Nyssara slowly released the air from her lungs, her gaze sweeping across the desolate expanse surrounding the ancient altar.
Her heavy sigh echoed through the stone ruins, mingling with the whistle of the cold wind.
The valley was incredibly bleak.
The narrow floor of the gorge drowned in twilight, suffocated by massive, nearly vertical cliffs of black basalt that jutted upward like the teeth of some primordial beast.
Everywhere one looked, shattered blocks of stone, the remnants of moss-covered columns, and the warped, cracked foundations of long-forgotten structures protruded from the parched earth.
The Demon Empress turned her head toward her blonde companion.
"According to what you saw at the gate, Gloamreach Vale is exactly as dismal as you claimed," Nyssara stated, her deep voice hard and matter-of-fact.
Elarienne nodded at her words and added after a moment, "According to my intelligence, this valley lies in the very heart of the Wildshade Expanse."
Liselotte, standing right next to them on her towering stilettos, tilted her head adorably. Her long, pointed ears twitched with curiosity.
"Gloam-reach Vale...? Wild-shade Ex-panse...?" she repeated softly, breaking the foreign words down into syllables with a highly amusing, overly sweet expression of concentration, as if trying to taste their sounds on her tongue.
Seeing that adorable expression on the girl's striking face, Nyssara simply couldn't resist.
She raised a slender, black-gloved hand and, in a completely natural, instinctual gesture, rested it on the top of Liselotte's head, right between her long elven ears, before slowly, softly tousling her silvery hair.
"Yes, my little degenerate," she tossed out with a faint, indulgent smile. "That is exactly the charming little mudhole we have landed in."
Under the touch of Nyssara's hand, Liselotte's body literally melted.
The maid blissfully closed her ruby eyes, a goofy, dreamy little smile bloomed on her full lips, and the thin demonic tail behind her back began to wag with such force that it nearly snagged on the hem of her latex skirt.
She looked exactly like a house pet that had just been given its favorite treat after waiting all day.
Nyssara shook her head in mute amusement, withdrawing her hand.
"Before we begin planning anything, however, we must clarify one detail," the Empress said, shifting her gaze back to the elf standing nearby. "Elarienne appeared beside me earlier because I personally sent her an invitation directly from my command panel. When she accepted the offer, she immediately materialized in my staging area, prior to my selection of a Descent Gate. Because of this, she was able to assist me in deciding exactly where we should establish our nest."
Liselotte snapped her eyes open instantly. Her goofy little smile vanished in a fraction of a second, replaced by a sudden, comical grimace of profound disappointment.
She stared at the tall blonde with glaring, unconcealed jealousy.
Wait... the Mistress personally chose her?! the thought tore through her mind, and a tiny, absurd pang of envy pricked her chest.
My Mistress personally reviewed profiles and invited her, while I had to invite myself and beg her to take me?!
Elarienne sensed the intense, drilling stare.
She looked at Liselotte, arching her eyebrows slightly, then shifted her gaze back to Nyssara. Pure, human curiosity flickered in her emerald eyes.
"Wait a moment..." the blonde woman spoke calmly. "Was it not the same for Liselotte? I assumed you selected her as well."
Nyssara snorted quietly, shaking her head.
"Not in the slightest. This little one volunteered for my vacant slot on her own initiative. I simply received a notification that some stranger desperately wanted to join me."
Liselotte instantly thrust her monstrous, corset-bound bust forward, and the old, shameless confidence flared back to life in her ruby eyes.
"Of course I did!" she blurted out at the top of her lungs, grinning without restraint. "The moment I saw my Mistress's profile, I knew I had to belong to her! Someone like me simply had to throw herself at her feet! Besides, with these curves and my talent for healing, it would have been a sin if I didn't personally offer myself up so my Mistress could strip me whenever the mood struck her, take me from behind on a desk, or order me to - "
YANK!
"Kyyyaa!" a squeaky, pathetic yelp tore from Liselotte's lips.
Nyssara did not wait for the maid to finish her litany.
With lightning speed, she shot her hand out and grabbed Liselotte by the very tip of her long, pointed elven ear, yanking it sharply upward.
"Stop vocalizing your fantasies," the Empress commanded in an icy, uncompromising tone, looking down at her. "We are currently having a serious discussion regarding our survival. We do not have time for your lewd little games, you little whore. Do you understand?"
"Y-Yes! I-I'm sorry! Please, let go, it hurts!" Liselotte squealed, rising onto the very tips of her sky-high stilettos just to relieve the agonizing tension on her ear.
Nyssara finally released her after a moment with stoic calm, as if physically disciplining a perverted maid was an entirely natural occurrence for her.
Liselotte immediately stepped back a half-pace, grabbing her throbbing ear with both hands. Tears welled in her eyes, and her cheeks burned crimson.
Oh, holy shit... she thought in absolute shock, feeling a searing, electric shiver run down her neck.
In a human body, ears were just a normal piece of cartilage!
I had no idea these elven ones were so incredibly sensitive to touch!
One sharp squeeze, and it felt like someone had hooked a live wire straight to my spine!
Is it possible that my succubus race makes absolutely everything significantly more sensitive?!
Elarienne watched the brief scene unfold with mild amusement, then adjusted the folds of her robe and returned to the topic at hand.
"However, what you are saying is quite fascinating," the elf noted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Because my experience was entirely different. When the system finalized my Support class, I did not receive a list of Demon Kings. I simply sat down, and after a few minutes, notifications began popping up before my eyes. Dozens of offers from various Demon Kings attempting to recruit me. I reviewed them, rejected the vast majority of the idiots, and selected Nyssara."
Liselotte slowly lowered her hands from her aching ear.
"Seriously...?" she murmured in surprise. "It was the exact opposite for me. After finishing the creator, I was handed a full search engine. I could filter by gender, race, review their descriptions, and personally send a request to the individual I liked best."
All three fell silent for a moment. A heavy question hung in the chilly breeze.
"Why did the system grant you such autonomy?" Elarienne furrowed her brow, studying the maid with newfound inquisitiveness. "For what reason did one of us have to wait for invitations, while the other was permitted to hunt for a Ruler herself?"
Liselotte scratched her cheek, and her tail curled into a small loop.
"Well... it's probably because of my title," she mumbled uncertainly.
Elarienne arched an eyebrow.
"What title?"
Before Liselotte could fabricate any sort of excuse, Nyssara answered for her, a ruthless, dry satisfaction coloring her voice:
"[Hopeless Degenerate]."
The words hung in the air like a lead weight.
Liselotte felt the blood rush to her face with such violent force she grew momentarily dizzy.
It was one thing to read that designation alone in a sterile system window, and an entirely different thing to hear it spoken aloud by a powerful, alien woman in the presence of a dignified blonde aristocrat.
Her ears drooped in profound shame, and she locked her gaze onto the black stones beneath her feet.
Elarienne fell silent for a full five seconds.
She looked at Liselotte - at her latex uniform exposing her buttocks, at the gigantic cleavage, at the lace stockings, and her head bowed in utter mortification.
The elf's facial expression became so peculiar that it was genuinely difficult to determine whether she was desperately suppressing a snort of laughter or actively trying to solve the greatest riddle of her entire life.
"Truly... charming," the blonde summarized curtly, the barely visible shadow of a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
Nyssara waved her hand, decisively cutting off the topic.
"Enough about her highly questionable morality," the Empress declared. "Returning to specifics. Elarienne possesses a unique talent: Hidden Insight. It is an ability that allows her to perceive concealed information. Were it not for her, we likely would have landed in some nightmarish deathtrap."
Liselotte raised her head, instantly forgetting her shame. Her innate curiosity had taken the reins once more.
"Really? So what did this hidden information say about this forest?"
"That the Wildshade Expanse is a realm of absolute chaos," Elarienne answered calmly. "The forest is massive, extraordinarily rich in raw materials, herbs, and metal ores, but its geopolitical geography is a nightmare. It is fractured into dozens of micro-territories, inhabited by countless races, tribes, and monsters. Because of this, no surrounding nation has ever been capable of conquering it entirely or imposing their own order upon it. It is a land of eternal lawlessness, barbarism, and war."
Liselotte blinked, and then a wide smile spread across her lips.
"But that sounds like the absolutely perfect place for a Demon King! A ton of weaker tribes to subjugate and plenty of space to hide from overwhelming opponents!"
Nyssara and Elarienne exchanged brief glances, then both nodded solemnly.
"Precisely," the Empress agreed.
"And what were the other options anyway?" Liselotte asked curiously, stepping closer to the altar on her clicking heels. "Where else could we have ended up?"
Elarienne closed her eyes for a moment, recalling the red notification frames she had seen prior to teleportation:
"There were four primary gateways to choose from," the elf began matter-of-factly. "The First Transport Gate connected to the Wretched Wastes. A completely desolate, dead desert. Zero timber, zero water, a total lack of any sentient beings to conquer. A location utterly useless for constructing any viable infrastructure. The system itself flagged it as highly unrecommended."
"Horrific," Liselotte interjected, shuddering. "Sand would have gotten into my stilettos. What next?"
"The Second Gate led to the Valley of Storms and Thunder," Elarienne continued. "There, raw materials were plentiful, primarily highly valuable minerals and arcane crystals. The problem was that the entire mountain range lies deep within the borders of the human Empire. It is a gargantuan human superpower boasting hundreds of millions of citizens, with permanent military garrisons actively patrolling every single peak. Establishing a Demon King's nest there would have been tantamount to suicide."
"And the third?"
"The Third Gate was perhaps the most treacherous," the blonde sighed. "It led to the Perfect Plains. Unimaginably fertile lands, overflowing with ambient magic and natural wealth. Heaven on earth, were it not for the fact that the plains are divided among powerful theocracies and kingdoms, heavily garrisoned by tens of thousands of powerful humans. For a fledgling, first-level Ruler, going there was simply a direct path to the slaughterhouse."
Nyssara walked to the edge of the altar, gazing into the gloom of the gorge.
"That is exactly why we selected the fourth gate," the Mistress concluded. "The Wildshade Expanse is a gargantuan territory. It spans an area of several million square kilometers. It is so utterly massive that the surrounding empires treat it as a natural buffer zone. All the nations bordering it harbor deep, visceral hatred for one another and are in a state of constant, grinding rivalry, which effectively prevents them from pooling their military strength and marching into the forest."
"This lawless expanse is undeniably the most optimal location for someone who must start entirely from zero," Elarienne added with absolute conviction. "We have physical space, we have chaos in which it is easy to vanish, and we have the time required to grow our power."
Liselotte listened to these explanations, nodding obediently. It aligned one hundred percent with everything she knew about grand strategy games - no-man's-land was invariably the best possible starting location.
However, when they finished speaking, the maid slowly turned in a full circle.
Her ruby eyes swept over the piles of shattered black stone.
She looked at the chipped stairs of the altar, the cracked foundations of long-collapsed walls, the pervasive dust, the dry gravel, and the grim, black faces of the cliffs casting a suffocating shadow over them.
Liselotte sighed heavily, placed her hands on her hips, and blurted out with total, disarming honesty:
"Alright... Strategically, it sounds brilliant. But visually... it still looks like a total, god-forsaken ruin."
A moment of dead, hollow silence fell over the gorge.
Nyssara looked at a crumbled boulder lying at her feet, and Elarienne dragged her gaze over a shattered column choked with dry weeds.
The Demon Empress, the proud elf, and the perverted servant stood in the middle of a literal pile of rubble, and then all three - at the exact same moment - slowly, and with profound, genuine sorrow, nodded their heads in agreement.