DEMON'S VIRTUE

The Demon looked down at the body of the large feline laying in front of him. He was moving highly refined water over her wounds and healing her with Nelli's help. Eiro made sure that he had placed all the bones into the right places again beforehand of course, otherwise Kitsue's body might heal around them and cause permanent damages as well as possible infections that could kill her and that weren't easily healed through Healing Magic.

Either way, now that Kitsue's body had been healed properly, Eiro could see that her body was slowly shifting back into its normal bipedal form. Eiro picked her up and brought over to a stone slab that he then laid her down on to let her sleep for a while longer.

"Gobo." Eiro said, and the Hobgoblin quickly came to his side, "Yes, Master?" He asked. Eiro placed his hand onto Gobo's head with a smile on his face.

"Good job with that fight. It seems like all of the Kobolds should respect you quite a bit now." The Demon explained, "But don't treat them badly, alright? Treat them as you would the Goblins now."

Gobo turned his head toward Eiro with a confused stare that was still filled with anger, "Why do I need to treat them well, after they treated my people like that?"

"Gobo..." The Demon started with a deep sigh, "If you don't remember, the first time I met you, you didn't treat them much differently. The only reason you're mad at them right now is that they aren't you. Just try to understand them, and then everything is going to be fine. Well, either way, if you happen to let your anger out on the Kobolds, I'll find out sooner or later. And you can be sure that I won't let it slide easily." Eiro said in a threatening tone that gave Gobo shivers all over his body.

"O-Okay, Master..." The Mountain Hobgoblin Stuttered slightly, before Eiro took a step away from him again, "Anyway, take care of everything until I'm back. Oh, and make sure you support Armodeus with everything he needs, and don't let any of the Goblins or Kobolds touch a hair on his body. Not that they would stand a chance against him anyway, but I still don't want to see any deaths when I'm back, no matter the side that they're on." Eiro explained as he stepped out of the cave, spreading out his wings and properly stretching them to get rid of the slightly tense feeling he had in them right now.

"Master, where are you going?" Gobo asked, and Eiro turned around toward him, "Oh, I'll just go check out the situation with the Highland Orcs. I found out where their village is last night, and I want to know why they went so far as to attack the Kobolds' Village. It should only take a couple of hours, but I'll be back before nightfall, so don't worry."

Gobo slowly nodded his head as he looked down. Ariella, the white wisp floating next to Gobo, slowly rubbed up to his arm to try and cheer him up a bit, since Gobo didn't seem to be in the best mood at the moment. Happy to see that both Ariella and Mikey warmed up to Gobo quite a bit, Eiro turned away from them and started to flap his wings.

Due to the support of Air Magic, that single flap was enough to make Eiro shoot up into the sky quite a bit, but he didn't fly off just yet. Instead, he just used that boost to make his way over toward where Armodeus was currently working on improving the carriage.

But just before Eiro stepped into that cave that he created for Armodeus that he could create as something like a workshop, Armodeus pushed him away, "Oi, don't'cha dare come in here!"

"...Why? I already know what it looks like, I can basically sense it perfectly from out here." The Demon pointed out, and the Elder Dwarf ground his teeth annoyedly, "Well, it ain't the same as actually seeing it, so shut it and go. Play with the other kids, or something."

"...Or I'll just go see the Highland Orcs." Eiro sighed, and Armodeus just passed it off since he wasn't really listening to the Demon, "Sure, sure."

Eiro rolled his eyes as he turned back around. He didn't understand why Armodeus didn't show Eiro the progress on the carriage, but he figured that it would save him some time. And so, Eiro once more jumped off from the ground and shot up into the air, before immediately summoning Gondos, Nelli and Sarius to his side. They weren't able to physically keep up with Eiro's speed, so he had to summon them to him to make up for it.

"I think I can already see it..." Eiro said as he squinted his eyes. When he and Gondos fused with each other last night and tried to sense anything irregular in this mountain, they had found a spot that didn't seem to perfectly fit in with the natural structure of the mountain. From the description of where the Kobold Village was formerly supposed to be, it would make sense for this 'irregularity' to be where the Highland Orcs lived.

It was quite a bit higher at the peak of part of this mountain range, so the Demon flew up there to get a closer look. Soon, he was able to verify that there really was some sort of artificial structure there. And on part of that artificial structure stood a tall figure with icy, pale blue skin.

It had boar-like facial features with large tusks growing out of its mouth. This was definitely a Highland Orc. It wasn't as physically large as normal Orcs. Usually, they were monsters of Gluttony that ate everything they came across, even things that normally weren't edible. That was why most regular Orcs had the 'Iron Stomach' skill. But these Orcs were different.

They had a naturally lean build, and while they were shorter than regular orcs, on average they were still around seven feet tall. They were a lot more human in their physical structure than regular orcs, and while their faces did still have pig-like features, it certainly wasn't anything major in this case.

If it weren't for their unnatural skin-color, a color that wasn't seen in people, they could potentially be confused for people. And quite surprisingly, this Orc was wearing decent enough clothes and even carried a decent blade as his side. With a broad grin on his face, Eiro flapped his wings and infused his whole body with Air Magic, making him fly toward the Highland Orc Guard at a speed that the Orc was barely able to react to.

He managed to flinch and place his hand onto the handle of his blade, but before he could really pull it out or step to the side, Eiro already spread out his wings to stop his rapid movement immediately, kicking the chest of the Highland Orc.

Due to the force that he still created through his leftover momentum, Eiro was able to push the Highland Orc over anyway. With a broad grin on his face as Eiro squatted down on top of the Highland Orc's body, the Demon said, "Good day, dear Orc. Could you bring me to your leader?"

The Orc stared deep into Eiro's eyes, feeling his intensity. It didn't seem like it was able to understand Eiro's words, but it still understood its intentions. And due to the fact that it was positive that Eiro was a dangerous being, instead of agreeing, it pulled its blade out of its sheath and swung it Eiro from below.

Or at least, so it tried. But instead, Eiro simply received the attack with his foot after activating his Rock Skin ability and even infusing himself with some extra rock just in his foot. Part of it still chipped off, but it was at a level comparable to a papercut, so nothing serious at all.

"Hm, that wasn't nice, you know?" Eiro pointed out, and then immediately proceeded to kick his hardened foot onto the Orc's lower arms and even his shins to just immediately break them so that it wouldn't be able to move anymore.

Eiro didn't want to kill these Highland Orcs right off the bat because he didn't know to what extent they would be helpful to him. For some reason, most of the monsters that Eiro had planned to gather within the village weren't useful for combat at all.

They were mostly good at excavation, farming, production, and that sort of thing. If Eiro was able to bring some more combatants over there to help protect the village while also hunting for food, that would honestly be more than just perfect.

But well, if it turned out that these guys wouldn't be of any use to him, Eiro wouldn't hesitate to kill them all immediately. As he landed, Eiro was already able to sense most of the layout of the Orc Village. It was built into the mountain itself, with only a minimal amount of it being exposed. It made sense, considering that there was only harsh weather to find up here. Either way, without hesitation, Eiro grabbed the Highland Orc by the neck and pulled him into the tunnel that led into the village from this small guard-post.

With a soft smile on his face, he stepped into this large hollow space filled with numerous Highland Orcs, before throwing the Orc Guard down onto the ground with a broad grin, "Hello, hello! My name is Eiro! I'm a Demon, and I'm going to be your Master from today onward! Understood?" Eiro said bluntly.

He looked around as the numerous Highland Orcs stared at him in confusion and anger as they looked at their comrade writhing on the ground in pain, "Oh, him? I can heal him later if I need to, although that depends on whether or not you'll attack me!"

The Demon stared at the expressions of the Orcs, trying to interpret them to figure out which of them might speak common.

From the window of one of the blocks of rock that seemed to be a house in this huge hollow space, Eiro saw a young Orc that seemed to understand Eiro's words. He seemed pretty interesting, and so, the Demon made his way over there.

But in front of the entrance to that building stood a particularly large Orc that held a heavy hammer in his hand and was trying to stop Eiro from getting in there. Immediately, he understood what was going on.

With a slight sigh, Eiro regretted his actions and turned around toward the Orc Guard. He pulled the refined water out of the bottle he had with him and quickly started to heal the guard's bones. Eiro broke them as cleanly as possible so that he would be able to heal him easily if he needed to. And considering that these Orcs seemed to be able to show compassion toward each other, like this male Orc obviously trying to protect its child, on top of all these orcs becoming angry for the sake of their comrade, he knew that he couldn't intrude with aggression.

"I apologize for this.. Most other monsters only understand when faced with overwhelming force, but it doesn't seem to be the case for all of you."