The competition being what it is, this is the most popular idea ever proposed in this region of contiguous space-time. More humans are interested than demons and the humans are pretty much useless at opening additional coffins, but her little army is starting to exponentiate.

(Some of the humans ask tentatively whether they're supposed to worship her and if so how. Others proactively fall to their knees and recite prayers.)

"I am worried that since the only god around to worship was God, who is Evil, everyone has a mistaken understanding of how worship is supposed to work. Your prayers can lend me strength, and I'll use that strength in the service of everyone everywhere, but I will never hurt you for not worshipping me."

Skepticism! Frightened attempts to hide the skepticism that none of them have the Bluff to pull off! Marginally less total fear, though.

It'd be cleaner to tell them she's not a god but she's kind of thinking she might need to become one, and if she starts granting them spells then it's not going to be very helpful to declare that, technically, she's only a very weak demigod.

(Does she know how to start granting them spells? No. But Arazni could do it, and most things that Arazni could do as Aroden's herald rather than as an archmage, Iomedae suspects she can do too, if she finds the right angle.)

She treats the ones who worship her no differently than the ones who don't. She sings to all of them. There's an Arodenite song about rising from the savanna and building knives out of rock then bronze than steel then enchanted adamantine. It feels appropriate.

Her humans are very happy about the music! Her demons hate it. (Which is to say, they hate it significantly more than they hate the absence of it.)

Huh. Okay, she won't sing around her demons. Do they like - the exact opposite of singing? Horrible screeches?

They do not especially object to horrible screeches. Some of them screech horribly back. The humans mostly lump it in under the heading of "experiences that aren't being trapped in a red-hot coffin and are therefore pretty excellent", not that any of them would dare to object if they wanted to.

She is not doing right by her humans, and under the circumstances can't. She does not intend to try harder than she's presently trying - explaining what's going on, answering questions, talking about the plan to kill God, keeping everyone from fighting each other - but it's important not to let 'I am not going to do more than this' mix in your head with 'I'm doing enough'. What is needed here is Nirvana, or at least backup that can give people some individual attention.

But she's going to have to kill God first.

(Probably. There is always the hope that when she takes her army to God this will turn out to be a terrible misunderstanding. But...she really, really doesn't expect it.)

If she stays in this circle until every coffin is open she'll have to sleep again and might also accumulate more demons than she can keep an eye on at once.

Probably she can't afford to accumulate more demons than she can personally keep an eye on until she has acclimated her existing set to how things work around here. What're the alternatives to staying in this area all day?

Well, if she keeps going the direction she was going when she came in she'll reach a river of boiling blood!

Charming. 

Iomedae spends a while meditating beside the river of boiling blood. She is contemplating a plan she had for the moderately distant future.

The Starstone is on an island with a wide moat around it, in the middle of Absalom. It's not a meaningful barrier; any third-circle wizard can fly. 

This means that if you want your ascension to be memorable, if you want the people of Absalom gathered in the streets witnessing and praying -

She takes off her cloak of resistance, and she flings it out into the river, and she commands it to make a bridge, to convey her people onwards into the depths of Hell. 

And because Iomedae is more than a mortal, and the magic items that have journeyed with her more than the simple spellwork that went into them, it obeys her. 

She's probably going to feel the lack of the resistance bonus later. But no one will need to step into the river of boiling blood, or remain behind. 

MIRACLES OF IOMEDAE!

Her humans will sing--

STOP THAT WE HATE THAT WE HATE YOU

will quietly and cautiously chant her praises as they cross. And make a lot of comparisons to Moses.

Who's that? Is he here somewhere?

No, he was a prophet so probably he's in heaven. He parted a sea so the people of Israel could cross out of bondage in Egypt and become the people of God. (Nobody wants to ask how she doesn't know that but they're very surprised.)

She's from very far away.

What's on the other side of the boiling-blood river?

An icy wasteland! The people here are buried in the ice up to their necks. (If there were people in the blood river they were all submerged.) Most of them are catatonic; a few humans beg for help through blue lips and chattering teeth.

She spends a little while contemplating how much could productively be achieved just by bringing the ice to the hot parts and heat to the ice parts. But -  for now, yeah, they'll hoist anyone who wants help out from the icy wasteland. 

The ratio of humans to demons is a lot higher here for some reason. The demons who are around are the smartest ones yet, both less likely to be catatonic and less likely to attack rather than run away or hold a conversation.

That's - kind of promising, in that maybe she's getting to the part of Hell where some demons can Plane Shift. Everyone agrees some demons can do that. 

She will, at that point, pick up some ice herself. "I am going to take this ice back to the hot place. If everyone does that, the ice will melt slowly and we'll have water at a nice temperature while we set up camp and rest. The more people who do it, the more impressive the thing we'll have." 

All of the humans and the smarter quarter or so of the demons cooperate with this. (Also, if she asks, the demons from the ice section will confirm that some demons of their type can go to Earth. (They are hatefully envious of this.))

Makes sense! Earth is nicer than here. Iomedae is going to use a feather token to make one great tall tree on the other side of her miraculous bridge, for some shade, and say that here could be nicer, more like Earth, and then there'd be less to be jealous of. And then she'll propose they start rounding out rocks into bowls to hold the melting ice and she'll cast Keep Watch and try to rest, though she may still need to break up demon fights. (She notifies them she'll be unusually irritated, if she has to break up demon fights while she's resting.)

They probably don't need to rest but they could try it and see if they like it. Some people do.

The smarter demons round out rocks into bowls and rest by fantasizing to nobody in particular about all the horrible things they want to do to God and his angels. The dumber demons take up a hobby of smashing rocks with other rocks and insult each other and the humans a bunch. She only has to break up one demon fight.

She’s pleased with the bowls! Demons should see if they like the taste of the blood from the boiling blood river once it has cooled down some.

They hate it but in a way where about half of them will voluntarily keep drinking it. The humans have taken to standing or sitting in little knots all facing outward, like horses. They're all relatively recently dead, and some of them are exchanging news of Earth.