The war room.
A windowless space with walls lined with maps plastered onto polished slate.
Liam sat at a heavy stone table, Lilith beside him. At the head of the table, standing before a large, shimmering map of the realm, was Eri.
The young maid clutched a pointer rod so tightly her knuckles were white. Her gaze was fixed on the map, but her eyes kept flicking, nervous and bird-like, toward Liam.
"So," Liam began, breaking the quiet. "What are we doing?"
"Eri is going to brief you on the necessary context for your… excursion," Lilith said, her voice calm and matter-of-fact. She lounged in her chair, but her eyes were sharp, missing nothing.
Liam's brow rose. He gestured with his chin toward the trembling girl.
"Eri… the maid?"
"She is not just a maid," Lilith replied, her tone leaving no room for further inquiry. "We don't need to get into that. Eri, begin."
Eri flinched at the command, then seemed to force a steel rod into her spine. She cleared her throat, her voice initially a squeak before finding a steadier, if quiet, rhythm.
"Yes, Your Majesty. My… Lord." She tapped the rod on the map, pointing to a vast, glowing territory marked in gold. "First, the primary adversary: The Radiant Empire. It is one of the three great human empires on the continent."
Liam leaned forward, his actor's mind latching onto the new information.
"Three? There are two others?"
"Yes, my Lord," Eri confirmed, gaining a sliver of confidence. "The Aurelian Republic to the west, a mercantile power, and the Iron Citadel Confederacy to the frozen south. They are… not our friends, but they are not inherently battle-hungry. Their conflicts with us are typically territorial or economic."
Lilith picked up the thread, her voice laced with a cold, weary bitterness.
"The Radiant Empire, however, has always wanted us eradicated. They see our very existence as a sin that must be cleansed. My decision to launch a preemptive war…" She shrugged one elegant shoulder. "It was a catastrophic miscalculation. But it gave them the holy justification they had been waiting for. Now, they fight with the fervor of fanatics, and the other empires are content to sit back and watch the 'saviors of humanity' do the bloody work."
Eri nodded, tapping the golden territory again.
"It is a theocracy, my Lord, masked as an empire. The Church of Light is the state. Their people genuinely believe that the destruction of the Demon Realm will usher in a permanent age of purity and end sin itself."
"Charming," Liam muttered dryly.
"Their military might is formidable," Eri continued. "Their standard soldiers are Paladins. They are not merely warriors; each is a well-trained zealot, proficient in combat and blessed with the ability to wield light magic. They are organized into companies, and each company is typically led by one or two commanders of significant power."
"What kind of power are we talking about?" Liam asked, his mind already calculating stages and threats.
"Knights and Commanders of the Archmage stage and beyond," Eri said, her voice dropping slightly as if the title itself was terrifying.
"Their light magic is… potent. It disrupts our innate energies, sears our flesh more deeply than ordinary flame, and can heal their own wounds with terrifying speed. Encountering an Archmage-level Paladin Commander is the single greatest threat to any demonic battalion."
Liam stored the information away. Archmage stage. Light magic. High threat priority.
Eri then moved the pointer to a rough, mountainous region on their side of the border, colored a deep, volcanic red.
"Now, for our position. This is Ashard, one of the seven core provinces of the Demon Empire."
"Each province," Lilith interjected, "is ruled by an Arch-Demon. They are… powerful, prideful, and notoriously independent. They pay fealty to the crown in Eldhar, but their loyalty is often to their own land and power first."
"Ashard," Eri said, focusing on the province, "has borne the brunt of the recent Radiant offensive. While the province itself has held, its outer borders are a patchwork of contested territories. Our outposts are constantly under attack, and the trade routes are severed. It is a bleeding wound."
Liam studied the map. "And the people? The Arch-Demon?"
Lilith's lips thinned into a hard line.
"The people of Ashard have lost faith in the crown. They see the bodies of their kin returning from a war I started. Their Arch-Demon, Gorath the Unyielding, was one of my most vocal opponents in the last Absolute Summon. He believes my rule is weak and my strategies are foolish." She looked directly at Liam, her golden eyes intense.
"So, to be perfectly clear, you should not expect a warm welcome. They will not be accepting of the Demon God I present to them. They are more likely to view you as another one of my desperate, failing gambits."
A slow, calculating smile spread across Liam's face. It wasn't a pleasant expression.
"A hostile audience," he mused, his voice low. "The most challenging kind. They won't be swayed by grand speeches or displays of raw power alone. They've seen power fail. They've seen demons die."
He looked from the map of the hostile human empire to the map of the hostile demon province, then finally to Lilith.
"They need to see a victory. Not just performance – result."
The room was silent for a moment, the weight of the task settling in.
"The board is set," Liam said, his gaze fixed on the strategic nightmare laid out before him.
"Now we just have to play the game."