My awareness was increasing with every passing nanosecond. Ever since I had first set foot here I had wanted to begin to understand this layer of the Heart of Darkness in the same way that I understood so many other worlds, and now I was beginning to be able to do so.

With my ever-increasing perception and awareness I began to target every single creature who wandered this layer. Thousands, perhaps millions of creatures, all at once. I didn't hesitate and I willed them to freeze, utilizing a number of my stranger powers to force them to oblige my desires. And a split second after that, before I officially made my choice, I began to project a display of my actions to the inhabitants of this layer. I wanted them to witness something historic: the revival of the demon lords.

"Inhabitants of the Blackened Boscage... You are witnessing history!" I said, as I placed a hand on the enormous heart of Agustino, all that remained of the first of my true foes to have tasted my wrath in full. I didn't doubt that soon there would be others who met an equally gruesome fate. I smiled gently as I fell to my knees and began to speak reverentially.

"Heart of Darkness... Blackened Boscage... Accept this offering. Accept this gift and allow me to become the first demon lord since the end of the Mythic Age." I said, while closing my eyes and informing the notification that had popped into view earlier that I was willing to give the layer the heart of Agustino. I heard the ground open up beneath the heart, and I felt the heart begin to fall, slowly, into the hole that had just begun to exist underneath it. As the heart fell a new notification appeared in my mind's eye.

As the notification entered my view I felt power begin to surge into me. A tidal wave of powers, ones unlike any that I had possessed before, seeped into my soul. And I began to laugh as the powers infused me with all sorts of new abilities.

Multi-part notification part two: Demon Lords

The Blackened Boscage and the Heart of Darkness have accepted your offering. And they have fulfilled their end of the bargain you all made. You are now a demon lord. The new powers you feel seeping into you are powers you possess thanks to your status as a lord recognized by the Heart of Darkness itself. They are powers over demons, over chaotic-evil souls, and even ones over layers of the Heart of Darkness. And they are just the beginning. You shall also receive unique abilities depending on what you chose to have demonic power over.

Just as there are tiers for being a god and even for being an elemental overlord, there are tiers for being a demon lord. Demon lords start off as demon lords but can accrue power by building up cults that worship them and by conquering layers of the Heart of Darkness. In the ancient past, the strongest demon lord in this universe ruled over twelve layers of the Heart of Darkness. That made her a demonic princess, a powerful force for evil who was worshiped by trillions of beings.

The time has come for you to select the things you rule over as a demon lord. If you wish to rule over more things as a demon lord, you must conquer more layers of the Heart of Darkness. In a split second, a long notification shall appear that gives you the chance to identify what sort of things you'd like demonic power over. It should be noted that your powers as a god and as an elemental overlord are amplifying your powers as a demon lord, hence why you can choose so many things. This is one aspect of the synergistic nature of higher beings.

I read through the notification and chuckled. The strongest demon lord in the history of this universe ruled over just twelve layers? I could match that. That said, now had come the time for me to truly embrace the portfolio of deific concerns I had established myself as being fascinated by.

When the notification appeared, I chuckled at its length. It was a table, one of the rarer sorts of notifications I had received from time to time. In glancing at it I learned fascinating things about myself, with one new fact being quite an interesting thing that I'd need to investigate later.

It only took me a moment to fill it out, and when I was done I had a smile on my face. One that radiated newfound power and wickedness. The finished table painted a fascinating picture.

Primary Domains (You may select four): Darkness, Death, Minds, Knowledge Secondary Domain (You may select three): Destruction, Creation, Falsehoods School Of Magic (You may select two): Necromancy, Enchantment Primary Subdomains (You may select three): Corruption, Art, Pain Second Subdomain (You may select two): Agriculture/Famine, Lies Primary Sin (Since you selected Corruption as a subdomain you may select three, one of which will be one of the two new sins you have power over. Eventually all sins will become primary sins. Primary sins are ones that worship of you encourages in your worshipers.): Gluttony, Sloth, Lust Secondary Sin: (This sin is the other one you shall gain control over. You can inspire it in your cultists quite easily. This is also the next sin that shall become a primary sin of yours) Wrath Free Domain (This is being given to you due to your status as an Ascendant Great Old One, a reward the eldritch domain is giving you for winning the war against Agustino. More information about this will be revealed to you in a future notification): Eldritch Element Of Choice (This is due to your status as a potent elemental overlord, choose two): Earth, Water Driver Of Madness (Special gift for being an Ascendant Great Old One, chose five. These are things that drive mortals and good-aligned extraplanar entities you target to madness. In time you may select more): Being immersed in the dark, either having sex in public or being voyeuristic, eating food one enjoys (especially if such food is expensive, cannibalistic, or looked at oddly by one's native culture), having affairs or other taboo relations, and seeing a corpse Title (You are a god who became a demon-lord, something that has never happened before, as a result, you are able to give yourself a single title for free. This title will grant you powers based on its name so choose wisely) The Hungering Void Preferred Art Form (Since you chose art as a primary subdomain, chose two.): Statues, Cave paintings Preferred Places Of Worship (Choose four, these will be the places where worshipers will be naturally inclined to build temples or host services dedicated to you): Caverns, Basements, Graveyards, & Lightless depths deep in bodies of water

When I had begun filling out the table I had done so with a specific image in mind. In order for demon lords to advance in power they needed to be worshiped by mortals, and they needed to conquer layers of the Heart of Darkness. In time I planned to conquer every single layer, aside from an incredibly small handful I wanted to be run by servants of mine like Sombra. And for the mortal cults who worshiped me as a demon lord, I wanted to be an accessible, easily understood demon lord to follow.

I was determined to become an approachable demon lord that people could easily follow. In order to do that I had chosen domains and subdomains that would be easy to understand and that went well together. I kept the basic concept of the Shadowy Lord of the Unseen intact, since most of my followers who were going to worship me as a demon lord at the moment were demons, but I also added easily understood aspects to my image as a demon lord.

As the Shadowy Lord of the Unseen, I was worshipped as a demon-lord-to-be who had powers over darkness, destruction, undeath, and evil. As The Hungering Void, my worship could be seen as easy to understand. I could be worshipped by the hungry, and by gluttons alike. Hedonists and voyeurs would be able to worship me, as would artists and those who dwelled underground or who were so deep underwater that light couldn't reach them.

I wanted to be worshiped by those who were addicted to various sins and depravities, mortals with tastes my powers could easily appeal to. I wanted to be worshiped by those who dwelt underground and those who hated the sun. I would give the leaders of such societies more power and in return, they would turn towards me and lead their subjects in prayers to the Hungering Void.

When I captured the hearts of the rich I would lead them to splurge their wealth on enormous quantities of food and when they ate those foods they would grow decadent and corrupt. When their people starved I would relieve them of the pains of their hunger and when they turned to me I would instantly provide them with actual relief from hunger in the form of abundant harvests. And that was only if I focused on gluttony, the newest of the sins I had chosen to take under my control. As a god and demon lord of the perverted and of the slothful, my powers had just grown considerably.

While I was still on my knees near where the heart of Agustino sank into the Blackened Boscage another notification lit up my mind's eye. And it was one of many I was going to receive today that brought a smile to my face.

Multi-part notification part three: Ascendant Great Old One

The eldritch domain is jubilant over your victory against Agustino. As a reward for winning the battle against that fool, and for your continued support of abominations throughout the cosmos, it has decided to make you into an Ascendant Great Old One.

The decision to make you into an Ascendant Great Old One, and not a lesser Great Old One or an Outer God, is due to two factors. The first factor is that you are but one domain boost away from becoming an Intermediate Deity, which is what the least of the Outer Gods were, and the second factor is that you still only have one tier of influence over the eldritch domain, which is what most of the Great Old Ones had during their lifetimes. To become an Outer God, become an intermediate deity, and earn the second tier of influence over the eldritch domain.

As an Ascendant Great Old One, you are at the level of power that places you right between the mightiest Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods. You have just earned far greater powers than you once had over things like sanity, insanity, and even reality itself.

I felt power surging into me, infusing every centimeter of my body and seeping into my soul. My mind was expanding faster than ever before, and at the moment I felt positively invincible. I laughed and the sound echoed around me, as the very layer itself began to laugh alongside me, mimicking my elated mood.

I wanted to test my powers, in and out of the Heart of Darkness. I could feel and hear the heartbeat of every single creature in this layer. I could sense the life-force that filled them.

The next set of notifications were doubled up. One of them alerted me that I had just acquired the second tiers of influence over the domains of war and physics, and the other one was a special alert that informed me of the powers I received as a consequence of gaining power over the sins of gluttony and wrath. And both of those notifications were exhaustive. I was quite the fan of both notifications, as both of them filled me with far more power than I had possessed even a few minutes ago.