me. As I kissed him I also placed my hands on his back, and began to infect him with an assortment of maladies.
The demon was quite attractive, and I planned to use that attractiveness to my advantage. Incubi were seducers, though they were also powerfully masculine creatures of desire and violence. I made the diseases that plagued him asymptomatic, though I had the power to change that at any time. When I released him from my arms and pulled my lips away from his I smiled at him.
"Go forth and spread the gift I just gave to you, to mortals." I commanded, even as I caused a golden ring to appear on his ring finger. The demon's mind was flooded with information, as I poured knowledge into him. He was quite dimwitted but he would do as he was told.
The demon, dazed and confused, but with a wide grin on his face, lifted his hand and pointed using his ring-finger. A second later a portal appeared leading into a darkened forest. The demon eagerly stepped through it, happy to see my will be done.
The second demon in line was a succubus. She was a short brunette with an admirable chest and copper colored skin. She also knelt before me and crawled until she was close enough that I could pull her to me and intertwine our lips. She moaned into my mouth as my powers over love did the exact same thing to her that they had to the incubus.
I began to infect her with various diseases as well, choosing many of the same as I had infected the incubus with. The one difference was that her diseases were under her control. She had much higher intelligence than the incubus had had, and I wanted to give her greater power to reflect that. She felt the diseases nestle within her, but also seek her commands, and she smiled against my kiss. I sensed her smile and spoke directly into her mind.
"I sense your intelligence. It is of course nothing compared to mine, not even a distant star in the vast and incomprehensible universe of my mind, but it is significant enough, that I can use it. I have given you the ability to command the diseases lurking within you. Use that power that I have given you well enough and you may become the princess of plagues, serving me directly and infecting entire worlds in my name." I told her, my mind's voice effortlessly audible to the demoness.
I began to play with her, pulling her close to me and even taking her hands and placing them on my groin. The creature moaned in delight as she began to play with my body. Her hands swiftly found my member underneath my clothes and began to feel me even over my pants.
The next few minutes were spent doing this with various demons and demonesses. By the time the last member of the contagion court, the name for this new cult of demons and plagues, had gone to inflict chaos, nearly half an hour had passed. Sombra and I ordered a nice meal, and once we were done eating I paid our bill and then walked Sombra and I over to an alleyway.
In that alleyway I created a single, simple portal. A portal to the Heart of Darkness. It was time that Sombra and I go and finish our war against Agustino.