DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro made his way back home, because at this point, he had one more reason to finish up his anti-undead preparation as quickly as possible. The Demon flew up to one of the open windows and folded his wings up as he did so, just jumping inside.

But of course, Arc, who was sitting in there reading something and just needed a little bit of fresh air, was startled by this, "Holy fucking- What are you even doing?" Arc asked with a wry smile as he slowly closed his book, and Eiro turned his head toward him as he took off his mask, "Sorry, it was just quicker than landing in front of the door. I figured you'd be in here, anyway."

"Yeah, but still... Bavet did the same thing just before, it's kinda annoying. Even to me." The young man pointed out, and as Eiro took off his cloak, he turned toward his son, "I'll try not to do that again then. Do you know what Rudy is up to right now?"

Arc slowly leaned back in the armchair he was sitting in and thought about it for a little while, "Erm... I think he wanted to work with his hands a little bit? And at the same time practice using his 'Castle' ability? I'm not entirely sure, though, why?"

"I need his help weaving something. Thank you."

"Eh, yeah, of course, I guess?" Arc replied with a slightly wry smile, before Eiro just stepped out the door, although he soon stopped and turned back around, "Want to tag along?"

"Fuck yeah, this book is boring as shit." Immediately, the young man jumped up and placed the book back into the shelf next to him. Eiro looked at the name on the cover and then turned toward Arc with a slight frown, "What do you mean, it's boring? It's pretty interesting, it brings up a few serious issues that are pretty fun to theorize about. I always wanted someone to discuss about it, so if you end up finishing it, then-"

"Of course, I'll come to you then." Arc sighed, "But why do you even need to read about 'Person-Monster relations and the deeply-rooted societal their current state stems from'? You know exactly that this isn't just some kind of racism stuff, it's literally just related to most Monsters having a literal force in them that turns them into what they are."

"Oh yeah, I know. That part of the book is complete bullshit. If we're going to be living in a society like this, we still need to know about things like that. But what I mean is more some of the sub-points that the author brings up, which is that people also possess some sort of monstrosity in them. There are plenty of people that are far more brutal, murderous, and terrifying than most Monsters, but in the end, people would still save someone like that over a monster. It is kind of interesting to think about what it might take to change that."

"Well... Changing Monsterkind, I guess?" Arc suggested, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "Yep, that's honestly the only way to change all of this. That's something that's basically impossible though, so there's no real reason to hope for anything like it to happen anytime soon." The Demon pointed out.

Arc just kind of shrugged, "′But that's exactly it. It's just kinda... fucked, I guess. People are honestly underestimating the issue a lot of the time. You can't change this kind of thing from one second to another."

"That is definitely true. But nevermind that, I didn't really want to delve into that topic right now."

"Fair enough. But well, what are you trying to do right now, anyway?" Arc asked curiously, and Eiro opened the door to his room as they were making their way to where Rudy was right now, "Just something that I need to deal with. I just can't really do it myself."

"And what is that 'something'?"

With a slight sigh, Eiro squatted down and grabbed a small, special wooden box that he had hidden underneath his bed. He pulled it out and placed it down on the desk placed into this room, and slowly opened it up.

The moment that Arc saw it, he looked at Eiro with a disgusted expression, "Wh-What, why would you ever keep this stuff? That's disgusting! Wait, you didn't keep our's, right? Please don't tell me that you've got a box like that under your bed for me... You know what, actually do, I'm honestly kind of curious now..." Arc pointed out, and the process of one of his unique skills taking effect could very easily be seen.

Eiro slowly closed his eyes and shook his head, "No, because none of you others are giving off a constant, steady amount of Holy Energy. We were able to suppress the Holy Energy from leaking out too much from Avalin directly, but that doesn't take effect for other things like hair or finger and toenails. I know that it's not something you'd like to see, but we couldn't just leave them laying around. Even burning them would result in ashes that were filled with extreme amounts of Holy Energy."

Eiro tried to justify himself as much as possible as he looked down at the contents of the box in front of him. It was something that anyone would call creepy and disgusting, but it was a collection of hair as well as clipped finger and toenails that Eiro had to literally collect so that they wouldn't leave behind any sort of evidence of Avalin anywhere. But there was a second reason to at the very least keeping all of the hair bundled up. The nail-clippings were basically just kept in another layer that was sealed up again in a box that would slowly drain them of the holy energy, at the rate that a normal priest may normally give off, so that Eiro could then dispose of those clippings sooner or later, but the hair was something else.

Avalin's hair held a lot of Holy Energy in them and could easily be used as ingredients for numerous different potions or spells, and it wasn't even nearly as creepy. If some strains of Avalin's hair were woven into cloth, that would be something that would enhance any priest's abilities while deflecting any sort of 'Unholy' creatures like Demons or Undead. And of course, it would also do an incredible damage to those two groups.

Luckily, due to Eiro's prosthetic, he should be able to avoid damaging himself as long as he only wrapped any sort of cloth around his hand or in places where it wouldn't directly touch his skin.

"...What kind of enemy do you need to fight?" Arc asked with a blank expression on his face, although there was the slightest hint of worry, sadness, and anger shining through behind it. Or so Eiro thought... Maybe he was just imagining it.

"It's a quite evasive Undead. Don't worry, I can take him on. Undead are just annoying because they're immune to a lot of different sorts of damage. They aren't too bothered with piercing, slashing, or blunt damage unless it does any sort of major physical damage like remove a leg. They don't care about the cold or extreme heat, except in a few cases. Fire should work as well, but they usually don't feel pain and should be able to extinguish themselves pretty easily. Especially this sort, since it can probably use magic itself... I can't poison him, or win in a fight of stamina. So in the end, it comes down to having to use an Undead's weakness against it. To be honest, Zoemancy may be even better, but you know... Even harder to find those than Necromancers." Eiro explained as he carefully got the thick bundle of hair out of the box in front of him.

While it probably wouldn't hurt him too much, considering that direct skin-contact with Avalin while hugging her didn't bother Eiro at all, Eiro still wanted to make sure he wouldn't somehow mess up with this. He already lost one of his limbs through extended contact with weaker Holy Energy.

"Zoemancy... That was Life Magic, right? So the exact polar opposite to Necromancy, which is Death Magic?" Arc asked, in a rather weird way of formulating his sentence.

Eiro looked at him with his brows raised, "Yes, what about it? I thought you'd rather comment on the Undead part."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm getting to that... I was just wondering... 'Death' is an advanced element to darkness, then 'Life' must be an advanced element to light, right?"

"Mhm, that's how it is. Although Zoemancers don't really need to have amazing affinities for the Light Element. It's more like... being in the rough 'Life' domain, like healing for example, that gives you the possibility of awakening the Life element. Having an affinity for the Light Element is just subsequent of that. But..." Eiro started, and all of a sudden, he realized what Arc was trying to get at.

"First of all, even if she does have the possible affinity for the Life element, she doesn't have it yet, and this fight is happening soon. Even if she did have Life Magic right now, I wouldn't take her with me to a fight that I currently have so much trouble with that I have to resort to employing my own bane."

"So the fight is hard after all?"

"Well, I'm not speaking of just some kind of Zombie or Skeleton. It's pretty strong, but nothing that will kill me. But still... You might be on the right track. I didn't think about this yet at all, since none of you have shown any signs of awakening your advanced elements yet. But even then, that's not our focus right now."

"Although..." Nelli chose to quickly intervene, since she thought she should add something to it, "Considering that she's a healer, having Life Magic is a really strong tool to have. For the others, their advanced element should be just a stronger version of their current ones, I'd assume, but Zoemancy is more than that. It's very similar to Necromancy in that it unlocks a whole different array of abilities. You should try and help her so that she can be taught at the academy after awakening it."

Eiro looked over at the spirit with a blank expression before just audibly grumbling, "Please, can't you just leave me at least ONE of my children that's so much like she was back then? If she suddenly starts creating artificial life through Zoemancy, how am I supposed to treat her like my little girl anymore?"

Eiro complained loudly in an annoyed tone, although he definitely knew that this was something she had to be taught, "Just leave me a little more time with my cute old Clementine before then, alright?"