Chapter 15 - Tormentress

----Characteristics----

[Presence]: 53

Tormentresses are the wardens of the Domain of Desire, torturing and deciding the fates of those who've found themselves there. They wander around the 1st layer of The Throne which's an endless stretch of fog-covered land, and will only go higher when they've collected enough souls to begin torturing.

They are beings deeply connected to the concept of torture. If a Tormentress is on Mundus it's because they're hunting a marked human who was capable of killing a Seducers, even though extremely rare, it still has happened. The result of her presence around the target caused the full vaporization of a human's home, and then after she assaulted him, she ripped limb from limb, devouring all of the human down to nothing, with not even his soul remaining.

Their physique resembles that of a Succubus until you get to their head which sports massive horns that spread over their eyes blinding them. Their mouths look as if they were cut open with sharp dagger-like teeth. Although they lack eyes, that doesn't stop the amount of fear that comes from a Tormentress' gaze upon a human, as it would make them shiver in fear to the point of almost being unable to stand. Tormentresses have both male and female reproductive organs, they will alternate in cycles of being a father or mother to a Tormentress younglings.

----Abilities----

<>: Tormentresses carry a scale to weigh the souls of those that have been killed by Seducers. They place a part of the human's soul on one plate and a gold coin on the other, if the soul weighs less then it is considered a pure soul truly uncorrupted by desire, which it will then be sent to the 1st layer of the Prince of Desire's domains. In the 1st layer, they're surrounded by everything that tempted them when they were alive, either breaking them and forcing them to give in to their desire to feed the Prince more or damming them to wonder the layer endlessly for eternity. If the gold coin weighs more than the soul then the human has already been tainted by desire and will be sent to the 2nd layer to be tortured until they find desire within it.

<>: Tormentresses are feared beings. Just being around one for a short amount of time can drive a being to madness, with visions of pain and misery, this madness will begin to tear and crush on the soul until the moment it becomes too much. Once it's too much the soul and physical body will be fully erased leaving nothing behind but the compassing fear that spreads from the Tormentress' presence.

<>: Tormentresses lack eyes and can not see the cause of an attack. Due to this, the Prince of Desire gifted them the ability to fully alter causes and their effects as they please. For example, if suddenly stabbed they can't truly see the cause, only feel the effect, which their body will retroactively erase said cause from happening, warping reality to fit the subjective view that the Tormentresses has perceived as "nothing stabbed me", as it's unknown to them.

<>: The Tormentresses were blessed with an artifact from the Prince. This artifact is a lantern that guides those who have it to victory through multiple means. The 3 ways it can guide them is:

--1. The blue flame pulsation comes to a halt, being a pure steady flame that will draw time to a halt, allowing the Tormentress to do as she pleases for 15 seconds.

--2. The blue flame will become erratic altering the chances of the Tormentress's success.

--3. The final way is if the Tormentress dies the blue flame will fade bringing her back to life and if she gains the opportunity to reignite the flame she can utilize it again continuously.

----Modus Operandi----

Tormentresses hardly leave the Domain of Desire, often roaming, collecting, and judging souls who've been damned to it. They will only go to the higher layers of The Throne once they've collected enough marked souls to entertain themselves with either torturing them physically or with more psychological means. They will only lower themselves to Mundus if a Seducer has failed to kill a target, which is typically the result of the Seducer being killed instead, which is a somewhat big occasion as even the warriors of the Divine of Hope would take notice since the Tormentresses will slaughter anything between her and the marked being.