Trail 61 (Pt. 1): The Devil’s Deal On Madness

--- Jon ---

“And, this is?” DeSade asked with a raised brow as Jon set the black chest on the man’s desk.

“A Void Core I got from a fight club.” He answered, knowing that even if Miss Edna didn’t want him to go to DeSade for this, the fact was that DeSade was already in town and Jon had zero intention of letting the thing hurt someone he actually cared about again. “Figured with the whole Dark Lord thing you’d know what to do with this.”

“I do, and depending on several factors this could be a… profitable find for both of us.” Said Dark Lord admitted standing up from his desk as he eyed the chest with some interest.

“Don’t care about profitability so much as just being done with this thing.” He grimaced, watching as DeSade ran a finger over the chains, causing several crimson sparks to jump from where he touched them.

The man gave him a look. “Don’t lie, Jon. We both know you can’t help but exploit an opportunity when presented to you. A lesson you never needed to learn from me, it was so engraved into your instincts.”

“Yeah, but I’ve also dealt with enough Madness to know that sometimes the opportunity will cost as much as it gives.” He pointed out. “And that chest is giving off enough Madness that I can feel it through the seals.”

“Yes, well…” DeSade snapped his fingers, causing a crimson spell circle to appear above the chains as they shifted and collapsed around the chest. “The seals are of middling quality after all.”

He couldn’t help but frown remembering what Miss Edna said about the chains and how they couldn’t be removed without enough magic to blast the whole chest to pieces.

DeSade rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, the Madness won’t leak. I simply extracted the enchantments on the chain and converted them into a sustained circuit to keep the seal active even with the chest open. Whoever designed these things were clearly going for style over substance, given how they’d be near worthless if you actually opened the chest.”

He… tried not to think about how the last time he’d opened the chest had gone, or what it’d done to Ying.

Uncaring of his own caution, DeSade opened the chest and eyed the contents sitting upon the velvet pillow with some interest while he was more focused on the fact that for once he couldn’t hear the whispers of Madness pouring off of the thing.

“Mmm, yes, this is quite the find, Jon.” DeSade praised, as he delicately picked up the (sphere/mask/cube) and lifted it into the air, the crimson circuit rising to stay above it.

Held up to the light the core seemed to shimmer in place, a faint static to it’s edges as even with it’s Madness sealed, it reached out with black brambling thorns until-

DeSade carelessly dropped the core back onto the pillow as the Dark Lord lost most if not all of his interest. “And it’s already bonded to you.”

“W-what?” He blinked, snapping out of it as DeSade closed the chest.

“Tell me, what do you know about Void Cores?” DeSade questioned, leaning back against his desk. “More specifically the reason why they are such a valuable resource.”

“Right, uh, I read about that when I first got the thing.” He said remembering what he read just last week. “They're collected from Boss Creeps from the Void, and the reason so many Dark Practitioner’s want them is to use them as a sort of… Philosopher's Stone to bend the laws of magic, but the Madness degrades one’s sanity.”

“Good to see you’re reading the books I gave you, even if you need to learn to cross reference more modern texts.” DeSade huffed with a touch of amusement. “Also, quick clarification. The Philosopher’s Stone doesn’t bend rules so much as it brute forces a solution around them, and the recipe for a simple Philosopher’s Stone is actually quite well documented, if restricted, and has been for… a hundred years now. That said no one wishes to create a greater stone which had enough power to outright ignore the rules given how the first one’s creation was a result of Flamel containing a magically mutated plague caused by some long deceased mystic’s attempt at immortality during the fourteenth century. Meaning you’d need to unleash and contain another mass extinction plague, which regrettably was attempted after the initial re-discovery. While no stone was created from this event, there is a popular theory that due to not being properly harnessed, the access to Deviant energies led to the Deviant population boom of the poorly named Voodoo Wars.”

“Oh…” He blinked, trying to slot all of that into his understanding of history.

“But back on topic, as I said the Philosopher’s Stone gets around the laws of magic and science by brute forcing the problem with so much power that a solution is found even if inefficiently.” DeSade explained before also elaborating that, “A Void Core on the other hand comes at it from the other angle by functioning as a key and accessing the seas of Madness as well as all of the knowledge contained within, which I should remind you is all knowledge that has ever been known or is nearing discovery in any reality connected by the Black Briar.”

“Beware, enlightenment can drive you mad.” He sighed, the infamous warning, seeing how things progressed from there.

“Quite.” DeSade agreed. “That said, there is a way of curbing the worst of the Madness exposure and keeping it within more… acceptable parameters.”

“I’m guessing that’s what you meant by me bonding with it?” He grimaced, glancing at the chest.

“Correct.” DeSade nodded. “A core is as I said a key to the seas of Madness, which in turn are connected to all thought both familiar and utterly alien. One of the few seemingly consistent attributes of Madness however is an observer effect in which it at least partially mimics the mental state of the observer. Which is why the more… unstable one’s current mental state the more deeply they can gaze into Madness, if at the risk of being subsumed by the tides. At the same time however Madness enjoys playing favorites, and will proportionally preserve traits from previous observers. When you compound these facts, you gain the safest method of dealing with Madness.”

DeSade crossed his arms and gave Jon an expectant look.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He thought about it for a moment before putting it together. “The safest method… is to deal with Madness that has traits similar to your own. That way the thoughts are more Mundane to you and the tides more shallow, less likely to drown you.”

DeSade turned the chest towards Jon and opened it once more. “This core has already bonded with you, and in turn you are the person to suffer the least mental corrosion by using it. I on the other hand would suffer sizable mental contamination given how my own mental state lacks your… fractures and the malleability they present.”

“Meaning it’s worthless to you and too valuable of a tool for you to let me throw it away.” He sighed.

“Given how you’re arguably the most Madness resistant person I know? I won’t aid you but I won’t stop you from selling it if you think you can find a buyer.” DeSade confirmed.

He tapped his foot on the ground as he eyed the (statue/mask/creature) in the chest, easily able to see the pleading look it was giving him. “If, and that’s a big if, I were to use this core instead of just dumping it in the bottom of the ocean-”

“I would not recommend that method of disposal.” DeSade actually grimaced. “Given the metaphorical connections of the ‘seas of Madness’, putting the Core into the ocean will in time allow an Eldritch Horror loose upon our world. One notably obsessed with you, and most likely intent on physically dragging you into the void of Madness and consuming you. Part of which includes purging every thought and memory of you from anyone unresistant to Madness.”

“Fantastic.” He groaned, able to feel the hungering eyes on him. (Just going to ignore that for now…)

He inhaled before exhaling. “So if I were to use the core instead of selling it to the highest bidder, how would that work?”

Closing the chest, DeSaded returned to his seat and seemingly considered the matter. “There are… two realistically viable ways for you to use the Core before your battle with the Horror, three if you’re willing to wait until afterwards.”

DeSade raised a finger into the air. “First, would be the most commonly used method in which we convert it into a key to the seas of Madness, more specifically an Akashic Record referencing your own existence. This means, so long as you know what you seek, you’ll be able to use it to learn anything pertaining to your own existence as Madness recognizes it be it knowledge, magic, or skills. The price being that you’ll be risking your own sanity the deeper and more esoteric the knowledge you seek is, and even then you might not be physically capable of using whatever it gives you.”

Given what he knew about Madness, and how the Cheshire saw him he was going to go out on a limb and guess that his ‘existence as Madness recognizes it’ would be The Huntsman. (Meaning I could learn how to hunt anything and any Hunter spell at the price of gambling my Sanity each time…)

“The second method is admittedly the most risky but also the most profitable in my opinion.” DeSade told him, raising a second finger. “In this instance we’d use the Core as a sort of summoning catalyst. Between the sheer depths of the Seas of Madness as well as the quality of this core, whatever entity we’d dredge up -something at least partially based on your own mentality and intent during the summoning- would be on par with Horror in raw ability. Now under normal circumstances, this would be a terrible idea as we would be unleashing an Eldritch Horror upon the world, one that’s very existence would demand at least some mental degradation to those near it should you allow it to manifest it’s full power. Luckily, however, this core has already chosen you as its… favorite. This means whatever we summon would be friendly to you, love you even, if near obsessively so.”

“So what? We’d be turning the Core into a Confidant Catalyst or something?” He frowned.

“In some ways yes, but in most no.” DeSade answered. “There are safety limiters on most legal Catalysts to prevent you from summoning something of both this class and scope. Entities of Madness are extremely restricted due to how their very existence is a mental hazard to everything near them. Due to your own circumstance you might be able to summon one such entity naturally, albeit significantly weaker than what we can manage with the actual core, but there is no guarantee. That said, with this there might be a way to… jailbreak the Arcane Nexus as it were, to make them more easily accessible to you.”

He narrowed his eyes as he realized DeSade’s angle. “Which is why this is the option you want to take. You’re hoping to use whatever you learn to break the system for yourself too.”

“It’s a possibility, yes, but given how I’m not Touched By Madness like you are, I doubt I’d be able to summon anything more advanced than I already can.” DeSade shrugged. “At best I’ll be able to do so without relying on a catalyst, while still being limited to the same overall power level if I don’t want to rend my own mind to shreds.”

“And is that something I need to be worried about on my end?” He wondered accusingly.

“Mmm, if you manifest them at full power possibly, but given your resistance you’ll have significantly more room for them than anyone else.” DeSade assured him.

He wasn’t sure if he believed that, but decided it was best to go ahead and ask, “What’s the third option?”

“The third option would be something similar to what you’re doing with the Horror’s arm.” DeSade told him. “It would be the scenario in which we take the Core and reforge it into a powerful artifact of some kind. I have significant experience doing so with the corpses of Demons, but doing so with the Core could prove an interesting exercise. You’d theoretically be able to wield a fair amount of Madness on command, though with similar risks of mental contamination as you’d have from accessing the seas of Madness or manifesting an eldritch entity.”

“And why aren’t you as interested in this one?” He frowned after a moment to consider it. “The Arcane I’m working with said what we’re doing with the Horror’s Arm is a veritable goldmine of research material. Even if you’re used to doing the same with Demons, shouldn't using a Void Core instead be the same thing on your level?”

“In a sense you’re correct, it would be valuable data.” DeSade admitted with a scoff. “What you’re not accounting for is the size and sheer instability of the Core itself. With Demons you have as many chances as you can carve from their corpse, and even if the material is dangerous my workshop is designed to handle the occasional explosion, conceptual manifestation, or even dimensional Bleed with ease.”

DeSade rapped his knuckles against the chest before raising a single finger into the air. “In contrast, with this core I have a single chance to perform a single experiment, with a material that is in a constant state of flux. Any data gained from this would be far less than questioning you about your Akashic Record or from finding an exploitable flaw in the Arcane Nexus. Hence why I won’t put the same priority on completing that project as I would the others. Remember, I am the one helping you here but I am not doing so for free.”

“Right…” He sighed, once more considering how hard it’d be to just pawn the thing off. (Maybe Audrey knows someone, she might even forget about the whole Demon arm thing if I give her a cut… Or thinking about it Rogers would probably know someone, I mean he’s a lower class than DeSade but his circles are the same level of shady.)

The only issue was both options would definitely irritate DeSade. Not enough to make him withdraw his aid, but enough to have some extra strings attached down the road. (And there’s already plenty of strings to all of this.)

DeSade watched him for a moment, before raising his hand causing the circuit to fall on the chest and the chains to once more wrap around it. “There will be no second chances on this so take the day to think this over. This is an extremely rare opportunity you’ve found for yourself, and you should make sure whatever decision you make is the one you wish to make. You can inform me of whatever you decide after our next lesson.”

He nodded, before accepting the chest back and considering what to do with the Void Core inside of it.

Scene Consequences

-Gained (DeSade's Rank - Jon's Rank + 1 = 4) XP to Occult.

--Currently Lv. 8 (11/18)