Merida landed in the abyss, standing alone atop a large, desolate mountain of jagged black cliffs and towering spires of red and dark green moss. This layer was larger than the mortal world, yet she could feel it as clearly as she feels the palm of her hand. And just how she felt it, the layer itself sensed her presence as it washed over its entirety like a raging wave of demonic magic.

To the demons living there, Merida’s presence felt like a deafening thunderclap, a sharp scream that exploded inside their minds, a painful sense of wholeness and unity with the lands. They were a part of the hivemind; she was the hivemind itself.

Each heartbeat, each step, and each pulse of demonic magic, Merida could sense all of her demons and their lives. The millions and billions of fungal demonic nightmares all sensed her presence and stared at the peak, drowning in the shadow of a titanic fungal tree. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

They don’t call her a Demon Lord; They don’t title her as a queen or a leader; to them, they were her limbs and cells. Two-thirds of the demons under her control were dead, corpses controlled by the fungus. In this layer, the dead demons aren’t eaten or buried; they serve the hivemind even after death, so compared to other Demon Lords, Merida had way more demons.

With such an army, she could probably invade the mortal world in a day and then spread even further. The goddess of peace might try something funny, so Merida had to get ready. She won’t have her ceremony ruined by that annoying, intrusive fool.

Merida was tall, standing at 1.78 meters (5’10’’), but still carried a three-meter-long curved blade. Her hair was long and black, but her iris burned with an eerie dark green demonic glow with a burning crimson pupil. She could see the blood flowing through her demons, sense their nervous signals, and take control directly if she wanted.

Looking at her body from a regular medical standpoint, she should already be dead, as her entire body was swallowed by a demonic fungal infection. Her muscles, organs, skin, hair, and even blood were infected down to the cells, and yet, she looked normal and retained her human ego.

The fungal mycelium replaced her nerves and reinforced her bones and muscles, making her stronger, faster, more durable, and nearly impossible to kill as long as she was connected to the endless hivemind of demonic fungus.

Beside her, an identical clone to herself emerged from the ground, growing like a mushroom. Kino was the personification of Merida’s demonic fungus, the one she raised in her blood to wipe out her own family, and now, she got to wield its power as a part of her own existence. "What should we do about that goddess?"

"If she dares pay us a second, then I’ll pay her a visit. Prepare the hivemind ships and army; we need enough force to wipe out several worlds." Merida looked down and saw the demons already working on the titanic, one-hundred-kilometer-long warship that was made of flesh, bones, and fungus.

Kino smiled. "The ship is alive and linked directly to this layer. We’ll get a few more like it, fill it to the brims with powerful demons, and then fly it to the world’s upper atmosphere." She pointed at the titanic pods growing on the ship’s sides. "Those would pop and rain spores down, infecting the people of those worlds and turning them into our thralls. I want to see what that goddess can do."

"If the goddess of peace won’t leave us in peace, then we’ll show her what war, discourse, and chaos are." Out of all of Arad’s wives, Merida might just be the most dangerous because, unlike the other, she barely needs a reason to attack. While the other wives can be stronger, none of them matches Merida’s aggression.

Acting around her felt like walking on sharp glass shards, where you’ll get hurt even if you don’t make a wrong move. People needed to constantly stay aware of her and strive to please or avoid her attention because most of the time, getting stared at by her means you’ll get eaten the moment you turn around.

One merchant tried to strong-arm one of the private quarter maids, and it just happened that that maid worked for Merida. What happened to him? No one knows; he’s just gone. Another supplier scammed her for fabric; she didn’t even ask questions and hanged him with the fake fabric and gave the company to another noble.

What Merida was preparing was an army so massive that it could swallow worlds whole, and all of it was controlled and commanded by a single, powerful hivemind that was omniscient about everything related to the hivemind.

But the scary part about her army wasn’t the size, power, or coordination; it was that it could infect people, animals, and monsters. The army could grow indefinitely, and one day, it would overwhelm any world.

All that Merida wanted was a short, quick ceremony so she could spend most of her time with Arad. She didn’t care how people saw her; she didn’t care about money, status, or fame. All she wanted was to be done with it all and spend more time on Arad’s bed, enjoying herself.

If anyone dares to get in her way, if anyone dares disturb the peace of her own time, then she’ll show them the true horror of poking a demonic horde. Merida didn’t care if her enemy was the goddess of peace or Amaterasu herself; anyone would get a demonic army knocking at the doors.

It shouldn’t be too much to ask for a peaceful, trouble-free life. She wanted peace more than anyone else, but people always seemed to find a way to trigger her. What did that merchant think ’The maids belong to the Emperor and his queens’ means? He can’t just give a maid orders and expect to live after stepping on her and Arad’s authority.

That merchant is now down at the shipyard swinging his tiny hammer like a mindless fungus zombie, and would be working there for the rest of time.

She jumped from the mountain peak and landed several kilometers away at the base of the fungal tree, and found herself staring at the titanic mural of Arad and Doma fighting the previous demon lord of fungus.

The titanic fungal tree was alive, beating with thousands of intertwined veins spiraling around its massive trunk, reaching the branches and even touching the ceiling of the layer. With each pulse, the spore pods at the peak unleashed a cloud of spores, pollinating and infecting the corpses that the demons brought today. And it wasn’t just corpses; even living beings, especially the non-demons, who somehow made it here.

This layer was a massive bio-hazard zone.

Merida walked forward, touched the mural with a distant face, and then looked at Kino. "How long do you think this mural would stand?"

"As long as we rule this layer, so forever. Unlike the previous demon lord who preferred subtle subterfuge, we’ll take a more active and violent approach to our politics." As Kino replied, Merida giggled. "No one messes with the crazy."

As long as her abyss layer is infamous for being a violent hornet nest, no one would dare attack her. It was one thing to deal with monsters and pests, but an entire demonic horde would be unstoppable.

After making sure that her army was growing stronger and ready for any sudden orders, Merida took a step through dimensions once more and appeared back in the mortal world, inside her room in the private quarters.