The Fiend's Creation System

Spreading Evil

Julius’s meditation room had undergone a massive change. It was still at the top of his castle, but the inside had changed.

The room now had a large hatchery that looked similar to the Fiend’s Cradle. It was similar but unlike the Cradle, this hatchery was used to help Julius cultivate his consciousness and soul.

It was called the Nucleus and it acted as the central hub where all of the fiends’ thoughts and memories were stored. It acted as a database that allowed Julius to experience their memories in a sort of simulation.

A piece of his consciousness would enter the simulation while his main consciousness would fall into a dormant state. His split consciousness would follow the memories of the fiend and made to think that he was the fiend who possessed the memories.

Julius would be put on the edge of reality and illusion. He needed to escape the memories while still being able to remember what he experienced when he exited the simulation.

This was how the system aided Julius in training his mind to gain the most within the shortest amount of time. It was dangerous since if he lost himself inside the memories, it would be very detrimental, even with the system pulling his consciousness back before it was too late and he permanently lost that small piece of his mind.

It was hard for Julius at first even with the lowest level difficulty simulation that the system picked out for him. Reality and illusion were very difficult to distinguish from especially if your mind is weak.

If it was Julius’s main consciousness, he wouldn’t need to worry about being unable to distinguish what was fake and what was real. This was because his mind was strong, but the system only took a piece of his consciousness and placed that within the simulation.

That small piece was in no way as strong as his main consciousness which was why it was so difficult for him at first. He needed to have a durable split consciousness that could return to his main consciousness without bringing back the burden it was feeling because of the load it took from taking control or connecting with a fiend.

After the Nucleus was built, Julius had spent many hours every day inside it to cultivate his mind. Whenever the split consciousness returned, he needed to reassimilate it so that’s where the meditation came in.

His mind grew stronger with each piece of his mind that returned from the Nucleus. Julius had spent a lot of time cultivating so Eisha had been a little unsatisfied with him for the past month because they had spent less time together.

Of course, she was just unsatisfied, not angry. She knew that Julius was working so hard so that he could cope with any problems that may arise in the future, especially those that could threaten his race’s existence.

Monsters were the least of his worries. What Julius was on-guard against the most were the other intelligent races of the world like the humans, orcs, and even the elves.

He may have an alliance with the elves but that was only for now. The future could change and the elves may become hostile with them. Also, it wasn’t like Julius had an alliance with all the elves in the world.

The alliance was limited to just the elves in the Redgrove Forest thus he had to remain vigilant against everyone in the world.

He had been contemplating since a month ago regarding which side his race, the Fiends, fell into. Was he a dark or a light race? The answer he arrived at was neither. His Fiends weren’t a ‘dark’ or a ‘light’ race. 

The Fiend’s weren’t known to the world so there was no one to acknowledge them. They weren’t part of the world economy and outwardly they looked exactly like a human.

Then again, his race could transform into anything as long as they could devour the creature’s body. With the mimics, Julius’s fiends could literally become any race they wanted, human, elf, orc, or demon. All they needed was a corpse and they could immediately take their form and even retain their abilities.

Since he and his fiends couldn’t be categorized into any of the two sides, then they were stand-alone. He could choose which side he stood on or remain neutral and stay in between each side.

He could accomplish this with his fiends and as long as no one was aware of his race’s unique ability, they wouldn’t be seen as a dark or a light side race. The only thing Julius needed to be a little wary of was the Redgrove Forest’s elves who knew about them already.

Unfortunately, Julius didn’t know that the humans already knew a little bit about his existence.

*****

A few days later at Redgrove City, the entire place was put on lockdown as the church announced that they were going to ‘purge’ the city of evil.

One of Julius’s mimics was inside the city with a caravan of goods that was ready to be shipped back to the Sanctum. It was currently in the guise of a human merchant group from a faraway place.

The merchant group just happened to be passing through the city one time and after seeing Eisha who was accompanying Proto to the city to conduct trade, the leader of the group made the big mistake of coveting her for her beauty.

They first invited Eisha politely to which she naturally declined so they turned to a more forceful approach. Naturally, they died due to their stupidity and Julius used their corpses as the base for his mimics’ transformation.

From then on, Julius and his fiends had been actively trading with the humans while snooping around for information.

Today, they were just making their normal rounds to the city but they were stopped from exiting due to the lockdown which was suddenly implemented.

The church’s crusaders knocked on every citizen’s door and inspected the people using holy magic. Apparently, the church received a new oracle that said evil had spread into the city and they needed to purge it.

It was baffling how the church was able to come up with such a decree just based on some baseless oracle and have the city locked down. With Holy spells being cast on everyone inside the city, Julius’s mimics weren’t spared from it.

The mimics didn’t know what was going on so when it was their turn to be inspected they didn’t resist and immediately, all hell broke loose.

When the holy attribute magic, [Cleanse], was cast on the mimics, their transformation broke and their normal appearances were revealed. The priests and paladins who were administering the ‘cleansing’ saw the transformation they all shouted in abhorrence at the mimics’ alien appearance.

“These are the ones! These faceless monsters are the evil that has spread through the city!”

“In the name of the Holy Light, I purge you from this earth, demon!”

The humans attacked first so the mimics retaliated. The fight didn’t last long as there were too many priests and paladins. However, the mimics and the Fiend Soldiers that were disguised as caravan guards put up a resistance and managed to kill a few of the paladins.

Upon finding out that there was a race of monsters disguised as humans walking about them, the people of the city were alerted of the Fiends, and because of their grotesque appearance, having no face and being able to transform created a feeling of revulsion for the humans.

Of course, with the church’s propaganda, the peaceful Fiends who had been quietly trading with the humans all this time were painted as something evil and it caused the masses to reject them.

All previous records of them peacefully coming and going through their city and trading goods with them were thrown out the window just by the church’s announcement. The local hunting guild had even placed a marker on the faceless humanoids and categorized them as a new type of monster.

Julius, who had been meditating inside his Nucleus Pod was immediately made aware that he had just lost a team of fiends from the 5 generals that he appointed underneath him.

He had to search through a few fiends’ memories and see what exactly happened before he made any further judgment. After a few days and going over the memories of the fiends he lost, Julius came to a conclusion.

“...The church found out about us and attacked after dispelling the mimics’ transformation?”

No matter how many times he repeated the memories, the words ‘These faceless monsters are the evil that’s spread through the city’ never failed to grab his ire and attention.

He sent a few scouts to look at the city and noticed that a holy barrier had been erected around the city. Now, he couldn’t send any of his transformed mimics into the city because they would immediately be attacked at first sight.

Julius also noticed that the hunter’s guild had labeled them as a new form of monsters at the behest of the church.

“It’s the church again...these f*****g bastards…”

“My Lord, this is the fifth time since they found out about us that the church and the guild have sent a few teams into the Redgrove Forest...the elves’ magic is keeping them away from the elven town but it seems that their true objective is to get to the Shifting Hallows,” Proto reported.

“Mhm...it means they know we’re here…but how could they?”

“Do they mean to exterminate us?” Eisha asked worriedly.

Julius shook his head and replied to his wife, “Unlikely...if they wanted to exterminate us, they’d bring a larger team or maybe even an army. They’re probably just scouting first…”

“Should I continue looking for another haven? If they are looking for us then we should consolidate our numbers and defend our home!”

“Defend? No, my Love...I say we attack.”

“Attack?”

“Yes, but we don’t want to antagonize them so I’ll be sending you and your retinue out first. Even if they cast [Cleanse] on you, it won’t affect you. Maybe then, you’ll be able to hold a conversation.”

“Mhm, but honey...don’t you hate the church?”

“I do, my Love but we can’t antagonize them because if we do, we’ll be labeled as humanity’s enemies. They know that we reside in the Shifting Hallows so if we attack, then the next time, they’ll send out their armies.”

Eisha understood and nodded, “With our current numbers, we can’t cope with an army…”

“Yes, so for now, we should try to maintain a neutral relationship with them…” Julius said as he stroked his wife’s hair.

“I’ll head out to meet them once they’ve crossed into Shifting Hallows.”

“Although I say that we should remain neutral, but if they attack you...I’ll run down that city and destroy the church and every human inside of it!” The thought was quite provoking so he couldn’t help but snarl. 

A little bit of his face transformed into his fiendish appearance but it quickly reverted. Eisha sat down on his lap and kissed him before nuzzling his face onto her chest.

“No need to be so extreme. If they attack...I’ll just kill everyone there. Remember that the humans fear the Shifting Hallows because once you go in...you may never come back out~”