DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro swung his hand to the side and got rid of all of the blood and bits of brain that were now stuck to it. It was a rather unpleasant feeling, if he had to be completely honest. The gooey masses slowly sliding down his body.

The demon looked around, noticing that time was still frozen. Eiro stared at the dead body in front of him and slowly reached down to the ring, which he pulled of the woman's finger. And after pushing a bit of mana inside of it, time started to flow again. It seemed to have taken Clark and Sarius a few moments until they figured out what exactly happened, and how Eiro managed to get to the other side of the room instantly, and Clark just stared back at the Demon in confusion.

"Y-You can teleport?" He asked, and Eiro just tilted his head to the side a little, "No? This woman stopped time, and for some reason that ability doesn't fully work on me. I can still think when it happens, and I managed to interact with the ring through my mana because of it. Then I just killed her." The Demon pointed out. Somehow, that didn't particularly help Clark's surprised demeanor in the slightest. Rather, it made it even worse. Even Sarius seemed a bit startled at this sudden confession. Either way, Eiro looked down at the tags that he himself was holding. He was still just rank 2... It seemed like these 'special members' were outside the normal ranking. Either way, Eiro was pretty happy that he managed to get his hands on such an amazing item. He couldn't remember every part about it anymore, but as far as he was aware, he made use of an item similar to this ring in order to kill an enemy that was overwhelmingly strong at the time. Using this, Eiro should be able to beat stronger enemies with ease.

Well, if he remembered that he had it, at least. The Demon placed the ring away into his treasury, and then turned back around toward Clark and Sarius, "Alright, let's go."

And without hesitation, Eiro opened the door in front of him, where he was met with the smell of quite a lot of dead, scorched bodies. He didn't know what exactly happened to these people in here, but he didn't care that much either.

But before Eiro managed to take a further step forward, Clark ran up to him and grabbed his arm, "What are you doing? Didn't you forget something?" He asked. Eiro just looked at him with an obviously confused expression, and Clark groaned loudly, "Sorry, of course you forgot. Put on your clothes and that mask of yours. Or else you're going to be hunted pretty soon."

"Hm?" Eiro replied, before he realized what Clark was talking about. The Demon looked into himself and found the items that he figured to be the right ones, and soon was clad in them once more, "Can we go now, or did I forget something else?"

Clark glared back at Eiro, since this was usually something that people would ask in a rather sarcastic way, but the escort still had to get used to the fact that in this case, Eiro didn't make use of any sarcasm. He simply genuinely asked about whether or not he forgot anything.

"No, I don't think so. But this time, please stick to me. And Sarius, you please pay attention to him as well, or he's going to get himself, the two of us, and maybe everyone down here and up in the slums killed. Worst case... Even beyond that."

"Who do ya think you are to command me, bastard?" Sarius replied immediately, not ready in the slightest to take any sort of commands or request from anyone, most likely not even Eiro in a complete way.

Clark started grinding his teeth annoyedly, the reasons for which were quite obvious, "Solomon, I know I owed you one, but now you owe me tenfold..."

Trying to ignore Clark's grumbling, Eiro made his way out of the room and then through this large space filled with corpses. After that, Eiro only had to traverse the tunnel, and then was already back in the main-space of the black market.

Since Eiro already forgot most of what he saw in here, his extreme curiosity nearly got the better of him again, but Clark chose to just place his hand onto the Demon's shoulder to make sure he couldn't randomly run off, and so that he could jolt him awake if he suddenly started concentrating on something unimportant.

But just as the pair made their way out the door, while Sarius made his way into the inbetween-space between realms where only Eiro could see him, a group of people made their way over toward Eiro.

"Oi, you two. The fuck happened in there?" One of them asked. Eiro looked him up and down. He had some weirdly-patterned tattoos on his body, much like some of the others. They were probably part of some sort of religious group, if he had to guess.

"Oh, I just destroyed everything inside there. It was kind of satisfying actually. I wouldn't go in there though, the scent is horrid." The Demon admitted bluntly without a moment's hesitation, and then stepped past the man that spoke to him. But of course, he wouldn't just let that happen. He tried to touch Eiro's shoulder, but before he managed to do so, Eiro turned toward him and kicked his right leg straight up. It knocked into the man's chin and pushed him up a few meters, before he fell back down onto the ground with a broken jaw and lost consciousness.

But just as Eiro did that, he felt a painful jolt in the back of his neck that made him turn around immediately, "Hey, what was that for?!" He asked, and Clark just looked back at him with a wry smile, "So that you don't kill anyone here. Now, let's just go. Nobody will attack you for a little quarrel here and there, but don't try to provoke anyone. You got that?"

"...Alright. Understood." The Demon said bluntly as he looked at the man on the ground, who slowly managed to wake up again, "Urgh... What just..." He mumbled, and Eiro held his hand out toward him.

"Sorry about that, you just startled me. You see, that group in there did something horrible to me, so I did what I had to and wiped them out." The Demon admitted. The man slowly extended his hand toward Eiro as an instinct because he wasn't fully conscious yet himself. But when he realized what he was saying, it was already too late.

Eiro grabbed the man's hand and immediately proceeded to push a large amount of mana into him, intertwining it with the man's own. The Demon knew that the man was in a lot of pain, that was the goal, after all. That's why he focused his own mana around the man's throat and cause immense spasms to that no air could travel through them.

That way, the man could neither scream, nor breathe, both of which would cause him even more demise. Either mental or physical, both was great right now, "Understood? If anyone does anything to me, I will wipe them out without hesitation. That's how it works in this underworld, doesn't it? Kill or be killed, survival of the fittest. And you can be sure that in this place, I'm the King of the fit." Eiro whispered, making his voice travel exclusively to the man so that only he was affected by this.

And then, all that Eiro did was pull him up, but the man's legs gave in as he once more fell to his knees and dropped down flat ont he ground. His companions of course stared at Eiro in confusion, and even the onlookers became a little bit curious about what was going on all of a sudden. But then, Eiro immediately squatted down and grabbed the man's neck, placing his fingers onto his veins as if to feel his heartbeat, "Don't worry, he's fine. I didn't realize that I kicked him that hard. Here, take this and bring him to a healer."

The man's companions seemed a bit confused as Eiro swiftly pulled out a bundle of coins that he handed to them. Eiro noticed that in the end, money was the only thing that was as powerful as strength down here, and plenty of people were beat and then given money so that they didn't retaliate. In the end, Eiro figured he should do the same, and the people quickly accepted, especially after the reason that he told them. It was one that calmed them down more easily than Eiro's other top choice would have, 'Take this and buy some brains before you try and take on someone obviously stronger than you'. Or so Eiro figured, at least.

Either way, for now, this was dealt with more easily than a fight, which might have caused aggression, in the end. Eiro noted down the patterns that these men had on their bodies, just in case, and then turned around and was properly escorted out of this place by Clark.

Eiro wanted to stop a few times to buy, or just look at something, but Clark did a pretty good job at keeping him focused on where they were supposed to go. Soon, they started walking back up the long, narrow stairs to reach the slums again, where the group of three soon made their way to the place where they said to meet up with Solomon, now that they finished their mission.

Eiro formed a new contract with a spirit, and coincidentally received a blessing from a Spirit King and then took a Spirit Gateway into his own body. It went a bit off rails compared to what Eiro had expected, but it did so in the best possible way, as far as Eiro was concerned.

"So, did everything work out as planned?" The King asked with a slight, nervous smile on his face, and Eiro slowly looked to the side as Sarius appeared there, his body forming out of sparking flames, "I guess you could say that."

"Perfect! A Salamander. You must tell me how you came across it down there, and especially how you managed to form a contract with it." The King pointed out, before he turned his head to look at Clark, "I hope he didn't cause you too much trouble."

Clark glared back at Solomon, "If I get gray hairs, it's your fault."

Confused, Eiro looked back at the escort, "What do you mean? You already have gray hairs, right?"