Agreeing with Vaermina this time around, although I also think there's a decent chance that instead of this being the Silver City's machinations coming to fruition (pun intended)... there might have been a reason the Silver City didn't do something heavy-handed to protect Earth from the forces of Hell before.
Not that Paul may care about that reason.
Heck it could have just been them believing that mortals need to be tempted to be allowed into paradise so they left the demons to run a mock.
Wouldn't this only apply in regions where the Abrahamic faiths are dominant? Also, would things like brushes and shrubs be affected? Because lots of places on earth don't have many trees, particularly places central to the last of the three. Not many oaks on the passage between Mecca and Medina, I'm afraid.
The Green is more than just trees, so it should work, and the Green isn't connected to any one faith.
Makes you wonder if something similar happened with vampires and sunlight/ running water/ some of their other crippling weaknesses. If it isn't anything endemic to their being, so much as some really powerful doing a "I deny you the vitality of the air" to their entire racial template, or adding them to a previously established 'list of Creatures of Darkness'
And if particular old, old vampires start overcoming those weaknesses, it is because their individual power became too much for the power of the curse to affect fully, or at al
If Zoat is using Hellblazer canon for the vampires in this story then aside from sunlight, all of the other weaknesses are things the vamps can overcome just by not believing in them.
In Hellblazer, Constantine talked to the King of Vampires, who offered him vampirism and told him that aside from sunlight, all of the other weaknesses are more like annoyances or subconscious limitations that can be overcome in the same way a person can overcome some phobia or something like that.
And honestly, this may be the case in this story.
After Paul interviewed that female vampire, he told Guy that he ran several tests on her, including pulling out a number of religious symbols to see how she'd react.
At first there was nothing, but when he informed her that they were religious in nature, she immediately became uncomfortable.
Sha apparently couldn't even stare at his ring symbol by the end.
This kinda points to at least some vampires being like they were in Hellblazer.
If that's the case then older vampires may no longer by weakened by such things since they've had a long time to master themselves and no longer associate such things with harm.
It's also possible that they'd have a harder time dealing with it since they've probably believed in those things for a long time and it's not easy to let go of such long-held beliefs.
One has the spear of Destiny making humans love tech. The other has a New God subtly manipulating his subjects.
So yeah... disappointing.
I don't think Heph still has the Spear.
I'm wondering if the "holy" effect will extend at all to foods made from plants. If so, everyone is more or less immune to demonic magic, as are most animals.
If people find out then I'm expecting vegetarianism or veganism to become very popular.
