Graaz stared at the mound of brown seeds with devout awe, then shifted his gaze to Lilith. In his primitive mind, concepts like a "trade interface" or "transfer magic" did not exist. To him, this powerful being had just, with a single wave of her hand, bent space-time and summoned life from the very void.
"Great Lady! Miracle worker! Goddess of Harvest!" he began to wail, raising his hands toward the sky. "Your power knows no bounds! You have created gifts from the very air to feed your wretched servants!"
Lysandra, standing nearby with her arms crossed, felt her brow twitch with irritation. She had no patience for goblin lamentations. Without a word, she raised her leg and, with a short, well-aimed kick to the back, sent Graaz flying straight into the pile of seeds.
"Stop this nonsense and get to work, scum!" she snarled in a cold, cutting voice. "Every second you waste on these screams is a second's delay in our Lady's harvest."
Graaz, with his face pressed into the seeds, quickly began to scoop them up with his hands. He held one up to his eyes, examining it with the professional attention of an old farmer. Though his nose still stung, instinct took over.
"Yes... yes, I understand!" he choked out, ignoring the pain in his back. "If I sense their nature correctly, these seeds do not differ in structure from ordinary potatoes. The root is edible, what grows underground... but this energy..."
He clenched his hand over a seed, feeling its unusual mass. The Giga Potatoes were saturated with magic; they were so nutritious that they could successfully replace meat in a monster's diet. For a Demon King, this meant a stable army that would not suffer from hunger, maintaining full energy and combat strength even during long sieges.
Lysandra leaned over him, casting a dark shadow. "Then what are you waiting for?" she hissed.
"Now! We're going now! The subordinates are getting to work!" Graaz cried out in terror, dashing toward the nearest section of the Fields of Spirit Cultivation.
He began to gouge shallow holes in the pulsing soil with his bare hands, placing the seeds in them with extraordinary delicacy. The other goblins, seeing this, abandoned their stupor. With curiosity, but also fear, they began to imitate their leader. Soon, the entire hundred green creatures were bustling across the plain, digging, planting, and whispering primitive incantations of growth under their breath.
***
In a distant valley bathed in eternal spring, nature seemed to sing its own song. Crystal streams cut through carpets of bright flowers, and the air smelled of sweet nectar. It was here, far from the gloom and blood of the Forest of Chaos, that the domain of the fairies was located.
"Ha! I'm rich! I made 400 gold in one go!" a joyful, shrill cry tore through the silence.
From a thicket of giant ferns, a lovely little creature shot out, performing a series of euphoric somersaults in the air. She was not human. She wore simple clothes made of woven leaves, and her hair was not strands of copper or gold, but a thick cascade of living green vines. A wreath of fresh wildflowers rested on her temples, and a pair of blue, translucent wings quivered behind her back.
This was Izera, the Fairy who had just struck the deal with Lilith. She landed softly on the calyx of a huge tulip and began to count excitedly on her fingers.
"400 gold pieces... That will allow me to summon dozens of lesser flower fairies! With their help, I'll be able to grow many more seeds to sell!" Her eyes shone with the vision of future profit.
Suddenly Izera went still, an expression of deep reflection crossing her childish face. She recalled the profile of her business partner.
"Lilith? If I remember correctly, for several days this person has been posting ads to buy plans and residential buildings... Who is she, exactly? She bought two thousand seeds without blinking, so she must be very strong, right?" The fairy nodded in appreciation. "I must maintain good relations. This is a very important client, a real VIP!"
Her gaze fell, however, on the global population counter. Over a million Demon Kings had vanished from the face of the world in the blink of an eye. The fear she had tried to drown out with the joy of trade returned for a moment with redoubled force.
"The Heroes have been successfully subjugating Demon Kings lately," she murmured, her wings drooping. "I can't just summon only workers. Since I have gold, I should also invest in a few Flower Fairy Warriors to defend my garden. Otherwise, I'll end up a dead fairy…"
She looked at the number of deceased and sighed heavily, but after a moment she shook her head, warding off the dark thoughts. A smile brightened her face again.
"Alright! I have more important tasks now than pitying the dead!" she called out, soaring upward.
With excitement, she flew toward the center of her valley, where an intricately carved green altar entwined with vines stood. It was time to turn Lilith's gold into a new living force that would make her floral kingdom bloom like never before.
***
After a murderous, several-hour expedition and a logistical nightmare with the goblins, Lilith and Lysandra finally caught sight of the silhouette of Lilith's Altar looming in the darkness.
As soon as their feet touched the cold stone, Lilith sharply inhaled. Her nostrils were filled with a thick, almost palpable scent of ambergris and musk, and her skin responded with a shiver to the gargantuan aura of desire pulsing around the structure.
"What on earth…" Lilith muttered, narrowing her eyes.
In the gloom, she spotted two entwined human silhouettes of her other subordinates. Kala was sitting upright, leaning her back against the edge of the altar with an expression of absolute bliss on her face. Lilith squinted, trying to understand what she was seeing, then raised a finger and pointed down.
"Kala… What exactly are you sitting on?" she asked with doubt in her voice.
The succubus opened one eye, completely unbothered by her Lady's sudden return. She smiled radiantly, though her breathing was somewhat accelerated. "Oh, you're back already! How was the trip? Did you manage to pacify those green pests? Did you bring anything interesting?" She showered them with questions, ignoring Lilith's strange look.
Lilith instinctively began to answer, briefly recounting the conquest of the village and the purchase of seeds, but after a moment she shook her head, regaining her composure. "Don't change the subject!" she huffed, pointing to the spot beneath Kala's hips. "I'm asking seriously: why are you sitting on Mina's face? You can't even see her under your thighs!"
Kala suddenly assumed a very serious, almost professional expression, though her fingers dug into the edge of the stone. "That chatterbox wouldn't stop talking for the entire dozen or so hours of your absence, Lilith," she explained with total calm. "My ears were already bleeding from her excitement over the new skill. So I decided to use her tongue in a slightly more useful and… silencing way."
At that moment, Kala suddenly arched and let out a short, throaty moan that echoed throughout the valley. She closed her eyes, and a predatory smile bloomed on her lips. "Keep working like that, little one, and maybe in fifteen minutes I'll give you a moment to breathe," she murmured down to the invisible Mina.
Lilith stood rooted to the spot, feeling the human part of her brain suffering a massive system error. She turned slowly toward Lysandra. The elder succubus, usually so composed and stern, this time merely stared blankly at her companions, not knowing whether she should conjure her ice spear or perhaps just join them.
Lilith let the air out of her lungs, massaging her temples. "Great… Just brilliant," she sarcased under her breath. "There's nothing like entrusting the defense of the territory's most important point to two horny succubi who decided to hold an oral marathon in the middle of their watch. Good thing those skeletons don't have hormones at least…"
Lilith said, pulling her gaze away from the two succubi and looking toward a falling tree in the Darkness Woods.