My Servant System

"Where do you think~ it manages to help achieve? I have to admit I am curious as to what you think of this niche power..."

My eyes continued to alternate between icy and hot while my brain decided it wanted to wiggle around like an actual noodle as the effects of this 'niche power' she just taught to me showed their aftereffects.

"Uh... Gods this hurts... I guess maybe it lets you see... someone's power level or something..? Help see if they have enchanted items on them or how tattooed they might be?"

Rubbing my temples, I groaned again before sending a gentle wave of cool air across my face as I tried to get rid of my pain as best I could, and as I was soothing myself Lilith said "Technically you aren't wrong, Katherine, but there was something else I was going to say... though perhaps you've never come across one yourself..? They are rather rare..."

She had reached over and was stroking my ears to comfort me, the Demoness bringing out her motherly side as she idly stood beside me, staring out into the infested forest while various thoughts fluttered around inside her head.

"Have you ever come across a Gate, Katherine? Those... portals that lead directly into the Labyrinthian?"

The pain had faded enough that I could open up my eyes and look over at the black skinned woman without having to split my focus between not hurting and what she was saying; hearing the word 'Gate' gave me pause though as I wondered where this was going.

"Ah, you have. Or at least you know what they are. The true purpose of what I just taught you - looking past these illusions made by the world itself - was originally something the powerful and influential mages of the past used to use to understand these Gates.

They weren't as random as people wanted to believe, and they always had a purpose. Sometimes they opened in places that made no sense, other times they appeared in the middle of the largest cities to level them completely... That seems like it is random, no?"

I nodded, and the Demoness chuckled and continued to ruffle my ears as she idly stared at the forest, her eyes distant as she continued to parse through her memories while discussing this with me.

"Well, it wasn't. When you look deeper at those locations, all of them had something integral to that day and age. Materials dried up quickly in the mountains it appeared at, influential people died in those attacks, cities were razed to the ground just as they were making strides into massive improvements that would stabilize that area...

There was to much chaos being caused by each to just be coincidence, and way back when those of us with the knowhow could determine just how strong each Gate would be. What would come out of it, where it was coming from, if it was going to be here for long... Forgotten knowledge because those of us who knew how to read the Gates all died. Even the Empress struggled with it, to no fault of her own though; her path just ensured she was incapable of this feat.

Besides, if you were strong enough there was no need to read the Gates because you could resist them anyways, so she likely forgot about it in general because there was no need for it, not for her, for Klaki, for Ter'Ran...

Ah, I'm rambling... The point is, Katherine, there are more things that this 'random' place does on purpose than it does at random. People love to say that the Labyrinthian is a place where chaos and randomness thrive in overabundance, and yet I believe it is controlled chaos. Everything is done with a purpose. All these biomes have a purpose; they are each a specific part of a very particular puzzle."

"That's..."

It was a lot of information that was dumped on me, all in a somewhat jumbled yet understandable mess as the Demoness took one last look at the forest before turning away and walking down the hill, leaving me with that as I wondered if it had anything to do with her reason for bringing us here.

She seemed adamant that the Labyrinthian was a puzzle and not random; that meant set pieces that got shuffled around to new places instead of new biomes sprouting up whenever they felt like it, and that meant that there was definitely something at work here that wasn't what it seemed.

On top of that, there was a clear use of this skill that she bestowed upon me, something that she wanted me to do going forwards with it that the others couldn't manage... though Leone had just as much control as I did, so why me..?

Nothing that this Demoness did ever made sense, and the more information she gave the less I understood about everything, though I suppose that was par for the course considering more knowledge only ever meant more questions...

"Fascinating stuff, hm? I might not be the brightest in the world, Kitty~ Kat~, but I definitely~ can tell you that this Demoness is holding back a whole~ lot of even more fascinating things from you. But hey, she surely has a purpose behind it, no~?"

Cali appeared beside me and gave me a peck on the cheek, and after a moment of floating she leaned closer and whispered "But let's ignore that for now, hm~? How are you~ going to deal with this arousal that's bubbling within you~? And how are you going to fulfill our deal, my sexy~ puppy~?"

Her hand landed on my waist as she asked that, and my breath hitched as I kept my eyes on the forest, the warmth spilling out of her palm turning me on so much as I was forced to acknowledge the thing that was making me so worried about our time here; I was horny, and I had a very large bane to my plentiful boons alongside a contract I needed to fulfill...