“Tell me Allexus, why do you think I publicly announced you as my successor and then had you fight Varanix?”

“Hmmm…”

I wracked my brain for a moment to answer her question but was drawing a bit of a blank. Demon politics were so far beyond my comprehension that I could even begin to guess at the reasons there. As for why she had me fight?

“You had me fight him because I needed to give them justification for why you picked me. To basically say… ‘Here’s what I can do fuckers.’ But with regards to the public announcement… I don’t have a clue.”

“What do you think those demon lords in the stands wanted to do to you the second they heard you were going to become empress?”

“The only thing I can think of is that they would want to kill me to take my place… But killing me wouldn’t do anything but prevent me from taking the throne. You certainly wouldn’t have to name whomever killed me as your successor since it doesn’t make them any more worthy of the crown. It would just make me less so.”

“Correct. You’re on the right track. Keep going.”

“To vie for favor. So that the other demon lords can try to get in my good graces now in exchange for recognition once I become the empress.”

“Gorgeous, powerful, confident, and cunning. You really are the complete package, Allexus. You are mostly correct. While announcing you as my successor will show you who your allies are, it will also reveal any potential enemies: those who would seek to undermine you as a new ruler and try to challenge your authority. But by killing Varanix, especially in the brutal manner in which you did, you likely won over a large majority of those who would have opposed you prior. So… what did you think of him?”

“Varanix?”

She gave me a single nod and cocked her head as she awaited my response. I thought about the fiery centaur lizard demon who had been the one to bring me down to 1% of my total health and let out a long sigh.

“His regeneration abilities were powerful, but his volcanic body obviously had the glaring weakness to ice magic. The only thing he had going for him were the strength of his attacks and his lucky shot. I knew that depriving him of his weapons would significantly reduce his combat abilities. I didn’t want to find out what that whip thing he had was, so that was the first thing that had to go. The spear obviously had a shit ton of enchantments on it, and I’m pretty sure he also blasted a stream of lava at me with it… so getting impaled actually ended up working in my favor so that he couldn’t keep attacking me over and over with it.”

Gehenna studied me silently and then raised a single eyebrow.

“So… overall how would you rate your performance?”

“Uh… I feel like I did well considering he was a complete unknown going into the fight. I probably could have handled the whole getting impaled thing a bit better the first time… especially since it wasted so much MP, but once I figured out a plan I saw it through without too much difficulty.”

“A… fair assessment. But… more than anything… you got lucky, Allexus. Your technique was sloppy and you only won because of sheer brute force. It was a pyrrhic victory at best. Had this been a real fight against more enemies and not just the two of you dueling, you would have been easy pickings for whatever halfwit took advantage of your weakened state.  You fight with the finesse and precision of a dulled battle axe. While a weapon like that can still be deadly if wielded with enough force, there are far more effective ways of fighting.”

I narrowed my eyes as I considered her words and I felt my stomach sink slightly. Gehenna sighed softly and gave me a half smile.

“I’m not faulting you, Allexus. You are a newborn demon entering into a universe that is vastly different from your own, and it is obvious you’ve never had any type of formal combat training. Relying on your abilities will only get you so far. If you could learn to use your overwhelming speed and strength to their fullest potential, you would be unstoppable.”

“But I have had a sort of ‘formal combat training.’ I’ve spent years playing games similar to this one, and I have skills and strategy that make me as good as I am today. I wouldn’t be standing here if I lacked any sort of fighting experience.”

“For the majority of what you will encounter in the various realms, your fighting skills are more than good enough to ensure your victory.  But you’re talking about fighting beings who have thousands of years of combat experience.”

I narrowed my eyes and let out a humming noise as I thought of something.

“Gehenna, how much do you know about this… world?”

I gestured around me and the demon woman’s eyes followed my hand before settling back on my face. She gave me a contemplative stare but otherwise remained silent. After a moment she seemed to get where my question was leading.

“You’re wondering if I comprehend that this is an artificially created world programmed by others for the purposes of a game, correct?”

 My eyes widened in surprise and I nodded.

“Yes, actually. That is exactly what I was wondering. And following that train of thought, I was curious just how much that ‘thousands of years of experience’ is just different programming than what players have access to.”

“While your logic has some merits, I will counter it by stating that I was not programmed by any game designer from your world. I am a product of this world adapting and growing on its own beyond what the designers planned for it. Or maybe that was their intention all along. To create the building blocks of a functioning society within a universe and just allow it to flourish and develop on its own.”

“Hmmm…”

I had heard of game designers doing exactly what Gehenna had mentioned; programming the basics for a world and then using time lapse predictive algorithms to allow the program to write and expand its own code as things evolved within the world. I didn’t fully understand how it all worked, but it was the only thing that explained what Gehenna had said about her not being programmed. Judas himself had mentioned that he had been programmed, so I began to wonder just how much of this world had evolved on its own, and how much had been designed by the programmers. Before my mind could follow that train of thought down the incredibly complex rabbit hole, I reminded myself that this was supposed to be about me improving my skills.

“I may not be able to spend thousands of years perfecting my fighting abilities like you have, but I can see the merits of learning from more experienced fighters. I already have the perfect weapon, I just need to learn how to use it properly.”

“Exactly. Your retainer would be a good place to start with some of the finer details of finesse and precision. And you have one of the most knowledgeable spellcasters in existence within your clan as well.”

My eyebrows shot up and I looked at her with confusion as I ran through the list of everyone in my clan. The only NPC’s I had were Pain, Panic, the 200 demon soldiers, Tesrif, and Judas. None of them were mages, so I wasn’t sure who-

My eyes lit up as I realized who she was referring to.

“Lucifer? What do you know about her? I know there’s far more to her than what I initially thought, but beyond some basic spells I haven’t seen her do much of anything. To be honest, if it wasn’t for her shield spell I’d think she was pretty worthless.”

“Considering she was once a contender for the title of empress, I would be inclined to disagree. But… her own hubris proved to be her undoing. She was always far too curious for her own damn good. I blame it on her Pixie nature.”

“She was going to be the empress?”

Gehenna shook her head and let out a small laugh.

“No. She was competing to be empress. Against me. She may have more knowledge and experience than I do, but she can’t hold a candle to the raw power I possess. Not unlike yourself, Allexus. You are my successor not because of your skills or fighting prowess. It’s because of how powerful you are and how powerful you will become. Once you learn to wield that power effectively… even I won’t stand a chance.”

She looked out of a nearby window and let out a long sigh before turning back towards me.

“With the complete destruction of so many realms that could have potentially fallen under demon control, under our control… This upcoming Realmshift will be far more complicated. The fact that the angels are so willing to sacrifice their realms in the hopes we can’t expand our borders and begin the slow corruption of their people means we will have to take extra measures if we plan to take possession of their Realmstones. While we could just settle for taking realms from the other demon lords who hold them, the infighting merely weakens our overall strength and makes it that much harder for us to continue battling the angels. Which was likely their intent.”

She suddenly burst forward and screamed in frustration as she struck the wall in front of her. It exploded outwards with a flash of black fire, and flaming chunks of stone fell to the ground. The heat coming off Gehenna’s body was like standing in an oven turned up as high as it could go. She took several calming breaths, and then several more, before she glanced back at me.

“I apologize for my outburst, Allexus. I’m just so fucking frustrated at the pointless destruction of their realms. That’s thousands of people, all killed to prevent something that may not have happened. We’re supposed to be the ‘evil ones,’ Allexus. Not them.”

Her face looked worn and weary, far more so than I had ever seen before. Even after her close call against the angel hitsquad, she didn’t look this crestfallen. I closed the distance between us and placed my hand on her shoulder. When she didn’t pull away, I took this as an invitation to pull her into a tight hug. She melted into me and embraced me just as tightly. Her hair smelled like a combination of a campfire and something sweet and I found myself unconsciously inhaling more of the scent as I leaned my head against the side of hers. Despite my recent romp with her generals, my proximity to the gorgeous demon was also having a dramatic effect on my sex drive and I could feel heat filling my core. Gehenna must have been feeling the same thing, because she lifted her head from the crook of my neck and moved her face very close to mine. I could feel her hot breath against my lips and I stared into her gorgeous gold colored eyes. I pressed my lips to hers and I felt her return my kiss fervently. My tongue danced with hers, and as we continued to explore each other’s mouths I felt her hands running up and down my body. Almost at the same time, we both pulled away from each other with looks of sudden guilt.

“I’m sorry, Gehenna! I didn’t-”

“No, the fault is mine, Allie. I shouldn’t have put myself in such a compromising position... It is getting harder and harder to resist you.”

A smile lit up my face and I beamed at Gehenna, who merely looked confused at my expression.

“You called me Allie.”

“Forgive me, I-”

“No!! I liked it. It felt… real. You always seem to have this way with words like you plan everything you’re going to say before you say it. But just then… I saw past that facade.”

As I stared at Gehenna with the huge grin plastered on my face, she did the one thing that was so unlike her my eyebrows almost hit my hairline. The beautiful demon woman’s eyes suddenly refused to me mine, and I saw the pink blush creeping across her pale white skin. 

Gehenna, the Empress of Hell, was blushing. Like a schoolgirl with a crush. Because of me.