Demons.

I never really thought about them before my transformation. After all, they were part of another world, where heroes battled infernal monsters in an attempt to bring peace to this world. I never once considered that I might be drawn to that world. Why should I have? I was…well, I was actually working for Crey Industries as a simple tech. The kind that only sees the good side of Crey, never actually ever being exposed to its darker secrets. I’m twenty three, a nice, young age and still naïve about what life in Paragon City could bring. The headlines about mighty villains and such were all so far away from my dreary life here. I woke up, went to work, put in lots of time, went home, ate, maybe went on the computer or watched the TV and slept. I had no family in Paragon, I had moved here in after being hired by Crey Industries. It was a mandatory move to the center of its business, and I had at first exulted that I had been picked to come to the headquarters. That was before I started to hear about the rumors of the company that I worked for. But, the point is, I didn’t have any friends.

That might have been why they targeted me in the first place. Either that or I was an available body in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lady Luck must have hated me that night as I walked home from work, because the Circle found me. Sorry. I call them that, but their full name is the Circle of Thorns, one of the oldest and most evil villainous groups out there. They took me under the city while I was still conscious, smelling old spell ingredients and the stench of death and souls. I didn’t recognize the latter then, that knowledge came later. It was ancient and musty down there in Orenbega, the city of their dead civilization. It used to be populated by actual Orenbegans, but now it was home to the Circle. I was down there for days, while they probed at my will and told me nobody was coming for me. All the while they set up something around me, an elaborate ritual of some kind that I didn’t recognize then. I found out when they were finished and started the incantation.

It was grandiose in the way that movies are. You know, the kind that star some evil sorcerer with a spell that can destroy the entire world. Long, tedious, and with an important air about them that makes you shiver in anticipation.

And fear.

My first warning was the warping of the air with a red light, the sudden stench of blood and sulfur wrapping around me. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I couldn’t cry out. I was tied down in the center of a pentagram, followed even further by a strange magical symbol. The head mage was standing at the point of the pentacle as if it continued outwards to the circle’s edge. He was reading from some sort of book with a blood-red cover. I couldn’t control my body suddenly, and my flesh turned brick red, blackened patches appearing all over me as the pain ripped through my body. There was another presence there suddenly, an angry, malicious form that tore my will away. I couldn’t take back my body, but I was able to stave off the assault on my mind. It was no use though. My form had taken on one far closer to that of a demon, even the tail having formed on the back. My skin was some sort of armor now, built to match the hellfire that I imagined the demon came from. My entire face had blackened. I was hideous, a monster now. Demonic.

I must have cried in the cell that was my mind for days. Fighting back all the while this will that tried to crush me, turn me into dust. They told me later that I have an exceptionally strong will power, otherwise I would have died there, trapped inside of a demon. I think, towards the end of that captivity, that I truly wanted someone to kill me and stop what this evil being was doing. I lost count of the hundreds that my body helped to kill as it rampaged through a neighborhood. There was one point when the Circle came into contact with a rival gang. The Hellions. It was a slaughter, but what impressed me most was the instant fear and devotion that the Hellions gave the demon that was my form, right before it incinerated them alive.

Finally, at the very end, my body was back in Orenbega with the masters that held command over the demon and used it as they pleased, although it was plenty happy to go along with it. There was this terrible noise from farther down the tunnels, and a few of the acolytes went to investigate what it was. The rest, more experienced perhaps, knew what was coming. The demon that I was in had this sudden battle-lust that I knew could only mean defeat for the heroes that were making their way in. It was with a titanic crash that the body of a Soul Mage went flying through the doorway, and there stood the beings that I came to know as Everest and Lu’cid. There were maybe ten or fifteen against them in the chamber, including my own body, but Lu’cid…did something that caused all of them to turn towards beings he had summoned. Even better, the head mage, the one who had performed the ritual on me, started to attack his own comrades like he had gone insane, or had been the one possessed.

All the while, the demon stood laughing, as if expecting not to have to move a muscle. But when the icy fist of Everest came crashing into my stomach, I knew it was surprised. The fight was quick and vicious, with fire attempting to scorch the heroes. But Lu’cid was able to heal them both somehow. Was it magic? I didn’t have a clue, all I knew was that the demon’s power was weakening. Eventually, just as it slumped to the floor, defeated, I had my opening. I pushed through, managing to overpower the demon’s will for the first time, and took control over my own body as I pleaded for them not to kill me. The words came out faster than I could control, explaining what had happened to me. It must have sounded strange, coming from a demonized human, but it was the truth. Then came a blow that knocked me unconscious entirely, and the demon was out like a light as well.

When I came to, I was on a bed somewhere. Standing over me was none other than Numina, member of the Freedom Phalanx and spirit woman. She had her physical form die long ago according to a few things that I read while I was interested in such things. Standing on the other side of me was something that I could recognize as one of the people who had saved me. I later found out his name was Lu’cid. It was when I woke up that I realized the demon was still with me, snarling but pushed down below me somehow. That was when Numina explained what I needed to do to regain permanent control over my body. They needed my help to create a seal, as the demon that had been summoned, Jarlact the Infernal, was to powerful to just be destroyed unless they wanted to kill me as well. Since they wanted me to live, I was to become a living seal, someone that would fight every second of his life to keep the power within him under control. She explained what it would mean to me.

The explanation wasn’t long, but to say that it was complex is an understatement. For the sake of this diary, I’ll keep it short. She told me that the changes to my body would stay as they were already. I was to remain obviously a demonized humanoid, although there would be some things that could happen to me. There was the possibility of my growing demonic wings, as such were already growing beneath my back. I would have access to demonic powers that the demon already possessed. The hellfire that I had seen earlier, fire manipulation that would burn people if I wasn’t careful. I could potentially teleport, although she wasn’t certain what powers would manifest. A demon has many abilities, the body of a human in control of a demon does not. I managed to say yes somehow, resigning myself to a life as a hero and unable to live a regular life.

The binding was intense in a way that people don’t mean that word anymore. I could feel the magic working its way into me again, creating a prison with my will that would allow me power over the beast inside of me, already whispering thoughts and attempting to control me. The only way that I was able to make it was with the help of Numina and Lu’cid. She was creating the binding, he was helping to keep to keep it down while the ward was created. When it was all done, I could feel it. There were a few side effects that she didn’t mention though, I’m not sure she knew they were going to happen either. I had my body back, but all of my senses were enhanced with demonic taint. The smell of souls, as I alluded to earlier, is a smell that is unlike any other. Corrupt ones, good ones, unbound souls…they were all available to my sense of smell. I could smell Numina’s instantly…and knew that if the demon had made any motion towards her, she could have blasted me and him into dust instantly.

I staggered from the bed they had used for the ritual into another one, for a reason that I didn’t know why until I looked back. The demon’s binding had burned the entire piece of furniture with fire, incinerating everything in contact with my body. I couldn’t actually feel that at all, the heat didn’t even register. Nothing really makes me burn anymore, unless its enemy magic or a high quality flame thrower that gets past my defenses. Even then, the damage is reduced by the skin that I’ve retained. I can’t hide who I am anymore, and I can’t go back to Crey. People see me on the street, the ones that don’t know I’m a hero, and they run. Even the contacts that I go to for instructions and missions don’t like to look at me, to stare me in the eyes.

It’s okay though, I’m fine with it. I’ve willingly become a hero now, fighting for good with the powers of evil. There’s a lot of irony that it took a demon being bonded to my soul and very existence to turn me into a superhero. I can only hope that the good that I do in life now will help me redeem my own soul at the end of time. That’s what I used for my name.

Redemption of Soul.

I joined with my two rescuers. They seem fairly nice and somewhat sympathetic to my plight, as I have to fight every second of the day to keep the demon down, but at least its manageable. The hellfire that I put out now is slightly toned down by my lack of control over my powers, but that’s changing every day as we fight evil. They’re hiding something important, or they have some deep secret that they haven’t told me yet. Maybe, one day, they can trust me with their secret as I’ve trusted them with my life. You see, if I ever lose control, I’ve told both of them to kill me there and then. It won’t be me anymore, it’ll be the demon, and I don’t want them to die.