The Devil (8)

---I will grant your wish. In return,

Countless fables, legends, and myths begin like this.

And behind them, there always lurks a demon.

"It seems the Shadow Unit made a deal with a demon. I don't know what method they used, but they seem to have succeeded in summoning a demon."

"So, the demon demanded a price from the Shadow Unit, and in return, the Shadow Unit received knowledge and power about mana injections?"

"...That's what the Shadow Unit must have thought."

"Yes?"

I don't know which demonish book the Shadow Unit read to do such a crazy thing.

They have a misunderstanding about demons.

"demons don't keep their contracts properly in the first place. They just use the name 'contract' to deceive people."

"You mean, even if a human pays the price the demon wants, the demon doesn't give the human what they want?"

"On the surface, it seems like they do. A contract with a demon is not solely fulfilled by the demon's power. The ritual that summoned the demon, the human's desire, the price and exchange of conditions offered in the form of a contract. All these powers come together to manifest as the power of the wish."

That's why demons can grant human wishes.

Even if they themselves lack the knowledge or ability, the power of the summoning, the price offered by the human, and the power of the contract's establishment all work together to fulfill the wish.

"But in the end, humans realize that it leads to absurd results."

When demons make contracts with humans, they usually want things like the soul of the person making the wish. Many books in the game Etius tell us this.

Of course, the person from the Shadow Unit would have been prepared for that. They would have had the heart to sell their soul to complete the mana injection and strengthen humanity.

But no matter how much resolve they had,

No matter how noble a sacrifice they made by putting even their own soul on the scale,

The demon has no interest in such things.

"People are afraid that the demon will take their souls in a contract with a demon, but that's not what they should really be afraid of. They should be afraid of the cruelty of not even keeping the contract properly, even though they take the soul."

demons are well aware of human psychology, especially the reward psychology.

The naive belief that a contract worth selling your soul for will be rewarded with honesty and fairness.

"In this case, what the Shadow Unit wanted was probably the knowledge to create mana injections without side effects."

"So, the demon didn't give them that knowledge?"

"They probably did. They have to fulfill the contract. But there's always a trap in contracts like this."

"A trap?"

"Knowledge only has meaning when it's used. And knowledge and the things created with that knowledge are two different things."

At my words, Philly made a sound like, "Ah," as if she understood.

"...The demon was after the 'thing' created using that knowledge."

"Yes. They probably intercepted it during the experiment. They gave the knowledge, the contract was fulfilled, so anything after that is irrelevant to the contract."

However, it's unusual for a demon, who is fundamentally indifferent to human desires, to be interested in that thing.

Usually, they exploit loopholes in wishes or intentionally distort them to fulfill them but lead to even greater misfortune, like the 'Monkey's Paw'.

In short, they play with humans.

For a demon to be interested in a human experiment and steal it, they must have been quite intrigued.

"Then, what was born from that experiment..."

"Yes. The monster that targeted the Emperor."

The Calamity of Metamorph.

That creature has the ability to perfectly mimic the person it sees.

Not only the appearance but also the internal structure and the flow of mana.

"Originally, it would have been a solution to eliminate the side effects of mana injections. If you could create mana that is exactly the same as the target, there would be no side effects even if it was injected."

"It wouldn't have been a self-aware monster like it is now. There would have been no need for that."

"Yes. The demon probably made it that way."

The Calamity of Metamorph, which should have originally been a mana injection.

We don't know what ability the demons were after when they turned the human experiment into a monster.

Well, it's trapped in my workshop now, so I'll have to figure it out later.

"We've arrived while we were talking."

Philly and I descended all the stairs to the basement.

It's been a while since I've been here, but the scene I saw was completely different.

First of all, the door to the room where the Dragon Heart was kept was already smashed, and the remnants of an alien mana lingered. Probably the demons'.

And above all, the smell of blood.

"The demon interfered with the human experiment. When humans make contracts with demons, a kind of gate is formed in the ritual so they can meet. They probably used the 'Dragon Heart' as a medium for that. It's a very suitable mana crystal for summoning demons."

"So that's why there were signs of intrusion here. It's amazing. They weren't trying to use the Dragon Heart itself as a mana injection, but to summon a demon with it."

"The demon summoning might have already taken place at that time. The Dragon Heart is just a medium and wouldn't be destroyed, and after making a contract with the summoned demon, the demon would have returned and the gate closed again. Then all that would be left would be minor traces of intrusion."

However, as long as the Dragon Heart remained in its place, the demon could open the gate again and come back here.

Hiding the Dragon Heart to keep it safe actually became a foothold for the demon to return.

"...Let's check inside."

"Yes."

We slowly moved our steps and entered the room where the Dragon Heart was.

And we found blood splattered everywhere. It was as if a gruesome massacre had taken place, but there were no bodies to be seen. Only blood filled the space.

Moreover, my 'sixth sense' tells me that this blood is definitely,

"Not from one person."

"How many could it be?"

"Quite a few. It's been too long to count, though."

If it were just to kill someone, depending on the case, there wouldn't be that much blood. Naturally. It's not like they were trying to draw blood.

Besides, I predict that this blood wasn't caused by 'murder'.

"It seems the contract has been completed."

"...Then the owner of this blood is,"

"Yes. The Shadow Unit."

[Sub-quest completed.]

[Sub-quest: Weeding Out]

Description: The group that planned the Mana Injection belongs to the Shadow Unit. Eliminate them as per Philly's order.

Objective: Eliminate the ringleaders and collaborators of the project.

Reward: Separate payment depending on the quest performance. Reward decreases if some ringleaders or collaborators are missed or other members of the Shadow Unit are eliminated, failure if someone who is not a member of the Shadow Unit is killed.

Failure results in losing Philly's trust.

[Reward Confirmation]

- The mastermind of the plan was killed by the demon.

- The collaborators of the plan were killed by the demon.

[Reward has been withheld. Currently under review.]