Special Child

### Summary

Pseudo-Cambions created by to be sacrifices to form a rift between the Underworld and the Mortal World.

**Special Children** are pseudo-cambions created by the Sisters of Istehar to be used as sacrifices to create a rift within the Ouroboros Barrier, allowing demons to escape the Underworld and wreak havoc on the mortal world once more.

## Summary

No one truly knows when the first special children were created, though based on how every generation of special children were created every 13 years and there have been a total of 66 generations, it can be assumed that the tradition first began sometimes in the early 11th-century.

The were created by the Sisters of Istehar, powerful and ancient devils who used to be handmaiden to the cardinal devil Namaah and had been featured in the Testament of Solomon, as part of an ancient ritual to create a rift in the Ouroboros Barrier, allowing the demons to enter the mortal world once more.

This ritual is known as the **Qliphoth** (永遠の悪の木クリフォト, *Kurifoto*) and was performed in a temple hidden beneath Lake Avernus and the Seven Sisters speculated that it would require a total of 66 continuous rituals to cultivate enough demonic power to successfully create the rift.

In order to create the necessary sacrifices, the Sisters broke into the houses of unsuspected human families, often families with First Man lineage, and secretly fed to their infants Lilith's blood every night, non-stop, when they were asleep for 6 years straight. Each generation, there would be a total of 72 special children, each corresponding with a Goetic house from the 72 Pillars.

As these children grew up, the consumed blood will slowly manifest its demonic influence, first with some unnoticable biological and physiological changes until the hereditary demonic powers of the 72 Pillars started to appear, often with great tragedies followed soon after, such as deaths or abuse.

When the last of the special children reached puberty, all of them would be snatched and sent to the Phlegraean Fields to participate in the **Hunger Games** (落とし子の戦いハンガー・ゲーム, *Hangā Gēmu*), a cruel and twisted battle-royale where they would fight each other to the death until only a single special child remained, who would then be forced/compelled to consume the flesh and soul of those who were killed to gain their demonic power. Afterward, they would be taken to the underwater temple and be sacrificed by the Sisters to fuel the ritual for the Qliphoth.

## Appearance

Special children are virtually no different from regular humans in terms of appearance, as their demonic changes are mostly internally, and unless their body physically changes when using their demonic power, they will possibly appear as normal humans for the rest of their short life. For supernatural creatures, all special children have a strange demonic aura surrounding them which makes demonic creatures feel uncomfortable just by staying near them.

## Characteristics

Despite displaying many traits similar to that of a devil, special children are considered to be pseudo-cambions instead of regular demonic hybrids like warlocks or half-devils, as they possess traits more reminiscent to that of the half-demons from ancient times. Even in their dormant state, their demonic power is still vastly more powerful than a regular devil, with each child examined by Ajuka possessing a greater amount of demonic than the average Ultimate-class devils.

Due to them being artificially created, and thus, are still humans at their core, they lack the majority of weaknesses shared by demonic creatures, such as an inherent weakness to the holy attribute and religious symbols. They also possess an immensely powerful magic core reminiscent of warlocks', though theirs is much more "human" in nature.

Among other humans, depending on their own personality and characteristics, their demonic power often unconsciously manipulates others' opinion and perception of them. For Aellyon, an introvert who prefers not to be put in the spot-light, his demonic power makes him semi-invisible and partially erases his presence to anyone who isn't purposefully seeking him out. For Rodrick, however, his authoritative nature unconsciously influenced his demonic power to turn others into his followers, making him submissive and loyal to all of his commands regardless of their true opinions of him.

## Weaknesses

* **Physical Damage**: Like most supernatural creatures, special children can still be killed through mundane means if they have either received serious or immense physical damage or received fatal wounds that aren't healed in time.
* **Demonic Illnesses**: Being artificial cambions, special children are susceptible to several rare illnesses and diseases reserved only those of demonic origins like devils or daemon, such as the Devil Fever or the Elfegort Sleeping Disease.
* **Celestial Weapons**: Weapons made out of sacred metals can be used against the majority of supernatural beings, special children included.
* **Primordial Regalia**: Weapons and artifacts belonging to the primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely destroy every and any being in existence, aside from other primordial entities, and erase their existence completely so that they can never be reborn or resurrected without the involvement of God.

## Population

Throughout history, there have been 66 generations of special children created by the Seven Sisters, with each generation consisting of 72 children and a 13-or-higher age gap between each generation. Because of this, it can be assumed that there have been a total of *at least* 2752 special children that were created.

However, with the deaths of the Seven Sisters and the end of the Hunger Games, there would be no more new special children being created and the 40 special children who survived the 66th-generation will be the last of their kind.

## Trivia

* As pseudo-cambions, they are incapable of possessing Sacred Gears.
* While it's traditional that a generation is created every 13 years, it isn't a *must*, as there have been multiple generations of special children with decades-old age gaps between the children.
* The hereditary power they receive appear to be random, with only a few getting powers that are somewhat related to their characteristics.
* The time their demonic powers manifested vary from special child to special child, with some manifest as a baby, a teenager, an adult, or never get the chance to manifest them entirely before being summoned to participate in the Hunger Games entirely.
* Ironically, the 40 surviving special children correspond with the 40 extinct Goetic houses.
	+ Because of this, many government officials want them to marry pureblood devils and take over these extinct houses so as to not let their history and traditions become lost in time.
* On the Netherworld's official records, they are recognized as members of the Lucifer Clan under the patronage of the Crowned Prince, Vali Lucifer.
* It is theorized that if they developed their demonic abilities to their full potential, they might become as powerful as the genuine cambions.