This would normally be a total waste to Aliza. If you asked her opinion, there was absolutely no point in turning someone already corrupt into one of her 'playmates.'
But one of her friends had been turned back into a lowly human in a way that completely broke the rules set for how it was supposed to be possible. That was not good, that was no good at all.
Aliza couldn't simply make a more powerful fiend.
Even Aliza couldn't create a demon stronger than herself from a mortal, even from a half-demon. Besides, that was a suicidally stupid idea, any demon who had a clearly weaker demon has a superior or creator would do the natural thing demons were good at and attack their creator. And as Janith herself had said, Aliza might have been insane by demon standards, but she wasn't stupid.
So she went with her next best option, one she'd normally never consider. She'd make a playmate from one who was already like one of her playmates on the inside, and would have a vested interest in staying Aliza's friend, maybe it would provide resistance to what had ever taken Wicked from her, or it wouldn't, either way, it was worth a shot.
she searched around for quite a bit until she found what she was looking for.
The girl was in a wheel chair, and Aliza peered into her soul to see if she was what Aliza wanted in a new playmate just this once BEFORE turning them into a fiend.
The girl's was Eliza Commons, or Lizzy for short, well, that was a little ironic. But what was important was what she thought and felt.
And this girl hated the world. She hated her body for being a prisoner of it. She hated the looks people gave her. She hated the patronizing of adults. She adult the alienation students gave her. She hated the stares. She hated stairs. She hated not being able to swim. She envied and yet loathed all that could use the two legs that were just dead weight to her. She hated the olympics. She blamed doctors for not being able to do more for her. She hated her parents. She had no real friends, just those who felt sorry for her. In her heart of hearts, she'd be happy to see everyone crippled like her.
She was perfect for Aliza.
But what made this girl perfect was also what makes her difficult. Her targets were normally trusting and innocent. Lizzy was sullen and cynical and outright misanthropic.
How did you get someone like this to agree to a game?
Aliza almost longed for judgement day, the final battle, when she'd be given free reign to any human who was more selfish than selfless into more of her kind, even as her opposite number on Heaven's side did the same. The fact they were destine to lose just meant they had to find a way to beat fate, humans had been figuring out ways to do that even since they came to understand what fate was, after all, it was human nature for them to want to avoid the consequences of their own actions.
Finally Aliza decided on the direct approach. "Hey, Lizzy, I'm Alli. I'm a member of the games club," she lied, "We have a game where you turn into a demon, leave your human life behind, serve the forces of darkness, and manipulate humans into becoming MORE fiends, corrupting people and place as you go, capturing rouge demons along the way. We were wondering if you wanted in."
"So because I have wheel chair that means I have nothing better to do than play games?"
"Oh nothing like that! We just thought this game might be to your tastes."
"As if you know my tastes."
"Well, you shouldn't know something until you try it. And it's completely free entry. And tell me, the idea does sound fun right?"
"I'll admit it does sound interesting. Better than those absurd 'knight in shinning armor, save the princess' bunk old games used to go by. The whole point of a video game is doing something you can't . . . you can't do in reality."
" . . . would you like to be real?"
"What real?"
"Become something more than human, leave your humanity behind, become something new, become something not tethered by humanity's outdated morals of right and wrong."
"Yes . . . it would."
"So you would like to play a game where you become a demon, and would want it to be real?"
"Better than being a human being."
"Why is that?"
"Humans are stupid, humans are greedy, humans are a waste of space, humans are a mistake, humans are violent, humans are hypocrites, demons by poetic wouldn't pretend to be more than they were right?"
"Right. So you'd like to play?"
" . . . Might be worth a taste."
"Okay, sign your name right here on this sign up. Now count to ten, you feel your mind bend. Count to nine, you feel just fine. Count to eight, now let's rewrite fate. Count to seven, the darkness in you is already leaven. Count to five, your soul took a dive. Count to four, you couldn't care less about before. Count to three, now you're already like me. Count to two, oh yes you knew. Count to one, now THIS will be fun!"
Aliza flicked the still girl in the wheel chair . . . and unlike her normal conscripts, her form, clothes, and wheel chair split open like an egg.
Unlike the normal imps' unhealthy white outfits, the new imp wore a white togo. Also . . . below her waist was a long tail instead of legs. The new imp found herself not caring, those legs had never worked anyway. Her black horns were simplistic at the side of her head and shaped like knives. Also . . . her red body had wings. Her swirling yellow eyes stared at them as she tested them out.
"Welcome to the better side." Aliza said dropping her false form. "New playmates who were already like an imp at heart do have unique changes. Welcome to the team Lizzy."
"Lightless. Name is Lightless." The new imp hissed and she flapped her new wings, rising up, using her tail to toss her old shell into an open grate into the sewer where it belonged.
"Well Lightless, welcome to your new family . . . and we're gonna get bigger, let me introduce you to the others."