<strong>Torahime and Muramasa</strong><br/><hr/>Although Torahime had offered to demonstrate her skills to the other demon lords assembled there, only a single one, Nyag'thon, had actually attempted to take her up on that offer.  She was perfectly willing to demonstrate her skills anyway, of course, but some subtle instinct told her that it would be wiser to hold off on the demonstration, and so she waited.  There was a little more banter back and forth between some of the other demons assembled there, followed by a speech from their host on the reason he had called them all together like this, and then, before they could fully absorb the concept of the grand alliance the seer had proposed, there was a sudden interruption from a trio of... 'entrepreneurs'.  Each one had a particular set of skills or access to certain resources that they rather clearly wished to sell, and each one would certainly be a useful contact for a would-be ruler to have, although the tiger-tailed swordswoman had no need of their services at present.<br/><br/>From there, the conversation moved on to a discussion about a group of abyssal layers that were even now laying entirely unclaimed, with no lord around who wished to rule them.  One was a tangle of living nerves and veins that were constantly growing and dying off seemingly at random, another was awash in a constant maelstrom, with lightning strikes and hail providing a constant danger to the inhabitants, a third was filled with corrupted plant life, a tainted orchard whose fruit was apparently very highly-prized...  There was also a layer filled with wombs that constantly gave birth to an ever-changing horde of monstrosities that fought and killed one another until they, in turn, were killed off by the plane itself, a rocky canyon that was filled with a red mist that blocked out almost all senses and that was home to impossible giants, and a layer that was essentially a place of constant change and explosions, a place that would be nearly impossible to rule unless taken over by a demon lord with truly incredible focus.<br/><br/>"See anything you like, babe?"  The question from Muramasa was almost perfectly timed with her own thoughts.  The answer to it was a yes, of course.  She saw quite a bit that she liked.  In fact, most of the layers on display had one feature or another that strongly appealed to her.  She had been spending the last century traveling through one inhospitable layer of the Abyss after another, learning to live in each, taking the regular obstacles they threw her way and turning them into training opportunities, and with many of the layers presented to her, she could already see even more opportunities for training.  She could sit beneath the open sky on Panderechos and meditate on the nature of emptiness, practice her swordplay amidst the raindrops and hailstones.  Doing battle with the plant-life of the Sinning Orchard in order to steal their fruits was another possibility, a test of her skill and agility.  Fighting amongst the hordes birthed from the Womb of Disdain could teach her greater situational awareness, both from having to deal with multiple opponents at once and from having to retreat from battle before the layer's acid melted her flesh away, and of course hunting the behemoths of Caligo Carminium would present its own set of challenges.  But the layer that interested her most of all was...<br/><br/>"Tell me more about the Ever-Heaving Heath."  Focus and discipline were the words she had chosen to live by over the past century, and bringing this layer under control would be the ultimate test for how far she had managed to develop those particular skills.  Given the plant life that managed to survive on the layer even in spite of the explosions, it wasn't hard to imagine cultivating the place into a proper jungle once the layer was stabilized - the perfect place for a tiger to stalk its prey.  And if some other would-be demon lord brought in an army to attempt to conquer the place once she had done all the hard work, then defending her domain would be a simple matter of relaxing her control over certain areas of the plane, and allowing the usurper to be blown to smithereens.<br/><br/>Of course, even if that layer was seemingly the ideal place for her to make her attempt at rulership, she still didn't wish to miss out on the opportunities that the other layers could provide her.  Thus, when Methu made his proposal, she was quick to toss in a proposal of her own.<br/><br/>"I find those terms acceptable.  And as for how we might establish ourselves on these layers, I believe our best shot will be taking them one at a time, as a group.  We can start at the top and work our way down."