Chapter 564: 564. Back To The Underlayer Just To See The Fraud Lord of Demons Again!
She moved toward him in the specific way she moved when she had resolved an internal argument and was done with the conversation about it. She straightened his collar, which did not need straightening, with the particular possessiveness of someone who could not make a broader claim and was therefore making this small precise one.
Something in the gesture, small and habitual, had the quality of something she had been looking forward to doing since she arrived and was now doing because she was no longer in the waiting state and was allowed to.
"I missed you," she said, and it came out with the flat directness she used when she had given up on managing something and was simply saying it.
"I know," Rex said. "And you don’t need to say it because a succubus like you..."
"...always horny."
"That’s... not a sufficient response," she said. "But yes... I do am horny for you."
"I know that too," Rex said. "But now is not the right time because... I’m still a little disappoint at you."
She stared at him. "Heehhhhhhh... I thought it’s over!"
"Nope, it’s not, and..."
"I was busy," Rex said. "I’m going to be busy for the next several weeks in the Underlayer."
"That’s going to be closer than the surface."
Her expression shifted slightly, the specific shift of someone who has been offered something that is not quite what they wanted but is substantially better than what they had. And of course it was a little exaggerating.
"REALLY?!" She shouted while drooling, but then she wipe it all out. "E-ehem...!"
"How much closer?" she said while being professional so she didn’t disappoint him again.
"Operationally present," Rex said. "For the duration of the restructuring."
"Restructuring... I see... so Underlayer is really going to bow to you only, my master." Lilith giggled.
"And about... Operationally present," Lilith repeated, with the precision of someone cataloguing the specific content of a statement.
She was not mocking the phrasing. She was genuinely parsing it for what it included and excluded, which was how she processed most things he said.
"That means you’ll be working in the same space as me for several weeks, right?" she said.
"Yep," Rex said.
"Not visiting," she said. "Residing."
"For the duration," Rex said.
"And after the restructuring?" she said.
"After the restructuring the situation will have changed enough that it requires fresh assessment," Rex said. "And no... I will not have sex with you."
"Ughhh... but still..."
"That’s a diplomatic answer," she said.
"That’s what I have," Rex said. "Take it or don’t."
She looked at him with the amber eyes that glowed slightly in the dark and the specific expression of someone who has decided that what is available is better than what is not.
"Fine," she said. "I’ll take it."
"Anything for my dear... master..." She winked at him with her tail wiggling around.
She then stepped back into operational mode with the practiced ease of someone who had learned to move between registers quickly because the work required it.
"Mordecai has been pulling gacha for expertise-class demons the way you told him," she said. "The monitoring network is more functional than it was."
"Pavellia has been running the security audit with Gelion."
"How has Gelion been behaving during the audit?" Rex said.
"Cooperative," Lilith said. "Precisely cooperative, which is different from genuinely cooperative."
"He gives Pavellia exactly what she asks for and nothing she doesn’t ask for, which means the audit’s quality depends entirely on whether Pavellia knows the right questions."
"Does she, though?" Rex said. "But I kinda trust that peacock woman because she’s the first one from Mordecai’s gacha result that actually shows some good work other than the others who were frauds."
"She knows most of them," Lilith said. "She’s missed two categories that I’ve been tracking separately."
"The second-stratum signal analysis and the Legion frequency calibration in the northern shaft infrastructure."
"You didn’t tell her?" Rex said.
"I was waiting for you," Lilith said. It was not an explanation. It was a statement of operational priority.
"Good girl," Rex said.
"So about that slimy motherfucker Gelion," Rex said.
"Still cooperating under observation," she said. "His cooperation has not changed."
"Today it will," Rex said. "And it’s time to put some trash where they belong to..."
Lilith looked at him, sensing something in the way he spoke that communicated the shape of what was coming. She absorbed it with the practical acceptance she reserved for operations rather than personal matters.
She didn’t ask for clarification because she already understood his meaning.
The specific tone of his voice conveyed all the information she needed without requiring further elaboration. She processed it as she did with most operational details: without any visible reaction and with complete retention.
"The second-stratum contacts?" she said.
"Still on standdown," she said. "But I’ve been monitoring the signal frequency, and there are patterns that suggest the standdown is being maintained under increasing internal pressure."
"How long?" Rex said.
"A week... possibly two... before the internal pressure produces a unilateral decision," she said.
Rex gazed at the Convergence Waters. The dark surface, far below the island’s edge, seemed timeless—something that had existed long before the island came to be and would remain forever after.
He thought about the second-stratum contacts, the fourteen months of infrastructure Gelion had built, and the complicated issues that would come with taking over a network from the person he was about to get rid of.
"Then we go now," Rex said. "Take me down."
Lilith smiled and extended her hand. Before the operation began, she glanced at him, her expression shifting to that focused demeanor she adopted in critical moments when personal feelings were set aside, leaving only the work and the partner she was with.
"Welcome back," she said. "The real conqueror of Underlayer."
"No need to say that shit... you won’t get anything from it."
"Hehhhh...! But I’m still trying to show my devotion towards you because I’m the one that trusted you the mooooooooosstttt~!" She wiggled her tail. "You should praise me moreeeeee~!"
Rex took her hand. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
"But I already said it earlier... good girl."
"Ehehehe~! Let’s go~!" She flicked her finger.
The teleportation worked around them, utilizing the specific energy signature of a succubus operating at full capacity. Darkness enveloped them before releasing into another void, transforming the floating island, the Convergence Waters, and the night sky of the surface into the distinct atmosphere of the underground. The air was cool, mineral-rich, and dense with the energy of two hundred thousand lives existing in a realm that had been carved into the earth itself.
She teleported Rex instantly to the Underlayer, but it was more instant this time because he was in Mordecai’s castle, right in front of his throne room.
Mordecai’s throne room was just as Rex remembered: excessive, reflecting the tastes of someone who had been granted authority and made architectural choices based on how power should appear. The ceiling soared high, unnecessarily vaulted, and the throne itself resembled a piece of furniture that would be uncomfortable to sit on for more than ten minutes, no matter how imposing it looked.
Mordecai was not sitting on the throne.
He was seated in a modest chair to the side of the throne, legs stretched out and head tipped back, wearing the expression of someone receiving a skilled shoulder massage from Pavellia. She stood behind him, her hands expertly working through the tension in his upper back with the efficiency of someone who had practiced long enough to know exactly where it resided.
Rex stood in the entrance for a moment and looked at the scene with the patient attention of someone filing several observations simultaneously.
Mordecai appeared more fatigued than during Rex’s last in-person visit. It was the distinct weariness of someone managing a kingdom under directives they could follow but not fully comprehend—similar to how one might look when carrying out a plan without having the entire blueprint.
The shoulder tension that Pavellia was working through was not incidental. It was a three-dimensional map of what the past several months had cost him.
Rex stared at Mordecai in complete silence for several long seconds before finally speaking.
"This motherfucker.."
He rubbed his face slowly.
"You really are the saddest excuse for a Demon Lord I’ve ever seen."
His eyes moved from Mordecai, to the side chair, to the massive throne behind him.
"Look at you..."
"You built an entire underground kingdom and somehow still managed to look like a fucking unemployed no-life loser surviving on caffeine, stress, and zero sunlight."
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
"No presence. No dignity. And no fucking aura!"
"You sit beside your own throne getting shoulder massages like some burned-out Discord moderator who lost an argument online three hours ago and never emotionally recovered from it."
Rex folded his arms.
"And the worst part is that you actually think this shit looks respectable."
He let out a quiet scoff.
"You don’t even look evil."
"You look exhausted in the most pathetic way possible... like a guy who spends sixteen hours a day micromanaging spreadsheets and then cries internally when someone sends another notification."
His gaze hardened.
"You’re supposed to be a Demon Lord. Instead you look like a divorced office worker one missed payment away from a complete fucking breakdown."
Rex glanced at the throne again.
"And THAT thing behind you? That’s not a throne anymore!"
"That’s just expensive decoration because apparently the mighty ruler of the Underlayer can’t even sit in his own damn chair without his spine giving up."
He shook his head once.
"Honestly, if someone told me you ruled two hundred thousand demons, I’d assume it was some kind of fucking administrative error."
A pause.
"Seriously... you radiate the energy of a man whose greatest battle was losing sleep while arguing with idiots at three in the morning."
Then he smirked slightly.
"Pathetic."
"As always."
