@fairsaint / sc.
Most survivors start off the trial strong against him -- his terror is a slow building thing. A few generators done never gives him cause to worry. They think they’re speeding to escape -- and then the first one gets hooked. It’s all downhill from there. The hallucinations, the exhaustion -- his presence wearing down their sanity, their willpower, over time.
The Demon had claimed on sacrifice midway through the Trial -- by the time the exit gates are powered up, the other three are pretty ragged. One limping heavily, whimpering and clutching a bleeding arm, one who had avoided the rest of the team almost the entire match to save her own skin. She runs without looking back the moment the gate is open.
And then there’s Dwight.
Just a few paces to the exit when he catches the other one -- tired, already bleeding -- she didn’t stand a chance. The hulking beast picks her up as if she is weightless, and hooks her with a grim satisfaction. ( the entity purrs at the back of his mind. ) No point in leaving the hook to chase the last one out. He watches the light from the gates, as Dwight doesn’t leave.
If it were anyone else, perhaps Gil would be surprised -- but this has become something of an understanding. Dwight comes back -- he stays. Like something right out of the pages of a demons most beloved cautionary tale. ( ah, stay a while you are so lovely ! That terribly, greedy, human eagerness to prolong a moment into infinity despite the consequences. Gil understands it and doesn’t, all at once. )
As he sees Dwight approach, the Demon backs away, allowing him free access to the hook. It exposes him -- leaves him open to a devastating attack -- but Dwight knows that, too, by now. Gil watches the now recovered survivor make for the exit and waits to see what Dwight will do.
It absolutely confounds him. He never seems to abandon his principles. He leaves no one behind -- at the cost of his own life, often. Altruism in the face of utter despair -- Gil doesn’t know how he can maintain such ... self dedication.
The realm is weeping around them, ground splitting and crumbling, shaking -- but the Demon doesn’t move as he speaks to Dwight for the first time.
“ Most of them, once they know the cost, choose to save themselves. Why don’t you? “ He doesn’t wait for an answer. Claws sink into Dwight, rending and ripping, leaving deep wounds. The Demon stands over him -- conflicted. There is no grim satisfaction here. He looks at the hook and returns his attention to survivor, who he hoists up into his grip and carries to the exit.
