A few minutes after Troik's arrival, I looked at the little goblin and readied myself to tell him the truth. I knew that if I didn't handle this delicately it might be unnecessarily complicated, so I took a second to steady myself and prepare to deliver some bad news, and then some great news.

I closed my eyes, while still patting Troik, and channeled my inner divine voice. As soon as I felt confident in my ability to channel the sort of pride I felt gods ought to show, I spoke telepathically to Troik, pretending to be Cosecha.

"Hello little one." I said, politely greeting the tiny creature. I quickly heard a loud and energetic reply from the little guy. The goblin turned and looked in Cosecha's direction, before swiftly letting go of me and dashing over to stand where the creature was facing.

"Hello Cosecha! How are you?" He asked, speaking eagerly as if to an old friend. I smiled, though Troik didn't notice this as the tiny goblin was now a bit away from me.

"I am well. How are you?" I asked, curiously. I wondered how the goblin had slept and what time my friend had awoken. It was now mid-morning, and the day was gradually progressing, even if it felt like today had dragged on for a bit.

I wondered about my friend would respond to my question. I thought and hoped that the tiny goblin was having a good day, but I also considered the real possibility that he wasn't. It'd make sense for him to be scared, and would in fact be wise for him to be. Troik considered my question for a second before answering it honestly.

"I'll be honest with you Cosecha... I'm scared." The green fellow confessed. This surprised me, but not entirely. I mean I hadn't expected a solid admission of fear from the creature, but I was expecting the guy to be afraid.

On my first day of life, I had encountered him far from the other goblins, alone and stuck in a trap. I rescued him, but shortly afterward a demon that was possessing him revealed itself and fled, taking him with it. I was able to free him from the demon's ability to control him, but the demon itself has lingered in him. Today, in the next few minutes even, I planned to change that.

"It's okay to be afraid Troik. But today is the day you get your life back. Today is the day we defeat this creature and drive it out of you, once and for all." I explained, speaking as Cosecha and informing the goblin as to the plan.

Based on what I had been told about demons earlier and the fact that it seemed that I was about to have a confrontation with a demon I was able to make an inference as to what would happen when I cured the disease: the demon possessing my friend would likely be expelled from Troik. When that happened it'd most likely fall on me to either defeat the thing or trick others into thinking I had beaten it.

"Cosecha" looked at Troik and made eye-contact with him. The two were silent for a moment before Cosecha began to mentally speak once more.

"When you're ready I'm going to cure you of the demonic infection you're suffering from. I won't do it until you're ready though, so take your time. This will mark the first time I've cured someone of a magical disease, so I want you to feel comfortable and be ready when I do." I explained, to a gently nodding Troik.

The goblin went ahead and sat down. And then he mentally spoke to me. His message was simple. "I'm ready. I'm ready to be cured. To be freed. Please." He told me, asking for his freedom. I smiled and mentally messaged my elven allies and my dryadic high-priestess.

"It's time. Ready yourselves. I don't want anyone else to be at risk. I don't fully know what'll happen when I cure Troik of the disease he's suffering from, a demonic infection. I suspect that when I do that the demon that has forced Troik's body to accommodate it will be expelled. If it is I intend to destroy it." I explained, informing everyone present aside from the trees I had animated of the uncertainty of the next few moments.

Raiz backed up, looking to me to keep her safe. The elves stood up and backed up. Farrane rose her hands in the direction of the goblin, and Calorron put his hands on his bow. I could sense that they were ready for violence. I chuckled but did so quietly enough that they didn't notice.

I waited a second before I activated my power. I double-checked on my allies, they looked more ready than ever. With a smile on my face I quietly targeted Troik, and activated my ability to cure diseases. I watched as radiant energy washed over the goblin, bathing him in resplendent light.

Troik began to shake, his body vibrating violently. My companions tensed up, and I readied myself for whatever was about to happen. As Troik shook, I noticed that there was a relieved smile on his face. And then I received a welcome notification.

---

I read through the notification and it vanished right as Troik suddenly stopped vibrating. The timing was perfect because at the moment that Troik stopped vibrating, the light that protectively covered his body flowed out of him and was replaced with the deepest darkness I had ever seen.

Troik's entire body was momentarily covered in pitch-black darkness, making him look like a goblin-shaped silhouette. The darkness only covered him for a moment though, and the strange substance quickly poured onto the floor at his feet, pooling onto the grass he was sitting beside.

I immediately focused on the darkness and extended my mind towards it. When I did I felt that the darkness possessed a consciousness, something I knew but was happy to have confirmed anyway, and that I could establish contact with it. And at that moment I knew that I had a decision to make. But before I did anything else I immediately did two things.

One of the things I did was bathe the demon in an intense, holy light that I radiated outward from Cosecha's fabricated form, to see if that forcibly stunned it. It appeared too because the thing suddenly shook like it had had just endured a terrible attack. I suppose in a way it might have.

And at the same time, I pulled the earth on which the creature resided into the air. I was trying to limit its movement, and I was able to do everything fast enough that it couldn't react to my actions in time to escape.

While the monster was stunned I mentally spoke to my allies. I sent everyone a quick message and then teleported away all while creating an illusionary Althos out of manipulated light. My message was simple.

"I'm gonna go deal with this creature. Give me a moment and I'll be back." I told them, my mental voice filled with authority and power, tolerating no dissent or back-talk. They were silent in response to my words, and I smiled as I took the creature to my underground lair.

---

In an instant, I and the creature vanished from the view of my allies. We covered a distance of several kilometers and reappeared within an empty room located inside of the subterranean tower I had constructed last night.

The creature was still stunned by the suddenness of the past few moments, and the power of the holy light I bathed it in so it didn't try to fight back against me yet. I had at least a few moments to think and make an important choice.

"What should I do?" I asked myself. I knew that the demon in front of me didn't stand a chance if I opted to destroy it or at least banish it to its native dimension since I could control light and holy energy. A part of me was tempted to do that after all the thing had sort of been my very first enemy.

Another part of me wanted to see if the creature had the wisdom to serve me. I knew it was a sentient being, the thing had spoken to me when I first met and rescued Troik and it had also sent monsters after me. If it did, I could imagine at least a few ways the thing could be useful.

One thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to talk to the thing. I had some knowledge, but what I knew was mostly limited to my own limited life experience and things about domains. I could imagine that the thing was privy to all manners of knowledge. I wanted to talk to it, and learn some of that knowledge before I harmed it, if it ended up coming to that.

While I waited for the creature to regain its senses and begin to talk to me, I asked the domain of knowledge what I was looking at. I received an answer right away.

"Well, Althos... what you're looking at is a demon hyper-specialized in possession. And more than that... it's a sort of demon whose blood is used in making conjuration circles. These demons exist to do two things: bring more of their kind to mortal worlds, and to pave the way for demonic invasions." Said the domain of knowledge, sounding shocked by this. And that was further explained by the system, who spoke next.

[Althos what you're looking at is a praereptor demon, the first kind of demon sent either by the forces of the Heart of Darkness, or their mortal allies. This demon is... a scout. Its existence here is a significant development.] The system told me, sounding rather perturbed by this. And it wasn't quite done talking just yet. After a few moments of silence, it added something to its thoughts.

[If you opt to banish the thing, make sure you learn everything you can from it. Take your time extracting the truth from the thing before you return it to its home dimension. Who knows what this thing knows...] The system urged, still sounding uncommonly serious.

The demon began to groan painfully. I chuckled and looked at it, as it began to regain some sort of coherence. It was still a puddle of darkness, but now it had thoroughly covered the entire surface on which I had trapped it. I opened my mouth and began to speak.

"Hello! Do you remember me? When we last met you said I'd 'pay' if we saw each other again." I told the once arrogant demon I had captured. The thing began to make a sound that wasn't unlike water suddenly turning into steam. At that moment I linked our consciousnesses and spoke to it mentally.

"You'll find that you can now send me mental messages. And I recommend you do. You and I need to have a chat." I told the thing, speaking into its mind. I waited a few seconds and then got a mental message back.

"Well... hello 'Althos'. I don't know what you are but something tells me that you're about to tell me, aren't you?" The thing asked, its mental voice sounding surprisingly deep and unsurprisingly filled with malice. I couldn't help but smile. It was right.

"You're smart! That's a good sign. You're gonna need that intelligence to get through the next few minutes." I replied, speaking to the praereptor demon while staring at the steadily churning demonic puddle in front of me.

And then I considered how to best inform it as to what I was. The fact that I was less sure than ever as to what I was didn't help me out here. After thinking for a few moments I just sighed and told the demon what I had considered myself my whole life.

"Well, I am a god. I am a god of chaos and of lust." I told the demon. It went still when I said this, genuinely shocked at what I told it. I couldn't help but chuckle, because before now the thing had been active, milling about atop the pile of soil it had been forced onto.

"Are you being serious?" The thing asked, its mental voice calm now but also filled with a quiet fear. I smiled at it and nodded.

"I am a four-day-old god. I am chaotic neutral, and among other things, I possess the ability to control lust and cause chaos. And here's the thing... I don't need to destroy or even banish you. I do have things I need, but we needn't be enemies." I told the demon.

I silently activated my "Religious fervor" power, generating a soft blue tint that quickly spread throughout the lonely room we occupied. I felt the demon stiffen as it waited for me to speak more. And so I obliged it.

"I am not a bad guy. I am also not a good guy. I don't want to be just bad or good. I want to be neutral. And part of that means having good and evil servants. So here's what I propose. I propose you answer any questions I have and serve me, and I don't banish you. And here's the thing... you're gonna tell me what I want to know, one way or another." I told the demon, speaking confidently. The demon responded to me, after taking a few seconds to think about what to say.

"You really are a god aren't you? That would explain why you were able to cure Troix's disease and how you effectively trapped me in his body, leaving me powerless, for days..." The demon exclaimed, despair sneaking into its voice as it did so.

I grinned at it, not feeling bad about the fact that my first enemy was now experiencing despair because it now knew the truth about me. The creature had possessed and terrified Troik at least once, and now it was my prisoner. I felt powerful at this moment, and that was a nice feeling.

"I really am a god. And now the time has come for you to make your choice. How do you want to tell me what I want to know?" I asked the thing.

"Do you want to do it willingly, maybe even pleasantly, or will you stubbornly resist and allow me to have the fun that comes with tearing what I want to know out of you?" I wondered. I was telling a light lie, as I didn't want to torture the creature, but I didn't tell it that. I was happy to allow it to be afraid.

I watched any courage the creature possessed melt away in that instant. The puddle of darkness seemed to deflate, and I knew at that moment that the thing was going to surrender and submit to me. For a moment I wondered about how to truly cement its loss. And a wicked idea came to my mind.

Opening the list of corruption powers I possessed took me but a second. And as I did, I wondered about which of my abilities would be the best to use against the demon to ensure it surrendered all of its secrets to me.

Reading through that list made me smile. And it filled my head with a wicked idea.

---

"I don't have to use my full power on this demon." I realized, as I considered how to best subjugate the frightened creature. I wanted the demon to spill its secrets to me, and I could tell that it wouldn't be difficult for me.

"Besides... eventually I'll have to practice with my powers. If I'm careful, and I just kiss it that should be enough to calm it down and dominate it." I assured myself, seeing in this an opportunity to safely practice my corruptive abilities, on an already thoroughly corrupt being. This was my best chance to see my corruption-powers in practice. And I might as well take it.

I walked over to the thing and shot my hand into the puddle of oil-like ooze. It felt gross around my hand, and I could feel the creature's "body" coiling around my appendage but the monster didn't dare attack me. I dug around the puddle, searching for something like a head.

It took about a minute of exploring the puddle before my hand grabbed something I could hold onto. I yanked it out of the rest of the darkness with a soft grunt and the application of a bit of force.

"Ahh!" The demon shouted, screaming in pain as I forcibly pulled what ended up being its actual, incorporeal head out of the inky darkness that comprised the rest of its body.

When I was done yanking its head out of its collapsed body, I immediately approached it and kissed its ethereal cheek. I smiled as I received and read a quick notification following my the peck I laid on the demon's cheek.

[Influence over Sombra: .00001]

The demon immediately stopped yelling, as its mind was inundated with my power. I chuckled as I felt the demon's mind try to shake off my influence, but I didn't intend to let it do so so easily. Instead, I began to speak to the creature.

"What are you doing? Do you want this to be unpleasant?" I asked it, infusing my voice with power and envisioning my "Velvet voice" power seeping into the demon's mind. I grinned as I felt the creature's resistance begin to weaken, as the creature began to consider what I was saying.

"I am a lord of lust and I am offering you something I don't often offer my enemies. A chance at a pleasant experience." I told it, shortly before activating a power I had never activated before: "A sensual lie". I watched as the demon considered my words, and felt a bit of its fear begin to dissipate as the demon fell for what it felt were the sexual implications of my lie.

I let go of the demon's head and stopped holding it in a contained sphere of holy light causing the room we were in to darken as darkness invaded and reasserted its dominion.

The demonic puddle was still for a second, aside from the demon's head slowly being pulled back into it. When the puddle was whole and uniform, it dripped onto the floor of the room and the demon's form began to change. Over the course of the next few seconds, the demon ceased being a puddle of oil-like darkness and reshaped itself into the shape of a naked, and muscular humanoid.

I studied it as it did this, unafraid of the thing, and waited to see if it'd give itself some clear sex organs. I was a bit surprised when it didn't. I wasn't disappointed though. It was an incorporeal demon, so I hadn't really expected its gender to be clear at a glance. That said, when the thing was fully formed I spoke again.

"Hi there. For the next few minutes, you're mine. How pleasantly you want to do this is really up to you, but let me assure you I get my way in the end." I told the demon, acting how I believe a god, an embodiment of power, should act in this situation. The demon looked at me, and there was a strange expression on its face. I studied it for a second.

The creature's face was made of some sort of translucent, smoke-like darkness. I could clearly make out facial features, like colorless eyes, lips, a nose, and ears, but I could also see all the way through its head. It was a bizarre sight.

The rest of the demon's body was made of the sort of darkness someone could find underground, a frightening sort of absolute darkness that absorbed all light. That darkness was modeled after the shape of a humanoid complete with a vague mimicry of human muscles, and the demon was evidently very fit.

The expression on the demon's face was a dazed one. It was one of pleasant shock and anticipation. I chuckled, aware that the demon was now having to deal with a number of powers and was almost certainly losing.

I opted to ensure that the thing lost. I took a few steps to draw close to it, and I put my hands on its face. The incorporeal shadow-stuff that made up its face solidified when I brought my hands close to it, and I was able to pull the demon towards me, until the thing was in my arms. I chuckled as I brought its face to mine and pulled its smokey lips to my own.

Our lips lightly touched and I felt the demon exhale, its breath entering my mouth. It was now in the middle of the process of surrendering to my power, having lost the fight to resist the will-eroding effects of my corruptive abilities. I grinned as we kissed, enjoying the sensation of the demon becoming mine as its strength and willpower flood into me.

"That's it..." I whispered as I pulled back from the kiss, a smile on my lips. I received a number of notifications, but I didn't let them distract me. I kept my eyes glued on the demon I was going to extract information from, and watched as the demon's willpower faded from its eyes.

"Now for the real fun..." I whispered, my voice taking on a surprisingly seductive undertone. I hadn't intended for that to happen, but it was to my benefit so I didn't question it.

The demon even began to blush and a quick read of its mind revealed that it was filling with musings about the sort of pleasures that a god of lust could cause it to feel. That made me laugh. It wasn't the one who'd be having fun.

I lightly kissed it again, and immediately caused the thing to become addicted to my kisses. I ignored the unhappy sigh that the demon made when our lips parted. This was, after all, me beginning the process of permanently securing its servitude. And this cause the system to send me a message.

[Well, well... Is this the beginning of you walking towards becoming a demon lord? I don't disapprove. This has caused the domain of evil to allow you to take its quest. It'll be worth taking when you're done here. Now have fun.] The system haughtily told me, smugness audible in its voice. I grinned and readied myself to learn the demon's secrets.

The first thing I did to begin to do that? I quietly activated my knowledge-based powers and began to learn all about the creature in my arms.