DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro brought the Bloodstone Sorceress into the mansion, making sure that she definitely wouldn't encounter any of the children. He just had to make sure that she wouldn't be able to gather any sort of extra information related to them.

The group sat down in a small room that was seemingly a study before, and Eiro leaned against the desk while Evelyn sat down on one of the chairs while Krog and James just stayed by the door for now.

"Alright, then tell me, why should I join your little organization?" Eiro asked with an annoyed expression, and Evelyn slowly crossed her legs, "For one, simply because it would be worth it. We can give you things that you would never be able to attain otherwise. We can enhance your body, and make it possible for you to reach a height never seen before by an Imp."

"I think I've done that myself, thanks. Give me a serious reason. Don't tell me the benefits, but rather, why you want me there. What you guys do. And how I'm supposed to help you reach your goal." The demon said clearly, and Evelyn lightly chuckled, "Heh, so you really think you're smart, I see? Fine, I'll play along with you for a while to feed into your ego." She said in a tone that more than just pissed Eiro off, but he was still able to hold himself back.

"You see, it's simple. We are a group founded by a certain few people that simply wanted to get stronger in order to escape the system of this world. Of course, not the true 'system', but rather, the order of this world. The way things are supposed to be. People being stuck with their inferior base forms, and monsters being limited in the skills they can learn. You know, we have managed to give a Sea-Slug Advanced Language comprehension. We gave it skills that you would usually need limbs for as well. Skills it should never be able to attain." Evelyn explained in a smug manner, and Eiro slowly stared back at her with a light frown.

"So you're trying to convince me by saying that if they could do that to a sea-slug, they can do it to me? Basically putting me in the same, or a lesser, place as said sea-slug. Fuck off." Eiro replied bluntly, but the woman in front of him just lightly ground her teeth.

"That is not exactly what I was saying, and you know that."

"Of course I do, I'm not an idiot."

"Then stop acting like one."

"And you stop acting like a little brat. My seven years-olds are more mature than you right now." Eiro replied with a deep sigh, and Evelyn simply ignored what he just said and continued.

"Ehem. Either way, I think your ideals would fit perfectly into our organization. We support you with whatever you need, and in return, you do us a few favors. Like requests at the adventurer's guild, basically." Evelyn explained. Eiro thought about it for a while, and then scratched his cheek, "Yeah, I don't think so. You're the organization that produced Enka, a person that would cripple his own child rather than admit defeat."

"What are you talking about?" Evelyn asked with a frown, "Enka was a piece of shit, but even he was better than that."

"Tell that to Felix. His ears have been injured to the extent and in a way that not even high-tier healing magic can help him anymore. He's deaf for life, or at least until I find a way to reverse that crap." Eiro pointed out, and Evelyn stared at Eiro with a deep frown, "Right. Well, either way, I wouldn't use an exception to the rule to judge the whole organization."

"Too late for that." He replied bluntly. Evelyn sighed deeply, and then looked up at Eiro again, "Fine, then let me give you a few examples for what we can give you. Mock Card-Items like the ones you've seen Enka use, probably. We can enhance your current cards as well in return for letting us copy the cards' effects every once in a while. That's something to advertise to your 'normal' side." Evelyn said, and with a smug grin continued.

"And then there??s something for your 'real' side as well. As many men and women to do whatever you want with, if you know what I mean. They won't fight back if you want to do them. Or they will, if you're into that. You can eat them alive, you can use them for experiments. You can use them as slaves to fulfill your every desire. I mean, that's all that you demons want, isn't it?" Evelyn asked. At first, Eiro would have still let it go, despite being completely and utterly pissed off. But then she said something she shouldn't have said, "That way, you won't have to use those poor children to fulfill your desires anymore either. It's a win for everyone, right?"

After now hearing these words, the anger in Eiro's body simply boiled over. It was harder to control himself because of his evolution anyway, but this was Eiro's weak point at any point in time. His children.

The whites of Eiro's eyes turned dark red as a notification appeared in front of the demon.

[You have been forcefully put into a state of <Rage> directed toward the individual <Evelyn Simone James>. Stats will be temporarily increased if you are facing this individual, but will be heavily decreased if you are facing anyone else]

[You have managed to get your <Rage> under control. Benefits and penalties have been slightly decreased while you are in this state]

"What... the fuck did you just say..?" Eiro asked, taking a slow step toward Evelyn, while the young woman was rather confused, "What, did I say something wrong? You're not trying to tell me that you actually think you're their father, right?"

With pure, deep hatred inside of his body, Eiro pulled out his three of swords and activated it, making five blades float around Evelyn's face. Eiro made two of them hit against each other to create a spark that he then turned into flames before second-step infusing his hands and the blades with them.

"Puppet..." The demon grumbled, and from the ceiling of the room, the wooden doll dropped down toward Evelyn, while Eiro threw the hand-to-hand combat token toward James, who placed it into the puppet's chest. As Evelyn couldn't really move because of the three of swords pressed up against her, before she could even really react with her low physical stats, the puppet had already slung one of its arms around her throat from behind while using the other one to hold her head in place, forcing Evelyn to look right at the enraged Eiro.

"Let me make this clear. Those kids are my children. They may not be my blood, but they are the most important thing in this world to me. The mere fact that you are insinuating that I may be doing something harmful to them is enough of a reason to kill you. And then there's everything else you said. One, I don't even have a sex drive. Even if I ripped off your clothes and had your spread yourself out right in front of my with lube all over your body, I wouldn't feel a thing. I wouldn't want to eat you either, as I haven't eaten human flesh for roughly seven years. Wanna know why? Because most of you taste absolutely disgusting. I can already smell how rotten your personalities are, so obviously I would taste it as well." Eiro said with a low growl, while his voice simply seeped into Evelyn's ears.

"Now, do you want me to tell you what I think of you?" Eiro asked, but obviously, without waiting for an answer, he just continued, "You're nothing but a horrible, rotten being deep down. I don't even want to kill you, because it feels like I won't ever get the smell of your muddy, disgusting blood out of this room. And honestly, I like this place. You're purely deceitful, and have not told me the truth a single time today, except when you were actively insulting me. Isn't that right? Whatever you were doing to displace my perception on you has simply disappeared. Poof. Gone. Like it was never there. So, I can see completely through you today."

Eiro stared deep at the person in front of him, cracking his own knuckles as he was trying not to instantly kill Evelyn, who was just sitting there with a confused, calm expression.

"That's... weird. You have no sex drive? You don't want to eat humans? That's just hilarious." Evelyn laughed, "I don't know who convinced you that that was even possible for digusting lesser beings like you, but they did a good job."

"Go to hell." Eiro growled, and pushed the three of swords' blades right toward Evelyn's face. But all of a sudden, their advance forward was stopped. By black blood that was seeping out of Evelyn's face.

"You think you're that smart, but everything you showed me today was how easy it is to actually trick you." Evelyn laughed loudly. With a wave of her hand, that black blood pushed back the three of swords' blades and moved right behind her, covering the puppet's skin. Like that, the puppet was literally forced into submission, being directly controlled by Evelyn.

With a slight sigh, the woman stood up from the chair and stood in front of Eiro, who was still staring at her in anger and disbelief.

The demon ground his teeth as he tried to get rid of Evelyn's black blood, but she simply used it to twist Eiro's body around in unnatural ways. And before he knew it... Eiro heard a loud crack.

[Warning! Your right arm has been broken]

"You piece of shi-" Eiro yelled out in pain, but the moment he did, the black blood flowed into Eiro's mouth and deep down into his body.

And then, she simply let go of Eiro and the puppet, before turning around with a light smile, "I hope you'll think it over again. I think a good time for your decision would be in... well, let's just say two weeks. The winter solstice sounds pretty good, right? I hope you'll make the right decision." Evelyn said with a light wink and then made her way out of the manor in a straight path.

Meanwhile, Nelli had started to try and heal the Demon's arm, while Eiro himself was just staring down at the ground. His anger wasn't letting up. He hated that woman. He truly, absolutely despised her. And just like that, Eiro figured out his first stepping-stone to gain enough strength for his goal.

Without Nelli even having finished, Eiro made his way toward the door, where Krog and James were rubbing their skin wherever Evelyn had used the black blood to restrain them as well.

"Come back here on the evening before the winter stolstice... Until then, leave me be. I need some time for myself.." The Demon said, and started making his way through the hallways of the manor with his deep red eyes.