As we began to ponder the false demon problem, I quickly came to the conclusion that the best way of dealing with them was to analyze one. So we needed to catch one.

Luckily it really wasn’t that difficult. Hope had heard of places where they appear, and even knew of an area where a lot of them had been herded to when they began appearing.

And sneaking there was as easy as it could be. 

I mean the area was decently defended by war demons, but that didn’t matter to me. I have the Numeron Code on my side, so I simply made myself intangible and invisible and ‘sneaked’ past everything. Or just flew straight through the demons and the fence and everything.

Inside the containment were something like seventy of the false demons, and they really weren’t that demonic looking. Unlike demons, who are pretty much human sized or larger, these things were small imps. Maybe demon children would be this size? Actually, how are demons born? Never asked Hope about that.

I was admittedly expecting something more like the creatures the States sent to attack Smorog, but maybe they’ve figured out how to make better demons? 

I tried to take one into Storage, but they are living beings so I can’t do that. So I went with the next idea on the list and tried to form a contract with one. Sadly that didn’t work either, probably because they aren’t native to the demon world.

So instead I went with Taming. It worked on Varuna so I think it will work on these things as well. And no, I didn’t even need to undo my invisibility, just my intangibility. And with Magical Arms I could probably get around that as well, but the Magical Arms would be visible. 

There was some resistance when I tried to tame it, as if the monster already had a master, but I was able to overpower the previous contract with relative ease and force my will over it. 

The contract also felt a bit strange, as if I’d tamed many tiny monsters instead of one small monster.

I didn’t let that bother me and used Space Magic to teleport myself and the imp out of the prison. And I teleported us to the park where Janina and I first appeared. I then undid the invisibility.

She and Hope were already waiting for me there. Yes, we had this planned.

I passed the imp to Janina and let her scan its soul. Or souls, as it turned out. 

Because while this creature looked like an imp, it wasn’t that. It was more like hundreds of tiny souls all in a single body, puppeting it. That explains why it felt so strange and why I was able to overpower the contracts with the previous owner. Monsters with very simple souls don’t hold onto contracts. Like sure you can tame a fly, but how long will that fly stay loyal unless you feed it? Not long considering it won’t live for long.

But that wasn’t the scary part. The scary part is what would happen if you cut the host body open. All of those tiny souls would search for a host, latching onto the nearest living being they can find, becoming a part of their body. And from there, they’d slowly, or quickly if enough of them entered a single being, start to affect that beings soul, essentially taking over everything they are if enough of them attach to a single soul.

And that is terrifying. A small imp that, when killed, spreads what is basically a mind control virus. … actually it is more like a soul control virus, which is even worse. 

Sadly knowing this doesn’t prove Hope innocent, but I hope us revealing this fact can help her. 

… actually, have any of these imps been killed? Because if they have, maybe that is why the contract keepers are being mean to Hope. Their souls might have been influenced by these things and they are making them more evil?

Is Hope affected? I asked Janina to scan her, but luckily Hope seemed to be alright. But there might be other demons who aren’t.

But what are they really after? Just mind controlling demons for easy contracts? Could be, I suppose.

… I guess they could also try to infect the Demon God, but I’m not sure if a god can be soul controlled. My divine beasts are immune to all mind control so I’d guess that gods are as well. Then again, it is possible whomever made these parasite demons doesn’t know that, or maybe they are just after the regular demons.

But why? What would they gain? If they can make these, especially since it is likely that they are doing it without a Chaos God Dungeon, what do they want from them? Just more demon forces? But it would be easier just to make contracts with demons for that. If you can make fake demons, you can solidify miasma into monster cores.

As to why they can’t have a Chaos God Dungeon. Well, do you really think the Goddess wouldn’t sick me on them if they did? Abusing one is basically a taboo. They’d definitely order me to deal with it if one was involved.

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While we waited for Hope’s … court time?, we theorized more about everything. Things like would my cards prevent soul control by whatever was inside the imp.

We ended up testing it. I summoned a few monsters and then I cut open the imp. The skin fell off of it as if it was a sack holding helium, and from inside of it came probably a hundred small wasps.

They were still under my control, so I ordered them to take over my monsters. And as it turns out, they could do that fine. The weak monster I summoned, Effect Veiler, took only three of those wasps for it to take control of it. But the stronger ones took a lot more. Over 50 of them couldn't control my Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, but they did start to have an effect on it. By its own words, it wanted to cut open all of those imps.

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So they even have a backup like that. If they can’t mind control something by themselves, they can influence them to want to cut down the imps that carry more wasps so that more can enter them and the mind control will hopefully be complete.

Luckily Remove Brainwashing worked on the wasps, so at least we have an easy way to remove their control. Sadly it didn’t remove the wasps themselves, but Eradicating Aerosol could deal with the bugs. Which is strange since they are pretty much demons when it comes to their souls, but that is Yugioh logic for you. 

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But at least we now had something we could show the Demon God. He probably doesn’t know about these wasps, and that by itself will hopefully be enough to where Hope will be found innocent of her involvement. Because if I was behind everything, why would I tell them what I’m doing?

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Waiting for the trial didn’t actually take all that long. It felt like … maybe a day, but time here is wacky. Again, not spirit world wacky, but it is strange.

At first I assumed that it was twice the speed from the regular world considering the Factory test I did, but as we just waited, time around us sped up and passed very quickly, as if someone cast a Time Magic spell in the area where we were.

Which honestly might be the case, since when the time resumed, a group of war demons were walking to the park where we had been just hanging out. 

They told us it was time for Hope to appear before God, asked us if we would be going with her, and after I said yes, all of us were surrounded by a beam of light that seemed to come from one of the brighter stars in the sky. 

Because as a reminder, this world doesn’t have one single sun, but instead the sky is basically a permanent night with tens of bright stars illuminating the place. And one of those stars was now beaming a light at us. And as we were being teleported, I recognized the feeling of the teleportation, but I wasn’t completely sure from where.

It was no Space Magic, I can tell you that, but I’d definitely teleported like that before.

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We appeared in a white space that only had some chairs for us to sit in. Other than us, a few demons were already present, and at the place where the seats were pointed to, there was a device of some kind that looked to me like a 3D projector. One that looked like it was a more advanced version of my 3D design table.

The war demons guided us to our seats, and then showed Hope to the frontmost seat. They told her to stand in front of the seat, not sit until given permission, but at least they didn’t chain her or anything. 

As for Janina and I, since they didn’t say anything and the demons off to the sides were sitting, we sat down, but both agreed to stand up when this ‘God’ appears, just in case he actually is a God.

And as soon as the war demons had taken their spots at the sides of the room, … space? It is more like a space with no definible edge but I could also feel the edge with Space Magic.

I’ll just call it a room for convenience.

So the room darkened. And that was strange due to the room vs. space argument, but it did. And the projector activated, showing a 3D image of a demonic being. I observed the other demons and they rose to their feet, before bowing. Janina and I also rose from our seats, but we didn’t bow.

The being on the hologram didn’t look like the demons native to this world. It was much more skeletal than the usual demons. In fact, it kind of reminded me of something. 

I checked Pack Opener and compared some of my cards to the hologram Demon God, while Hope was shaking at the front of the room. She had fallen to her knees and seemed to tremble in terror. 

But I really don’t get why she is so terrified. The demon up there is clearly Archfiend Emperor, the First Lord of Horror. Or at least he looks like that.

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Now there is a chance this is something like it was with the Goddess, where a person sees them the way they feel like they should be seeing them. And I will admit that the First Lord of Horror isn’t a terrible choice for a Demon God.

I quietly asked Janina and she confirmed my suspicions. The entire room looked different to her, including the Demon God. So instead of this being something that is somehow mysteriously related to me, I just relate it to my personal experiences because it is the easiest for me.

“You may sit.” The Demon God spoke, his voice sounding synthetic and like it was coming from all around the room. I looked around and quickly noticed a handful of speakers spread around the room. More of this space turning like I expect it to look, I suppose. I also noticed that the ground below our feet had begun to take shape, looking like it was made of metal. That despite the fact that it definitely isn’t metal. The walls also began to look metallic, almost like we were inside a metal room. But why is my mind linking this … 

Oh. The teleportation. It felt like the teleportation beams of my B.E.S. ships! That is where I knew that feeling from. And it even looked like a teleportation beam coming onto us from up high.

From there, things went pretty boringly in my opinion. The Demon God asked one of the demons who were already in the room to show their case, which was all circumstantial evidence. Basically three incidents where some time after Hope came back from being summoned, an imp came ‘after’ her. And the time between Hope and an imp was quite long every time, except once when it was nearly identical. That one specifically was compared to the time when Janina and I followed Hope here.

But there was a problem. The first time one of the imps ‘followed’ Hope wasn’t the first time an imp appeared in this world. And that is based on what Hope knows, so they’ve likely been coming even before that.

Also, while he was giving evidence, I asked Janina to scan the demon up front, and it turned out he had nearly a hundred of the little demon wasps inside of his body. A few of the other demons also had some of them in them, but the one speaking had by far the most.

Then Hope was allowed to defend herself, to which she asked if I would be allowed to. The Demon God gave me permission, so I walked up and stood next to Hope. 

I then told everyone in the room how easy it would be for a human to reverse the path the demons take when summoned, even if they wouldn’t follow a demon here. The summoning circle has all of the realm information needed, so anyone skilled with Soul and Summoning Magic could potentially send the imps here.

This led the prosecutor demon to blame me for them, to which I responded by activating Remove Brainwashing. It allowed him to regain control, and also removed the mental effects the wasps had had on the other demons. 

I then activated Eradicating Aerosol to kill all the little shitters.

I went on to explain what they were and what their purpose was. Though I then admitted that I didn’t actually know what their end goal was, other than taking over the minds of demons. I even explained the part where a contract with a demon is easier than producing the wasps at these numbers, and added a theory that they may have wanted to mind control the Demon God themselves.

I then apologized for theorizing and returned to my seat.

From then on, there was no case. The prosecutor, no longer under mind control, didn’t blame Hope any longer, thus the Demon God found her innocent and ordered our return. 

He also ordered the return of any funds that were used to pay for costs caused by this alteration. 

He ordered us all to return, and a light engulfed all the demons in the room, except Hope. And myself, since I am currently a half demon. After the other demons were gone, he spoke again.

“Now.” The Demon God said, his voice still as synthetic as at the start. “I would like to ask you a few things, Brian Wood.”