Demons Don't Lie

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Algier, average human and recent convict, has committed the gravest sin of all: demon slaying. His fate? To participate in the Culling, a battle-royale style tournament that’s televised live to the world, where all the worst criminals go to die.

As with all tournaments, a prize is on the line. If Algier survives, he can have any wish granted by the Marquises, the new rulers of Earth following the demons’ invasion. However, there’s little hope for survival in a tournament designed to have demons do the work of the executioner, especially for a human. Demons are stronger, faster, wiser, and more talented than the average human, and, despite his crime, Algier is no demon hunter.

Mentally defeated before the tournament even begins, Algier is torn between becoming another demon’s points and fighting on in his dead mother’s legacy. But should he choose to fight, there is one advantage that Algier has that can tip the odds in his favour:

Demons don’t lie, but humans can.

STORY HAS BEEN DROPPED

Hey all. Bold text says it all.

To anyone who enjoyed this book, from the bottom of my heart, I'm really sorry that I won't be working on this any longer. A lot of things were going on in my life at the time and it was hard for me to keep working on this. I made a lot of mistakes that I couldn't forgive and it was stressing me out more than it should have. I ultimately decided to drop it, not just because I was unhappy with the state of the story, but also for my mental health. I won't be picking up Demons Don't Lie again. I need to step away from it.

If you want to see what I'm up to now, head on over toFungeoneer.

It's a much more comical, action-packed story about a team of (insane) dungeon crawlers killing monsters and trying not to screw everything up along the way. I laugh at my own jokes in that story. That's how you know it's funny. Right?

Information

Status: Cancelled
Year: 2021
Author: PistolShrimp

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 187
Views: 55,717

Chapters(47 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(4)

James TadhgRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Algier is our main character here. Bound and brought before a jeering audience of demons, he is thrown into a Battle Royale style brawl, with a few interesting twists:
One, demons can't lie (sort of). This already sets up some interesting implications for interactions between our human and demon characters, but each type of demon also has its own set of traits (called their canto), which completely changes the nature of Algier's relationship depending on who he's talking to. He has to use his wits and pay close attention to what anyone is saying at any time, and different demons bring out different thinking strategies in him.
Some of my favourite portions of the story aren't the battle sequences, but are the quieter moments where Algier is running through his own mind trying to outsmart whichever demon he's talking to. It's fascinating and gives us an insight into the resourcefulness of his character.
There are stats, but not they're not frequented very often. So far it seems like the story is aiming for a system which relies much more heavily on the items you can pick up, which I think is a strength, and is sort of refreshing in a sea of stat spamming.
Algier is a great character to be seeing the world from. He's smart, more than a little sardonic, and as I mentioned earlier, his interactions with the demons is the most exciting thing to read. You also can't trust him.
Remember when I said I had one advantage that demons didn’t? I wasn’t being completely honest. I have a second advantage: I know everything there is to know about demons and the Culling. Most demons wouldn’t bother learning these things because the time wasted could be spent pursuing other goals. But humans? We hedge. We take unnecessary precautions, not because we’re idiots but because we don’t trust other humans to do the right thing. And I’m less trusting than every other human out there. As I learn more, I trust less.
It's a small moment and easy to overlook, but there are several points where he
Void99Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is like a breath of fresh air for me after reading the same old system stories and I really liked the concept of using your wit and intelligence for survival instead of just relying on the power ups given by the system.
It has a very interesting world setting and its spin of the battle royale genre is also very good. The way the world is introduced is good with hints towards the story exploring the world further and is not just a info dump about the various intricacies of the world that I have seen in some stories.
The characters introduced are also very well written and seem to have their own plotlines which is one of the signs of any good story. The protag is also very interesting to watch so far and I like how he is aware of the nature of the relationships he currently has with his team as of now.
The grammar is also solid and I have not found any grammatical error or typo so far but then again, my English is a bit rusty.
I will further update my review as more chapters are published but I can easily see this one as one of the top stories here if the updates are consistent.
Eritis sicut DiabolusRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I read up to chapter 10 last night and was struck by a bunch of inconsistent and contradictory behaviors on the parts of the demons.
One paragraph describes how demons don't bother to run because none of the other demons are running, then two paragraphs later explains how they will backstab each other ruthelessly if it is advantageous. These are two opposite ends of the prisoner's dilemma, and not only that, but demons here don't get tired. Why not run everywhere?
This sort of thing comes up constantly, and it seems Algier's greatest skill is actually deus ex machina in the form of powerful allies that save him for... reasons that are not really explained or exploited for the benefit of the story.
Toll seems unreasonably accomodating of Algier's bullshit for little benefit considering how powerful he seems to be. His "power" hasn't been used for any effect so far in the story I have read, it is used once then the effect is immediately dismissed by my next problem.
Markus. What is going on here? Markus shows up, murders the demons after Algier and his party, is stopped from finishing the last one off, then inexplicably joins the party without any real dealing even though his canto is deals. Instead the deal is with the duece, it seemed like an idiotball plot to get the cast assembled. Markus seemingly could have just killed the rest of them and gotten their points and found allies at his power level later on, but instead lets the party loot his kills for free, no deals, nothing!
I don't want to be all negative, the world building is pretty interesting and there is a lot going on below the surface. It just isn't quite coherent enough for me.
IpponkillerRoyal Road
★ 1.0
The story has an interesting premise ... but sadly, from what we get told, most of the interactions in the story make absolutely no sense.
We get told one thing (for example how demons in general behave) ... and then the interactions between our protag and the demons happen that should never happen lilke that by what we get told before.
The demon companions just follow him around for no reason (and there are actually important/powerfull ones there), aside from the fact that he is the protag.
All in all, a story where every chapter you go "That shouldn´t happen from everything we know" isn´t a good story, because that takes every Tention out of it. The author may drop a super powerful demon lord in in one chapter only to have it killed by a 2 year old squirting it with a watergun the next (fictional example, exagerated for presentation, didn´t happen in the story). If everything can happen at any time the stackes become meaningless.