DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Did you finally calm down again? I already told you, I'm totally fine." Eiro said in a calm voice, looking his youngest daughter into her eyes. Avalin slowly nodded her head as she looked back at the Demon, who just continued to slowly run his hand over her head.

Carefully, Eiro picked her up and started to carry her up the stairs again. Avalin seemed to have exhausted herself quite a bit after crying that much just now. Eiro couldn't blame her either, she was really bawling. So for now, the Demon just figured he should bring her to her room and get her to sleep.

He kept reassuring her that he was totally fine as he quietly walked up to her room, and soon she was sleeping in her bed, one that was actually far too large for her.

Eiro stayed with her a bit longer to make sure she really fell asleep, and then quietly left the room again. However, Ariella now stood there right in front of him, wanting an answer from the Demon.

"I'm going to ask again, why didn't you tell me that you had the Priestess all along?" Ariella asked, "Using her, we can achieve our goal of killing 'The Devil' far quicker!"

Eiro took a step toward the woman in front of him, locking eyes with her, "And that's exactly what the issue is. One, I don't 'have' the Priestess. That girl is my daughter, Avalin. Nothing more, nothing less. Two, how can you even think of 'using' an eight years old girl like that?"

"But that's her whole reason for existing! She was born with the powers of the Holy Priestess, what other meaning does her life have?!" Ariella exclaimed, but Eiro blocked the sound off so that Avalin wouldn't be woken up by this.

"That's for her to decide. If she wants to become someone fighting monsters in the future, I'll support her with all I have to make sure she doesn't die. If she wants to become a scientist, artist, musician, or whatever other profession she wants to be, I'll support her with all I have as well. What she is going to do with her life is nothing that you, I, or anyone else has the right to decide. Do you understand?" Eiro said in a growling voice, and Ariella nearly flinched back hearing how angry Eiro had gotten.

She placed her hand around her neck, trying to grab the amulet that wasn't even there anymore right now, nervously, "I don't get why you're trying to stop her from fulfilling her destiny... It's why she was born! Why do you-"

"Because I don't want her to fight a battle she was thrown into by others. I guess this is as good a time as any to do this. After my next evolution, I'll have the power to become a Royal. 'The World', to be exact. Then, I'm going to go with you and kill 'The Devil', so that I can get a specific card from him. Using that Card, I will then steal the aspect of the Hero's soul that keeps getting pushed onto other people, and then I'll kill the Monster King, so that I can take that burden onto myself as well. All at once, I will stop this useless cycle of neverending war. And do you know what I'll do then? I'll come home, and tell my daughter a fucking bedtime story." With anger clearly deep within his voice, Eiro stepped past Ariella and walked down the hallway toward the stairs. And the Nephilim stood there confused.

"What... What do you mean, you want to... become the Hero and Monster King at the same time?" Ariella asked. Eiro turned his head toward the woman, and nodded his head, "Yes. To create a world in which my children, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all their descendants will be able to live in peace. The existences of both the Hero and the Monster King are those creating constant chaos, they are beings that should not exist on their own, let alone at the same time. So, I'll turn myself into the amalgamation of all that Chaos. That's not that hard to understand, is it?"

Ariella nervously looked at Eiro's back, "Wh-What is it you really want...? There's no way that you really just want those random children to live a 'happy life'!"

"Is it so hard to believe that a father wants his children to be safe and happy?" Eiro glared at Ariella, "Now come on. There's another child that I want to help right now."

In silence, Ariella and Eiro walked back down into the basement, where Armodeus was already waiting. He had been trying to make sure that Hannah didn't follow after them. He probably got the gist of the situation after hearing Avalin's voice on the other end of the hallway.

Quietly, Eiro sat down on the stool he was sitting on before, and grabbed another piece of wood.

"Bavet. Show Hannah and Ariella to the 'Soldier's Quarters'. And just to make sure, I don't mean the Dungeon with that." Eiro said in a clear tone, and the Slime slowly turned into his humanoid form. As he was lacking quite a bit of mass due to Armodeus taking it from him, he could only turn into a child this time around, though.

"Of course, no way I'd make those ladies live with that maniac in there. You know that he's been trying to eat his own arm lately, right?" Bavet smirked a bit, as if he found that idea amusing.

"I know. I'm going to train that out of him sooner or later. For now, I honestly don't give the slightest shit about what happens to his body." Eiro pointed out, "As long as he's in his cell, at least."

Quietly, Ariella pushed Hannah out of the room, glancing at Eiro as she left. The moment that the door closed, Eiro stopped working and stood up. Armodeus was looking at the Demon with worry in his eyes, as Eiro started slowly pacing around the room.

"Is everythin' alright, lad?" Armodeus asked, and Eiro turned toward him. Eiro's eyes were slowly turning red in anger, "Hm? Of course, everything is alright. Just that the one being who I for some fucking reason seem to have even an ounce of romantic interest in wants to use my eight years old daughter for her own selfish reasons, while that daughter's Holy Energy keeps growing stronger and stronger to the point where she's nearly setting me ablaze! Everything is going just as fucking planned!" Eiro yelled, angrily hitting the wall next to him with his left hand. The brick wall form a small crack. And then, Eiro hit it again. And again and again, until the small crack turned into a large indent in the rock, and Eiro started to bleed out of his hand.

The wound quickly healed, but the blood was still left on his skin.

"Oh, shut the fuck up, you disgusting bastard!" Eiro screamed, staring at the notification that popped up next to him.

[<The Devil> is amused over your demise and anger]

"I swear to all the forces in this world, that I'm going to hunt you down and miserably kill you someday to get rid of this fucking mark!"

[<The Devil> laughs at you]

Eiro turned toward the wall in front of him, and in one swift motion his his forehead against the brick, "Just shut the fuck up. Just..." Eiro growled, and pressed his teeth together to the point he was scared of them shattering. Eiro took a deep breath, and slowly made himself relax, "And there I thought I finally had control over that mark."

The Demon turned toward Armodeus, who had jumped up in worry for Eiro, "Lad, are you alright? Who were you talkin' to?"

"...I told you about the mark I was given by 'The Devil', right? Well, whenever it activates, he basically knows whatever I'm thinking. I doubt he can do so at any other point, but when the mark becomes active... That's when I need to worry about him. And it's been quite a while since it last activated. I thought I'd finally gotten it under control, but apparently that's just another lie that I told myself."

Armodeus slowly walked up to Eiro, placing his hand on the Demon's shoulder, "Lad, calm down. I know that yer situation is quite unique, but even so, you're not alone through it. Ya know that, right?"

Eiro turned toward Armodeus, and while he still felt extreme anger, he slowly nodded his head with a smile. He was slowly relaxing again, feeling the direct influence of the mark fade away, "I know. Thanks, Armodeus."

The Demon looked at the wood that he had thrown onto the ground, "Luckily I can still use it... I'd like to make as many replacement parts for her as possible while I have the chance to. I might teach the girl how to manipulate her own Life Force as well so that she can replace the parts herself, if she needs it."

"Aye. Concentrate on that, lad. Come on, let's work. Always helps me relax some, at least." Armodeus slowly led Eiro back to his stool, where the Demon quickly sat down and grabbed some of the wood again. Parts of it had dents, but it wasn't that big a deal for now.

"Would you mind to start teaching me about how to Artifice while we're here? I might need a bit more of a distraction than just work..." Eiro laughed awkwardly, and the Elder Dwarf quickly nodded his head.

"Of course, lad. It'd be an honor to teach ya. I'm sure you know the theory already... so I'll just show you the basic actions, if that's alright with you?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Thanks." Eiro replied. Armodeus nodded in response, and quickly looked through this small makeshift workshop that he set up here for himself, and grabbed a small glass bottle. Then, he started explaining the most basic practice method, and that is to put magic into a container like this.

Eiro curiously listened as he kept carving parts for Hannah's body as Armodeus proceeded to inscribe the runic patterns on their inside.

Once the two of them figured that they should stop working for the night, they placed everything to the side and secured the artificial artifact that was still currently finishing up, and then chose to head to their bedrooms.

"Goodnight, Armodeus. And thanks for tonight." The Demon smiled, and the Elder Dwarf simply replied with a nod, "Aye. Always, Lad."

Eiro soon sat on his bed in his bedroom. He managed to collect his thoughts again. At least he hoped so. What he was going to do next was a rather crazy thing, after all.

He held a small white-golden gemstone in his hand. Just after pushing some of his mana inside, Eiro's skin began to sizzle and give off slight steam.

"I guess I should keep raising that skill for now."

And just like that, for the rest of the Night, Eiro proceeded to bring himself to the point just before he would spark up into flames by infusing himself with Holy Energy.