DEMON'S VIRTUE

With all of the parts from the spider queen as well as the numerous eggs that he gathered inside of the net made by weaving cobwebs together, Eiro made his way back out of the caves, although this time around he didn't go through the same tunnels he went through before.

Instead, he climbed up other ones that immediately brought him to the center of this spider-infested area, the large hollow tree that was directly connected to the large cave underneath. There were still some spiders around here, so he quickly got rid of them with some flames before just placing the net filled with precious materials onto the ground. Because there was something else in here that was more than just useful to him.

Eiro climbed up the inside of this hollow tree until he reached the top, which didn't truthfully take that long, and then climbed along one of the branches. It wasn't in its best state, but there were some leftover parts of the tree's seeds attached to the branch. He had to clean it up a bit later and have another look, but he had a feeling that these seeds were the perfect fit for making the spider-blood trees that he collected the mass amount of blood for.

Even now, he was making the blood from the spider queen float behind him. Either way, after collecting some of the seeds, Eiro packed them away into his satchel where there was still a little bit of space left and then climbed back down.

"Alright, let's go." The Demon said as he looked at the Golem floating next to him, who swiftly nodded his head. Eiro tried his best to start actually running with all of the things he was carrying around with him, although it was rather hard to do, especially since he garnered the complete attention of any spider currently left in this area.

But they weren't really enemies worth mentioning, and Eiro didn't even properly pay attention to them. Without their queen, they were completely and utterly unorganized and even dumber than before.

It didn't take too long for Eiro to catch up to the others either, and he just had to live with the fact that they were more than just confused and wanted to know how Eiro managed to kill and take apart something that was obviously incredibly strong and large.

For now, however, Eiro didn't care. He just wanted to be able to let all of this stuff down somewhere. Like, make a large tub of ice to keep everything in that could rot or decline in quality over time. Luckily, Nelli and Gondos at least refined the queen's blood a little and made it slightly easier to control, so it wasn't that big a deal.

Either way, like this, the group made their way all the way back to the Goblin village before sundown. Eiro sat everything down inside of the ice tubs like he wanted to and then trapped the spiders in parts of the mines where he didn't have to worry about them escaping somehow.

And after he then brought Leon and Avalin to bed, as both of them were pretty tired, he stepped back outside and made sure that the Hobgoblins were at a good point. Eiro would keep the seals on them a little longer so that their monstrosity could weaken even more over time while sealed away. Like this it would also be easier to get them to continuosly practice the things that he told them to.

The Demon tried his best to ingrain whatever he could into their thick heads, and then made his way into the cave as well to sleep.

Eiro was sitting there with the metal orb in his hand and simply cleaned it up properly, trying to get rid of the dried-up blood that covered it. He scratched his hand over the carvings, but he couldn't really notice anything that could give him any sort of hint.

"Do you have any idea which suit it's from at least?" Nelli inquired, although she was inside of the inbetween-space between the spirit and mortal plane at the moment, where only Eiro and Gondos could see and hear her. They didn't necessarily want the others to find out about what exactly this did until they weren't entirely sure what it actually was.

With a light frown, Eiro just whispered, although it wasn't really speaking. It was a spirit magic spell, the kind that one always used to communicate with their spirits over long distances anyway. Like this, as Eiro was whispering, his regular speech became too distorted to properly hear or understand, while he could give Nelli and Gondos answers that the two of them could regularly understand.

"I think we can exclude the Suit of Swords. If this was some sort of experiment by that organization, they would have tried to maximize the effects, so they would have changed its body itself. It didn't seem to have any extraordinary abilities, the queen was simply slightly... disfigured. That's all. So it probably wasn't the suit of pentacles either..." Eiro muttered quietly.

He wanted to figure out what exactly this did, but he didn't just want to randomly activate it either. It could have a pretty dangerous effect when used outside of specific situations, after all. As far as Eiro knew, it could very well be the Eight of Cups. The absolute poison that could turn a flourishing Kingdom into a wasteland if one wasn't careful with it. Or even worse, the five of wands. The artifact capable of creating a space in which everything simply disappeared without a trace as to where it may have ended up.

If it was either of that, and Eiro activated it like this, then he would be dead immediately. The spider queen was definitely experimented on, since its body was not natural in any possible way, so this metal ball inside of its heart might have just been something to assure that it couldn't get out of control. Or rather, that the people that experimented on it could easily get rid of the spider if it did get out of control.

Eiro definitely had to be careful and do a little research on it. Maybe he could get some sort of clue as to what card this was based off of if he could figure out the carvings on the outside.

It seemed like they were runic in nature, but they weren't runes belonging to the ancient language at the very least. It really annoyed Eiro that he had no recollection of what these symbols could mean, although they obviously had some sort of meaning. It did make him feel a bit better that Nelli didn't know about them either though.

But then, James asked something that Eiro didn't notice before, "Hm, that another one of the things the person that lived here made?" He asked as he stepped into the cave after properly cleaning himself up after today. It seemed like James was just trying to make small-talk, but Eiro was still curious.

"What makes you think that?" Eiro inquired, and James raised his brows a bit, "Eh, the carvings are the same type, right? I think I saw them somewhere before, they're like, Arcane Runes? I think that's what they were called." James pointed out, and Eiro immediately looked down at the metal orb again, trying to see places where the patterns might be the same.

He didn't remember anything like that directly, but he did have to admit that there were a few rather obvious similarities between the carvings on the slab outside and this metal orb.

"How did you see that?" Eiro asked, and James lightly shrugged in response, "I don't know, I just kinda did. My mom was an Archaeologist, I picked a couple things up."

"And how did an Archaeologist's son become an Assassin?" The Demon inquired, and once more, albeit this time with a rather annoyed frown, James shrugged, "Fuck off." He said with a light grumble and then slid down against the wall next to Eiro to sit down next to him on the ground.

For a few moments it became rather tense and awkward, so much that even Eiro was able to notice this, but before he could mention it, James did.

"Alright listen, man. I don't... like you." James started, "I get that you're not a normal monster by now. I get that you weren't the one that killed Avalin. You're a bit extreme at times, but in the end, I think you're a good guy. But I still can't... you know.."

"Stop hating my guts?"

"Basically. Well, it ain't like I feel seething anger every time I look at your mug, but I can't help but get annoyed, you know?" James said with a light sigh, before Eiro turned toward him with a smirk, "Likewise, bud. It's a weird feeling. I don't dislike you, but I don't like you either. But it's different to how you feel toward random passerby's. For example, I do trust you. I think, I'm probably not the most emotionally stable person to ask at the moment. You know, Demon of Wrath kinda thing."

For a few moments, James looked at Eiro a bit confused before understanding what he was saying, "Right, because most normal demons have a sign assigned to them. You think you'd be a Demon of Wrath if you were a normal one?"

"No, I know. It actually happened rather shortly after I left you guys back then. I had Avalin with me, and I was trying to figure out how to feed her. Then I met Arc for the first time, my oldest, and he led me to the carriage where he, some priest, a mage and the guy that had the three of swords before me were. My kids are all a bit special, as you probably noticed. Well, I killed the priest, was nearly killed by the former card owner, was saved by the former Naiad Queen, watched the former card owner be taken over by the card, killed the card owner and the mage, and then kidnapped the children to have them help me out finding my way to the monster king's castle." Eiro explained, before James just stared at the demon rather confused at what happened. He knew there was obviously more to it, but hearing that Eiro literally kidnapped the children was more than just surprising.

"And well, I evolved for the first time, got a bit smarter, and started kind of getting attached to the kids. Well, we stopped in a town for the night, and that town just happened to be part of an experiment conducted by <The Devil>, meaning that every night the town became infested with demons of all sorts while all people indulged in their sins. Some shadow bastard transported the children away from me to the demonic lords of the town according to each of their 'sins', and then I went around town to get them back. They were mostly stronger than me at the time, but somehow I don't get stunned when I come in contact with holy energy, so I could overwhelm them somehow using a holy energy magic stone I got from the priorly mentioned priest's staff."

James looked at Eiro with a light frown. This seemed ridiculous, but somehow, James believed it, "You fought using holy energy? You, a demon? And you don't get stunned by your bane?" He asked with a light frown, and knowing that James wouldn't believe him, Eiro already took out the white-golden magic stone out of his treasury. Eiro held it in his left hand and activated it. It caused his skin to lightly sizzle, although only to the extent that Eiro could hear it. James probably didn't. Although that just showed how strong the holy energy Avalin's body naturally gave off was. They should properly keep that in check soon as well. Maybe Eiro should reveal this information to Solomon..?

Either way, after showing this off to James, he put the magic stone away again, "I have a level 78, apprentice grade holy energy resistance skill. I didn't back then of course, but by now, this much doesn't damage me anymore since my resistance stat went up this much. Either way, through the way I was fighting and how reckless I was, not only did I have my finger ripped off after falling off a tower with Leon in my arms, trying to slow my fall, but my hand completely died off the next morning after I saved the children.. That's when I met Jura, and the children named me Eiro."