DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro stood in front of his children with Ariella right next to him.

"This right here is Ariella, she's a Nephilim. She's going to stay here for a while, I hope you don't mind." The Demon said. All of his children looked at Ariella utterly confused, with the exception of Arc of course, "You met an angel and didn't tell us about it yet?" Sammy asked with a wry smile.

"Well, she's not an Angel, she's a Nephilim. They're technically monsters, right?" Arc pointed out, and Sammy turned her head toward her brother, "Huh, really now? Cool, we didn't meet a monster that could control its monstrosity beside Dad, Gobo and Bavet before."

"No, no, that's not true, there's also Lognir." Arc added, but Eiro immediately shook his head, "Dragons aren't monsters, they're Divine Beasts. They don't have monstrosity to begin with."

"Ohh, right, right, I remember. Wait, then why are Wyverns monsters? Aren't they like a dragon species?"

Eiro crossed his arms and thought about it for a moment, "That's a good question. Probably due to a history of breeding between dragons and some other monsters, and they were just pulled toward the monster side of things rather than the Divine Beast one?"

Arc opened his eyes wide, "Can we go and talk to Lognir about this?"

Eiro was immediately just as intrigued as Arc was, although he knew that the others here in this room were focused on something else. Well, there was Leon as well, of course, but he was just slowly dozing off and-

"Ah..." Eiro turned his head toward Ariella and Hannah, who were both standing there as if they were petrified. Ariella's heart was beating incredibly fast, and her pupils were dilating in fear. The Demon quickly rushed over toward the couch and picked his youngest son up, slowly waking him up.

"Leon, come on, be careful alright? You can't let your powers' influence out just like that." Eiro told him, and Leon looked into his father's eyes, "Hm..? Sorry, Daddy... I'm just tired..."

"Hm, tired, I see? Well, you did grow quite a bit lately, maybe that's why you're tired. You can take a nap later, but for now, come on and say hello to Ariella, and apologize while you're at it, alright?" Eiro suggested. He slowly let Leon down onto the ground again, and the young boy quickly walked up to the Nephilim and the Undead, "Hello... I'm Leon. Sorry for scaring you."

Leon quickly stretched his hand out toward Ariella, who was still nervously looking at the boy. Eiro let out a deep sigh and placed his hand onto Leon's head, "Take a deep breath. Breathe your ability in again."

The boy slowly nodded his head and did as told. The next moment, Ariella was finally able to breathe normally again as well, "Wh-What just happened?" She asked, utterly confused.

Eiro looked into her eyes and smiled, "Ah, that's his ability. You see, Hannah isn't the only one in this building with a Unique Skill."

"You mean this boy has..." Ariella muttered, staring down at the boy that was at most 9, maybe 10 years old. Arc grinned broadly, "Not just Leon. All of us do. Well, Felix and Avalin excluded. Although Felix does have a Bloodline skill, and Avalin is just the way she is, y'know."

Sammy, Clementine and Rudy stared at their brother intensely, "What're you doing, you idiot?" Rudy asked in a low voice, "Why are you telling her that Avalin is special?"

"Eh? She obviously already knows." Arc pointed out, "Just think about it this way. I met her the first day she came here, and all of us noticed that Dad was bringing a crying Avalin to bed the same night. He seemed pretty scary, so I'd say something happened. And now, he's bringing her here and is voluntarily revealing that we have Unique Skills. He's not the kinda person to tell that to anyone he doesn't trust."

Clementine locked eyes with Arc for a few moments, and then turned away, "R-Right, that's exactly what I was thinking as well. She clearly already knows..."

Ariella looked over at Eiro, who was simply smirking at her, "Arc is a bit unique, but they're mostly normal kids, aren't they?"

"That's not what I was about to say, but let's go with that." The Nephilim replied, and Eiro continued to speak, "Either way, Arc is completely right. She already knows about Avalin, so no need to hide it. But for now, I'm leaving it up to all of you if you want to reveal what your abilities are. You should make your own choices of who to trust, and who not to trust." The Demon pointed out, and the children looked at him for a few moments.

"I can feel neither physical pain nor negative emotions."

"I can make anyone believe whatever I say."

"Well, I can 'eat' the injuries of anyone that I meet and take them on myself!"

"And I can't be injured by literally anything, but I also can't hurt anything in the slightest."

Immediately, the four kids revealed the rough effects of their unique skills to Ariella, and Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, "That's not what I meant, but sure."

"Dad, you trust her, so obviously we'd trust her too." Rudy pointed out with a wry smile, "And it's gonna be easier if she knows anyway, if she's going to stay here for a while. I don't want her to freak out when she sees me cooking in the kitchen... Or when I need to ask Arc to kill bugs for me again because I literally can't..."

Eiro let out a deep sigh, followed up by a smile, "Fine. Thanks for trusting me, kids. Anyway... It's your turn." The Demon turned toward Ariella, and the Nephilim looked back at him for a few seconds.

"Oh, right, you're talking to me... Sorry." Ariella apologized. She was clearly still trying to mentally catch up to what was happening here at the moment. She cleared her throat for a moment, and then looked at the children.

"As Eiro already said, my name is Ariella, and I'm a Nephilim. I need your father's help to catch a really bad man that he also wants to find. The reason that I'm going to stay here is this girl right next to me... Even though she's an Undead, she's a normal child like all of you, so I hope you'll treat her well. Some other bad people that could hurt her suddenly appeared in this city, and I need to protect her." Ariella explained. All of the children looked at each other for a moment.

"Dad, who're you trying to kill this time?" Clementine asked, and Eiro bluntly replied, "The Devil, as usual."

"...Then why'd she say it like that?" Arc sighed deeply, "Just say that you want to off that bas- Sorry, 'that guy'."

"But that makes sense then... That was what Arc mentioned earlier was about right? She wanted to use Avalin for that?" Sammy asked, Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Yes, but we already spoke about it. She won't be doing that." The Demon lightly glared at Ariella.

Throughout all of this, Avalin was just sitting on the couch, staring at this pretty woman that was suddenly standing in the room, "You need Avalin?" She asked with her head tilted to the side, and Eiro looked at her, "No, it's fine, don't worry. You can just keep playing with Leon, alright?"

Eiro looked straight at Ariella, "And since you don't seem to want to understand me, I'm going to introduce that little girl to you. The one that you want to plunge into your own personal war." The Demon whispered, and quickly walked over toward Avalin, with Ariella right behind him.

Avalin was still staring at Ariella, and jumped up with a bright smile as the Nephilim finally stood in front of her. Maybe Avalin was just pulled toward the holy part of her being, as Ariella was still a half-angel at the end of the day.

"You're pretty!" Avalin exclaimed immediately, and Ariella lightly smiled back as she squatted down in front of the girl, "Thank you. You're quite pretty yourself, Avalin."

"Hehe, I know~!" The girl replied smugly, "Daddy tells me all the time! And Daddy is always right!"

"Is that so?" Ariella asked with a smile as she turned toward Eiro.

"Oh really, you are?"

"Eh, as far as Avalin is concerned, I'm only right when it benefits her. But when we're talking about bedtime, I couldn't be further off from what's right." Eiro replied with a wry smile, "Avalin, why don't you show Ariella some of the toys that Solomon bought you?"

"Oki!" She exclaimed, and without a moment's hesitation, Avalin proceeded to grab Ariella's hand to pull her toward the other side of the room, where some of Avalin's toys were stashed in a wooden box.

"...What's that about? Are you trying to make them like each other because they're both kind of holy?" Rudy asked, and Eiro turned his head to look at Ariella on the other side of the room, "I'm trying to make Ariella realize that Avalin is just a normal little girl. So that she stops insisting on using her to kill the Devil."

"...Is that really all? Usually, you would have killed her by now just for suggesting that... And don't try to hide it, we all know what you're like, Dad." Sammy pointed out. Hannah, who was still standing behind Eiro, immediately flinched and looked up at the Demon's face in fear.

Eiro let out a deep sigh and placed his hand on top of the undead's head to calm her down a bit, "I'm not going to kill Ariella, no. But if she doesn't become more reasonable in regards to the Avalin situation, I'm going to throw her out, violently if I need to."

"Hm..." Clementine looked at Eiro with a deep stare, "Dad, do you... like Ariella?"

"If I didn't like her, she wouldn't be here anymore."

"No, I mean... like do you... you know..." Clementine replied, and Eiro soon caught on, "Ah... About that, I literally have no idea anymore. But that's not something I should talk to you all about, I need to figure it out myself." The Demon pointed out, "But more importantly, this here is Hannah. She also has a unique skill, which is why she's not a regular Undead. Basically, forget everything I told you about undead beings so far, and think of her as a completely normal girl that, for now, looks like an undead and is technically a monster."

"Cool." Arc replied, "But should she really be here? With Avalin and all?"

"Ah, right, I'm using some Unholy Materials to basically create a barrier for her right now.. Armodeus and I will integrate it into the prosthetics I'm making for her right now so that she really doesn't have to worry about anything like that."