EITHER-NOR’s collective-evil empowerment

EITHER-NOR’s collective-evil empowerment is the force by which the creature draws strength from the living, making the people gathered around the altar both the source of its power and the means by which it may be resisted. The revelation turns the scene at St. Joseph’s Church from a supernatural attack into a confrontation with the crowd’s own moral culpability.

Source of the Creature’s Power

George Southworth recognizes that the creature’s existence depends on evil within the people around it. Its power is collective: she is sustained by what she draws from their souls, and Southworth understands that his own greed belongs to the evil feeding her. The realization is not presented as a deduction he reaches by ordinary reasoning; the creature wills the awareness into him, forcing him to recognize his complicity even as he flees.

The narrative extends this implication beyond the adults who have profited from the shrine. Southworth’s insight encompasses everyone, including children, and identifies Alice as an example of innocence caught within a world where wickedness is widely shared. The force thus does not depend solely on one villain’s actions. It gathers from a broader human source, turning private wrongdoing and collective corruption into conditions of EITHER-NOR’s existence.

Collective Force and Imbalance

Gerry Fenn experiences this power as an accumulation: the creature’s strength is the strength of those present, drawn from their evil and described as negative force torn from the positive. The resulting imbalance bears down on the gathered people. Fenn can hear her speak, but the presence of the creature holds his gaze and debilitated body, leaving him unable to act freely.

The scene also connects Fenn’s present experience with the voices in his dreams. They repeat the command to resist, and he wonders whether they are the same voices and words as those of two dead priests. The source of the voices remains uncertain to him; what is clear is the principle they convey. EITHER-NOR exists through the living’s kinetic energy, so her power is not absolute: she cannot govern those who oppose her.

Resistance and Its Limits

Fenn tries to resist but finds the effort overwhelming. At the church in Barham, he had fled his nightmares rather than confront them; here, the confrontation is unavoidable, yet his will is still too weak to turn away from the creature. The distinction matters: the power has a limit, but recognizing that limit does not make resistance easy.

The empowerment is therefore both supernatural mechanism and moral trap. The crowd’s evil gives EITHER-NOR force, while fear and helplessness make opposition difficult. Southworth receives a sudden, imposed recognition of his own contribution and runs; Fenn hears that resistance is possible but cannot yet carry it through. Together, their different responses show how the creature’s dependence on the living exposes their culpability without granting them equal capacity to escape its influence.