NeoRealm - Staring back into the Future

Jason and the calico catkin captain left the vault only to be greeted by plumes of smoke off in the distance. The captain cringes but after staring at the smoke for a bit longer relaxes, though she still looks stressed. "Those should be the cities you already pointed out to use as being taken. I'm guessing they had someone that detected our scrying and so aren't wasting magic on keeping things hidden. That or they just summoned their marilith."

Jason, feeling a bit awkward, "Uh, well. I wish you good luck?"

The captain sighs, "I can't really ask you to stick around. Don't worry about that. After all, even if you did stay, it wouldn't help. Maybe you would kill a couple low rank demons, but once the churches finish a great working or two, we won't have to worry about them in the city, which is the only place you would matter. Outside, beyond the walls? Sending you out, goddess, sending even me out, would just be handing the cultists more blood to summon with."

Jason shrugs, "I'll do more good if I continue on my way. It doesn't feel right. Something like this makes my blood boil and raises the desire to throw myself into the fires of war. Few of my fellow travellers really understand something like this situation. Me? I ran for three days straight to get here.

"Now though? I can change my route, help spread the news to smaller communities, and fight any cultists and their demons on the way. I've got a good distance left to go and I'm not going to shy from a fight if I think I can win it."

The calico catkin turns her back on the smoke plumes, "Life goes on, you travellers just happen to experience it in a more literal sense than most of us locals. At least those sacrificed aren't losing their souls to the demons. The System prevents anything like that unless the soul is freely given."

Jason nodded knowingly as he agreed with her, though in reality he knew a bit more about the whole soul thing from hanging around gods in-between lives. Unless a Level Lord from the Abyss or someone high up in the nine hells decided to make an appearance, no actual souls were going to be traded. And since those beings can't show up within NeoRealm, well, losing his soul was low on Jason's list of worries.

Now if we're talking about a person's ego? Devils and Demons go for those things all day every day. In fact, that is what they mean when talking about buying your soul. That fragile shell of personality overlaid on top of the soul itself. All the bits a person considers bad about themselves are what sinks into the local offshoot of Hell or the Abyss. Then those parasitic realms will take those bits and sew them together into soul larva or similar.

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Of course because of how this all works the "evil" places below and the "good" places above have an infinite amount of power to draw. The trick with that is having more infinite to bash the other side with and thus the whole "selling your soul" bit. That way, they can take your entire ego instead of just the parts you consider evil good. Because no matter how villainous a person might be, they're more than likely to see much of themselves as neutral.

Though at this point in his musings, Jason gets shaken out of it as the captain has led him out of the military compound. She bows to him and gestures out the door, "Spread the news, save who you can, and don't let yourself be taken. There are likely small cells of the cult spread all over the surrounding area and the moment the marilith is summoned there are going to be outbreak after outbreak of demons. Even if a cultist can only sacrifice their own life, they're going to cause havoc."

Jason grimaces, "Yeah, demon worshippers do tend towards revealing themselves like that. On the bright side, you're going to have cleared nearly all of those belonging to this cult from the area once it is over. Not like with a devil where you can't even be sure if half the people helping you fix the problems left over aren't part of the cult."

The captain sighs, "I'm sure there will be a few devil worshipers putting in a ton of work cleaning up after this, if only to look good."

Jason nods before turning and going towards the exit opposite where he arrived. This city had always been on his route, but he hadn't been planning on the visit arriving so quickly or ending so soon. While choosing his rewards, an adjunct had dropped off resupplies for him so he didn't even need to go shopping. It wasn't the best food, but he wasn't going to turn down free. Better yet, he was mostly certain the food won't have been tampered with. Sure, something like that is more of a devil cult sort of tactic, but rarely is one side present without the other.

Not that he would have likely been able to buy more supplies. The roads are quiet as only a few people are still out and about. Most of the foot traffic is now town guards and small groups of divine casters from the local churches making sure nothing is brewing.

Jason takes the stressful yet relaxing walk to glance over his map some more and plan out a new route. His original path, no surprise, took him far away from most settlements. After all, it isn't like people are building their towns in the middle of monster dens. Now, though, he chooses a route which honestly takes him through the middle of nowhere.

No major towns and no dangerous dens. Just a bunch of small farmsteads. Perfect targets for the cult. Tens of small communities are going to burn over the coming weeks and maybe, just maybe, Jason can make a difference.