Year 2018, a rumour of some incidents involving "strange creatures" is spreading around the world.

People starts panicking after the government has announced they have found a very big "dark hole" that is spawning those creatures.

After some research, they conclude that those creatures are indeed demons. The spawn portal can't be surrounded by an structure because they spawn fast and kill the workers so they tried deploying an structure from the air but it didn't work, the portal changed its location. The government also tried bombing the portal but nothing happened, a demonic force just "ate" the bombs and disabled them.

How can we close that portal and save the world?


closed as primarily opinion-based by a CVn, Mormacil, MolbOrg, Paul TIKI, sphennings May 29 '17 at 18:32


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    $\begingroup$ They tried with nukes, the portal absorbed the bombs kilometers away. Also, the portal can move. $\endgroup$ – Pablo May 29 '17 at 14:44
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    $\begingroup$ Have you tried salt and vinegar? Why on earth would you even close that portal? I love this question, brain exercise in world building. But we do need more details: Who opened it and how? What do you mean by demons? Why not explode the bombs above the creatures? $\endgroup$ – Raditz_35 May 29 '17 at 14:46
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    $\begingroup$ @Raditz_35 we don't know who opened it, why and when, we just know it is spawning creatures that seems to be demons acording to some characteristic for example: they can use telepathy. Bombing them doesn't not work, the portal will keep spawning demons. $\endgroup$ – Pablo May 29 '17 at 14:50
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    $\begingroup$ We can't make assumptions as to how to close the portal if we know nothing about it. How does it work? How big is it? Where is it? How does it move and how fast? How often do demons spawn? Is it some kind of material (like a fluid) or just energy? $\endgroup$ – Hankrecords May 29 '17 at 15:02
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    $\begingroup$ You make it sound as if there always was a constant number of demons on earth and a demon will spawn if another one is lost. Also "world" and "the government" - is there a world government? Is it moving like a car or teleporting? Is it spawning in three dimensions, e.g. in the air or underground? Are there any patterns we could predict? And also please specify what a demon is, I still think your argument is less than weak. As of right now, I'd call them monsters, but not demons. Also consider making edits to your initial post in addition to responding to the comments $\endgroup$ – Raditz_35 May 29 '17 at 15:14

This is a classic sci-fi scenario and you have already sketched out the obligatory first part a la War of the Worlds / Independence Day.

The second part requires either creativity by the author or a delicate touch in appropriating and adapting scenarios that have been done before & ideally both.

Possible outcomes

1: Invaders fail on their own because of some inherent defect (War of the Worlds).

2: Invaders fail because clever humans (and comedic sidekicks) perceive some inherent defect which they exploit (Independence Day).

3: Invaders fail because human resistance is so doggedly persistent and outlast them (World War Z, book version; Afghanistan / Vietnam in real life)

  1. Invaders fail or at least do not succeed outright because humans have hope, and love. Possibly this quality allows some invaders to be co-opted; see #2, above & #6, below.

  2. Invaders fail because the persons responsible for summoning them realize their error and so summon an additional force capable of repelling the invaders but which comes with its own problems for humanity.

  3. My favorite because I cannot think of a recent fictional instance. Invaders succeed but do not destroy earth because demons dig hot humans so much, and they do not destroy the world because they want to move in and live here.


Demons stick around as conquerors and are assimilated, merging with humans. It turns out that this has happened before, several times & is responsible for some unexplained aspects of human evolution.

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    $\begingroup$ I think this question has a different aim, but I'm not 100% sure. But if we interpret it like you did, I want to add divine intervention. If there are demons, there are also antagonists like angels $\endgroup$ – Raditz_35 May 29 '17 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Raditz_35. That falls under possibility #5. $\endgroup$ – Willk May 29 '17 at 16:48

Use their own magic against them.
Since the question assumes the existence of demons and magic, the easiest way to stop the magical demons is to fight fire with fire, by using magic itself. In a situation like this where humanity is facing the unknown, knowledge is power.

Send in heavily-armored robots equipped with metal nets to capture one of the demons and bring it to a laboratory for study.
If the demon teleports away, we now know that the teleportation magic that the portal used also applies to demons. How far away does the demon typically teleport? If the demon breaks out of the nets, increase the tensile strength of the net until the demon can't break out; that way we can determine a rough upper bound on magically-enhanced strength.
If the demon is successfully contained and brought for analysis, take a tissue sample. Do the elements in its flesh correspond roughly with Earth's organic elements: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, etc.? Is its flesh any stronger than an ordinary human's?
If the demon can understand human speech and writing, what is its approximate IQ? Does it have superhuman intelligence, or is it essentially another animal?
If the demon can't understand human speech, how does it communicate, or does it communicate at all? Bring in another demon and observe their combined behavior.
And so on. One of the great things about the scientific method is that it can be applied to a wide variety of situations, even one where demons pop out of a hole and start attacking people. "For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works."--Issac Asimov
Once the demons and their magic have been thoroughly studied, we can move on to actually using the magic. By what means do the demons use magic? Is it, say, by observation, by causing a quantum wave function collapse to alter the fabric of reality? (I'm just making this up as an example, I don't know if this is plausible or not.) Then, slowly, we can begin imitating the process of magic. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; the idea here is to assemble the puzzle pieces that form the demon's magic. Step by step, we can begin to learn the ways of the demons, and once we've done that we can defeat them.
(Secure. Contain. Prot--wait, wrong website.)


Reverse the process of opening it.
Portal in it's core design lead from one point to another. If you can't close it from your side just reach to the other. In those few attempt you can get information about the portal. Is the portal one way? Is it movement somewhat predictable? If it place itself over water? Does water affects demons? Can we drown them? does the bomb was defused or we just didn't see the explosion. Who the quack close the portal with energy?

From basic physic point of view you just bomb the portal with old wolfram light bulbs. They will suck the power from the portal in no time. Burning demons in the meantime.

