How I became the Empress of Hell

I awoke in the exact same position I had fallen asleep. Gehenna’s heavy breathing on my chest showed she was still deeply asleep, so I let out a quiet yawn and let my eyes drift down the curves of her body. I noticed that the edges of my vision were pulsing a bright red color and there were several notifications informing me I needed to log out to eat, move around, and do other things I couldn’t do while in-game. I tried waving the notifications away, but our post-coitus nap had taken a lot more time than the N-Vision would allow for me to go without tending to my real body’s needs. I craned my neck upwards slightly and kissed Gehenna’s forehead. Her golden eyes snapped open at once and I felt her entire body start to heat up intensely… until her vision focused on me, and I saw a tremendous smile spread across her face. Her body heat returned to normal, and she let out a happy sigh as she shifted her face slightly to kiss my lips.

“Good morning, my beautiful blonde demoness. Did you sleep well?”

She nodded and kissed me again before letting out an adorable yawn. Her blonde hair had become a wild mane of untamed waves, and she pushed several strands out of her face as she rested her head on my chest again.

“We slept far longer than I anticipated we would. While I did sleep better than I have for a very long time, now I’m worried about you not taking care of your real body. It has been nearly 12 hours since I took you from your clan castle. Even with the time dilation, it can’t be healthy for you to remain in here for so long.”

“Time dilation? I know you’ve mentioned several times that time works differently in here than it does in my world, but what exactly does that mean?”

“I can’t be certain since I’m not part of the world’s original programming and am a product of the world expanding itself, but since the arrival of the first Demonspawn and Angelspawn it seems that for every three minutes that pass in this world, only a minute has passed in yours. At least that’s what I’ve been led to believe. I’m sure your retainer would likely be able to give you an exact answer given his nature.”

“His nature? What do you mean?”

“He is an intersection of the natural evolution of this world and the programming of yours. His base code is the same as many of the AI that you have likely interacted with that appear as a glowing white or black orb. But he is also someone who is born completely of this world. If I had to guess at the reasons for him being this way… I would estimate that your powers of corruption combined the AI assistant with his original form to create what he is now.”

“How in every fuck do you know that?”

“While I would normally say as I have before, that there is little that happens in my realms that I do not know about, you know more about me than any other. So you are entitled to the real answer. One of the effects of my [Souls of the Damned] allows me to view details of any demonkin that I am receiving a stat boost from. That is how I know so much about your clan especially.”

A thought suddenly occurred to me, and my eyes opened wide as I considered the implications of what I had just realized.

“Gehenna… do you gain more stat buffs every time I create another demon?”

Her eyes glittered and she smiled again and nodded.

“Why do you think I was so flirtatious the first time we met? You were the being responsible for making me more powerful. When I saw the details about Lady Em–Emelia, I mean… When I saw the details about her and how she was created, there was little doubt in my mind that I needed to meet you and learn more about you. I also knew with absolute certainty that you would win the tournament. I hadn’t anticipated your self-sacrifice, but your explanation for why you did it was one of the reasons I fell for you as hard as I did. In that moment, I knew that I wanted to feel someone love me as deeply as you love her. I wanted to feel you love me like that.”

I pulled Gehenna upwards slightly and kissed her passionately before pulling away and resting my head on the pillow. I let out a sigh as I considered what she had just said, and she seemed to sense where my thoughts had drifted.

“I’m not saying I want you to love me in the same way you do her. I would never expect that from you, for many reasons. She is your true love, and bonded to you in a way that no other can be. She was gracious enough to share you with me, and allow what we have to blossom into what it is becoming. And I would never want you to feel like I am even remotely on the same level as she is when it comes to your love.”

I let out a slight scoff and shook my head.

“No… Gehenna. It’s not like that. There aren’t levels of my love. I love you in a way that is unique to you and no one else in existence, just like I love her in a way that is unique to her. …And just like I love Nialla in a way that is unique to her.”

I sighed slightly as I finally recognized the emotions I had regarding the sexy catgirl, and laughed softly through my nose at how long it had taken me to come to terms with how I felt about her. All my actions towards her and the way I responded when she died all pointed to the obvious fact that I was in love with her… I just wrapped myself up in the details of everything so much that I couldn’t see it. Yes, she was a decade younger than I was, and that was normally not something I found attractive. But… she was Nialla. I don’t know… I can’t explain it. I’m not sure I felt the same way about Noelle… but I had no doubts in that moment that I did love the crazy and spontaneous blue and white catgirl. My thoughts returned to the gorgeous woman on my chest and I let out a contented sigh as I looked into her glimmering gold eyes.

“You often seem lost in your thoughts, Allie. Sometimes it seems like you are completely engaged elsewhere and I have to pull your attention back into focus. Is that normal?”

“Gehenna… I am anything but normal. But yes. It is common for people like me. I have ADHD. It’s… a lot to explain to someone with absolutely no frame of reference to go off of. Basically… my brain is wired differently than most peoples’ and I respond to different stimuli in different ways. My attention is automatically drawn towards whatever is the most stimulating at that exact moment, and sometimes when a random thought pops into my brain I follow it until something else either becomes more stimulating or something pulls my attention back to whatever I was doing prior. Not that you aren’t stimulating. Ugh. I’m not doing a good job at this. I’ve literally never had to describe this to someone who didn’t at least have some clue what it was.”

I thought for a moment about how to best explain in terms that my newest future demon wife could understand and then spent the next hour discussing the ins and outs of ADHD. We talked about hyperfocusing, choice paralysis, executive dysfunction, dopamine seeking behaviors, and everything else I could think of. Gehenna soaked up all the information like a sponge, and I loved just how interested in learning about it she was. She claimed it was because she wanted to know everything there was to know about me, and the fact that she loved me more because of my neurodivergence made me love her even more. By this point, however, my screen was blaring red at me and I knew I wouldn’t be able to ignore it for more than a few more minutes. When I told Gehenna about it, she glared at me angrily and immediately opened a portal. She waved her hand and a simple black sundress appeared on her body, and she motioned for me to get up and get dressed. I smirked at her as I moved off the bed, and opted to wear my typical clothing I wore underneath my armor. She surprised me by taking me by the hand and walking with me through the portal. 

When we suddenly arrived in the clan hall I saw several of my clan members had gathered when they saw the portal appear. They all looked shocked to see this beautiful blonde demon in a flowy dress hanging off my arm, and they began to pepper us with questions. Judas and Tesrif seemed the most surprised by Gehenna’s appearance, and she insisted that they refrain from treating her like the empress. I introduced her to everyone and she eagerly bounded from person to person. As she looked back over at me, her expression hardened and she told them all that introductions would have to wait, since she needed to make sure I made it to my bedroom safely and logged out. They all laughed at her “mothering me,” but I could tell they were excited to get to know her. Nialla especially seemed to connect with her almost instantly, and she insisted on joining us to my bedroom.

“Allie, I promise I will still be here when you return. You need to take care of yourself. I’m sure your other demon wife and the rest of your clan can keep me entertained. We will talk more when you get back. There is… still something we need to discuss. Go now, my love.”

I sighed through my nose and nodded at her.

“OK… Ok… I’m going. I love you Gehenna.”

"And I, you, Allie."

I hugged her tightly and kissed her several times before pulling away. I motioned for the catgirl to come closer to me and I hugged and kissed her just as enthusiastically. I moved my mouth close to her ear as I pulled up my character menu to log out.

“I love you, Nialla.”

Before my beautiful kitten could respond, I kissed her on the cheek and pressed the log out button.