The discourse surrounding the most superlatively evil being to have ever blighted the realm of Eiren is complex and has already been written about in many thick and pedantic tomes. While the argument has been made for a number of villains to ascend to the coveted spot of Supreme Evil—notably Everild the Necromancer, Scorlisha Baneblade of the Mounted Beasts, the Plague Bringer Norasthmus, and Dave from Next Door Who Insists on Doing Yard Work at Dawn—there are also a number of names that remain unspoken by the populace of Eiren, for their utterance alone is said to corrupt. These are the demons, servants of the dark gods who are sealed in the Abyss. While valiant scholars and the devoutly holy are compelled to study these beings so that their attempts to rise to power may be thwarted, infernal names are only traded in hushed whispers for fear of summoning them.

If only summoning a demon were so easy.

Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne fell into a heap, nearly drained, dagger clattering to the floor at his side. Blood so viscous it was nearly black pooled around him. It crawled slowly away from his worn, muscled body in the shaft of hazy light that cleaved through the chamber’s single window many stories above. He steadied himself, hand slick against the stone floor, breath coming ragged but full. Peering between black strands of sweat-drenched hair, his violet eyes bore into what he’d created—the amalgamation of years of study and expedition reduced to a small pile of components atop a single piece of inkarnaught ore no larger than a gold coin. With the last of his infernal arcana, he dragged a finger in his own gore, trailing crimson across the floor as he drew the sigil he had designed and waited.