Sharness rode up to her “temple”; the 1920s mansion had been refurbished with an apocalypse in mind, making it an excellent base for her operations. She had fallen in love with the curves and swoops of the mansion; it was a gorgeous edifice only highlighted by the gardens around it and the pools that someone had taken care to design slides, fire pits, and hidden nooks. It was made to satisfy the needs of those that had lived there. This meant the occupants wanted to live in comfort while secure in the knowledge they could easily defend the manor. She could appreciate that as few humans living on the planet could.

She also enjoyed the feel of the motorcycle below her; while there here many issues with this planet, the flow of its mana merely the biggest problem, there were many perks to it as well. The mansion, the motorcycle, the silks; all of these made her existence here was well worth the trip from the lowest plane of Hell.

As she parked in front of the mansion she could feel the eyes upon her, and it was a feeling she relished. The mansion was hers by right of conquest, and she had made sure that the people living here would provide whatever she needed or merely desired. She had made sure that there were farmers, maintenance, and above all security, and that everyone was skilled in those three areas. This made them not only more confident but more beholden to her as she had not only taken them away from whatever purgatory they had found themselves in but also provided a future for them when the planet around them was doing its best to eliminate all futures. She had given them everything and so they would give of themselves in reciprocation.

She smiled as thought about the other benefits that had wrought, as her people were healthier, stronger, and hardier than they were when she had met them. As a succubus, this was well worth the investment of time as it meant more energy that could be gleaned from them, and it also meant her other needs could be satisfied as well. As those that lived here now were more than willing to assist in dealing with those needs, she was able to not only enjoy herself more but glean more energy from them as well.

After centuries of literally devouring knights of all kinds, it felt weird to be the paladin; she was the hero when she was used to being the monster. She relished the irony, as she was still the monster; she just wore the expected suit of a savior. When this world was remade by the will of those to whom she owed fealty, she debated claiming this mansion as her reward.

She knew there were weapons trained on her and soldiers, not just security, ready to rush her as soon as the weapons stopped her. They were hidden, sure, and therefore practically invisible, she knew they had been ready as soon as she was within a few miles of the mansion. If she had been an invader instead of their mistress, she would have been dead miles back. She knew because that was how she had trained them, and smiled as she remembered the initial missteps. After a few men and women had been killed to make a point, they were suddenly more open to learning what she had to teach. And she had taught them so much.

As soon as she passed the threshold a light above changed from red to blue and the atmosphere changed from one of expectancy to one of welcoming. She touched as many as she could, gleaning just a little energy from each; this brought all of them closer to her. Several mothers and fathers approached her to announce that their children were now of age; she smiled at them as she told them that her priest would arrange for the ceremony. As they left she felt pride even as she welcomed new sources of that special energy that she needed.

Her smile faded as she headed into her true center of operations. As she walked into the control room, Callum, her seneschal, walked over to her, almost flowing into place. A tall, beardless man with no chin, he was dressed as a technician in a pink polo shirt.

"I hope the journey was fine, ma'am?”

She sat down. “Yes, plenty was accomplished. Have three adolescents ready in my bedroom for after this meeting.”

“They will be ready, ma'am”. He typed out a quick message on his tablet.

“I presume that the selection is on target here?”

He left her just long enough to grab a bottle of red wine from the bar. “Yes, ma'am. We have five ready for your needs.”

She smiled. “Five? That's an increase from last year. Good job!”

He poured her a glass of wine. “Thank you, ma'am.” He gave her the glass. “They have been sequestered away from the rest and instructions have been given.”

She accepted the glass. “Good. That gives us a total of....twelve. Excellent.”

He brought up some maps. There were many circles, triangles, and squares sprinkled randomly on the map, representing farms, small settlements, and enclaves. “We have also begun tracking the lamptowns, raiders, and mage gangs, as per your request.”

She looked at the maps. “Excellent. The next phase of the plan is to send missionaries to the lamptowns, hire some of the mage gangs for ancillary item creation, and then some of the raiders for a little additional security.”

He made notes on his tablet. “Yes, ma'am.”

"We'll need fifty individuals for downtown security and an additional thirty for here. I would also like a hundred individuals working a circuit between downtown and the mansion. Make sure that they have the portable radios and whatever ammunition they require. Offer them two days of food, but allow them to haggle you to three.”

“Understood, ma'am.”

"The lamptowns are primarily minors and hate adults. As such, send out small teams, three boys and two girls, along with a cyborg for protection and a mage, preferably one of the younger sorcerers. Allow them a fully-loaded van and give them some freedom for bargaining. We just need bodies and they are the best opportunity for that.”

“Noted, ma'am.”

“Grab as many mages as you can and spoil them until I get back. Promise them labs and library access, and I'll deal with them when I get back in a week.”

“Understood, and a week, ma'am?”

“Yes. I have some issues that need to be dealt with, and we need to start worrying about that base more than ever. It may need to be infiltrated, so we'll need some healthy adolescents and maybe some of the older adults. They'll need to communicate via signal so make sure they have that training.”

“Understood, ma'am.”

"And that should be that.” She stood up and moved closer to Callum. “Just one more thing.”

He put the tablet down. “Yes, ma'am.”

She pulled his shirt off and proceeded to feed the way she preferred. She let Callum sleep where he was when she headed to her bedroom. The idea of three young, healthy bodies invigorated her.

* * * * *

Deezle the Defiler was having a long day and it promised only to get longer. A few of his gargoyles had been killed, one just because it looked like a statue. The squad everyone was tracking was off the grid; there had been an explosion followed by everyone in the squad disappearing from the various tracking screens. Making it worse was that the tattooed warrior had disappeared, but no chronal rifts had been formed in the last few hours, so he had to still be here. That was one asset that needed to be tracked down as quickly as possible.

He hated not knowing, especially when the stakes were this high.

It was also the monthly password change day; it meant that he was running blind in so many ways until his viruses reported in. He hated being a techno-demon sometimes; other demons treated technology as mysteriously and arcane, and came to him for all of their problems. While it did mean that he had a lot of favors owed him and from a lot of powerful demons (one of his higher-ups owed him a doozy just for unlocking his phone!), it did mean that they bugged him for help way too often.

The one good thing about this godforsaken planet was that no one bugged him for favors. Lellend seemed to have his tech skills and Sharness had her resources; this left him plenty of time to play games. He would nonetheless not miss this mudball when he was relocated to another post; hopefully, it would be to a place with some decent tech. This planet didn't even have teleporters or replicators! The primitives were just mastering power armor and rail guns and thought that they were oh-so-advanced.

That forced a smile from him.

He quickly focused back on the tasks at hand. He had found a blind spot, and had to add a camera. He grabbed his toolkit and a camera from his supply closet. He quickly installed the camera and synched it into the wireless. He checked out the installation to make sure it was virtually hidden; when he was happy he returned the toolkit to its place.

He did a quick system check, and his antivirus programs had caught a few interlopers but none had gotten very far; he wasn't sure if he should be proud of his skills or disappointed in this world's lack of computer talent. His viruses were reporting back; he sighed as his links were coming back to life. He grabbed a burrito from the freezer, put it in the microwave, and tapped his fingers as he waited.

The tapping stopped as a thought worked its way through his brain. There were plenty of caves and caverns below the local terrain; the lamptowns took advantage of these to hide from him and his ilk. It therefore made sense that the warrior he was worried about had probably gone to ground, possibly literally. Intrigued he grabbed a toolkit and rushed to his drones. He began building a walker and fell into such a rhythm that he lost track of time. Soon he had six ready for work.

Backed by a basic search algorithm, they should be able to find the tattooed warrior relatively quickly, especially as they knew where he had disappeared.

The microwave dinged but he didn't hear it. He was releasing his hounds into the night, electronic dogs looking for a smell. Hopefully, they would find it soon.