DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro looked forward and sighed in relief. He was glad that one of his biggest worries would soon be dealt with. Although that might create a few more worries, Eiro was sure that it would turn out fine. He hoped.

"We're nearly there." The Demon said as he turned around to Sammy, but the girl just quietly nodded her head while continuing to follow him. At the same time, Leon looked up the mountain and soon spotted the temple as well.

"Daddy, where are we going?" He asked tiredly, and Eiro just looked at him and smiled, "The place where we can get rid of that annoying itch that you mentioned." The demon explained to the young boy in his arms, who simply started to grin broadly and happily.

Eiro nearly would have called him energetic, but somehow Leon was just generally very low-energy, so that would probably be a false statement.

"I'm going to warn you one more time, don't you dare step in that sacred place!" The slime core exclaimed as loudly as he could, even thought it seemed like neither Leon nor Sammy were actually able to hear it through the bottle.

From then on, it simply kept shaking more and more, completely throughout the next while that was spent trying to reach the temple. They stepped up the rock stairs, until red and gold pillars appeared next to the path. They were simpler than Eiro imagined them to be, really. Sure, they were carved into and decorated in a pretty way, but while it was surely metallic, the 'gold' that Eiro saw before didn't actually seem to be gold. It was apparently just dyed somehow, or just a metal that was similar in color anyway.

Soon, the group of three, plus the two spirits and the slime core, stepped through the gate at the front of the temple into the courtyard. And immediately, Eiro noticed the pressure from before growing much, much stronger. It was as if he was actually physically standing in front of whatever was sealed here. It wasn't overwhelming him, but it left a bad taste in Eiro's mouth nonetheless.

Sammy and Leon, on the other hand, seemed to be affected a surprising amount. Sammy's face went pale, and Leon immediately became droopy. He usually was, but most of the time it wasn't a split-second change.

"Another layer of whatever seal is holding that thing in?" Eiro asked as he looked down at the bottle in his hand, but the slime core simply stayed silent.

"Alright, then don't tell me. I'll ask someone else." The Demon pointed out and looked around, trying to spot someone. It was really uncomfortable in here, his senses were even more clouded. It was as if any sort of miasma or energy was given off by that thing simply accumulated in here and became far stronger than it should have ever become. It was like a thick mist in front of all of Eiro's senses.

But soon, Eiro saw someone exiting the door on the other side of the courtyard. It was a humanoid monster wearing a similar outfit to what the slime had been wearing before, even if slightly more decorated with more layers on it.

From what Eiro could tell, this monster was a Lizardman. It was dragging its tail on the ground behind it and its dark green scales looked pretty clean for a monster. It seemed pretty calm for the most part, so Eiro figured that the monsters here weren't all too aggressive.

When the Lizardman stood in front of Eiro, it slightly bowed forward.

"I greet you humbly. If it is not too rude to assume, your reasons for coming are the seals placed onto these two?" The Lizardman asked, in a calming and quiet voice. Slowly, Eiro nodded his head, "Yes, that's it. And sorry, but I kind of had to put one of your monks out of comission on our way here..." The Demon told him, just holding forward the bottle and the ball of frozen slime.

"I see, thank you for safely bringing him here nonetheless." The Lizardman replied, and soon grabbed both the ball of ice and the bottle and held them in its arms.

"Please, follow me so that we can more closely inspect those seals."

With a slow nod, Eiro agreed and then turned around toward Sammy, telling her to come follow him. Together, they made their way inside, with Eiro trying to make sure that Sammy wouldn't suddenly keel over. She didn't seem to be doing so great up here. The same was the case for Leon, of course, but since the young boy was already in Eiro's arms, the demon didn't have to worry about him falling over.

"Do not worry, that is a quite natural reaction for those that are not used to this place. If I can, your case is more concerning than theirs." The Lizardman pointed out, although it quickly shook its head and corrected itself, "Excuse me for that choice of words. 'Concerning' is not quite right, it is more 'intriguing' than anything else."

Eiro quietly nodded his head and looked forward as the Lizardman led them into the building in front of them. Soon, two figures that were completely hidden by white cloth came up and took the bottle with the slime core and the ball of frozen ice from the Lizardman and quickly disappeared into the adjacent hallways.

He couldn't tell much about those figures, just that they smelled literally identical to each other. There didn't seem to be any sort of difference. And even in the way they were carrying themselves, including posture, footwork, and speed, was the same. As if they were a copy of one another.

When Eiro looked forward into the main hall they were currently in, he spotted another few monsters, all of different races. Some were shapless slimes like the one that Eiro 'caught', some were lizardmen, some were goblins, kobolds, or gnolls. It was pretty weird seeing them be 'civilized' like this.

But at the same time, all of these guys smelled simply off to Eiro. As if something was missing from their scent. Something very, very basic. It was as if they weren't even monsters anymore.

Eiro kept following the Lizardman and they were then led into a small private room with nothing but a long table in the center. The Lizardman kneeled down in front of that table, and then pointed to it.

"Young woman, shall we begin with you? Please, remove your robes and show your seal to me." It told Sammy, and she just looked at it for a few seconds and then nodded her head. She seemed pretty hazy, as if she wasn't really capable of thinking about it too much.

So to maybe change that a little, just when Sammy started taking off her jacket, Eiro let Leon down onto the ground and grabbed Sammy by the shoulders, turning her toward him.

"Look at me." He told her, and then soon sent a few pulses of mana into her body through her shoulders. He didn't want to make it intertwine with any of her energies, because that was the method for torture that Enka practically 'taught' him, but rather just wanted to support the flow of her blood a little bit.

He wanted to use magic to make fresh air without all that miasma in it gather in her lungs while the old one left her body. It didn't take long until her pale face became relatively rosy again, and she looked at Eiro after blinking a few times.

"Hm? What's going on?" She asked, surprised at what Eiro was doing, and the Demon quickly explained the situation to her, "He wants you to show him your seal so that they can figure out how to remove it. I'll be here the whole time and make sure that nothing happens, but when I stop constantly controlling the air and blood in your body, you're going to become hazy like before again, probably. I just don't want you to be scared." Eiro told Sammy, and the young woman just slowly nodded her head, quite nervously closing her eyes.

"That's fine... Let's just get this over with then..." She muttered quietly, and Eiro slowly let go of her shoulders. And while she was still fully conscious, Sammy started taking off her clothes and handed them to Eiro, who was just holding Leon in his other arm again. The young boy fell asleep, so he had no other choice, really.

Eiro soon watched as Sammy hazily laid down on the table with all of her body exposed, and Eiro stared at the Lizardman with a glare that just announced complete and utter slaughter if the Lizardman did anything wrong to Sammy. It seemed like the Lizardman didn't really mind all too much, and just started his work.

He looked down at Sammy for a while, staring at the black patterns and tattoos on her body that had been stretched out due to her physical growth.

"I see." The Lizardman muttered quietly, and then slowly ran one of his 'fingers', or rather claws, over Sammy's stomach where some of the patterns seemed to come together, "This is a quite complex Seal. I am not sure if I am capable of removing these seals myself."

With a deep frown, Eiro looked at the Lizardman and took a step toward him, "Then bring me to the High-Priest already. At least he should be able to get it done, right?"

The Lizardman slowly nodded his head, "Of course. The high-priest is capable of unsealing close to anything. But he is not a presence that one such as yourself may be allowed to face."

"What does that mean?" Eiro asked, and the Lizardman looked up at him.

"That a savage Demon like you is a danger to the existence and purity of this temple just by being here. Laying his divine eyes on you will simply taint his abilities. And without an offering, you will not be able to request his services anyway. If you want either of them to survive, you need to sacrifice the other to-"

The next moment, the Lizardman's jaw only hung on by a few pieces of leathery skin as blood splattered over the ground, "If that guy want's a sacrifice, then I'm going to give him one. But it won't be either of my children. If he needs to, I'm going to sacrifice every single creature in this place to him. Who knows, maybe I can even give him his own arms or legs as an offering, how does that sound?" Eiro asked, his heart beating strongly and loudly as anger overcame his whole body.

This place seemed to be the worst one for him at the moment. With his high perception, Eiro had to concentrate heavily on not suddenly dropping over and throwing up due to all that pressure. So he didn't have enough concentration left on trying to not let the Mark of Wrath take his mind over. It still didn't manage to force his state into another one like with the first time he went into the bloodlust state, but he was still getting really pissed off really easily.

And then, Eiro had the hazy Sammy get up and helped her get dressed again while having her walk behind him as he dragged the lizardman out of the room by grabbing onto the teeth on his upper jaw.

Luckily Sammy didn't seem to notice anything going on around her, and Leon was deep asleep and had his eyes pressed against Eiro's chest, so Eiro didn't have to worry about what those two were thinking about what he was doing right now.

Eiro simply made his way over toward the room where the strongest presence seemed to come from, all the whilst all the other monsters in this place just looked at Eiro with disgust. But at the very least, they didn't try to avenge the lizardman.

And just before Eiro could open the door to the place the High-Priest most-likely was at the moment, the door opened up on its own. Until now, Eiro could contain his anger. But then he saw the figure of a four-armed creature. Its skin was as white as the purest white you could imagine, and it was tall enough to tower over any other creature in this temple.. And it just stared at Eiro with its deep black eyes that made Eiro's anger and hatred boil over.