Reading about my new servant brought a smile to my face. It turned out that manipulating the creature would be easier than I had anticipated 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.

---

"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 god, 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 god. 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 snatched 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 assumed was the closest dark-elven city.

I found myself standing in the large cavern I had excavated using my power over soil, stone, and dirt last night. Where I stood was roughly in the middle of this massive cavern, and I allowed myself a brief moment with which to admire my own handiwork.

The cavern that surrounded me was utterly gigantic. It was several times wider than all of Comillas and was perhaps a twentieth of the total length of the forest under which it was located. It wasn't shaped in any particularly unnatural way, rather I merely wanted it to be massive, to give me a wide amount of space to work with. I had succeeded in that regard.

It was eerily illuminated by my own powers, specifically by my ability to generate light. I kept the place illuminated because I wasn't comfortable in total darkness, an odd idiosyncrasy that I and the domains felt was probably due to the beginning of my life being a period I spent in darkness.

The glow that allowed sight-possessing visitors who relied on light to see was a powerful and seemingly sourceless one, but for a moment out of curiosity I looked at a corner of the cavern and willed the light to vanish. Only the area I was looking at was abruptly bathed in darkness, and after a few seconds, I allowed the light I created in this chamber to refill the darkened place. I turned my attention back to the matter at hand.

My shadow was inhabited by a strange demon, a creature known as a praereptor demon. I closed my eyes and allowed my not-so-mini-map to consume my vision.

The gigantic map had only recently stopped expanding. The "mini-map" that my "Tremor-sense" power had granted me was no longer a mini-map and now could be more accurately described as a sprawling thing, one that even in its miniaturized form informed me of every step taken by the several million inhabitants of Puerto Rico.

Studying either the miniaturized map or its more expansive form filled my heart with a powerful tug of ambition. I could see numerous locations filled with enough life for them to obviously be settlements of some sort that happened to be populated by sapient creatures. Only a few of those were located on the island's surface.

Of the surface settlements, there was the city of San Gerardo, Comillas, the goblin tribe, a tribe of orcs, a number of satyrs and gnomes, a tribe of creatures called hyenoids, a small group of ogres and a final group of creatures called kobolds.

The surface was also inhabited by a handful of creatures who lived alone, or in pairs. Those included things like a solitary rusalka, an aquatic elf who lived along the coast furthest from San Gerardo, a single hag who lived in a clearing in the forest, and a handful of other apparently lonely creatures.

Unlike the number of settlements above the ground, there were many settlements of creatures who lived underneath the island. Of the living creatures dwarves, dark elves, driders, grave giants, gugs, reptilefolk, and insects dwelled in massive colonies or other communities. Many kinds of deceased creatures could be found underneath the island as well, of assorted kinds of creatures.

Something that surprised me was that there were few solitary creatures who lived underneath Puerto Rico. The ancient black dragon dwelled in what appeared to be a massive underground cavity, relatively alone aside from the company of small, unintelligent creatures like worms and other bottom-feeders.

Other solitary, subterranean creatures included a creature classified as a "Shadowfolk", a single "Maddened-man", and a handful of other creatures with bizarre names. In time I'd turn my full attention to them.

For now, for the first time, I turned my full attention to one of the two cities of dark elves located underneath Puerto Rico. One was located not far from where my lair was located, and another was located further away from human civilization.

Both had a fair number of kilometers separating them, and a number of other settlements between them as well. I turned my attention to the one closest to me. I studied it, and carefully scrutinized what I could learn from my powerful "Tremor-sense".

And when I felt as prepared as I could I quietly teleported myself to a momentarily uninhabited tunnel that led in and out of the city, my shadow carrying my newest minion along for the ride.

I found myself inside a pitch-black tunnel. Off in the distance, much to my surprise, I could see a gentle glow that provided the strange city of dark-elves I was intent on visiting with something surprising: a source of insignificant, yet noticeable light. It drew my eyes, and so I hurled myself forward so that I could get a better look at it.

I sped through the tunnel, reveling in one of my odder abilities: the ability to move at the speed of light and found myself at the edge of a ledge overlooking the city. Thanks to that power I moved through the length of the tunnel at a speed exceeding the speed of sound.

In a span of time that took less than a heartbeat, I had gone from inside of my lair to standing on a ledge admiring something I had never seen before: a city.

---

What stretched out before me was a gigantic city. It inhabited a cavern more than three times the size of the cavern my lair was located in. The top of the cavern was so high in the subterranean cave the city was located in, I had to stretch my neck upwards to see it. It wasn't anywhere near the edge of my vision but it was still several kilometers high.

The buildings that made up the city were carved from stone but it wasn't the same stone that I trodded on with each step I took. The stone I was walking atop was a dark, coarse stone, but the stones that made up the dark elven cityscape before me were multihued and were partially responsible for the light that faintly drifted upwards and provided the city with the weak glow that made sight difficult, but possible within the city.

I could see differently sized buildings throughout the city, and they were all harshly made, with a clear focus on functionality rather than any sort of focus on decor or aesthetics. They varied in color but the larger buildings, by and large, were made from stones with darker hues and thus were made all the harsher on the eyes, requiring someone to squint to see them properly.

Some of the buildings stood out even at a glance. The one that stood out the most was a building that sat within and then expanded out of a depression on the cavern's floor. This building was a large one, which stretched upwards into the cavernous sky that loomed above the city. It was inhabited by many people, all of whom were dark-elves.

The city had countless inhabitants but not all of them were dark-elves. Many were, several thousand of the place's inhabitants were members of the race I had come here seeking to make contact with, though others weren't. I could sense humans, dwarves, elves of other kinds, and a number of other races within and throughout the city.

Another building that stood out to me wasn't a building in the traditional sense but was instead an impressive arena. From there I could hear the sounds of combat, and of audiences reacting to bloodsport. The noises coming from the arena were, in fact, some of the loudest noises I could hear.

I ignored the arena for now and focused instead on the gigantic building that sat in the depression. I studied it, and wondered what it was for a few moments before ultimately deciding to use a power I had never used before to get a good look at it and actually learn about it: "Peruse the past".

I targeted the building and then willed my power to activate. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a notification that gave me a great deal to consider.

I considered what to do first, but a part of me, that ambitious spark located deep in my soul that salivated at the thought of building a subterranean empire, was fully awake now. And that part desired for me to stop by the building known as the morthonian mansion and see what sort of mischief I could raise there. I grinned and began my descent into the city.

I did so by taking several steps forward. My final step forward saw me step off the ledge I was standing atop of and beginning a careful, controlled descent to the ground far below me thanks to my light manipulation ability. This caused me to get another pleasant notification.

Explained the system, bringing a wide grin to my face as it did so.

"I see we're using the word 'fly' very loosely." I excitedly and somewhat sarcastically muttered, even as I began my continued my downwards descent into the darkened depths of the city's lowest levels. I chuckled at the wittiness of my own remark and waited to reach the ground far below us