It was an inviolate fact that people sucked.
Not all of them. Not all the time. But not even the biggest believers in universal goodness could deny the existence of 'outliers.'
So, was it a surprise that some of our mortal recruits broke the rules we had imposed on them? Not really. Did it make things supremely annoying? Yes. I did not want to deal with assault and rape charges levied by our own against our own. Or any kind of rape and assault charges, really.
Sure, they all came from training camps with horrific conditions where horrible behavior was encouraged. But Glaustro had no patience for that nonsense. He was more interested in military discipline. And these idiots had failed to comply.
For once, though, I had an actual use for these 'outliers.'
"Fifteen of you idiots. Fifteen! Really, what did you think would happen? That you'd break the laws we made sure you were aware of? That you'd just… walk away from this and get a pat on the back? We don't need pillagers and rapists. We need an army."
All fifteen were chained, gagged, and looking much the worse for wear, especially since the room I had them stashed in was pristine. Out of the floor in the middle of the room rose a monstrosity of crystals. It looked like a mix between a bed and some nightmarish spider, whose crystalline limbs twitched and wove in a disturbing fashion.
"Still, I guess I should thank you?" I went on, not expecting an answer. They were gagged, after all. I heard some sobbing and muffled attempts at begging, but I couldn't understand them if I tried. "Now I get to… compare a few things."
I pulsed my mana in a signal. The door to the room opened, admitting a pair of demons who pushed in another fifteen mortals. All locals, this time. As mortal as you could possibly get, with absolutely no demonic taint.
They also happened to be even worse scum than the ones I had gathered in front of me already.
"Lord Sir, I mean, Sir Baron, I mean —" one of the demons stuttered. I had handpicked the two of them for this stealth mission based on Mia's recommendation. Still, he just kept stumbling over his words until I sighed and cut him off.
"It's fine. Just… leave them here and go."
I watched as the pair of demons beat a hasty retreat. I had no idea why they were so intimidated by me, but they were. When I'd first approached them about this mission and said they didn't need to refer to me so stiffly all the time, they'd nearly combusted on the spot.
"Awkward, right?" I asked a terrified local man. He just stared at me from the floor where the demons had dropped him.
I shook my head. "Oh well. The fifteen of you are going to get a chance to survive, if you agree to a deal with me." I panned over to the disappointing recruits. "You lot will probably not survive. You had your chance already. But! You chose this over getting executed immediately, and that's binding. Even if you didn't know what you were signing up for. So… let's get started."
I strolled over to a recruit, hefted him up, and threw him into my contraption. The spider legs got to work immediately. Leaving the gag in place, they shredded his other constraints before stabbing into his limbs and firmly securing him in place.
He wiggled like an insect being prepped for an insectarium, but I knew he wasn't actually in any pain. Not yet. I'd put together the crystalline construct very carefully, adding a whole lot of numbing and even calming runes to the mix. This became apparent as he gradually went still, his body relaxing and mind going blank. He could have dozed off then and there.
Strengthening the runes' effect by pouring a lot more mana into them, I stepped up closer. Then I reached out with my soul until it cocooned his own completely. My runes had calmed that, too, making it easy for me to survey the wispy outline. It was so very shockingly fragile. I'd gotten used to my own soul and the souls of other demons. This was so… ephemeral.
No wonder humans always had to ask themselves if souls were real.
Casting those thoughts aside, I carefully removed a sliver from my own soul and brought it over, maintaining its integrity as it hovered above the mortal. Then I paused to observe for a bit.
From my own experience with warlocks, I knew for a fact that the best strategy was to open up a long gash right in the middle of his 'chest', then stuff the fragment in there before sealing the wound up and letting it take root.
If I carelessly attached it elsewhere, it could have… negative effects on the warlock in question. Namely, it hastened their rate of soul deterioration. In the worst case I'd ever seen, when I inserted a soul sliver into a mortal soul's arm, the entire ethereal limb rotted and fell off in a matter of days.
That's not what I wanted in this case. Not at all.
"You see, so many demons think warlocks are useless," I explained, humming to myself as I decided on the best approach.
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A tendril of my soul sharpened, stretched, and then ever so gently bit down into the recruit's soul, opening up a very small gash. At the same time, I cut off a piece of my soul sliver as well and pressed it into the shallow cut. Finally, I gave up the tiniest bit of my own soul essence to help the mortal soul heal.
The soul essence sizzled and spat against a soul too weak to withstand it, and I was pretty sure I'd failed. Then the bundle of Abyssal mana inside the recruit's chest shot out, swarming the spot and stabilizing things.
Still a failure, I realized with a frown, but one I might be able to learn from. Definitely can't use this process on a regular mortal, not with their reaction to demonic soul essence. And a regular mortal wouldn't have Abyssal mana to help them along. But maybe if I got something else to stabilize them?
I hummed again and resumed my efforts. Very small gash, tiny piece of soul sliver, even tinier bit of my essence to assist the healing process…
"After all, if any demon cares about a mortal, or believes in their potential or whatever, they can just take them under their wing and help the mortal ascend! That way, you don't need to worry about soul corruption, the inherent fragility of mortals, their inability to handle dying well…"
I paused to admire my handiwork, frowning again when I noticed that the pain of the procedure was starting to break through the recruit's carefully constructed haze. I was going to have to speed things up a bit or find a better way to restrain my victims.
For now, I chose the former.
"And if you want a whole bunch of patsies to order around, you can rely on summoning. Or on recruits, like we're doing now. Or constructs, tamed magical beasts, even imps if you're into that kind of thing. See? That makes warlocks basically worthless in the eyes of just about every demon. I, however, disagree."
I was almost done. Only a tiny bit of the original soul sliver remained, which itself had been the minimal size Mia's and my excursions had revealed was viable. Any smaller, and the warlock you'd produce would be incapable of doing anything.
"I mean, come on! A bunch of mortals that have your soul sliver inside of them? Capable of reproducing your spells and abilities, even on a much smaller scale? That can be extremely useful in the right circumstances. Sure, there are other ways to do it. But just imagine ordering them into a proper matrix pattern over a large area, and using that to subtly pull off massive spells in enemy territory. Since you can make warlocks out of any mortal race, the locals wouldn't even know what was going on."
The final piece of my soul sliver was in place. A tiny wash of my soul essence healed the wound. With a relieved sigh, I pulled away to take in the full picture.
The recruit now had tiny, scale-like wounds all over his soul, with the Abyssal energy inside him snaring out to each and every one like some massive spider web. The bits of my soul were definitely affecting his own, but I didn't think they were actually doing damage. If anything, the individuals bits were small and weak enough that his soul was trying to absorb them. I even noticed a tiny bit of improvement to his soul's toughness and integrity around my soul bits.
That did leave me with one question, though.
"Is this happening because this is the right path forward, or is it happening because you're already linked to the Abyss? Dang it, I forgot to test that! At least I don't think your future's completely ruined now? I mean, you're still slated for execution, but your soul's showing a tendency towards growth. Hmmm, what would happen if you ascend while my soul bits are inside of you? This is making me curious…"
I idly gnawed at my lower lip as I considered the recruit. The Abyssal energy had definitely done something to ease the whole process for him, but what? And by how much?
For that matter… did warlocks expire so quickly because the demonic soul sliver was like pouring poison into their mortal soul? Could a connection to the Abyss slow or eliminate this decay, letting an individual fully benefit from becoming a warlock at no detriment?
And why had no one tried turning recruits into warlocks before, as far as I knew?! No, on second thought, that one actually made sense to me. They were viewing the recruits as future demons. Ergo, future competition. Even if turning them into warlocks was somehow beneficial, I doubted most demons would agree to do it.
I sighed and waved my hand. Once my construct released the recruit, I used very rough telekinesis to lift him and then lay him down to the side, where I could continue observing him. A second hand-wave conjured bonds of crystal which trussed him up again.
"Okay, next victim! Hmmm, let's see… ah, yes. You! Your crimes against your fellow recruits were particularly heinous. Up you go."
The man thrashed and tried desperately to break my magic's hold. Predictably, he failed. He was laid onto my construct, which immediately set about doing its business.
At least this time, the procedure was quick and simple. Since I just wanted to see how a recruit handled becoming a warlock, I produced a soul sliver, shoved it into him, healed him up a little, and called it a day.
The result was both encouraging and frustrating. The recruit was handling it better than regular mortals, but I could already spot a certain degree of decay happening.
It wasn't a shocker. My intact soul sliver was a lot more potent than what I'd done to the previous guy. Though I could see the Abyssal energy inside him doing something to ease things, this second recruit couldn't be considered a 'successful' warlock. Not that such a thing existed yet.
Except, perhaps, the first guy I'd experimented on.
He was still showing no signs of decay. In fact, his soul was still strengthening, ever so slowly. I briefly worried that meant he was outright assimilating my soul sliver's pieces, but a quick check revealed they were intact and functioning as intended. I could even detect the warlock bond between us.
See? This was why the experiment was encouraging. Clearly, there was a way to make warlocks a little more useful and viable as a path to power. It was the fact that the whole thing had been neglected for so long that I found deeply frustrating.
I turned my attention back to the second recruit.
"Yep, you're totally a lost cause. Maybe if I fed you some souls towards your ascension? But then what would be the point? I don't want to make recruit warlocks. I want to make this whole thing properly viable for regular mortals. Ergo, you're kind of useless to me."
I shrugged. "Oh well. I guess we get to see what happens to you when my soul sliver completely rots your soul away. I mean, will there be enough of you left to resurrect in the Abyss? Would you just be… gone? Or would something completely different happen? I look forward to finding out!"
I sincerely doubted any of the mortals in the room found my smile reassuring, but hey. They were heinous scum.
I didn't particularly care about their opinion to begin with.