Demon Hunters

The Inquisitor X

Matthew's assertion wasn't wrong. For a long time now, Lucas had been fully aware of the idiosyncrasies that plagued the way the church operated. Why were there so few demon hunters? Why weren't there armies of them, patrolling the countryside and making sure that no demon could ever endanger anyone? Of course, such operations would have required large amounts of manpower, which was the excuse Lucas had used to convince himself that there was nothing wrong. However, there was an obvious follow-up question to ask, one that Lucas had always ignored: if manpower was the issue, why were there so many inquisitors when compared to demon hunters? Obviously, the calibre of training was different between the two vocations, but that wasn't a good enough answer – after all, it wasn't impossible to defeat demons with numerical superiority alone. No, the reason lied elsewhere, a fact Lucas was finally having to accept.

"Because if there were no demons, there would be no church," he finally admitted.

"I do believe you have hit the nail on the head, there," Matthew affirmed, crossing his arms. "Nothing quite like a powerful enemy to unite people under you, right?"

Unfortunately, it all made sense. The church's mission had never been to eradicate demons – in fact, that would have run contrary to its goals. The church offered safety and, moreover, salvation. Demons were not the ultimate enemy – they were the church's lifeblood. It followed, then, that culling 'heresy' was far more important for the church – after all, any competitive ideologies could pose an existential threat to the monopoly of faith the church seemed to enjoy. For this very reason, people like shamans, who knew the true nature of demons, were particularly dangerous and as such, mercilessly hunted down.

"How did it come to this?" Lucas asked. "How could they gain such complete power over everyone?"

Much to Lucas's surprise, it was Björn who replied.

"It is the shaman's fault. Knowing how to work with spirits gives you power. They did not want to give this power away."

"Indeed," Matthew chimed in. "I mean, imagine it: because of your skills, you have a special place among your people. Of course, if someone else were to learn your methods, this position would slip away from you. So, quite like with many other professions, the secrets of the trade were passed from father to son, and no one else knew anything about the matter."

Lucas nodded. It was not difficult to deduce what had happened. The shamans had inadvertently made the job of eradicating them that much simpler, and when the church started to spread its influence wider and wider, the end result had been obvious from the get-go. Moreover, it was also quite possible that the special position shamans had enjoyed had gained them enemies from their own people, which only served to explain how the likes of shamans had started to disappear so quickly.

"Still, it is difficult to believe that anyone would willingly put people in danger just to further their own power..." Lucas sighed.

Not that he hadn't seen milder examples of clergymen abusing their power, but still: this was something far worse.

"They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Who knows, maybe the ones founding the church originally had good intentions? Perhaps it was only the passage of time that has led us to this situation. I suppose you must now understand why I decided to become a disciple here," Matthew lamented. "The world has become a dark place. About the only thing I can do is help make a small corner of it a bit safer."

Lucas hardly registered Matthew's words. Instead, his mind was barraged by myriad memories of his victims. Men, women, children. All had been deemed heretics, oftentimes by Lucas himself. Some cases were clear, but others... less so. A young man, arrested for the crime of possessing a strange tome... An old lady, who had refused to participate in church sermons... A strange man considered guilty because of tattoos on his body no one seemed to understand... the list was as long as it was damning. How many had been imprisoned or even executed because Lucas had acted on his orders without a second thought?