Trail 61 (Pt. 2)- A Lesson On Demons With The Devil of Blackwell

--- Jon Whitaker ---

“Now let’s get on to the actual lesson.” DeSade told him after letting him think for a few moments. “A moment ago, I mentioned how we could use the Void Core in a manner similar to the Horror’s arm to create a magical artifact. Given your reaction to the information I’ve realized it may be prudent to explain the difference between Demons and Creeps, both Malicious for the time being given the… inconsistencies of entities of Madness. So, tell me what do you know about Creeps thus far?”

Like most people in this world, he’d seen safety videos and lectures on Creeps before given how frequent the threat was ever since the Rift Riots but very few of those bothered to actually explain any research about them, leaving the actual research to Hunters and Sanctuary. And while he’d dealt with a few back in Blackwell and during the Haunt that didn’t change the fact that most of what he knew was from those school safety drills.

“They’re typically creatures from other dimensions that for whatever reason are invading our world. They’re usually made more of Magic or Malice than mundane flesh and bone, hence their habit of dissolving when killed. Oh, and Demons tend to somehow employ them a lot despite Creeps being more like wild animals than sapient creatures.” He tried to summarize.

“So you know what the common man does.” DeSade nodded, looking neither disappointed nor pleased with this answer. “In that case the best place to begin would be the relationship between Demons and Creeps.”

“Now a common misconception of the masses is that Creeps are a form of Demon, something that anyone who has actually seen a Demon will immediately note as false.” The Dark Lord assured him. “That said, there is a reason for this misconception as well as an argument to be made in favor of it. Namely in the fact that Malice Creeps have a similar albeit lesser origin to true Demons.”

“What do you mean?” He frowned, before something clicked. “Wait, no this ties into the whole magic rather than flesh body thing doesn’t it? Demon bodies are basically metaphysical constructs made from their own power, are Creeps something like that?”

“In a sense that is their connection point.” DeSade nodded, looking a little pleased. “Both Creeps and Demons are born from Malice, if I had to explain the core of their difference it would be a quantity vs quality approach. Tell me, have you noticed how… similar Creeps are in spite of being from separate dimensions? If you look at enough of them, you’ll notice that there is far less variation between individuals of the same species than would be seen in any natural form of evolution. Almost as if they were all merely copies rather than actual individuals.”

“So what Creeps are… clones of actual Demons?” He tried to guess.

“I don’t doubt that at least a few of them started out that way, but for a fair few this would be inaccurate.” DeSade admitted, before waving his hands and creating a pair of illusions, one a a man covered in bloody bandages with a knife in his hand and the other a wreathing sea of eyes, grins, and a darkness darker than black (The sea of Madness…)

“Now as you already know full well that Madness is in a way the collective consciousness of all thinking life. What you won’t know is that it is fully possible for a strong enough spirit to leave an imprint upon Madness, a memory strong enough to keep from being subsumed. Such as in the case of the Wretched Ravager, a Slasher from world war one who’d been on the cusp of becoming a Ripper before he was put down.”

The man -the Slasher- lost all detail becoming a vague outline as he was wrapped in the sea of Madness, before slowly being filled in with red.

“This Container then exists, and should it be filled with an appropriately compatible power -such as Malice- it can give birth to an echo of this Container. One that is running on the vague impressions left behind by this container.”

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The red outline broke out from the sea of Madness and gave birth to a vaguely humanoid creature covered in bloody bandages, scars, and with long bladed claws for fingers.

“What you see here is the relatively common Creep known as a Ravager, a species that can only be found on earth due to the imprint only reaching legend in our own world. Though given enough time and a few Travelers that may change.”

He could see the resemblance between the Creep and the original Slasher, even if the Creep was notably more monstrous in appearance.

“So Creeps are Malice filled Containers generated from these Madness imprints? A sort of mass production.” He frowned, following along thus far. “While Demons are… a more condensed version of that?”

“Yes, though on that note we’d be entering the difference between Lesser and Greater Demons, which is not actually a power definition so much as it is a definition of Container.” DeSade elaborated. “A lesser Demon is born using their core [Concept] as a base container of sorts and should it die it will stay dead, by contrast a Greater Demon is a Demon that has managed to imprint itself into the sea of Madness so that should it die it will resurrect via said imprint having become its own container. Though notably should you kill a Greater Demon it will often lose any part of its existence that wasn’t inscribed into its imprint, be it memories, powers, concepts, or similar. In fact, it is a minor philosophical debate as to whether these imprints contain enough of the original to be considered the same entity or a separate albeit cloned entity altogether.”

“Okay…” He nodded, trying to process all of that. “So what keeps a Greater Demon from being mass produced like a Creep?”

“Mm, themselves would be the best answer.” DeSade decided after a moment of thought. “Due to the amount of strength one must have within their own ego to create an imprint strong enough to retain Sapience within the sea of Madness, typically one must be one of two things. Either they would be so steadfast in their existence that they would kill and consume their younger selves, unable to accept themselves as anything but the only version of themselves. Or they must be so adaptable that rather than fighting over a Container they would simply go on to create multiple imprints of themselves as they change and expand beyond the one that birthed them.”

“And how does this tie into the whole Creeps work for Demons thing?” He asked, feeling like he was beginning to reach the limits of what he could keep up with if he wanted to remember all of this.

“It’s not uncommon for the more intelligent Demons to realize they need more hands and bodies to accomplish a task. In such a case the Demon would use its power to reach out to an imprint close enough to its own conceptual origin and then supply the power necessary to generate however many Creeps it needs.” DeSade answered, before a number of strings became visible between him and his illusion. “From there the Demon can then manipulate the connection between it and its creeps, allowing it to both reabsorb its power and exert its influence upon those it created. Similar to my own illusion here if with more pre-programming.”

“But what about the Horror?” He frowned thinking about the previous month. “It’s sealed yet it generates a small army every year. So, what is there a fourth version of it out there somewhere?”

“Possibly, if extremely unlikely.” DeSade admitted. “In all likelihood, it created a few Creeps capable of reproduction and set them loose in some nearby dimensional space. They all are still connected to the original Demon, if less so with each generation. Give it a thousand years and there’d be no connection at all.”

“Well, that’s… problematic…” He grimaced, at the idea of an entire army laying in wait.

“Not really, once the Horror is dealt with they’ll quit seeking it out. And unless whatever dimension they're hidden in can sustain their needs as they slowly evolve from malice to organic, then they’ll all die out of starvation, be it the magical or mundane kind.” DeSade shrugged, distinctly unbothered. “Simply kill the Horror, and you’ll kill its army as well.”

“If it hasn’t become a Greater Demon yet.” He pointed out.

“Doubtful.” DeSade scoffed. “As I said, in order for a Lesser Demon to ascend to the point of being a Greater Demon it needs to carve an imprint of itself into the sea of consciousness. Something that if had happened, we would be seeing significantly more mention of the Horror in local legend and myth. Given how the local Hunters, Arcane, and etcetera have managed to keep its existence hidden, evidence rejects its ascension. Though upon fully killing it, a new breed of local Creep may manifest if we don’t… properly dispose of the remains afterwards.”

“Something I should worry about?” He asked with a frown.

“Not so long as you give the corpse to me.” DeSade answered with a smirk.

Scene Consequences

-Gained (DeSade's Rank - Jon's Rank + 1 = 5) XP to Demonology.

--Currently: Lv. 5 (9/12)