Chapter 734 – Breaking Down A Demon
There are many types of evil in this world. There are also many who wish to sit and ponder and pretend they reach new milestones of philosophy and morality by recategorizing evil from the thousand different varieties it can be split into right now to a thousand and one. I, the Goddess of Hatred, am expected to sit down and be impressed by some mortal once again saying that blatant hatred is not so bad after all! And that the true is terror one should avoid is the fear of passivity and weakness! The irony of that statement is that it is passive in nature, for it lays blame on none. Truly an evil, subversive soul could make a statement like that for it tries to democratize evil and negativity.
No!
All creatures possess evil within them in the same way that all creatures possess intelligence. There is no difference between a magician and a genius to the average thinker. Likewise, all forms of self-serving thought, which we typically class as “evil” is thrown into one large basket.
I am lumped into the same box as Maisara, as Helenna, as Irinika even! And that is the problem that this text will aim to illustrate. Anassa of Sorcery gatekeeps Divinity as a whole. Many Divines have a problem with that although none of the little hyprocrites have tried to stop her. Have they? No, after all, everyone appreciates that Anassa actually upholds a standard and a baseline of power in our ranks.
Yet now, with the recent events that have been happening throughout Arda, I have to deal with this new cult of mediocrity that has sprung up in the form of the Avengers of Future’s Progress. How evil they see themselves, for bringing justice to crimes that have not been committed yet! What is this even?! Most offensive is the clash of aesthetics. Take Maisara and her Paladins for one, any who look at them can immediately see that these are the boring mass murderers who will put every soul in a rebelling village to the sword and feel nothing about it.
These so-called Avengers of Future’s Progress wear the black of Irinika, they hunt in the night, they kill and then they mutilate, they work silently, they talk of preventing crimes and saving lives. They are murderers who have the gall to hide behind morality. No. I will not accept it. Evil is evil, it is a moral condemnation. I am not saying it cannot be used, but to try and make the concept something palatable to the masses of man is to change it into something that is not evil in the first place. Evil has a place on Arda, else Arda would have not made it. There will come a time when it is needed.
Evil itself has to be gatekept. Arda needs to have a proper irredeemable terror and not some self-justifying antihero.
- Excerpt from “Band of Future’s Frauds”, written by Goddess Malam, of Hatred.
Malam entered the interrogation room silently. The succubus that had been captured was sitting at a desk in a cell in the Donut. The IBI troops had been temporarily reassigned, the SIS had been brought in, and Malam was supposed to pay a fortune for each day she was renting this place. That wouldn’t happened though.
Of Hatred stared down at the succubus from Allia. She had been stripped down and given new clothes, simple prison greys. Nothing that stood out or made her look flashy. The prison shirt that the IBI had given her and the pants both lacked pockets. Malam glanced down, this one had feet, not hooves. At least she wasn’t trying to hide for no reason though.
The succubus sat exposed in all her native Tartarian crimson. Her eyes burned like the orange flames of a campfire. Every few seconds, Malam was sure that they slightly changed shades to another style of orange. She was some lower-class demon, the horns on top of her head were black, there wasn’t a hint of greyness in them, much less any ivory or white. Although humans would not be able to capture a demon with white horns though.
Malam walked through the cell. It was an empty room, the walls were white, the steel table had a handcuff attached to it, the other end was affixed to the succubi’s wrist. That was standard policy, nothing out of the blue. Malam didn’t really like it though. It was more terrifying to be let free frankly. The more things that the succubus had to consider, the more her brain would be active.
The more her brain would be active, the less she would be closing off and steeling herself against what Malam was about to do. The Goddess of Hatred pulled out her steel chair, smoothed down her black coat, sat down and smiled. With gentle fingers, she brought out the key to the handcuff, then unlocked the succubi’s hand. “Are you sure you should be doing that?” The demon asked and rubbed her wrist. Malam sat down with a smile. How cute and how quaint. She recognised the tactic, to build up value for oneself by acting confident. By making it seem like the succubus was doing Malam a favour and not the other way around.
“Did you know on Arda, we have such a concept as a natural and an unnatural wound?” Malam asked. “It’s defined by what Kavaa’s, I’m sure you know who she is, what her healing can fix or not. Asmodeus’ Blackfire, for example, is an unnatural wound. Likewise something that hits the mind and makes you go insane, that’s an unnatural wound.”
“Oh.” The succubus said. “Ahh… I see.”
“No you don’t.” Malam said. “I’ve not made my point yet. Unnatural wounds were presumed to only magical and mental until it was discovered that if you shatter a bone lengthways and not sideways, clerical healing finds healing something like that so out of this world that there’s no point. It’s easier to amputate and regrow entirely than to try and re-stitch.” Malam stared down at the succubus. “Who do you think found the first non-natural physical wound?”
“You.” The succubus said.
“The question was rhetorical, of course it was me.” Malam said. “But believe it or not, I am not here to break your bones. Times have moved on, we are all far more civilized now. There’s no more living in castles and we do executions through the bullet now, not through the axe. You are getting interrogated, now thank me taking the handcuff off before I decide to put it back.”
“Oh…” That seemed to end any of the stupid ideas about trying to burn Malam out of the succubi’s mind. “Thank you.” Malam was disappointed, she liked the sound of her voice and she liked showing the men who would no doubt be inspecting this footage just how to truly terrify someone.
“Of course.” Malam said. “Do you know who I am?”
“Divine Malam.” The succubus quietly replied.
“What gave it away?” The succubus nervously readjusted her posture, then tugged at her own black locks. So it was the hair then. That was good to know, she knew that the demons could draw in the past, but Malam’s white hair was unique amongst major Divinity. It confirmed they had not lost the ability to see colour.
Malam let the moment stretch out for a while as she sat and waited. Her fingers tapped along the desk as she made her final decision. Up until now, there were more than a dozen proven methods she could do. The demons had been studied in the Great War, they had their weak points. Those horns were surprisingly thick but once the top layer of bone was scraped off, they were the most sensitive part of the body. But those were ancient methods, from ancient times, for ancient ways of breaking people down.
Malam had never once, not once in her life, considered herself a luddite. In fact, if there was anything she prided herself on, it was how quickly Hatred could adapt to progress. And if the new ways did not work, they could always grab another of these cursed creatures.
Malam dug into her pocket and brought out a small plastic tub. “Do you know what this is?” Malam said, she popped open the container of faux-MisseM tablets, tipped it, and one landed in her palm. A little pill dyed to be a chemical pink. Or maybe that was just how they came straight out of the lab, whatever the case, the pill was a lie. That pink implied a strawberry taste, Malam flicked it into her mouth and swallowed. It tasted of pure chemicals, if laboratory could be distilled into edibility, then it would taste like that. They weren’t the military issue ones, this had been a bad batch that Malam had managed to get a hold of.
“No.” The succubus said carefully as she watched Malam. Of Hatred sat there for a moment as she tapped her fingers across the table. Was it having an effect? She couldn’t feel it and she had taken the MisseMs before out of sheer curiosity.
“It’s a MisseM pill.” Malam lied. “These are our combat stimulants for soldiers.” Of Hatred smiled, then tapped the little container. “Although this is a specially modified variety that’s been made just for you.” Her smile bared her teeth. “Do you know what these do to the body?”
The succubus stared down at the pills when suddenly, Malam felt her cheeks flush and her eyes begin to water. “I have no idea.” The succubus said. Malam leaned back on her chair, let her arms fall loose by either side and rode the wave out as she breathed deeply. It was not a standard MisseM by any means.
“It’s…” Malam said quietly as she stared up at the ceiling. Her head felt as if it was spinning in a circle. Whereas her entire body burned as if she had just been placed into a very pleasant oven. “It is a good feeling.” Malam said after a while. The clock said eight minutes. That was Divine metabolism though, on a human? The effect could last from minutes to an hour. On a succubi?
Malam’s smile at the crimson demoness made the creature visibly shiver. “I…” She began. “What do want to know?”
Malam finally straightened her back as she felt the sensation pass. It was good, but the curse of alcoholism was that nothing simply compared to it. She brought out her flask from her belt, opened it and took a swig. Nothing burned like vodka did. Nothing compared either. “What do I want to know?” Malam asked the air. “What do I want to know little demoness? There are plenty of things I want to know.”
“I want to know who your boss is. I want you to draw a map of your realm. I want to know where Leonifer lives. I want to know how you open the portals onto Arda, the fine technicalities of it. I want to know how your magic works. I want to know what you eat on Tartarus, what you drink, I want to know how you brew your alcohols and what your tactics are. I want to know how many succubi are on Arda and how many are in the Empire specifically. How your tactics and operations work.” Malam leaned closer. “I want to know everything little demoness.”
The succubi said nothing. Of course she wouldn’t. Malam brought out another pill from the tub of MisseMs, put it on the table, and then pushed it towards the succubus. “You will save yourself the humiliation, you will pick this pill up, eat it, I shall leave this room.” Malam turned back and snapped her fingers. The door opened once again. This time, an SIS member came in with a box. A dark pillow was sticking out of it, along with a blanket. “Then, I will return in a few hours’ time and you shall get another one.” Malam pushed the pill further forwards, until it was right in front of the succubus. “And then another. And another.”
Malam smiled. “And eventually, you will ask for one.” She said. “And I will ask a question in return, and then, you shall answer, and if you’re truthful, you shall get another of these sweets. And it will go on and on and on until either we run out of pills or you run out of mind.”
“Are you not even going to bother now?”
“Now, you have a mind.” Malam said. “And your organisation is obviously competent so I assume you have a contingency to tell everyone you’re alive and captured, rather than just dead as the papers have reported it. I know that I certainly would if I were in your position. Thus, we shall not even bother with something like that.”
“I’m not going to take whatever that is.” The succubus said nodded to the pink MisseM pill.
“Then the pill will go in through the other entrance it normally comes out of. The first, the second, the third and fourth time too, that’s how long we estimate you will last.” Malam shrugged. “By the end of the week, you will be chemically reliant on them.”
The succubus grabbed her own arms and stared at Malam with terror in her eyes. “Please don’t.”
“Little demoness.” Malam stood up and stared down at the creature. “I have not even asked your name because I don’t trust you’ll give me the real one. Nor am I going to be interrogating you, I will be interrogating the you we will create, that is decided at this point.” The SIS and the IBI was currently working on trying to find out more details on the succubus. Her fake human name had been Liane Moray, then Georgia Roates once she had gone to Allia. Both were stolen identities; both original owners had been disposed of by this creature. She snapped her fingers.
The door opened, a pair of SIS agents stepped forwards in their caps and the succubus quickly swallowed the pill. Malam didn’t even bother to watch, she just turned around, if it was this easy, they should find more of these little demonesses. Her pair of men took step forward then stopped. Malam could tell what happened by their gazes. She still turned around, the pill was missing, the demoness was making a disgusted face at the taste.
“Good job sweetheart.” Malam gave her a thumbs up. “There’s a blanket for you, you’ll get some water soon.” She turned back around towards the door, then casually flicked a dismissal wave behind her at the succubus. “Have a good trip!”