As I took steps towards one of my servants, I began to mull over the sort of life I had had until now. Until this point I had lived a fairly chaotic life. One of steps, missteps, and spontaneous action. That was not a bad life, not necessarily at least, but if I wanted to become the god of everything, the emperor of emperors, then I needed to be serious. I needed thoughtful action. And powerful servants. And the thing was, over the course of my life I had acquired powerful servants.

Paimon, the shadowy demon receiving a handjob from a succubus, was weirdly enough one such servant. He was a pious worshiper of mine and a fanatic who would happily obey my commands. But he wasn't one of the people I was thinking of. I was thinking of many people, of many different species, but not him.

"Paimon! I see that you are enjoying yourself." I remarked, power in my voice. The demon's eyes went wide with fear, as for a split second he thought I was angry. He tilted his head slightly to face the succubus, rage mixing with the fear on his face, before I chuckled.

"No, no no.... Such an action is not necessary. I do not care that you are having a sensory experience at the moment." I said, speaking honestly. I was not bothered by my servant enjoying himself. I was a lord of lust myself, I knew how powerful urges could be. I had no interest in shaming one of my worshipers for this.

Paimon visibly relaxed, his facial expression softening in relief. The fear was quickly replaced by curiosity. He knew I had never come here before.

"Master... Why have you come here? Is there something you need of me? Some task you wish for me to do?" He asked, eagerness slipping into his voice as he spoke. He, like many praereptor demons, was a fervant servant, a devoted minion I could count on to attempt to accomplish any task no matter how depraved or challenging. I mulled over his words for a moment.

We were in the highest floor of the lightless temple, the center of a peculiar faith devoted to me that worshiped me as a god of darkness, evil, destruction, death, pain, and undeath. A truly wicked religion that was unsurprisingly only even a little popular among the darkest civilizations that worshiped me, those constructed by demons, some dark elves, some ogres, and undead races like vampires and banshees. Paimon was the high priest of said faith, and was quite handy if I was being honest. He was also very thoroughly insane, even by demon standards.

"Paimon... I am going to end our war with Agustino and become a demon lord." I told the demon, after mulling over his words for a moment.

"I am going to summon some of my special soldiers here, in this room. I will build an army here, and unleash it on Agustino's last city, while I go after him himself. That demon has been a thorn in my side long enough." I told my demonic high priest. He was silent as he mused my words.

Agustino and I had a longer history than most demons realized. Sombra, back when she was a problem and not a pet of mine, was a servant of Agustino, a scout sent to the world of my birth. To pave the way for demons to come into the world and begin to take it over.

It seemed that for a long time Agustino had his eyes on the world of my birth, apparently with the goal of trying to transform it into a layer of the Heart of Darkness. In all likelihood he hoped that he'd be able to gain power over such a newly formed layer and become a demon lord himself. I came in and messed with that plan a little bit, by making Sombra my ally, and by transforming the world of my birth into a nightmarish hellscape which was now largely inhabited by demons or dwarves.

It was time for me to go ahead and end our little conflict. He was now the final obstacle I needed to overcome so that I could become a powerful demon lord.

I rose a hand and reached out across time and space. As I did I visualized the face of an old servant of mine, a loyal one. One I had made long ago. I pictured the handsome, dark-elven face of Drow Dragonspear.

Drow Dragonspear was one of my first dark elven servants. He was a handsome, talented dark elven general I had saved from mystical enslavement by another potent dark-elven servant of mine, Lilith Silverstone, a powerful enchantress. Both were historians, which were influential leaders in the anctient dark-elven city of Aronms.

A portal appeared in front of my groping hand, My hand slipped into the portal and immediately found purchase in the form of grabbing the back of the general I sought. I chuckled and yanked the general through the portal, stepping back from the portal as I did. I had disturbed the man as he prepared himself for his morning rounds in the city of Aronms, which was now located in my divine realm.

Drow tore himself free from my grip and leaped forward even as the portal shut in front of him. When it did he began to skid to a stop, sliding and turning to face me as he slowed down, putting his guard up as he moved fluidly. When he did manage to turn around enough for him to spot me, he immediately lowered his guard.

"Althos..." He said, sounding both surprised and relieved. I audibly laughed, and after a few seconds he began too as well. The dark elf was pleased to see me.

"Althos!" He exclaimed, a second after relaxing. I smiled, and began to speak.

"It is good to see you, old friend. Sadly I don't have time for pleasantries. Drow, the time has come for you to serve me once more." I told the man.

"You are going to be one of the leaders of my troops as they march on the final city controlled by Agustino. At the same time as you are doing that, I am going to attack the palace controlled by Agustino and destroy it." I told the famed dark elf. He was one of my first dark elven servants, alongside Lilith.

He took in my words for a moment, and then nodded solemnly at me. I smiled at him, and began to think of rewards I could give him that were suitable for someone of his skill. He had recently become a level 20 monk, and he was one of my most humble followers. That said, I knew that he'd be fighting in a fierce life or death battle, including quite possibly against the other general Agustino had, a powerful monkey-like demon.

"Drow... I recognize your humility, and I shall see that it be properly rewarded." I told the man, as I began to think of a tool which would be an appropriate reward. While I did that, I did something simple as a means to more properly equip my ally for the conflict to come.

I used my powers over creation to instantly create a suit of light armor made of the scales of a black dragon. The suit was darker than darkness, and to peer at it was like peering at a black hole. It hovered between Drow and I.

"The first thing I shall give you, in exchange for your loyal service to me, is this. This is a suit of armor made of the scales of a black dragon. It has a number of helpful alterations, including that it gives you an extremely helpful surge of regeneration that allows you to regrow limbs, and to survive virtually any attack that doesn't kill you instantly." I told the dark elf. He studied the armor for a second, before silently taking off his current suit of armor.

He stripped himself of the suit of armor he had been wearing with ease, and for a few moments he stood naked in front of my servants and myself. He was a handsome figure, with well toned but not overwhelming muscles. He was lithe and graceful, like a well-trained cat, not overwhelming and frightening like an armored bear. His toned chest was covered in scars from a lifetime of battle. He was still for a second, studying the suit of armor to figure out how to most easily put it on. When he knew, he began to equip the armor, and was able to do so entirely by himself.

"The armor will be useful. I am going to have you battle the other remaining general in Agustino's forces, who is a warrior I know to be exceptionally skilled. She is currently residing within Agustino's palace, but when I launch my attack I am going to force her away." I told the dark elf.

I was thinking of the strange, siminian demon that remained at Agustino's side. She had an array of powerful tools at her side and was a dangerous combatant who was perhaps a quarter as strong as Agustino was. Her strength was not a joke, and if I wanted Drow to survive and beat her I'd need to give him powerful equipment.

"Fortunately, I possess the means to give you an array of unique equipment. Including some truly spectacular tools." I told my dark elven general, even as another one of the special artifacts I was going to give him appeared between us. This time it was a spear made of darkness. Drow saw the thing and with a look of uncertainty reached out and grabbed it. As he did I bestowed him with the knowledge of how to use the weapon, utilizing one of my homemade knowledge domain abilities to do so.

"This spear is... even among my artifacts, something truly special. With it you can launch spear-shaped projectiles at enemies, and every kill sends the souls either to me, or if you want them... can be stored in the spear and then you can resurrect the slain enemy as your servant." I explained, proud of the weapon I had created. The spear was a truly special weapon, and I wanted Drow to use it on the demonic general he was going to fight. Something he knew without me saying so explicitly.

Solomon respected his peer. He had fond memories of her, memories which revealed that she was incredibly powerful. If Drow won the battle against her, I'd give her to him as a demonic pet of his own. Dark elves had a fascination with demons anyway, and though Drow wasn't as fascinated by the wicked creatures even he wasn't resistant to the allure of having such a pet. That said, I had one more tool to give Drow. But this one required a bit more space to make.

Outside of the temple, a strange distortion began to appear in the dark air between the treetops and the temple. An odd, dragon-shaped distortion. Much like the armor, the color of the distortion was darker than dark. And this time, the distortion was enormous. It was roughly the same size as Ygaynth, the infamous black dragon who was the first creature to be driven insane by my eldritch powers.

The distortion was a robot I was making, modeled after a dragon. It was the final prize I was preparing for my dark elven servant, and it was a heck of a prize. A dragon mount, even a robotic one, was the sort of thing that changed the course of wars. Especially since this robot would have a few special abilities that made it even more devastating of an ally for my servant. It was as I was doing this that I began to do a number of other things as well.

The first thing that I did was open up a pair of planet sized portals in the darkness of the mortal realm's outer space. On both sides of the portal were massive, lifeless planets from different solar systems. They rocketed towards the portals, and I knew that they'd quickly collide with each other, partially because I shifted the gravity that was pulling on them and made it each one of them drawn to the other, which would award me access to the second tier of influence over physics.

The second thing I did, while constructing the robot and beginning to explain its powers to Drow was to in my own way initiate my attack on Agustino.

In the corner of the Heart of Darkness in which he ruled from his palace, a dark cloud began to appear above his home. This cloud would soon be from where I moved against the insane monster, but for now I was content to allow the cloud to hover over his palace. After all I still had a few more things I needed to do before I began to show my power in full.

I summoned more allies to the highest chamber in the lightless temple. I had gathered trillions of worshipers over the course of my life. Today was one of the days I needed them. Their leaders, creatures like Jeezebel, the vampires of the Ardor family, orcish generals, and angels, were all called to the chamber. And I began to lay out a plan, which when executed and completed would forever change the Heart of Darkness.

Within three hours, ample time to discuss the plan and then to begin to equip my followers with new, highly amplified gear, the preparations had been made and it was time to go. At last, the time had come to begin the conquest of the Heart of Darkness, and for me to do battle with my foe: Agustino, the would-be demon lord.

When the time came, I opened up a number of portals to the location of Agustino's final city, and I transfered my consciousness to the dark cloud that hovered over Agustino's palace situated in the heart of the Spoken Scourge, the layer once ruled over by Morthos himself. With a malicious laugh, one that resounded throughout the layer, I was free to finally begin to deal harm to the one creature I hated almost as much as I hated Morehammer.

The god of darkness had arrived. And now I was set to become so much more than I had been the day before.