[h2]Marxello Catchanale[/h2]
'No, Bart. In fact, you're just in time to hear me discuss something... important, shall we say, with the other members of the Guild,' Mark uttered. He hadn't thought he'd actually need to explain this, but since they were on the topic... well, again, it was a good chance for him to try and sway some of them to be purified by him. 'Just before that: Magnus, Freyr, I thank you for your assistance nonetheless. Ms. Siren-' For sure this time, she could clearly be nothing else. '-I appreciate that you're sensible enough to change your mind when given new information.

'Now, as for the would-be genocide aspects of the Order... well, this requires a bit of explaining,' he began, gesturing for anyone who hadn't yet taken a seat to do so. 'You see, as a general rule, the Order of the Chief God does not generally suggest that its adherents be cruel. Humans are largely encouraged to be friendly and supportive toward one another, and outliers such as Varjo apparently is aside, I believe the general consensus is that the same applies to most uncorrupted demihumans and angelic beings.

'Just... not to monsters, is all. It may help you to understand that, from the perspective of human beings, being raped is typically highly traumatising, and for most Order churches, the matter is worsened by the corrupting influence of demonic energy, which they perceive as turning the victims into sex-crazed lunatics much like their attackers. Not without due cause, mind. Hence, the Order in general tends to push for monster extermination. In my homeland, we've long made it a point to try and consider the viewpoint of [i]mamono[/i] as well as humanity, but the Knights there have somewhat more pressing reasons to be concerned - monstergirls seem to breed only additional monstergirls, certain notable exceptions present; our best and brightest have come to the conclusion that, if left unchecked, this will result in a slow-burning, yet exponentially more urgent existential threat, to both humankind and monsterkind. With no other options, we too have therefore engaged in these acts of killing for our own protection, the logic being that, even if all [i]mamono[/i] must die to achieve that goal, humans will at least live on.

'So, yes, I have killed monsters before,' Mark admitted solemnly, 'a great many of them. Some killings I have regretted, for their souls were vibrant despite what Varjo would call impenetrable darkness clouding them; others I have relished, for the monsters in question were vile even beyond what most would think when they heard the term. All were considered necessary at the time.' Now came the hard part: the convincing of these would-be allies that there was a better way after admitting to cold-blooded, self-serving murder.

'Recently, however, we have developed an alternate option,' he continued with only mild hesitation. 'A superior option, some might argue, and certainly better for the monster in question, considering the alternative in such a situation is death. Part of what makes monsters so dangerous to humans and demihumans alike is the capacity for demonic energy to feed on and corrupt spirit energy - human men become incubi as their spirit energy is fed off of and empowered in a vicious cycle of sorts, human women become monsters as their capacity to produce spirit energy at all is utterly annihilated, slower than that of men as it is in the first place.

'This new spell... well, the best way I can describe it is that it plays on the plus-minus relation between the two types of magic, and in doing so... reverses the usual dichotomy. Instead of demonic energy corrupting spirit energy, specifically-modified spirit energy infests a corrupted soul, rooting out demonic energy, reversing its polarity if you will, and converting it - from minus, to plus; corruption, to purity; monster... to human. At least on the level of the soul.'

Mark paused for a moment, letting his words sink in before he continued. 'So does the soul of a monster or other corrupt entity become pure. And in theory, safe for humans to interact with. The obvious benefits lie in the inability for corruption to spread further from the purified being, so long as they don't get corrupted all over again, though in that case, their souls are at least partially inoculated, limiting them to the state of incubus at worst. Especially useful for human women. Our theory runs that it would also proof the children of such beings from monsterisation - if demonic energy is what leads to the birth of more monsters, a pure soul would thus result in human children, or at least human boys if the girls are still born monstrous. So far, none of the evidence gathered suggests a failure of this theory.

'Syzsi, incidentally, is a good example of a purified monstergirl - she is less driven by lust than before, but her mind is otherwise intact and unaltered, at least to my knowledge. It's perfectly safe, and it doesn't change your way of thinking, it just... removes the thing making you consider sex so frequently. Admittedly, I don't know how frequently anybody here thinks about sex, but it is a factor, nonetheless. So...' He clapped his hands together once, punctuating his sentence as he considered what to say next.

'My offer to you guys is as follows: let me work the spell on you, remove the demonic energy from your souls, and make the world a slightly safer place for... well, everybody, honestly. If you'd rather I didn't, I understand. If you're horrified by the concept at its core, I understand. But just be aware... I will insist upon performing it sooner or later. Forcibly, if I have to, and know that I would really rather not resort to that. I don't think fracturing any relations by performing a metaphysical procedure without somebody's consent is what any of us here want.'

And that was that. How they reacted now, whether they complied or didn't, would be down to whether he'd sold the concept sufficiently. He supposed Bart wouldn't be so shocked, given that he knew of the spell already, the reason he'd visited Andrale to begin with; nevertheless, with a Minotaur, a Siren, and a Viera all potential sour points in his pitch, Mark would be prepared to defend himself if somebody decided to do something... stupid.