"Come sit with us Bele~" Asmodeus Giggled.
She scooted over to Mammon, who only saw her as beautiful, like an artwork. But you never lusted over an artwork.
I sat next to them, a person was standing at the bottom presenting items from different dimensions. Items that were precious and valuable, ones that could never be gained through the regular market.
One-of-a-kind items whose value can only be determined in an auction.
"Here we have the precious DNA of the Isopsycilla, an endangered yet very powerful species useful to maintain vast territory of the water. It's been genetically modified to be docile and tamable. The Starting Bid is ξ660,000"
The announcer continued to talk.
"So what brings you here?" I peeked over at Asmodeus
"Well I promised this big fella here I've got a surprise for him. I can't tell him what it is yet, I want it to be a surprise."
"What kind of surprises?" I asked while signaling the butler to come over, ordering a few drinks.
"If I tell you then it won't be a surprise anymore, right?" She began to pout.
Sometimes I wonder how this person was one of the most vicious rulers of the underworld.
"Well you came here for a different reason" Mammon interjected.
"Absolutely, I wanted to discuss how we're going to invade Earth" I picked up the drink from the butler which had bubbles going upside-down. From the top to the bottom, like droplets of oil in water.
"Earth? Is that a new Dimension?" Asmodeus asked licking the tips of her fingers once she finished eating a fruit.
I nodded, "It's a new Dimension with a lot of surprises" Of course I let Asmodeus in on the secret. She was an essential backer for our Empire, she could arm an entire nation with new weapons, or stop smuggling necessary luxuries to key backers in our dimensions.
Heck! She could pull out her entire organization and let the ruler in that dimension deal with the excessively violent crime, drug trafficking, and ruthlessness in their streets. Gangs would rise up and form, they would begin to fight over territory and the streets would be the battlefield of war.
She held access to essentially the entire black market and most people prefer to work underneath a bigger boss if that means they get to be safer and don't need to risk their lives everyday.
If I had to write an analogy, she controlled the railroads, and charged people to use it. Most people found it easier renting her railroads than building an entirely new one or lugging that luggage around without the proper infrastructure.
Normally, in less well-developed black markets there would be many clans who fought each other for territory of railroads that they could build and charge people.
Asmodeus was different though, because she had the real power to maintain and enforce her territory, she held every single major railroad and she charged the people to use it.
Asmodeus held the shadow government of the Empire, who held hands with the actual government of the Empire.
"What kind of surprises?" She pestered me before realizing I literally asked the same question a few minutes ago, "I'll give you a kiss if you tell me"
She smirked, like she had a plan up her sleeves. She would probably give me a rock named, "Kiss" and then laugh at me if I told her on those conditions.
"I'm afraid it's not as surprising to be worthy of a kiss. Although this is highly classified information, only the trusted few can know it." I peeked over to see her eyeing me, excited and eager.
"It's a new Tertiary Universe we found, through a series of coincidences we found people who reincarnated into our dimensions that came from this place. We're gaining the coordinates to open a new portal there and wondering how we're going to invade the planet"
Her eyes lit up, "T-Tertiary? And by the sounds of it conquering is feasible, which implies that we're stronger than the native civilization. Either the Native civilization is extremely young or they're extremely underdeveloped. It could also be due to the natural environmental harm that prevents them from expansion."
She looked up, "Tell me more"
I smiled, feeling my teaching mode come on. I ramble too much when I begin to teach! I looked at Mammon who began to speak.
"The easiest point of entry is through a blackhole that their planet is orbiting.. That's where the space-time fabric is the weakest. Opening Gates directly onto the Earth would be risky since they're continually moving throughout space. It is feasible if we have a device that can anchor our gates to the planet. Although we can also consider ignoring the planet altogether, but I'm afraid if we do so we'll have no man-power to harvest the resources for us . Judging from the memories of the captured, it's a relatively small planet, it'll be less efficient for us to manually send ships over to conquer since the physical laws of the universes are different. They're not too different from ours, but their constants are different from ours, meaning that unlike the dimensions which open near us who have constant constants letting us traverse in and out of them like doors, immigrating between Tertiary dimensions may have completely different laws of nature. Although this is all proprietary information at the moment. We'll need to know our objectives before we can come up with a plan"
"Well that's up to the rest of the guys to decide" I popped a cherry in my mouth. I was talking about 6 other very important people.
"Relax a bit cutie~", Asmodeus handed me a piece of cake, "Your Money won't spend itself~"
I sat back on the couch. The Emperor's job is to make sure the Empire moves in the same direction. We were his right hand, his left hand, right lung, left lung and everything else that helped him move the Empire in a certain direction.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean we can't brainstorm some ideas," Mammon said with a grin, "I saw in one of their memories that human novels have a scenario where monsters appear on their Earth, monsters that can't be killed by traditional weapons and only through magical ways. It creates a new class of hunters who profit by selling the magical energy stored within the monster. A newer more efficient energy source, a profitable opportunity for us"
"I can send a horde of mindless beasts into them!" Asmodeus chimed in, "Then I can appear like an angel saving them, and they'll all praise me!"
I pictured it in my mind. Asmodeus, with beautiful white wings and a sword piercing through the dragon, and the people cheering her. Suddenly she turns around, and then says, "Who wants the dragon's remains? I'll sell it! The starting bid for the eye is ξ1,000, Ah! If you're a long-time customer I'll give you a ξ200 discount! If you're willing to exchange the heart of the Ethisflied then I'm willing to exchange it for that too! If you gain the complete set of Eyes, Heart, Lungs, and Organs then I'll give you a bonus of the skeleton!"
Bwah! Is this an Angel or a Devilish Businesswoman?
If she was going to do it I would be by the sideline yelling, "If you borrow from me, I can also find a masterful artisan to change the material too. I won't ask for much, I just want the right to lend the item once it's completed for 2 years, then it'll be yours once I'm finished! It'll be a powerful item and slain by the one and only holy Asmodeus (Bwah!), imagine the value once you can say you own the dragon amulet slain by the one and only Asmodeus!"
This can be a pretty good idea. I smiled slyly, enjoying the picture. We can then trade the winged lizard portraying it like a dragon for the humans, in exchange for their resourceful species or animals, or even their consciousness(aka souls). We can implement them to work in our world instead like merchants between two countries.
"Belphegor, I haven't seen you smiling that fondly in a while, I miss it. Let me guess… are there items that interest you? I can ask them to send it up for us" Asmodeus chuckled.
"No, I'm just imagining a 'beautiful' picture" I sat up, "I also saw in their memories that they have fantasies of selling their souls to demons in exchange for material gain. Imagine if we just set up a way for their souls to come here and then waited for a century? We would have their entire civilization under our wraps"
"I-I didn't even think of that" Mammon smiled, "But there is no fun in that friend! When was the last time that you conquered a dimension with such a boring method!"
"It's effective, but I have to agree. What am I supposed to do while waiting for all those souls to come here? I want to be portrayed like a holy angel in my lifetime! Plus that won't get us any of the resources except their minds!"
"Lifetime?" I chuckled, "You may look young but you have the soul that would make mountains bow in respect"
"Pfft' Mammon Chuckled
"You should bow to your elders before I come over there and teach you a lesson you devilish snake"
"I thank you for the compliment" I laughed
"Even the densest brick could tell that was an insult dear. If you are a devilish snake you would have shed enough time to cover up the entire sky!" She made a face that seemed to say, "This idiot~" with pouting eyes.
"Come one now, you're both older than this chair" Mammon interjected, "You're not children anymore"
"I am when I'm in front of her" I complained
"I'm am when I'm in front of you Mammon" Asmodeus added
"Which is why I regret having to babysit two adults," Mammon sighed.
We actually didn't count how long we've been alive. The Empire didn't need a financial sector until it began to assimilate dimensions to fund its massive growth and the booming technology sector that came with every new dimension that was added.
Time flowed not by the mechanical shifts of a clock for us, but by the memories we encounter. The empty space in between; was just empty.
The memories that filled the time in between, became what we remember as our lives.
We knew how long we lived by the recollection of memories and Mammon lived before Asmodeus, and Asmodeus lived before me.
Before the Dimensional Gates opened Mammon was an avid traveler and peddler between Dimensions from what I've heard.
Although he would sometimes purposefully forget worlds so that he can rediscover them, or forget who he was to relieve being young again.
In truth Asmodeus and I weren't too different in age. I just knew she was older than me even if it's by a bit.