DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro sat in the library, playing around with his new shadow magic a bit. It was hard to really do anything but manipulate the two-dimensional form of the shadow at the moment, but at the very least, Eiro was still able to properly infuse himself with shadow magic, so he could really stop using the Shadow magic stones and could instead use them for other things. Like give them to Gobo when he was too annoying to deal with and he needed a bit of a bribe to just shut up for a while.

The demon looked past the shadow that he was currently trying to cast onto his skin while surrounded by multiple light sources, trying to increase the level of this magic skill rather quickly, and stared at the two monsters sitting in front of him on the ground.

"Gobo, Bavet." Eiro said, and the two monsters' attention was immediately pulled by the demon, who just slowly stood up and got rid of the flames that he was using as light sources, "Come with me." He told them as he stood up, immediately making his way toward the hidden passage inside of this room so that he could quickly get to the basement.

Bavet climbed up Gobo's leg while the Hobgoblin rushed to follow Eiro, and then asked, "What're we doing?"

"Checking on our Guest. That's what." Eiro explained, "Let's hope he's going to feel like talking to us today at least."

The Demon, the Hobgoblin, and the slime soon made their way to the basement, and Eiro managed to open up the magically hidden room pretty quickly, now that he got a little bit of practice in for this particular door.

Eiro stepped inside and walked through this room filled with numerous cages and cells, before he found the cell that the young man from the organization was sitting in. John Hawley. After the two dozen rats very, very slowly scratched him all over his body, Eiro chose to give him a little bit of a break for at least a night.

Obviously it wasn't a 'real' break, just something that he said. Eiro was actually using that chance to practice his shadow magic a bit, since he was able to create shadows that seemed like Eiro was doing absolutely horrid things to someone else. Luckily, Bavet could recreate basically every voice that he heard before, so they pretended that Eiro was horridly torturing and killing Evelyn, someone that this man should probably know about, being a part of the organization.

Sure, Eiro wasn't actually strong enough to beat her that easily just yet, but at the very least he was able to convince John that this was the case. He didn't actually know Eiro's stats, after all, so there was no way that he didn't already think that Eiro was really strong after beating him that easily.

Sure, he was only really able to beat John within a minute of actually trying to because John was an idiot, but he himself seemed pretty conceited, so it wasn't a surprise that he thought Eiro was that much stronger than him. Eiro just wanted to deepen those thoughts in him, so that he wouldn't even get the idea of trying to escape.

Either way, now that everything was done, Eiro stepped up in front of the cage, looking into the one proper eye that John had left, since Eiro destroyed the other one with his stinger before.

"Hey there. You alright? Sleep well?" The Demon asked with a bright smile on his face as he sat down cross-legged in front of the cell, staring at the man sitting inside of it, "Wh-What do you want from me...? Listen m-man, I'll do whatever you want if you just let me g-go..."

"Sorry, that's not happening." Eiro replied bluntly, without even having to think about it. It was clear that he would say this at one point or another, "The reason you're here is pretty simple. You attacked us, and you hurt me. Then you attacked my son. You can be happy that you're not dead yet. Although, in a few days you'll wish you were, haha."

"Please... I'll give you mon...money or... women... I-I heard you're into li-little kids, right? I can br-bring you-"

"Why do you people keep thinking that I'm 'into kids'? One, I have no sexual urges in the slightest. Two, the children your organization knows about are my children. As in, I am their parent, and I try my best protect them from any sort of harm."

"B-But you're a demon, you-" The young man in the cell exclaimed, and Eiro just rubbed the bridge of his nose as he stood up, "Fine, then let's do it this way..." Eiro sighed as he turned around toward the three tables with the bodies of the three goons. Weirdly, they didn't really start rotting at all, which seemed to be a side-effect from all of the different substances they were injected with. But either way, no matter if their internal organs, blood, and numerous bodily fluids were switched out with other things, one part stayed the same. The flesh. They still had human flesh.

Eiro used his dagger to cut off a thin strip of flesh from the woman's arm, and then brought it over to the cell again, while Gobo and Bavet were simply watching Eiro do all this.

"You don't seem too knowledgable about a lot of things. For one, the fact that I'm not disgusting trash like you." The demon pointed out, "Well, I might be, but I'm another sort. Let's take some rotten food that's been left out on the dumps for two weeks, was then eaten by some wolf and then shat back out. You're the hairy white mould that grows on that shit. I'm just garbage that someone threw onto the side of the road. You are far, far more disgusting. In my opinion at least, others may disagree." With that, Eiro slowly opened the cell and stepped inside. John was chained to the wall, so he couldn't reach Eiro right now, so the demon just casually sat down there.

"Since you don't even understand something so basic, I have to assume that you're an idiot. And as an idiot, you may not know about this. But do you know what exactly happens when a person eats another person?" Eiro asked with a slight glare, and John looked at Eiro with a terrified expression, "Th-They get the... the 'Taboo' skill..."

"Good job! That's exactly it! And do you know what happens to a person with the taboo skill?" It seemed like after Eiro asked this, John was actually a bit too terrified to reply, so the demon just continued for him, "Well, it's pretty simple. Throughout the beginner grade of the skill, you simply become an animal. Of course you'll still be fully conscious, and your personality will be mostly intact, at the start at least, but you won't be able to control your body like before. You'll start hallucinating. And at the end, you will listen to whatever command you're given by anyone. Then, in the apprentice grade, not your mind, but your body will change. You'll lose your hair, your skin will dry up and thicken to be like leather. You will hunger for more and more flesh from other people, and you will not be the same person as before. And then, at intermediate grade, the highest I know about right now... You will be nothing but a monster." Eiro explained quickly.

"I would like to see how that change actually happens, but for now, I'm only really aiming for the beginner grade skill. You'll be very easy to convince to tell me things, at maybe... well, level 20 or 30 sounds about right." The demon pointed out with a smile, "Ah, and the best thing is, the taboo skill makes you want to continue eating the flesh of people more than anything else. It's kind of insane actually, at least according to what I've read before. Anyway, now, after that bit of an explanation I have good and bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?" Eiro asked with a smile, and John nervously stared back before pulling his lips apart.

"Th-The-" He started, but Eiro just laughed and shook his head, "Yeah, I don't care. Let's start with the bad news. You can't get the Taboo skill unless you actively choose to eat the flesh of people! Since it's basically a curse bestowed by gods, and sadly those gods aren't idiots, so they only ruthlessly judge those that end up actively choosing to eat others. So, you won't be getting that skill anytime soon." Eiro explained, and John immediately had a sigh of relief on his face, although he soon realized what Eiro said at the start of this.

"Hm? Ah, you're wondering why that's a bad news, right? Well, as I said, I'd have loved to see your taboo skill increase in level ever so slowly, so it's bad news for me. But hey! At least the good news is for you!" Eiro laughed, "You still have a little while left until you go so mad from hunger you'll voluntarily eat the human flesh. In that time, you still have the chance to tell me about everything while I torture you regularly. Sounds like a fair deal, right? At least you wouldn't turn into a mindless monster. That would be just a shame, now wouldn't it~?"

Eiro stared at John with a slightly pleased grin on his face that he couldn't properly hide anymore. Sure, Eiro often said that he neither a monster nor a person, but fact was that he seemed to have parts of a monster after all. He also had parts of a person, so it was more like he was both a monster and a person, but that's beside the point.

In times like these, when Eiro saw a person he truly despised make an expression of horror, fear, and disgust, he simply felt so... good. He didn't feel this when it was a person he liked, didn't know, or even just somewhat disliked. The only times when he felt like this was when he observed this on someone he completely and utterly hated. Like this Johnny-boy right here.

And it seemed like he noticed that Eiro was enjoying this. And thus, he hurled the bit of saliva he had in his mouth right toward Eiro, who just stopped it with some water magic and flung it right back into John's mouth and down his throat. He figured this was a good enough chance.

"That was a bad choice, bud." Eiro chuckled, but the young man just glared at Eiro, "Fuck you!" He yelled out, trying to practically rip the chains off of him however he could, but the demon just kept staring at him before he snapped his fingers.

Immediately, John stopped what he was doing and ripped his eyes open wide before he started squirming in pain as Eiro froze the saliva John spat at him. Of course, before that happened, Eiro did his best to spread the saliva out around his throat. Breathing became hard as ice-crystals formed and tightened the paths the air could travel, while he was experiencing intense frostbites from the inside.

Any attempt at speaking just caused even more pain as John basically ripped his own throat apart by pulling the parts that were stuck together because of the ice away from each other. And of course, that pain just made him scream more. It was truly an infinite cycle!

Well, two, actually.

One direct cycle where the pain inflicted on John caused him to move around, which in turn hurt him even more.

And a more subtle cycle, where the pain and suffering that John was feeling made Eiro even more excited, making him want to hurt him even more.

It seemed like Eiro found another hobby for the next few weeks.