While my true mind and my secondary will were handling the Trial of Dark Usurpation Qu'Ren, Lilith, and I were locked in a battle of the wills.

The three of us were deep inside of the Mirrored City. We were in an empty building, sitting down and staring away from each other. The atmosphere was noticeably tense. This is what I get for trying to negotiate. I grumbled mentally.

For the last few minutes, I had been trying to get Lilith to see sense. There's no way this ends the way she likes. But it could end better than what she wants, if she'd just let it. I thought, annoyed. I was trying to broker a deal with her, where she leads her family in my worship and retains her memories, and even gains other awards, but she was determined to shut me down.

Each of us felt as if we had said our piece. But eventually, I spoke once more ready and eager to break the silence.

"You possess this incorrigible pride Lilith." I told her, almost amused by it. She turned and looked at me, heated anger in her gaze. I chuckled at her, not bothered by her anger.

"You demand too much Althos." She said, her eyes blazing with heat and with a wounded sense of self. I shook my head and readied myself to state my disagreement, but Qu'Ren pipped up moments after Lilith shared her thoughts with us.

"What is he demanding? He's offering to empower you." She stated, accurately. Lilith turned her scarlet gaze upon my witch, her eyes filled with wrathful energy.

"'What is he demanding?' You ask, like you don't already know, witch." Lilith mocked, scorn audible in her voice.

"I am not asking for much. I am asking for your service and worship. I am not planning to change anything. I'm even offering to heal you. I know you Lilith. I am offering you a gift." I explained, telling her the truth from my perspective.

"You won't even lose anything at all. Your children will have their memories modified, but I am taking nothing from them. I am just adding things. New memories. A new loyality." I told her, exasperated with her stubbornness.

I had spent the last few minutes trying to bargain with the dark elf. I was trying to get her to take a deal to service me in exchange for some service I provided her. I was, in essence, trying to replicate the circumstances under which I gained control of the Jackaloids.

Lilith turned and looked at me. Her stare was cold, hostile, and almost rabid. "You are a manipulator. You take memories and do... things to them. How can I know that you'll keep your word?" She asked me, her tone as accusatory as her words. I had to work to suppress my urge to roll my eyes at her.

"I am telling you, I have a power that FORCES me to tell the truth. I won't use it until you let me. Just let me and you'll see what I mean." I told her, repeating something I had repeated before.

She glared at me. I had explained this, my devilish deal power, to her twice before. Both times while I was trying to explain the full context behind my visit to her home, and my intentions with her family. And both times she didn't believe me. At this point I was exhausted with her and this game. I'll just see if she jumps if I offer her a gift. I thought, ready to be done with this.

"Lilith." I began, speaking authoritatively.

"I have an offer for you. I will cure your scars and the only thing I ask is that you consent to me using my devilish deal power on us." I told her, keenly aware that I could easily just do what I wanted and force her to obey me. If she says no to this then I may just do this forcibly. I thought, tired of this back and forth.

Lilith's eyes opened wide as she considered my offer. I looked at her, my face neutral, and my eyes locked on hers.

She opened her mouth to speak and then shut it. And then she finally spoke once more, a grin spreading across her face as she spoke.

At this point I struck her with a skill, silently. I opted to test out one of my new powers, the Whispers of Corruption power, subtly entering her mind and beginning a whisper campaign that urged her to give into her dark lusts. Lusts she felt even as she looked, angerly, at Qu'Ren and myself.

"... Fine." She told me, curtly, biting her lip while doing so, failing to hide her sudden, potent and unexplainable carnal urges. I chuckled at her audacity, and recalled the memory of the day she got the burns in the first place.

Lilith looked off in the distance. She could see the skyline of the eerie and insectoid city of Abraxinas, one of several cities located throughout the dismal dimension known as the Heart of Darkness, the birthplace of demons and other terrors.

For a second she hoped that she'd get to see the city up-close once more, even as she watched gigantic wasps float lazily from one part of the city to another. But she knew that was a longshot, and so she snapped her attention back to the matter at hand.

Lilith stood on the edge of a massive shoreline. On one side, the shore-side, there was a gigantic beach. Behind her stood her fellow humanoids, other dark-elves and assorted creatures from the world beneath the world. On the other side was a chaotic ocean. The ocean teemed with eerie wildlife, all sorts of deranged flora and fauna that she had seen do all sorts of wicked deeds during the last few weeks. But she wasn't focused on them. She was focused on something else.

The nightmare she was worried about was something flying towards her, hurling itself through the air. It was an enormous reptilian thing, with wings the size of a small home. Each flap of its wings rocked the beach with tremendous gales, and the thing was approaching fast.

The dragon opened its mouth and Lilith sighed. "Well this is going to be difficult." She said, lifting her hands into the air and willing magic from her brain and her heart into her two palms. She prepared herself for the fight of her life.

The half-succubus had no idea this would be the battle that left her scarred and resulted in her fleeing the place of her birth. Nor did she know that it would lead her to Undermoon, or to Althos.

"Alright. It's done." I told her, as my energy washed over her. Restorative energy was flowing out of me and into her. Before my very eyes, and before the very eyes of Qu'Ren, Lilith's facial scars had almost completely vanished. And they continued to dissipate with each passing instant our eyes were laid on them. My "It's done" remark was simply informing her that the process of healing them, insofar as it involved casting magic on her was done.

Lilith smiled at me, her face quickly becoming symmetrical and even more beautiful than before. I sighed and repeated an oft-repeated question. "Will you let me use my devilish deal power now?" I asked, half-expecting her to say "no" out of spite. But I was thankfully and pleasantly surprised when she nodded at me.

I turned to her and activated my power.

"Lilith. I am Althos. I am a god and I am a true-devil in the process of becoming an arch-devil." I told her, letting her see for herself that the power of the devilish deal was real.

"I would like to make a deal with you. But first let me explain why I am here. I am here, fulfilling a quest for a thing called a 'Domain'. 'Domains' are parts of the system that helps govern and run reality and they give gods and a handful of other beings our incredible powers. 'Domains' award gods and other beings powers based off of how much 'influence' we have over them." I told the half-demon, explaining both truthfully and to the best of my abilities my understanding of the nature of domains.

"The 'domain' I am here on behalf of is the domain of trickery. I possess powers over memories and have used that to bring people to heel, which it quite enjoys. I was asked to come to a noble family and use my powers to make them worship me. As a reward for amusing it, it would me that it would grant me a 'tier of influence' over it. When I last did this I took someone from the village and gave them what they wanted in exchange for their cooperation with my actions and their presence as proxy leaders in my absence. I want to do that here." I told her.

"I don't want to take anything from you. I have in fact already given you something. I have not only told you the truth, unnecessarily, but also not taken any memories from you. Or modified them." I told her, my power reminding us both that I could not lie.

"If it were up to me, you'd stay the day-to-day leader of your family, and your master and the ultimate master of your house would be me. I know that in the past demon-lords lorded over dark-elven houses. I wish for an arrangement like that between you and I. I provide you with power, and you worship me and execute my will among the people of Undermoon." I told her, sincerely explaining what I desired.

[This is an interesting development... it's not quite what I planned, but I can see that you took what I said to heart about enjoying the last time you did this. Hmm... what to do, what to do... I suppose, between this and the exploit that one of you found not long ago I can allow this to count for the purpose of fulfilling my mini-quest.] The domain told me, all of a sudden. I grinned mentally at it and its playfulness.

"I possess the power to do this forcibly. That I am not doing so is both an act of mercy, and a sign that I am interested in earning your, as in you personally, loyalty, worship, and service. I have provided my worshipers with all they need. I have given them food, influence, knowledge, classes, and more. To serve me is to secure your future and the future of your children, provided you obey me." I told her.

At this point, I watched her undergo a struggle, mentally. I watched her muscles tense up and her face, newly healed, contort as her pride clashed with the rest of her. I chuckled, and opted to try one more tactic.

"I am a provider of all sorts of things Lilith. Not just needs, but also wants. My servants obey me not just because its wise, but because doing so allows them to indulge their lusts. To serve me is to experience pleasures old and new alike. But you'll only find out what I can truly offer if you take my hand. And if you give me what is mine: you, yourself." I told her, aware that at this point she was only delaying the inevitable by trying to say no to what she wanted.

I had healed her. I had shown her my power. I knew she was mine. She was silent, but that didn't mean that she wasn't mine. All I had to do was wait.

All in all, I had to wait for about ten minutes before she ceased her dramatic parody of an inner struggle. She accepted the deal to serve me and to give me her soul, and the only other thing I had to do was ensure that she felt new pleasures, and got to enjoy herself without risks to her health.

[Domain Centric Alert:

The domain of Trickery and the subdomain of Necromancy have seen fit to award you for the completion of the tasks you've completed on their behalves, despite the... exploit you found and exploited. Trickery was quite fond of that, and because of that, it decided not to mind that the trick you pulled on Lilith isn't quite what it asked you to do.

Necromancy is opting to modify its future quests in lieu of what has transpired tonight. Future quests won't be so... numbers-oriented.

What follows is a list of what you've gained.

Necromancy:

This is a magical subdomain, and as such, it covers more than just itself. The subdomain of necromancy controls necromantic magic and the undead and the divine powers, the mutations it grants, and the creatures it allows you to create are all related to that.

Unlife Energy Manipulation:

This is an idle divine power that allows you to manipulate unlife energy, the dreadful animating power that powers non-spirit undead. Things like vampires, ghouls, zombies, and other far more terrifying creatures are animated by unlife energy, which is now manipulable by you. This power also renders uncontrolled and unintelligent undead, universally lesser undead beings like skeletons and zombies, pacifistic towards you and those you mark.

You can also attack living creatures by using unlife energy through firing it at living creatures, or by willing such energy into the blows you strike. Living creatures hit by unlife energy grow sick after being hit and die once enough time has passed. Creatures that die from wounds that contain unlife energy automatically rise as undead under your control in a matter of minutes after their passing.

Awaken undead:

This divine power allows you to awaken unintelligent undead. Unintelligent undead created by you are automatically awoken, including undead created by cults in your name and in your service, and undead that have been created in your name and service in the past. Awoken undead revere and worship you, and seek to either fulfill wishes you are known to want or to increase the overall number of undead in existence and especially the undead who revere and worship you.

This power stems from the intersection of the mind domain and the necromancy subdomain.

Sinister Shadows:

This is a synergistic power that brings your shadow to life. Your shadow is now a sentient entity, a wraith, that guards and protects you. This power stems from the conjunction of the subdomains of darkness and necromancy. The wraith that protects you is a passive entity until you are attacked, at which point it will ask for permission to lash out against your attackers. As you gain more influence over either subdomain the wraith becomes smarter and more powerful.

Create Intermediate Undead:

This power is somewhat deceptively named. It doesn't just allow for the creation of intermediate undead, it allows for total control over them. Intermediate undead are entities like ghosts, vampires, wrights, and mummies. You will be asked if you wish to create these creatures when you kill something that could otherwise become one of them.

The subdomain of necromancy grants you mutations that infuse your servants with unlife energy, which grants them power over the undead, the ability to heal such creatures, and allows you to both boost and mutate your undead worshipers. You can also boost the resistance of your worshipers against the cold and disease.

The lowest tier of influence over the subdomain allows you to create undead like zombies, ghouls, and skeletons. Undead created in this manner are pure undead beings, beings born of unlife, not of death.

Trickery:

The domain of trickery is a potent one. With it you can bestow your followers with the rogue class, and you can create creatures like bake-danuki, kitsune, leprechauns, rust and dark hags, and assorted other creatures of deception due to your mind-powers, and your lie, shape-shifting, corruption, and falsehood powers.

Your mutations grant your followers enhanced stealth, enhanced deceptive prowess, and the ability to see through deception more clearly.

Forgery:

This is a synergistic power. It comes from your influence over law, lies, falsehoods, magic, and trickery. It automatically fools methods that attempt to identify you and is an enhanced version of the thing that happened to you when your secondary will reached the city of Namira.

Pheromone Secretion:

This power is a synergistic one that comes from your influence over corruption, lies, nature, fungi, and trickery. It's useable twice every twelve hours and when used it causes every creature in 10 meters who could be attracted to you, as a masculine figure, to become charmed by you.]