----------------------------------------

I think the party went really well.

I spoke to Akira and her summoned hero, introduced my orc-god roommate to my demons, and started setting up the next invasion! All in all, it was a very productive use of my time.

Now, I think it's time to start working on some of those demons for the new invasion. I’ll start with–

Hold on. I’m receiving a call.

Great one, I dare not ask for another boon, but I pray to you. I fear the isolation I will face alone here, and I had found companions among the guests of the celebration. May they visit me here, among the empty stars and planets?

. . .

. . . I mean, as long as they don’t interfere with it I guess. I’ll just send a letter or a dream or something telling them. As long as they’re there I’ll make them just as invisible, immaterial, and uninteractable as Avai is.

I have a pretty good idea of who these ‘companions’ are, so it won’t be hard. I might not be all-seeing, but the celebration was a small enough area that I could keep a close eye on almost everything that happened there.

Okay. Now on to working on the demons.

The planet chosen was an interesting one, with certain compositional traits that require almost a full overhaul of the entire demonic army. Land-based forces are much more situational, so I’ll start there. Last time I had left the anatomy and makeup of the lesser demons to a mix of high-speed evolution and input from their commanding generals, but I can’t do that here. At least, not entirely.

I’ll set some parameters for their development, and some extra functions for fun. Starting with scouts. Before, they would generally move in packs, and send individuals back to ‘report’ whatever they were observing. Too inefficient, not to mention boring! Moving in packs is fine for assault groups, but scouts need to be individual. It's more stealthy that way. I’ll designate ‘lookout’ demons, alongside a biological ‘radio’ they can use to transmit information back to their general using high-powered electrical signals. To make them more fair, they will generally be more fragile, but also faster and more intelligent.

I’ll also make a framework for ‘supporting’ demons. The kind that isn’t a big threat on its own, but will make any group fight hell itself. Healing other demons, temporarily blinding adventurers, basically anything to make the lives of adventurers harder without outright killing them.

. . . Actually, I think I know how to fix shades now. . .

They’ve been kinda useless up to now. The most they’ve done is give me Avai, and he isn’t even a shade anymore.

And . . . there. Now shades will do what they were already doing– whispering maddening thoughts in the heads of whoever would listen– as well as seek out and steal important memories, change dreams to nightmares, and generally menace anyone who wants to get things done.

Wait, this is reminding me of my dream demons! I had almost forgotten!

Oh never mind, they’re doing fine. They’ve even developed a strangely peaceful society, at least compared to material demons.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

. . . Dream demons and shades are really similar, aren’t they? Makes me wonder if I should just make them the same thing or not.

Eh, whatever. I’ll just make dream demons a more ever-present creeping threat as opposed to the material demon’s occasional jump-out-of-the-fog threat. The kind that being alert to the danger is their worst enemy, and that being ignorant of is the best ally. I’m not aiming for them to be worthy of a hero-summoning on their own, just worthy of a church-led crusade into invaded kingdoms to free the townsfolk.

Give them the ability to open gates into the universe, and boom! All done there!

. . . I’ve lost my train of thought.

Oh right, the invasion!

Also among the new demon designs, I’ll slip in some more ranged attackers. These are demons, so of course they’re mostly going to be fire-based– fireballs, flamethrowers, etcetera– but I’ll also use some more. . . unique. . . abilities, since fire isn’t all that effective given the environment of the planet the invasion will be on.

Abilities like a protrusion on the body that suddenly shoots outward to spear or smash an opponent before retracting so it can be used again! Or super-sharp, fast-growing spine-like hairs that can be launched like arrows!

I’ll add more humanoid lesser demons with dexterous hands to allow for complex manipulation of objects, I’ll give demons acidic blood, I’ll let demons change their coloration for camouflage, and I'll even increase their intelligence and lower their durability across the board so they can come up with plans on the fly, but are easier to kill to compensate.

Excellent! These demons will perform far better than the last batch! Now that that’s done, let's move on to the star of the show: Bring in the demon king!

I could reuse the soul from the last demon king, snatching it away from whatever it reincarnated as and shoving it into this new form, but that would take away its connection to the first hero. If I did that, it’d just be another soul, and that’s not interesting at all. The basic framework of an enormous demon of immense power will stay the same, but it will otherwise be very different.

The first demon king was a physical powerhouse that blazed a path throughout the central continent of Asyke leaving behind a trail of destruction, followed in its wake by hordes of the undead.

The second demon king won’t be like that. It’ll be a walking disaster: the eye of the hurricane, the center of the invasion it carries with it. I won’t describe it to you in detail, but it is a twisted creature perfect for the environment it was created to invade. It will be dreaded by all who hear of it, a whispered legend feared long after its defeat.

. . .

Alright, enough of that. I never thought of myself a poet.

I've been thinking of making another Milky Way galaxy. I’ve got the original and the still-developing terran galaxy, but I kinda want a third to play with.

. . . Or do I just want to play with alternate Earths, not necessarily the galaxy as a whole?

I could make a galaxy identical to the Milky Way, fill it with dozens of Earths, and diverge them into whatever I want. I could have a fantasy earth, a sci-fi earth, whatever I want or feel like. Infinite stories, and infinite worlds to be altered to my nonexistent-heart’s content.

I could plop it into the universe to mess with Akira if she ever finds it, or I could just cast it into my void and surround it with a fake universe backdrop so the inhabitants can’t tell the difference.

Having a personal playground to mess around in would mean that I wouldn’t be stressing Akira out as much. Of course, that also means I’ll be more bored. Messing with her is fun.

But I can just make another Akira placeholder that I can screw with! I could give them fake memories to make them think they’ve existed since forever, or reincarnate some poor sop and force them to take the role, or just throw a blank slate into it and see what happens! I could keep up the mysterious villain ploy, or pretend to be their assistant, or whatever else occurs to me in the moment. Plus If I ever get bored with how things are going there, I can reach in and swap some things around, or just reset the whole thing.

It’s not a bad idea.

Hmmm. . .

Well, I’ll think about it. Back to designing demons.

----------------------------------------