Althos was calm and quiet as he was transported across dimensions. He was bathed in cosmic and dimensional energy while he flew through an assortment of different dimensions, getting quick glimpses at them.

For nanoseconds, while en route to Infernius, he could see serene paradises, floating cities bathed in positive power, and all manner of powerful armies amassing to either defend their home dimensions or to try and conquer and sack other dimensions. This intrigued Althos, but he had already seen them hard at work before. He knew what to expect to see, so this revealed little new information to the deity.

Soon enough, before even a second had passed since Althos cast the spell, the deity found himself back in front of the darkened chapel he called his home base.

Althos was quiet as he entered the chapel, emerging into the narthex without so much as uttering a single word. Behind him, he could hear the lively garden and safe space he had created be filled with the activity and noises of having dozens of wild animals be in the same, single space. Even when they were interacting peacefully they were still raucous creatures.

Althos could see into the chapel's nave from where he stood in the center of the narthex and was surprised to see Tristan be accompanied by a stranger, an imposing creature who stood perhaps three meters tall, just a bit shorter than Ravernangos.

The thing had a mostly human appearance, aside from its powerful draconic wings that were compressed and close to its back so as to not take up a significant amount of room. It was naked, its muscular form exposed to all, and apparently sexless.

Another thing that betrayed its devilish nature was its thick silver horns which jutted forth from its head. In one of its hands, it held a massive mace, a thick club that at its tip contained a large sphere made of obsidian covered in spikes, nails, and other pointed tools.

It spoke to Tristan, speaking the language of Infernius and in a tone that conveyed both excitement and impatience. At its side floated a single, pink soul-orb. The thing lazily drifted through the air.

"Tristan... if what you're saying is true, then soon the whole dimension will be forced to recognize the legitimacy of not only this supposed second dark-saint but also of our order. We may be... years, months, weeks, or even mere days from becoming a legitimate player in Infernal politics." The thing said, its voice cracking as it felt the excitement flow through it.

Tristan, who hadn't yet seen Althos responded to the devil. "What I'm saying is true! He is the second dark saint and when he gets," At that point, the girl turned and saw Althos approaching from the narthex. "He's here!" She said abruptly, and the devil accompanying her turned to see Althos.

The young god had quietly shifted into the form he first had when he entered the realm of Infernius, and had begun to walk towards the pair while they were talking. The deity kept walking towards them, and after the pair acknowledged him they began to walk towards him as well. In seconds the three stood face to face.

Althos politely nodded at Tristan, who grinned at her master and greeted the second devil. "Hello, I am the second dark saint. I am a true devil, but unlike any other true devil. My name is Althos, and I am prepared to prove the claims of my priestess." He said, his voice stern and commanding. The strange new creature examined him, its beady, black and altogether too small, eyes measuring him up. After a few moments, it spoke.

"I see that your words are sincere. How do you plan to prove this?" It said, its voice overflowing with curiosity. Althos received a notification about the creature's species, and wanted to see it but knew this wasn't the time. He willed the notification to become transparent, not willing it away or out of sight but preventing it from obstructing the conversation.

Althos then responded to the strange devil. "That soul-orb. I can promote it." He said, confidently. As he spoke he gestured to the pink thing that leisurely floated through the air next to its master. This response quite intrigued the master of the orb, who quickly responded to Althos' proclamation, its eyes widening as it spoke.

"Can you really? If you can... that'd be pretty indisputable evidence of your claim and your legitimacy." Its voice was filled with awe, an unusual emotion for the powerful devil to feel.

Althos grinned at the creature's reaction. But before he did anything else, he spoke again. "I introduced myself earlier... yet you haven't introduced yourself. And that's despite you being here in my territory. I'm willing to forgive it, but only if you correct the mistake." There was a power in Althos' voice, a fusion of both a quiet threat and a reminder of the deity's power. While he intimidated the strange devil in front of him, he quietly promoted the devil's soul orb.

The devil took a step back as the god in front of it began to exude an air of power and malice, freely revealing undisguised hostility. The devil was quick to correct its mistake. "I... I-I apologize oh sir true-devil. My name is Qigog. I am a representative of the true-devil named Cania, the mistress of the city of Tort, located in the sixth layer. She too is a member of the Order of the Dark Saint."

Althos took in that information, and then the hostility on his face melted away to reveal a mask of calmness and even quiet joy. The abrupt change caught the devil off guard, but Tristan who was beside it was distracted by the thing's transforming soul orb.

The pink orb was currently undergoing the exact same process as what happened to Althos' two soul-orbs, but without the boosts of having been exposed to potent divine energy like the deity's own orbs had been. Because of this, the process was much faster.

This time the process to promote the soul orb from orb to imp took a matter of seconds, as opposed to minutes like it had with the god's own little orbs. Perhaps half a minute passed before a newly promoted imp stood before Althos, Tristan, and Qigog.

The tiny thing, bigger than it had been as an orb but not by much, bowed its head to the young god, and then lifted off of the ground and floated to its master side. This time rather than have a distinct color like Althos' own created imps did, it had the same basic red skin as Salifinos but it was a lighter shade of red than the god's dependable familiar.

Qigog examined the imp, studying it with a careful gaze. Eventually, after the devil was satisfied with its study of the promoted creature, it turned to Althos and spoke. In its eyes, there was a profound respect for Althos that had not been there before.

"So it's true then... you really do have the power only possessed by true arch-devils. You can promote devils. You are the... as of yet, unrecognized and uncelebrated archdevil." There was a genuine reverence in the things voice as it spoke. Both Althos and Tristan were shocked that the thing could speak so reverentially.

Althos smiled, the expression different from his usual grins. There was a level of joy in his smile, genuine happiness that stretched from his mouth to his eyes. "Yes, I am." He said, his voice soothing and reassuring as if he were a parent comforting a child who had been lost.

The devil's gaze turned from Althos to Tristan. Its black eyes peered into her own for a few moments. It was silent as it starred at her, reassessing its judgment of the priestess in light of the new information it possessed. The creature fell to one knee in front of her, and began to speak.

"Priestess... I was unsure of your worthiness to be one of the leaders of the order and for that I must admit you have proven me wrong. I am a proud creature, and it is that very pride that allows me to honestly admit my own mistakes. You truly do deserve to be one of the leaders of our cult. Thank you for allowing me to see the future lord of Infernius, in the days before he rises to the height of his power."

The creature's voice conveyed its sincerity and Tristan acknowledged the devil with a soft smile of her own. She spoke to him, briefly.

"I don't blame you for doubting me. But I do hope that you and your mistress recognize Althos for what he is... an archdevil."

Her voice was soft, serene, and happy. The devil she was talking too quietly nodded in consideration of her words. Althos felt as though the creature in question already had recognized him for what he was, but he knew that convincing the assorted leaders of the order would be more challenging than convincing lesser members.

Then the creature turned to Althos and began to speak to the dark deity.

"Sir archdevil... I was given a message by my mistress to give to you just in case Tristan turned out to be right. I know the details of the second trial you need to pass."

This news got an immediate reaction from Tristan and Althos. Their eyes snapped to the devil's bowed form. The devil took a breath and then continued speaking.

"The second trial is the trial of usurpation This trial challenges Althos to go, alone, and select champions among the living creatures in this desert and make them into leaders of their communities. This trial is about giving power to those with the ambition and the intelligence to take devilish deals and using those devilish deals to dynamically and efficiently seize control of communities for Infernius."

Althos grinned as he heard the devil explain the conditions of the quest. At that moment he received a quest notification, and another sort of notification.

[Quest: The Trial of Usurpation

Objectives: Throughout the desert, there exist communities of various types of creatures. Find three of those communities, and approach three ambitious individuals within them. Convince those creatures to part with their souls, in exchange for your aid in enabling them to seize control of their communities through "honorable", formal means.

Reward: The ability to promote imps into other sorts of lesser devils.

Progress: 0/3 ambitious individuals identified

0/3 ambitious souls acquired

0/3 communities usurped.

Note: "Honorable" means include public duels, votes, and other legitimate, recognized means of gaining power.]

[New Devilish Power Explanation: Devilish Deal

A devilish deal differs from a mortal deal. A devilish deal is a significant, binding agreement that can take on a variety of forms and ties a devil and a mortal or anyone else who makes a deal together. Both parties in the deal agree to an exchange of goods or services. The strongest devils can offer a litany of services or goods to a range of mortals. In exchange, mortals can offer something of equal value, which most often is their soul but doesn't have to be.

A devil has the power to invest cosmic meaning into a contract they've written up or had been given by another devil. They can also invest power into their words and into an oath they create when they want to have a more powerful and legally meaningful verbal agreement than mortals can create.

When a devil creates a devilish deal, both or all parties involved in it are alerted and are told the consequences of agreeing to the deal. It is an absolute, mighty agreement between parties that ties them together.

Any conditions that would otherwise impede the party that could accept the deal are temporarily wiped away while the party considers the deal. Children cannot accept a deal, though the age at which a creature stops being a child depends on the species in question.

An active-deal is a deal that has conditions that the devil-deal-maker has yet to fulfill, which means that if the non-devilish party to the deal dies before the devil fulfills their end of the bargain than the deal is effectively voided.

Inactive deals are deals that have been completed on the end of the devilish-deal-maker, but with mortal or other parties who haven't yet died, assuming the other party(s) to the deal offered their souls in exchange for the devil's services or goods.

Lesser devils are limited in their power, the resources at their disposal to make deals tempting to other parties, and even the number of active-deals they can have at any single time. This is part of why lesser devils serve other, mightier devils, who can empower them to have more deal-slots at their disposal and can ensure that they have the means to make deals with parties of greater interest to devil-kind.

True devils and arch-devils have a lot of resources at their disposal as well as significant personal power they can offer to anyone who they tempt into turning over their immortal souls in exchange for the fulfillment of easy, temporary, mortal aspirations. They can also have an unlimited number of active-deals in play at any single time.

Note: This is a combined notification that actually contains the summarized information of a collection of different devilish powers related to the simplest deals a devil can make.

Limitations: What you can offer a potential party to a devilish deal is limited to what you are capable of doing yourself since these deals cannot contain falsehoods. I.E.: in your current state, you cannot make a deal that requires you to perform a true resurrection of a loved one for the target, though that could change in time.]

Althos decided that after reading about devilish deals, and his new quest, that that was the perfect time to read about the sort of devil Qigog was. He undid the transparency he had caused to make the first notification he received during this conversation readable.

[New Species Knowledge Gained: Mace-Devils

Mace-Devils are powerful, medium-tiered devils who tend to be found in service to greater, true, or even archdevils as guardians, messengers, and soldiers.

These humanlike, winged devils are fond of the large maces they wield and they prefer to leisurely spend their time engaged in simple, repetitive tasks, or out on the fields of battle. They tend to devote themselves to powerful masters, and they are slavishly loyal to those masters.

In the past, Infernius was different and devils could climb the ranks of the infernal hierarchy on their own. Now only soul-orbs can naturally, spontaneously evolve. In the old age, one's personality in life determined how far they could eventually climb, and what sort of devils they eventually became while climbing the infernal hierarchy.

The sort of souls that eventually became Mace-Devils were simple-minded but effective solders who used war hammers and maces in battle. Many souls eventually became Mace-Devils and stopped evolving due to the whims of their masters. The oldest of these creatures, or the rare few who made a conscious choice to not evolve any further became True Mace-Devils, powerful, hulking paragons of their kind.

Mace-Devils could naturally evolve into other waring devils, soldiers specialized in either certain tactics or who fought using a range of different weapon types.

If a particular devil were well-suited to becoming types of devils like Mace-Devils and Sniper-Devils, combat-specialized types, they may eventually become Krieg-Devils, the highest rank of warrior devils, beneath Vizier-Devils in terms of symbolic importance, but in actuality, these mighty generals and warmongerers were the potent commanders of vast infernal armies and to their masters Krieg-Devils were every bit as important as Vizier-Devils.

Known Mace-Devils: Qigog.]

Althos willed the notifications away, and he felt satisfied with the knowledge he now had. He politely thanked Qigog for this gift, nodded at the imp he had created through promotion, and then left the chapel to reflect on the knowledge he had acquired.

Within a matter of moments, Althos was once again back out in the fungal gardens. The deity quietly watched the various creatures that walked, skittered, and crawled through the gardens he had created by hand.

He was calm as he reflected on the second trial of the dark saint. He was secretly excited about the idea of subjugating entire communities of creatures to his will, and especially this odd, efficient way of doing so.

I wonder what sort of deals I'll get to make in the days to come... It'd be nice if I could gain some strong servants this way.

His mind raced with the possibilities laid out before him. At that moment he decided to do some of the initial reconnaissance and intel-gathering he'd need to do to be able to learn where applicable communities were located throughout the desert so that he could speed through this quest.

He quietly reached out to the minds of the menagerie of animal servants he had gathered and devoted his prodigious will to quickly scan their brains for knowledge of settlements located throughout the sprawling desert.