Viralis

**Viralis** was a soul-sucking virility demon who had survived for at least a century by preying upon the greatest desires of vulnerable women, offering them fulfillment in exchange for surrender to him. He would create a cult of ten women in which he used to sacrifice in a ritual to extend his life by another ten years. He was vanquished by Macy Vaughn with his own dagger.

## History

In "*Surrender*", Mel Vera received an urgent text from Niko Hamada asking her to come over. Despite Maggie Vera and Macy Vaughn's warnings not to get caught up with Niko again, she agreed. At Niko's, Mel met Scarlett, who has just fled a cult but had no memories of her time there. Niko explained to Mel that she saw Scarlett and a number of other glassy-eyed women at the grocery store the week prior and concerned, gave them her card. Niko wanted to know if this cult is affiliated with the Sarcana, though Mel reassured her otherwise. In a remote barn, the demonic cult leader was fuming over Scarlett's disappearance, which is threatening the success of his upcoming ritual. After killing her friend and a fellow follower, the demon sent four of his hypnotized followers to retrieve the former devotee, encouraging them to kill whoever stands in their way. Later, the demon cult leader's followers tracked Scarlett down at Niko's. Hearing her screams, Niko rushed to the living room to find Scarlett levitating in the air, the cult followers circling her. Confused by what she's seeing, Niko paused and one of the followers used telekinesis to knock her out with a vase. Niko called Mel for help, describing what she saw when the cult followers came for Scarlett. She asked again if the Sarcana was involved. Mel admitted that there's a lot about the Sarcana she doesn't know and offered to look into it.

The sisters found the demon they're looking for in the Book of Shadows. Named Viralis, he's a soul-sucking demon who formed a cult every decade, preying on vulnerable women to sacrifice in order to extend his life by another 10 years. The only way to vanquish Viralis was for a Charmed One to stab him in his "source of power" with his own dagger. Maggie offered to be bait, wanting to secure some demon blood for Parker Caine and under the impression that witches would be immune to Viralis's powers. Unfortunately, while Maggie is able to attract Viralis's attention, he was able to sense her deep desire for a love that will never leave her and used that to place her under his hypnosis. The two of them then disappear back to his compound. Having lost track of Maggie, Mel and Macy panicked and called out for Harry Greenwood... who arrives, admitting to having followed the sisters out of worry. While he no longer had his powers, Harry's magical knowledge remained and he was able to help the sisters track down Maggie's location and agreed to take them.

Having acquired his necessary ten followers, Viralis began his ritual, which involved his sacrifices stabbing themselves as he sucks the life out of them. Outside the barn, Harry, Mel, and Macy arrived and stumbled across Niko. To protect the private investigator from harm and getting in the way, Mel froze time, but unfortunately, the now-human Harry was also frozen, leaving Macy and Mel to continue alone. Mel's powers caused all the humans inside the barn to freeze, leaving Viralis and Maggie. He gave her some of his demon blood and commanded her to kill anyone who walked through the door. Maggie attacked Mel with a knife and, while Mel was initially reluctant to fight back, the pair began duking it out. Meanwhile, the demon confronted Macy with his dagger. She was able to quickly get the upper hand, using her telekinesis to choke him with his necklace, causing him to disappear to protect himself. Knowing he would likely try to continue his ritual, Macy had the dagger waiting when he reappeared and threw it to stab him in the genitals, vanquishing him and ending his magic. While Macy and Mel tried to stage the scene so that Niko wouldn't know that they intervened before her, the private investigator told Mel that something weird was happening and she was somehow always in the middle of it. Macy, meanwhile, presented Maggie with a vial of Viralis's blood. Maggie then gave the blood to Julia Wagner in order to help Parker.

## Personality

Viralis was a bit of a poet, who loved to find his victims where vulnerable people gathered. He was also manipulative and enjoyed inducing patriarchy on the women he controlled. Viralis never directly participated in battle, rather he would send his minions to do his dirty work unless he was needed.

## Physical Appearance

Viralis had the appearance of a handsome, white male in his early thirties with messy, dark brown hair. He could also make his eyes glow bright blue.

## Book of Shadows Entry

Viralis

Demon names: Viralis (most common), Andrismos and Jeonglyeog.
Lures vulnerable women via telepathy. Once his victims ingest his blue glue (blood like), women under his allure appear hypnotized often with glowing blue eyes…
He keeps his victims docile by feeding his demonblood—blue saplike nectar.
Armory: A phallic Dagger with numbing capabilities often used to brand his victims without pain…
Threat level: High given the loss of non-magical mortal life.
Signifiers: The Spring Equinox. Viralis requires a 10 female sacrifice ritual to maintain his virility and life for another 10 years.
Notes: Viralis uses his dagger to brand his victims for sacrifice a stylized S for Surrender is the known symbol. A soul sucking virility demon, he looks into your soul and sees your deepest desire… he promises it to you in exchange for total surrender…
Vanquishing: Requires a Charmed One impaling Viralis with his own knife at the source of his power.
## Powers and Abilities

*Active Powers*
* **Telepathy:** The power to access and manipulate other people's minds.
	+ **Desire Sensing:** The ability to telepathically sense the greatest desires of others. Viralis used his ability to lure women into surrendering to him by promising them their greatest desires.
	+ **Hypnosis:** The ability to put other beings in a trance in order to control their actions. Once his victims surrendered to him, Viralis was able to place them in a trance often with glowing blue eyes. He kept his victims docile by feeding them his demon blood.
* **Limited Shapeshifting:** The ability to alter one's form or appearance. Viralis had the ability to make his eyes glow bright blue.
* **Smoking:** The ability to move between locations instantly without having to physically travel the space between them in a puff of smoke. Viralis' teleportation was smoke-like in appearance, his body disappearing and reappearing in blue smoke with his glowing blue irises appearing before the rest of his body.
	+ **Limited Invisibility:** While smoking, Viralis' glowing blue eyes would always appear before the rest of his body, allowing him to use this to sneak attack his targets.

*Passive Powers*
* **Immortality:** As a demon, Viralis possessed an infinite lifespan. However, his immortality had to be maintained through the sacrifice of ten women which prolonged Viralis' life by another ten years.
	+ **Soul Absorption:** Virilis absorbs his victims' souls during the ritual.

## Weaknesses

* **Viralis' Phallic Dagger:** According to the original Vera Book of Shadows, the only way to vanquish Viralis was for a Charmed One to stab him with the dagger at his "source of power". Macy Vaughn was able to vanquish him by stabbing him with the dagger in the genitals.
* **His Smoking Power:** While smoking, Viralis' glowing blue eyes could also be a flaw, as Macy tracked his eyes to determine where he was going when he smoked away and vanquished him as he materialized.

## Trivia

* Viralis has a similar modus operandi as Barbas, the Demon of Fear, in the original series. Barbas preying on the fears of others, and Viralis preying on desire. Barbas was even able to sense a being's greatest fear, while Viralis was able to sense a being's greatest desire.
* According to the original Vera Book of Shadows, Viralis had also used the names *Andrismos* and *Jeonglyeog*. **ανδρισμός** (*andrismós*) is a Greek term, meaning "*manliness, manhood, virility, masculinity*". *Jeonglyeog* is a Roman transliteration derived from **정력** (*jeongnyeok*), a Korean term that means "*virility, male sexual prowess, strength of an adult man*" or, in some cases, "*energy, vigor*".