Regret Demon

First Referenced:

The Portal in the Forest (Part 4)

Additional References:

'I was told that everyone I'd served with in the military died shortly after I left. (Part 7)'

The Regret Demon is a mostly unknown entity that presents trade options that invariably lead to remorse and regret. The Regret Demon was first encountered by Cristina Thompson after it hijacked the primary forest portal to discuss a truce. Cristina Thompson had previously heard a tale of such an entity, which brought her to understand the way it operated, in that all actions or even any inaction would lead to remorse and regret, although the entity itself was bound by a very specific code, or rules.

As a form of communication interface, the Regret Demon used a human woman, described as middle-aged and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, as a puppet. It is unconfirmed whether the puppet woman was fully human, however she appeared to resist being recaptured by the neural tissue, and through subtle abnormalities in responses to queries communicated valuable information to Cristina Thompson without the Regret Demon extracting payment in response.

During the final evacuation of The First World, the Regret Demon again hijacked the primary portal of Thomas while the evacuation was underway. While the puppet woman showed extreme anger, a tentacle of what appeared to be neural tissue attempted to pass through the portal, and when unsuccessful, another tentacle wielding a laser attempted to kill Cristina Thompson. The assassination attempt was prevented by Conn Thompson prior to their escape from The First World to the neighboring Farming World.

It is unknown what precisely Cristina Thompson did to anger the Regret Demon, however after the destruction of The First World it attempted to attack her whenever she was in the presence of a Brownshirt generated Portal. When the Brownshirts attempted to rescue her from an imploding Branch World, the Regret Demon again hijacked the portal, preventing her escape.

Traits:

Apparently a large organism, capable of redirecting interdimensional portals and generating tangible illusions or matter. Comprised of neural tissue in a similar fashion to the Dreamer On High entity, the Regret Demon has at least one (and likely more) enslaved humans under direct mental control.

Displays hostility and fear towards the Soul Reader (Book), likely due to its ability to read information forcibly from souls without the need of providing payment.

Extremely hostile towards Cristina Thompson for her role in using the Soul Reader (Book) and Thomas' Portal generation abilities to save the vast majority of The First World inhabitants, prior to its destruction.